My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 203 Open and Bright
After the matter was settled, Liang Mazi did not linger in Haxionggou for long. He led the other two people who had come with him and rode away on horseback.

Wu Yang, Peng Yuanchao, and the others told everyone to continue working before gathering around Zhou Jingming.

Looking in the direction Liang Mazi had left, Wu Yang asked, "Brother Zhou, what's that bastard doing here again? I noticed the atmosphere wasn't very good when you two were talking."

"What can we do? It's all for the gold!"

Zhou Jingming took a deep breath: "Damn it, every time they come they want me to give them three kilograms of gold. Are they trying to eat me alive?"

Wu Yang frowned: "How about... I follow him and take care of him?"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "What are you thinking? That's something you can move around freely."

"But we can't let him be so arrogant every time, can we?"

"If we really mess with him, we won't be able to stay here anymore."

Such a good mining site as the Haxionggou pincer-shaped ravine is rare in the mountains, and Zhou Jingming does not intend to give it up easily.

"So what was the final decision?"

“Give him the gold we panned this month, and he promises not to cause any more trouble for our two mines this year.”

Fifteen kilograms is about the same as a month's output at the mine.

Zhou Jingming didn't want Wu Yang to touch him because he didn't want to ruin the gold mining operation.

At the same time, he secretly hoped that Liang Mazi would be even more greedy. The more greedy he was, the more gold he would hide, and when he took the gold, he would get back all of it.

He felt very uncomfortable because his affairs were known to everyone; it was a feeling of being watched and very uneasy.

Instead of making wild guesses and getting nowhere, it's better to just use gold to pry open Liang Mazi's mouth.

What Liang Mazi was after was gold. Compared to the large sum of gold he could get from Zhou Jingming in one go, the person who provided him with the information was obviously not worth it, so Liang Mazi sold him out directly.

Zhou Jingming sighed softly, "Being a leader isn't easy!"

Hearing this, Peng Yuanchao laughed: "I'm increasingly realizing that not wanting to be the leader was the wisest thing to do; there are just too many headaches."

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "Brother Peng, later, you and Wu Yang will accompany me to Xu Youliang's mine upstream."

"What are you doing there?"

Peng Yuanchao was somewhat puzzled: "I can't even be bothered with him now. You know, a few days ago, I was bored and went to the mountains with them to pick mushrooms, and I ran into him once."

He was showing off to me, saying that the mine I transferred to them was pretty good. There were more than 20 people there, and they could get nearly 100 grams of gold a day. He could get more than 10 grams a day, and about 1 jin a month.

They asked me how much I could earn in a month at this mine.

I told him that he would receive 200 grams and 800 yuan a month, and that he would be paid on the first of each month, very punctually.

He kept pestering me to go with him and continue being the foreman.

Hearing this, Zhou Jingming suddenly felt like laughing: "Brother Peng, Xu Youliang still remembers the kindness you showed him when you saved him."

That said, why didn't you agree to go with him?

To be honest, he can't compare to me in any way.

Peng Yuanchao shook his head: "I'm not stupid. I can't just look at things from the present. I want to work here for two more years. Maybe it's not as good as it is there, but in the long run, I will definitely earn more than him."

This is the year he learned about Haxionggou, and shamelessly approached you to set up this mining site. Let's see if he can still find good mining sites so easily next year; it's hard to say whether he can even establish a foothold.

Zhou Jingming chuckled again: "You underestimate him, he's got a very firm footing... Brother Peng, why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

"It's because of my relationship with Xu Youliang. He and I aren't that distant, and I'm afraid that saying it would cause misunderstandings, so... actually, I've been deliberately avoiding contact with him."

“I understand. Now let me ask you a question: if you were asked to lay a hand on Xu Youliang, could you do it?”

Zhou Jingming's question was somewhat abrupt.

Peng Yuanchao was momentarily stunned: "Brother, why are you asking that? Are you trying to test me?"

Zhou Jingming's expression turned serious: "I'm not trying to test you, I really need your help."

Peng Yuanchao frowned: "What's wrong?"

"You all know what happened before. Liang Mazi knew exactly how many people were at the mine and how I transferred the mine. At that time, I suspected that someone had deliberately leaked the situation at our mine to Liang Mazi."

Do you know why Liang Mazi came looking for me so suddenly? He came specifically for me, and I almost had a falling out with him.

What happened today was even more outrageous. Not only did Liang Mazi know about my transfer of the mining site and roughly how much gold I got, but he also knew when I would pay the workers…

At this point, Peng Yuanchao suddenly realized: "You mean, he was tipping off Liang Mazi?"

"Do you know why I agreed to give Liang Mazi the gold I'd get from panning next month? It was to find out from him who betrayed me. And Liang Mazi actually told me—it was someone surnamed Xu." Now, not only Wu Yang, but even Bai Zhishun was furious: "That bastard is an ingrate! He doesn't remember our kindness from last year at all! I thought it might be someone else, but I never imagined it would be him… That son of a bitch, what did he gain by betraying us?"

Zhou Jingming smiled faintly: "We'll have to ask him what he's after."

"I'm going to drag that bastard here!"

Wu Yang got up angrily and left.

"Wu Yang, don't worry..."

Zhou Jingming stopped him and turned to look at Peng Yuanchao: "Xu Youliang is closest to Brother Peng. He once saved Peng's life and has been following him for quite some time. He should consider Brother Peng's feelings."

They have feelings.

I think it's more appropriate to leave this matter to Brother Peng to handle.

After a pause, Zhou Jingming continued, "Brother Peng, I'm not forcing you, nor am I distrusting you. After thinking it over, it really should be your responsibility to handle this. If it were me, I would have taken that bastard's life. But if I did that, we might have a rift, and it might be difficult for us to get along in the future."

Peng Yuanchao remained silent for a long while: "Brother Zhou, this... I really don't know what to say. I trusted him so much, how could I have imagined that the bastard would try to trick me into revealing information? This is not only betraying you, but also betraying me."

But after all, I saved him back then, and he's been with me for so long, helping me a lot. Asking me to handle this... I just can't bring myself to do it."

“I know it’s difficult, and I know that Brother Peng values ​​loyalty. But often, the people who are most likely to betray you are the ones you are closest to.”

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "Brother Peng, are we now speaking frankly?"

“Brother Zhou is very open-minded. He didn’t need to tell me; he could have handled it directly. He even considered my feelings and made everything clear. Even if he kicked me out of the team, it would be justified, since I was the one who revealed these things to him…”

"Brother Peng, there's no need for further explanation. I trust you."

Zhou Jingming scratched his head: "If you can't bring yourself to do it, tell me, what's the right thing to do?"

Peng Yuanchao hesitated for a while, then finally made up his mind: "Killing him wouldn't be too much... but, can we spare his life? We can cripple him if we can. Before that, let's find out the truth first, so we don't hurt anyone by mistake. What if Liang Mazi is also lying?"

Zhou Jingming nodded: "Of course we need to find out the truth. You ask."

As evening approached and it was time to leave work, Zhou Jingming did not eat at the mine. Instead, he called Wu Yang and Peng Yuanchao and they walked upstream along the riverbank.

On the way, they encountered Li Guozhu and others who were leading a large group of people back for dinner.

Seeing Zhou Jingming and the other two walking upstream, Li Guozhu naturally asked them a series of questions.

After Zhou Jingming told the others to go eat, he told Li Guozhu, Zhao Li, and Sun Chenggui about how Liang Mazi had come to the mine again today to demand gold and how he had been betrayed by Xu Youliang.

Li Guozhu and Sun Chenggui immediately started cursing as well, wanting to follow Zhou Jingming to see what was going on.

Zhou Jingming naturally had no objections and led the group to continue upstream.

About twenty minutes later, a group of people arrived at the mine where Xu Youliang was located.

Their mining sites were all obtained from Zhou Jingming, and since Xu Youliang knew Zhou Jingming and others, no one felt nervous about the arrival of the group.

At this moment, Xu Youliang was sitting on a wooden stump in front of the dugout, using a magnet to attract the iron-containing powder in the antimony basin.

Upon seeing Zhou Jingming and the others, he quickly packed the gold into a jar and took it back to his dugout.

At this mining site, his operations were almost identical to what a group of people had done on the small peninsula last year.

However, last year it was Peng Yuanchao who was in charge of selecting the gold, but this year it was him.

Despite it being a very tedious task, he did it with great enthusiasm.

After putting his things away, Xu Youliang quickly crawled out of the dugout, first looking at the group of people, and finally calling out to Peng Yuanchao and Li Guozhu, "Brother Peng, Brother Li, what made you decide to come here?"

He deliberately ignored Zhou Jingming, Wu Yang, and others.

Zhou Jingming didn't take it seriously. He simply went to the edge of the dugout and dragged a wooden stool to sit down.

Peng Yuanchao was very direct. He went up and grabbed Xu Youliang by the collar: "I'm here today to ask you one thing. Did you bring Liang Mazi from Qingshan Team here?"

This sudden action startled the more than twenty people at the mine. They were all resting by their dugouts, waiting for their meal to be ready, when they suddenly saw Peng Yuanchao grabbing their head and they all gathered around.

Wu Yang immediately took off the Type 56 pistol from his hand: "This is none of your business. You better get out of my way, or the bullets won't be blind."

Zhao Li also removed the five or six halves.

Seeing the weapons in the two men's hands, the group didn't dare to act recklessly and retreated a little further away.

Xu Youliang immediately realized what Zhou Jingming and the others had come for, and he was not about to admit it so easily: "Brother Peng, what are you talking about? Liang Mazi is from the Qingshan team. I'm trying to avoid him. Why would I deliberately lure him here?"

(End of this chapter)