My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 228 A Great Help

Wu Yang had already realized Liang Mazi's intentions. Although he was unhappy, he tried his best to endure it.

He was originally from the armed police force, so he knew better than Zhou Jingming that the uniform was the strongest protection for Liang Mazi and the other two, capable of concealing their wickedness and their bad nature.

Any action taken against them is no ordinary incident.

When Liang Mazi tried to find out more about him, he simply replied casually, "I only grow one kind of land."

"Farmers?"

Liang Mazi scrutinized Wu Yang, his gaze finally settling on Wu Yang's large, calloused hands: "I don't think so. Those hands of yours don't look like those of a farmer. They must belong to someone who's a martial arts expert, right?"

When he saw Wu Yang's hands, he believed what Hou Xiangdong had said.

Wu Yang just smiled and said, "What martial arts expert? Captain Liang, I don't understand."

Often, playing dumb is more effective than admitting it outright.

Liang Mazi didn't dwell on the matter any longer: "Alright, the notification has been delivered, so there's nothing more for me to do. I still need to check on other mining sites... I'm off!"

Zhou Jingming quickly stopped him: "Brother Liang, look, it's almost noon. Have lunch here before you leave."

"No... I have other things to do. If I stay here, I won't be able to get home tonight."

Liang Mazi waved his hand, led the two men to the edge of the poplar grove, mounted their horses, and continued towards the upstream mining site.

Zhou Jingming watched the three figures disappear into the upstream river bend, cursing inwardly, "Damn it, coming here to cry wolf. I'll let you dart around for a while longer, and then I'll deal with you after I've recovered from my injuries."

Wu Yang, watching the direction the three had left, asked, "Brother Zhou, have you figured out how to deal with him?"

Zhou Jingming didn't want to reveal his thoughts yet, so he simply shook his head and said, "I haven't decided yet!"

Wu Yang, however, had an idea that coincided with Zhou Jingming's: "He can use others to do his dirty work, so can we."

Zhou Jingming looked at Wu Yang with some surprise: "This kind of thing is not easy to handle. Just wait and see, there will always be a way."

After he finished speaking, he went back to the sluice gate and continued to guard it. Wu Yang also returned to the grassy slope behind the mine and sat down, keeping an eye on the surrounding activity.

Liang Mazi and his two companions entered the river bend before reining in their horses and looking back towards the downstream area.

Liang Mazi frowned: "Those calluses on his fingers and fists are so thick. They're not the hands of someone who does manual labor. They must have developed them through boxing. He's definitely a skilled fighter. We need to be careful."

The other person was indifferent: "Captain, judging from Zhou's reaction, it's no different from usual. I don't think he has the guts to attack us."

"You can't say that. Look at how he talks. He knows that Hou Xiangdong knows the captain, so he said that on purpose. He suspects me."

Liang Mazi shook his head: "Let's hurry up and leave. We'll think of other ways when we get back. We have to deal with this. Whether it's getting his gold or having Hou Xiangdong bomb him, it's a huge grudge."

I won't be able to sleep peacefully until I get rid of him.

And then there's Hou Xiangdong. If he ran off somewhere else, that would be fine, but if he's still here, we'll have to find a way to deal with him too.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten days have passed, July has ended, and August has begun.

As expected, Zhou Jingming received more than 18 kilograms of gold in the past month.

On the first day, he promptly distributed wages to everyone and divided the gold.

The money he received from Wu Fusheng was more than enough to cover all the expenses at the mine this year, so he no longer needed to go to Tiemaike to sell gold to Sun Huai'an.

After the gold was divided up, Zhou Jingming still had about thirteen kilograms left.

The next day, instead of rushing to hide the gold, he called more than thirty people from the mine and had them go with him to the hillside where he had discovered the mercury ore. They spent the whole day bringing back a lot of mercury ore.

He used the method of mercury biting gold to extract gold, and although he tried his best to recover it, he couldn't recover it completely.

Some of it gets mixed into the heavy sand during the gold-biting process, and becomes sewage when the gold-digging bucket is shaken, which is then discharged into the river.

Another part utilizes the loss of mercury vapor during high-temperature evaporation. After all, he only used simple tools such as iron pots and jars, which could not be made to fit perfectly.

Most of the mercury that was initially acquired has already been used up.

Furthermore, mercury is the simplest consumable for Zhou Jingming to extract gold. He needs it now and will need it for a long time to come. Now that he has good quality mercury ore, he should take this opportunity to refine more and store it.

The quantity of ore was large, so it was not something he could easily handle alone. Therefore, he selected several people to be responsible for crushing the ore, and also brought in a lot of firewood to calcine the ore in a large iron pot, allowing the evaporated mercury vapor to condense in a jar filled with cold water.

After four days of work, he extracted a considerable amount of mercury, which he divided into more than a dozen canning jars and sealed with water for later use.

After finishing all these tasks, his head injury had almost healed. He then took the gold, rode his motorcycle, and made another trip to Death Valley to hide it.

At this time, Zhou Jingming had eighty-four kilograms of gold.

With more than two months left to pan for gold, he believed that by the end of the gold rush season, he would have accumulated a considerable amount of gold.

He returned to Tiemaike in the afternoon, ate a meal at a restaurant, and then went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some canned goods, biscuits, and women's items to take back to Su Xiulan. After finishing his business, he did not linger and rode his motorcycle back to Haxionggou.

On the pasture road leading to the Fourth Mine Bridge, he saw a group of people walking back. Suddenly, he noticed a familiar face in the crowd. It was Gao Jianjun, whom he had met in the restricted area when he went to clean the cave after the gold rush last year.

Upon meeting, he immediately stopped his motorcycle and called out to him, "Gao Jianjun..."

Motorcycles are a rare sight, not just in the mountains, but even in the city. Zhou Jingming rode his motorcycle towards them, making it impossible for the group not to notice him. Gao Jianjun had spotted him early on, and as soon as Zhou Jingming stopped, he immediately approached and called out, "Brother Zhou!"

Zhou Jingming looked at him, then at the others, and saw that they were all carrying bedding and other luggage. It didn't seem like they were going to Tymaek for leisure, but rather that they were preparing to leave the Gold Rush Valley. He asked Gao Jianjun, "What's going on with you?"

"What could have happened? Last year I managed to make some money in the Gold Rush Valley, and I planned to try again this year to see if I could earn some more. But I didn't expect this year to be even worse than last year."

In the past three months, I've changed mines four times. The first three mines didn't last long before they were taken over by other mines. We fought all the time, but I didn't get any gold, and I almost lost my life.

The fourth one had a larger number of people and was more stable. They worked for about half a month, but then they found a muddy bottom at the mine and there was no more gold.

The leader went looking for mineral veins, but after searching around, he eventually decided that the mineral deposits were of poor quality. In the end, he thought about robbing one, but damn it, that would mean fighting.

It's like you can't strike gold without fighting... Look at that..."

As if he had found someone to confide in, Gao Jianjun pulled his trouser leg up to his thigh and pointed to the bruises on it: "Look, because of the fight, I got hit on the leg twice with a hammer, and the bruises haven't faded yet. Fortunately, my leg wasn't broken."

Zhou Jingming laughed: "You came to pan for gold last year, so you should know what the Gold Rush Valley is like. There are plenty of fights and robberies over mines and gold, aren't there?"

Zhou Jingming tilted his head to show him the wound where his hair hadn't grown back yet: "Look at mine, yours was just from being hit by a hammer, mine was from a rock that flew off with explosives..."

Gao Jianjun leaned over to take a look: "Holy crap... who did this? How dare they mess with my Brother Zhou!"

Zhou Jingming glared at him: "Come on, all you do is talk nonsense. People who don't know you would think you're something special. If you were really that great, why would you be carrying your luggage home at this time? You'd be getting bullied enough in the Gold Rush Valley."

The people who came with Gao Jianjun were getting impatient watching the two argue: "Gao Jianjun, are you coming or not? It'll be late if you don't leave soon."

Gao Jianjun hesitated for a moment: "Brother Zhou, I have to..."

Zhou Jingming interrupted him and said to the group, "You guys go first, I have something to say to Jianjun."

Upon hearing this, those people stopped waiting and turned to leave.

Seeing Gao Jianjun still looking around at the group, Zhou Jingming asked, "What, are you from the same hometown?"

"We're from the same hometown; we came together."

Gao Jianjun nodded: "We're not really leaving. We've already come all this way, and it would be too early to leave now. We've heard there are some mining sites in Genhe, and we'd like to go check them out."

"It's the same everywhere. You can't make it in Xigou, but you can make it in Donggou."

"You have to give it a try. Just find a place where you can make money and work steadily... Brother Zhou, you're doing well. You're even using a motorcycle now. Looks like you've made a lot of money."

"I made some money cleaning mine shafts last year. By the way, I remember when we met last year, you were hanging out with Shen Wei and a group of people. We ran into you again later, but I didn't see you. I thought something had happened to you."

"Don't even mention cleaning the mine. I doubt those bastards even know how to spot gold veins. We blew up a lot of mines and got absolutely nothing. I figured it was hopeless, so I left with the other two... Brother Zhou, is there anything you want to tell me?"

Zhou Jingming naturally wouldn't tell him about the conflict he had with Shen Wei's gang in the restricted area, and how he ended up wiping them out: "I have a place where I can make money safely, do you want to go?"

"Am I with you?"

"It's with me... eight hundred yuan a month, plus thirty grams of gold, so it's about two thousand yuan a month."

"So much... Go, go, go... If you work for another two or three months, you can at least make a few thousand yuan."

Gao Jianjun seemed pleasantly surprised. He then looked at the group of people who had already walked away and asked, "Could we take them with us?"

"The mine is almost fully staffed, so you'll have to go alone."

The two mining sites already have enough manpower, and Zhou Jingming doesn't plan to add any more. Otherwise, the mining sites might not even last until the end of the gold rush season, and they would have to find other mining sites, which would be troublesome.

Seeing that Gao Jianjun was still somewhat hesitant, Zhou Jingming asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Don't you trust me? If you don't trust me, that's fine, I won't force you."

"How could I not trust you... You wouldn't sell me out, would you?"

Gao Jianjun thought for a moment: "Going to Genhe won't be much better. It's better to go somewhere more secure. Brother Zhou, wait for me. I need to go and let them know. After all, we came out together."

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly.

Gao Jianjun threw his luggage on the ground and jogged after the group of people.

Zhou Jingming watched as he caught up with the group, spoke for a while, and then turned back.

When Gao Jianjun arrived, Zhou Jingming asked with a smile, "What did you tell them?"

"I told them I ran into an old acquaintance from the Great Northern Wilderness, a brother who used to follow me around when I was a kid. My parents know him, and I'm planning to go with you. I told them not to wait for me, and I'll go back on my own."

They asked me if I had found a mining site to work at, and I said I had. They all clamored to see if I could take them with me. But when I told them that I was only getting a fixed salary, paid monthly, without any gold, and that the pay wasn't much but it was stable, they all refused... They didn't even ask how much I would get, and then they just ignored me.

As you know, my family came back to our hometown from the Great Northern Wilderness. We only really know each other by name; we're not particularly close. But I couldn't refuse, so I had to downplay the relationship.

Gao Jianjun still resorted to a petty trick.

Zhou Jingming also felt there was no problem. He set up the motorcycle kickstand, helped Gao Jianjun tie his luggage to the motorcycle, and carried it towards Haxionggou.

He's a blasting expert, and I believe that having him will be a great help, whether it's cleaning the caves after this year's gold rush season or mining for gold next year.

(End of this chapter)