My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 230 Corpse
Zhou Jingming and Old Man Liu stopped almost simultaneously, both wondering if Jin Wang had discovered some prey, and looked around.

But after watching for a while, the two of them saw nothing.

Jinwang continued to growl softly, raising its head to peer into the forest, its curled tail, which had been wagging happily the whole way, remaining completely still as it watched intently.

"Walk a little further, and be careful!"

Old Liu muttered something under his breath, took the double-barreled shotgun off his back, checked the bullets, and continued walking forward while crouching low.

Although Zhou Jingming now has nine Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, Old Liu still prefers to use a hunting rifle.

According to him, a shotgun is called a shotgun because it is used for hunting, and naturally it has its unique features.

Zhou Jingming had at least spent time in the Great Northern Wilderness and had met many hunters, most of whom liked to use hunting rifles, and many of them even used old-fashioned guns that Zhou Jingming considered outdated.

Actually, the reason why the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle is not used is that this type of firearm is not easy to obtain.

Secondly, the wild animals that hunters can most easily find when they go into the mountains are small animals such as rabbits and pheasants. In fact, many hunters go for days without seeing any prey.

And most of the time, the prey is more cunning than anyone else. Often, before anyone gets close, the prey has already sensed and run away. Even if the prey is found, there is often only one chance to fire a shot. If the shot is missed, it is difficult to find a second chance.

Therefore, a double-barreled shotgun that can use three different types of bullets to target different prey is sufficient.

Old Liu was used to using a hunting rifle, and with his five- or six-point aiming rifle, he was no better off using a double-barreled shotgun.

As he gets older, adapting to and regaining the feel of a 5.6-6mm gun becomes a difficult task for him.

Zhou Jingming naturally wouldn't force him.

Seeing Old Liu disappear into the woods, he took off his Five-Six Half and carefully followed behind.

After walking carefully through the woods for more than ten minutes, Old Liu suddenly stopped, listened quietly for a while, turned his head to look down the slope of the mountain, and pointed downwards with his finger.

Zhou Jingming listened carefully and also recognized the sounds coming from below. From the somewhat sharp cries, he could tell that it was a pack of red-haired wolves: "They're jackals!"

He still prefers to be called that.

Old Liu nodded: "Let's go. Jackals are no fun. Their meat is bad, their fur is no good, and they smell terrible. It's no fun at all!"

Zhou Jingming had never eaten jackal meat, but since Old Liu said so, it must be true. Besides, he had a deep-seated aversion to jackals: "These jackals follow gold prospectors wherever they go, scavenging for excrement and even eating human corpses. No matter how delicious they taste, I wouldn't dare to eat them..."

As he said this, he suddenly paused: "The corpse..."

Old Liu noticed Zhou Jingming's unusual behavior: "What's wrong?"

Zhou Jingming hesitated for a moment: "Grandpa, do you think those jackals might be eating the corpses down there?"

Old Liu chuckled and said, "We'll only know once we go down and see... Why don't we go down and take a look?"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "Forget it, if they really eat corpses, the sight will definitely be unpleasant. Let's not go."

Old Liu, however, became serious: "Now that you mention it, I think we should go down and take a look. If they ate something like sika deer or musk deer, we might even find deer penis or musk... Come on, let's go down and take a look!"

As he spoke, he raised his gun and fired a shot downwards.

Gunshots echoed through the valley, and the barking of jackals in the woods below abruptly ceased, replaced by fear.

Zhou Jingming knew that his purpose was to scare away the pack of jackals with the sound of gunfire.

But he also knew that there was a reason why jackals were ranked first among wolves, tigers, and leopards.

This creature rarely acts alone. Despite being the smallest of the four ferocious beasts, it is the most ruthless and troublesome, capable of snatching food from wolves, leopards, and even bears.

Zhou Jingming gave a reminder: "Going down to check is fine, but we must not be careless. If there are only a few jackals, it will be easy to deal with, but if there are many, it will be difficult to handle!"

Old Liu nodded: "It's alright, at worst we can go down and find a tree to climb up, and take them down one by one, two by two... I've done it before, with a stick, I can handle three or four without any problem."

Since Old Liu had already hit him, Zhou Jingming had nothing more to say.

The two men, carrying their weapons, made no attempt to hide and plunged straight down into the woods below.

After descending about a hundred meters, Zhou Jingming saw the pack of jackals barking and running around in the woods. Jin Wang had already started barking.

He counted them roughly; there were about seven or eight, not a large number.

However, judging from their appearance, they seemed very reluctant to leave this place, hiding among the trees and purring softly.

As Jinwang charged toward them, they even surrounded him, showing little fear.

Zhou Jingming didn't stand on ceremony. He picked up a Type 56 rifle and pointed it at the jackals scurrying through the woods or hiding in the bushes. As soon as he got a shot, he would fire.

Three shots in quick succession took down three jackals.

Seeing that things were not going well, the rest of them quickly disappeared into the woods.

He and Old Man Liu then moved closer to the area where the jackals had gathered. When they saw what was placed in the bushes, they were both stunned.

It was a woman who was completely naked, her body torn and bloody in many places, her face unrecognizable. Her clothes lay on the bushes nearby, undamaged, not torn by the jackals, but rather as if they had been taken off and thrown aside.

But those clothes were clearly those of a Kazakh woman.

Looking at the general shape of the body, not only Zhou Jingming but also Old Man Liu could tell that this person should be Batu's sister, Nara.

Old Liu frowned: "What should we do?"

Zhou Jingming didn't speak for a while before saying, "Grandpa, please stay here and keep watch. I'm going to find Batu!"

It's more appropriate for Batu to handle this kind of matter.

Old Liu thought for a moment and nodded slightly.

Zhou Jingming didn't delay any longer. He picked up Wu Liuban and led Jin Wang away.

Zhou Jingming walked very fast for the rest of the journey.

As Batu's family drove their flock of sheep toward the border, Zhou Jingming had already asked them where they were going to stay.

When they arrived, the two had already crossed two mountain ridges. Since Nara could appear here, their camp should not be too far away.

After Zhou Jingming emerged from the vast forest, the valley in front of him suddenly became open, revealing another large grassland interspersed among the forest.

He couldn't see the location of the tent, but he could make out the Batu family's tent by the trails left by the sheep on the pasture. They must have gone down the valley.

He walked for another ten minutes or so, and Jin Wang, who had been following him, called out again.

At the same time, the barking of dogs echoed from the woods at the edge of the grassland.

Zhou Jingming stopped and looked in the direction from which the barking came, and saw two dogs running out of the woods.

Those two dogs were Batu's sheepdogs.

Since the dog is here, the people won't stray too far.

He immediately rushed towards the woods.

Before they even reached the edge of the woods, they saw Batu riding out of the trees. Upon seeing Zhou Jingming, he flicked the reins and continued galloping towards him, saying, "Adasi, what brings you here?"

"The mine is out of meat, so I came to buy some sheep from you..."

"Oh, is that so? But I don't have time right now, I have something urgent to attend to."

Are you looking for Nara?

Upon hearing Zhou Jingming's question, Batu paused for a moment, dismounted, and asked eagerly, "How do you know? Have you seen Nara? Where is she?"

Zhou Jingming didn't know what to say for a moment, afraid that Batu wouldn't be able to handle it: "Batu, I know where Nara is, but, as I said, don't rush..."

How could Batu not be anxious? He jumped off his horse and asked, "Has something happened...?"

Zhou Jingming took a deep breath: "I came here with Grandpa Liu. On the way, we heard Jinwang barking and thought it was some kind of prey, so we went to check. We found it was a pack of red wolves, and then we saw the carcass in the woods. It had been gnawed beyond recognition, but it looked like Nara..."

Batu's face immediately turned grief-stricken, and he urged, "Where is she? Take me to see her quickly!"

Zhou Jingming said no more, turned around, picked up his gun, and left.

Jinwang got together with the two dogs again, and as usual, he started fighting with the male dog as soon as they met.

However, the male dog was no match for it when they met last time, and this time was no exception. It was quickly suppressed by Jinwang and dared not move, so the fight was not very fierce.

Seeing Zhou Jingming and Batu leave, it quickly followed, while Batu's two dogs followed behind, indicating that the position of the alpha dog had been established.

Along the way, neither Batu nor Zhou Jingming spoke a word, only focusing on their journey.

When Zhou Jingming led him back to the woods, Batu immediately rushed over upon seeing the corpse, knelt down beside it, and began to wail loudly.

Clearly, neither Zhou Jingming nor Old Man Liu had made a mistake.

The two men didn't try to persuade them; they simply sat down to the side and each lit a cigarette.

After a while, seeing that Batu had vented his emotions, Zhou Jingming asked, "Why did you let Nara come to a place like this all by herself?"

“She came out yesterday, saying she was going to pick some mushrooms in the woods. I told her not to go too far.”

As a result, when I returned from herding sheep yesterday, she was nowhere to be found. Our whole family searched the area around the campsite, but we couldn't find her. We went out to look again at the crack of dawn today. Who would have thought that she would just disappear like that?

Batu wiped away his tears and went to collect the clothes scattered on the bushes, preparing to dress Nara in them.

As he unfolded the clothes, he suddenly stopped: "If he was bitten to death by a red-haired wolf, these clothes wouldn't be intact. This... this was taken off by someone, it must be."

Someone harmed Nora... It must be them, it must be them..."

(End of this chapter)