My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 241 This rotten person
After observing them for a while, the woman felt that the three of them were not in any serious condition. After hesitating for a moment, she picked up the steamed buns and mutton and started eating.

At first, she ate with some restraint, but gradually she let loose and began to wolf down her food.

Zhou Jingming gave Wu Yang and Batu some Red Lotus cigarettes, lit them, and slowly smoked them.

After the woman finished eating, Zhou Jingming noticed that she seemed a little unsatisfied and asked, "Would you like some more?"

The woman shook her head somewhat embarrassedly.

Zhou Jingming didn't press the matter and asked, "Did you put those birch bark chutes in the riverbed there?"

The woman glanced at the stream in the valley: "It was...it was me who put it there!"

"Tell me, how long have you been here, a woman alone, panning for gold in such a remote place?"

"It's been more than three months."

"You've been here for over three months?"

Zhou Jingming was somewhat incredulous: "You're alone, not with anyone else?"

"I'm all alone!"

Not only Zhou Jingming, but even Wu Yang was wide-eyed with disbelief, unable to comprehend how a woman could stay in such a place for so long.

Putting aside the dangers posed by wild animals, the sheer monotony alone is something most people couldn't easily endure.

But it seems that what she said doesn't sound like a lie.

Zhou Jingming had looked around but hadn't seen any other signs of activity, so he decided to believe him: "You said you secretly followed your man here, so do you know where he went or what his name is? Tell me, and maybe I can find out for you once we get out."

All I know is that the place he went to is called Haxionggou...

"Ha Xiong Gou..."

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang exchanged a glance, their expressions turning strange.

Batu chuckled and interjected, "What a coincidence, we came from Haxionggou."

The woman became puzzled upon hearing this.

In just a few months, there have been many deaths and injuries in Haxionggou. I wonder if the man this woman was talking about was among those who died or were injured.

Not wanting to cause more trouble, Zhou Jingming became more cautious. He tentatively said, "We are indeed from Haxionggou. What's your man's name? Maybe we know each other."

The woman stammered, "His...his name is Peng Yuanchao."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jingming breathed a sigh of relief, but inwardly he felt a little amused: "Peng Yuanchao, he's from Longzhong. He used to go to the city to work, but he was robbed, got into a fight, stabbed someone, and ran away to pan for gold. He hadn't been back for more than two years, only returning at the end of last year."

He had a childhood sweetheart, but because he couldn't afford to pay for her parents' medical treatment, he chose to marry someone else… Is the Peng Yuanchao you're talking about the one I'm referring to?

This time, it was the woman's turn to widen her eyes: "You...you know him!"

“I have a mining site in Haxionggou, and he leads people to pan for gold at my site. We started panning for gold together last year.”

Zhou Jingming still had many questions: "I remember he's not married yet, so where did this woman come from? Sister, you're not lying to me, are you?"

"I am the woman you're talking about..."

The woman's expression became very complicated: "My name is Zhang Xueqin. I ran away with him this year."

Zhou Jingming scrutinized the woman for a long time: "What exactly happened?"

The woman thought for a while and then began to recount her experiences along the way.

First, she said that her husband's family treated her badly, often beating and scolding her. Last year, when she went back to her parents' home, she ran into Peng Yuanchao because they lived in the same village. She said that Peng Yuanchao was at home and had renovated the best cave dwelling in the village. She also said that Peng Yuanchao took the opportunity to seduce her, and since she couldn't stay at her husband's home any longer, she had a secret rendezvous with Peng Yuanchao.

She had thought that Peng Yuanchao would help her escape her misery as he had said, but he later went back on his word. Moreover, rumors about their affair began to circulate in and around the village. She could no longer stay in her husband's family. This year, when Peng Yuanchao led people out to pan for gold near April, she secretly followed him.

When women talk about these things, tears stream down their faces, and they look heartbroken.

Even Wu Yang couldn't help but curse after hearing this: "I didn't realize that Brother Peng... Peng Yuanchao is such a scoundrel. If you don't want to take responsibility, don't mess with him, damn it!"

Zhou Jingming was actually quite used to this kind of thing; he had seen and heard of many such cases, and he didn't think much of it.

He was simply more curious about Zhang Xueqin's subsequent experiences. Under his questioning, the woman recounted what happened next.

After losing track of Peng Yuanchao in Wucheng, she mustered her courage and found Altan. Then she took a car with a group of gold prospectors who claimed to know about Haxionggou. She arrived at Tiemaike and then went to the gold panning valley on the other side of the Haiertes River.

For a while, the gold prospectors didn't make things difficult for her. They just had her cook and do laundry, saying they would send her over to meet Peng Yuanchao once they found out his whereabouts.

Who knew that after only ten days or so of relative peace, the gang leader started causing trouble again.

One morning, he called her out and said he had news of Peng Yuanchao, and led her to find him.

Zhang Xueqin was in a hurry, so she quickly packed her luggage and followed the leader.

As a result, when they reached a secluded spot, the gang leader stopped and refused to move. He wanted to assault her, making her his mistress and promising her a life of luxury, with additional gold to be given to her when the gold rush season ended.

Zhang Xueqin was unwilling and wanted to run away, but there was nowhere to escape. The gang leader grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground, preparing to force her.

Later, during the struggle, she found a stone and smashed it hard on the leader's head. The leader just reached out and touched his bleeding head, then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground.

She didn't dare linger and ran away with her luggage.

But in the vast Gold Rush Valley, she didn't know where to go, and she was also preoccupied with finding Peng Yuanchao.

That day, she ran into the mountains and hid in a rocky hollow for a day and a night. The next day, she returned to the valley, avoided the group of people, and asked other gold prospectors about Haxionggou. She also paid a high price to buy some food from them.

But those people either didn't know where Haxionggou was, or their eyes started to turn malicious when they talked to her, so she had to leave quickly.

Zhang Xueqin stayed in the valley for seven or eight days without getting any clues.

The money she carried was only for buying food, and it was quickly spent.

However, she found another place in the mountains where locals sold supplies. They had built several dugouts in the mountains, and people went there to buy things every day, but the prices were very high. Fortunately, when she asked the people selling things, they said they knew where Haxionggou was and asked her to stay.

There, several other women also lived in the mountains, and gold prospectors would often come to them and lead them into their dugouts.

Although she was not very knowledgeable, she could tell at a glance that it was not a place to stay for long, so she dared not linger and quickly left.

When she ran out of money and food, she had no choice but to steal. She succeeded a few times, but the last time, she was discovered and chased after. Terrified, she quickly hid in the woods and barely managed to escape.

She dared not return to Gold Rush Valley, mainly because once she entered the mountains, she couldn't find her way out.

But she still had to think about surviving, so she wandered around the mountains looking for a way out, and during that time she ran into two herdsmen.

She tried to approach them and ask, but neither of them could understand what the other was saying. In the end, she could only try to ask the herdsmen for some food.

She happened to meet some kind herdsmen who gave her some dried meat, naan, and other things.

After filling her stomach, she continued on her way, only to find that the mountains were getting bigger and steeper as she walked.

Later, while crossing a grassland, she encountered a wolf, a lone wolf, which kept following her.

She panicked immediately, only thinking about running away as quickly as possible, but she couldn't shake it off no matter what she did. Whenever she stopped to rest for a while, she would always see the wolf emerge from the grass and the woods.

That night, the wolf came up and tried to bite her. She thought she was going to die, so she just grabbed a stick and started hitting it randomly as the wolf got closer.

Luckily, one of the sticks hit the wolf's front leg, seemingly breaking it, and the wolf hopped away.

Of course, she herself wasn't much better off.

My left arm and left calf were also bitten twice by the wolf...

As she said this, Zhang Xueqin seemed afraid that Zhou Jingming and the others wouldn't believe her, so she rolled up her sleeves to show them the now-healed, twisted wound.

The next thing we did was arrive at this valley and see the tin-roofed houses.

Despite her injuries, she chose to stay for the time being.

After searching around, I found some usable tools. There were also wild vegetables by the river and fish in the river, so it seemed like I could get a lot of food.

More importantly, while she was digging for wild vegetables, she saw gold on the riverbank.

She picked up the gold and thought for a long time before making a different decision: since she couldn't find Peng Yuanchao and couldn't go back to her hometown, she might as well pan for some gold here. If she could get more, she could exchange it for money when she got out and perhaps find a new place to live.

(End of this chapter)