My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 245 Taking a bite out of the flesh

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang led Zhang Xueqin back to the hillside opposite the pincer-shaped ravine of Haxionggou. In the distance, they saw many people lazily scattered in the poplar grove by the river. Some were playing cards, some were sleeping, and the water pumps were not running. Only then did the two remember that this should be their weekly rest day.

A noise came from the woods, and Jinwang barked fiercely twice in the direction of the sound before quickly stopping.

Seeing that it was Old Liu emerging from the woods, Zhou Jingming stopped in his tracks and halted his action of drawing his gun, simply calling out to him, "Grandpa..."

Old Liu came closer, looked Zhang Xueqin up and down, and asked with some confusion, "What's going on?"

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "I met him in the mountains during this mining trip. He said he was looking for Peng Yuanchao. It's hard to explain in a short time. We'll know when we meet Peng Yuanchao."

Old Liu glanced at the mine site: "Peng Yuanchao isn't here. He went to Tiemaike last night with a few young men. Sun Chenggui drove the tractor."

Without needing to be explained, Zhou Jingming knew that Peng Yuanchao had definitely gone to Sun Huai'an's hideout to find women again.

"Did anything happen at the mine while we were gone?"

"Everything is normal."

"That's good!"

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly, then suddenly noticed that Zhang Xueqin was looking at him with a suspicious gaze. He guessed that she might suspect that he was lying to her, so he quickly explained, "Big sister, Peng Yuanchao is really at my mine. He's just not here right now. You'll see him when he comes back later."

He didn't linger on the hillside any longer and continued down the slope.

Old Liu didn't wander around in the mountains either; he followed along and walked back.

When they arrived at the riverbank, a group of gold prospectors who had been cooling off in the poplar grove saw Zhou Jingming returning with another woman. They all got up and greeted Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang, while also looking at Zhang Xueqin with strange eyes.

This display of force startled Zhang Xueqin, who lowered her head and shrank behind Zhou Jingming.

But soon someone recognized Zhang Xueqin.

Peng Yuanchao brought a group of people from his hometown. They were all from the same village or neighboring villages, so they naturally knew Zhang Xueqin.

Hearing someone call her name, Zhang Xueqin looked in the direction of the voice and saw a familiar face. Only then did she truly realize that Peng Yuanchao was indeed at this mining site, and tears welled up in her eyes involuntarily.

At least she had acquaintances around. After living in fear and suffering for so many days, she finally felt a little more at ease, and her emotions became complicated.

Seeing that someone was talking to her, Zhou Jingming didn't pay any more attention to her and went to the dugout with Wu Yang first.

After several days of travel, both of them were quite tired. They went into the tent, where Su Xiulan boiled some salted tea bricks. After drinking some water, they decided to go back to their dugout for a nap.

In those deep mountains and forests, it was hard to get a good night's rest; most of the fatigue came from not getting enough rest.

However, before entering the dugout, Zhou Jingming specifically asked Su Xiulan to help look after Zhang Xueqin.

In addition, he asked Wang Dong to get a sheep to cook. He was getting tired of eating steamed buns and cod with cod these past few days and wanted to change things up and replenish his energy. To that end, he also took out a large piece of hot pot base that he had brought, wanting to eat something fragrant and spicy.

When Zhou Jingming returned to his dugout, he saw a lot of dried felt piled up inside. He didn't have time to deal with it for the time being. He just hung his backpack on the wall and looked at the gold beans in the jars on the shelf. He felt that they had increased quite a bit in the few days he hadn't seen them.

He poured some hot water from the kettle, washed his face, soaked his feet in the hot water, and then lit a cigarette.

People who come to pan for gold either have their feet soaking in water or are working. Because they sweat a lot, almost everyone has smelly feet. Many people wear the same pair of shoes from brand new to worn out without ever washing them, and black mud can be found inside their shoes.

Zhou Jingming was no exception, except that Su Xiulan was now helping him wash.

These past few days in the mountains, I've only taken off my shoes twice when crossing rivers; otherwise, I've worn them even while sleeping. After being covered up for so many days, they've become incredibly smelly.

Just then, Su Xiulan crawled in. Upon smelling the stench filling the dugout, she frowned slightly, disgustedly picked up his pair of yellow rubber shoes, threw them outside, and then returned.

Seeing her sly grin, Zhou Jingming couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

Su Xiulan lifted the blankets and pulled out a flat stone about half the size of her palm from among the pine needles underneath, handing it to Zhou Jingming.

Zhou Jingming took it and examined it. The stone was covered in mud, but after wiping it off, a golden color was revealed. He quickly washed his feet, rinsed the stone in a basin, and discovered that it was a gold nugget weighing at least a pound. He asked in surprise, "Where did you get this?"

Su Xiulan immediately laughed: "You might not believe it, but I found this while washing clothes by the river, right where I usually wash clothes. It hasn't rained lately, and the river has gotten a bit shallower. I found it in a crevice between the rocks."

At first, I couldn't believe it when I saw it was so golden. I took it out to look at it and realized it was gold, so I secretly brought it home to surprise you.

Zhou Jingming gave her a thumbs up: "This is indeed a surprise. Such a large piece of gold nugget is already at the collector's level."

In the Gold Rush Valley, many gold nuggets are discovered every year, but most are small lumps weighing forty or fifty grams. Flat gold nuggets weighing at least one pound like these are extremely rare.

Due to the unique shape of the nugget, even though it contains many impurities, its value is incomparable to that of gold of the same weight.

Of course, it's not impossible that some people these days find large nuggets of gold, melt them down for refining, or sell them as pure gold to a gold trading company based on their specific gravity. In any case, Zhou Jingming had heard very few rumors about finding large nuggets of gold in his previous life. This was the largest piece of natural gold that Zhou Jingming had ever seen in his life.

"Come on, show me where it is!"

Zhou Jingming couldn't wait to tear off a cloth and dry his feet.

Su Xiulan, being sensible, took a pair of yellow rubber shoes with faded fabric from one end of the earthen bed and put them on him.

Zhou Jingming put on his shoes, placed the gold nugget on the wooden shelf on the wall, and immediately walked out.

Once outside, he found a golden bucket, grabbed a shovel, and followed Su Xiulan to the riverbank.

The place where Su Xiulan often washes her clothes is a slab of stone exposed after the riverbed was washed away by the heavy rain last year. At the location she pointed out, Zhou Jingming saw that it was a triangular area formed by three intersecting stones, which was less than one square meter in size.

It was previously submerged and could not be seen.

Looking at it now, it's a real goldmine. There's a rock, like an arm, that extends deep into the river, rising high and embracing that goldmine. This is what gold prospectors often call the "gold-blocking stone."

The river water crashes against it, making a splashing sound, as if washing it, and the heavy gold dust tends to accumulate here.

Zhou Jingming immediately took off his shoes, rolled up his trousers, and went down into the gold pit. He used a shovel to shovel the accumulated gravel and mud into the gold bucket, filling it to a shallow depth, and then washed it in the river.

Afraid of missing any other gold nuggets that might be inside, Zhou Jinming carefully examined each pebble as he shoveled them out of the gold container.

As expected, after washing the first basin of mud and sand, Zhou Jingming found another piece of gold nugget, slightly larger than a fingernail, and the basin contained at least five grams of bran and gold dust.

The mud and sand in this gold mine are enough to wash it five or six times at least.

At this moment, he seemed to have forgotten his fatigue and was looking forward to the appearance of more gold nuggets or gold beans.

Seeing that Zhou Jingming had panned out so much gold, Su Xiulan finally understood why he had rushed here in such a hurry. This contained more gold than the fine sand extracted from the sluice box felt.

So Zhou Jingming spent more than half an hour there, getting at least two hundred grams of gold.

Seeing that there was nothing left to search for, Zhou Jingming and Su Xiulan took their tools and returned to their dugout.

As soon as the two reached the edge of the dugout, they faintly heard the sound of a tractor.

Zhou Jingming guessed that Peng Yuanchao and others must have returned.

He had Su Xiulan take the gold back to the dugout, while he waited by the tent, eager to see how Peng Yuanchao would react when he met Zhang Xueqin.

The sound of the tractor grew louder and louder. A few minutes later, following the dirt road up the hillside, the vehicle arrived at the bridge. The group of people who had gone to play in Tiemaike jumped off the vehicle, carried some rice, flour, cabbage, onions, and other things from the truck bed, and took them to the tent where they were cooking.

Peng Yuanchao also carried back a bag of flour. At this time, Zhang Xueqin was also sitting in the tent. When she saw Peng Yuanchao come up, she crawled out of the dugout and glared at him through gritted teeth.

Peng Yuanchao didn't pay much attention at first, but when he got closer, he suddenly saw Zhang Xueqin and was stunned.

The two stared at each other for a long while.

Peng Yuanchao carried the sack of flour towards the tent, placed the items on the wooden rack, and then looked at Zhang Xueqin with a strange expression: "You... why are you here?"

Zhang Xueqin just stared intently at him.

Seeing that Zhang Xueqin did not answer, Peng Yuanchao turned to Zhou Jingming and asked, "Brother, what... what's going on?"

Zhou Jingming rolled his eyes at him: "Don't ask me, you have to ask yourself what you did when you went back to your hometown for the New Year."

Peng Yuanchao scratched his head and looked at Zhang Xueqin, looking somewhat at a loss.

To Zhou Jingming's surprise, Zhang Xueqin suddenly walked up to Peng Yuanchao, raised her hand and slapped him across the face, the slap sounding crisp and loud.

Peng Yuanchao was stunned for a moment, then became somewhat annoyed. He raised his hand as if to retaliate, but ultimately did not strike.

Just as he hesitated, Zhang Xueqin yanked his raised hand down, rolled up his sleeve, and bit down on it.

For a moment, Peng Yuanchao's screams echoed throughout the pincer-shaped mountain valley.

He finally managed to break free and discovered that Zhang Xueqin had bitten off a piece of flesh from his arm, and it was bleeding profusely.

He glared fiercely at Zhang Xueqin and cursed, "Are you a dog or something?"

Zhou Jingming laughed: "Brother Peng, I'm not saying this to be mean, but you deserved it!"

(End of this chapter)