My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 3 uses the methods of the martial arts world.
The biggest secret for working in a geological team is undoubtedly the exploration results and geological data.

They are like treasure maps; laymen can't understand them, but experts can find the treasure by following the map.

Of all these treasures, gold is undoubtedly the one that most ignites people's most primal desire for wealth.

There were far too many people trying to find out the location of the gold mine from the geological team staff.

Many people approached geological team staff with maps, promising that they could earn thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, or receive a share of the profits, simply by clicking on the gold mine location on the map.

These days, such a sum of money is extremely tempting.

As an exploration technician, Zhou Jingming was naturally approached by some people, but when he joined the geological team, he signed a confidentiality agreement. How could he casually tell others the mineral source information he found?

In Zhou Jingming's memory, two people in his geological team had done this.

As a result, one was caught, and it is unknown what happened to him; the other, when he was desperate while running away, jumped into the river, struggled in the water for a few moments, was overturned by the waves, and was swept to the bottom. When he resurfaced, he was already dead, because his head hit a river stone.

Having learned from past mistakes, Zhou Jingming naturally wouldn't do anything so dangerous.

Many things cannot be glossed over; when you get serious, it can be deadly in an instant.

Moreover, in this era of scarce gold resources, we cannot afford to be complacent.

The man who is now eating and drinking at the Sichuan restaurant once sought out Zhou Jingming, and Zhou Jingming was deeply impressed by him.

He remembered his name: Wu Fusheng, a native of Shanglin, Luoyue.

In his previous life, Zhou Jingming left the labor camp and went to Altay to pan for gold. He encountered Wu Fusheng, who was already a wealthy gold tycoon. When Wu Fusheng saw Zhou Jingming panning for gold in the gold valley, he would often mock and harass him, taking pleasure in doing so.

Zhou Jingming couldn't hold back any longer and started planning to take action when the opportunity arose.

But it was precisely because of his difficult behavior that the matter reached the ears of another, more powerful and influential boss, Mr. Jin. Upon learning that Zhou Jingming had previously worked as a geological exploration technician and had the ability to find Jin Miao, he treated Zhou Jingming as an honored guest and directly sent someone to bring Wu Fusheng over. He gave Wu Fusheng a good scolding, and only after Wu Fusheng apologized to Zhou Jingming and promised to avoid him in the future did the matter end.

Mr. Jin was Zhou Jingming's benefactor, enabling him to make his first fortune in a short period of time and embark on the path of gold mining. Grateful, Zhou Jingming worked under him for several years, using his ability to find gold nuggets to help Mr. Jin make a lot of money.

He never expected that after being reborn, he would see Wu Fusheng in a place like this.

This was truly an unexpected bonus.

Since this woman is connected to Wu Fusheng, things are easily connected.

Wu Fusheng may have harbored resentment because he was refused when he asked Zhou Jingming to inquire about the location of the gold mine, or he may still have wanted to get some information about the gold mine from Zhou Jingming. When his attempt to bribe Zhou Jingming failed, he resorted to force, which is why he committed this act of treachery.

Needless to say, the backpack that was lost in their previous life must have fallen into their hands as well.

Every prospector who leaves the geological team is an excellent target for recruitment. Although there are confidentiality agreements, most of them have "hidden agendas" that can be exchanged for a large sum of money immediately. This is an indisputable fact.

Moreover, Zhou Jingming was not an ordinary prospector, but a real technician who knew more. His little notebook also contained his own insights.

For a geological team to find a gold mine, two elements are required: first, the gold grade must be high enough; and second, there must be sufficient reserves to meet the conditions for mining.

Gold ore grade refers to the gold content per unit volume or unit weight of ore.

Gold grade is usually expressed in grams per ton. One gram per ton is commonly used as the cutoff grade. Ore bodies with a grade greater than one gram per ton can be considered industrial ore bodies, where development costs and profits are comparable.

Mining below this grade is often a losing proposition, and large-scale mining is not undertaken.

In other words, even if a gold mine has a high enough grade that can be mined out in ten days or half a month, or if the reserves are large enough but a lot of manpower and resources are spent every day without being able to extract gold of corresponding value, it is not worthwhile.

Zhou Jingming knew very well that the good mineral resources were not to be touched, nor was it his turn to touch them, but that did not stop him from recording some places with high grade and low reserves.

Such a goldmine is even more valuable to informal gold prospectors. Who doesn't love gold?

Zhou Jingming was also envious and had some ulterior motives.

Of course, he wouldn't be foolish enough to clearly mark those locations. He simply recorded the local customs and special but inconspicuous signs of the places he visited in a diary, hiding the routes and approximate locations within them.

Flipping through the diary, the contents are more like ordinary travelogues.

That's why, when they left the geological team for inspection, the inspectors couldn't find anything suspicious in the notebook's contents, which is why Zhou Jingming brought them out.

The notebook ended up in Wu Fusheng's hands. He went from an ordinary gold prospector to a gold tycoon, and it's very likely that he figured out something from the notebook.

Since Wu Fusheng is a gold prospector who frequents the Altay region, there are plenty of opportunities to encounter him there. Even if they don't meet, Zhou Jingming has ways to find out.

He was therefore in no hurry to resolve the issue in a place like Chengdu, where it was inconvenient to conduct business.

In Altay, a place where deserts, Gobi, snow-capped mountains, and grasslands intermingle, and where there are hundreds of miles of uninhabited land, there exists a wild and untamed world unique to gold prospectors.

Knowing the dangers of the gold rush world, Zhou Jingming in his previous life did not choose to pan for gold at first, but planned to go into business instead.

However, Zhou Jingming has spent his entire life as a gold prospector and is extremely familiar with the industry. If he is reborn and does not choose this path, it would be a waste of all the experience he has accumulated in his life.

He made up his mind: since he was going to choose the world of gold prospectors, then he should resolve things in the way that world prospectors do—it couldn't be more appropriate.

To avoid being discovered, after finishing his cigarette, Zhou Jingming got up and wandered along the street, his eyes never leaving the Sichuan restaurant.

The reason he didn't rush to leave was because he wasn't sure if Wu Fusheng would have other tricks up his sleeve after his scheme failed.

Since they were able to follow me from Wucheng to Chengdu, if it wasn't just a chance encounter on the train, then they must have conducted an investigation or been tracking me.

Will they follow me home and bring misfortune to my family?

This is what Zhou Jingming is most worried about.

After graduating from the Workers-Peasants-Soldiers University, Zhou Jingming got a proper job in the geological team. Even though they were thousands of miles apart and rarely saw each other throughout the year, Zhou Jingming was the pride of his parents.

When the news of Zhou Jingming being sent to a labor camp reached the village, it was like the sky had fallen.

In his previous life, after five years of re-education through labor, Zhou Jingming returned home and looked at his dilapidated, almost collapsed mud-brick house, and then at the two mounds of earth covered with weeds on the barren slope. He felt nothing but heartache.

I learned from my younger sister Zhou Xingyao that because of his incident, my father, who was ferrying people at Huluzui in Haichao Town, Jiangyang, fell into the icy river in a daze. When he returned home, he fell seriously ill. To make matters worse, my mother also passed away due to excessive grief.

At the end of that year, within just half a month, both of her parents passed away one after another... While other families were celebrating the New Year with firecrackers, Zhou Xingyao was keeping vigil in the desolate mourning hall.

How could Zhou Jingming not hate such a thing?

Since we have the chance to start over, we absolutely cannot let this happen.

He waited patiently, and after about half an hour, he saw the five people who had gone to look for him return one after another, all gathered at the Sichuan restaurant.

After the seven people gathered, they seemed to have lost their appetite for food and drink. They left the Sichuan restaurant, chatted for a while on the street, and then went to the train station together.

That day, Zhou Jingming waited across from the train station until it got dark and he didn't see many people come out. Only after confirming that they had left did he return to the old factory area of ​​the machinery factory.

At that time, the train station in Jiangyang was not yet open. If you wanted to go to Jiangyang, you could only take a bus. Since they chose the train, they were not going to Jiangyang. It was probably because the Spring Festival was approaching and they were busy going back home for the New Year.

Zhou Jingming retrieved his backpack from the broken wooden crate on the second floor of the factory, spent the night at a hotel near the bus station, and took the earliest bus home early the next morning!
(End of this chapter)