My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 53 How can we trust so easily?
While Zhou Jingming and Peng Yuanchao were talking, Wu Yang also came over with a shovel: "The short guy following behind is the one who was sneaking around in the woods this morning."

That person was indeed very short, probably less than 1.5 meters tall, and looked short and stocky, quite sturdy.

Seeing Zhou Jingming and the other two talking together, Xu Youliang glanced at the two people being stopped by Jin Wang, knew something was wrong, and dropped the bucket to come over.

The people digging in the sand pit realized something was wrong and prepared to climb out.

Peng Yuanchao glanced at them and said, "Don't join in the fun. Just do what you're supposed to do. The more nervous you are, the more others will think this place is a treasure, and the more they'll care about it!"

After hearing what he said, everyone hesitated for a moment, then picked up their tools and continued working.

The man from Yuzhou who was in charge of cooking crawled out of his dugout, but even from dozens of meters away, it was impossible to hear what he was saying to the two men.

Since he was a novice, Zhou Jingming was worried that he wouldn't be able to handle it or that he might let slip the situation on the small peninsula, so he quickly called Peng Yuanchao and Wu Yang and headed towards the dugout.

Jin Wang, somewhat emboldened by his master's power, barked wildly. When he turned around and saw Zhou Jingming approaching, he barked even more arrogantly and moved even closer to the two men.

Seeing Jin Wang approaching, the dwarf quickly stepped in front of the middle-aged man who had come with him, and picked up a stone from the ground as a precaution.

Little did he know that upon seeing the dwarf take the stone, Jin Wang was first startled and ran back, then leaped to the side, pounced from the side, lowered his front legs, and barked at the two men more fiercely, as if he were about to tear them apart at any moment.

Although it is only a half-grown puppy, as a Tianshan Mastiff, it is already no smaller than a common local dog. It is a breed that reaches sexual maturity after one year of age, and it gives people the feeling of being no different from an adult dog.

"Don't hit the dog... Jinwang, come back!"

Zhou Jingming first called out, then waved to Jin Wang, calling him back. When Jin Wang ran up to him, he reached out and scratched Jin Wang's neck before looking at the two men: "Gentlemen, what brings you to our dugout?"

"Don't misunderstand... Our two teams are the closest to each other, so we're practically neighbors. When we first arrived, we wanted to pay them a visit, but we were afraid of being too forward."

Today I heard some noise in the woods on the riverbank, saw a fallen birch tree, and then I saw you carrying some wild game back to your dugout. Now I have an excuse… I have a craving for game, so I thought I'd come and buy some from you to try!”

The middle-aged man at the head of the group was tall and burly, with a somewhat hoarse voice: "My surname is Tang, and I'm the leader of the team below. You can call me Old Tang."

He seemed very easygoing.

But those who come to pan for gold are certainly not as simple as they appear on the surface, especially the foreman who can gather more than twenty people to pan for gold.

Peng Yuanchao glanced at the woods where Zhou Jingming and the others were collecting beavers, then looked at the two of them again: "There's a hillside blocking the view, and there's a forest on the hillside. You shouldn't be able to see it from your riverbank, right?"

He paused for a moment, then looked at the short man next to the middle-aged man surnamed Tang: "Sir, what's your name?"

“My surname is Zhang. They all call me Shorty. You can call me that too. It’s true that I’m short, it’s just a nickname!”

The short man had no problem with his height at all.

Peng Yuanchao hesitated for a moment, then said, "I wouldn't dare call you that... You seem to be a bit younger than me, so calling you Brother Zhang wouldn't be inappropriate."

The short man said nonchalantly, "Anything is fine!"

Peng Yuanchao looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze: "Brother Zhang, you got up very early. You were wandering around the woods behind our dugouts so early in the morning and saw our people picking wild game. You must have been the one!"

This was clearly telling him that his shady dealings had been discovered.

He had only gone to the woods to spy in the morning, and before noon he brought people over. Even though there were only two people, Peng Yuanchao still felt that something was amiss.

Nine times out of ten, they're using the pretext of buying meat to further probe their background.

Peng Yuanchao wasn't the only one who thought this way; Zhou Jingming thought so too.

If it were just a simple spying, and they returned home peacefully, Zhou Jingming and Peng Yuanchao would only be wary and pretend nothing had happened.

Why are you in such a hurry to come to my door...?

In this gold rush valley, it doesn't hurt to think about people in more complex terms.

Peng Yuanchao directly pointed out that the dwarf's whereabouts had been discovered, which wouldn't do any harm. At least it would let the two of them know that his group wasn't to be trifled with either.

His words made Old Tang and Zhang the Dwarf suddenly feel a little awkward.

Old Tang chuckled awkwardly and quickly explained, "It's a misunderstanding, a real misunderstanding... Sigh, gentlemen, I know I did something wrong, but it's not what you think. I really have my own unspeakable difficulties!"

A difficult situation? Such a statement cannot be easily believed.

Anyone who visits the Gold Rush Valley can tell you a whole host of grievances.

But then the middle-aged man surnamed Tang continued, "To be honest, I not only had the dwarf look at your place, but also at several other gold mining sites. I mainly wanted to compare them and then ask a leader from one of the teams that seemed more reliable to help me look at the feng shui."

Peng Yuanchao frowned: "Leading so many people into the mountains without knowing how to read feng shui, that doesn't make sense, does it?"

He still didn't believe them.

Old Tang looked miserable and sighed, "I've really been cheated."

I met a gold prospector before the Lunar New Year. He said that gold mining was booming in Altay, and as long as you had capital and manpower, you were sure to make a fortune there.

He said he was a master at finding gold nuggets.

I had heard about the gold rush before. Coincidentally, my joint venture factory was reported for speculation. I spent all the money I had worked so hard to earn to bribe the key people and avoid jail time.

Suddenly, they were penniless again.

I was at my wit's end when I heard what that gold prospector said. On a whim, I found some men and they came all the way from Wu and Yue.

When we arrived in Altan, we met with the bandit leader. He said he thought we weren't coming and had already arranged a group and signed an agreement with someone to make us withdraw, but we had to compensate them with a thousand dollars.

Since I was in an unfamiliar place and didn't have a good option at the time, I agreed to his request.

He also told me that if I followed him into the mountains and found the gold vein, I could earn back much more money in ten days or half a month.

As a result, I gave him the money, and when we arrived in Tiemaike, I had prepared almost everything I needed to take into the mountains. That bastard made an excuse to buy cigarettes and never showed up again.

Of the people in my team, only three have experience in the Gold Rush Valley, and they are all half-baked. They can only shake the gold dipper and exert their strength, but they don't know how to find gold seeds. The rest are all novices, so we can't count on them.

After spending a few days in Typhoon Morakot, I tried to contact a few gold prospectors, hoping to find someone who could tell the feng shui and find gold nuggets, but they all seemed unreliable.

The dwarf had panned for gold here for a year. He said you can go into the mountains first, and once you get to the gold panning valley, you can find someone to help you. Many people do this. At least, the people you find from the gold panning teams won't run away.

I think that makes sense.

So I had the dwarf lead the way and came to this gold rush valley. There were too many people on the main river, and as we walked up, we saw a group branching off into this ditch, so I followed them in.

Originally, we planned to find someone to look at the feng shui as soon as we arrived at the valley, but when we passed by that river beach, it looked like it had been panned. Since it had been panned, there must be gold in it, so I asked the short guy to examine the sand. Unexpectedly, we saw some gold flakes on the first bucket. After discussing it, we decided to set up camp there and try our luck.

I just had bad luck.

You've probably seen that place when you came up here. It's been mined before. Don't be fooled by the constant roar of the diesel engines. They've put in a lot of effort these past two days, and the gold they've found isn't even enough to cover the cost of the fuel.

This couldn't go on like this, so I asked the short guy to come out and take a look in the morning. He came back and told me that he felt your team was more reliable, so I found an excuse to come over.”

Zhou Jingming and Peng Yuanchao had both heard of similar things.

Gold, something that has been associated with money since ancient times, always easily fuels human desires and ambitions, regardless of whether one is poor or rich.

Many people have acted impulsively like this, and quite a few have been scammed or cheated.

However, Zhou Jingming and Peng Yuanchao were not entirely convinced. Even without Zhang Aizi's sneaky actions, the fact that he could acquire things like water pumps upon his arrival was enough to show that Lao Tang had great ambitions.

You can't see into someone's heart; those who easily trust others are always the easiest to be taken advantage of.

Now that the middle-aged man surnamed Tang's words seemed to convey a sense of reconciliation and frankness, he didn't intend to keep arguing: "Next time, it's better to be open and aboveboard about this kind of thing, otherwise, it's easy to cause misunderstandings."

Old Tang nodded repeatedly: "That's right, that's right... I definitely won't do it again. Then... could you please do me a favor?"

"I've agreed to find Jin Miao!"

Before Peng Yuanchao could say anything more, Zhou Jingming nodded in agreement.

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(End of this chapter)