My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 93 Money in a Sack
"This is not a good situation. Not to mention that we don't know who took the gold, even if we did, there's no name written on the gold, so you can't do anything to them. You can only accept your bad luck and be more careful to hide it next time."

Another man from western Hunan who came with Lao Wang shook his head: "The rule among gold prospectors is that they keep the gold they receive themselves. As for what happens later, they have to bear the consequences themselves, unless you can catch them in the act."

Hearing this, Old Wang became even more frustrated: "Why am I so unlucky!"

He suddenly knelt down and bowed repeatedly to the group of people: "Who took my gold? Please, I beg you, give it back to me!"

Peng Yuanchao couldn't stand it anymore: "Old Wang, what's wrong with you? You're the oldest among us, how can you be so naive?"
Who took your things? Are you brave enough to say it now? Aren't you afraid of getting your legs broken?

And what's with all this kneeling? Are you spineless or something? You're a grown man, can't you stand up for yourself?

"Boss, I had no choice... my family is waiting for this life-saving money!"

Old Wang replied to Peng Yuanchao, then repeatedly bowed to the people around him: "Please... my son has uremia. I come here to pan for gold every year to save money for his treatment. I went to a big hospital to inquire and heard that a kidney transplant is possible... He's only sixteen years old... please!"

Uremia?
Zhou Jingming had heard of this disease; it was very troublesome. However, he doubted whether, given the medical level of these days, there was even a technology for kidney transplantation.

But after thinking about it, since Old Wang could say it, he must be able to.

If that's the case, he understands why Old Wang used the small scale to weigh the gold. It was a father trying to fight for his child's life.

He took a deep breath: "Everyone, go and help look for anything we might have missed. If it really was stolen, this area is rarely visited by others, so it's very likely that it was taken by one of our team members."

Don't act like it's none of your business. We need to find people like that so that the same thing doesn't happen to us someday!
"Old Wang, where do you hide your gold? Take us to see it."

At this point, Old Wang no longer had any reservations and led everyone to where he hid his gold.

It was a small gap between a few trees, and there were several messy, freshly dug holes on the ground, probably from when he was looking for gold.

The crowd dispersed and helped him search carefully under the trees, rocks, and bushes.

Just then, Wu Yang leaned close to Zhou Jingming: "Brother Zhou, look..."

Zhou Jingming glanced in the direction of his pout and saw another man from western Hunan standing blankly where Old Wang had dug the hole, staring at the small glass bottle containing gold in his hand.

This person is strange!
That was Zhou Jingming's first instinct, so he immediately walked over to him to ask what was going on.

But when he got closer, he saw the man bend over, examine the spot carefully, squat down, rummage through the dead leaves and weeds on the ground, and then rummage through the soil. He then took out another small glass bottle containing gold from the small pit.

"Old Wang, and big guys, stop looking, we've found the gold!"

He stood up and shouted.

Upon hearing this, the others all looked over.

Old Wang was even more excited and staggered over, but when he saw the two indistinguishable small glass bottles in the man's hand, he was dumbfounded: "Which one is mine?"

The man shook his head: "I don't know anymore!"

Zhou Jingming walked over: "You seem to know that Old Wang's gold is hidden here... What's going on?"

The man looked bewildered: "Because my gold was also hidden here. I hadn't been here for a few days. Today, someone came to collect the gold, so I came over immediately. I just rummaged around in this area for a bit, found the small bottles, grabbed them, and left."

On my way down, I ran into Old Wang. Seeing him moving so slowly, I even urged him on. I never imagined he'd hidden gold here too.

Peng Yuanchao stared at him coldly: "Are you telling the truth?"

Seeing the suspicious looks on everyone's faces, he quickly explained, "Why would I lie to you? I've hidden my real gold here! No, boss, you don't suspect me of stealing Old Wang's gold, do you? We're from the same place. If I were to steal, I wouldn't choose to steal from him. I know his situation. We even came together."

We were panning for gold together last year. Ask Lao Wang if I've ever done anything like that. I'm not that kind of person.

Old Wang, say something!

He became more and more anxious as he spoke, and his expression became increasingly flustered.

Old Wang just looked at him with a puzzled expression, without saying a word.

"Don't overthink it. I believe what he said. Wu Yang and I both saw him dig out the small bottle from that spot. According to what Lao Wang said, they were very close together. It's normal for him to have taken the wrong one. It's just a small misunderstanding!"

Zhou Jingming had noticed his reaction: "If he really wanted to take Old Wang's gold, he wouldn't have dug out another small bottle here. He wouldn't have needed to dig it out at this time and cause trouble for himself."

The gold collectors are still waiting downstairs, hurry back... By the way, how many grams of gold do you have?

Without hesitation, the man said, "Twenty-eight grams, that's what I hid when we were dividing the gold a few days ago! I haven't put the ones from the last few days in yet."

Zhou Jingming then asked Lao Wang, "How much is yours? Mine is thirty grams!"

"That makes things easy. We can just go back and weigh them on a scale!"

After saying this, Zhou Jingming gave Lao Wang a deep look, thinking that he was really a bad person. At a time like this, when gold was found, he didn't even say a word to help, even though they had come together and panned for gold for a year.

It seems there's now a rift between them.

As for Zhou Jingming, he valued this young man, who also had the surname Wang and was named Wang Zhenhai, more, because at least he had some integrity.

The group left the woods together and went to the edge of the dugout. Peng Yuanchao took out a balance scale and weighed them. Sure enough, one weighed 28 grams and the other 30 grams, and they were separated.

After each taking the gold, Wang Zhenhai looked at Old Wang and said, "Judging from your attitude just now, you actually didn't believe me. I've protected you and helped you a lot in the past. After the gold is sold, pay me back the two hundred yuan you borrowed from me when you came here. From now on, we're strangers. Don't talk to me."

Clearly, Wang Zhenhai's heart had turned cold.

Zhou Jingming hadn't expected there to be such a thing between the two of them, and couldn't help but think more highly of Wang Zhenhai. As for Old Wang, Zhou Jingming felt that he should put away his little bit of sympathy.

The three gold buyers were getting impatient and urged, "Are you going to sell or not? If not, we're leaving..." "Coming, coming..."

Peng Yuanchao responded and led the others to follow the three into the woods.

Zhou Jingming didn't want to go, so he plopped down on the grass next to the dugout.

Wu Yang had never seen how gold was collected before, and he followed along with great interest. When he turned around and saw that Zhou Jingming hadn't come, he asked, "Brother Zhou, aren't you going to take a look?"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "What's so interesting about that!"

"Go and help everyone check it out. I know you must be very familiar with these things!"

Wu Yang ran over and pulled him away.

Zhou Jingming thought about it and agreed. He decided to go and check it out to avoid any unnecessary trouble. So, he stood up as Wu Yang pulled him and followed him into the woods.

"Isn't it the same as staying near the dugout? Why bother going into the woods? It's too much trouble!"

"They were very cautious, at least in the woods, they were very well concealed."

"If only we could get our hands on those Type 56 semi-automatic rifles that the two men were carrying. Those things are much better than hunting rifles."

"Don't get any ideas. These gold dealers have their own intricate networks and powerful connections. If you mess with them, they won't let it go easily. For one thing, they brought a lot of money with them when they went into the mountains. That's not money that ordinary people can come up with."

"I was just saying it offhand!"

The two quickly caught up with Peng Yuanchao and the others, and followed them into the woods.

The three gold dealers chose a relatively dense forest, tied their horses to trees, and the leader of the gold dealers took out a small balance scale and told Peng Yuanchao and the others to stay about ten meters away and not to get close.

The two gold dealers, who were carrying Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, took the guns off and stood guard beside him.

After the gold dealer laid the small scales flat on the ground, he looked at the crowd and asked, "Who wants to go first?"

In this kind of situation, Peng Yuanchao was the first to step forward without hesitation.

He took out a red lotus cigarette case and poured the gold inside, which he intended to sell, into one pan of the small balance scale. After he finished pouring, the gold dealer immediately took out a stack of ten-yuan notes from his pocket and put them one by one into the other pan of the small balance scale until both sides were balanced.

Not only Wu Yang, but the other newcomers who had just arrived to pan for gold also looked at him with strange expressions.

Wu Yang asked in a low voice, "Brother Zhou, why don't we use weights?"

"You don't understand, do you? It's quite a coincidence. The 'Big Unity' notes we use now are basically worth one gram each. To save trouble, they find using weights troublesome and inconvenient to carry, so they use 'Big Unity' notes instead of weights. There might be some slight deviations, but they've always done it this way."

Zhou Jingming said in a moderate voice, "Once the money is weighed, we'll count it. The number of bills corresponds to the weight of the money. Then we'll calculate the cost based on the agreed price."

"So that's it!"

Upon hearing his explanation, everyone suddenly understood.

Zhou Jingming continued, "Money, money, gold and money have always been linked. How about it, using banknotes to weigh gold, isn't that exciting to watch..."

The group nodded slightly, but none of them looked at Zhou Jingming; instead, their eyes were all fixed on the small scale.

Their eyes seemed to be firmly gripped by the banknotes on the small scale, and even their breathing became somewhat rapid.

Zhou Jingming knew this feeling. He felt the same way when he first saw gold weighed like that. It was a tempting and adrenaline-pumping feeling.

It must be said that this move had an extremely strong impact on every gold prospector and left a deep impression on their hearts.

After Peng Yuanchao was weighed and the money was calculated, the other party did not pay immediately. Instead, he took out a pen, wrote down the amount in Peng Yuanchao's palm, and then moved on to the next person to be weighed.

Someone else asked, "Why isn't it cash on delivery?"

Peng Yuanchao, upon returning, provided the answer: "Once everyone has agreed, they will pay at another place. This is the rule in this business to prevent someone from taking all the gold and money at once if something goes wrong."

"Aren't you afraid they'll take the gold and run away without paying?"

"Run? It's not that easy to run. If they really dare to do that, we'll have to fight them to the death. Besides, if they want to do long-term business, they still need to have some integrity. Otherwise, who will dare to sell gold to them in the future?"
However, this has happened before, so we still need to be quite careful.

Next, one by one, they went up to weigh the gold. The gold was put into cloth bags by the gold dealers. Then, after the lead gold dealer calculated the total amount to be paid, he instructed Peng Yuanchao: "One person comes along to carry the money. Only one person is allowed!"

Peng Yuanchao was about to get up and follow when Zhou Jingming stopped him: "Let Wu Yang go!"

This was essentially a precaution. Of those present, only Wu Yang was capable of handling any unexpected situation, especially since he had a pistol.

Of course, such a situation rarely occurs.

Peng Yuanchao looked at Wu Yang: "Brother, it's up to you now!"

Wu Yang nodded and quickly followed the three men into the woods upstream. After walking about a hundred meters, the gold dealer counted out stacks of money and put them into a sack. After Wu Yang counted them and confirmed that everything was correct, the three men mounted their horses and continued upstream to the mining site, while Wu Yang carried the sack of money back.

In those days, there weren't many hundred-yuan bills, but people were selling a lot of gold, and they would ask for more ten-yuan bills.

Seeing Wu Yang carry back the bulging money bag was another strong psychological shock.

This is a sack full of money.

　The third update is here!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)