Alaska Gold Rush Diary

As Zhang Jianing walked out of the company gate, she finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Zhou Xin was not holding a bouquet of roses or making any other gestures of confession.

At the same time, she felt a little embarrassed by her worries.

Zhou Xin looked at Zhang Jianing as she walked over and found that she looked exactly the same as she did three years ago.

Her features are so exquisite, almost like they've been modeled, that even among mixed-race beauties, her looks are outstanding.

With her fair skin and tall, shapely figure, anyone who sees her can't help but take a second look.

At that time, Zhou Xin was indeed like a toad trying to eat swan meat.

Today she wore a white shirt with a black pleated long skirt, looking fresh and capable.

"Hello, Zhou Xin, long time no see!"

Zhang Jianing walked up to Zhou Xin, greeted him generously, and extended her hand.

Zhang Jianing is a very cultured girl who is polite to everyone and doesn't show particular enthusiasm or indifference based on the other person's status or position.

The reason I rejected Zhou Xin back then wasn't because I looked down on him, but simply because I wasn't interested in him.

Zhou Xin was well aware of this.

Back then, I was naive, simple-minded, reckless, and dull-witted, which held no appeal for the intelligent and reserved Jia Ning.

"It has been a long time indeed, three years since we last met. You haven't changed at all." Zhou Xin shook her hand lightly, then immediately let go, appearing very calm and composed.

Zhang Jianing looked at him and smiled, "You're quite different from what I remember."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Zhou Xin got straight to the point and stated his purpose for coming.

Of course, he only mentioned that he needed her help with the trip to Australia.

As for the plan to formally recruit her after the gold mining team is formed, it is obviously inappropriate to bring it up now.

"That's easy. I have a few acquaintances over there. They should be able to get it sorted out for you in two or three days. But—" She hesitated for a moment.

Zhou Xin immediately understood her meaning and asked directly, "How much money do you need?"

Zhang Jianing showed a hint of apology: "It will probably cost around three thousand US dollars. It's mainly to bribe some people in the local area who are in charge of key steps. I have no control over this amount of money."

"I won't take your money. As for my acquaintances over there, I'll just buy them some gifts next time I go to Australia."

It's clear that she genuinely wanted to help Zhou Xin.

She guessed that Zhou Xin was probably short of money and wanted to save some by doing it herself.

Since it's something that's easy for me to do, I'll help him out for free.

Zhou Xin shook his head: "How can I let you help for free? I'll give you two thousand as I said before, plus three thousand for the 'bribe'. I'll transfer it to you now."

As he spoke, he took out his phone, indicating that he wanted to transfer money to Zhang Jianing.

"Can……"

"Alright, it's settled then." Zhou Xin interrupted Zhang Jianing and continued:

"I may need your help with many things in the future. If you don't charge me, I won't be able to ask you for help again."

Since things had come to this point, Zhang Jianing couldn't say anything more, so she nodded.

She then asked, "Is it really possible to dig up gold just anywhere over there?"

Clearly, as a girl, she didn't know much about this.

"I don't know either, I just wanted to try my luck." Zhou Xin remained noncommittal.

Zhang Jianing hesitated for a moment, then continued, "You've spent quite a bit. What if you don't find any gold? Wouldn't that be a loss?"

Although she called Zhou Xin a friend partly out of politeness, she felt it was still necessary to remind him.

Although she didn't know much about gold panning, based on common sense, she judged that gold mining was definitely not an easy task.

Zhou Xin was quite touched by her reminder, after all, she hadn't encouraged him to go to Australia just to earn those two thousand US dollars.

He laughed and said, "Although I haven't had much luck before, maybe things will bounce back from rock bottom."

Zhang Jianing continued to remind him, "I think you should reconsider. Five thousand US dollars is no small amount."

"No need, I've already thought it through. Send me your Palpay account information, and I'll transfer the money to you right now."

Seeing that he insisted, Zhang Jianing didn't say anything more.

She could only sigh inwardly, thinking that this man had only appeared more mature; he was still the same reckless boy he always was!

She secretly decided that when Zhou Xin returned, she would ask him about his gains from the trip, and if he had suffered a significant loss, she would force him to return the two thousand US dollars.

After the matter was settled, Zhou Xin prepared to leave because Zhang Jianing had to go to work.

When they parted, Zhou Xin wanted to invite Zhang Jianing to dinner that evening, but Zhang Jianing spoke first.

"It's been so long since we last met, and you've brought me such a big freelance job. I absolutely have to treat you to dinner tonight."

Although her salary was quite high, two thousand dollars was still a considerable amount of extra income for her.

"We'd like to go together. I was just saying I'd treat you to dinner tonight," Zhou Xin said with a smile.

"That won't do. Although we're not from here, I've worked and lived here for five or six years, so it's my turn to show hospitality." Zhang Jianing maintained the traditional Chinese courtesy.

"Besides, you're now my customer," she added with a smile.

Zhou Xin didn't refuse any longer, chatted for a few more minutes, and then said goodbye.

The processing time was reduced from one and a half months to three days, and Zhou Xin felt that he had made the right choice in finding Zhang Jianing.

In this way, they will be able to fly to Australia in three days.

If all goes well, we should be able to start gold mining there in a week at most.

For the next three days, I could only stay in Miami and wait.

Let's call it a vacation after the last gold rush trip!

Of course, there is still a lot of preparation work to be done in these three days, such as understanding the local situation.

The laws and policies there, the transportation and geography, the lifestyle in the wild, etc., all need to be understood and familiarized with as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Edward had mentioned before that he had a friend in Perth, Western Australia, who could provide some assistance.

For this trip, Zhou Xin chose the town of Coolgadi in Western Australia as his destination.

Like Livinggood, Alaska, it is a historic gold mining town.

It is located in the wilderness of Western Australia and was a stopover for countless gold prospectors.

You can purchase and prepare living supplies there before driving deep into the wilderness to dig for gold.

Zhou Xin had already done some research on the local situation online beforehand.

Almost all the mining and leasing rights of the land there are firmly controlled by some locals.

Some of them would form their own gold mining teams to pan for gold, while others would rent out mining rights to other gold mining teams, collecting rent and taking a certain percentage of the gold mining team's harvest as commission.

In either case, it means that the land belongs to an owner, and outsiders are prohibited from panning for gold on their land.

Of course, given the vast area of ​​the land, even if the landowner patrols day and night, it is impossible to monitor every single place.

Therefore, many artisanal gold prospectors will still sneak into these lands to illegally mine gold.

However, if the landowner discovers this, at best all the harvest will be confiscated, and at worst, the landowner will be severely beaten and sent to the police station.

To avoid these problems, you either need to pay to rent a site or go further afield, deep into the wilderness, to one of the few unclaimed areas.