My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 261 Brother Zhou Didn't Come Out

Zhou Jingming turned around and shone his flashlight. Sure enough, he saw a large, furry thing lying at the entrance of the fork in the tunnel. What else could it be but a bear?

Even when it's curled up and lying down asleep, its body is nearly two meters long, and it must weigh at least eight or nine hundred pounds.

Startled, the bear, its eyes still half-closed, slowly raised its head, a sight that sent chills down one's spine.

The mine is cramped; if someone charges at you, there's nowhere to hide.

The key point is that we're going into the mine to mine, so it's impossible to bring firearms in.

Who would have thought that after just four days away from the mine, a bear would appear inside?

Several snowfalls have occurred outside, and it's indeed time for bears to find burrows to hibernate. Especially after the heavy snow a couple of days ago, the temperature dropped sharply. It's likely that this bear couldn't find a suitable burrow yet, which is why it chose to burrow into the mine...

"throat……"

The sudden roar of the bear startled Zhou Jingming from his shock.

Seeing that it had already gotten up, Zhou Jingming shouted, "Run!"

The people following behind immediately realized what was happening and turned around to run back.

Just then, the bear suddenly pounced out of the side cave.

Following closely behind Zhou Jingming was Bai Zhishun, who also wanted to run back, but was blocked by the pounced bear.

Just as he was at a loss, Zhou Jingming grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back, barely avoiding the bear's attack.

Fortunately, they had only entered the mine about 20 meters in, and there were still many branch tunnels inside, so it wasn't a complete dead end.

Zhou Jingming and Bai Zhishun could no longer leave the cave, so they had to turn around and run deeper into the mine.

The bear pounced out, then paused for a moment.

Peng Yuanchao and the others ran out, making a bigger commotion. It chased after them for a few steps, then stopped and turned back to chase after Zhou Jingming and Bai Zhishun, who were running wildly into the mine.

In his panic, Zhou Jingming glanced back and saw Ha Xiong chasing after them. He couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, Shunzi, don't turn around, they're coming after us!"

Bai Zhishun, having been pulled behind him earlier, was now in front. Urged on by him, he ran wildly into the cave. Despite his hunched back, he ran quite fast and didn't cause any congestion for Zhou Jingming.

Even if Ha Xiong is fast, he can't catch up with the two of them in a short time.

It was unclear whether the bear had just woken up from its slumber and was not moving as nimbly, or whether it was because it was in a mine and dared not venture too deep. The bear chased after the bear with some hesitation and was not as fast as expected.

The two, who were only focused on rushing into the mine, soon arrived at the place where the upper and lower passages of the mine were separated.

Seeing Ha Xiong still closely following behind, Zhou Jingming had a flash of inspiration when he saw the wooden ladder leading to the upper mine: "Shunzai, let's go up to the upper mine."

If we can climb up and remove the wooden ladder, it will be much safer for this bear, which is only two or three meters high.

If we continue running down into the lower levels of the mine, we could end up getting blocked by the bears in any of the branch tunnels. That would be the most desperate situation.

Zhou Jingming is now extremely grateful that this mine has two levels.

Bai Zhishun moved nimbly. He had been going in and out of the mine many times in recent days, going up and down the wooden ladder quite often, and he was already quite skilled at it. He stepped on the gaps cut into the rough wood for footholds and climbed up in a few steps.

But climbing a wooden ladder is still climbing a ladder. No matter how nimble you are, it can't compare to running. Zhou Jingming was immediately blocked.

The increasingly enraged bear refused to let him go and immediately charged at Zhou Jingming at an even faster speed.

He didn't care about anything else at that moment; all he was thinking about was climbing the wooden ladder.

Who knew that as soon as he reached out and touched the stone on the upper level that he often used to cling to, he felt a sharp pain in his thigh and was pulled away by a tremendous force, causing him to lose his footing.

That was a claw from a bear, its sharp, curved claw piercing through his cotton trousers and tearing them.

Just as the thought "It's over" popped into his mind, he suddenly felt his collar tighten. Looking up, he saw Bai Zhishun clinging to the upper mine shaft, his left hand bracing against the rocks in the shaft, his right hand gripping his collar, managing to keep him from falling. Seeing this, Zhou Jingming quickly grabbed onto the wooden ladder he had touched to steady himself.

In a hurried turn, he saw the bear-man stand up, its front paws resting on the wooden ladder, its mouth opening to bite his calf.

In desperation, Zhou Jingming kicked the bear's outstretched head.

He didn't know which part of the bear he had stepped on, but when Bai Zhishun dragged him to the upper level, he saw the bear with its front paws on the ground, letting out a series of chilling roars, and occasionally raising its paws to scratch its nose.

The reason he could see it was because he had just lost his footing and almost fell. Bai Zhishun grabbed him and, while he was busy grabbing the wooden ladder, his flashlight fell to the ground, which was where he could see it.

Judging from Ha Xiong's expression, Zhou Jingming could tell that he must have kicked Ha Xiong in the nose.

That's a bear's weak point. Just like a person, if you get punched in the nose, it will be extremely painful and enough to stun someone.

The bear is no exception.

Zhou Jingming had heard about this from hunters in the Great Northern Wilderness when he was there.

It was a lucky accident.

If it weren't for that kick, he might have been bitten and torn off by the bear, and the only consequence would have been death.

He struggled to lift the wooden ladder that was placed at the upper entrance, and after confirming that it would be difficult for Ha Xiong to climb up, he noticed the pain in his right leg. He hurriedly took the flashlight from Bai Zhishun's hand and shone it on his leg, tilting his head to look. He saw that there were only two scars, one deep and one shallow, on his leg.

The shallow cut only broke the skin, while the deep cut tore the flesh raw.

However, he tried to move around and found that he hadn't broken any bones or muscles; it was just a superficial injury.

Fortunately, it was cold and he was wearing thick clothes. If he had been wearing thinner clothes, Zhou Jingming had every reason to believe that a large chunk of flesh would have been torn off his leg in that one blow.

Anyway, we're safe for now.

Looking at the wound that was quickly soaked in blood, Zhou Jingming disregarded everything else, grabbed a handful of dirt from the side with his flashlight, and pressed it directly onto the wound to stop the bleeding.

"Shunzi, thank you so much! If it weren't for you, I would probably be bitten to death by that bear by now!"

Zhou Jingming, panting heavily, said, "I knew you were strong, but I didn't expect you to be strong enough to lift me up with one hand."

"Brother Zhou, you're the one who saved me. If you hadn't pulled me up when I ran into Ha Xiong, I would have been pounced on by him. The fortune teller was right, you really are my benefactor."

"You are my benefactor!"

Looking back on his past life, Zhou Jingming now truly believes: "No, we are brothers, brothers who will live and die together."

Bai Zhishun forced a smile, nodded slightly, and then looked down at Ha Xiong with lingering fear: "Brother Zhou, what should we do?"

"Don't be afraid now. The bear can't come up. Even if it tries, we can knock it down with stones. Then we just wait here. I believe it won't be long before Wu Yang, Grandpa Liu, and the others come to rescue us with guns. We just need to kill it..."

Zhou Jingming finally calmed down, and his extremely tense emotions relaxed a little.

"I'll go find some rocks. If it dares to climb up, I'll throw rocks at it!"

Bai Zhishun took the flashlight and went into the mine tunnel to move stones.

These things, though they take a long time to explain, actually only take seven or eight seconds.

Wu Yang and the others rushed out of the cave. Old Liu, who was collecting dry grass to start a fire on a pile of ore waste not far away, looked up when he saw a group of people rushing out in a panic. He always guarded the mine from the outside, in case of any possible situation.

Seeing them running away into the distance, he called out, "What happened?"

"There are bears in the mine!"

Wu Yang answered him, but when he turned around, he didn't see Zhou Jingming: "Brother Zhou didn't come out!"

(End of this chapter)