My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 49 I Can Predict the Future
Unlike last night, when Zhou Jingming returned to the dugout, no one was asleep; they were probably all thinking about how to hide the gold.

Since he had already hidden his own, Zhou Jingming briefly chatted with Peng Yuanchao about what he needed to do tomorrow, and then climbed into his own bed and lay down.

Not long after, Wu Yang returned to the dugout and lay down to sleep next to Zhou Jingming.

They worked during the day and trained at night, and both were exhausted. They fell asleep quickly.

The others, on the other hand, kept popping out of their dugouts and coming back in, making a rustling noise. It was unclear when they finally settled down.

The next day, just as the first faint light of dawn appeared on the horizon, Zhou Jingming was shaken awake by Wu Yang, who knew that Wu Yang was going out for training.

He admired Wu Yang from the bottom of his heart, wondering how he managed to wake up on time every morning and convince himself to get out of bed in such a painful state.

Is it the self-discipline developed during life in the Armed Police Force?

His stiff body ached intensely with the slightest movement, making Zhou Jingming's brain tremble, but also instantly clearing his head.

To be honest, he really didn't want to get up; he just wanted to stay wrapped in his blankets and lie motionless on the earthen bed.

But then he remembered what he had said when he woke people up yesterday morning, and his face flushed. He struggled to get up and followed Wu Yang into the woods behind the house.

Jinwang, who was curled up and lying down next to the dugout, also stood up, stretched his hind legs and yawned, and jogged to the front of the two.

Zhou Jingming didn't learn anything new this morning; he practiced the same two routines he learned yesterday.

Surprisingly, after gritting my teeth and persevering through those training sessions, my body warmed up and I felt less uncomfortable.

He just felt very hungry.

After finishing their training, the two looked around and came down from the mountains.

Zhou Jingming remembered something and said to Wu Yang, "Brother, I forgot to tell you yesterday, if you're not in a hurry to use the money, I suggest you save the gold you find and don't rush to sell it for money."

Wu Yang asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why?"

"The price of gold is too low now, it's not worth it. In the future, the price of gold will rise higher and higher, year by year, and it will double in just over a year."

In Zhou Jingming's memory, as the reform and opening up deepened, the value of gold, a hard currency, continued to rise.

The bank's purchase price was only sixteen yuan per gram at the time. In 1985, it was adjusted to around twenty-two yuan. In the second half of the year, it was adjusted to more than twenty-eight yuan. By the end of 1986, it had risen to more than thirty-two yuan.

It will increase every one or two years thereafter.

Prices are rising year by year, so it's not worth it to immediately convert them into cash. It's better to keep them for now, at least to preserve their value.

Wu Yang seemed completely unsurprised, as if he had heard something completely ordinary: "Hmm... okay, I'll listen to Brother Zhou!"

Zhou Jingming was stunned for a moment. The normal reaction should have been: "Ah, how did you know?"

Zhou Jingming jokingly asked, "Aren't you going to ask me why I'm so sure the price of gold will go up?"

Wu Yang paused, then stopped in his tracks: "Uh...why?"

Zhou Jingming couldn't help but laugh: "Do you believe I can predict the future?"

He had expected Wu Yang's reaction to be stronger this time, but to his surprise, after looking at him for a few seconds, Wu Yang said very solemnly, "I believe you!"

This answer immediately made Zhou Jingming feel like he had punched a cotton ball; it felt soft and uninteresting.

He sighed and didn't say anything more.

As they passed through the birch forest where they landed on the hillside, Jinwang, who was running ahead, suddenly stopped, raised his head, and stared motionlessly at the riverbank upstream.

This reaction, unlike his previous ones, made Zhou Jingming realize that Jin Wang must have discovered something.

Wu Yang also noticed Jin Wang's unusual behavior and immediately stopped and looked in the direction Jin Wang was looking.

However, after watching for a while, neither of them noticed anything unusual.

The key point is that although the birch trees in this area are sparse, there are many bushes and weeds in the forest, so he can't see them.

Jin Wang ran about ten meters away in that direction, holding one front foot up, staring motionless at the diagonal downwards, as if frozen in place.

Normally, if Jinwang discovers a stranger, it will bark and howl fiercely. If it is quiet and doesn't bark at all, then it must have discovered some kind of animal.

Is it a bear or a wolf?
In northern Xinjiang, the two animals are the main things that Zhou Jingming worries about.

As the weather warms and the snow melts, hibernating bears should be emerging from their enclosures. Wolves, too, will choose to sneak out of populated areas in search of food.

There's an old saying that wolves travel thousands of miles to eat meat, but that's actually incorrect.

When Zhou Jingming was in the Great Northern Wilderness, he also saw wolves eating feces around the team headquarters.

His worries actually stemmed more from the fact that he was unarmed at the moment.

But then he thought, if there really was wild game, that would be a meal! Jin Wang was so calm and didn't even make a sound, so it was unlikely to be a big one.

He became subtly excited again, secretly hoping that the wild creature would be bigger.

During the two years I spent as an educated youth in the Great Northern Wilderness, the conditions at the team headquarters were poor, with a lack of food and drink, especially meat. As a result, the team headquarters specially hired two gunners to be responsible for scavenging meat.

At first, Zhou Jingming was attracted by the exciting stories of hunters outwitting and outmaneuvering wild animals. Later, he was drawn to hunting because of the cold weather and simply wanted to get a nice and warm hat. He hoped every day that he could catch a gibbon or a fox.

This is a thrilling game for men, and it's actually hard not to love it.

In the undeveloped meadows of the Great Northern Wilderness, there was a paradise for wild animals and a haven for birds. Seeing the wild animals that appeared from time to time and the flocks of waterbirds flying all over the sky, most of the educated youth found it hard to suppress their desire to hunt and would try their hand at it whenever they had the chance.

At that time, Zhou Jingming was young and active, and naturally spent his free time doing a lot of things.

From the gunners, the educated youth could always learn some experience and skills.

Later, when he went abroad to seek his fortune, where there were no gun or hunting bans, he often used these methods to pass the time.

He was quite familiar with hunting.

“There might be some animal hiding there, brother. You go back to the dugout and borrow a gun from Peng Yuanchao. I'll keep an eye on things here. If there really is some wild animal, we can shoot it down and improve our meals!”

He lowered his voice and said something to Wu Yang.

Wu Yang's eyes also gleamed, and he crouched down, nimbly descending into the dugout.

A few minutes later, he returned to Zhou Jingming's side with a double-barreled shotgun and asked in a low voice, "Are you still there?"

"Jin Wang is still keeping an eye on things, he should still be there!"

Zhou Jingming glanced at Wu Yang and the hunting rifle he was carrying, and noticed that he was also carrying a long-handled axe used for chopping wood: "How's your marksmanship?"

"You've trained a lot, not bad!"

"Then let's sneak over there quietly, and you take the hits..."

"this is for you!"

Wu Yang handed the axe to Zhou Jingming.

Wu Yang's considerations were even more thorough than Zhou Jingming's. Knowing that Zhou Jingming was unarmed, he thought of bringing an axe that was more suitable for dealing with wild animals.

As Zhou Jingming took the axe, he couldn't help but recall the scene on the bus when he and Wu Yang dealt with the robbers. At that time, he looked silly, but who would have thought that it was just a disguise for his sudden attack, a deliberate act of confidence.

This lean young man has always been very meticulous.

He reached out and scratched Jin Wang's neck, then, carrying the axe, crouched down and carefully parted the withered grass and bushes, moving towards the direction Jin Wang was paying attention to.

Wu Yang, holding his gun in both hands, followed beside him.

The closer they got, the more restless Jin Wang became, wanting to pounce on them immediately, but Zhou Jingming grabbed him by the fur around his neck and held him back.

After walking about thirty or forty meters, a strange sound came from between a few birch trees diagonally below: "Squeak, creak, sizzle..."

The sound was like sawing wood, but much quieter and less continuous than the sound of actually sawing wood.

Zhou Jingming squatted down and examined the birch trees for a while, then stood up to look at them more closely, but still couldn't figure out what they were.

If it were a bear or a wolf, with such a large body, it should have been spotted much earlier.

Wu Yang whispered, "What I'm hearing sounds like mice gnawing on a cabinet? Crunch, crunch."

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "It can't be a rat. We're still twenty or thirty meters away from those birch trees. If it were a rat, it wouldn't make such a loud noise."

Wu Yang frowned: "What could it be?"

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(End of this chapter)