My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 5 Warm Winter
In the Sichuan and Chongqing region, sweet potatoes are called "hongshao". Every person from Sichuan and Chongqing who has experienced historical difficulties probably has a unique history about hardship, livelihood and delicious sweet potatoes, which can be described as a mixture of love and hate, and entanglement of gratitude and resentment.

Zhou Jingming was no exception.

In Sichuan, sweet potatoes are a high-yield crop, with a yield of three to four thousand catties per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.067 hectares), and were once the top choice for famine relief food.

Back then, the countryside suffered from spring and summer famines almost every year, lasting about twenty days. The food consisted almost entirely of dried sweet potatoes ground into powder and mixed with seasonal wild vegetables to make a vegetable paste.

These dried sweet potatoes, because they weren't peeled or had rotten scars and insect holes carefully removed during the slicing and drying process, all have a slightly bitter taste.

However, when you're in a famine, it's good enough to have something to eat; who would complain about the bitterness?

In Zhou Jingming's memory, back then, not only did they eat sweet potato porridge during the day, but they also ate boiled sweet potato slices soup for dinner, without adding cornmeal. They would also eat it with pickled cabbage, which caused heartburn and frequent acid reflux.

Shen Fengqin would also get some sweet potato vines, wash them clean, blanch them in boiling water, take them out and chop them finely, then stir-fry them with pickled cabbage, pickled chili peppers and pickled ginger that were stir-fried in rapeseed oil to make a side dish with rice.

Such sweet potato vines, even if you eat half a bowl at a time, have very little oil and water. Less than an hour after eating them, you will feel bloated and have watery mouth.

When Zhou Jingming was young, he was so afraid of eating sweet potatoes that for a long time he would get a headache whenever he saw them. But as he got older, he was able to think about them peacefully.

He had bought sweet potatoes from a street vendor selling roasted sweet potatoes on the side of Chuncheng Street, but he could no longer find the taste he remembered, and he was also cheated.

He casually asked the vendor selling roasted sweet potatoes, "How much?"

The stall owner replied, "Eight yuan!"

I thought it would be eight yuan per jin (500g), but after weighing it, I took it in my hand, broke it open, and started eating it. I was told it was eight yuan per liang (50g), and one sweet potato cost more than forty yuan!

It was only forty yuan, nothing to Zhou Jingming's wealth at the time, but the feeling of being cheated made the sweet potato taste even more bitter. He took two bites and threw it away.

Now, I finally have the chance to have a proper taste again.

Holding the roasted sweet potato freshly dug from the ashes of the stove in my hands, I kept switching it back and forth between my left and right hands, blowing on it and patting it. Taking a bite of the golden, perfectly cooked sweet potato, a unique sweet aroma rushed straight to my nose, instantly permeating my entire body and sweetening my internal organs.

Zhou Jingming finally felt a sense of peace and security as his soul and body merged.

When their son returns home, the parents will naturally do their best to prepare a good meal.

Shen Fengqin took out the little rice she had stored at home, cooked it in a pot, steamed it in a bamboo steamer, and then busied herself picking vegetables from her private plot of land not far from the house.

Zhou Detong was busy taking a piece of cured meat that he usually couldn't bear to eat and that had been hanging on the stove, blackened by smoke and fire. He poured hot water on it to wash it and prepared to stir-fry it into a big bowl.

As dusk approached, the aroma of freshly picked vegetables and cured meat simmered in the pot, mingling with the scent of firewood, filling the air between the beams and pillars of the old house.

That night, the father and son drank quite a bit and got a little drunk. The three of them chatted until very late. Zhou Jingming asked his parents about their health and listened to them talk about the everyday things in the village, while his parents asked him about his work.

They didn't understand the work-related matters, so Zhou Jingming told them that the work was going smoothly and didn't ask any more questions.

However, the topic quickly shifted back to Zhou Jingming's marriage.

"Is there a girl you like...?"

“You’re already twenty-six years old, you can’t delay any longer. Look at the village, people your age already have kids who can run errands.”

"Do you like the girl from Uncle Wang's family in the village?"

"There's a pretty girl named Xiaoyu on your grandma's side..."

Zhou Jingming listened silently, smiling slightly, neither nodding nor shaking his head, until his parents had lost interest in talking. Only then did he explain, "I've told you about my work. I'm usually in the Gobi Desert and those desolate, uninhabited places. I only have time to come back when the year is almost over and the wind and snow are too heavy to work."

Mom and Dad, don't worry. Let me work harder and get a job in an office so I don't have to go out into the wilderness every day before I consider it. I can't hold them back.

Besides, I have a job, so finding a wife isn't difficult. Don't worry about it.

"I know what I'm doing. When it's time to get married, I'll definitely bring you back a beautiful, generous, hardworking, and filial daughter." He knew how dangerous the path of gold rush he was about to take was, and that it wasn't something a woman should get involved in. Thinking about this now would only harm himself and others.

Perhaps, like in my past life, I'll find someone when I'm rich.

But Zhou Jingming hesitated.

In his past life, he never saw his parents again and wandered the world alone, without any ties or romantic feelings. He could easily buy and sell women with money. But now... it seems that it's only right to marry a woman and help take care of his parents. He can no longer be a "wandering rogue" like in his past life.

However, after much thought, rushing into a blind date and marrying someone casually is not what I truly desire, so I decisively abandoned the idea.

My parents are only forty-seven or forty-eight years old; they have a long future ahead of them.

Shen Fengqin took a break, grabbed some bedding, and went upstairs to make the bed.

When Zhou Jingming went upstairs to go to sleep, he saw that two brand-new mattresses had been put on the bed, and the quilt he was covered with was also new and very thick.

A hand warmer was thoughtfully placed in front of the bed, and under the covers there were two glucose injection bottles filled with hot water, making the blankets warm and cozy.

In an instant, Zhou Jingming felt that the old, drafty room with its wooden walls was warm, and that the whole cold winter was warm as well.

That night, he slept soundly. When he woke up, it was bright outside, and he heard the sounds of chopping and hacking coming from downstairs, as well as the voices of young men and women talking.

Zhou Jingming hurriedly got up, changed out of the clothes he had left at home, and trudged down the creaking stairs to the main room. He saw his younger sister Zhou Xingyao and brother-in-law Liu Jianfeng helping him outside.

"Brother, you can really sleep! If it were sunny, the sun would be high in the sky by now!"

Zhou Xingyao was plucking the feathers of a slaughtered hen when she heard Zhou Jingming coming downstairs. She turned around and grinned at him.

"It wasn't easy to come back. I've been traveling for several days and haven't had a proper night's sleep. Once I got home, I slept soundly and didn't want to wake up!"

Zhou Jingming rubbed his sleepy eyes and casually scratched his hair with his five-finger rake: "Sister, brother-in-law, when did you get here?"

"Mom came to our house early this morning to say you were back. We only get to see each other these few days all year round. Anyway, there's nothing much going on at home right now, and we don't live far apart, so of course we had to come over and have a good get-together!"

Zhou Xingyao is articulate and a person who dares to speak and act.

Brother-in-law Liu Jianfeng was an honest and simple farmer with a somewhat introverted personality. He wasn't good with words and would just smile at Zhou Jingming from time to time before busying himself with washing and scraping the pork knuckle he was preparing to stew.

Zhou Xingyao got married the year before last. She married someone from the next village. The couple were classmates in elementary school. In terms of personality, one is strong-willed and the other is gentle. Their life wasn't particularly good, but they managed to make their little family quite happy amidst their playful interactions.

Zhou Jingming works away from home, so most of the time the young couple helps take care of their parents. If there's something good to eat or drink, they either bring their parents over or simply cook it and deliver it to them.

They also helped a lot with the farm work.

In his previous life, when Zhou Jingming returned home after being released from the labor camp, the young couple arranged for him to step over a fire basin, change into new clothes to ward off bad luck, and gave him a lot of help. The money he spent on panning for gold in northern Xinjiang was raised by them.

Zhou Jingming is truly devoted to his younger sister and brother-in-law.

Of course, he made money in his past life and also helped others financially.

However, given Liu Jianfeng's personality, he was not suited for the gold rush world.

The same is true now; the gold rush environment today is far more brutal than it will be five years from now.

As long as things were peaceful and harmonious and they weren't disturbed, Zhou Jingming felt that was good enough.

He knew very well that once he set off for the northern frontier, this place would be the last pure land in his heart.

(End of this chapter)