My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 80 Ghost Cover
Zhou Jingming returned to the dugout; it was still early.

He didn't sleep well last night and wanted to go to bed, but when he crawled into the dugout, he felt stuffy inside, so he had to crawl out again. By then, he could see a birch tree full of new green leaves and was sitting and resting.

He looked around but didn't see Wu Yang. He asked Peng Yuanchao, who was not far away, covering his head with his clothes to keep cool and engrossed in reading a book, "Brother Peng, do you know where Wu Yang went?"

Peng Yuanchao looked up at Zhou Jingming and said, "I just heard him say that he was going to take a bath in the river. Go to the riverbank and see if he's there!"

Zhou Jingming noticed that his face was flushed and found it strange: "Brother Peng, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No...no!"

Peng Yuanchao shook his head repeatedly.

Seeing that his gaze quickly fell back on the book in his hands, Zhou Jingming became even more puzzled: "Brother Peng, when did you learn to read? I remember you said you didn't know many characters, and you only knew simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and could barely do a few calculations!"

Peng Yuanchao retorted, "Who told you that you can't read just because you don't know many characters? A few characters are still characters, okay?"

Zhou Jingming got up and walked over, snatching the book from his hand. He found it was a comic book with a tattered cover and torn pages. Noticing the unusual style of the illustrations, he glanced at the text under the illustrations: "One day, while the mistress of the house was out, the wealthy man secretly took Jinlian as his concubine. From then on, the wealthy man developed four or five ailments. When the mistress of the house found out what had happened, she scolded the wealthy man for days and beat Jinlian mercilessly... Jinlian... damn it!"

He immediately realized what was happening and threw the comic book into Peng Yuanchao's arms.

"So that's what you were looking at! I didn't realize, Brother Peng. No wonder you looked so strange. I have to set up my tent tonight and stay inside. I need to stay away from you. Your dark and muscular body is too scary!"

Zhou Jingming trembled slightly and quickly took two steps back, as if trying to avoid him.

Peng Yuanchao felt like he couldn't clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River. Ever since he jokingly called Zhou Jingming a "dead devil," he found himself being dragged down a crooked path by Zhou Jingming.

His face twitched slightly: "These comic books were taken from Old Tang's camp. What's the big deal about reading these things? The others read them too!"

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "So, I'm giving you my dugout. You'd better learn from me and take good care of these guys. Without a mistress, you don't have to worry about being beaten up!"

"roll roll roll……"

Peng Yuanchao's face fell.

Zhou Jingming stopped teasing him and went to the riverbank to take a look. He saw that Wu Yang was indeed soaking in the shallow water of the river bend. Without soap, he grabbed the mud and sand in the river and rubbed it on his body.

Don't be fooled by his slim appearance when he's dressed; once he's naked and soaking in the water, his muscular physique is on full display. Even a simple movement he makes is like a taut steel rod, sharp and powerful, truly enviable.

If someone with such a physique were born forty years from now, they could easily attract the attention of many wealthy women who would compete to win them over at high prices.

Seeing Zhou Jingming arrive at the riverbank, Wu Yang asked, "Brother Zhou, is something the matter?"

"I just came down to take a look and wanted to ask you to help me cut some wooden poles to set up the three tents. Firstly, it's a bit stuffy in the dugout during the day, and it's uncomfortable to stay there. Secondly, we can't just cover the things we brought in with tarpaulins; we need to take good care of them."

In our team, only the two of us are not injured; it's not appropriate to rely on them!

"I'll be right there!"

Wu Yang submerged his head in the somewhat murky river water, rinsed himself a few times, stood up, shook his head, went ashore, put on his clothes and shoes, and followed Zhou Jingming.

The two men went to the edge of the dugout, found an axe, went into the woods behind the dugout, picked up birch trees as thick as their arms, chopped down several trees, cut off the branches and tips, and dragged the trunks back.

Seeing the two busy, Peng Yuanchao and the others who were still able to move felt it was inappropriate to be idle. Except for Sun Chenggui, who had a leg injury, and the Yuzhou man who had been hit on the shoulder and was a little weak in his hands, they all came to help.

It was just setting up three tents, not a difficult task. By late afternoon, the work was finished early, and all the supplies were moved into the tents and piled up.

Zhou Jingming plans to start living in a tent from tonight.

Nine people were crammed into a dugout of about ten square meters. The air was really stuffy. Even though it was warmer at night, he didn't want to stay there. The smell of stinky feet alone was enough to make him suffer.

Wu Yang was also sharing a tent with him.

As for Peng Yuanchao and the others, they were afraid of the cold at night and complained that the thick blankets were too heavy. They felt like they were carrying a mountain when they were supposed to be sleeping, which was too tiring. So they chose to live in dugouts because in May in Altay, there might be some light snow on cloudy days. They would move out when the weather got warmer.

After dinner, on his way back to the dugout, Peng Yuanchao threatened Zhou Jingming, "Be careful, a bear might come knocking tonight!"

"If there really were a bear, that would be great. Now I'd have a gun too!"

Zhou Jingming wasn't worried about this at all: "It's hard to say about you guys, especially you. If Ha Xiong goes into the dugout, your signature butt will probably be scratched to pieces."

The things we got from Lao Tang and his group included folding wire beds, tables, and quilts for more than twenty people, so we didn't have to worry about getting cold. The tent in the middle, once everything was arranged, finally looked like it, and it was much more spacious and comfortable to live in.

The next morning, Zhou Jingming was woken up early by Wu Yang to continue his training in the Black Dragon Eighteen Hands.

He didn't teach Zhou Jingming anything extra. In Wu Yang's view, what Zhou Jingming needed was to become as familiar as possible with these routines and movements. Moreover, Zhou Jingming's current training method was quite suitable. If the difficulty level increased, he wouldn't be able to perform them easily and would be more likely to get injured.

I plan to spar with Zhou Jingming again in a few days, and also teach him footwork in actual combat.

Because they were resting, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang didn't rush back to their tents. They sat idly in the fir forest for a while, smoked two cigarettes, and then got up to go back.

After walking down about twenty or thirty meters, Jinwang, who was jogging ahead and marking his path by urinating everywhere, suddenly stopped, turned to look at the woods on his left, and after looking around for a while, let out a fierce howl.

Is someone spying on us again? Or is someone eyeing the small peninsula?
The two were just out training and hadn't gone far; they weren't carrying any guns.

Realizing something might be amiss, the two quickly walked back in unison. Once inside the tent, they loaded their hunting rifles with bullets and carried them away. They then went to the dugout to greet Peng Yuanchao and the others who were still sleeping in before returning to the woods.

Before long, they saw people wandering in the woods.

The man looked rather immature, probably only fifteen or sixteen years old. He looked around the woods, glancing here and there, as if searching for something.

Jinwang's sudden bark startled the man. He looked up and saw Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang, who were carrying guns. He immediately froze, seemingly realizing something, and hurriedly explained, "I'm just here to pick mushrooms. I don't mean anything else. I'm panning for gold on the small peninsula up there!"

As he said this, he waved the cloth bag he was carrying.

Seeing that he wasn't carrying any weapons, Zhou Jingming slowly approached him, peered into his bag, and saw that it indeed contained some mushrooms. He said amicably, "This is around our camp. Don't wander around here unless it causes any misunderstandings."

The boy nodded repeatedly: "I understand... I understand, we've already handed over our heads. I just wandered off without realizing it, I wasn't paying attention, I'll go back right now!"

After he finished speaking, he turned and left.

Zhou Jingming looked at the campsite above, which was quiet, and then called him back: "Wait a minute... I remember you usually start work quite early. How come the weather is so nice today, and there's still no sign of anything? You even have time to pick mushrooms?"

The man stammered, appearing somewhat nervous.

Seeing his panic, Zhou Jingming smiled kindly: "Don't be afraid, I was just asking casually. If you don't want to say, that's fine. Let's go!"

Ultimately, he's still young and hasn't experienced much in life, so he's prone to panic when things happen.

In the Gold Rush Valley, many young children come out to pan for gold, but most of them are from the same village and are brought together by their fathers.

After watching him walk away, Wu Yang asked curiously, "The mushrooms in his bag look more and more like the kind that grows every year around latrines and rotten wood. Are these edible?"

“It’s edible!”

Zhou Jingming gave an affirmative answer: "When I was doing geological exploration before, I often traveled through the wilderness to conduct surveys. Once, I ate this kind of mushroom at a herdsman's house and asked him what it was called, but the herdsman's Mandarin was not very fluent, and I couldn't understand him very well either. Later, I asked other people, and there were many different names for it, such as ghost umbrella and ghost cover..."

This thing is everywhere, especially fond of growing on rotten tree stumps, and it easily grows on the dung of cattle and sheep when herders graze their livestock.

When they are young, they are grayish-white or grayish-pink. When they mature, they turn into black sap that drips down like ink. They grow in clumps, and when they all turn into sap, the whole area will be stained black, which looks quite disgusting.

To be honest, I remember the taste was pretty good, but the thought of the cap turning into juice really makes me not like it.

All I know is that this kind of mushroom is somewhat poisonous. It's okay to eat a small amount of the young ones, but those with black sap on the cap should not be eaten, especially not with alcohol.

Wu Yang was somewhat regretful: "They're all staying in the dugouts to recover from their injuries, taking a sip of wine every now and then. If anyone can't control themselves and gets sick from eating too much, it'll be troublesome... Let's just forget about it!"

Zhou Jingming asked with a smile, "Want to eat mushrooms?"

Wu Yang reached out and rubbed his chin, then picked out a piece of old mud and swatted it away: "Our lives are tough, the work is tiring, and the food is terrible. We're kind of thinking about changing things up."

Life in the Gold Rush Valley, that is, when construction started, we had a meal of smoked mutton that we brought into the mountains, and Zhou Jingming brought back beavers to eat. In the past two days, we cleared out Lao Tang's camp and got a lot of food. These two meals were not bad.

But life in the Gold Rush Valley doesn't allow for such good meals every day. Life in the valley is long, and they can't bear to eat meat even once every ten days or half a month.

Usually, the work is tiring, and the food is also very poor. There are no vegetables or meat, only white rice and dry bread. We drink a few sips of sour soup with a few drops of oil. When we are thirsty, we drink some water boiled with tea bricks. We sweat a lot while working, so we sprinkle some salt into the boiled tea to replenish our body water. It doesn't taste very good.

Because of the monotonous and malnutrition-laden diet, many people in the group developed mouth blisters and cracked nails.

Whether in western Hunan or Sichuan, people in the mountains eat mushrooms. When Wu Yang heard that mushrooms were available in the mountains at this time of year, he naturally thought about the delicious taste of mushrooms.

Zhou Jingming thought for a moment: "At this time of year, there should still be some edible mushrooms, and they're even better than the 'ghost mushroom'..."

"Go tell Peng Yuanchao to keep an eye on the camp. I'll take you to the nearby mountains to see if we can get any. I'm craving some too."

(End of this chapter)