My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 99 Coming for Revenge
Peng Yuanchao and the others slaughtered all five sheep, singed their hair as they did last time, and ate the mutton with the skin on.

The meat of Altay fat-tailed sheep is good, but the hide and fur are rough and not very useful.

No matter what, sheepskin is still meat, so I couldn't bear to peel it off and throw it away.

Zhou Jingming did not participate in it. He simply used the stones he had picked up to draw a long, narrow frame in the open space in front of the dugout, and then gathered some firewood to start a fire.

While the firewood was burning, he gathered some thin twigs, peeled and sharpened them, and prepared to use them to skewer the mutton.

Roasting lamb requires a lot of charcoal, so you have to rely on the firewood to burn the remaining charcoal. Otherwise, the smoke will be too much and the lamb will lose its original flavor.

As for the long frame made of stones, it was for the convenience of grilling lamb skewers.

When the lamb leg arrived, Zhou Jingming quickly cleaned it, then removed the meat, cut it into pieces, and skewered it.

This isn't a restaurant, so the lamb doesn't need to be cut so finely; he cut it into larger pieces.

It wasn't difficult for such a large group of people to handle five sheep, and Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun were assigned by Peng Yuanchao to help.

In a short time, they produced dozens of skewers of mutton and grilled them over a charcoal fire that was emitting a faint wisp of smoke.

Before long, oil dripped continuously from the mutton fat skewered inside, falling into the charcoal fire and making sizzling sounds, releasing a strong, charred aroma.

Zhou Jingming controlled the heat, turning the meat frequently, and taking the opportunity to sprinkle the usual salt, chili, and cumin on the pieces of mutton. The aroma immediately became stronger, attracting everyone to gather around the fire to watch, swallowing their saliva as the mutton gradually turned golden brown.

Just then, Old Liu emerged quietly from the woods, prompting Jin Wang to bark.

When Zhou Jingming turned around, he waved the gourd in his hand at Zhou Jingming.

"Sir, you've come at just the right time!"

Last time I came here, I ran into Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang cooking sauerkraut fish.

I came here just in time to eat lamb skewers.

Judging from the way Old Liu's nostrils were flaring, it wasn't hard to tell that he had already smelled the scent.

He moved closer to Zhou Jingming without any hesitation, leaned his hunting rifle against the birch root, squatted down by the fire, glanced at the mutton skewers, picked one for himself, tore off a piece of mutton and chewed it, and then handed his wine gourd to Wu Yang.

Wu Yang didn't rush to catch the gourd, but first glanced at Zhou Jingming.

After Zhou Jingming nodded, he took the gourd and went into the tent to fill it with wine.

When the gourd of wine arrived, he tied it around his waist, grinned at Zhou Jingming, and said, "This meat is roasted quite well, but meat alone isn't enough without wine. Pour me some more!"

This time, Zhou Jingming went to the tent himself and brought out the wine jug, along with some bowls: "Wu Yang, spread some branches and leaves on it!"

Wu Yang quickly got up, broke off some branches and leaves from the bushes not far away, spread them on the ground, and helped Zhou Jingming put down the bowl.

Zhou Jingming took a bowl and poured wine for Old Liu.

Old Liu took it, slurped it down, frowned as he swallowed, smacked his lips, tore off a piece of mutton and ate it: "It's so much more interesting here, you're willing to eat and drink freely, unlike us back home, so stingy!"

Wu Yang joked, "If you don't like it over there, come and join us! We'd absolutely welcome you!"

He probably knew what Zhou Jingming was thinking, and he genuinely thought Old Man Liu was amazing.

"Fine, anyway, that Zhang guy thinks I'm too old, not as efficient as the younger ones, and he likes to drink... When he wants to eat meat, he only knows how to order me around. When it came time to distribute the gold, I already got less than everyone else, and he kept holding onto it. I couldn't stand it anymore."

Look, he's sending me to hunt deer again, saying that the antlers are ready to be harvested now and he wants a pair.

He acted as if livestock were everywhere in the mountains, and after I went out for two days and didn't even see a single deer, he came back and started teasing me: "Weren't you supposed to be a great hunter? All you're good for is eating!"

Old Liu took another sip of wine, his dark cheeks quickly turning a deep red. He became serious and said, "If you really want me, I won't go back today. I have no other requests. Just make sure you supply me enough wine, and give me some wages at the end of the year."

For a moment, Wu Yang didn't know how to answer.

Zhou Jingming certainly hoped that Old Man Liu could come over. Such a good hunter with such excellent marksmanship would be very useful to him. He had always intended to win him over, so he would readily give him some wine every time Old Man Liu came to ask for some.

But things can't be done unfairly. After all, these are people from someone else's team. If they really come over, it would be like poaching someone else's talent, and it would probably cause some conflicts between the two teams.

"Grandpa, Wu Yang was just joking with you. It's not appropriate to do this. Don't take it seriously. If you really like me, I'll form a team next year. If you still want to come panning for gold, we can talk again if fate allows."

Zhou Jingming spoke very sincerely.

If what Old Liu said is true, then the foreman surnamed Zhang on the small peninsula upstream is quite ruthless. He already received less than others, and he kept suppressing them, which is a bit like bullying the old man.

But then Old Liu sighed and nodded slightly.

“Uncle, logically speaking, with your hunting skills, and in a place like the Qinling Mountains where there are plenty of wild animals, and hunting is allowed without restrictions on guns, and furs are valuable these days, as long as you go into the mountains more often and collect some herbs, your family should be doing quite well. There is absolutely no need to come to such a complicated place as the Northwest to cause trouble.”

Zhou Jingming was actually quite puzzled, so he asked, "What are you thinking?"

"Things were going quite well, but..."

Old Liu only spoke half a sentence before suddenly falling silent. Seeing his expression turn somber, Zhou Jingming guessed that he might have some unresolved issues and didn't want to elaborate, so he didn't press him.

The lamb skewers were almost done grilling. He called out to Peng Yuanchao and the others, and the group, who hadn't yet finished preparing the lamb, dropped what they were doing and gathered around. They each grabbed a bowl, poured themselves a few sips of wine, and busied themselves getting the lamb skewers.

Chefs often have this feeling: the food they make looks very appetizing, but after serving all the guests, when it's time for themselves to eat it, they have no appetite at all.

To sum it up in one sentence: I've had my fill of just smelling it!
Zhou Jingming didn't feel that he had spent money to buy sheep and then had to grill skewers of mutton and feed them to them.

He placed the skewered but ungrilled lamb skewers aside, letting them grill them themselves. He poured himself some wine and ate and drank by himself, only casually putting a few more skewers on the fire to grill, turning them occasionally.

Old Liu remained silent, silently finishing several skewers of mutton. He then casually slipped something into Zhou Jingming's coat pocket, took another skewer of mutton, stood up, picked up his hunting rifle, and returned to their own mining site.

Zhou Jingming reached into his pocket and found a small, heavy object about the size of a corn kernel. He knew immediately that it was a gold bean, weighing about two grams.

He was puzzled, feeling that Old Liu was acting strangely and seemed to be hiding a lot of thoughts.

After eating and drinking his fill, Zhou Jingming fed Jinwang and then went to sleep under a birch tree. As for preparing the mutton and smoking it, he left that entirely to Peng Yuanchao and the others.

For the next ten days or so, Old Liu didn't come again, as if a rift had suddenly formed between them.

Zhou Jingming would only occasionally glance at Zhang Batou's camp while working on the small peninsula.

Most of the time, I saw Old Liu working at their mine, mostly transporting materials. Occasionally, I would see him carrying a hunting rifle into the mountains. Once, he shot a deer, and a group of people went to carry it. Foreman Zhang even specially delivered more than ten kilograms of it.

Three days later, in the morning, Zhou Jingming and the others were working on the small peninsula when they suddenly heard a commotion coming from the small peninsula where Zhang, the foreman, was located.

No one knows what happened, but Zhang and Liu started arguing and had a fierce argument.

The crowd listened for a while and vaguely understood what was going on: Old Man Liu was forcing Zhang, the foreman, to hand over the gold he was entitled to since he came into the mountains.

One wants it, the other absolutely refuses to give it to them.

A group of people tried to persuade him for a long time, but it had no effect whatsoever.

In the end, the commotion subsided when Old Liu ran back to his dugout, retrieved his hunting rifle, fired a shot into the air, and then pressed the barrel directly against Zhang's chest.

It seems that Zhang went back to the dugout, took out some gold, and gave it to Old Man Liu.

Not long after, Zhou Jingming and the others saw Old Man Liu carrying his luggage and a hunting rifle, heading out of the valley alone.

Perhaps because he was in a bad mood, Zhang, the foreman, brought over a bottle of wine soaked in deer blood that evening and asked Peng Yuanchao and Zhou Jingming to drink with him.

Zhou Jingming casually asked, "Why did Old Man Liu leave?"

"He went to find someone!"

Zhang gave a wry smile: "Actually, I knew he insisted on coming here to pan for gold because of his son."

Peng Yuanchao asked curiously, "What exactly happened?"

"Old Liu's son was also a gold prospector. He was one of the first people from our area to come out and pan for gold, even earlier than me. At first, he came with a few other people from the town."

As you all know, Old Liu is a good shot and a skilled hunter. His family is actually quite well-off; they built a large brick house even before the land was allocated to individual households.

His wife was unlucky. The year the house was built, a flood came from the mountains. She was swept away by the flood when she went out to gather pig feed, and her body was never found.

The eldest son was a good-for-nothing who hung out with some hooligans and developed a gambling addiction. A lot of the money that Old Liu had saved from hunting was stolen. In the end, he directly demanded the money back, and if he didn't get it, he would smash up the house, turning a peaceful home into a mess. He also owed a lot of money to people, and when he couldn't pay it back, he ran away and no one knew where he went.

Debtors came to his door every few days, demanding that Old Man Liu repay his debts. They would throw excrement at his window and bang on his door in the middle of the night. To have some peace, he had no choice but to give away everything he could to pay off the debts. The family that had just been built up and was the envy of so many people collapsed.

His youngest son was of marriageable age but had no money, so he came to Altay with others to pan for gold. He made some gold in the first year, but when he came back the second year, he never went back.

According to those in the know, he was killed when someone tried to steal his gold.

He was the only one left in the family.

When Zhang, the foreman, said these words, he shook his head repeatedly.

After taking a sip of wine, he continued, "Actually, when he came to me and pestered me to come and pan for gold, I knew his purpose was to avenge his youngest son."

I heard some things. The person who killed his youngest son was also from our area. He'd been hanging around Altay for a while, and supposedly made a fortune there, even becoming a wealthy businessman. He'd been investigating for quite some time, so he must know something!
He's been inseparable from alcohol all these years, and I'm afraid he'll get problems from drinking, so I don't give him any.

I've been holding back his gold because I don't want him to go looking for enemies with the money... He's getting old, and I'm worried he might die.

In the end, I still couldn't stop them; the gun was pointed at my chest!
I wonder if he'll ever be able to return to his hometown after he leaves.

These words were completely unexpected by Zhou Jingming.

He hadn't expected there to be so much going on. Judging from Zhang's equally somber expression, he figured it was probably true.

Zhou Jingming found himself unable to say anything, but he simply picked up the bowl of slightly reddish wine and toasted Zhang Batou.

(End of this chapter)