Alaska Gold Rush Diary

After resting for a while, Zhou Xin began preparing lunch.

He was a bit lazy today and didn't want to cook anything too complicated, so he simply cooked two packets of Shin Ramyun.

Unlike Chinese people, Americans prefer canned food to instant noodles.

So Edward took matters into his own hands, opened a can of chickpeas, heated it in the microwave, and solved his lunch problem.

After lunch, Zhou Xin played on his phone for a while before lying down on the moon chair for a nap, preparing himself for the afternoon's work.

While I was half asleep, I suddenly heard Edward scream in terror.

"Snake! There's a snake!"

Zhou Xin jumped to his feet and saw Edward staring in horror at a rock in front of the camp.

Yesterday, in order to gather materials for setting up camp and for safety reasons, the two cleared away the bushes around the camp and carefully sprinkled snake repellent powder around the perimeter.

However, because it was so late yesterday, the area they cleaned was not very large.

At this moment, under a large rock just outside the edge of the snake repellent powder, a large snake, as thick as a wrist, was coiled up.

Edward, having been bitten by a snake once before, was now pale with fright.

But Zhou Xin breathed a slight sigh of relief after seeing the snake's size clearly.

He recognized the snake; it was a carpet python, known for its gentle nature and non-venomous nature. Many people keep this snake as a pet.

"It's alright, this kind of snake isn't poisonous and usually won't bite people on its own."

But Edward clearly still has strong psychological trauma; the fear on his face has not yet dissipated.

Zhou Xin was thinking about how to drive the snake away. Although it was not poisonous, humans still have an innate fear of snakes, and letting it stay next to the camp was indeed quite frightening.

Just then, Logan stepped in again and solved his problem.

It became more experienced, biting the snake's neck while pressing down on the snake's body with its front paws, then tilting its head upwards to straighten the snake's upper body.

The snake tried desperately to coil its body around Logan. Although its coiling strength was no less than Logan's, its neck was bitten, and most of its strength was dissipated, so it failed to successfully coil around Logan.

The wolf and the snake remained locked in a stalemate for quite some time before the snake's body finally began to soften.

Logan then released his grip, snake still in his mouth, and ran excitedly towards the camp.

Edward's expression changed drastically, and he instinctively stepped back.

If he were Chinese, the classic meme of Bu Jingyun would definitely pop into his mind right now.

Don't come any closer!

"It's alright, it seems to be dying." Zhou Xin patted him on the shoulder and walked towards Logan.

Logan walked up to his master, dropped the still slightly wriggling snake, and a smug look appeared on his face.

Zhou Xin patted Logan on the head and praised him, "Well done, looks like we can have an extra meal tonight."

"What did you say?!" Edward's face was filled with shock and confusion.

Zhou Xin grinned mischievously, "In our country, snake meat is a fantastic food. Men who eat it can become incredibly virile on enchanting nights."

He didn't know how to describe a "great tonic" in English, so he used a similar and easily understood indirect translation.

Actually, Zhou Xin couldn't accept eating snake meat before, but later he fell in love with the outdoors and often saw the experiences of various masters eating snakes in survival shows, and gradually he overcame his psychological barrier.

When you're starving, you don't care if it's snake meat or rat meat; anything that can fill your stomach is good meat.

Snake meat is all muscle, and it actually tastes very good. It tastes like an upgraded version of chicken, firmer and not dry.

"Take it away, throw it far away! Even if eating it can keep me going for two hours, I won't eat it!" Edward shouted hoarsely.

"Haha, they bit you, are you really not going to bite back?" Zhou Xin joked.

"No, I choose to forgive them." Edward had already retreated to the edge of the greenhouse.

Zhou Xin stopped teasing him, tied the dead snake's head with a rope, and walked to a tree far from the camp.

He hung the snake on a tree and began to skin it, gut it, and remove its head.

He then scooped up some water and carefully washed the snake meat clean.

After tidying it up, what appeared in his hand was a long, snow-white piece of snake meat.

"Look, it's actually just a piece of high-protein meat." Zhou Xin showed the prepared snake meat to Edward.

Edward's expression softened considerably when he saw the clean, whole piece of snake meat.

"It certainly doesn't look as scary anymore, and I can agree to let you cook it in the camp, but I'd rather die than eat a single bite." His attitude remained very firm.

"Whatever you want." Zhou Xin packed the snake meat in a plastic bag and threw it into the freezer.

After the weather turned cooler, the two resumed their gold digging.

Edward's luck was a little worse in the afternoon, and he only managed to collect 1.7 ounces of gold.

Nevertheless, his daily catch amounted to 3.9 ounces, worth $8736!

This was only his harvest for one day, while Zhou Xin had already marked enough spots for the two of them to dig for two days.

If the two of them start work together tomorrow, their earnings could double, provided they're not too unlucky.

In this way, the planned goals might be exceeded.

But Zhou Xin still warned himself not to be too optimistic; perhaps they just happened to be in the richest part of the land in terms of gold.

The harvest might be much less in the next area.

This is quite normal, since although gold is widely distributed here, it is still somewhat concentrated.

This is the norm here; some plots of land are plentiful, while others are scarce.

After packing the afternoon's gold into boxes, Zhou Xin began making snake meat soup.

Edward walked away with a look of disgust, as if just one glance would poison him.

Zhou Xin had never made snake meat soup before, so he could only rely on his limited experience of eating snake meat soup a few times before and improvise based on his intuition.

Cut the snake meat into small pieces about the length of chopsticks, put it in ginger slices and cook until it is 80% cooked. The meat will gradually separate from the bone and can be easily torn off with a gentle tear.

After separating the meat from the bone, shred the meat into long strips for later use.

After preparing the ingredients such as ginger and garlic, heat the oil in a wok and sauté the ginger and garlic until fragrant.

Then add the snake meat, shredded into strips, and stir-fry briefly; the aroma will immediately fill the air.

Edward secretly sniffed, a barely perceptible look of satisfaction flashing across his face.

Add some water, and once it boils, add the snake bones, cover, and simmer slowly.

This snake was very large; the meat alone weighed several pounds, and it filled a whole pot.

An hour later, Zhou Xin lifted the pot lid, and a rich and unique aroma instantly filled the camp.

Zhou Xin was pleasantly surprised; he hadn't expected that his random attempt based on intuition would smell so good.

Edward secretly switched to breathing through his mouth, forcing himself not to smell the fragrance that was somewhat intoxicating.

"I only made one dish tonight. If you don't want to eat it, just heat up some canned food or toast."

As Zhou Xin spoke, he scooped up a bowl of rice and began to try it.

Behind him, Edward was in a state of great inner turmoil.

He simply couldn't understand why the flesh of such an ugly snake smelled so good.