Alaska Gold Rush Diary

"So, how much are these two machines worth?" Zhou Xin asked.

The boss stood up, dusted off his hands, and looked troubled.

"Although these two machines are still in relatively good working order, the wear and tear is too severe, which will greatly affect their resale value. Therefore, the buyback price will be lower."

Zhou Xin asked calmly, "How much?"

The shop owner thought for a moment and said, "$500 per unit, $1000 in total. That's the highest price I can afford."

Zhou Xin raised an eyebrow. "You cunning businessman, are you trying to fleece me?"

He bought it for $4000 each, and he believed that with a little maintenance and refurbishment, the owner could sell it for at least $3500.

If I sell it to him for $500, he'll make a net profit of $3000 per unit. And when I buy it, he might have already made $3000.

Seeing that Zhou Xin seemed to be hesitating, the shopkeeper added, "Trust me, this price is absolutely fair. If you go to other places, you definitely won't be able to sell it for this much."

Zhou Xin didn't waste any more words with him, and immediately pretended to put away the equipment, saying, "In that case, I'll go and take a look at other places."

The boss was surprised that this guy, who looked like a complete novice, wasn't fooled, and quickly laughed:

"Well, since we're already here, how about this: I'll add another $200, making it $700 per unit, how about that?"

Zhou Xin ignored him and continued packing up the instruments.

Seeing that he wouldn't listen to reason, the boss frowned, stamped his foot, and said, "$1000, $1000 per unit, that's the most I can offer!"

Zhou Xin stopped what he was doing, looked up at the boss, and said coldly, "1500. If you say anything more, I'm leaving right now."

Seeing his resolute attitude, the boss knew he had encountered a clever person who wouldn't listen to either soft or hard tactics, so he had no choice but to obediently compromise.

After all, even if he buys them for $1500 each, he can still make at least double his money.

"Alright, we've done a deal before, so we're practically friends. Let's go with the price you mentioned."

Then, he led Zhou Xin to the counter, gave him a receipt, and paid for him.

As he worked, he said, "It's because I'm kind-hearted and can't bear to see you lose so much money. If it were a heartless boss, he definitely wouldn't have bought it back at such a high price."

In his imagination, every newbie like Zhou Xin who came to dig for gold was just spending money to have fun.

He had never heard of anyone making money on their first gold-digging trip.

Zhou Xin didn't show off to him, just smiled and didn't say anything.

To his surprise, the boss wouldn't let it go, seemingly annoyed by his earlier assertiveness and determined to make fun of him.

"Sir, losing a little money is nothing; at least you experienced the thrill of gold mining, didn't you?"

Zhou Xin coughed lightly and said calmly, "Maybe I was just lucky. I didn't lose money this time; I even made a small profit."

The boss looked up and stared at him in disbelief.

Clearly, he didn't believe Zhou Xin at all, thinking he was just bragging to cover up his own shortcomings.

"I've never seen anyone make money on their first gold mining attempt. Tell me, how much did you make?" the boss asked jokingly.

Zhou Xin smiled slightly: "Not too much, a few hundred thousand, in US dollars."

The boss stared at him wide-eyed, as if looking at a fool, as if to say: You can't even brag properly!

He has been operating in Kurgadi for many years and knows the situation there very well.

Even a small to medium-sized mine can only make a net profit of four or five hundred thousand US dollars in a gold mining season. How can you earn so much by manually digging for gold using a detector?

Hundreds of thousands? That's probably just gold sold for a few dozen dollars!

Zhou Xin was too lazy to waste any more words with him and urged, "Pay me the money quickly, I have other things to do."

After receiving the money, Zhou Xin left immediately, planning to drive to Perth as soon as Edward arrived.

Not long after Zhou Xin left, the owner of the detector shop could no longer contain his amusement and dialed Max's number.

Kurgadi is only so big, and those of them who do gold-related business are quite familiar with it.

"Max, wasn't there a Chinese guy selling gold to you just now?"

"How did you know? Oh right, he bought the detector from you, right?"

"That's right, he just came to see me, bragging that he sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold. It's hilarious! Are all Chinese people like this?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone before he said, "He wasn't bragging. He sold 369.7 ounces of gold and took a whopping $70 from me, which practically emptied my store's cash reserves."

The detector owner's smile froze on his face.

……

While waiting for Edward to arrive, Zhou Xin took Logan for a walk on the street to get some fresh air.

Although he was carrying nearly a million dollars and was in a foreign country,

But Australia's crime rate is much lower than that of the United States, and it's broad daylight, so he's not worried about being robbed.

Having been out of contact for over a week, when he returned to the small town, his phone received hundreds of messages from Zhang Jianing.

Clearly, Zhang Jianing was extremely worried about his sudden disappearance during this period.

Her last message was sent this morning, saying that she had already bought a plane ticket to Australia this afternoon.

Zhou Xin had been busy and hadn't had a chance to reply, but now that he had some free time, he immediately dialed the number.

"Hello, is this...is this Zhou Xin?" Zhang Jianing's nervous voice came from the other end of the phone.

It seems she was afraid of receiving a call from the police here, telling her that Zhou Xin had met with misfortune.

Having lived in the United States, where freedom is a daily reality, it's not surprising that she reacted this way.

"It's me," Zhou Xin replied.

Zhang Jianing finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Zhou Xin, you finally showed up! You scared me to death! I couldn't get in touch with either you or Edward, I thought something had happened to you!"

"It's alright..." Zhou Xin comforted her, telling her the reason for their disappearance and that they were about to return.

"Really? That's great! I'll cancel my tickets right away and pick you up at the airport!" Zhang Jianing said happily.

They chatted for a while longer before hanging up the phone.

Just as he was about to pull Logan back, they suddenly ran into someone they knew.

I had met him once at Chen Xiande's mine; he seemed to be Chen Xiande's cousin.

The other person looked worried, but they also noticed Zhou Xin.

"I am very sorry about what happened to your cousin," Zhou Xin said, walking up to him with a heavy expression.

"Sigh, we were about to go back, who would have thought something like this would happen?" My cousin said, his eyes welling up with tears.

Zhou Xin sighed and said, "President Chen is such a good person, it's just that God is blind."

My cousin choked up, "Who says it isn't true? He had already promised to go back and spend New Year's Day with his daughter, but..."

Zhou Xin patted him on the shoulder and offered a few words of comfort.

After his cousin calmed down a bit, Zhou Xin asked, "Didn't you hear anything unusual at the time?"

My cousin looked pained and regretful, and said, "When we saw that it was going to rain heavily, we said we wanted to go into the city to have some fun. We've been working in the field for months and we're all getting restless."

I wanted to invite my cousin to come along, but he said he had to stay behind to watch the game and let us go have some fun. Who knew, who knew…”

At this point, he choked up again.