Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1075 Li Long's luck has always been exceptionally good.

Tao Shengli looked ashen-faced. He just hoped that the patrolman wouldn't take him away. As for the things he had found, he was fine with giving them away.

It's only May; there's always food to be found in the mountains, so you won't starve. Given time, you can still find gold.

If they take me away and arrest me, that would be a huge problem.

Li Long looked around again but didn't see anything, so he asked:
When did you go into the mountains?

What he was asking was a routine question, but Tao Shengli saw it as an interrogation.

Late April.

"Do they pan for gold before even entering the mountains?" Li Long asked again, "or do they start in the middle of the journey after entering the mountains?"

"No, we originally went into the mountains to dig for fritillaria bulbs, but because there were so many people from outside the mountains, we went further in. After getting to the vicinity, we didn't find many fritillaria bulbs, but then we discovered placer gold in the stream, so..."

"Didn't I just ask you? Do you know that it's illegal to mine for gold privately?"

"N-no... I don't know." Tao Shengli actually knew, but how could he dare to say he did at this moment? Knowing the law and breaking it is an even greater crime!

"Now you know." Li Long smiled, then pointed to the wooden plate in Tao Shengli's hand and asked:
"You made this yourself? Why didn't you make a bigger one?"

"No, no, I didn't make it myself. I found it in the mountains..."

"Found it?" Li Long was taken aback. Could there be other gold panning in these mountains?

"Bring it here so I can take a look," Li Long asked.

Tao Shengli walked out of the river and handed the wooden tray in his hand to Li Long.

The wooden plate was indeed quite old; even Li Long couldn't tell what kind of wood it was made of. However, it wasn't nailed together, but rather made using ancient woodworking mortise and tenon techniques, and it looked quite sturdy.

"Where did you find it? By the way, where are you from? Did you pan for gold before?"

"Yes, I used to work in a gold mine. The gold veins in our area were relatively small, and after a few years, they were gone, so I quit." Tao Shengli didn't want to talk about his hometown.

Li Jing didn't ask any further questions, but instead waved the wooden plate in his hand and said:
"Where did you pick it up?"

“Over there, there’s an abandoned mine,” Tao Shengli said, pointing in a direction. “I live there now.”

“I saw a dugout over there that had just been abandoned. Was that where you used to live?” Li Long asked again.

"Yeah, I heard tractors running over there these past couple of days. I went to check it out and found they were repairing the road. I was worried they'd come and see me and arrest me, so I moved to another place." Tao Shengli spoke more naturally. He could tell that Li Long at least didn't intend to harm him.

"Let's go check out that mine." Li Long handed the wooden tray back to Tao Shengli. "By the way, how much placer gold have you panned for lately?"

"It's... a few dozen grams, I guess." Tao Shengli thought for a moment, then decided to tell the truth. "I haven't been mining for very long. I was digging for fritillaria bulbs before, but I hadn't dug for them much before, so I didn't dig up many. Then I noticed the fritillaria bulbs were flowering, and that's when I saw that mine shaft..."

Li Long didn't know whether it was true or false, and he planned to wait and see.

Tao Shengli rinsed his feet in the river, put on his shoes, picked up the enamel mug, looked at Li Long and, seeing that he didn't want it, took the wooden tray with him and led the way toward the abandoned mine.

It's directly in the direction Li Long came from, but less than fifty meters back, there's a side ditch that branches off diagonally. It's not very deep and was hard to spot when you come in.

The abandoned mine was situated on higher ground, nestled among rocks on a sunny slope, with plenty of shrubs nearby. Li Long didn't enter the mine; instead, he looked towards the pine forest on the shady slope and vaguely saw a dugout in a clearing. He asked:

"Where do you live? Why don't you live in the mine? The mine is on a sunny slope, where you can get some sunshine."

“There were bones at the entrance of that mine, human bones.” Tao Shengli said awkwardly, “I felt it wasn’t a good place to live, so I dug a dugout over there. It only took half a day anyway.”

Li Long didn't go to check Tao Shengli's dugout; instead, he curiously walked towards the mine shaft with his gun in hand.

There are rocks blocking the entrance to the mine, so you can't really see it unless you look carefully.

At the entrance of the cave, he indeed saw a skull.

Li Long, who used to catch fish and sleep on people's graves, was not afraid of this at all. He could tell that the skull had wounds and that half of it was buried in the soil, so it was probably decades or even hundreds of years old.

As for the remaining bones, they must have been buried by dust.

As for this person, he must have been killed, right? The wounds on his bones were quite deep.

Li Long, with a gun in one hand and a machete in the other, cut down the bushes at the entrance of the cave before crawling inside.

The mine shaft was 1.5 meters high, and he had to bend over to get in. Fortunately, once inside, he found that the space was high enough for him to stand up straight.

Upon entering, they discovered that this wasn't a mine shaft, but rather a place where people lived. It appeared to have been ransacked by Tao Shengli; the beds were made of stones and planks, with the planks scattered on the ground.

There was some animal droppings on the ground, some torn clothing, and some simple wooden stumps that were probably used as furniture.

There's a wooden trough here, probably used for gold panning, but it's fallen apart. Clearly, the original carpenter's skills weren't up to par.

Li Long had excellent eyesight; the cave was dark except for the entrance, yet he could still see it quite clearly.

After a quick glance, Li Long had already mentally pieced together what had happened here.

The cave's owner was probably a gold prospector who, after a falling out with his partners, encountered patrolmen, or bandits, was killed and the place was abandoned.

What about the gold you get?

Li Long felt that this was the first thing that came to his mind as an ordinary person.

It must have been taken by the person who killed him, right?

He looked around, then tapped the corners of the walls with his machete.

The sound was relatively hollow in the southeast corner, and Li Long was overjoyed. He immediately used his machete to pry it open.

When he pried it open, there was indeed a space inside. He reached in and rummaged around, but there was nothing there.

It was stolen?
Li Long immediately felt a wave of disappointment, which was understandable upon reflection.

After all, when someone kills and robs, how could they not loot the spoils? Even in a video game, you wait for loot to drop after defeating a monster.

Once his emotions returned to normal, Li Long looked around again, casually flipped through the items, turned to leave, and then his gaze fell on the cave entrance.

That is to say, he is tall and can stand up straight inside the cave, but has to bend over when he comes out of the cave.

Because of his height, he could spot at a glance a row of stones above the cave entrance, close to the cave ceiling.

Looking at it this way, the top of the cave wasn't directly carved out; at least at the entrance, it was built up with stones and then covered with soil.

Li Long instinctively reached out and tried to pull one of the stones, but couldn't budge it.

It's pressed quite tightly.

Then he tried again, and pulled out the stone on the far right directly, seeing that the stone was relatively shallow.

He stood on tiptoe and peered inside, where he could see two small bags, each about the size of an adult's fist.

Li Long carefully reached out and took out the bag—after all these years, the bag must be pretty worn out.

You can feel that the bag is made of leather when you touch it, and it's quite heavy.

I searched again, but there was nothing left.

Li Long tried moving the other stones, but they wouldn't budge. He looked around again, but found nothing, so he bent down and walked out.

To Li Long's surprise, Tao Shengli was sitting on a rock on the opposite shady slope and had not left.

He wanted to ask, "Why didn't you run away?", but he didn't say it.

Tao Shengli looked at Li Long and took out a bag, somewhat surprised, and couldn't help but ask:

"Was it found in the mine?"

"Yes."

"Is it the hole in the southeast corner?" Tao Shengli asked again. "You looked at the hole in the southeast corner?" Li Long was a little surprised. "What's inside? I looked and there was nothing. You took it, didn't you?"

"I didn't take it," Tao Shengli hurriedly explained. "I searched the mine and found a hollow rock in the southeast corner. When I opened it, there was nothing inside. Someone must have taken it."

"This was found on top of the cave entrance," Li Long said, carefully opening the bag as he spoke.

Sure enough, the bag contained four pieces of natural gold the size of mutton thigh stones, and the rest was a small pile of fine gold dust.

The weight of this gold is close to a kilogram, if not quite.

There was also a strip of cloth with words written on it.

Li Long knew that something over a hundred years old must be quite fragile, so he wrapped the gold again and slowly unfolded the strips of cloth.

Fortunately, the five characters above are not difficult to recognize.

"Yongfeng Lü Youcai"

Could this be the name and address of this skeleton?

Li Long turned his head to look at the mine, thought for a moment, took off his backpack, took out a cloth bag from it, put the wrapped leather bag and the cloth strip inside, put it back on his back, and then walked towards Tao Shengli.

"Can I borrow your shovel?" Li Long asked.

Tao Shengli stood up, turned around and went to his dugout, then got an iron shovel.

If you take someone's gold, you have to clean up their mess.

Li Long went to the mine and cleaned the entrance. Just as he thought, apart from the skull, the rest of the bones were in the soil. There were also wounds on the arm and leg bones. Li Long was not a forensic doctor and could not see where the fatal wound was.

He dug a pit and buried the bones, along with the surrounding soil, next to the mine.

Only after doing all this did he feel at ease—part of this gold could be considered as payment for his burial.

As for the other part, he happened to know that there was a place called Yongfeng within the territory of Ma County.

If records of Lü Youcai or his descendants can be found there, Li Long will leave some money to his descendants.

He's not short of money now, and since he's accidentally found someone's lost property and even has information, he feels he should do his part.

Just want some peace of mind.

Tao Shengli was a little stunned by Li Long's actions.

After finishing these tasks, Li Long returned the shovel to Tao Shengli and said:

"Gold panning is illegal. But, well, I'm letting you off the hook because you also benefited. You can keep the gold you find. However, I can't say that this is the right thing to do. You either have to leave the mountains yourself or find another place."

After all, I'll be going into the mountains for the next few days, just wandering around this area. If I see you again, I'll have to take you out.

Tao Shengli was immediately overjoyed, and then he stopped caring about himself?

That's great!
After Li Long finished speaking, he picked up his gun and left. He had traveled so far and built a grave for someone, and he was a little tired. Seeing that it was lunchtime, he decided to go find Meng Hai and the others for a meal.

Tao Shengli didn't realize what was happening until Li Long had disappeared. He immediately went to the dugout, rolled up his bedding, and came out.

He looked around again to make sure Li Long was indeed far away, then dug under a rock next to the dugout, dug out a cloth bag, stuffed it into his pocket, and quickly left with the wooden tray and shovel.

Hearing the road construction noise these past two days, he hid the gold he had dug up, fearing it would be stolen while he was panning for gold.

Although I have to move again, at least I still have the gold I panned for, and they didn't say they would definitely arrest me. Well, I guess they've shown me mercy.

Li Long moved swiftly and quickly returned to the road repair site.

Meanwhile, the villagers of Qingshuihe had begun their meal. They all seemed quite happy. Although Li Long hadn't hunted this time, he had at least brought offal, which had a higher fat content than lean meat, making it very flavorful.

No one dislikes it.

Meng Hai was in charge of serving the food. He gave each person half a spoonful of offal and they ate it with the steamed buns and pancakes they had brought with them. They were very happy.

When Li Long arrived, only three people remained to fight, and Meng Hai hadn't even started eating. Seeing Li Long approach, he waved and said:
"Comrade Li Long, come here, I've saved this for you."

Li Long smiled and went over to put the gun and backpack into the car. Someone had already brought him the leftover scraps and a steamed bun. The bun was still hot from being toasted by the fire, with slightly burnt edges, and it smelled delicious.

"Okay, okay, thank you." Li Long took the enamel basin, walked over, and while eating, asked Meng Hai:

"Old Meng, is this your steamed bun?"

"Yeah, I brought two extra. Usually, we just share them with whoever doesn't have enough, or we share them with everyone when we go back in the afternoon."

Li Long had actually brought his own naan, but since they had already prepared it for him, he didn't stand on ceremony. He found a rock nearby, sat down, and started eating.

After serving everyone their meals, Meng Hai made one for himself, carried it over to Li Long, and said as he ate:
“When we first arrived, some people were thinking of finding another piece of jade and asked me to give them a good scolding. I still say the same thing: don’t hold them back when they’re working. They can go look for it themselves during their breaks. But right now the water level is high, and if there’s a flood or something, it’ll be troublesome. So I always have two or three people with me, so we can look after each other.”

Upon hearing this, Li Long thought of the young man who had tried to retrieve the deer from the floodwaters last year when the road was being repaired.

I don't think I saw it today; Meng Hai probably filtered out the people.

“Yeah, if you want to pick them up, no problem, but you have to do the job well.” Li Long smiled. “Actually, there are quite a few good things in these mountains.” He thought about the placer gold and nuggets in his backpack. There should be gold mines in this area, right? He didn’t know if they were rich or poor, but there were definitely some.

“We can’t handle that kind of work,” Meng Hai chuckled. “Actually, there are some in the river near our team, but they’re scarce, not as plentiful as in the mountains. The piece we sent you was actually dug out of the river near our team, but only that one piece looked nice; the others weren’t good enough.”

"I heard that some retired cadres from Shicheng went to the upper reaches of the Ma River and found a piece weighing several tons," Li Long said. "There are still big ones in these rivers."

"Several tons? That's a fortune!" Meng Hai was also somewhat moved. "It must be worth a lot of money, right?"

“Right now, it should be worth at least a hundred thousand, right?” Li Long said while eating.

Meng Hai nodded, not having many thoughts on the matter.

If you work with Li Long to repair this road, every family that comes to do the work can earn several thousand yuan.

This money is real; it's money you get for doing the work. And as a manager, I earn even more and have more authority within the team.

“I plan to repair the roads in our team when I have time. Right now, the roads in all the alleys in the team are all dirt roads. If I can bring some gravel to pave them, it will be easier to walk on after it rains,” Meng Hai said while eating. “It’s not worth it to go into the mountains when we don’t have much free time.”

"Yes, that's only right," Li Long said. "Anyway, there's a river right next to your village, so it's convenient for dredging sand and gravel. You can drive this tractor back and use it once the road repairs are finished."

The two chatted for a while longer. Li Long watched as some of the quick-talking and quick-handed people finished eating, washed their utensils, and ran to the river to see if they could find any jade.

Just as Meng Hai said, these people were in groups of three or five, so they weren't afraid of any problems.

The river wasn't deep, and someone was shouting that there were tiny specks of gold dust on the riverbank, but the others weren't surprised. After all, the existence of placer gold in the Ma River was common knowledge in every village; it wasn't anything unusual.

Similar to what Li Long knew, these people didn't know how to pan for gold. They were only curious about whether the things in the river sand were gold or not, and then they continued to look for jade.

After Li Long finished eating, washed his bowl, and drank some water, the others returned laughing and joking, having found nothing. Although they hadn't found anything, they weren't too disappointed.

In the afternoon, Li Long didn't stay there. He packed up the empty basins he had prepared, said goodbye to Meng Hai, and went back.

After returning, he told Meng Hai that he might not be able to come tomorrow, and even if he did, it might be a little late. Meng Hai told him it was fine, since even if Li Long didn't come, Meng Hai could still organize people to do a good job here.

Li Long was thinking of going to Yongfeng tomorrow to see if he could find any news about Lü Youcai and his descendants.

After Li Long drove away in his jeep, Meng Hai began organizing people to continue repairing the road, as road repair was the most important thing.

When Li Long drove out of the mountains, he could vaguely see people climbing over the ridge on the eastern hillside. They probably didn't dare to go through the mountain pass for fear of hitting the forest rangers.

Back in the courtyard, Li Long put the bag of gold dust into the cellar, knowing he wouldn't need to retrieve it anytime soon.

Of course, I should bring some money when I go tomorrow. Maybe I can find their descendants, and I'll definitely have to give them the money.

Of course, there should be a proper way to give money, both for peace of mind and to avoid causing trouble for yourself.

(End of this chapter)