My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 51 Being remembered
Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang looked up at the trees diagonally above and vaguely saw a figure hiding behind a thick fir tree trunk.

The furtive movements made Zhou Jingming frown slightly.

Wu Yang noticed it too: "Brother Zhou, I'll go up and take a look!"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "We still don't know where they came from... Let's pretend we didn't see them and head back. Going up there openly like this won't get us any truthful answers, so it won't do any good."

"Once we get back to the dugout, take advantage of the crowd and the distraction, and quietly follow him there. Don't alert him. Find out what he's up to, which group he's in, and what he's up to... Can you do that?"

Wu Yang smiled confidently: "No problem!"

The two men immediately looked away, called out to Jin Wang, and walked together toward the dugout, keeping an eye on the movement among the trees diagonally above them.

However, the two of them returned to the dugout, but the man never came out.

Peng Yuanchao, who was inside the dugout, heard the footsteps outside. Before he even crawled out of the dugout, his voice came out first: "Did you catch anything good?"

When he came out and saw the beaver Wu Yang was carrying, he was immediately pleasantly surprised: "Good heavens... how did you shoot it? I didn't even hear a gunshot!"

Startled by Peng Yuanchao's shout, the people who were preparing to eat in the dugout also crawled out and looked at the beaver that Wu Yang had placed on the ground with surprised eyes.

"What is this? I've never seen it before."

"It looks like a big, chubby rat. Can you even eat this meat?"

"Why does it smell strange?"

……

Zhou Jingming didn't rush to speak. He waited until they had looked at it with curiosity and gradually quieted down before saying, "This is a beaver that is rarely seen in the mountains. You won't believe it, but it gnawed a birch tree in half, and when the tree fell, it crushed itself to death."

Peng Yuanchao grinned and said, "Such a good thing?"

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it either, but that's how it is. Don't be fooled by the strange smell now; once it's properly prepared, the meat is still quite good."

"Let me tell you, if it weren't for Jinwang, we wouldn't have this meat today. Later, I'll have to treat Jinwang well. Be nicer to it from now on; I don't want to see you hitting or scolding it."

Zhou Jingming seized the opportunity to emphasize, "Also, the beaver's fur is mine, so don't even think about taking it."

"Alright, as long as there's meat to eat, that's fine. This morning, I gave you special permission: you can start working whenever you've prepared the beaver meat."

Peng Yuanchao scanned the crowd: "No objections, right?"

With meat to eat, who would complain? Everyone said it was no problem. The key issue was that most of them didn't know how to take care of beavers.

"Since no one has any objections, let's hurry back to the dugout. It's getting late. After we finish eating, let's get back to work!"

Peng Yuanchao urged them on and led the way into the dugout.

"Eat...eat..."

The group followed them inside, took out bowls and chopsticks, and began to eat more rice.

Zhou Jingming glanced up at the forest behind the dugout.

Just as everyone was making a fuss, Wu Yang, who had put down the beaver, took advantage of the commotion to slip away from the dugout, use the trees for cover, and disappeared into the woods.

He didn't see Wu Yang, nor did he know what was happening in the woods.

But given Wu Yang's skill and quick wit, plus the fact that he's carrying a hunting rifle, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Zhou Jingming placed the beaver on the branch of a small tree next to the dugout, returned to the dugout, and just as he sat down on the wooden stump, Peng Yuanchao handed him a bowl and chopsticks filled with rice.

He didn't stand on ceremony with Peng Yuanchao and took the bowl and chopsticks to eat.

At this moment, Zhou Jingming was feeling quite hungry.

It was only then that Peng Yuanchao realized Wu Yang was missing. He craned his neck to look outside the dugout passage, but Wu Yang was nowhere to be seen. He turned to Zhou Jingming and asked, "Brother, where is Wu Yang?"

“Our little peninsula might be targeted. When I came back just now, I noticed someone behind the dugout. I guess he might have come here to investigate and try to take advantage of us. I asked Wu Yang to find out who it is…” Zhou Jingming’s attention was completely focused on his rice bowl, his mouth full of rice, and he spoke somewhat indistinctly: “We don’t need to wait for him, just leave him some rice.”

Upon hearing this, Peng Yuanchao's expression turned somewhat serious, and the others also looked towards Zhou Jingming.

"Why are you all looking at me? Hurry up and eat. After you finish eating, just get back to work as usual... Don't worry so much. It's only a matter of time before people start thinking about you. There's nothing strange about it. You'll get used to it."

However, whether it's as I suspect, we'll only know when Wu Yang returns. Just be careful what you say and don't wander off!

After Zhou Jingming finished speaking, he scooped some soup into his bowl, added some pickled vegetables, and ate it all up without a care in the world.

Seeing how calm he was, they all continued eating.

After finishing their meal, Peng Yuanchao led the group, along with their tools, up the small peninsula to begin another day of gold panning.

After resting for a while, Zhou Jingming took out a small knife he always carried with him, went outside the dugout, put the beaver down from the tree branch, and began to skin it.

In the Great Northern Wilderness, where wild animals were plentiful, he had skinned several kinds of wild animals, so skinning beavers should be about the same.

He started with the beaver's mouth, first cutting open the skin around the edges of its upper and lower lips, then peeling the skin down as he peeled it.

But he soon discovered that the beaver's head was much smaller than its body, and the incision he made was not enough to turn it over, making the skinning bucket unsuitable.

Moreover, if the knife in your hand is too fast, you might easily injure the skin if you make a slight mistake.

So he went back to the dugout, found a rope, and took the kitchen knife he had brought into the mountains. He tied the beaver's hind legs with the rope and hung it on a tree. He then cut open the beaver from its crotch to its chin with the knife. He then held the fur with his left hand and used the vegetable to cut the fascia between the skin and flesh with his right hand, peeling it bit by bit.

In most parts of a beaver's body, the flesh and skin can be separated by cutting the fascia, but in some places, a thin layer of muscle adheres to the skin and is difficult to separate.

In addition, Zhou Jingming's fingers were sore and swollen, and he was not able to control them. He was not confident in separating them, so he could only remove some of the drool to avoid damaging the skin.

"Halapi" is the term used by hunters in Northeast China, referring to the remaining fascia and muscle on the skin plate. Zhou Jingming is also used to this term.

It took him more than half an hour to peel off the entire skin.

Jin Wang was already waiting on the side.

When skinning the beaver, a lot of blood flowed from its mouth as it hung upside down, which it carefully licked clean.

Upon seeing the meat, it became even more impatient.

Zhou Jingming didn't mince words either. After all, Jin Wang was the hero who discovered the beaver meat. He hung the pelt on a tree branch, cut open the chest and abdomen with a kitchen knife, reached in and pulled out the beaver's heart, liver, lungs, intestines and stomach, cut them off with the knife and threw them to Jin Wang.

Jinwang excitedly carried the delicious meal in its mouth, ran to a quiet spot next to the dugout, and used its front paws to tear and swallow it.

Zhou Jingming carried the bare, bloody beaver meat to the well and washed it in a basin.

While he was washing, Jinwang suddenly barked twice more.

Zhou Jingming looked in the direction of the sound and saw that it was Wu Yang who came out of the woods.

Upon recognizing Wu Yang, Jin Wang immediately stopped barking and continued tearing at its delicious food.

"Let's go eat first, then we'll talk!"

Zhou Jingming called out to Wu Yang, who had returned to the edge of the dugout, and washed the meat before carrying it back. Once inside the dugout, he sat down to rest, rolled himself a cigarette, lit it, and didn't rush to ask any questions.

Wu Yang, who was wolfing down his food, hurriedly explained the situation: "That man was panning for gold on the riverbank down below. I saw him go and check on three other gold panning teams upstream, but he didn't stay long before going back. He was acting suspiciously, definitely up to something. When he came back, he even hid behind our dugout for a while."

Zhou Jingming pondered for a while: "They must be dissatisfied with the amount of gold produced on the riverbank and have started planning to seize territory. It's only mid-April, and there aren't many teams panning for gold in the valley yet. Instead of rushing to find gold seeds themselves, they've started eyeing other people's territory."

They chose to camp on that riverbank where gold had been panned before, instead of properly choosing a mining site. It seems their intention from the start was to seize territory… We'll have to be more careful from now on.”

　Thank you to reader Hei A Niu for the generous donation!

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(End of this chapter)