Alaska Gold Rush Diary

Chapter 46 Unexpected Gains

That morning, Zhou Xin quickened his pace of the search.

With an extra person, he must ensure that he can find enough gold deposits for them to dig in time to avoid "idleness".

Spurred by this, Edward worked even harder, wishing he had four hands.

Zhang Jianing, on the other hand, was quite relaxed, simply enjoying the fun of gold mining.

By noon, Zhou Xin had marked more than thirty locations. If he put in a little more effort this afternoon and tomorrow, he would have explored most of the area east of the camp.

Summer was slowly approaching in Australia, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter. At 11:30 a.m., he called the two of them back to the camp.

After a morning of work, even though Zhang Jianing isn't one to sweat easily, she was already quite sweaty.

But she didn't have time to rest and immediately asked Zhou Xin to help her weigh the morning's harvest.

Of course, her biggest find that morning was the gold nugget she found at the beginning. After that, it seemed that the beginner protection period had passed, and she only found small gold nuggets.

Zhou Xin took the gold dog head and placed it on the scale. The group looked at the display screen and almost held their breath.

14.3 ounces!

Edward then launched into another tirade of wailing and howling.

With the addition of the few more gold nuggets she dug up later, Zhang Jianing's first morning of gold mining yielded a staggering 14.6 ounces, worth over $32,000!

"Gold mining is so much fun!" Zhang Jianing exclaimed excitedly.

Only then did she feel at ease returning to the container to clean herself.

She was a very clean girl and desperately wanted to take a shower, but she knew she couldn't.

She had realized that there was no water source available for replenishment, and all water supply had to be provided by the water towers that had been brought in.

Zhou Xin and Edward are both very frugal with water, so how could she be given special treatment?

Although it is only about 100 kilometers away from Kurgadi, resupplying water back and forth is still a troublesome matter, and their principle is to make as few trips as possible.

If we don't conserve supplies, we might have to resupply every three or four days.

Thinking about all this, Zhang Jianing ultimately only wiped her body and followed Zhou Xin and the others' example by using the water to wash clothes.

In this way, after cleaning it again, only two basins of water are needed.

As she changed her clothes and stepped out of the container, she immediately smelled an enticing fragrance.

"Wow, I think I smell stir-fried pork." She twitched her pretty nose to confirm that it was indeed the smell of stir-fried pork.

"Your nose is quite sharp. I went to several supermarkets in town yesterday before I finally managed to buy a bag of fermented black beans."

When making stir-fried pork, fermented black beans are the soul of the dish.

"It looks delicious. I had almost forgotten what this dish tasted like. You can't find such authentic Hunan cuisine in Miami."

She walked over to Zhou Xin and watched as the fatty and lean pork belly and green and red peppers were skillfully stir-fried in the pot. Her throat bobbed a few times.

"I just made it casually. There's no open flame stove here, and the taste is always a bit off when I use an induction cooker."

"It's already fantastic. I was saying last time that I'd like to try your cooking sometime, and I didn't expect to get to eat it so soon," she said with a smile.

The stir-fried pork was ready. He used a spatula to pick up a piece of pork belly and handed it to Zhang Jianing.

"Try it!"

Seeing that he had seen through her thoughts, Zhang Jianing revealed a triumphant smile, then used her slender fingers to pick up a piece of pork belly and put it into her mouth like a greedy cat.

"Mmm, this is the taste!" she chewed, nodding repeatedly.

"Alright, dinner's ready."

He made three dishes in total: stir-fried pork, stir-fried greens, and cold preserved egg salad.

"These are all my favorite foods!" Zhang Jianing stared at them, her eyes wide with delight.

"I never expected to be able to buy preserved eggs here. It's just a shame for Edward; he can't eat spicy food or preserved eggs," Zhou Xin said with a smile.

"It seems there's a gold mine here run by Chinese people, and there are quite a few Chinese people working there. The fermented black beans and preserved eggs are probably prepared for them."

Before Zhang Jianing arrived in Kurgadi, she had already heard some information about the situation from her friends in Western Australia.

"Really? I hope I can visit sometime."

Zhou Xin was somewhat interested in this information. He thought that learning from the Chinese gold-mining teams might be helpful in establishing his own gold-mining team in the future.

"I'll ask my friend when I have some free time to see if I can get their contact information."

After the food was placed on the table, Edward immediately gathered around.

"Xin, what did you make today... Good heavens, another thousand-year-old egg!" His face immediately contorted.

Zhang Jianing ate her meal with great satisfaction; she even had an extra bowl of rice, despite usually having a small appetite.

Edward, on the other hand, ate white rice with cheese sauce and some stir-fried vegetables.

At 3:30 p.m. sharp, the three set off to continue their work.

Zhou Xin's search speed was naturally much faster than the two gold diggers, so he kept a considerable distance from them.

As he squatted down to plant the flag, he suddenly heard a whooshing sound behind him, followed by a shower of icy rain on his back.

He turned around and was surprised to see Logan, soaking wet, swaying his body.

"Logan, what happened to you?"

As soon as Zhou Xin spoke, he immediately realized that Logan must have been soaking in water!

Judging from the fact that it was still wet and not very dry, it had been soaking in water for no more than a few minutes.

Although Logan is fast, we are already quite far from the camp, and it certainly won't be able to run here in a few minutes.

Moreover, although Logan is smart, he doesn't know how to turn on a tap.

In other words, the water on him was from nearby.

There is a water source nearby!

Thinking of this, Zhou Xin felt a surge of joy.

If a water source can be found here, then water will no longer be a problem.

It only takes about ten minutes to drive here from the camp.

Next week, Xin gave Logan the instruction to lead him to the place where he found water.

Logan whimpered twice and then ran towards a low-lying area.

Zhou Xin followed closely behind it for about ten minutes when his eyes lit up.

Before him stood a patch of bushes that was noticeably more lush than elsewhere, covered with grasses rarely seen in the wilderness.

In the center, surrounded by bushes, is a rather murky pool of water, several square meters in size.

Clearly, that was what Logan did earlier.

There were various animal footprints and droppings in the bushes around the pool.

Clearly, this is a common water source for many animals in the vicinity.

But it's not a big problem. As long as the pool is dug up and deepened, and the surrounding area is cleaned up, the water will become very clear in no time.

The water source in such a place is naturally clean groundwater.

Of course, after cleaning, snake repellent powder should be sprinkled around the area, and a fence should be built to prevent animals from entering and contaminating the water source.

Although this is somewhat unfair to the animals in the vicinity, he believes that there should be more than just this one water source in the area.

The fact is simple: if this were the only water source within a radius of several kilometers, the area would definitely be much dirtier than it appears to be.

"Please lend us this place for a few months."

Based on the current number of marked points, Zhang Jianing and Edward couldn't finish digging in a day or two, so he decided to come and deal with the water source tomorrow morning.

After spending half a day setting this up, not only will it save me the trouble of regularly returning to the city to replenish water, but it will also allow me to use water freely, greatly improving my quality of life.

The issue that currently affects their lives the most is actually the water problem.

Not only is taking a bath unpleasant, but even washing vegetables and clothes requires extreme care.

Therefore, developing this water source is absolutely worthwhile.