"Fangfang, you just said you wanted to buy a courtyard house in Beijing? No need, I already have one at home."
Zhuang Mingcheng scratched his head, somewhat puzzled by his wife's thoughts.
His family lives in Beijing, in a two-courtyard siheyuan (traditional courtyard house) with an adjacent side courtyard.
If they return to the capital, it will be enough for the two of them to live in.
“Your house is your house, I want to buy it myself.”
Lu Fangfang didn't even dare to think about living with Zhuang's mother; it was too terrifying. She'd rather stay in her own house.
As she spoke, she enthusiastically shoveled up the mud and sand and put it into the stream.
She wasn't satisfied with doing it herself, so she urged Zhuang Mingcheng to do it as well.
"Why buy a house? Keep this gold as your personal savings. If I am transferred back to Beijing, my work unit will provide housing. You won't need to buy one."
"Let me tell you, living in this courtyard house is not comfortable at all. It's cold in winter and hot in summer. You have to use the public toilet in the alley to go to the toilet. In the future, I will take you to live in a tenement building."
Lu Fangfang glanced at him and noticed that her man looked quite serious and proud.
Um……
In those days, the tenement buildings had kitchens in the hallways, and each floor had a sink and a public toilet, making them somewhat like dormitories.
To be honest, it's better to live in a courtyard house.
"No, I come from the countryside and I prefer living in a single-story house."
"Alright, then let's live in a single-story house and buy a courtyard house."
Zhuang Mingcheng sighed as he spoke, as if he felt a little regretful.
Lu Fangfang rolled her eyes.
That's a really hateful thing to say, like saying that courtyard houses in Beijing are like cabbages.
The two dug for a while longer, and the stepped grooves in the tarpaulin were filled with various kinds of sand and gravel.
Putting down the shovel, Lu Fangfang called to Zhuang Mingcheng and picked up the large stones from the tarpaulin.
You can't just throw these stones away randomly; you have to look at them all. If you find a gold stone, you'll be rich.
After they had thrown away most of the tarpaulin, the two carefully picked it up and slowly dragged it ashore.
The tarpaulin was mostly covered with useless sand and gravel.
Lu Fangfang rummaged around with her hand, and suddenly her eyes lit up. Under her hand were several small golden pebbles the size of beans.
"We've struck it rich! We've really struck it rich!"
"This...this..."
Zhuang Mingcheng swallowed hard, still looking somewhat bewildered.
This stuff... it's actually pretty good? You can really find gold in it!
Turning to look at his wife, he really wanted to explore her thoroughly.
It's normal for my partner to know how to raise livestock and farm, but... but my gold-digging wife knows how to do that too? This... this...
"Zhuang Mingcheng, don't just look at it like that, come and pick it up quickly!"
"Oh, oh."
Zhuang Mingcheng responded blankly, then quickly squatted down and started shoveling sand and gravel.
On the tarpaulin, some of the gold dust was smaller than a grain of rice, making it very difficult to pick up.
At first, the two were reluctant to part with the gold, but after a while, they stopped caring and started picking up gold nuggets the size of beans.
"This is what it means to find money! It's so satisfying!"
Lu Fangfang picked up a tiny speck of gold dust, smaller than a bean, and carefully placed it into the liquor bottle.
She rummaged through the sand and gravel with her hand, and her eyes lit up. She picked up an irregularly shaped gold stone, which was bigger than the mouth of the bottle and couldn't be put inside.
She held it and grinned foolishly for a while, then quickly wrapped it in a handkerchief.
There was a lot of sand and gravel on the tarpaulin. The two of them searched it all up little by little, and then used a gold pan to wash it on the water.
Only when they could no longer see the gold did the two put down the tarpaulin and continue digging through the alluvial mud and sand.
With the incentive of gold, they don't feel tired.
The two of them skipped lunch and continued working.
Zhuang Mingcheng worked until it was getting late before he finally woke up.
Looking up and around, I saw that the forests on both sides of the river were already getting dark, looking deep and mysterious.
"Fangfang, Fangfang, stop digging! Should we head back?"
Zhuang Mingcheng looked somewhat worried.
This place is not safe. Not to mention the snow leopard at noon, the wild bear that their company chased earlier went into this mountain range.
"Go and set up the tent. We'll stay here tonight. We have guns, so we'll be fine."
Lu Fangfang took the entrenching tool and continued shoveling sand and soil onto the tarpaulin. She was unwilling to go back like this.
She and Zhuang Mingcheng had been busy for most of the day, and had already dug up most of the sand and soil that had accumulated along the riverbank.
As for the gains...
The liquor bottle she brought with her was now half full of gold dust. In addition, there were several gold stones that couldn't fit in the bottle, which were kept in her military satchel.
Once the remaining alluvial sand is dug out, her liquor bottle should be more than half full.
Don't underestimate half a bottle of gold dust. Gold is very dense, so even half a bottle of gold dust must weigh at least three or four pounds.
She estimated that after melting and refining all the placer gold, there would be at least two kilograms of pure gold, which is about one kilogram of gold, and that's an underestimation.
If they were all sold to state-run purchasing shops, they could fetch at least eight thousand yuan. And that's not even a large gold nugget; it would be a real windfall.
In the 1960s, who would dare to dream of being a "ten-thousand-yuan household"? Even someone like Zhu Haiming back then...
Yeah, we still can't compare to others.
"Really not going back?"
"I'm not going back, I'll stay here!"
Zhuang Mingcheng listened to his wife's words, thought about it, and did not object.
Once he reached the shore, he found a high spot and set up his tent.
He needed to start a fire that night, so he went into the woods and gathered some dry firewood.
By the time we finished, it was already dark.
"Fangfang, stop working and come eat something."
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