Chapter 115
To distinguish between different tools, locals mark them, sometimes even engraving their names on them. If a tourist forgets which stall they rented from after leaving the mine, they can hold up the tool and compare it to the pattern on the stall to find the correct one.
Stall owner: There are also some guys who are taking advantage of others. They don't return their tools after coming out and just want to leave with their necks stiff. It's outrageous! Do they think that all of us are blind?
Bei Qiao randomly found a friendly stall owner and rented a set of the cheapest basic excavation tools. The stall also sold upgraded tools that were sturdier and more user-friendly than the basic ones, but the rental fee was higher. Bei Qiao, who was only planning to play around, didn't want to spend that much money.
According to the enthusiastic stall owners, each tool stall had its own treasure, reserved for the wealthy who visited the mines. Not only were they easier to use, but they also looked more refined, like works of art. Some people simply bought them after using them and took them away. However, Bei Qiao hadn't seen what these treasures actually looked like; no stall owner was willing to display their treasures directly outside.
Hanging the small bamboo basket that came with the tools around her waist, Bei Qiao went to the mine entrance to pay and received a number plate number 22. The person who entered the mine before her had a number plate number 15, which meant there were seven people ahead of her in line.
Although the weather had cooled, the midday sun was still very strong. After receiving his number, Bei Qiao walked towards the awning, chose a spot in a deserted corner, and turned his bamboo basket upside down on the ground to use as a stool.
Noticing some people's nasty looks, Bei Qiao expressionlessly bent down to pick up a fallen branch, broke it in two, and stacked it together. Then he broke it again, and stacked it again... With the crackling sound of branches constantly breaking, those malicious glances quickly withdrew. Only one person did not give up. While the yamen runners were not paying attention, he quietly moved over, opened the bag in his arms, and said to Bei Qiao in a low voice: "Want to buy a number? My number is relatively high, and it only costs a hundred coins."
"No need, I don't have too much time." Bei Qiao threw the branch in his hand into the grass beside him and clapped his hands: The scalpers are really everywhere.
"Number 22, is team number 22 here?" Bei Qiao waited for a while before the jailer at the mine entrance started calling out the numbers again. After checking the number plate in his hand, Bei Qiao stood up and walked over: "Here, is it my turn now?" Wasn't it number 15 before?
"The first two teams have gone to lunch, leaving you... alone." The jailer sat on a large rock at the mine entrance, glaring at the scalper who thought he was well hidden. Seeing Bei Qiao approaching alone, clutching a bamboo basket, he immediately expressed a puzzled expression. Although admission was per person, to save time and improve efficiency, mining tourists usually entered in groups. Solo travelers like Bei Qiao were truly rare.
"Yes, it's just me."
"Okay, then you go in." Another jailer sitting behind the table threw a candle to Bei Qiao, lay back on the table, stared at the hole listlessly and yawned: Who cares how many people there are, it has nothing to do with us anyway.
Bei Qiao took the candle and followed the procedure written on the wooden sign next to it. He put the candle into the lantern on the table and lit it. Then he carried the lantern and walked into the dark mine.
Mines in otherworldly worlds typically have independent lighting systems, but these mines open to the public don't have them, as some lazy individuals are prone to stealing them for money. For property and safety reasons, the mines open to the public use lanterns for lighting. If the guards notice a lantern is out, they will send someone in to rescue them, at the expense of the visitor.
As a non-professional miner, Bei Qiao chose to pick a chisel and strike at any place that caught his eye. This mine had been mined by many people, and there were traces of mining on the walls on both sides and on the top. Some places even had shoe prints, which were obviously left by tourists stepping on the walls to mine.
The mine seemed sparsely cleaned, and the ground was covered in layers of gravel. If you weren't careful, it might even rub against your shoes. Kicking away the large chunks of gravel, Bei Qiao pulled a folding hat from his backpack and put it on, covering his eyes. He then pulled a piece of cloth from the bamboo basket, placed it over the desired area, and began to dig with his chisel.
This piece of cloth is one of the basic tools provided by the locals to tourists. It can be spread on the wall to reduce the splashing of soil and rocks, and avoid looking too messy after mining. Of course, it is impossible to block it completely.
After all, games are different from reality. Mining in the game is like pulling out a blind box, you can dig out a whole stone in one go, and each time you dig out a different surprise. But real mining is not fun at all, it's very tiring, it takes a long time to dig out a stone, and it's also a bit dirty.
"The time limit makes sense. It's a physically demanding job." Bei Qiao picked a stone from the wall, crouched down, and placed it next to the lantern to shine a light on it. He couldn't see it clearly. He casually dropped the stone into the bamboo basket and continued digging in a new spot. Besides the noise of Bei Qiao digging, the only sounds in the mine were the echoes and the wind. It was as quiet as the beginning of a horror story.
The echo in the cave was so loud that when Bei Qiao gasped for breath, he could hear another person's breathing echoing near him, as if there was another person next to him... Wait, the sound was wrong! Bei Qiao's eyes sharpened, and he stepped back quickly with the chisel in hand: "Who's there?"
The other party did not respond to Bei Qiao's question, and his breathing rate did not change at all. Bei Qiao frowned and asked again. Seeing that no one answered, he tentatively thrust the lantern forward: "Where is the person? Judging by the sound, he should be nearby... Shit!"
Seeing the child squatting and napping in the corner, Bei Qiao was so shocked that he almost cursed on the spot: What's going on? Did the last batch of tourists who went mining leave the child behind? Are they so careless?
Fortunately, the mining time was almost over. Bei Qiao saw that the child was sleeping very soundly and could not be woken up no matter how much he called, so he walked out quickly with a lantern and said something to the yamen runner sitting at the entrance of the cave.
"How could it be a child? No one brought children to mine today. We checked before we left yesterday and there was no one inside." Although he didn't quite believe what Bei Qiao said, the yamen runner, who had children at home, still took the lantern from Bei Qiao's hand and walked into the mine, muttering, "You must be kidding! If there really is a child, why didn't they carry it out themselves..."
"Old Black, come and help!" A few minutes later, a yamen runner came out of the mine in a panic, holding a lantern in one hand and a dusty child in the other: "The kid has fainted!"
The old man sitting behind the table rubbed his eyes and stood up. Seeing the child being carried out of the mine, he was so shocked that he became alert: "Which kid... Shit, when did he go in?"
“Who knows!”
Lao Hei held the unconscious child on the table and fed him some water. The yamen runner who had brought the child out of the mine shouted down the mountain, asking any free stall owner to help notify the child's parents. Although they wanted to go in person, they were on duty and could not leave their post without permission.
The child's uncle was nearby. After hearing about what happened, he rushed over immediately, pulling behind him an old doctor who was running so hard that he was out of breath.
Bei Qiao, forgotten by the yamen runners, saw no one paying any attention to her, so she blew out the still-burning candle in her lantern, put it down, and walked away with the bamboo basket, ready to return the digging tools. A few strangers had arrived under the shed outside the cave. The scalpers from before were trying to sell them number plates, but they were too focused on watching the fun to pay for anything.
On the steps, Bei Qiao brushed past the child's uncle without stopping. She had never been thanked by the child's parents, and she didn't mind the yamen runners taking all the credit. After all, she had only discovered the child and hadn't participated in the subsequent events.
As for why he didn't participate, Bei Qiao could only say that his intuition told him that the child's situation was very troublesome. The mines saw hundreds of people entering and exiting each day, and the yamen runners took shifts guarding the entrance. Under these circumstances, a child who didn't appear to be a martial arts expert had inexplicably appeared there, undetected by the previous miners. Regardless of whether this was man-made or not, it sounded quite bizarre.
"Little girl, don't you want to buy a bamboo basket? It's so tiring to carry the stones. Our bamboo basket is very sturdy and can be used as a stool when you go out." The stall owner took out the deposit from his wallet reluctantly.
"No, I didn't dig up many pieces in total." Bei Qiao waved his hand, took out the stones from the bamboo basket and put them into his backpack, and took back the deposit from the stall owner.
"How about a bead necklace? One hundred and eight beads, for luck, it's really effective!" The owner of the nearby jewelry stall held up his own bead necklace and enthusiastically invited Bei Qiao to try it on. Tourists who couldn't find anything valuable in the mines would often buy some jewelry from the stalls. Some more ceremonial tourists would even ask the stall owner to process the ordinary stones they dug. Because of the craftsmanship required, the labor cost could even be slightly more expensive than the finished bead necklace.
"No thanks." Bei Qiao waved her hand and hurried off, not stopping at any of the stalls. The population near the mine was complex, and she couldn't log off without worry. She'd been online for so long, unable to refresh her status. Thirst and exhaustion were making her a bit irritable, and she didn't want to bother with polite conversation.
With her freshly mined ore in her pocket, Bei Qiao went down the mountain and hired a rickshaw to take her back to the inn. After returning to her room, she logged off, drank some water, and lay on the sofa for a while before logging back on. She pulled the mint out of her sleeve and placed it on the table, examining it carefully. "Hmm... I can't see anything."
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