The firewood quickly crackled and popped as it burned, and under the moonlight and the illumination of the searchlight, the group of people worked up a sweat.
For the first batch, Chen Feng soaked more than a dozen boxes of noodles, and then he continued to boil water.
"Come on, come on, let's have ten people eat first. Whoever is hungry can go first," Chen Feng said.
Hearing this, everyone turned around, smelling the aroma of the noodles. They looked at each other, but no one dared to eat first.
"You go first, aren't you hungry? I'm not in a hurry."
"I'll work a little longer before we talk. You go eat first."
"Yes, whoever is hungry can go. There's nothing to be embarrassed about."
Everyone politely declined, and no one came out to eat for a long time.
"Hurry up, the noodles will get soggy soon. Everyone should have some, so we can take turns eating," Chen Feng urged again upon seeing the situation.
Urged on by Chen Feng and Chen Jianguo, someone finally put down their tools and came over to eat noodles.
"Then I'll eat first, and I'll leave you guys to your own devices."
Once there's a leader, the rest is easy. Soon, seven or eight people arrived, holding bowls of noodles, squatting on the ground, and starting to slurp.
"Here are sausages and eggs, and pork skin. Help yourselves if you want some," Chen Feng said, placing the plastic bag in front of them.
"Okay, this food is good. I'll take a bag of pork skin."
"I'll have two sausages and an egg."
Although these are all fast food, no one can buy pig skin sausages to eat at home all the time, since they are quite expensive.
This time, I got to eat whatever I wanted, no matter what.
They were all grown men, and each of them ate two boxes of noodles and countless snacks. When they were halfway through their meal, Chen Feng opened a pack of cigarettes and gave each of them a pack.
"Take these and smoke them, one box each."
"Oh, thank you, Fengzi."
“Great, you still have cigarettes to smoke. If you keep going like this, Fengzi, I’ll keep you going until the wee hours of the morning, haha.”
“Fengzi is still the best. I remember when I was working on the construction site, I would work overtime late at night. There was no food or cigarettes to eat. We just had to make do with a meal from the communal pot, and we weren’t even paid.”
"Exactly, it's quite an energetic job, isn't it?"
Chen Feng smiled but didn't say anything, continuing to make instant noodles for them.
The first group ate quickly, in less than fifteen minutes, before the next group arrived.
In just a short time, they mined out a lot of ore over there. Now there is ore, but no one is picking it.
Chen Feng sat in front of the pot, looking back and forth, and finally called Lin Nian over.
"Lin Nian, come here and make some instant noodles, then hand out a pack of cigarettes to everyone. I'm going to find the ore," Chen Feng said.
"Brother Feng, have you eaten yet?" Lin Nian jogged over and asked.
"No, you guys eat first, I'm not hungry." Chen Feng stuffed a hard-boiled egg into his mouth and then headed towards the ore with his flashlight.
Chen Feng shone his flashlight around for what seemed like an eternity, until he heard his father calling him from behind.
"Fengzi, everyone has finished eating, come and eat."
"I'm not eating now, I'll talk about it later."
Chen Feng is now really focused. Finding the goods is the priority, since time is limited and there's no rush to eat.
They worked like this until after 11:40 p.m., when Chen Feng was so tired he could barely stand up straight. He looked at the others who were still chiseling ore and waved his hand, saying, "Alright, alright, stop working, let's go home and get some sleep."
"Fengzi, it's still early, you can work for a while longer," someone said after glancing at their phone.
They initially agreed to work until midnight, saying it wouldn't be a problem to work a little longer, but they felt somewhat guilty about leaving before midnight.
"I'm done, I'm done. It's already hard to work at night. Everyone come back at six tomorrow morning. Go home and get some rest now," Chen Feng said, shaking his head.
He was hungry and tired, and he couldn't keep up with the search by himself. After all, there were more than fifty people digging without holding back, and they were using all their strength.
The gold ore mined in just one day has already covered a huge area.
Hearing Chen Feng's insistence, everyone put down their tools, wiped the sweat from their foreheads, and prepared to finish work and go home to sleep.
These next few days look like they're going to be a bit tough.
After Huang Fei had taken them all home, he went back to sleep, while Chen Feng sat in the living room and finally ate his instant noodles.
"Why is it suddenly so urgent? You've been working almost non-stop all day," Liu Ping asked with some concern, looking at Chen Feng wolfing down his food.
"Time is tight, you're still not asleep?" Chen Feng asked Xia Yingying as she came downstairs.
"I took a nap, and I woke up when I heard you were back. Haven't you eaten yet?" Xia Yingying asked, somewhat surprised.
"I didn't have time, so I had to find the ore myself. If I stopped, there would be no progress at all, and no matter how much I dug, it would just be sitting there." Chen Feng had his own considerations.
"Have you found a suitable one yet?" Xia Yingying asked, sitting down next to him.
"It's not that easy to find. They're all misfits, nothing presentable. Besides, about a third of the gold that's been mined so far hasn't been picked up yet," Chen Feng said, picking up his instant noodles and taking a sip of soup.
"If you're in such a hurry, I'll go with you to look for one tomorrow. Others may not know which ones will work, but I do," Xia Yingying said after thinking for a moment.
She can't help with mining, but she can help with prospecting; she can at least share some of the burden.
"Okay, then you can come with me tomorrow. I really can't find it by myself." Chen Feng didn't refuse. After finishing his noodles, he led Xia Yingying upstairs to sleep.
It's even harder now than when he was panning for gold.
Even when panning for gold in the wild, people never got to sleep for five or six hours a day.
Chen Feng was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. The next day, his phone alarm rang, and Xia Yingying was already dressed and looking for her bag.
"It's six o'clock. Why didn't you call me? The workers must be here by now," Chen Feng said, sitting up and yawning.
"No rush, Uncle has already gone. I want you to get some more sleep," Xia Yingying said.
Chen Feng put on his clothes, quickly washed his face, and set off with Xia Yingying, eating some bread along the way.
When Chen Feng brought Xia Yingying there, many people unconsciously looked over. Many people only knew that Chen Feng's girlfriend was very beautiful, but they had never actually seen her before.
Xia Yingying was wearing a plain camouflage outfit today, the most common work clothes in the countryside, and she wasn't wearing makeup, but her top-notch looks were still undeniable.
"They really look good together, a perfect match of a handsome man and a beautiful woman."
"That's not necessary. A young man as outstanding as Chen Feng deserves a girl as beautiful as him."
Listening to everyone's words, Chen Jianguo felt very proud.
Isn't she beautiful, my daughter-in-law!
"I just picked up all the ones I thought were about the same and put them in the bag, then showed them to you all at once," Xia Yingying said to Chen Feng, carrying the bag.
“Okay, I’ve finished picking up those over there. You go to the left, there’s no one picked up over there,” Chen Feng told her the directions.
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