"Brother, how much do you think this is worth?" Lin Nian grinned.
"I estimate it's around ten yuan. You're quite something, kid. It's not even morning yet, and you've already made a lot," Chen Feng said, somewhat surprised.
To be honest, in this abandoned mine, if you can find fifty items a day, that's pretty good. Lin Nian almost reached that number in just one morning; he's really lucky.
"Haha, brother, what were you doing in the back just now? I saw you digging for ages." Lin Nian put the silver granules into the bottle and asked curiously.
Upon hearing this, Chen Feng hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should tell him the truth.
Lin Nian definitely wouldn't tell anyone, but after thinking about it, he decided not to tell Lin Nian for the time being.
After all, he only makes a dozen or so dollars a time, while I make several thousand. He's bound to feel frustrated. Let him get familiar with the gold rush business first, and we'll talk about it later.
"I came here to hunt for bargains, but after digging for ages, all I found was scrap metal."
Chen Feng answered.
"Oh, I just dug up a piece of scrap metal too. I heard that the gold prospectors in the village collect scrap metal and then sell it together. Should we collect it too?" Lin Nian asked doubtfully.
Although scrap metal isn't worth much, it seems like you can sell it for a little while if you accumulate enough.
"Forget it, you'd only get a few dollars for scrap metal after spending a month's worth of gold, and you'd have to carry it all the way home. It's not worth it." Chen Feng had specifically asked Zheng Ping how much scrap metal they could sell in a month.
With such low returns, there's really no need to save up at all. Besides, even someone as stingy as Zheng Ping doesn't care about scrap metal anymore, let alone Chen Feng and his friend.
“Yeah, I actually feel like I can’t save much money either.” Lin Nian nodded in agreement.
The two of them browsed for a while longer. Lin Nian found a small item worth a few dollars, while Chen Feng found a few silver coins. They estimated that the total value of the items was around eighty or ninety dollars.
"Alright, it's noon. Let's head back. It's time for lunch," Chen Feng said to Lin Nian.
"Okay, brother, what are we having for lunch? My grandpa brought us some pancakes when I left, so we can eat them if we get hungry at noon," Lin Nian asked, turning his head.
"Why bother with pancakes? Let's have canned beef and rice for lunch."
Chen Feng had long been interested in that canned food and wanted to try it to see what it tasted like.
"Canned beef is good, it tastes better than pancakes, hehe." Lin Nian is still quite young, but he has a sweet tooth and doesn't like dry pancakes. Canned beef sounds much more appealing.
The two returned to the Wuling van. Chen Feng glanced at the GPS; the error was less than ten meters, which was acceptable.
Even if it's nighttime and visibility is poor, you can find your base by walking within ten meters using GPS and looking at it with the naked eye.
If a base cannot be found even with an error within ten meters...
Then there's no point in using GPS anymore; you should go get your eyes treated first.
Chen Feng opened the back cover of the Wuling van, and first asked Lin Nian to open the water bucket and fetch some water. The two of them washed their hands and arms first.
Then Chen Feng took out a can of beef from the box, and then took out an aluminum lunchbox, rinsed the rice in it, and added water.
Take out the windproof stove, stuff it with alcohol blocks, and then place the lunchbox on top to steam the food.
Chen Feng asked Lin Nian to find some stones to build a small stove for heating canned food, since he only had one windproof stove and couldn't heat canned food while cooking rice.
When the can of beef was opened, there was a layer of solidified butter on top. Chen Feng took a sniff and thought it smelled pretty good.
Lin Nian quickly found a few broken bricks that could be used for stacking. Chen Feng placed alcohol paste underneath and lit it, then placed the canned beef on the bricks.
Everything is now ready, and the two of them can just wait to eat.
They sat in the trunk of the Wuling van, their feet on the ground. The open trunk provided just enough shade. They took a sip of water, lit a cigarette, and waited for the food to cook.
"Brother, panning for gold is so much fun! You can even start a fire and cook. I remember the two of us used to light a fire in the cornfield and roast corn. We thought roasted corn smelled so good back then. Why doesn't it taste as good when we roast it at home?"
Lin Nian took a drag of his cigarette and said, not quite understanding.
"Because when you secretly light a fire in the cornfield to roast corn, you're not just eating corn, you're also eating your lost youth," Chen Feng said with a sigh.
Upon hearing this, Lin Nian looked into the distance, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Tell me, why do people live?" Lin asked softly.
"That's a deep question. Why do you think we should live?"
Chen Feng turned to look at Lin Nian. He hadn't expected that Lin Nian, who seemed carefree, would suddenly ask such a profound question.
Lin Nian thought about it seriously for a moment, then took a drag of his cigarette, looked into the distance and replied, "I want my family to live a good life, to make my grandfather happy, to live in a big house, and to stop my father from suffering in the county town every day."
"Then that's the purpose of your life. Strive to achieve it," Chen Feng replied.
"Of course, you also have to add yourself to the equation. Make sure you live a good life. If a person can't even treat himself well, then he can't treat others well."
Although Chen Feng understood, he didn't want to discuss it too deeply with Lin Nian or use vague philosophical concepts; he didn't like that.
It's better to keep things simple in life.
"Um."
Lin Nian nodded and flicked the cigarette butt far away.
After a while, the aroma of canned beef wafted into their nostrils, and they both took a deep breath at the same time.
"Wow, this canned food was definitely worth buying, it smells really good!" Chen Feng said with some surprise, his eyes filled with delight.
"Brother, is the food ready?" Lin Nian was starving, and his stomach rumbled as soon as he smelled the aroma.
"It'll be ready soon, go get another lunchbox."
Chen Feng picked up his chopsticks and stirred the canned beef. The butter on top had all melted, and the tender beef looked plentiful, making it very appetizing.
Lin Nian, holding chopsticks and a lunchbox, squatted down next to Chen Feng, looking on expectantly. After a while, the food was ready, and Chen Feng scooped half of it into his lunchbox.
"Eat!"
At Chen Feng's command, the two of them started eating at the same time.
Perhaps because it was canned, the beef was even more tender than I expected, but it was very fragrant.
The side dishes were very flavorful, and the quail eggs were delicious.
The full can of food was quickly emptied at a visible speed. In the end, Lin Nian poured some soup into his lunchbox and ate it along with the rice.
"Brother, this canned food is so delicious. I've never eaten such good canned food before. If we don't save the leftover broth, I can use it to make rice when I get home."
Lin Nian looked at the remaining soup in the can and felt a little reluctant to part with it.
"Come on, stop it. What are you going to do with the leftover soup? If you want some, I have more. Take two boxes home and eat them." Chen Feng quickly stopped his crazy behavior, saying that he shouldn't be so frugal.
"Alright then," Lin Nian said, smacking his lips, sounding somewhat unsatisfied.
After the two finished eating, Lin Nian took Chen Feng's lunchbox and filled a bucket with water to clean it.
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