Chapter 528

Although the gold mine map in Wang An's hand marked the mountains and rivers quite clearly, the geographical location was not precise, providing only a general direction.

Therefore, after entering the mountains, the group could only search according to this direction.

Fortunately, although there were many small streams in the mountains, there weren't many that could be called rivers.

In the mountains during this season, because the snow had already melted, it could be said that everywhere was a muddy mess.

And most importantly, this was a mountain range that Wang An and the others were completely unfamiliar with.

So after entering, they not only had to adjust their direction at any time but also had to be constantly aware of the dangers underfoot.

Speaking of which, some might ask, what kind of danger could there be underfoot? You have to know that in this era, hunting was not prohibited, meaning there was nothing wrong with catching prey by any means.

Therefore, things like wolf traps, snares, deep pits, and even some homemade landmines were all things that would be used.

Although there might not be many of these things, and the people who made them would usually mark them with conspicuous signs nearby.

But it must be said that there would always be traps, pits, wolf traps, and landmines whose signs had disappeared or been forgotten.

So, as long as you were careless enough to run into one, the best case was having to go back down the mountain immediately, and the worst case was losing your life right then and there.

As for the locals, after a long time, they knew about these things and would bypass these areas when entering the mountains.

But for outsiders, it was truly a case of being completely in the dark.

Just like that, as the group moved forward, their speed was not fast at all; mainly, it was truly impossible to go fast.

When night fell, it meant the day had come to an end.

Unfortunately, Wang An and the others had made absolutely no progress; not only had they not found the river or the mountain, but they had only covered sixty or seventy li.

However, everyone's faces were still full of enthusiasm.

If a gold mine were so easy to find, gold in this world might be on the same level as stones.

At dinner, the group ate the sticky bean buns that Wang An had brought into the mountains.

But when eating them, they looked quite disgusting.

Because this stuff was extremely hard after freezing, the group used a fire to roast them, gnawing off a little at a time.

This resulted in the golden-brown buns being covered in nothing but tooth marks and drool, plus the dark, mushy bean paste.

To tell the truth, holding this thing in your hand was like... the biggest advantage of sticky bean buns is that they keep you from being hungry, and the bean paste in the buns Wang An brought into the mountains was still sweet.

Just don't misunderstand; although the bean paste was sweet, it had nothing to do with white sugar or brown sugar.

And the reason the bean paste was sweet was that when boiling the bean paste, Liu Guilan had put two saccharin tablets in it.

Unfortunately, by the time Wang An realized that saccharin had been put in the bean paste, it was already too late.

Saccharin was a very popular edible item in this era that every household had.

However, although this stuff was called "saccharin," it had absolutely nothing to do with "sugar."

The proper name for this substance is "benzoic sulfimide," and it is a genuine industrial product.

Each tablet was slightly larger than a grain of millet, and the supply and marketing cooperative sold a small bag for 2 cents, with about 30 tablets per bag.

However, although this stuff was an industrial product, it was non-toxic and quite sweet—so sweet it was bitter. But while eating a little bit was fine, it was absolutely forbidden to eat too much, because eating too much would cause stomach bloating and frequent urination.

As someone who had been reborn, Wang An naturally understood this stuff better and knew deeply that its harms went far beyond these two.

Therefore, Wang An didn't let Mu Xueqing or his two younger sisters eat a single one of the buns made with the pot of bean paste that Liu Guilan had put saccharin in.

Because the harm of saccharin to pregnant women and children was the greatest!

For adults, eating it once or twice occasionally was actually not a problem.

So, Wang An had brought all these buns into the mountains.

However, when Wang An learned that there was still half a bag—about 10 more tablets—of saccharin at home, he found them and threw them into the stove.

And Wang An also very seriously told Mu Xueqing and Liu Guilan that they could no longer buy this stuff to eat in the future.

Of course, Wang An also briefly explained the reason to them: in 1977, the United States discovered that this stuff was carcinogenic and then explicitly banned its consumption.

After finishing the buns, setting up the tents, and arranging the rotation for night watch, those who weren't on watch crawled into their tents to sleep.

And at this moment, the superiority of the Oroqen horses could be demonstrated.

Because the group rode horses into the mountains, although they could carry a lot of things on their backs, there was indeed no room to carry dry grass.

So, Wang An and the others untied the bits of these Oroqen horses and tied them to trees with a longer rope attached to the reins.

In this way, the Oroqen horses could eat both the dry grass on the ground and the tender branches on the trees.

It must be admitted that the Oroqen horse is indeed the easiest horse to raise.

Generally speaking, at night, if there is a campfire, wild beasts usually won't approach.

So, the group spent the night quite peacefully.

On the morning of the third day, perhaps because they were excited about finding the gold mine, everyone got up as soon as the sky turned bright.

To avoid wasting time, the group ate canned meat and flatbread for breakfast.

Heating canned meat is very simple: you only need to open the lid and place the can on the charcoal fire; after a few minutes, the canned meat is heated.

After the group hurriedly finished breakfast, they packed up their tents and luggage and continued into the deep mountains.

And for the entire third day, the group still gained nothing, which was basically no different from the second day.

It wasn't until the fourth day that the situation finally had a breakthrough, and the group had already penetrated more than 200 li into the mountains.

Just as Wang An handed the horse reins to Mu Xueli and stayed behind to urinate, he habitually looked at the spot where his stream of urine was about to land.

Then, Wang An opened the floodgates.

But when Wang An finished urinating and lowered his head to tie his pants, his peripheral vision caught a flash of bright yellow color in the puddle where the urine hadn't yet soaked in.

Seeing this touch of gold, Wang An's heart was instantly filled with a sense of premonition and anticipation.

Too busy to finish adjusting his pants, and not caring about the remaining urine in the puddle, Wang An suddenly squatted down and reached his hand into the puddle to dig.

When Wang An's hand left the puddle, he discovered that the thing in his hand was actually a gold nugget!

(End of chapter)