Chapter 250: Fighting for land

Professor Xu led a group of people straight down to the bottom of the pit where the dog-head gold was dug out. He took out a geological hammer and a magnifying glass from his box, squatted down, and carefully tapped the stones at the bottom of the pit.

The pit was large, enough to accommodate three or four mahjong tables. The depression at the bottom was already filled with water, which was clear and transparent, emitting wisps of white steam. Clearly, this water had a temperature.

I tested the water temperature, and it was indeed warm. I immediately thought of the hot spring in the back pond. Could this water be from the same underground water system? A new idea suddenly popped into my mind: if Professor Xu's survey showed there was no gold mine underground, developing a hot spring resort might not be a bad choice.

Once the idea was born, it grew wildly like weeds. I discovered that Suxi was full of treasures; it was like a daughter raised in a deep boudoir, slowly lifting her mysterious veil.

This was originally a material world, where everyone was pursuing a better state of life. But as long as you walked into Suxi, you would suddenly find that for the people here, a meal and a drink were almost the entirety of life. Although there were those who envied the wealth of others, they were in the minority, and they could only hide it in their hearts, not showing it at all. I had felt this deeply six years ago when I first arrived in Suxi.

Suxi had many mountains, completely in the shape of three parts water, six parts mountain, and one part field. Although there wasn't much water, every mountain would flow out a clear spring, whether large or small, warm or cold, and so on. The mountains in Suxi were mostly deciduous shrubs, with many stones, and the stones were covered with moss. Under the moss, fat earthworms were hidden. If you lifted one, you could see them stretching their long, thin bodies stupidly.

In the crevices of the stones, small shrubs grew tenaciously. If the terrain was slightly more open, there would definitely be pine trees full of holes, with thick pine needles falling under the trees. Walking on them felt as soft as a carpet. If it was the turn of spring and summer, after a rain, pink wild mushrooms would emerge from under the trees. If you picked up a stone and threw it into the bushes, you would always startle a dull-headed pheasant or a lively gray wild rabbit.

For thousands of years, Suxi didn't know what drought was; the clear springs flowing down from the mountains never stopped all year round. Spring water was a treasure that the people of Suxi couldn't live without for a lifetime. Watering fields, washing clothes, cooking, bathing—any stream of water, if you scooped it up and put it to your mouth, felt sweet, cool, and refreshing.

Only Laoyingzui was an exception. Laoyingzui was the highest mountain in Suxi. It held the main road to all the villages in Suxi, like the mouth of a bag. To go inside, one had to enter from the mouth of the bag.

Laoyingzui had many stones, and they were jagged and strange. There were no trees on the mountain, and it was covered with thatch all year round. But in autumn, the thatch all over the mountain would extract white cores, looking like a thick layer of snow, which was quite spectacular.

Laoyingzui was a mountain, a mountain that had loomed over the hearts of the people of Suxi for generations. It was like a barrier, blocking the temptations of the prosperous world outside, allowing generation after generation of mountain people to contentedly guard their thin fields and live a frugal but comfortable life.

My arrival gave Suxi the urge to move toward the outside world. Pan Xiaoqin went from the more distant Gude Village to the big city, Xi Meizhu had become half a city dweller, and even Jin Ling, who had never been to a big city in her life, now wore socks and leather shoes just like city people. In the eyes of the Suxi people who were used to walking barefoot all year round, only the landlord's wife of the past would have such enjoyment.

Changing the lives of the mountain people and letting them know the excitement of the outside world had been my wish since I arrived.

Professor Xu held up a stone and shouted: "Zhouzhou, come and see, what is this?"

I also leaned over. In Professor Xu's hand lay an unremarkable stone, the size of two fists, with distinct corners. It was almost no different from the stones usually seen.

Zhou Zhouzhou came over at the sound, took the stone from Professor Xu's hand, looked at it carefully before his eyes, and then pulled out a geological hammer from behind his back, tapped off a small piece, and stared at it intently against the rising sun, squinting his eyes.

I also followed suit, looking for a long time without seeing any clues. So I avoided the sun, which was not yet stinging, squatted down, scooped up a handful of water from the depression, and splashed it on my face, immediately feeling refreshed.

"Town Mayor Chen," Zhou Zhouzhou's voice trembled slightly as he pointed to an unremarkable thing in the crack of the stone: "What is this? It's gold sand."

His words drew everyone else over, scrambling to take the stone to look at it closely.

Qian Youyu, who was originally standing on the edge of the pit, felt his legs go weak and almost fell down. He sat on the ground, muttering: "It's over, it's over."

The news that a gold mine vein had been discovered at the Laoyingzui construction site spread faster than if it had grown wings. As soon as we climbed out of the pit, we found that the area around the pit was surrounded by people from Laoyingzui Village.

The leader was still Zhao Dequan, who was dragging a pair of cloth shoes, looking at me with a grin: "Town Mayor Chen, this time you can't arrest people, right?"

"Why would I arrest you?" I asked strangely, looking at the group of men, women, and children standing behind him, all staring at me with eyes as big as ox eggs, looking at me fiercely.

"What are you all doing?" I felt weak under my feet. Public anger is hard to provoke!

"Not doing anything," Zhao Dequan said with a grin, patting the hoe handle he was holding, and said loudly: "You didn't pay for this land; it's still Laoyingzui's land, right?"

I nodded, not knowing what he wanted to say.

"Laoyingzui's land is no longer for any water plant; we are going to mine. Town Mayor Chen, you take them and leave. It has nothing to do with them now, and it has nothing to do with this Boss Qian." Zhao Dequan smiled easily, revealing a mouthful of charred yellow teeth.

"Mineral resources belong to the state; how can they be yours?" Zhou Zhouzhou added a sentence from the side, immediately causing a roar from the crowd: "Who are you? Talking nonsense."

Zhou Zhouzhou looked at me, shrank to the side, and said nothing more.

"I see you're not an official either, so I won't lower myself to your level," Zhao Dequan glanced at Zhou Zhouzhou with contempt: "Here, Town Mayor Chen is the boss. Whoever he says it belongs to, it belongs to."

I couldn't express my position! After thinking for a moment, before I could speak, the crowd pushed out a person. Leaning on a cane, he stood trembling before me, holding an ancient book in his hand. Who else could it be but Zhao the Fortune Teller?

"I say, Official Chen, this is the genealogy of my Zhao family. It is recorded with evidence. This land is something left by our ancestors. I won't hide it from you; those who died halfway in the past are all buried here."

Zhao the Fortune Teller spoke with certainty, not allowing me to refute at all. He pointed to the grave of Zhao Deliang in the distance and sighed: "Look at my nephew Deliang, who died just after reaching thirty. He couldn't enter the ancestral grave and could only accompany these lonely ghosts. Sleeping here alone, don't you think it's pitiful?"

His words were eerie, making a layer of cold sweat break out on people's backs.

"It's your land, that's correct," I sorted out my thoughts and spoke: "You all know that land belongs to the state, and collective land also belongs to the state. Engineer Zhou was right just now; underground mineral resources all belong to the state. Let alone collective land, even private land bought with money, if minerals are found, it still belongs to the state."

"It's the state's, that's true. Tell me, are we people of the state?" Zhao Dequan asked me with a cold smile.

"Of course you are," I nodded and replied.

"Since we are people of the state, these mineral resources are also ours, right?" As soon as his voice fell, a roar sounded from behind: "It's ours."

"What do you want to do?" I questioned Zhao Dequan sternly. If I didn't suppress him in momentum at this time, he would ride on my head.

"I said, not doing anything," Zhao Dequan grinned again: "Since gold came out of the ground, you have to give us an explanation. Everyone, don't you think so?"

Another roar.

"What explanation do you want?"

"Either you leave and we at Laoyingzui mine it, or you give us money, per head, ten thousand each first. Not a cent less."

"Dream on!" I cursed: "Zhao Dequan, you must have been blinded by money. You are bold; you are even blackmailing the government."

"Say whatever you want, I'm not afraid," Zhao Dequan said with confidence, pointing to the crowd behind him: "If you want to arrest me this time, they will all follow. Let's see how many people your police station can hold."

"I won't arrest you!" I said with a smile: "Zhao Dequan, if you dare to cause trouble, you are looking for death."

"I'm not afraid of death. As long as it's for the happiness of everyone in Laoyingzui Village, kill me, Zhao Dequan, and there will be others." Zhao Dequan was fearless and giggled: "Town Mayor Chen, you are the big swindler on TV. First, you used a fake household registration to trick us into giving your government hundreds of acres of land for nothing, and now you want to use a fake job to trick us into giving you a gold mine. All the good things in the world have been done by you; what are we supposed to do?"

"Cut the crap!" I was furious, pointing at his nose and roaring: "Zhao Dequan, if you talk nonsense again and incite the masses, don't blame me for being impolite."

Zhao Dequan was bluffed by my bluffing and turned to look at the crowd behind him. There was a sea of people, but not a single person made a sound.

My courage grew much larger, and I shouted to Xue Bing: "Teacher Xue, call Director Hao."

Xue Bing hesitated for a moment, looked at me, reached out to take Huang Weiwei's phone, and lowered her head to dial the number.

The crowd was in a commotion, and some people began to retreat.

Suddenly, an eerie voice sounded again: "Everyone don't be afraid. If you want to arrest someone, arrest me first. Anyway, I'm already buried up to my nose in the yellow earth." ===== CHAPTER 251 =====