Twelve Golden Riverbanks

  "Thomas, you should exercise." Li Mo patted Thomas on the back and quickly jumped onto a mound.

  Due to river restrictions, the ship cannot directly enter the Canadian Northwest Inland. Originally, according to Thomas and Long Guozhang's suggestion, it should go to Anchorage first and then transfer from there.

  However, Li Mo vetoed this simplest and already verified path. He chose Skagway, a small port located in Alaska that extends to the Canadian Northwest Territory. Not only is it closer to the Yukon River, but also because of its remote location, which fits his idea of secret development. More importantly, as a modern-day time-traveler, the pressure from America was too great. Although Anchorage is now just a small town, if he were to appear there with so many Chinese people, it would likely cause a huge stir.

  Thomas gazed at the small figure passing in front of him, let out a sigh, and it was clear that he was no longer a sturdy tree that could provide shade, but instead had a pale complexion, weak and wan, like a vampire from medieval paintings.

  No way, when bullets pierced one by one chest, when fresh blood gushed out of the wound, when a pair of hateful eyes stared at oneself, and repeated seven or eight times, Thomas was thoroughly numb, until he died, such scenes still ravaged his nerves again and again.

  "He's a devil!" Looking at the thin back in the sunlight, Thomas vowed in his heart that he would never oppose that guy again, even if someone pointed a gun at his head. Because that guy was really too scary, too vicious!

  Li Mo didn't know what Thomas was thinking, if he knew, he would probably laugh out loud even in his dreams.

  Although Li Mo drew a map, it doesn't mean he can find the gold mine. After entering the Skagway Pass for not long, in order to avoid being detected by others, Li Mo took Zhao Long and several others to explore the road first. In this era when the road was not yet complete, they had been jolting on foot for six days.

  "If only I had let that girl come, it would have been nice to have someone to massage my shoulders." After massaging his sore shoulders, Li Mò used the compass he brought from the boat to reconfirm his direction and was certain he hadn't gone the wrong way.

  "Master, how much longer is this going to take!" At this moment, Li Mo had not yet taken out the Mauser, so Zhang Shun was carrying a Spencer rifle on his back and two revolvers in his waistband, looking like a complete bandit. He walked up, panting heavily, and complained: "Are we being fooled by these foreigners? If I had my way, I'd say let's just throw them into the mountains and be done with it!"

  "Nonsense, Young Master said that Mr. Thomas is now our partner, whoever dares to touch a single hair of his, I'll be the first to collect your corpse." Zhao Long also climbed up at this time and saw Zhang Shun with a belly full of grievances, his eyes widened in surprise.

  "That's right, that's right, listen to Big Brother... Oh no, listen to Young Master!" Zhang Shun this little guy feared nothing in heaven or earth, only Zhao Long, so when he saw Zhao Long glare at him, he hastily made a bow and flattered.

  "Haha, I think Zhang Shun brother is mistaken, these drawings were all done by the young master. If you really want to investigate, then you should go find the young master first!" Long Guozhang had already learned everything from Chen Ping, although he still didn't believe Li Mo could really find a gold mine, but he followed along anyway.

  "Ah!" Zhang Shun was stunned, he had always thought it was Thomas who drew the map, how did it become Young Master's?! He hastily asked: "Young Master, is this really drawn by you?!"

  "Teacher told me!" Li Mo kicked Zhang Shun: "Doubting young master, crime increased by one degree!"

  "Teacher? Isn't the young master's teacher that guy... Tooth or something? Has he also been to... oh, right, Canada?" Zhang Shun was puzzled. He had interacted with the young master's foreign teacher many times, but no matter how he looked at him, he seemed like an uneducated person who spent more time running around brothels than studying. But in the young master's words, he became a genius. However, Zhang Shun didn't dare say this out loud and could only hide his doubts inside.

  "Master, it's getting dark soon. Let's set up camp after crossing that mountain." Zhao Long handed over the water bag and asked, pointing to the front.

  Li Mo nodded and instructed Zhang Shun to scout ahead first, then took over the water bag and sat down.

  Zhang Shun did not disappoint, having followed Li Guotai's personal guard, he leapt down the mountain slope in just a few bounds and disappeared quickly into the forest. With such agile movements, combined with this young man's innate sly nature, he only needed a bit of training to become an excellent scout!

  Less than half a watch, just as Li Mo and others were about to continue on their way, Zhang Shun came to report that there was a large river bay beyond the mountain slope, but the sky had already begun to darken, and they couldn't see its full appearance.

  He finished speaking and suddenly pulled out two wild rabbits from behind his back, saying with a smug expression: "I caught them by chance, we'll have a delicious meal tonight."

  "Go on, young one! Without a sound, you've even caught two wild rabbits. If I had the time, I'd catch a black pheasant for you!" Looking at the two plump wild rabbits, Long Guo Zhang's mouth watered profusely. These past few days of hanging out together had made everyone as familiar with each other as family.

  Li Mo didn't look at the wild rabbit, because Zhang Shun's words suddenly warmed his heart. In fact, he had been very worried these past few days, after all, the terrain over a hundred years ago was completely different from what he saw when he traveled, not to mention that they didn't have suitable tools and might easily get lost.

  "What was that? A bay? A big bay? In the northwest of Canada, in the Yukon River basin, wasn't there a big bay before the gold rush? Did I get it wrong? Unfortunately, the sky has already started to darken, so Li Mo can only patiently wait with everyone else and set up camp for the night."

  They soon arrived at the camping site in Zhao Long's mouth, and Zhang Shun quickly cleaned up the wild rabbit, set up a fire, and before long, the meat was fragrant.

  "Master, here you are." Zhang Shun cut off a hind leg with his knife and handed it to the young master. However, Li Mo saw Thomas sitting alone on the side, staring at the rabbit with drooling mouth, so he turned the hind leg over to him instead.

  "Is that for me?" Thomas didn't come to his senses until the hind leg was stuffed into his hands, thinking he could only gnaw on those hard black breads, but unexpectedly the first piece of meat came to him, which made him very surprised.

  "Thomas, forget the past! From now on, we're partners! Of course, if you'd like, you can also consider me a friend!" Li Mo smiled and knew that for the time being, he couldn't change Thomas's wariness towards him. He handed over the rabbit meat and then turned back to his seat.

  "Partner? Friend?" Thomas really couldn't apply these two words to Li Mo, but looking at the plump rabbit meat in his hand, he still had some expectations.

  After dinner, Li Mo sat alone on a large stone, listening to the river water flowing in the distance, and took a deep breath.

  Is it an insect? Is it a dragon? Everything will have to wait until the moment when the sun rises!

  Night fell into the water, soon, the moon rose high, after chatting with Thomas for a while and discussing future matters with Chen Ping, Li Mo entered the tent.

  "Master, Master, come quick!" It was unclear how much time had passed when a loud and boisterous cry woke Li Yunfei up. He thought something was wrong and was so frightened that he didn't even bother to put on his clothes, grabbing his pistol as he rushed out of the tent.

  It wasn't until he rushed out of the tent that he found everyone gathered around the large stone where he sat last night, and the river bay mentioned by Zhang Shun was already in sight.

  "Oh, God! This is the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen!" Thomas exclaimed loudly, for he saw the bay in front of him, and on the sandy beach formed by the river's sediment under the sun's rays, those wonderful golden sparkles!

  That's heaven's blessing!