Chapter 2: Picking up Ore

  At night, Hei Zi thought a lot. He remembered Tan Mei's words, his mother's last words, and also the words his father said to him in that slightly hoarse voice.

  Without ability, nothing can be accomplished. My mother hopes I'll become a good person who can help others, but without ability, what can I use to help others?

  Tan Mei left him not because of herself, but because he didn't make progress and couldn't give her what she wanted. Tan Mei was a good girl, although they had been apart for many years, now Hei Zi still felt a sharp pain in his heart when thinking about it, making him want to cry.

  In the army, Hei Zi studied military technology with all his might. He realized that the simplicity of the weapons in his hands was due to the fact that his country's overall strength was not as good as others. If one had the power, would they be looked down upon by others?

  Strength, one must have strength, only with strength can one do what they want to do, can make others look up to them, and can hold their head high.

  The next day, Xiao Fei looked at Hei Zi with a strange expression. Hei Zi seemed to have changed into another person and was no longer as decadent as he had been the night before.

  "Hei Zi, what's wrong with you today? You seem like a different person, so spirited all of a sudden." Zhu Xiao Fei asked in surprise.

  "Xiao Fei, some things we'll talk about later. Today let's go to the town and take a look around, see if there's any way to make some money." Heizi said while packing up the bedding.

  Just as they were about to leave after finishing packing, someone in the courtyard shouted loudly: "Xiao Fei, Xiao Fei is at home?"

  As he spoke, a tall and handsome young man pushed the door open and walked in, seeing Zhu Xiaofei said with a big smile: "Ah, there are guests at home."

  "Second son is here." Zhuo Xiao Fei smiled and said, turning his head to Hei Zi: "This is Erzi, my childhood friend."

  Erzi and Heizi said two sentences before turning their heads to ask: "Xiaofei, what are you planning to do in the future?"

  Xiao Fei shook his head and said: "I don't know, we two brothers discussed it for half the night but couldn't come to a conclusion."

  "Why don't you two come with me to pick some minerals?" Erzi said, looking at the two of them.

  "He picked up a mine, can he pick up a mine too?" Hei Zi asked curiously.

  "Of course, when luck is on our side, we can pick up quite a few."

  Erzi told him about picking up ore and Heizi's spirit was shocked. He thought that this might be a way to make money.

  "Second child, talk about how to pick up ore."

  Hei Zi finished speaking and pulled Er Zi into the inner room, letting him sit down, preparing to listen to Er Zi's good talk.

  Hei Zi was very disappointed after hearing that, it turned out that picking ore was going to the slag heap of a state-owned open-pit mine, sometimes there would be some low-grade ore in the slag of the state-owned mine, which the state-owned mine didn't bother to collect, and local farmers would go to the slag slope to pick up the ore, accumulate it and then look for buyers.

  Hei Zi was disappointed, but Er Zi arrived and was very enthusiastic. He wanted to take them together, and since Hei Zi had just returned, he was eager to understand the situation in the small town and its surroundings. He readily agreed.

  The state-owned open-pit mine is seventeen or eighteen miles away from Gejiabao, and you can see it by going around the high mountain in front of Gejiabao. The highway to the small town extends further into the mountains to reach it.

  Every household in Gejiabao has a motorcycle, Erzi rides his own, and Zhu Xiaofei takes Heizi with him.

  The mountainous area is not unfamiliar, and along the rural highway around the mountain in front of us, a very large mine appeared soon.

  A great mountain has been stripped of its peak, with a winding road circling around it. Cars are speeding along the road, kicking up clouds of dust, and the air is filled with dust everywhere. The grass by the roadside has all turned gray. The entire mine looks like a huge wound on the mountain's body, except that what flows out isn't blood, but swirling dust and truckloads of white, gray, and black stones.

  Gejiabao is not far from the mine, and the management of this open-pit mine is not very strict. There are many roads leading into the mine, but after entering the mine and going around to the back of the slag slope, it took a long time.

  The road in the mining area is difficult to walk, bumpy and uneven. There is no road at all on the slag slope, and the small roads are all opened up by people picking up minerals, which are very simple and dangerous.

  Behind the slope, many people appeared, some in groups of several people, others in groups of over a dozen people, and there were also some simple equipment and iron sheds.

  Two children brought Zhuo Xiaofei and Heizi to a stop in front of a conveyor belt driven by an electromagnetic roller, which was powered by a diesel engine that had just started up, emitting loud popping sounds and black smoke.

  Erzi introduced the situation to Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei, asking them to work with him first. After selling the mine and making money, he would buy equipment and work alone again.

  Xiao Fei was disappointed as soon as he picked out the ore. He didn't understand ore, but the residents living near the mine had all seen it before. The so-called ore in front of him was the same color as the soil and looked nothing like ore at all.

  Xiao Fei shook his head and said: "Second son, you're busy, we'll just take a look around."

  Although disappointed, Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei still wandered around the slag site for a whole morning. It wasn't until almost lunchtime that they returned to Er Zi's magnetic roller, where many of the minerals they had picked were already piled up. Several workers were transporting the minerals to a storage platform tens of meters away.

  Although the two were not prepared to pick up ore with Erzi, they still gained something. On the way back, Heizi said: "Xiaofei, picking up ore is not unprofitable, it's just that their method of picking is wrong."

  Xiao Fei was thoroughly disappointed with the ore, and after hearing Heizi's words, he curiously asked: "Who would want that low-quality ore? It can't even be sold for money."

  What Xiaofei said is also very reasonable, in the past no one picked up this kind of ore, it was only in recent years that the price of ore rose and people came to pick it up, the picked ore can only be sold at a low price, and it's extremely hard to sell.

  Hei Zi analyzed on the road why picking up minerals is not profitable, when to pick them up and how to pick them up to make a profit.

  Back home, Xiao Fei finally understood that Heizi was really going to become a hooligan. His method of picking up ore was very simple: bribe the mine workers and let them dump the ore into the slag heap as waste, then hire a car to take it away and sell it.

  This approach is too impractical, Xiaofei just listened and denied it, Heizi didn't plan to do it either. Now the price of ore is too low, and using his method to collect ore also requires a lot of capital, without capital, it can't be done at all.

  They denied picking up ore as a way of making money and came to the town the next day to find other ways to make money.

  The small town now and the one when Hei Zi left have changed a lot. The buildings and streets are still the same, but the people have changed. The troublemakers who used to cause trouble on the streets are all busy making money now. There's no more fighting, but there's more stealing. The number of loafers wandering around has decreased, and occasionally you see a few, dressed differently from before. Even the rough-looking ones have become stylish, with gold chains around their necks and famous watches on their wrists.

  Seeing the mixed-race kid on the street reminded him of Ouyang Qiang. He asked Zhu Xiaofei beside him, "Xiaofei, is Ouyang Qiang still around?"

  "He left last year, his dad got promoted and is now the district head, they also moved to the county town."

  "What are those mixed-bloods doing now?" Hei Zi asked casually.

  Hei Zi knew that in this era, if you want to make money quickly, you have to think of ways. If you do business by the book, it's hard and slow to earn money.

  "There are all sorts of people, thieves and robbers, those who live off others, and those who run gambling dens and brothels." Little Fei muttered to herself.

  Hei Zi smiled and shook his head, saying: "We don't do things that harm others and ourselves, at most we just play a game of edge ball."

  Two people were chatting, a thin young man with two people walked out from the alley, Zhuo Xiaofei recognized at a glance that it was Yin Le.

  "Hey, Le Er, where are you going?" Zhu Xiao Fei hailed from afar.

  Since Hei Zi left, Zhuo Xiao Fei and Ou Yang Hui's younger brothers didn't get along well, but they never took action. Last year, when Ou Yang Hui left, Yin Le lost his backing and automatically tried to make amends with Zhuo Xiao Fei and the others. Zhuo Xiao Fei and the others also didn't make things difficult for them, and by graduation time, their relationship was still okay.

  Yin Le heard Zhu Xiaofei shouting and was just about to walk over when he saw Hei Zi next to Zhu Xiaofei, and hesitated for a moment, fearing that Hei Zi would cause trouble for him.