The dried stalks of pinks are quite resilient, so many of their leaves do not fall off. Furthermore, their "heads"—the area beneath the dried petals—are where the seeds are located.
Normally, the seed pods would naturally burst, scattering the seeds nearby to germinate and grow.
Most importantly, pinks are perennial plants; as long as the roots are not destroyed, the plant will not die.
Therefore, as long as pinks are growing, they typically form large patches, expanding more and more over time.
Wang An walked up to this patch of stalks, pinched open a remaining seed pod to take a look, and finally confirmed that this entire patch of stalks consisted of pinks.
Once his anticipation was confirmed, Wang An's mood could be described as exceptionally joyful.
Although it was currently the thawing season, the ground had not completely thawed, meaning the soil was still very hard.
However, for Wang An, this was no issue at all.
Actually, it wasn't just for Wang An; it was the same for anyone.
When it comes to digging for treasure, let alone frozen soil that hasn't fully thawed—without any exaggeration—even if it were rock-hard stone, one would simply use a sledgehammer to smash it open.
To put it bluntly, as long as the money is right, even if you were in a cesspool, I'd jump in mouth-open and haul you out.
That's just my nature! That's just my grit! That's just how damn badass I am!
Wang An first tried digging with a shovel, but he couldn't get it more than 3 centimeters deep before it stopped moving.
Consequently, Wang An took off the burlap sack containing the gold nuggets and his Type 81 rifle from his back and set them aside. Picking up the shovel again, he bared his teeth and glared at the earth, engaging in a battle of wills with the soil.
As a "clink, clink, clink" sound rang out, sparks flew every time the shovel head struck the ground.
Don't misunderstand; the sparks were simply because the soil was mixed with many stones of various sizes.
Thus, it was perfectly normal for the shovel head to clash with stones and produce sparks.
It must be said that digging a hole in ground mixed with stones is a genuinely exhausting task.
Crucially, the soil was in a semi-frozen state, which meant every single scoop Wang An took required immense effort.
After an unknown number of scoops, a "crack" sounded. The wooden handle of the shovel, finally unable to withstand the dual assault of Wang An and the ground, went straight to see the Buddha!
It had actually committed suicide!
To be honest, a shovel handle is usually quite sturdy, but one must realize that it isn't particularly thick. Especially when prying heavy objects, once the weight exceeds its own limit of endurance, breaking becomes inevitable.
The reason the handle in Wang An's hand snapped was that he had jammed the shovel into a crevice between stones and applied too much force while instinctively prying outward.
However, the sudden snap of the handle jolted Wang An.
Holding the remaining section of the handle, Wang An lunged forward and dove headfirst into the stalks.
Fortunately, Wang An's head was lowered, so the top of his skull acted like a bulldozer, knocking down all the stalks in his path.
It must be said that when a person concentrates all their strength into their head, the power is genuinely quite formidable.
Truthfully, although Wang An looked pathetic lying in the stalks, he was actually completely unharmed, as the cotton hat on his head absorbed everything.
Standing up, Wang An looked at the half-handle in his hand, let out a deep sigh, and tossed the piece far away.
Breaking at the critical moment—how fucking annoying!
He looked at the shovel with its remaining handle, then at the small hole he had already dug to a depth of over ten centimeters. Wang An picked up the shovel, ground the broken end of the handle against a stone, and crouched there to continue digging.
Actually, a short-handled shovel was quite useful; at the very least, it was much better than digging with his hands.
With a "thump, thump" sound, Wang An deepened the hole by another 5 centimeters or so.
Just as Wang An brushed aside the loosened stones and mud and prepared to scoop down again, he was instantly stunned by the scene before him.
Immediately after, Wang An shouted "Holy shit!" and his breathing became rapid.
The reason for Wang An's loss of composure was that he saw a sight he had never encountered in either his previous or current life.
There, at the roots of these pinks, were countless tiny gold particles packed densely together.
These gold particles looked about the size of millet grains; some were slightly larger, but the largest were not even as big as a grain of rice.
It must be said that the shock of this scene was incredibly intense.
Mainly because Wang An had not only never seen this, but had never even heard of it.
One must remember that in his previous life, Wang An had traveled far and wide, and could be said to be familiar with various anecdotes and local customs from all over.
But this "gold rice" was truly one-of-a-kind. Given Wang An's experience, it was something he had never seen nor heard of!
Wang An set down his shovel and picked up the gold rice from the hole one grain at a time.
After finishing the gold rice in the hole, he sifted through the pile of soil and stones he had previously pushed aside, and sure enough, there were a few more grains of gold rice inside.
This gold rice was golden-yellow in color, though for some reason, the luster was a bit dim, not as bright as the gold nuggets he had found earlier.
After carefully checking the soil pile and the dug hole, he had a total of about 2 taels of gold rice in his hand.
Having collected the gold rice, Wang An stood up and looked at the vast area of undug pink stalks before him, suddenly feeling as if "all the wealth in the world is in my hands."
Because this was a place that produced gold rice, and he hadn't even found the gold mine yet!
The small hole in front of him was only about thirty to forty centimeters in diameter; if he dug up the entire patch of pink stalks, how much gold rice would he get?
Thinking of this, Wang An took out a small cloth bag he had previously used to hold bear gall and put all the gold rice inside.
Satisfied, he tied the mouth of the bag and tucked it into his crossbody pouch. Wang An then looked down, picked up the shovel, and continued scraping.
This time, Wang An didn't use as much force as before, because he discovered that this gold rice wasn't only at a single depth; rather, wherever there were pink roots, this stuff existed.
Furthermore, Wang An found that once the depth of the hole exceeded 15 centimeters, the gold rice vanished completely.
Therefore, Wang An guessed that the existence of this gold rice might be related to these pink plants.
(End of Chapter)