Riding his beloved horse through the forest, the dappled sunlight gave the woods an incomprehensible elegance. Old John took out a wrinkled letter from his arms and slowly unfolded it.
"Dear Kent:"
"If you can see this letter, it means that God has not taken you away yet, then you should also consider what we discussed before."
"There's no way you won't come back for the rest of your life. Do you really want to wait until the day the bad news comes to regret what you've done?"
"My father is very old. He fell down some time ago. He can no longer do anything. He can only move a short distance every day. He looks very pitiful..."
"Although he never said anything to us, we all know that he is very guilty and regrets everything he has done to you."
"For the sake of him being old and about to see God, I and all my family members ask you, if possible, to come back and see him, even if it's just for a few days..."
The letter was not long, but the content made Old John a little... worried.
John was his name after he became a gold digger to hide his real name. When he was young, he left home after quarreling with his father because of his ideas, and vowed that even without the support of his family, he could still use his own hands. Fight for a future for yourself.
Obviously, he overestimated his abilities and underestimated the reality of society. In desperation and unwilling to go home and admit his failure, he became a gold digger.
It was the best time for gold diggers. People said that there was countless wealth hidden in the wilderness of the west. He really believed it. It had been more than ten years since the day he set foot in the west. (As mentioned earlier, Old John is not actually old)
During these long years, he had almost forgotten his past, and that there was an old man who was always rude to him, laughed at his dreams, and refused his requests.
It wasn't until a few years ago that he accidentally met his brother who was looking for him, and he had new contact with his family. At the same time, he also realized that his family had never given up looking for him.
Whenever his brother is free, he will come to the west, because before he came to the west, he told his former colleagues that he would come to the west to seek wealth.
For such an elusive clue, every city in the west has footprints left by his family, just to find him.
When he was young, he was unwilling to go back because he was too angry. He just wanted to prove to his father that all his ideas were right and that he would be able to become the person he wanted to be.
If he doesn't want to go back now, he has no shame to go back. Even if he doesn't want to admit it, he has to admit that he is wrong and his father is right.
Sometimes it's easy to pick things up, but hard to put them down.
Recalling the pale past in his memory, Old John put the letter back into the letter and packed it close to his body.
The killings during this period and the subtle changes in the camp made him feel irritable, especially since his injured leg kept warning him that gold prospecting was not a profession full of naive dreams.
Maybe one day, by accident, he would lose his life in this wilderness, and no one would even know what happened to him or where he died.
The gold mine is so tempting,
The hands that were tightly holding the reins were a little white, and the inner struggle was very fierce. After a while, he sighed.
This time I will bring more ore back, collect three to five thousand yuan, and go home. The money may not be much, but at least it can open a small store in my hometown.
Suddenly he looked up at the bushes on one side and raised his shotgun. Under his gaze, a rabbit jumped out of the bushes and started walking around.
After Old John observed for a while, the muzzle of the gun was slightly downward, but suddenly he raised the muzzle of the gun and fired towards the bushes.
Isn't it always like this in movies? The guy who was hiding accidentally made a noise, and then a bird came out of nowhere, or something like a rabbit or cat ran away, making people mistakenly think that no one was there. That.
There was no noise inside after the shot, no one was holding back the pain and moaning and pretending that others couldn't hear, and there was no sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.
He quickly reloaded the bullet and inserted the shotgun into the holster of the saddle with a very skillful backhand. He grabbed the reins with both hands and shook it vigorously. Someone would come over soon after the sound of the gunshot was heard. Check.
He went into the mountains alone this time, and he knew the virtues of gold diggers very well. Even he himself would have some unfriendly thoughts when he met people who were alone.
On the tree crown thirty meters away, a guy with oil paint on his face raised a gun, and the muzzle of the gun protruded from the tree crown...
The strong wind blowing in his ears made Old John's greasy temples sway, and the strong wind filled his ears with sharp tinnitus. It seemed that time was running out and he wanted to take a rest at this moment.
The bullet rotated and slowly approached his temple with a whirlwind. He tried his best to avoid it, but the slow speed of movement was unable to do anything.
At this moment, his heart was peaceful. Perhaps from the day he came to the west, he knew that he would end up like this.
Everyone is exchanging their lives for money. Some people are already dead and some are about to die. No one can break away from this iron law.
Thinking of the people he had killed before, Old John no longer tried to avoid them, but instead found them interesting and ridiculous. This might be an endless reincarnation.
He's killed a lot of people, now it's his turn.
The bullet slowly embedded itself into his flesh. He thought it would be painful, but in fact it was not as painful as he imagined, and he didn't even feel the pain.
The flesh and skin shattered by the spinning bullets flew past the corner of the eye, cracks appeared in the skull, and the bullet was slightly blocked for a moment...
"I'm sorry..." At the end of his life, Old John just wanted to say an apology that could never be uttered.
In the next second, the entire skull was blown away.
The second gunshot sounded. The birds above the woods were alarmed by the first gunshot. The birds hovering over the nest were frightened again and flew into the distance quickly. A marching team nearby suddenly stopped and turned their horses to face the sound of the gunshot. Travel quickly wherever you go.
Seven or eight minutes later, the team arrived at the place where the gunshots were fired. After searching for a while, they found Old John with one foot hanging in a stirrup.
Several people in the team immediately raised their shotguns on alert. One of them got off his horse, walked to Old John, pulled his feet out of the stirrups, then squatted down to check the injury, and then searched himself.
"Kill with one shot... Everything is there, the other party may not have gone far, be careful around you." After checking the body, the man turned out Old John's handkerchief, took it off, and then took out everything on him, including That letter.
In fact, gold diggers often encounter such things. These people are also gold diggers and know how to deal with the current situation.
They took out all the valuable things on Old John's body, packed them, hung them on Old John's horse, and led Old John's horse away quickly.
Such assassinations continued to occur in the Yagul Mountains, and from time to time a gunshot would be heard. The gold diggers on the way did not find anything too unusual until the end of the shift, when they withdrew from the mountains. moment.
The gold diggers who came back from the mountains happily delivered bags of gold ore to the recycling station in exchange for a lot of cash. Now the only thing they need to do is party.
Gold mines have always been one of the favorite things of gold diggers. A small piece of gold ore can be exchanged for a lot of money. Only in this way can they realize the happiness of being a gold digger and the value of their existence.
With money in hand, gold diggers flocked to nearby entertainment venues, with bars being the biggest attraction. Here you can get drunk, find skilled women, and exchange experiences and information.
Almost everything a gold prospector needs can be found here.
In the evening, the largest bar in the West End suddenly boiled over. Someone claimed that Hawkeye was dead, which made the gold diggers in the bar very dissatisfied.
Hawkeye is the most famous legendary gold digger in the West. This is no longer a title or a symbol, but also represents a spirit.
Now, some people are actually spreading rumors that he is dead
The young man with a bruised nose and swollen face was pushed against the wall by several strong men. A circle of people gathered outside, all angrily cursing the rumor maker.
"Boy, listen, if you don't want to die in a stinky ditch in the middle of the night, you'd better kneel down and seriously apologize for your stupid behavior!"
The little man covered his bulging cheeks and said vaguely, "I didn't spread rumors or lie. It's true. Hawkeye is dead and his body was brought back..."
There was a moment of silence in the bar, and a strong man roared, "No way, Hawkeye can't die. Last time, more than a dozen people surrounded him and killed no one, and it's even more impossible for him to die in the mountains..."
"But the body has been brought back..."
Hawkeye is dead
The people in the bar fell silent. They may not be familiar with each other, and they may not have said a word to each other, but Hawkeye is the object of everyone's admiration. He is alive and every gold digger in the West End Everyone will feel inspired.
His legendary stories, his legendary encounters, and his terrifying marksmanship, to a large extent, Hawkeye symbolizes the ideal state of a gold digger.
Not just Hawkeye, but most of the people who have been called "legendary gold diggers" are like this. They set an example and point a direction for all gold diggers. They are the living future and the living hope!
But now, someone tells them that this benchmark, example, future and hope is actually... dead
Everyone must face death one day, even though everyone knows it.
(End of chapter)