Chapter 1 – Gold is Everywhere

“Gold is everywhere, simply waiting for the fortunate one.”

At the crack of a dawn, a voice filled with despair could be heard crying this one sentence from a farmhouse in a nearby suburb north of Jinshi. The farmhouse was built in the traditional style and had a four-sided courtyard.

Shen Yu suddenly got up from her bed in fright, cold sweat dripping down her forehead. After listening more carefully to that broken voice, she patted herself repeatedly on the chest and let out a sigh of relief. She could picture the way the disturbance looked: a nervous, old man in his fifties who only knew how to repeat that one line.

“Mom!” Shen Yu flailed her arms and legs as if she was swimming on the bed. “Why did you let Uncle Li come out so early in the morning?” She had just gotten home for a well-needed break and was incredibly irritated that she still could not sleep in. Before she had left her childhood home, she had long gotten used to Uncle Li acting like a bizarre rooster. Like clockwork, he would always scream that same line over and over again at dawn. At least she never needed to spend money on an alarm clock. However, it had been many years since she had lived at home and she was no longer accustomed to this particular scene.

Uncle Li was actually Shen Yu’s grandfather’s adopted son. For as long as she could remember, he was always a little cracked in the head. His reputation had become synonymous with being mentally unfit for the villagers. During college, when Shen Yu got into arguments, in the heat of the moment she would often curse them out by saying that they were “like my Uncle Li”. Since no one knew what she actually meant, they were not offended. In fact, they actually felt that she was complimenting them because she was comparing them to the older generation.

However, rumor on the streets was that Uncle Li, in his youth, was actually a highly talented individual. Apparently even his current mantra had roots in his past. It was said that Uncle Li used to be a part of one of the first geological expedition teams that the government established right after the Cultural Revolution ended. At that time, the nation had wanted to conduct a land survey to accurately map out its domestic resources. National expeditions were opened throughout the country. The government ended up investing a lot of manpower and resources, including airplanes, into this project. During his tenure, Uncle Li supposedly came across a geological map that showed a giant gold deposit near the Old Longtan district .

The stories went on to say that Uncle Li left the geological survey team and recruited his own group to excavate the area indicated on the map. After digging continuously for about two years, they only had two objects to show for their efforts. One was a large crater, about one hundred meters deep, filled with water. The other was a large, white rock. After an additional two years, Uncle Li had exhausted his entire life savings and not a trace of the legendary gold deposit had been found. The project was at an end. During the cleanup, one of the workers threw the white stone into the water-filled pit. As it fell in, the surface of the rock cracked off and a large, golden dog head appeared. Everyone present was dumbstruck at the sight of the sparkling gold. By the time they came to their senses, it was too late. The gold had disappeared beneath the water. Numerous workers dove beneath the waves, searching for it furiously, but no one ever found it again.

Uncle Li had a nervous breakdown on that day and never recovered. From that day on, he only knew how to say, “Gold is everywhere, simply waiting for the fortunate one.” Occasionally, he would rave about a “gold deposit” and “the map”.

That was the legend that was passed down by the villagers. However, when Shen Yu had asked her parents about it, neither of them gave much credence to the rumors. Her father had walked away with a gloomy expression and her mother only said, “Don’t listen to the drivel from other people, they’re just making fun of the witless.”

Since then, Shen Yu no longer believed the rumors about Uncle Li. Her parents were right. The neighbors loved to fabricate old stories for fun and it wouldn’t be the first tall tale they told. Some of the villagers even tried to convince her that she was an adopted child.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Shen Yu’s mother wiped her hands on her apron as she quickly walked into the room. Mrs. Shen urged her to go back to sleep and promised that Uncle Li would soon be locked up again.

He led her to an elevator and they took it to the top floor of the building. While exiting the elevator, an army officer who looked about in his mid-fifties crossed their way. The young officer saluted him deferentially. “Good morning, general.”

After returning his greeting, the general smiled at Shen Yu. “You must be the young lady that we’ve been waiting for. Please proceed, the senior official has been waiting for you.”

Shen Yu’s eyes turned round with shock. The person waiting for her had to be of a very high rank in order for a general to be this deferential. Just what was she walking into?