The man who had been following Chu Lui around grabbed two blankets—one for himself and one for Chu Lui. Chu Lui walked over. Because of his stature, no one dared to vie with him. He found himself a spot to sleep on and lay down. He did not sleep because he did not know where he was. He was not the only one who had trouble sleeping, but there were others who—had perhaps arrived earlier—were fast asleep, oblivious to the happenings outside.

  It did not really matter if they were old or new here since they were still alive. For all they knew, it would be their turn tomorrow.

  Kicking off his shoes, he pulled one side of the tattered blanket up. It had been barely a few seconds since he lay down when someone walked in. It was the black woman from earlier. She walked over, her face round, with a nose ring, and smiling. She tossed a blanket to Chu Lui and touched him across the chest. Her eyes landed at a specific spot on his body as she flicked her eyes as if she was about to violate him.

  Chu Lui watched stoically as she stripped him with her eyes. She disgusted him.

  Despite her thoughts, the woman knew that now was not a good time. She touched Chu Lui’s chest happily again before she left. Chu Lui flicked his chest.

  “Disgusting!”


  He scoffed.

  He kicked the blanket to the floor as the others watched in envy. He was the only one with two sets of blankets.

  The next day, the people inside the room were awakened by a banging on the door. They walked out without wearing shoes after they sat up listlessly.

  The newcomers just gawked, unsure of what to do.

  At this point, a woman with a whip walked it and whipped the floor as she pointed toward the outside. She could not be any clearer. Gold deposits.

  It was a rather wide river. There were both men and women in the river, all barefooted.

  Chu Lui frowned. In this weather with such water, people would die from standing such long hours here.

  The whip landed on a man mercilessly as he dropped to the floor and cried out in pain. He probably felt rather indignant too since he was the only one who got whipped in the crowd. However, it was just his luck.

  Chu Lui finally understood why no one wore shoes here. It didn’t really make a difference either way. Bamboo woven trays used to sort through the deposits were piled on the side. They each took one, but no one went into the water.

  Chu Lui kicked off his shoes and rolled up his pants stoically. He put one foot in, then the other. The water was freezing cold, it was humanly impossible to put up with this.

  Chu Lui too was made of flesh and blood. Even though he did not express it, the veins in his hands were popping.

  He had done this before. There were rumors that he had a gold mine. That was true, but his gold mine was in a small mountain. The gold was sifted using a machine. It had good production. He had done panning before, but it was for fun. It did not really matter if they found gold. They enjoyed the process.

  However, he never expected to be forced to do panning one day, at the expense of his life.

  These dumb*sses! Which idiot came up with this idea? Chu Lui was upset. He did not understand why they had to use human labor for this when a few machines could solve the problem. Not to mention it was faster, and the machines did not even require food, accommodation, and clothing.

  He scooped up some sand and placed it in his hand. Everyone else around him could sense the murderous aura coming from him so they moved away. Chu Lui did not manage to get any gold.

  When he went ashore, a woman wanted to whip him. However, he glared at her, and the woman’s whip landed on the hem of his shirt.

  “There are new people,” Shen Wei said to Xia Ruoxin on the side.

  Well, don’t even think about leaving once you’re here. Xia Ruoxin sighed to herself as she wondered if they were here to replace them.

  “That man’s quite tall.” Shen Wei turned and prepared to return.

  “Tall?” Xia Ruoxin looked up, but she did not see a tall man. To her, they all looked the same.

  Yeah, Chu Lui was quite tall. What’s wrong? She shook her head. Why was she thinking about him again? She turned and took one more look at the newcomers. They were just unlucky, like her and Shen Wei.

  She then went back in. However, she did not see the man who looked towards where she was standing as if he had felt something. He turned his gaze away when he saw that there was no one there.

  In the few days that he was here, Chu Lui got a brief understanding of things there. He had hardly seen any men. The only men he saw were them, the gold panners. If they fold gold, they could trade it for things like necessities and food. Essentially, gold was of the lowest value here. A single grain of gold could only get one bowl of hot soup here.

  It was rather tough to get out of here. Besides having people stand guard, there was also ammunition and guns. There was only one way out: death. The people on the island did not really care for them. It was far out and away from everything, even governance.

  The men were on one side, and the women on the other. Both men and women did the same work: that was to pan for gold. Sometimes, one could find a few grains, but other days there were none at last. Gold could be traded for items, but failing to find gold resulted in beating. Chu Lui narrowed his eyes as he watched the women across get beat up. He turned around. Perhaps, it was time for him to give up. The two women were not here. Hopefully, Brother San had better luck finding them.