Gold Rush Starts in the Bering Sea

Chapter 40: The Old Gold Prospector - Swail

Cass and Kyle followed quietly behind Jason, offering no comment.

In the restaurant, Jason ordered a coffee and some food, sat by the window, enjoyed the food, and waited.

Of course, Jason didn't forget Cass and Kyle either.

Around noon, Swell came into Jason's sight.

"Please sit down. Order whatever you like, it's on me," Jason gestured to the seat opposite him, showing no sign of impatience while waiting.

"A cup of coffee and a pizza, please."

Swail didn't stand on ceremony and sat down directly opposite Jason, ordering food from the menu.

Glancing sideways at the camera pointed at him, Swail frowned slightly: "Are you documenting life?"

Cass introduced himself: "Hello, I'm from the Bering Sea Gold Rush crew. We're currently filming Jason's gold rush life."

"Well, I guess I'm just ignorant." Swail was also surprised that gold mining could be made into a TV show and broadcast openly on television.

However, this made him feel much more at ease.

"Jason, right? You just said you come from a gold mining family?" He expressed doubt about Jason's fair skin and unworn face.

Jason nodded and laughed, "This is no joke. We've been panning for gold in the Bering Sea, but the conditions there are quite harsh, so I chose Australia."

Having explained the situation, Swell stopped dwelling on it.

Swail fell silent and began to enjoy his food.

Jason wasn't in a hurry and also sampled the local specialties.

After Swail finished his pizza and was wiping his mouth with a napkin, Jason spoke up: "Mr. Swail, what do you think of the suggestion I gave you earlier?"

"Twenty thousand US dollars?" Swail asked back.

Jason nodded: "Yes, 20,000 US dollars. All you need to do is tell me the latest gold rush situation in Bendigo. If you can help me get access to goldfields, that would be even better."

"Kid, you're dreaming," Swell laughed.

Sometimes information is worthless, but sometimes it is very valuable. For Jason, it would be best if he could spend 20,000 US dollars to learn about the local situation.

"Kid, you should know I'm a gold prospector too, right? Why would I give you information? It's like pizza; if I give it to you, I'll have less to eat myself."

"Besides, although you come from a family of gold prospectors, that's gold panning in the Bering Sea, which is completely different from gold panning on land."

"Also, since you're new here, the locals might ostracize you."

Swail listed them off one by one, trying to see different expressions on the young man's face, but no matter what he said, Jason's face remained indifferent.

"First, I have money, not a lot, just over 20 million US dollars."

"Secondly, is it even important?"

Jason doesn't need to go on and on; he has money, that's his capital. Although it can't compare to many large mining companies, it's still a considerable sum.

Swail's lips twitched as he looked at Jason's incredulous expression. "Is the Bering Sea really that profitable?"

"No, it's just that I'm rich," Jason grinned, revealing his white teeth and a bright smile.

He picked up his coffee, took a sip, and looked Jason up and down. He just couldn't understand why someone who was so rich would still be in this industry, working himself to the bone.

"I won't lie to you, I only brought two people with me here. Right now, we don't have the equipment, we're short-handed, and we don't have any gold mines," Jason frankly explained his situation.

"I'd like you to join the team."

"First, you're a local, so you're quite familiar with the local situation."

"Secondly, you're also a gold prospector, so you must know a lot of skilled people. It would be best if you could introduce them to some."

"Third, as you said, I initially panned for gold at sea and knew nothing about gold panning on land, but I was quite confident in finding gold."

Fourth, the salary here won't be low.

Jason counted on his fingers and explained the situation he was currently facing.

"I haven't seen such a sincere young man in a long time," Swail murmured, looking at Jason who had laid out his situation so frankly, and really didn't know what to say.

"I need to think about it," Swail hesitated. Although he longed for the wilderness, he was getting old, and this decision was not easy to make.

Jason nodded and handed over his phone number: "No problem, but don't delay until the day after tomorrow. If nothing unexpected happens, I'll start the investigation the day after tomorrow."

After chatting for a while, they went their separate ways.

For Jason, whether Swilga joins or not will not affect his decision.

His main goal was to find a gold prospector who was knowledgeable about the local gold mining industry, and since he had just met one, he decided to give it a try.

While Albert provided the equipment for gold panning in the Bering Sea, neither he nor Albert and his team knew anything about land-based gold panning.

Jason strolled around. The entire Bendigo region only had a permanent population of around 100,000. Although the facilities were quite complete, the population was indeed too small.

Passing by the car dealership, Jason thought for a moment and went inside.

The production crew will definitely be coming to inspect the area in a couple of days, and it's really inconvenient not having a car.

Right now, there are already twelve people in total. Whether it's for future gold mining needs or for future field trips, we need vehicles.

Jason spent two hours browsing around and bought four pickup trucks and one RV, spending a total of nearly 300,000 US dollars. He also got the dealership to help him with his driver's license.

That's Jason; other gold diggers at most buy used cars.

However, money talks!

Jason drove a pickup truck alone, making phone calls to everyone and picking them up and dropping them off.

Now that we have the car, the driver's license issue definitely needs to be resolved. Of course, it's not difficult, since Jason is a big customer, and the car dealership can handle this small matter directly.

"Jason, I love you to death!" Brent gave Jason a bear hug, then ran to a pickup truck and jumped into the driver's seat.

Lillian complained a bit, after all, Jason was spending money too extravagantly.

Ellie, on the other hand, was jumping around in the RV, her face full of excitement.

"Jason, let's go on a spontaneous wilderness trip!" Brent leaned out of the car window, looking eager.

Wilderness, desert, endless highways, beautiful natural landscapes and unique animals—Brent gets excited just thinking about these things.

"Get down here first, you've been drinking." Jason was genuinely worried about Brent, who reeked of alcohol.

Brent wailed, "No, Jason, I only had a little beer, I'm definitely not drunk!"

Jason didn't want to risk his life on Brent, who had been drinking. "Get out of the car first."

"Jason, are we going camping?" Ellie asked, sitting on the sofa in the RV, her face full of anticipation.

Not only him, but even Albert was somewhat tempted. After all, Australia is such a perfect place for a road trip. They didn't care when they didn't have a car, but now that they do, they definitely have to come.

"Alright, let's go out and have some fun. But we need to stock up on some supplies first, and we also need to get some weapons for self-defense." Jason also wanted to take a spontaneous trip, so he could only 'reluctantly' agree.

I bought some supplies at the supermarket, and of course, car repair tools were also essential. I also bought several cans of gasoline separately at the gas station to prevent the car from running out of gas on the road.

As for security, Jason went to the city hall to handle it. Of course, under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be fast, and some secret operations were inevitable.

"Let's go, let's go!"

Ellie sat in the passenger seat of the RV, excitedly waving her little fists.

Four pickup trucks and one RV sped along the highway.

I had no destination; I just wandered around aimlessly, enjoying the scenery along the way.

As we drove out of Bendigo, the number of vehicles on the road gradually decreased, and in the distance, we saw lush green grasslands and verdant trees.

Kangaroos would occasionally dart by, startling Ellie into screaming.

Further ahead, a dense array of mine pits came into view, overgrown with grass, clearly old mines used for gold mining.

In addition, many gold prospectors are working with excavators, spreading the excavated soil evenly on the ground and then continuously probing it with handheld detectors.

Undoubtedly, with this method of gold panning, they are looking for large gold nuggets.