America 1881: Legend of the West

The new carriage is still swaying, but compared with just now, Chen Jianqiu's surroundings are much more lively now.

A girl's curiosity is sometimes as powerful as a cat's.

Emily rode a horse and carriage side by side, constantly asking Chen Jianqiu about him.

Her imaginative questions came one after another, chattering like an ordinary girl. It was hard to imagine that this girl had just led a team of cowboys to drive away a group of gangsters, let alone that she had personally sent one away with a gun.

"Hey, sir, where are you from? What do you do?" The girl's questions came to her like a barrage of questions.

"Looking for gold." Chen Jianqiu replied.

"Ah, gold mining, that's really a hard job." The girl thought for a while, "It's not as stable as our pasture."

"Although New Mexico is dry and rainless, the water plants around Lincoln County are still quite lush because of the water system." The girl said to herself.

"By the way, your accent sounds like you are from the north, right? Nevada? Wyoming? If I'm not mistaken, you are Chinese, right? How is it there?"

The girl had one problem after another.

Fortunately, Chen Jianqiu's bullshit ability has also improved by leaps and bounds because of Sean's presence.

He took full advantage of the poor information transmission of that era and created an image for himself as an honest and honest Chinese gold digger. The materials were purchased for the camps in the mountains.

As for the other side of the ocean that Emily was interested in, Chen Jianqiu didn't want to say more, but just told her that that continent also had rolling mountains and winding rivers, and people like him had been living on that continent for thousands of years.

The civilization there has never been interrupted by foreign invasions, even if there was a brief period of darkness.

While chatting, a medium-sized ranch appeared in front of Chen Jianqiu.

A white fence surrounded a large meadow, separated by a fence in the middle, and filled with cattle and sheep.

Chen Jianqiu drove a carriage and followed the team into the pasture from the road between the two fences.

A middle-aged man with a goatee was standing angrily at the end of the road with his hands on his hips and getting angry:

"Where are the people? No one cares about the sheep when they run away! No one repairs the fence when it's broken. It's been a whole day, a whole day!"

Emily heard it from a distance. She stuck out her tongue at Chen Jianqiu, kicked the horse under her, and rushed in front of the middle-aged man.

She skillfully jumped off the horse and jumped towards the middle-aged man like a bird.

"father!"

As soon as Goatee saw the girl running towards him, he suddenly seemed to be a different person. The anger on his face was wiped away, and he gave the little girl a big hug lovingly:

"Emily, where have you been today?"

The girl smiled and pointed at the cowboys behind her: "Fred's boys are causing trouble nearby again. Uncle Howard and I went to drive these guys away."

When the middle-aged man heard her words, he looked up at the cowboys behind her, his eyes looking like he wanted to kill someone.

The cowboy in blue who stood first among the cowboys saw the middle-aged man’s gaze and defended:

"James, Fred doesn't care about his gang at all. They are bandits now. We..."

"Shut up!" The middle-aged man named James stopped the cowboy.

He let go of the girl in his arms, held Emily's shoulders with both hands, and looked at her softly. Chen Jianqiu even felt that the change in this person's expression was faster than that in Sichuan Opera:

"Emily, promise me not to get involved in these things anymore. Fred is a serious businessman, and I will handle it."

The girl shook her head, with a look of reluctance:

"What Howard said is true. Those people are Fred's men. I can recognize them even if their faces are covered!"

"They just robbed this Chinese man on Thornton Trail!" The girl pointed at Chen Jianqiu, who was at the end of the team.

When Chen Jianqiu saw Goatee and Emily pointing at him, he could only nod his head, looking extremely honest.

Goatee was unmoved. He took a breath and said to the girl in front of him:

"Emily, these things have nothing to do with you, understand? Girls can just do sewing at home. There are some things we can leave to the sheriff and judge."

Tears suddenly welled up in Emily's eyes:

"So Billy's death has nothing to do with me, right? He is my brother! He is your son."

After saying this, he broke away from Goatee's arms and ran towards the house crying.

"Emily!" Goatee James called his daughter's name, but the girl ignored him and ran into the house.

There was a "dong" sound in the house, and the girl locked herself in the room and cried loudly.

Goatee looked in the direction of the house and shook his head. He put one hand on his waist and touched his forehead with the other.

The middle-aged man's face was full of confusion and helplessness, and he had nowhere to vent his grievances.

He caught a glimpse of the barrel at his feet and kicked it over.

"damn it!"

The barrel was kicked to the ground and rolled for weeks before coming to rest at the fence.

Seeing that their boss was not in a good mood, the cowboys did not dare to comfort him, so they all led their horses away and went about their own business.

Only Chen Jianqiu and his carriage were left parked in place.

Chen Jianqiu suddenly found that his situation was a bit embarrassing now. He watched the scene completely, and then he was the only one left in the audience.

Billy? Is that Billy the Kid?

After Goatee James finished venting, he turned his head and found that Chen Jianqiu was still there.

"What do I call you, sir?" His politeness surprised Chen Jianqiu. He had thought that all red-necked farmers were as rude as the old man from Montrose.

"Chen Long, my name is Chen Long, sir."

"Your occupation?"

"Gold diggers." Chen Jianqiu pointed to the things on the carriage behind him, "These are all going to be sent to the gold mining camp."

Later, Chen Jianqiu told James what had just happened, omitting the part about him killing the gangsters.

"This is dozens of miles away from the town. We can't go back for a while. It's getting dark soon. Just stay here for the night. I'll find someone to help you deliver the news to the town tomorrow." James pointed out Pointing to the warehouse, "You can unload the things over there first."

"Okay, okay, thank you very much." Chen Jianqiu thanked him repeatedly.

Chen Jianqiu got the carriage to the warehouse, untied the pack horse, led it to the stable, then returned to the warehouse and started unloading the goods.

James passed by the stable and saw the pack horses staying in the stable. Forage was neatly placed in the trough in front. The pitchforks and other farm tools were also sorted and placed in the corner of the stable in an orderly manner.

He came to the warehouse and saw Chen Jianqiu unloading the things in the carriage alone.

"It's not easy for you gold diggers from China. I met several Chinese businessmen when I was in California, and they gave me a lot of help."

James suddenly took a liking to this young man and felt that this man seemed very hard-working, honest and conscientious. It would be great if such a man could work for him on his own ranch.

"When you're done, come over and finish your meal." He said to Chen Jianqiu.

Dinner at the farm started a little early. Except for a few cowboys who lived nearby, everyone else was eating at the long table in the restaurant with Chen Jianqiu and James and his wife.

Dinner was potatoes, wheat bread and boiled beef.

After peeling the potatoes, boil them together with the beef, then take them out separately and eat them with salt.

"Let me go check on Emily. This girl locked herself in the room." After Mrs. James finished eating, she wiped her hands on her apron and then walked towards Emily's room with a plate of food.

After everyone else finished eating, they all returned to their dormitories. Only James and Chen Jianqiu were left in the restaurant, eating slowly.

It wasn't because Chen Jianqiu found potatoes and bread difficult to swallow, but because James kept chattering to him.

It seems that this man really doesn't have many people to talk to.

From his words, Chen Jianqiu learned that the Fred they mentioned during the day was the largest rancher nearby. He owned the largest ranch, the most cowboys, and the strongest power.

He even has his own lawyer.

In addition to his own cowboys, he often hired people who had no permanent jobs but who were not equipped to work on the ranch.

Fred would sometimes ask them to collect debts for him or threaten others, charging them on a per-use basis, but he usually let them go.

But James still doesn't believe that these people would brazenly commit robbery.

"Have you seen what they look like clearly?" James asked.

"No, they all wear scarves." Chen Jianqiu replied absently.

How did he know what Fred's men looked like? Besides, he didn't care much about these things. He only cared about how to get a new vehicle as soon as possible to transport supplies back to the camp.

How about buying one from the rancher in front of you? But all the money he brought out was exchanged for supplies, and the rest was with his most trusted bird.

They both fell silent at the same time and began to nibble on the last piece of potato on their respective plates.

"You said, is it useless for a person to watch his son go astray and go to death without being able to do anything about it?" James suddenly put down the potatoes in his hand, buried his head in his hands, and began to sob.

Sometimes, adults collapse in just a moment, for no reason and cannot be stopped.

"No, if you have done everything you can and have a clear conscience, it doesn't count." Chen Jianqiu ate the potatoes in his hand and said softly.

When Mrs. James returned to the restaurant, Mr. James with the goatee had returned to normal, and there was not even a trace of crying on his face.

"Emily still refuses to eat at all." The lady put the plate on the table. The plate was still the same as when she took it away.

"Mr. Chen, let me take you to your room."

Chen Jianqiu nodded.

Thanks to readers 1584351309866242048, Huokou Yili, and Longjiu Taotie for their monthly votes

Thank you everyone for your recommendation votes and subscriptions

First update, second update later