Snow-capped mountains towered high, and the glow of stars filling the sky shone down on Bolamula. The towering peaks cast immense shadows. Within those shadows, a point of red light flickered.
The captured gold panners huddled together, thirsty and hungry, tossing and turning without sleep. The illegal miners were worse off. Bound hand and foot, they could not get comfortable no matter what. Two of them in particular had had their fingers broken, with no splints or support of any kind; they simply endured the pain, yet did not dare cry out.
The mountain patrol, meanwhile, slept soundly in their tents...
Duojie took a deep drag from his cigarette. The ember lit his face red, and his worries returned.
"We only cracked down on poaching a little over a month ago, and this bunch of illegal miners has already grown to this scale. There must be more than just this one group in Bolamula now! Who knows what they'll turn Bolamula into."
Poaching and illegal mining did not conflict with each other. Poachers who found gold would start mining it illegally. And if they came across wild animals while mining, a few shots would take care of them.
Even if they did not eat or sell them, even if it was just for target practice and amusement, they would not spare any wild animal that appeared before them.
It was like how some people saw a pristine lawn and wanted to drive over it, saw something sitting nicely on the ground and wanted to kick it, saw a finished snowman and wanted to smash it, saw a stacked mani stone pile and wanted to knock it down. Some people simply enjoyed that feeling of destruction, of ruin.
And if anyone called them out on it, they would say they did