The Lost Land of Gold

around the mine.

Mu Sicheng's speed of movement began to slow, and as he cautiously glanced at the gold sculptures gathered not far from the mine entrance, he moved his headset to his lips and reported in a low voice, "Humanoid sculptures in sight."

After saying that, he took a picture and transmitted it.

The photographs show humanoid gold sculptures in various poses at the entrance to the mine, their looks and expressions are agitated and grim, and some of the sculptures are holding banners as if they are raising their arms in a shouting match.

"The banner reads [Never hand over the gold mine]." Mu Ke translated, "And there were some curses, which I won't translate here."

"I'm actually slightly surprised."

Mu Ke pondered, "The papers I read earlier said that after a period of decline, there had been an explosive secondary increase in the gold mines, and the recent increase in the gold mines on the maps found by Mu Sicheng confirms this, that there must be something wrong with this secondary increase, otherwise there would not have been an increase in the number of new miners suffering from the strange disease of sclerosis, and it is because of this secondary increase that the resistance to the handing over of the mines by Georgia has been greatly increased. And because of this secondary increase, Georgia's resistance to handing over the mines has increased so much that the people, seeing the promise of increased gold, will never agree to hand it over again."

"But here's the problem ......"

"It is written in the fairy tale that God will only supply gold for a thousand years." Bai Liu calmly picks up, "If it's the same god we know, after the one thousand year appointment arrived, he would have stopped supplying gold instantly according to the deal, it's not possible to continue supplying gold at all, this second outbreak of gold minerals is not normal."

"And there's something wrong with Georgia being so determined to hand over the gold mines to the Heretic Handling Authority."

"He was Wang Zi at the time, even if he realized that there was something wrong with the minerals, the most reasonable thing to do was to close it down and then investigate and deal with it on his own, it's not possible to hand over the root cause of the nation's dependence to the Heresy Handling Bureau, an outside organization, so easily, and this way it would be more likely to gain support."

"There was room for things to be turned around, and Georgia's approach could have been less aggressive." Bai Liu paused, "But there should have been some kind of third-party factor that galvanized the two sides."

"This third-party factor must be something that Georgia could not prevent, that is, a force majeure factor." Liu Jiayi pondered for a moment and then continued, "And this force majeure factor should be introduced from the internal people, and there are many people who support it, otherwise Georgia will not choose to cooperate with the outside world."

"And this force majeure factor led Georgia to believe that only the Heresy Processing Bureau could handle ......"

Inferring this, Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu are both at a standstill.

The specifics of this force majeure factor call out.

Bai Liu calmly stated the answer, "There were those in the ancient Loren country at that time who once again sought cooperation and dealings with the gods to keep the gold mines producing."

13 The mine is located in the inner part of the mountains, from the exit where the mountain was blown open, following the long-built track to ride the mine car down, both sides are like some kind of relic treasure, full of piles and clusters of gold ores, and even digging it down doesn't need much effort to refine, it's already a fairly high purity gold.

But twelve years ago, such a scenario, which had lasted for a thousand years, no longer existed in ancient Loren.

After the long winter break, the first load of spring mining doesn't even fill half the ore carts, and the populace looks on in fear and confusion at the miners sitting on the carts, all of them waiting for the first load of spring's gold ore to be ground into gold dust and sprinkled high into the sky - a rite of passage for the onset of spring in Gurolum.

But that year it was canceled, and everyone knew that with such a barren output they couldn't have such an extravagant ceremony.

It was like some kind of sign that spring would never come again to Gurolen.

The gold mines were declining month by month, the streets were filled with unemployed miners and howling children, the monthly gold distributions from the Gold Distribution Office were dwindling by half and half, and his father sat at the fence overlooking Gurrolon, which seemed to be heading into an unseen winter, and couldn't sleep through the night.

But Georgia was unusually calm, knowing that this day would eventually come.

Gurrolon without gold is a disaster in everyone's eyes, but in Georgia's, it may be an opportunity, an opportunity to get everyone out there.

Everyone had been trapped in this gold mining like land for far too long, a thousand years was enough to make everyone fear the outside world, sure there were things out there to fear, but it was a lot better than an ancient Loren with no gold.

Georgia, who had long been ready for the record, and who, on the night when his father knelt down and held him in his arms and wept bitterly, as if he had grown up in a night, patted his father on the shoulder and said stoically, "Father, leave Gurolum to me."

His father looked up with teary eyes, "You have a way to make Gurolum produce gold again?"

"I have none." Georgia replied calmly, "But father, talent is a nation's most precious gold."

"As long as there are people around, no matter how long the winter is, everyone can get through it, we are not at the end of our rope, the mines are still yielding gold, we save that gold, open the Window of Gurolum, cooperate with the outside world, communicate, and fight against it, and in the process everyone's will wills will be strong, and our country will become stable and strong. "

"...... You let me think again." His father said in a trance, "Think again."

Georgia guessed that there would be a lot of resistance to what he was trying to do, but it wasn't absolutely impossible to do it, but maybe naivety might be in the bones of every Gurolian - he was naïve enough to think that the gods wouldn't come back to the land of Gurolian, which was no longer happy-go-lucky and believed in fairy tales.

Naively forgetting, too, that a thousand years of gold-equivalent pain is not covered by a child's howl.

While Georgia was tightly and carefully pursuing his own filing, he heard many strange noises coming from the court, and some ministers began to approach his father frequently to talk in secret night after night, and at that time he mistook his pursuit of the filing for the fact that he had attracted the attention of these old curmudgeonly ministers to his own father's disapproval, which Georgia did not care for, for the filing was being pursued without difficulty.

Until one day his father found him, clutching his hand with apprehension and excitement, "We have found God!"

"He's willing to trade with us again!"

Georgia, in that moment, her mind went blank and she could only subconsciously ask, "God?"

"Yes!" His father was so excited that he was almost on the verge of jumping, "Our High Priest heard from somewhere in the Church that there was a guest who would traffic in islands suspended in the sea that resembled the god we described, and it took a lot of effort on the part of the High Priest for the other party to finally be willing to meet with us!"

"He's coming to the Gurolum Kingdom today, I've got the Hair Office to meet him at the gates!"

"Let's not talk about whether or not he's a god." Georgia pushed down his excited father's hand that was shaking his shoulder and held onto the table in a desperate attempt to keep his composure as he looked up and questioned icily, "Even if he is, what are you going to do at this moment when God is here to collect the price of our suffering? What can you do?"

His father grew a little uneasy and timid under Georgia's gaze, "...... That customer said he could trade with us again."

"What's the deal ......" It took almost all Georgia's strength to control herself from roaring so out of character, but instead asked the question calmly, "What is it?"

"He can supply us with gold for a while longer, through a special stone [Pointing Stone]." His father explained somewhat nervously, "We have already tested this stone, just by burying it into the ground, the gold minerals will indeed increase by a large amount, and no clear side effects have been found, so you don't have to worry so much!"

"There will be no gold for nothing in this world, Father." Georgia closed her eyes, "What does he want?"

His father said after a long silence, "Pain."

"He said he would charge us with pain when the time came."

"When will the time come?" Georgia opened her eyes and asked the question softly, unable to keep the disappointment out of his eyes.

"At least not today, not this year!" His father began to grow angry as well, pounding on the tabletop, "At least he's bringing in the dotard so that our people can have a good spring this year! At least it will allow the children to be able to lie at home and listen to fairy tales and sleep peacefully this year! At least tonight, after the igneous stone is buried in the mine, I won't be hearing the cries of people who are afraid they won't live through the night!"

"Georgia, why do you always have to think so far ahead!"

"If we can't handle what's right in front of us, what's so far away, is it really about us?!"

"What if when he comes to collect the pain, it's a thousand years after the next one?!"

Georgia is silent, his fists clenched to death, while the King aggressively cross-examines, pointing out the window and looking directly at Georgia, "Do you want to see all these people out there who are struggling?"

"If there's no more gold this spring, they're going to starve to death by the time winter rolls around, and you want them to starve to death alive this winter?"

"Put my strategy together with yours and who do you think the people will support?!"

Georgia took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling violently, "But ......"

"No buts!" The king slapped the table sternly, "Keeping the people in front of you alive is the most important thing, those far-fetched thoughts of yours, wait until it's too late!"

Looking at Georgia's pursed white lips, the King paused and eased his tone, "All those tactics you've been doing lately, just put them on hold for a while."

"You are also very tired from doing these things, this time ...... to rest and rest."

Georgia walked out of the palace with nothing on his face; it was as if his soul had been withdrawn from his body, and he was lost in thought as he walked through the streets, surrounded by closed stores, daily necessities that had risen in price, and people who were snapping their fingers, weeping, and counting how much longer their gold would last.

His face was so well known to so many people that whenever he walked past one, there was an expectant inquiry about him:

"Wang Zi Your Highness, when will the gold be released?"

"When does the mine resume?"

"Ancient Loren wouldn't be without gold, would it?"

"God won't abandon us, will he?"

In the presence of eyes that were so innocent as to be almost a little fearful, Georgia opened his mouth and the last word didn't come out, his heart beating violently in his chest, his blood rolling with some kind of stirring emotion-emotions he'd learned to control at a very young age, before he'd learned to draw a bow.

The Crown Prince was not to be impulsive or emotionally outgoing, his every move had to be in order, elegant, decent, nationally oriented, and not inappropriate in any way, and so in order to do all of this, Georgia trained herself almost rigorously, and after he was five years old, he didn't cry - because that would be unseemly.

While Armand would wail and cry from his fall, Georgia would simply pat his fallen and bleeding knee and get up, then pick up her brother, who was on the floor with tears in his eyes, and walk step by step to the palace as if nothing had happened.

"Next time don't run so fast, Armand," tiny Georgia calmly reprimanded her brother, "not a bit of Wang Zi."

Armand sobbed and wondered, "Brother, you fell too, don't you hurt?"

Georgia paused, "It hurts."

Armand asked in a small voice, "And why don't you cry, brother?"

"Because if even the Crown Prince of this country is crying over this bit of pain." Georgia tilted his head, his voice soft as he looked out over the illuminated Gurolum, "Then who will bear the cost of their dealings with the gods for them?"

"Well, then, I won't cry either." Armand said a little sheepishly.

"No need." Georgia paused, "You're just a little kid, not the crown prince, it's normal for kids to cry."

"Just don't cry in front of people, Armand."