Chapter 557: The Lost Land of Gold

around the mine site.

Mu Sicheng's movements began to slow, and he looked cautiously at the gold sculptures gathered at the entrance to the mine not far away, moving his headset to his lips and reporting in a low voice, "Human sculptures in sight."

Having said that, he took a photo and transmitted it.

The human gold sculptures in the photograph are framed in various poses at the entrance to the mine, their faces and expressions very agitated and grim, some of them holding banners and appearing to raise their arms in shouting.

"The banner reads [Never hand over the gold mine]." Muke translated, "There were also some curse words, which I won't translate here."

"I'm slightly surprised, actually."

Muke pondered, "I read in the papers that after a period of decline, there had been a second burst of growth in gold, and the map Mu Sicheng found of the recent increase in gold confirmed this, that there must be something wrong with this second increase, otherwise there would not be a large number of new miners with strange organ sclerosis. It is because of this second increase that Georgia's resistance to handing over the mines has increased so much that the population, seeing the promise of increased gold, is unlikely to agree to a handover again."

"But here's the thing ......"

"It's written in the fairy tale that the god will only supply gold for a thousand years." Bai Liu picked up calmly, "If it was the god we know, he would have stopped supplying gold instantly when the one thousand year covenant was up, as per the deal, there is no way he would have continued to supply gold, this secondary explosion of gold minerals is not normal."

"And there's something wrong with Georgia handing over the gold mines to the Bureau of Heresy so decisively."

"He was a prince at the time, and even if he had realised there was a problem with the minerals, the most logical thing to do would have been to shut it down and investigate it himself, not to so easily hand over the source of the nation's dependence to an outside organisation like the Bureau of Heresy, which would also have been more likely to gain support."

"There was room for manoeuvre and Georgia's approach could have been less aggressive." Bai Liu pauses, "but it should have been some kind of third-party factor that fuelled the conflict between the two sides."

"This third-party factor must have been something that Georgia could not have prevented, a force majeure factor." Liu Jiayi ponders for a moment before continuing, "And this force majeure factor would have been introduced by someone from within, and with a lot of support, otherwise Georgia would not have chosen to work externally."

"And this force majeure factor has led Georgia to believe that only the Heresy Processing Authority can handle ......"

At this point in the inference, Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu both stop for a moment.

The specifics of this force majeure factor are called out.

Bai Liu calmly stated the answer, "There were people in the Gloren country at the time who once again sought cooperation and deals with God to keep the gold mine producing."

The 13 mines are located in the interior of the mountains, and from the blasted exit of the mountain, a long-established track is followed down by a mine train, and on both sides it looks like some kind of relic treasure, full of heaps and heaps of gold, even excavated without much effort to refine it, which is already of considerable purity.

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

After a long winter break, the first carloads of ore mined in the spring did not even fill half the wagons, and the population looked on in fear and confusion at the miners sitting in the wagons, all waiting for the first carloads of gold ore of the spring to be ground into gold dust and sprinkled high into the sky - a rite of passage for the arrival of spring at Gloren.

But that year it was cancelled, and everyone knew that with such barren output they could not perform such extravagant ceremonies.

It was a sign of sorts that spring would never come for Gloren.

The gold minerals were declining month by month, the streets were full of unemployed miners and crying children, the monthly gold distributions from the Gold Board were decreasing by half, and his father sat at the fence overlooking Gloren, which seemed to be heading into an endless winter, and couldn't sleep through the night.

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

A Gloren without gold would be a disaster in everyone's eyes, but in Georgia's eyes it might be an opportunity, an opportunity to get everyone out there.

Everyone has been trapped in this gold-mining land for too long, a thousand years, long enough to fear the outside world, which of course does have things to fear, but is much better than a Gloren without gold.

Georgia, who had already made her record, said calmly, "Father, leave Gloren to me," as if she had grown up overnight, tapping her father on the shoulder the night he fell to his knees and hugged him in tears.

His father looked up with teary eyes, "Do you have the means to make Gloren produce gold again?"

"I don't." Georgia replied calmly, "But, Father, talent is a nation's most precious gold."

"We are not at the end of our tether, the mines are still producing gold, we are preserving it, opening the Gloren window, cooperating, communicating and fighting with the outside world, and in the process, the will of everyone will become strong and our country will become stable and strong. "

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

Georgia guessed that there would be a lot of resistance to what he wanted to do, but it wasn't absolutely impossible, though perhaps naivety might be in the bones of every Gloren - he was naive enough to think that God would never again come to this no longer happily-ever-after, fairy-tale believing Gloren country.

It is also naively forgotten that the pain of a thousand years of gold equivalents is not covered by the howls of a child.

As Georgia tensed up and carefully pursued his filing, he heard strange noises coming from the court and some ministers began to frequent his father's dark conversations night after night, mistakenly believing that his filing had attracted the attention of these old-fashioned ministers and objecting to his father, which Georgia did not care for as the filing was well underway.

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

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

Georgia's mind was blank for that moment and could only subconsciously ask in return, "God?"

"Yes!" His father was so excited he was almost jumping up and down, "Our high priest heard from somewhere in the Church that there was a guest who would sell islands suspended in the sea that resembled the god we described, and it took a lot of work on the part of the high priest and the other man was finally willing to meet with us!"

"He's coming to Gloren today, and I've got the DAC meeting him at the country gate!"

"Let's not talk about whether he's a god or not." Georgia pushed down the hand of his excited father shaking his shoulder and, holding onto the table and trying his best to remain calm, he looked up and questioned icily, "Even if he is, at this moment God is here to collect the price of our suffering, so what are you going to do? What can you do?"

His father became a little uneasy and timid under Georgia's gaze: "...... The customer said he could deal with us again."

"What's the deal ......" Georgia had to use almost all her strength to control herself from roaring so out of temper and instead asked calmly, "What is it?"

"He can supply us with gold for a while longer, through a special kind of stone [the gold point stone]." His father explained somewhat nervously, "We've tested this stone and just by burying it in the ground, the gold minerals do increase more and no clear side effects have been found, so you don't have to worry so much!"

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

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

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

"When the time comes, when is it?" Georgia opened her eyes and asked the question softly, unable to contain the disappointment in his eyes.

"At least it's not today, not this year!" His father began to get angry too, pounding on the table, "At least he's bringing the golden stones so that our people can have a good spring this year! At least the children will be able to lie at home this year listening to fairy tales and sleeping peacefully! At least tonight, after the pointing stones are buried in the mines, I won't be hearing the cries of people at night who are afraid they won't survive!"

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

"Can't even handle what's in front of us, so far away, does it really matter to us?!"

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

Georgia was silent, her fists clenched tight, while the king aggressively questioned, pointing out the window and looking directly at Georgia: "Do you want to see these people struggling outside?"

"If there is no more gold this spring, by the time winter comes, they will be starving to death; do you want them to starve alive this winter?"

"Put my strategy and your strategy together and who do you think the public will support?!"

Georgia took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently, "But ......"

"No buts!" The king sternly slapped the table, "Keeping the people in front of you alive is the most important thing, all your far reaching concerns, wait until it's done!"

Looking at Georgia's pursed lips, the king paused and softened his tone: "Take a pause from those strategies you've been using lately."

"You're tired from doing all this too, so take some time ...... to rest and relax."

Georgia walked out of the palace with nothing on his face, as if his soul had been taken out of his body, lost in thought as he walked through the streets, surrounded by closed shops, daily necessities that had gone up in price, and people who were crossing their fingers and crying, counting how long they had left to spend their gold.

His face was so well known to many that whenever he walked past a person, one would ask him expectantly.

"When will the gold be issued, Your Royal Highness?"

"When does the mine resume?"

" Gloren wouldn't be without gold, would he?"

"God will not abandon us, will he?"

In front of eyes so innocent as to be almost a little frightened, Georgia opened his mouth and not a last word came out, his heart beating violently in his chest, his blood tumbling with some stirring emotion - an emotion he had learned to control when he was very young, before he learned to draw a bow.

The Dauphin was not to be impulsive or outwardly emotional, his every move had to be in line, elegant, decent, and capable of being nationally oriented, without any inappropriate behaviour, so to do all this Georgia trained himself almost rigorously and did not cry after he was five years old - because that would not be decent.

While Armand would cry from the fall, Georgia would just pat his bleeding knee and get up, pick up his tearful brother and walk to the palace as if nothing had happened.

"Don't run so fast next time, Armand." Little Georgia calmly reprimanded her brother, "Not a prince in sight."

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

Georgia paused, "It hurts."

Armand asked in a small voice, "So brother, why aren't you crying?"

"Because if even the crown prince of this country is crying over this little pain." Georgia tilted her head as he looked up at the illuminated Gloren, her voice soft, "And who will bear the cost of the deal with God for them?"

"Then, then I won't cry either." Armand said somewhat sheepishly.

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

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