Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 99 Idle Chess
"How about it?"

"It's not good." Kraft let go of the small ore in his hand. It was red and dull in color, close to a piece of coagulated dried blood. When it rolled down the steep slope, William thought of the red tears shed.

Sitting at the mouth of the mine, a pile of such ore was placed under his buttocks, and the liquid mixed with blood and water accumulated in the empty eye sockets, and it was about to overflow.

For outsiders, seeing more of these mines does not mean treating them as usual. The more they are seen, the more strange it is how so many caves of different sizes are formed.The wheezing throats of the miners also give people a bad impression of the mine.

These days, at the request of Kraft, Peter took them to visit the operating mines one by one. Years of operation did not increase the size of the settlement, and they all maintained a model of family succession and villages as units. , the output adapts to the transportation capacity.

The mining time of larger mines can be counted on behalf of the young miners and their fathers who work in them. They are familiar enough to remind outsiders to be careful about the special stone under their feet, and remember whose kid fell there last time.

The cave that goes straight down has no forks, and Kraft followed them to the place where they usually work, and it can take more than ten minutes to walk.Then an invisible boundary separated the activity area from "deeper", and they stopped and started working, letting Kraft see what he needed.

The grandparents rarely saw them, and even if they did, they lost the ability to work, sitting in the shade at the foot of the wall in the village, topless, and their breathing fluctuated obviously.The typical signs of dyspnea were manifested in them, and the skin on the sternum and collarbone was deeply concave, just like Yvonne's father.

The dust flying around the mining site quickly drove the interested visitors out. The miners were also troubled by these things that caused coughing and sneezing, but they didn’t directly link it with lung disease, or thought of it and didn’t have time to prove it. Naturally, you will not cover your mouth and nose during heavy physical labor for coughing and sneezing.

After all, dust-induced lung disease is still a matter that requires long-term observation and summary. The cycle is counted in years. Without clear and sufficient comparative cases, it is difficult to win people's trust. Obviously, there is no one here who can do this.

There was also nothing found on the ore, and Kraft jumped down from the pile with a small bag in his hand, "Iron ore, or iron ore, what they mined the most is iron ore. It was iron ore in ten years, and it will be iron ore in ten years. .”

"Then what are you doing here? Suggesting them your... mask?"

After visiting two or three settlements a week ago, Kraft began his obsessive behavior, trying to recommend to the locals a kind of lower-face mask made up of a piece of cloth and two strips of cloth.

He claimed that it was for a survey, and it might be beneficial to improve the lung disease of the miners.

"Yes, but the form has changed." Kraft took out two badly worn copper coins from his pocket, privately minted, "I plan to sell them, one for each copper coin."

"How many people are you sure will buy it? It didn't work when I gave it to them for trial before." William's market sensitivity is still there.In relatively closed villages, it is very difficult to persuade them as a stranger.

You must know that he has been with the Ice Plains tribe for so long, but he still failed to make the Ice Plains people get used to things that they didn't have before and integrated into their daily lives.

"Not many people will buy it. Or after I helped someone solve a small problem, only two people paid for it, which can be counted as another form of consultation fee?" The copper coin passed between the fingers, turned back to the palm, stuffed back into the bag.

"Spending money makes people feel that things are valuable, and they will use them for a few days. In the past few days, they will make their coughs and sneezes feel better, at least psychologically. What's more, this is a mask with 'herbal formula' added .”

Herbal medicine is currently the mainstream of medical treatment, but William had never heard Kraft mention it before, "So you still know about herbal medicine?"

"I don't understand, I just found a kind of grass-root juice with a light taste, let them guess, if there is a chance to promote it, maybe there will be some inherited formulas from various families, it will not be disclosed, and it will only be used in a small area. "Craft whispered into William's ear, but at this point the miners were far from resting, and they were still in the mine, and no one came to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"The key is to provide such a treatment method that conforms to the general idea. I don't care what they use, as long as they put their minds on the masks."

William had a strange expression. The captain has seen a lot in his life, and he has seen all kinds of profiteers and good people.

"What if they don't do what you say?"

"With so many villages, there will always be some impact. I sold five of them in the previous place. You must know that there is a whole family behind every mature labor force. How much influence can it have on a small village with few people? Wait another five years Recover the results ten years later."

Kraft shook the purse, and there was a jingle inside, guessing that there was a small half of it.

"Are you coming here again?"

"Not necessarily, you can send my students over here, and I will pay the expenses, so it will be treated as a public trip."

"Then I feel sorry for him in advance, and suggest that you focus on the things we are working hard on." William failed to connect the recent itinerary with travel, and expressed dissatisfaction with the partner's lack of business.

"Oh, my friend, the best plan investor, then you can blame me." Opening the mouth of the wallet, a large number of copper coins were displayed in front of William, the old metal dark yellow and green rust, showing the former owner How long have you kept them.

"I remember I just mentioned that there are many mines and minerals here, and there are a lot of villages, but... there are very few people in each village, so few that you can recognize the whole village if you pick a child at random. Nicknames for each of them."

"We went in the wrong direction at the beginning. There is no need to check the outflow of minerals and the whereabouts of food. Over the years, the flow is too large. So what is the least here?"

"what?"

Kraft pointed to himself, and then to William's chest, "Outsiders, counted by year, are few, and the further you go, the fewer villages there are, enough to stay in this boring repetitive life like clear water for a long time. talk money."

"Especially outsiders like us, who don't transport food, don't want ready-made mines, and just go to drill in mines."

He had a rare self-satisfied smile on his face, like the regular winner William had seen in the casino, he closed his eyes and listened carefully, and took a picture of the chip. He saw the desired number of points illuminated by the fireplace light through the crack in the wooden bowl.

"There is indeed such a person, and I am trying to find his route."

They did not come here for the purpose of buying and selling, but intermittently appeared in the mouths of the original owners of the newly bagged copper coins, and their footprints went deep into the mountains.Integrating the information of outsiders is easier than thinking about daily ores and food.

Overlooking the mountains, the cascading natural barriers can no longer block the line of sight. After a long time of running around, I finally cleared up the muddy water that was stirred up by traffic and information.
"Now, guess what those two told me? An outsider lived in the next village a few years ago!"

(End of this chapter)