In addition to wandering around the mountains, Goetz's daily work also requires planning for trees that grow wantonly, cutting down trees that affect roads and the environment, and clearing overly dense areas and branches. This is also a kind of ecological control of other plants in the woods.

Protect.

In fact, I should have noticed it on the road. The remaining tree stumps along the road and the tree trunks with different markings all indicate that someone has been doing maintenance here for a long time.

Therefore, after Gotz showed me the way, I continued to patrol down the mountain to deal with the debris.

He just spent two days sorting out the part of the mountain. He said that there were no problems all the way there. The road was flat and the route was clear. There were no creatures larger than goats on the mountain. It was poisonous to mosquitoes, so I could move forward with confidence.

After bidding farewell to Gotz, I continued heading deeper into the mountains.

Following his instructions, my journey became much smoother, and I soon arrived in front of a building that looked unassuming but exuded the smell of smoke and water.

This place is located in a valley, surrounded by mountains on three sides. A stream pouring out of a high mountain flows slowly and swirls, but a small stream of water is introduced into the hot spring.

The house was just a row of brick and wood structures, side by side with the hot spring, dotted with a row of weak bamboos hanging low to cast a little shade.

This place should have taken advantage of the location of the natural hot springs and built simple buildings around it to create a warm area that feels like spring all year round.

But the overall design can be said to be ingenious. The cabin built in this haven at the foot of the mountain not only makes perfect use of hot spring resources, but also introduces a channel of running water, which not only reduces the temperature of the hot springs, but also prevents the long-term precipitation of the hot spring water.

And corrupt.

More importantly, there is a mountain breeze that will automatically become the air circulation system of this hot spring house along with the air flow caused by uneven cold and heat. Even if no one takes care of it for a long time, it will not be flooded by sulfur gas.

As a VR architect, these ingenious cases are our learning goals, and we strive to pursue nature and harmony in this natural environment.

But appearing in this deserted valley seemed particularly abrupt.

I took a look inside the house and saw that there were only rows of shelves and an extended bench for hot spring guests to place their clothes and rest. From the direction, the entire hot spring house was divided into two by wooden boards.

Part, separate the male guests and female guests.

After a rough understanding, I didn’t plan to continue reading. After all, I didn’t bring any toiletries, and the ranch was in a state of ruin, so I wasn’t in the mood to take a hot spring bath here. After the ranch is on track, I can come here to relax.

When I walked out of the hut, my attention was attracted by a floor tile.

The brick was alone and inlaid in the corner of the hot spring hut, less than three feet above the ground, and looked extremely old.

"Jockson Providence."

There is only a mottled name on the brick. Fortunately, it was directly carved on it during the firing process, so it was not corroded by water vapor.

But what puzzles me is not the name, but the fact that the tiles are covered with the same spiral pattern as the Rose Square, forming a pile of blooming rose plants.

"..."

I suddenly felt something strange, but I couldn't figure it out.

According to my estimation, the unique bricks on Rose Square should date back to the time when the earliest residents settled on the island and named Ore Town.

Then there are two possibilities for the bricks that appear here.

First, when the residents of the town built this house, they accidentally used the same batch of bricks from Rose Square, and they happened to use this rose brick with a person's name on it.

However, the possibility of such an accident happening is too small, and it is too far-fetched to be a reasonable estimate.

Another explanation is that the residents who originally built Rose Square were the same people who built this hut, so they subconsciously used bricks with names when building brick and wood structures.

This speculation is obviously more consistent with common sense.

But there is a loophole in the middle.

That is, the lifespan of a normal brick-wood structure building is not long, and the lifespan of a building built in a hot spring will be severely eroded by corrosive gases such as sulfur in the hot spring, shortening its lifespan to twenty or thirty years.

In other words, the era of the last batch of small town residents is actually far closer than I imagined.

The era without historical records in Ore Town lasted beyond my expectation.

Is it even possible that the residents in the town today have remnants of the mining boom?

Is it Boss Dart? Is it Boss Dick?

It’s unlikely. The industry these two people have been engaged in has obviously been in the industry since they were young, and they don’t look like people who changed careers midway. After all, the people working in the daily life service industry in Ore Town also immigrated, and it is unlikely that they would not migrate with the mining industry.

Are they Sebala and Mucci, two old men?

It's reasonable based on their age, but neither of them has heard of any children living in the town. If they are used to taking care of themselves in old age, why don't they leave this town with their children and instead raise their grandchildren here alone?

Or Sheriff Harris and Thomas the Tank Engine... the mayor?

Judging from the boss's description, these two people, like Zach, came to the town later, so their work is closely related to the life of the town, but their behavior is not like mining personnel at all.

………

I checked the people I knew in the town one by one, but I couldn't find anyone who could exactly correspond.

Did the miners from twenty years ago all evacuate this town in unison, and another group of completely unrelated people inherited their territory?

This possibility is really too small.

Actually, I don’t have any obsession with the whereabouts of these miners.

I'm just curious about how the prosperous town turned into the sparsely populated state it is now?

Carrying out such a complete industrial transfer is destructive to a region's economy.

Just like the hollowing out of industrial areas, a large number of laborers will be unemployed, resulting in deterioration of public security. The result of deterioration of public security is that other employed labor forces will also choose to move to other places.

Under the mutual influence, the entire place will become a talent desert, with only basic life service personnel remaining to provide social services to the remaining local residents.

This situation is very consistent with the situation in Ore Town.

Because the ore output has received a huge impact from the interstellar mining industry, the entire town is like farmers abandoning their fields, and the mining industry and related industries are rapidly declining.

The outstanding feature is that the number of young people in this town is obviously sparse, leaving only local residents such as Boss Dart and their children who are underage or incapable of independent living. For example, Boss Dick can't even find anyone better than me to hoist barrels and move things.

Suitable young adults are available for hire.

Secondly, the town's industries have become sparse and weakened, and daily necessities have to be imported, becoming a dispensable link in the commercial waterway.

In this case, there are still ships willing to supply goods to the town and then continue sailing with some worthless products, thanks to Zach's connections.

The problem of labor turnover is right.

The problem of industrial hollowing out is right.

But the problem is, from my analysis, the residents of these towns do not look like residents left over from the mining industry...

What happened to those people twenty years ago?

Where has this man named "Yockson Providence" gone now?

"Twenty years ago...twenty years ago..."

I squatted down in front of the brick in the hot spring house, my fingers slid unconsciously on the brick, and I muttered something.

Suddenly, a lightning-like thought flashed across my mind, causing huge waves.

I feel that an important piece of information that I had subconsciously forgotten and discarded in the hall of memory finally came to light after my hard thinking.

The accident that happened twenty years ago is not without any clues.

Word of mouth among residents gave me a key piece of information.

And this information is so small that I have no memory of it.

But it's also the last thing I should forget.

Twenty years ago, I was convinced that a man had moved out of town and wiped out all the property.

That was the old rancher of Ore Town Ranch.

The man who sold the ranch to my father.

The founder who built the ranch on the outskirts of Ore Town, occupying an important access road from the mine to the town.
Chapter completed!