To Four Thousand Years Later

The sky was already half overcast. The damp cold wind is getting stronger. It's not even midday now, but it looks like it's getting dark.

Carlo Grimaldi stands in front of the huge trench, watching the construction site. Holding the waterproof and oil-proof leather case containing Jianfang drawings in his hand, he cautiously tightened the lid tightly with trembling hands. This is already his last hope of escaping here.

"Master Grimaldi, you'd better go back to the house first.

A middle-aged man dressed as a worker, but very clean and tidy, persuaded loudly: "It may have to rain for a while."

"No. The middle-aged man didn't hear clearly, but asked again.

"I said no!

Carlo also raised his voice, and responded loudly in a dull and dull voice. Facing the supervisor who looked at him with a stupid face, a feeling of irritability burst out of Carlo's heart.

Why am I here? Doing this stupid job every day in the North Side, in the slums, in this desolate place where you don't buy orange juice and white wine, in this place full of noise and dust, spend the rest of your life? He is sixty-two years old this year. Seeing that life is coming to an end. Now he goes back to bed every day and thinks he won't wake up again the next day. Old Carlo had been a construction engineer for nearly forty years. Half of the new buildings in Florence were built by him or his apprentices.

He should have been lying comfortably in his villa. Drinking his favorite iced orange juice and fried lamb. Go to the concert hall every day in suits and leather shoes, or read novels. Or play cards and chess with a few old friends. Dang's knocking, and those rude roars.

Carlo didn't plan to evacuate this time, anyway, it seemed that the rain wouldn't start.

There had been a small shower of rain on the construction site before, and the workers hurriedly dropped their tools and ran to shelter from the rain. As a result, the rain didn't last long. After the rain stopped, they began to yell that they didn't want it to be the rainy season, and it rained for a while every three days. If you go out to take shelter every time it rains, no one cares about the rain protection, and the bottom will become a puddle of mud. When will the subway be built? No, not even having to fix the subway... the caisson is almost finished. As long as the caisson can be dug out, the entrance can be covered, and underground work can begin.

Carlo had already made up his mind—even if he put on an umbrella and stood here staring at them, he would never leave. As soon as he left, these mud legs would immediately spread out with him. If his 60-year-old chief engineer doesn't leave, these workers dare to take shelter from the rain and rest? As for their lack of umbrellas...who cares? One hand is holding an umbrella, and the other hand is doing whatever it takes? There was only less than three days of work in total, and everyone finished it in the rain.

Carlo has made up his mind. For the subway or something, it is enough to build a short road to prove its possibility. He wants to leave as soon as possible.

Here he can only drink cold water mixed with the smell of sand, and there is no place to light a fire even if he wants to drink tea. Carlo stubbornly believed that this kind of water was dirty, as long as he drank it, he would get sick. He had to entrust his maid to take the steam bus every day, deliver orange juice and rum for him, and bring enough sweet pancakes for him every day. For this reason, Carlo even specially invented a suitcase carved from wood that can hold wine bottles, because wine bottles are easy to be crushed on the steam bus.

Even so, he had almost had enough.

He originally thought that the design of the "underground railway" was too stupid, which not only did not make life and transportation more convenient, but even made it even more inconvenient. In fact, Carlo was originally an advocate of the "trackless steam locomotive". He believes that one of the reasons why the Teutonic steam locomotives are not used on ordinary roads is that the old taxi roads and masonry ground are not enough to support the weight of heavy steam locomotives. And the steam bus business gave him new inspiration.

Now that steam buses can travel on ordinary ground. Then the steam locomotive should also work.

Carlo wanted to invest in some chemists. Let them try to invent a soft material that can be used to pave roads. The requirement is that the raw material is cheap enough. Can withstand pressure, not be permanently deformed or cracked by pressure - if the ground can't be made as strong as a railroad, then maybe it can be made soft enough. Let the road roller flatten the road, and then lay a layer of soft material, so that the locomotive can gallop on the ordinary ground even without the track.

Railroads, Railroad Tracks Carlo thought there was no beauty in such things. He simply hated them: having two railroads running into the complex. It's almost as if two of them have been submerged into the human body. Cities will die from it. The natural beauty of stone and shingle will be lost even more.

In this world, how can there be iron-gray cities?

But now, he has to come to build this deadly underground railway. I have to lose most of my life's reputation to guarantee this project. But the real purpose is to help the Pazzi family bury some strange crystal **** in the ground. Those things looked like crystals and bones, but they were covered with a transparent crystal shell, which was still shining. In fact, Carlo didn't know what those things were, but they definitely weren't. Dynamite... that's enough. He used to be a construction engineer. After so many years of work, he has also seen all kinds of weird personal demands. Some people like to condense some animal specimens in the pillars and put them under the house; some people also specify that some kind of wood should be used as the outer wall. Carlo has already learned not to ask what he shouldn't ask, not to read what he shouldn't look at, and no. Listen... Only such survival wisdom can keep him alive. Even became a master.

What's more, he still remembered what Master Francesco said to him...

"People hold wisdom and evil. Because the wisdom entity is born in everyone's heart, it's just that some people's hearts are dirty and they don't see it.

"For this purpose, we must persevere in purifying and transforming ourselves with the fire of truth, and even use it to transform all mankind. But if we give up this ultimate goal, we must go back and re-understand this philosophy. Otherwise the heart will be impure and the rose will not bloom again.

"The teachings of the Order of the Rose do not require people to be desperate and ruthless in search of the truth. Rather, it is precisely because it grows in society and lives in power that it appears mature and arrogant.

When Francesco said this to him, he looked like a politician who was full of lies and gave himself a blank check, but also like a fanatic who yearned for the truth and preached piously to himself.

That twisted and compound gesture... made Carlo shudder. He didn't dare to disobey that lord's will in the slightest, and he didn't even dare to ask about the details. Just do it and it's over, he told himself in his heart.

"Master Grimaldi!"

At this moment, the supervisor with a stupid face ran back again.

"I said I'm not leaving!" he yelled, trying to keep his voice above the noise.

But the overseer shook his head desperately.

He also shouted to Carlo.

"Master Grimaldi has an accident at the construction site!