The sunny weather didn't seem to last long at all, and another snowfall visited the frost. Starting from the morning, gloomy clouds accumulated over the city like lead, and disorderly cold wind blew through the streets all the time.
As the time approached noon, snowflakes began to fall in droves. From the upper city to the lower city, from every high tower to every shabby alley, the entire city-state was shrouded in hazy, swirling snowflakes.
The sudden snowfall made the streets seem a lot quieter.
The sound of the steam engine braking broke the tranquility on the snowy street. A dark gray car stopped at the gate of the city hall. The door opened. Agatha, dressed in black, got out of the car and walked towards the tall building in front of her.
A large and solemn building with light gray as the main color.
She raised her head and looked at the towering main building of the city hall - this classical building inherited from the royal era still retains the majesty of the previous era, with its towering columns, arches and continuously undulating roof structure.
It's very impressive when you go up there. Although its name has changed from "Winter King's Court" to "City Hall" now, its status in the city-state has never changed.
It still symbolizes one of the "authoritarian poles" in the city-state, and together with the distant and silent Great Cathedral, it protects this city of boiling gold - the building is a history book made of stones, and the power flows and changes in the building.
The characters and characters are just lines of text descriptions on the pages of the book. Whether it is the Queen's era or today's consul system, it will inevitably become a record in the history book that has been turned over...
Agatha suddenly frowned, raised her hand and gently pinched her forehead.
She knew that she was distracted again, and she had a lot of emotions like a sentimental poet - she had always been like this in the past two days. For some reason, she couldn't help but think about some random things, or she was restless for no reason.
This is not a good sign. As the gatekeeper of the city-state, one's mental state must be kept under high control. "Wandering away" is a situation that must be avoided as much as possible.
The sound of footsteps came from the direction of the door, interrupting Agatha's mental activities. She raised her head and saw a senior secretary wearing a dark blue coat walking towards her.
"Ms. Agatha," the young man who was the consul's assistant came to Agatha and bowed his head respectfully, "the consul has been informed of your visit and he is waiting for you in the dome office."
"Stop being polite," Agatha nodded, "lead the way."
On the top floor of the city hall, in a large office with a circular vault, Winston, the current governor of the Frost City State, is sitting behind a wide curved desk.
He is a tall man with a slightly stout body, wearing an elegant bright blue coat decorated with medals and ribbons. Perhaps because managing a declining city-state consumes too much energy, his hair has been thinning to a dangerous level.
As for having to wear a curly wig to cover her scalp - when Agatha entered the dome office, the consul was fiddling with an exquisite brass machine on his desk.
The complex mechanical device looks like some kind of miniature model. Its tightly meshed gears and connecting rods are as exquisite as works of art, and they make crisp sounds from time to time under the fiddling of Archon Winston.
"I didn't expect that you would have time to play with machine models besides being so busy with government affairs," Agatha's voice came from the desk, "I thought the recent situation in the city-state was enough to keep you busy.
"
"This is not a machine model. This is the next generation of mine car traction mechanism - it can save 30% of power and is more reliable and durable than the previous generation." Archon Winston raised his head with a serious look on his face.
Said, "The troubles in the city-state are one after another, but we cannot stop living and developing because of this."
Agatha was noncommittal.
Mr. Winston, the consul, is obsessed with machinery and engineering technology. He has been consul for twelve years, and most of his energy has been focused on supporting and promoting engineering design institutes and machinery manufacturing plants. This consul is very ambitious.
He seems to hope to solve the current predicament of the city-state through technological breakthroughs-including upgrading old facilities and seeking new economic power.
But how to put it...
I can only say that the idea is good, the confidence is high, and the effort is great - but the reality is full of difficulties.
"Technological progress allows us to complete the transformation of mining facilities at an acceptable cost, and new, more practical machines can also be exported to other city-states - Hanshuang cannot survive forever by selling boiling gold,"
Winston noticed the gatekeeper's mediocre response and couldn't help but say a few more words, "The Boiling Gold Mine is the basis for Frost's survival, but the pillars formed by a single industry are too weak..."
"I am not an official in the economic or technical fields." Agatha had to remind her gently.
"Oh, okay, I ignored it," Winston raised his hand and put the machine model on his desk aside while looking up at Agatha, "Let's get down to business, Ms. Agatha, about
You seem to have something to say about the exploration of the Second Waterway?"
"The exploration force is at the bottom of the Feijin Mine, the connecting shaft in the Central Area 2. Some of the branch pipelines have traces of being modified, but the gate to the next connecting section is blocked - the order I gave to the exploration force is,
Barriers in the second waterway could be broken down by violent means, but my men reported seeing the lead seal and nameplate left by the city hall on the gate."
"...the seal and nameplate of the city hall?" Winston was obviously stunned for a moment, and his surprised expression did not seem to be fake, "Are you sure?"
Agatha observed the expression on the consul's face. After a long time, she said softly: "It seems that you know nothing about this."
"That's the second waterway that has been abandoned for half a century - the last time it was put into use was when the Frost Queen ruled the city-state!" Winston raised his hands, his expression a bit exaggerated, "Even if there is a city hall left there,
What came down - Ms. Agatha, do you think I secretly sealed the door there? What's the point of that? Storing treasure deep underground?"
"...You really have no reason to do this," Agatha nodded slightly, "If you really want to store some treasure, any place in the city-state is more reliable than the out-of-control second waterway."
"I don't want to hear you seriously assuming this kind of thing," Winston waved his hand, but his expression became serious. "Then there is no date and name of the person in charge on the nameplate? They are all on the formal nameplate.
With something like this, you should be able to easily determine who locked the door."
"Unfortunately, all the words are stained and difficult to read, and the nameplate and lead seal have suffered severe corrosion. In fact, even the door is extremely fragile - we suspect that the acidic environment near the mine has caused the metal to deteriorate.
"Accelerated aging," Agatha shook her head, "I can only confirm that the door is indeed locked by the city hall - there would not be lead seals of that type in the Queen's era."
Winston stood up, with a slightly irritable expression on his face, and paced back and forth behind the large curved desk. After an unknown amount of time, he stopped and muttered: "If that is really left by the city hall,
It can only be a long time ago - maybe even the first or second city government after the end of the Queen's era..."
"It seems that your predecessors did not transfer all the information to their successors." Agatha said.
"It is also possible that the early chaos caused some data to be lost and damaged," Winster waved his hand, "But no matter what, there is an area deep underground in the central area of the city that was ordered to be sealed off by the city hall, and this area
It is still part of the Second Waterway, this matter is very abnormal...Ms. Agatha, this matter must be investigated clearly."
"Of course, this is my responsibility," Agatha nodded, her expression relaxed a little, "Although I didn't get the answer I wanted, your support is the same - the exploration operation will continue.
, I will figure out what is behind that door as soon as possible, and if there are any new developments, the church will communicate with the city hall in a timely manner."
"That's best." Winston nodded. The atmosphere in the dome office relaxed slightly.
"Then I won't bother you any more,"
Agatha said, "There are still many things in the Second Waterway that require my personal supervision."
She politely said goodbye to the consul, then turned and left the dome office.
The figure of the gatekeeper disappeared into the room, leaving only the sound of his cane and heels tapping on the ground. It took a long time before Winston breathed a sigh of relief, and then he frowned in confusion.
"...Ms. Agatha is of no use today. Gray Wind, hurry up..." The slightly stout middle-aged consul raised his head, looked at the direction Agatha left, and murmured in a low voice,
"So she can walk in and out of the door normally?"