Chapter 274 Death List
Occasionally, there will be one or two young people in a small town who are out of tune with the town’s temperament. He (she) usually has a relatively outstanding appearance, is smart, confident, good at socializing, and is the central figure in the small circle.
He (she) usually receives compliments from people around him (her) that are not very substantial and are related to his (her) excellent appearance since childhood, and those who praise him (her) often politely say that they think he (she) will be able to leave the small town and develop in a big city in the future - for small town residents who themselves have little vision and experience, those who can live in a big city are remarkable people, and this is indeed the friendliest compliment in the context of a greeting.
But... this kind of compliment given out of courtesy does not have any real functionality. It is just like those "teasing child" words that people use to scare their neighbor's children when they are bored, such as "your parents didn't want you after your brother was born" or "you were actually picked up by your mother from outside". The person who says it does not care about what he or she said at all.
But unfortunately, some of the listeners will take it seriously.
Gold, who has had an outstanding appearance since childhood and stands out among the young people in the small town when he grew up, is such a young man who takes the nonsense uttered by others during polite greetings seriously.
Not only Gold himself, but also his parents and family gradually became convinced that their son was indeed extraordinary and mediocre after years of casual praise from others.
Mispositioning oneself is often the first step for ordinary people to derail their normal life.
For example... when Jimmy, who was about the same age as Gold, joined the militia, Gold, who was also qualified to join the militia, completely disdained the militia, which was a vulgar and low-level organization.
When Porsha Lowry, who was a few years younger than Gold, joined the post office, Gold also looked down on the job of a postman, which required working in the wind and rain.
When people of his age were beginning to discuss marriage, Gold and his family looked down upon the unseemly wild girls in town and were determined to marry into a good family in the city.
After wasting several years like this, Gold, who had achieved nothing and had not found a city girl to marry, had to go to work in a city factory with those small town youths who were several years younger than him, full of complaints.
To be fair, the work in the Innadli City factory area is not too bad, the income is decent, and the factory also provides accommodation and three meals. Although it is difficult for people from the town to become formal workers and cannot enjoy the treatment of formal workers, they can still save money if they can live frugally.
Simon and Alan, who used to work in the same factory, used their income to improve their family's life so that they could have meat every other week.
But for Gold, repeating monotonous and boring mechanized labor day after day was hard, did not reflect his strengths, and was totally inconsistent with his plan for his life; the few silver coins he received every month were not enough, and he could not even afford a decent pair of calfskin shoes.
His outstanding appearance did not fade because he became an ordinary workshop worker. There would always be family members of regular workers who would run to the workshop to peek at him under various excuses, but this was of no use except to satisfy Gold's vanity - the workers' families were too different from the people he imagined he would marry, and he did not want to be a worker's son-in-law at all.
After Westham changed its lord, Gold, who had long been tired of the life of a worker, returned home. At first, he did not take Caroline seriously... He knew that the girl from the next street was far from his ideal wife.
It wasn't until Gold's mother learned about Caroline's income from the gossip of neighbors.
Caroline's inconspicuous little caravan, which was always running around in the dust, could earn more than ten gold coins per trip when business was best, and even at its worst, the profit was still calculated in gold coins!
The hardworking Caroline had to lead the small caravan out at least three or five times a month. Sometimes she had to sleep outdoors for several days. Her footprints covered villages and towns in half of Innadri's territory. She did not even take a break during the winter festivals. As a result, she became weather-beaten in just six months and lost the beauty of a young girl - but she could earn at least a few gold coins every month!
For an unmarried girl with an annual income of more than twenty gold coins , this is such a good marriage that you would never find it even with a lantern!
Gold's family was moved, and Gold was also moved.
Gold actively pursues Caroline, but is worried that someone else will get there first and spread the news to everyone in town that he is pursuing Caroline. He believes that potential competitors will lose confidence as long as they know that he is their rival - although he is several years older than Caroline, he firmly believes that those young men are definitely not as popular with women as he is.
What caught Gold off guard was that Caroline had no interest in him.
His good looks, which attracted the hearts of the workers' families in the city, were in vain with Caroline.
Gold was filled with hatred in his heart, but the more hatred he felt, the more active he was in pursuing Caroline. As long as Caroline became his wife, he could eventually get back at the humiliation he had suffered.
Gold's already anxious mood was ignited when he learned from his neighbor Allen that they were going to open a store in the city with Caroline... He thought he was a unique and good choice among unmarried small town men, but he did not have the confidence that he could beat the young men in the city.
When he was working in the city, Gold had tried hard to change his life with his superior appearance. However, after just walking around St. Joseph's Street twice during the holidays, he saw many young men who looked just as good as him, dressed more fashionably and decently than him, and had more elegant conversation than him. He stood out in the small town, but there was not much difference between him and his peers in the city.
If Caroline met any good unmarried man in the city, all his efforts would be in vain.
When Caroline entered Allen's house and had a heated discussion with Allen about how to run the store in the city, Gold, who was wandering outside the door, was furious. He wanted to break in and ask Caroline to marry him immediately several times.
Alan was a strong man, and there were several strong men in his family who went to the countryside to do odd jobs during the autumn harvest every autumn. Gold knew that he would get into trouble if he broke in, so he simply went home, put a knife in his pocket, and squatted in the alley waiting for Caroline to come out of Allen's house.
He was lucky. For some reason there was not a single undead in the town tonight (all the players had gone to Moses Port to complete quests). He successfully kidnapped Caroline and used both soft and hard tactics to drag her to a secluded alley in the west of the town.
Gold swore that he really had no intention of hurting Caroline from the beginning. If Caroline had been sensible and not trampled on his true feelings for marrying her, he would not even take out the knife.
But Caroline disappointed him. This ungrateful woman actually pointed at his nose and called him an incompetent and useless person.
Even after being humiliated to this extent in person, Gold did not want to kill Caroline. He just wanted to disfigure her and leave her with no choice - Gold swore that he really just thought so, he just wanted to marry this woman.
Caroline's disgust for him was beyond Gold's imagination, and Caroline's resistance was also beyond his imagination... The young girl, covered in blood and wailing in pain, touched the brick on the ground, ignored the pain, and smashed it on his head with all her might.
She actually wanted to kill me - this discovery made Gold extremely angry.
What's worse is that Caroline is not as frail as she looks . She has been running the caravan business for half a year, often carrying heavy goods up and down, and is much stronger than the average young girl... Not only did Gold fail to control her resistance, but he was knocked to the ground.
Before he fell into a coma, Gold was discouraged and extremely angry... No matter whether Caroline had a generous dowry or how much money this woman could make, he vowed not to marry this woman.
Gold didn't think that his behavior of holding Caroline hostage and trying to disfigure her was bad. It was Caroline who trampled on his sincerity and humiliated him that forced him to take action. Caroline was the one who was wrong first.
Caroline's murderous behavior towards him was what should be blamed. If he ever became successful, he would definitely take revenge on this vicious woman who was ungrateful and wanted to kill him - he knew very well that he had no ability to take revenge on someone who was richer and more connected than him.
When he was thrown into the convoy carrying supplies to the prisoners' road-building team with gauze wrapped around his head, Gold did not think that it was his own bad behavior that led to his end. He only thought that the vicious woman Caroline bribed the security team with money and used the money to cleanse herself of the despicable crime of attempted murder.
"It was clearly that bitch's fault, why should I be the one being punished?!"
During the escort, Gold, who was trapped in the carriage, would excitedly complain about the injustice he had suffered whenever he saw someone.
Unfortunately, there were quite a few operators among the people transporting the supplies. These operators were in cahoots with the security team and were too lazy to pay attention to him. Some even deliberately bullied him and withheld his meals.
In grief and despair, Gold was escorted to the prisoner road construction team. He was roughly pulled out of the carriage in shackles... and painfully discovered that he was being escorted to a barren land.
After a winter of hard work, a road-building team of thousands of prisoners built the railway to the border of the Tarantan Desert, which is dozens of kilometers away from the nearest village. There is no one living within a radius of twenty miles. Apart from the Gobi Desert, there are endless desolate wilderness and towering mountains in the distance.
What horrified Gold even more was that... when he was being pushed and shoved towards the prisoner barracks, a mass funeral was taking place outside the barracks, something he had never seen or heard of in his life.
Also being buried at the same time were hundreds of prisoners who had died throughout the winter from various accidents, misfortunes, illnesses, aging and other reasons.
There are not many "fresh" bodies. Most of them are the unlucky ones who died early during the road construction process and whose funerals were not held until now.
Jars containing ashes, tattered sheets wrapped around skeletons, and straw mats wrapped around corpses were lined up in front of the prisoners' barracks; a ferocious-looking man, who exuded an aura of "no strangers allowed", stood in front of the rows of corpses, holding a piece of paper and reading a dry eulogy.
Thousands of prisoners sat cross-legged in a slightly cleared space, some numb, some grateful, some sad... Attending the funeral of their "cellmate", no one dared to whisper to each other, all of them kept their heads down obediently.
Gold, who staggered towards the barracks, heard the vicious man finish his short eulogy and begin reading the list of the bereaved.
Among the long list of deceased people, Gold had heard of many of them, and even knew them...
For example, the former mayor - the old mayor was already old, so it was not so difficult to accept that he died during the road construction process.
But people like former militia captain Cardo Gold and former "Elegant Dream" boss Garcia Green were also on the list of the dead, which made Gold very creepy - especially the former militia captain Cardo Gold. Gold had seen him many times. That guy was not only as strong as a bull, but he was also a trainee professional warrior!
When Gold was pushed into the prisoner barracks built with thin steel plates (actually scrapped containers), he was completely dazed and staggered to the ground.
Outside, the scary man was still reading out the list of names of the dead. It seemed as if there was no end to the list. Every name, familiar or unfamiliar, was like a heavy hammer, smashing Gold's heart into hell.
A man like Garcia Green, who was pampered and strong, and a man like Caddo Gold, who was strong as an ox, died...
——Lady of Gold Coin! Will he ever return to Westram alive?
