Early the next morning, the miners carried the tools for digging and mining and got ready to set off.
The place Robb showed them on the map was a little bit over the hillside behind the chapel, which used to be some distance from Westwind Town, but now it was very close to the town.
Because on that otherwise uninhabited hillside, there are now Robb's fields and a stockings factory that is not yet in full operation, and then the White Birch Town refugees have built houses there and built some walls.
As a result, the hillside where the gemstone mine is located is only about a few hundred meters outside the wooden wall built by the townsmen of White Birch Town.
The group of miners arrived at the place, looked around, looked back and forth, and found that it was a very ordinary hillside. The slope is full of green grass and many trees, a group of townspeople from White Birch Town is cutting down trees here, and many stumps can be seen on the ground.
If someone says that a gemstone mine is buried here, the townspeople will not believe it even if it kills them.
Johnny said to the man next to him, "do you think there is a gemstone mine here?"
Johnny nodded and said, "that's the only way it can be done now!"
He drew a big circle on the ground and said, "everybody concentrates your efforts and dig down from this circle; first remove the vegetation and soil above, and then dig out the stones below to see if there is a gemstone mine. You’ll be able to tell as long as you see the stones."
More than a dozen people work together using hoes and shovels.
The soil here is thick, which made it hard to dig.
More than a dozen people have been digging until noon, not finding any gemstones, not even regular stones. They can't help but feel a little discouraged and thought, [What is the geography of this area? Perhaps the earth below is layered with soil that seeps deep into the center of the earth. There aren’t even ordinary stones, let alone any gemstones.]
While a lot of discussion and thoughts went on, Lillian came, carrying two huge baskets full of boiled potatoes, smiled and said to everyone, "Uncle Johnny, call everyone to lunch!"
Johnny turned around and saw that Lillian, a weak little girl, had a huge basket in each hand, carrying enough potatoes for more than a dozen miners. He couldn’t help but wonder and said, "Lillian, where did you get such strength?"
Lillian smiled and said, "The master gave me a bafu. Ah, no, it's a Buff. It's said to be a blessing of the king, so I get a lot of strength."
Johnny rolled his tongue and didn't quite understand.
Lillian gave the potatoes to everyone, then looked at the pit they dug and couldn't help asking, "haven't you found the gemstone mine yet?"
Johnny shook his head with a black face. "not to mention a gemstone, we couldn’t even dig up stone. The soil here is so thick that I even suspect there's only dirt here. Even if you keep digging, you'll only get dirt."