It's been a week into the depths of winter, and the road leading to the surrounding city in Roseville has been covered with thick snow, and William Richardson, who is driving, can only find his way forward by relying on the identification poles standing on both sides of the road.

"Dad, I'll do it."

Daisy Richardson poked her head out of the carriage behind William and looked at her father. The wind mixed with snowflakes hit her face, making her eyes squint.

"Wait a minute, it's too cold outside."

"I'm bored in the carriage alone, I'll go with you."

The rickety carriage stopped after a long "hoo-hoo" sound. Daisy Richardson got out of the carriage, put on her hat and scarf, climbed beside her father, and took the reins with him.

"Let's go."

William smiled and waved his whip. It's been two months since EZVIZ reopened, and the risk prevention mechanism they have adopted seems to be working. Although it is heard that someone is looking into the origin of these newspapers, the anonymous postal parcel has little chance of being tracked. Of course, more important than not being discovered, as the battle progressed, "GLOWSTONE" became more and more popular among the workers. Even in The Paper's own factory, there are workers quietly circulating "Fluorite". And, to William's delight, what they circulated was not a printed version of himself and Daisy, but a mimeographed version that he didn't know who had reprinted, which, although crude, also meant that the idea of communism was still spreading quietly.

"Dad, do you agree with his theory?"

After a moment of silence, Daisy couldn't help but ask. She had asked this question for a long time, and had asked her father several times, but she had never received a positive answer. But at the same time, her father spared no effort to help her, so that "Fluorite" and Gastens's ideas could be seen by more people. Fold Daisy wondered, what kind of mentality did her father have to do such a dangerous, maybe even life-threatening thing?

"If you've read "On Capital", you know how terrible that book is. Huni Havari's theories are correct and brutal, and there is little way to refute them. Under capitalist relations of production, the capitalists exploit surplus value and make the workers struggle for food and clothing every day, while they themselves eat and drink spicy food. The whole system is rigorous and self-consistent, and what is even more terrifying is the dialectic and materialism in it, which refuses to believe in gods and gods, and believes that people can change the world on their own. I don't dare to think about the logic in this......"

"Dialectics and materialism?" Daisy didn't understand.

"It's the back of the book, it's boring, I guess you didn't read it."

"Why, Garth told us!"

"It's not like you didn't watch it yourself?"

"Hmm......"

Father and daughter were silent for a moment, and all that was left in the air was the sound of the wind and the sound of bells on the brim of William's hat. The little bells that drooped along his broad-brimmed hard hat were small tools to remind him not to wander and to keep him from falling asleep because of the cold. The sound of the bell changes with the amount of the wind, and if you listen closely, you can even hear the charm of nature.

"Dad, you say...... Is he still alive? ”

Daisy's voice was quieter, but with a faint sense of concern. It's been almost three months since Gastens left, and they have never heard from him, and they don't even know if the man is dead or alive. Although Daisy is strong, she will also miss in the dead of night, the leader who made her realize the cruelty of this world, but suddenly disappeared.

Her lover.

"He, he's not going to die. He is a person who wants to do great things, and he died so simply, how can he be worthy of my daughter? ”

William chuckled, comforting his daughter. Daisy thought about it and laughed. Also, that person has always had the consciousness of death, how could he easily give up a career that can make a person willing to dedicate his life? He will definitely live, even if he struggles hard, he will definitely live.

The bells of the carriage jingle and arrive at their destination, Blackwood, with the two of them and a pack of new installments of Fluorite.

It didn't take much time for the father and daughter to send the packaged newspaper out. After that, they commissioned the carriage at Blackwood's carriage station and came to the city's market district. Here, they can easily learn some information.

"I'm sorry, it's sold out, come tomorrow."

When I got to the door of the grain store, the helper's man, Aki Waitan, was clipping heavy door panels into the grooves of the storefront on the street. These small shops could not afford to use such extravagant things as glass, so they tore down the walls facing the street, and when they needed to close their doors, they used long wooden planks to be spliced together to serve as storefronts.

"Sold out? What time is it? ”

William stepped forward to ask, and Daisy, dressed in a black robe, followed him.

"Yo, or Roswell's accent? You don't have any food, do you? Traveled so far to buy ours? Neither do we. Come and line up early tomorrow morning, come over at 3 o'clock in the morning, and you will definitely be in line! ”

"Three in the morning? So early? How much can I buy? What can I buy? ”

"There are both wheat and rye, but there is very little wheat, and the three points are not necessarily on the top, and rye is still available. Now it's 50 rams a kilogram, is that okay? ”

"So expensive!"

"Don't say it's expensive, it was 40 Ram yesterday! Now the price of food has risen sharply! The later you buy it, the more expensive it is! And ah, you can only buy five kilograms, you can't buy more, you know? ”

Aki Waitan was kind enough and offered to provide a lot of information. After Daisy and William thanked each other, she stepped aside and took out a small notebook to jot down what the guy had just said. She even drew a rough plot to see how food prices were going.

"It's been going up more and more lately," Daisy said as she sorted out her stats and snorted with her fingers. Since the depths of winter, the temperature has been getting lower and lower, and you can feel the chill just by staying outside.

"Well, the prices of grain, meat, cotton cloth, these basic things are rising, and they are rising very fiercely, it seems that there is a lot of pressure on the front line."

William stood on Daisy's side, helping her out of the wind. Daisy finishes writing, packs her things, and moves on to the next store with her father. This whole process of investigation comes from an article by Gastens "On the Basic Ideas and Methods of Social Survey", in which Gastens introduces a method of judging the economic and military situation by analyzing the main prices of commodities in the market, which Daisy and William are trying out and feels good.

The investigation at Blackwood lasted two hours, and the father and daughter stared at four o'clock in the afternoon to retrieve the carriage. If all goes well, they can be back in Roseville in four hours.

"Father, according to Gastens, if the government is unable to maintain the stability of the prices of basic necessities, it means that the government is losing control of the war, which is a negative factor that increases the uncertainty of the war.

"Anyway, I definitely didn't win", William, as the technical director of The Paper, still has access to some first-line information. From what he had heard, something big had happened at the front, and Ankenrei was struggling somewhere because he had lost almost all the gains he had made since the beginning of the war.

"I heard that the 600,000 new troops that are being trained now are the key to determining the outcome of the war tomorrow spring? I also read in the newspaper that there are not so many soldiers in the Neglo Republic, and our soldiers sent them are all two to one, and they all win, right? ”

"Hehe, it depends on what the other party uses. If their weapons are more advanced than ours, we won't be able to ......"

At this point in time, the whole city, the whole country, is talking about this war that is going into the unknown. There are rumors everywhere, and no one knows how the war is going without exact news.

Back in Roseville, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening, and William and Daisy returned the carriage and rushed back to the apartment where they lived. At the door of the apartment, huddled were homeless people, wrapped in dirty blankets in order to get some warm air from the foyer of the apartment, hoping to survive the long winter. But even so, every morning, new corpses appear downstairs in the apartment.

It was only in late November that the number of homeless people began to increase, some said they were bankrupt landlords, some said they were serfs that no one wanted, and others said they were deserters. But no matter what caliber it is, no one is going to stop these people from appearing in the corners of the city, struggling, and dying.

Although Daisy has the heart to help, she also knows the cruelty of society. She and her father walked past the crowd and were about to open the door, when they were suddenly stopped by a shout.

"Daisy-senpai!"

The voice was so familiar that Daisy recognized the man at once. It was Howston Raleigh, whose parents were workers, a former member of the Communist group, who was still helping her with paper and ink.

"Houston? Why are you here? Come on in! ”

Daisy dragged Howston into the apartment, pulled him through the door, got him shoes, and was about to make a pot of tea, when she was interrupted by the little boy's movements. He knelt down in front of Daisy, raised his face, and looked at his senior sister. Daisy then realized that Houston's eyes were red and his eyes were panicked, and it was obvious that something had happened.

"What's wrong? Don't worry, talk to me slowly", Daisy reached out to Howston on the shoulder, reassuring him. William handed over a cup of tea, placed it on the floor, pulled the two to the dining room, took the cup of tea again, and sat down in front of them.

"They...... They took my dad! ”

"What? Is it because of the newspaper? Daisy and William suddenly became nervous, if "Fluorite" was exposed again, if the two of them didn't run, it was estimated that they would also be hanged.

"No, it's not ......," Houston sniffled, "It's the soldiers, they, they took my dad away, saying he didn't have identification, and wanted him to be a slave soldier!" ”

"In Rossville? How is this possible? ”

Daisy looked shocked, Anken Rein is one of the six major powers, there is no reason to be forced to this because of the 400,000 new army, right? Arresting someone on the street? Or in the capital city of Roswell? Is the situation on the front really so bad?

"How do you know? Where's the catch? Which troops? ”

William was also a little surprised, but he was more specific about what he cared about. As a viscount, although he is only a nobleman the size of a small sesame seed in Roseville, he also has his own relationship. By asking this information, you want to know if you might be able to help.

"It was Brother Hudson who was with my father, and they were a group of four, and three of them were arrested, so Brother Hudson ran fast. Big Hudson said that the clothes they were wearing were green, not red, and the rest was unknown. ”

"It's the troops in the Southern Theater of Operations, their training uniforms are green, and their combat uniforms are red," William said, standing up and putting on his coat again.

"You guys wait at home, I'm going to find someone and see if I can ask anything. This kind of thing can't be delayed, and if it's taken away, it's hard to get it back. ”

"I'll go too!"

"I'll go too!"

Houston and Daisy stood up almost at the same time. They looked at each other and began to put on their thick clothes. William shrugged helplessly, waiting for them to pack up and go out.

Luckily for the misfortune, a big man William knew happened to know about it. He introduced William to another bigwig, who arranged for him and two students to be sent to a military camp in the suburbs, where they met an officer. The officer chatted with the attendant and then turned back to the camp. William, Daisy, and Howston waited outside for a while, feeling like they were about to freeze to death, when they finally saw his father and two co-workers.

"Well, he had to bring his companions, which was different from what he had promised. For the sake of Lord Wende's face, I'll let it go, don't go out casually in the future, I've been arresting soldiers everywhere recently, you guys be careful. ”

Dropping a foul reminder, the officer turned and left. William, along with Daisy and Howston, as well as Huntston's father and two co-workers, bid farewell to the servant and return to William's house. His mother, along with a room full of workers and the wives of two workers who had also been taken away, had been huddled in that room, sleepless all night, waiting for news. Everyone was very happy to see their captured husbands and companions return. William and Daisy saw that the problem was solved, talked to Houston, and quietly took their leave. Because the scene was so chaotic, Houston and his parents promised to pay a visit and let the two go. But even so, no less than twenty workers escorted William and Daisy all the way home, and made sure they were safe before turning to leave.

"Father, does this mean that we are going to lose?"

As soon as she entered the house, before she could change her clothes, Daisy threw out her own problem.

"I don't know...... However, it was the Southern Theater of Operations that captured people, not the Western Theater, which has been fighting all the time. I don't know much and it's hard to explain why, but it's not good news either way. ”

"yes, if only Gastens were here......"

Daisy muttered and looked out the window. After tossing and turning all night, the sky has begun to light up by this time. It had been snowing all night, and I don't know when it had stopped. A new day is about to begin.

But Daisy, still no news of Gastens.