Destiny on Magic White Mountain , livre ebook

Destiny on Magic White Mountain
David Ian Groves
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-11-30
Destiny on Magic White Mountain About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 第一章 第二章 第三章 第四章 第五章 第六章 第七章 第八章 第九章 第十章 第十一章 第十二章 第十三章 第十四章 第十五章 第十六章 第十七章 第十八章 第十九章 第二十章 第二十一章 第二十二章 第二十三章 第二十四章 第二十五章 第二十六章 第二十七章 第二十八章 第二十九章 第三十章 第三十一章 第三十二章 第三十三章 第三十四章 第三十五章 第三十六章 第三十七章 第三十八章 第三十九章
About the Author
David was born in Brighton, UK, but mainly educated in Australia. He is Emeritus Professor of Economic Geology at the University of Western Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a National Geoscience Champion, having received numerous medals and other awards for his teaching and research. He is also a consultant to the mining and exploration industry, mainly involved in conceptual targeting for discovery of new mineral deposits. He has adapted his holistic and multi-scale approach to forensic geological studies into the writing of cerebral thriller, mystery and mystical novels, involving a gold exploration background, with The Plagues’ Protocol the first of this genre and Destiny on Magic White Mountain the second.
Dedication
This novel is dedicated to my family, particularly to Suzanne and our children, Annabel and Iain, and grandchildren, Matthew, James, Joshua and Kate.
It is also dedicated to my extended Chinese ‘family’ of friends: Beibei, Changshun, Jing, Kungfeng, Liang, Ri, Sheng-Xun, Xiaoyu and Xinhua.
Copyright Information ©
David Ian Groves (2020)
The right of David Ian Groves to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In this spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528937139 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528968980 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
First, I wish to acknowledge Jing Lu for her patience and accurate translation of my novel from English into Mandarin. Her enthusiastic support and comments on Chinese culture were vital to the completion of the novel. The English version was improved and edited by Sue Groves, who helped remove stilted phrases.
The concept of a mystical novel based around a geological and mining theme initially came from Sheng-Xun Sai. I am indebted to him and a group of other graduate students from the China University of Geosciences, Beijing (CUGB); Liang Zhang, Xinhua Wang and Ri Han, for helping develop an outline of the plot of the novel and commenting on its content, particularly helping it remain true to Chinese culture. I also thank Professors Jun Deng and Liqiang Yang for their invitation to teach at CUGB without which the concept of this novel would not have developed. Changshun Jia played a key role in editing the novel in terms of correctness of exploration content and the Mandarin translation to better fit Chinese conversation and customs. Kunfeng Qiu (QQ), Lingling Yang (Vera) and Huayan Pian (Cathy) also provided encouragement after reading the outline.
Chapter 1
It was early spring 1988. Professor Qiu Liqiang stood looking out of the window in his office at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Changchun University considering what he was about to say to his two postgraduate students, Wang Liang and Zhang Xinhua, who he had summoned to see him. As a passionate believer in the power of the Chinese Zodiac, he was inspired, as a Metal Dragon by birth in a year of the Earth Dragon, with the most honourable task that lay before him.
At the sound of a polite knock on his office door, he called out, “Please enter and stand in front of my desk.”
The two students entered the office rather nervously, fearing that they had, in some way, annoyed their famous professor. He turned away from the window and, rather imperiously, sat facing them, from behind his book-laden desk in his office chair. As he cleared his throat to speak, the two students moved from one foot to the other wondering about the reason for this rare summons to the professor’s office at this time.
Professor Qiu locked his fingers in front of him and began to speak.
“We’ve been chosen to play an important role in the development of our beloved country,” he said in a solemn voice. “You’re probably too young to realise this, but our government started economic reforms ten years ago, designed to guide us on our inevitable path to once again become the most powerful nation on Earth. With our hardworking, inventive and nationalistic people, these reforms have succeeded in a spectacular way and China will soon awake like a giant dragon from its slumber to fulfil its destiny.”
Wang Liang and Xinhua exchanged furtive glances. They were now very nervous, wondering what this could possibly mean for them. Professor Qiu, like all academics, enjoyed their nervousness as it gave him a sense of power. He continued on.
“China will need to provide infrastructure to its rural communities because they will feed our huge and growing population, and we will need to build mighty cities that will be the economic and industrial giants of Asia. To do this, our geologists will need to discover the abundant mineral resources to make commodities like steel and rare metals to fuel our future electronic industries. Our geologists will also need to discover large gold deposits. Only gold will stabilise our currency in the years to come and help to power our economy. The academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences believe that, with its most prospective geology, China has the potential to become the world’s greatest gold producer, but this can only be realised if gold exploration by dedicated geologists is highly successful.” Risking a possible rebuke from his professor, Liang nervously asked,
“But what has this to do with Xinhua and me? We’re only students not explorers.”
Professor Qui lifted his hand in a gesture to stop Liang speaking further and continued speaking himself.
“Our institute has received the great honour to be chosen as a key group to carry out the early phase of this operation. There’s a belief that the mountainous area of southwestern Jilin Province in our territory has the potential to contain large gold deposits based on reports of historical gold prospecting and small-scale mining of the past. I’ve been asked to form a geological team to investigate this possibility and have been given the promise of funding to carry out gold exploration if good gold targets can be identified. You are my two best postgraduate students and I’ve chosen you to lead this important task under my direction. I cannot do the basic research and fieldwork myself as I have teaching and research responsibilities here. Wang Liang, as you have shown great potential and were born in 1962, the Year of the Tiger, you are the natural leader and I’ll put you in charge with Xinhua, who was born a year later as a Rabbit, as your second in command.” Risking a rebuke from his professor, Liang again asked very nervously,
“But what exactly will we be required to do and what about our studies for our academic degrees?”
“First you’ll have to search for any old reports or maps that describe ancient gold mine workings on rivers and creeks from which prospectors panned gold. Then you’ll have to look at their positions on available geological maps and read any academic papers on gold deposits, to help decide which prospects have the best geology to host a large gold deposit. Wang Liang, as you read English and Zhang Xinhua reads Russian, you can search the foreign literature as well as the rather limited Chinese literature on this subject. When you’ve decided your most promising prospects, you can present them at a small conference and we can decide on a fieldwork program to test the best targets.”
“But what about our scholarships and studies for our degrees?” repeated Liang, realising that his parents in Beijing had sacrificed a lot for his future education and career. Xinhua nodded his agreement with the question as his parents in Shanghai had done the same for him.
“This project is an applied type of research and the university has decided it will all count towards your degrees,” reassured Professor Qiu. “You’ll also receive an extra allowance for your services and, of course, all field costs will be met by the university from funds provided by our government. They realise how important it will be to China’s future to locate large gold deposits and stabilise our currency globally in the future.”
With that, he dismissed them to form their team and start their search for a gold deposit that would bring honour to him and his university.
High above the fluffy white clouds on Magic White Mountain, Wizard Kun-Feng, sat watching the events at Changchun University as reflections in a magic lake that was a mirror into the whole