Gerst: The City of Gems
Twenty years ago, this land was still a wasteland. Then someone discovered a vein of gemstones, and countless people from all over the world poured in.
Gerst is sharply divided by class. The slums, mining district, and Gemheart, the wealthy quarter, are only a few miles apart, yet deception, ignorance, and poverty are everywhere in the slums.
"It's cold tonight. Do you have nowhere to go?" Jiang Ying asked.
She had an Asian face, with black eyes and yellow skin, and was only twelve years old.
The boy stared at her, crouching motionless beside a small mound of dirt.
He was a Chinese boy, only ten himself.
"It's getting dark, and the wind is strong. You can come sleep at my house, but you mustn't let my mother know."
Her gaze was calm as she extended an olive branch to him.
She was an orphan raised in the slums, risking her life in the mines every day just to support her seriously ill mother.
He had once been the only son of a jeweler, but overnight his family was destroyed, and he fell from the clouds into the mire.
When they met, her hands were covered in dirt, while he was brimming with pride.
She looked down on his naivety, and he couldn't understand her stubbornness.
Then, on a winter evening that year, he had nowhere to go and no place to stay, so she brought him home to her dilapidated little house in the slums.
Jiang Ying treated him like a younger brother. From then on, she had someone to confide in about her life, someone to depend on through everything.
"A Lu, what do you want to do when we grow up?" she asked.
"Find a place, open a little shop, and sell things," he said.
"And then?"
"Then... be with you."
If tomorrow is the end of the world, at least I still have you.
A short scene:
Rain poured down, and water rapidly rose in the depths of the mine.
"Why did you come here? You knew it was dangerous!"
He wiped the rain from his face, his voice full of worry.
"I was afraid something would happen to you." Her voice was steady, but her trembling hands betrayed her fear.
Her father had died in a mine collapse.
He looked around, then suddenly grabbed a rusty shovel. "We can't just sit here and wait. I'll dig us a way out."
"Are you crazy? This mine could collapse at any moment!" She grabbed him, her eyes full of disbelief.
"That's still better than waiting to die." He shook off her hand and started digging frantically.
Rainwater and dirt blurred their vision.
She stood still, watching his stubborn back, then gritted her teeth and grabbed another shovel. "I'll help you."
They dug side by side without saying a word. The only sound echoing through the mine was the clash of shovels against rocks.
"Why are you trying so hard?" she couldn't help asking.
"Because I don't want to die here, and I don't want you to die here either," he said without turning around.
Her eyes suddenly reddened. "You're such an idiot."
"And what about you? You knew it was dangerous, but you still came looking for me." He stopped digging and turned to look at her.
"Because... you're the only person I can trust."
The rain gradually eased, and the cries of the rescue team came from far away.
He smiled and held out his hand. "Come on, let's go home."
She took his hand and nodded.
In this world filled with greed and poverty, they eventually found their own gemstones.
The true gems had been hidden in each other's eyes all along.
Theme: No one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first
