The Foundations Of Today
The machine clicked and whirred as the chamber lit up. Li Hua kept her eyes closed as she lay there, avoiding the blinding brightness, only seeing the after glow of red through her lids and trembling lashes. After what seemed forever the machine slowly ejected her. Li Hua lay there unmovingly on the table in her long hospital gown, awaiting the retelling of the inevitable.
Hao Jin Ying grew worried seeing Li Hua laying unmoving and rushed in to the sealed chamber that held the tiny woman laying in the giant machine's maw. When she saw that Li Hua was breathing evenly she relaxed and helped assist Li Hua in sitting up.
It had been several months since the last time Li Hua had been scanned and she herself found herself apprehensively awaiting what the scan said. Hao Jin Ying hoped for maybe some sliver of hope, even though she knew there was little though as she had seen Li Hua's deteriorating condition over the last 10 months.
The two women clasped their hands together, supporting each other as the doctor discussed a few things with Hakim Al-hassan, who was still in the computer room, before coming into the room bearing a stoic professional face that gave nothing away. The doctor pulled on a monitor that was connected to the MRI, on it was projected a 3D image of LiHua's brain. Near the base of her skull underneath her cerebellum was a large warped image with tendrils reaching out menacingly towards the brain, some longer than others. In the center of the warping was a blackish-grey spot about the size of a quarter.
Hao Jin Ying's face grew ashen seeing the image, squeezing LiHua's hands tighter, it was worse than she feared, it was growing rapidly. Li Hua in comparison maintained a straight face as if it was happening to someone else she was completely unrelated or attached to.
"Please speak plainly Doctor." Looking up at the man in the long white coat, the woman made her request calmly.
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"What do you mean he stumbled into it?"
"Exactly that." Jian replied to her with a smile. "He literally fell into a hole while exploring one day and found a natural gold deposit. Thankfully he was unhurt from the fall as he had been alone. Once he managed to escape, my Jid left and came back the next day with the necessary tools to take his fortune from the stones."
"He literally created a whole country from just one gold mine?" Raising an eyebrow, Chang could not believe that he had literally stumbled into a deposit enough to create a country.
"That was only the beginning, he bought his next older brother's share with the gold he had mined in that day and gained the large forested area to the North and Northeast. At the time he did not make use of the land, though later the great river that runs through there was harnessed for hydroelectric power. That is what powers most of Muzdahir, including the palace.
After the discovery, my Jid contacted a few of his closest confidantes who helped mine the gold and explore more of his inherited land, mining in search of more gold. Which they did almost a year later, black gold in fact."
"Black gold?" The term sounded familiar but Chang could not think of what it meant.
"Crude Oil." Jian clarified for her simply. "Once they came upon the vein, things changed quickly. He bought the coastline that held the capitol and seaports to transport the oil and sell. After that it was the fertile valley farmlands that continue out further to the west." He pointed out the direction as he described the process, as if it were something cut and dry, and not the founding of a country.
"So where are we going today? Are we going somewhere far that we need to be on horseback for?"
"Yes. I wanted to take you to one of my favorite spots, a place that I have always dreamed of taking you."