"It looks like we won't be able to get back anytime soon, so it's good that we're just here to prepare for creaing the City-state," Ronnie regretted.
Norforth decided to resign and concentrate on building the City-state together. That day, he went to say goodbye to Glo, and the girl was sad to hear it and asked, "You're leaving so soon? where are you going?"
"I want to go to fulfill my dream."
"What is your dream?" Glo asked.
"My dream is to build a new world that is free, equal, and open with faith."
Glo looked fascinated as she watched the handsome Norforth embark on such a great endeavor, and she squealed, "So cool!" then she added, "Can I go with you?"
"Sure, this thing was never meant to be done alone."
Ronnie's suspicions were confirmed when he realized that the girl's name was Glo, since the first Holy Virgin of the City-state was named Glo. "Dad, how do we start building the City-state? I'm at a loss."
Norforth and Glo also turned their heads to look at Ronnie at the same time, wanting to hear his opinion. "The first step to building a City-state is of course money, and star coins are useless in this era, so we'll have to start all over again to get the money."
"What about the second step?" it was Glo who asked this time.
"With the money, we need to choose a good place to build the city, the Zi City after three hundred years was built on 'Ardabusha Island', we can go there to take a look first."
"What about the third step?" Amandine asked before him.
"The third step is to create the regulations of the City-state, and these will be done as they were created in the original City-state, with a few minor modifications."
"And the fourth step?"
"That's pretty much done, and you all know about the City-state anyway."
"With these three steps, it's much clearer, now let's figure out how to get the money together first!" Norforth said.
"Should I borrow some? that's the quickest way to get money." Amandine suggested.
"That is absolutely not possible, does the City-state have to resort to such dishonorable methods to be established?" Norforth stopped him immediately.
Ronnie also objected, "The City-state is based on honesty, we cannot break the rules."
Glo gave Amandine a scornful look while she said in her heart, "Amandine, you're really not a good person."
Amandine didn't expect to be despised by all three at the same time, he was annoyed and said, "Then there's nothing I can do about it."
Norforth resigned, the school could not stay, Ronnie's three had to stay at Glo's house. Glo's family has five people, her parents, a brother and a little sister, the house is not big, the three can only squeeze into a small room. In the afternoon, Ronnie drew a flag and said to Norforth and the two, "This pattern is the flag of the City-state, it's also the one I drew when I was a kid, it's just a little different, I modified it a little, and now it's exactly the same as the flag of the City-state, since history chose this pattern, I hope you won't go and change it."
"Don't worry, Mr. Ronnie, we will never go and change it," Norforth patted his chest in reassurance.
"Dad, why do you like this pattern so much? it doesn't look so special!"
"I drew it when my sister and I were at the 'Umbrella House', it was one of the happiest times for me," Ronnie's eyes filled with tears as he said this.
"Dad, are you missing our aunt again? she's been dead for thirty years."
At that moment Glo interjected, "Mr. Ronnie, have you ever thought about it? if your sister hadn't died, you wouldn't have invented the time machine, without the time machine you wouldn't have come here, and without you there wouldn't have been the City-state that came after, and if you had saved your sister's life, maybe history would have changed."
"Are you saying that Mr. Ronnie could only choose between the City-state and his sister?" Norforth asked in surprise.
Glo said nothing, just nodded. Ronnie had thought about this for a long time, he had just been afraid to face it. He realized that the few eras he'd been to were only there to fill in the historical gaps, history was still the same and hadn't changed in any way, so his chances of saving his sister's life seemed very slim.
"Dad, why don't you just give up, doesn't the family already have a little aunt?"
"Well, don't think about me, I'll figure it out myself," Ronnie said.
Next, several people began to work separately, Ronnie founded the "Umbrella House" research institute to provide technical support for the future construction of the City-state. Norforth, Glo and Amandine set up the "City-state Preparation Office", they went to the school to recruit people and raise funds, the first batch of a total of ten students and six teachers joined them, and two of the teachers donated all their money. Norforth was touched and felt that he saw a glorious future for the City-state. As time went on, more people joined, and they were given their own office, which attracted the attention of the Tanzanian government. More than twenty days after the establishment of the "City-state Preparatory Office", a group of heavily armed police stormed into the office and took Ronnie, four people and three students. Amandine's invisibility cloak did not even have time to be used before he was arrested; seven people were locked up in different places. Ronnie had been in jail many times and wasn't surprised, the three students were scared enough, they cried and cried in jail and kept screaming that they were being wronged. Amandine was the most calm, because he had a cloak, but at this point there was nothing he could do, because his hands and feet were tied. "They'll always untie me at dinner!" he thought to himself. After waiting a dozen chimes, someone finally brought the food, but didn't unlock him. "Hey! you untie me, how else can I eat?" after being here for almost two months, he had also learned some simple local language. The so-called meal was actually a sweet potato, and it was still raw: "How can I eat this? feed it to the dog?" Amandine said unhappily.
At first he went on a hunger strike, but as another day passed, he couldn't hold out any longer and took the sweet potato in both hands and ate it in a few bites, "It doesn't seem too bad! I wish I had another one," Amandine finished licking his lips.
The prisons here gave only one sweet potato for two days, water was manageable. Amandine and the several people were locked up for more than a month, starved to the point that people were deformed, and now they didn't even have the strength to stand up, hunger made them lose their fighting spirit, and what City-states and new worlds were pushed to the back of their minds. Ronnie turned into a monkey again. The cell door opened and two guards escorted him out. A moment later the three of them got into a car and half an hour later came the local High Court and as soon as Ronnie entered the courtroom he saw Amandine, Norforth and six others and as soon as Amandine saw him he exclaimed "Dad, how are you? "no sooner had he finished speaking than he was punched hard in the back.
"Don't say a word," Ronnie rushed to stop him.
He looked at the other men, all of them emaciated. When the seven stood, the judge said, "Today I am trying you on charges of unlawful assembly and endangering national security. If you plead guilty and agree to disband your organization, I will sentence you to one month in prison, and you've already been in prison for over a month, if you plead guilty, you will be released in court, if you don't plead guilty, you may be sentenced to life imprisonment."
"I plead guilty! I plead guilty!" the three students raised their hands immediately after hearing the judge's words. Amandine looked at Ronnie's three and raised his hand as well, and in his mind he said, "Dad, Grand Knight, I'm sorry, I really don't want to eat any more raw yams, I'm going to throw up."
The other three didn't say anything, they just stood up straight and shook their heads, refusing to admit guilt.
With that, Amandine and the three students were released from court, and Ronnie, Glo, and Norforth were sent back to prison, sentenced to twenty years, twelve years, and life in prison, respectively. After the sentencing, the three were also transferred to other places. Ronnie and Norforth went to "Sark Prison", while Glo went to a women's prison. The first day at Sark was Ronnie's birthday, and the prison had an hour of outdoor exercise every day, so Ronnie and Norforth met under a basketball hoop.
"Do you regret it? Mr. Ronnie."
"Why do you ask?"
"Maybe it would have been nice for us to be like Amandine, just plead guilty and not have to go to jail here."
"You really shouldn't think that," Ronnie chuckled.
"I just don't want you all to suffer with me, especially Glo, she's a girl and deserves less."
"Norforth, the establishment of the City-state is not just your business, it requires the dedication and sacrifice of millions of people, it's just because it's hard that it's all the more worthwhile."
"Thank you! Mr. Ronnie."
Without Ronnie and Norforth, Amandine was like a wild horse without a leash. He donned his invisibility cloak again, and his first stop was to steal food from the school cafeteria, where he went on an open-bellied binge, trying to make up for a month's worth of meals in prison. When he was done, he took two fried chickens. He returned to the Preparatory Office to find it long since emptied, everything smashed, and the scene a mess. "Looks like I have to get Dad and the others out of there," he thought in his mind.
He first inquired as to where Ronnie and the others were being held, and then began planning their rescue. Sark Prison was more than 300 miles from where he was, so he donned his cloak and hitchhiked along the way, taking a few wrong turns before finally, with great difficulty, arriving at the entrance to Sark Prison. He waited most of the day before it was time to visit the prison. He followed a woman inside. Looking around the large prison, he did not know where to begin. After some thought, he decided to go to the records room where he was sure there would be information about Ronnie and the others. He started to follow the staff here, the first one was a bald guy who followed him for five minutes and even took him to the bathroom. He could only change to another one, and after going through five people like that, he finally arrived at the office building here. The building had six floors, and there was a map at the entrance on the first floor that clearly indicated the location of the archive room. He went up to the third floor and soon found the archive room, but unfortunately, a fat woman was sitting there. Amandine had to sit in the doorway and wait patiently for this person to come out of work, but luckily it took more than half an hour before the fat woman got up and walked out. He flashed into the house, and so the woman went away, he closed the door and locked it, the computer on the table was open, he typed in the keyboard to find Ronnie and Norforth's name. Only to see the screen display: Ronnie, male, thirty years old, convicted of illegal assembly and endangering national security, sentence twenty years, prisoner number: D12-2516, and Norforth's charges are similar, his number is: D9-2235.