The Golden Paradox

Old Wang runs a small gold shop. Nowadays, who even buys gold? The busiest time in his shop is when the garbage collector passes by in the morning, taking a glance at the dull gold ornaments in the window. But recently, the price of gold has skyrocketed like a rocket, yet Old Wang's shop has become even more deserted.

He couldn't understand it, until Xiao Zhao, a tech enthusiast from the coffee shop next door, explained the concept of "quantum gold" to him. It is said that this new type of gold is not a metal in the traditional sense, but rather, through some quantum technology, consciousness and data are encrypted and stored in a microscopic structure. It can achieve various incredible functions, even curing diseases and prolonging life.

Old Wang was confused, but he discovered that since the concept of "quantum gold" appeared, people no longer rushed to buy physical gold, and instead invested heavily in the virtual market. Although the price of physical gold has soared, there was no actual demand for it, making it a hot potato that no one wanted. Old Wang felt like a ghost guarding the old world, while the new world had already blossomed in the quantum cloud.

The only visitor to his shop was a young man with thick glasses, named Xiao Chen. Every day, Xiao Chen would come, just staring at the gold ring in the window, his eyes focused as if studying some profound physical formula. Old Wang became curious and asked him, "Young man, you come here every day, do you understand this too?"

Xiao Chen adjusted his glasses and said calmly, "I'm not looking at the gold. I'm looking at 'it'."

"'It'?" Old Wang was puzzled.

"Look," Xiao Chen pointed to the gold ring, his tone a bit fanatical, "This ring is made with the most primitive encryption algorithm and is non-replicable. It is a work of art in itself, and right now, its value is underestimated."

Only then did Old Wang notice that there was a series of tiny characters engraved on the inner circle of the ring. He couldn't understand it, but Xiao Chen recited it as if he were listing treasures; it was binary code, a kind of ancient programming language.

Old Wang began to understand a bit; Xiao Chen was not a buyer, but rather an "archaeologist" obsessed with the technology of the old era. He believed that these traditional gold products contained historical value that transcended their material properties. He came every day just to study these "antiques" that had been forgotten by the times.

Days passed, and Old Wang's gold shop remained deserted. But his relationship with Xiao Chen grew better and better, and they would chat for a long time every day. One day, Xiao Chen mysteriously told Old Wang that he had cracked the code on the ring and found a hidden website.

"There lies the true secret of quantum gold," Xiao Chen said excitedly.

Old Wang hesitated for a moment, but decided to explore this unknown secret with the young man. Following the website address, they entered a mysterious website. There was only one line of text on the website:

"Welcome to the gold standard era."

Old Wang was puzzled, wasn't the gold standard abolished a long time ago? But soon, he understood the meaning of the sentence. The website page displayed a virtual trading platform, but the currency for trading was not any country's legal tender, but physical gold.

That's right, after quantum gold replaced physical gold as the mainstream currency, physical gold became scarce and precious, and was traded as a higher-value "hard currency", and was given the meaning of the "gold standard" era.

Old Wang was shocked by all of this before him. He suddenly realized that the reason why his gold shop was doing so poorly was not because gold had depreciated, but because people simply didn't realize its true value until it became an antique that transcended time, and was then redefined. And the one who knew the secret was someone like Xiao Chen, a "weirdo" who was lurking among the crowd, silently studying the "remains" of the old world.

Old Wang looked at the gold ornaments that had once been dull in the window, they were no longer unwanted old things, but the keys to a new world. He suddenly laughed, and tears welled up in his eyes.

At this moment, he heard a voice: "Boss, are you buying gold? I have some here."

Old Wang turned his head and saw a man wearing a suit, pointing to an exquisite box in his hand. Inside the box was "quantum gold" with a strange, shimmering light that he had never seen before. The man smiled and said, "The latest stuff, it can cure all kinds of diseases and prolong life."

Old Wang looked at the box, then looked at the old gold that he had always regarded as waste in the window, and laughed again. He knew that the world would always overturn your perception in unexpected ways.