The priest's words made Zhang Zian a little confused. He had heard rumors of cat abuse from the old lady who scavenged for scraps, and it was not the first day that cat abuse happened. There were sporadic reports all over the country and even around the world, so it was not new. What was new was … Why did someone abuse cats in Binhai City, but this priest wanted to report it to the American church members and ask them to solve this matter?
Could it be … that the American church member that the priest referred to was the internationalist warrior Bethune? But he was a Canadian!
In Zhuang Xiaodie's ears, the priest's words were like a bolt from the blue, because this was a memory that Zhang Zian did not have!
Cat abuse incidents, or incidents of malicious abuse of small animals, have existed since ancient times. It would be abnormal and illogical to eliminate all of them, so she kept some common sense about cat abuse incidents for Zhang Zian, but it was limited to common sense. The memory of "large-scale cat abuse incidents in Binhai City" had been blocked. Otherwise, it would remind him of the Holy Cat statue and the Russian blue cat.
However, the priest had just said that there had been repeated cat abuse incidents in the vicinity. This statement was actually very close to "large-scale cat abuse incidents."
Even in a dream, Zhang Zian tended to greet those who had known him in reality because he felt that they were familiar and naturally felt close to him. Therefore, except for those passersby characters that he would only talk to in one or two sentences, such as taxi drivers, he talked more with people he had known before.
However, she repeatedly checked his memory and determined that he had never seen this priest in reality.
When he first came to this street in reality, he had also met the photography club and the guy named Luo Qingyu at the entrance of the church, but he did not meet this priest, nor was he stopped by the priest to talk.
What was going on?
Was the dream modified by the dog again?
"Child, you don't look very good. Do you want to come in and sit down and rest for a while?" The priest noticed that Zhuang Xiaodie's face was very ugly and pointed to the church. He was much older than Zhang Zian, so it was normal for him to call her a child, although with his identity, calling her a child had another meaning.
Perhaps he was afraid that Zhuang Xiaodie would think otherwise, so the priest quickly explained, "Just sit for a while. We will not preach the doctrine to you against your will."
Zhang Zian asked her, "Do you want to go in and sit for a while?"
"No need." She glanced inside the church and felt that there was something … strange about it. "I really want to know about cat abuse. Could you please tell me more about it?"
The priest glanced at the black and white kitten again. According to his usual thinking, he thought that she was worried that her cat would be hurt, which was why she was so concerned about the cat abuse incident.
"Of course. The sporadic cases of cat abuse were discovered by the members of the church nearby. At first, we thought it was just an exception, but during this period of time, cat abuse incidents have become more and more frequent, and the methods have become more and more cruel … I won't go into the specific details to avoid scaring you. In short, it's outrageous, and it doesn't seem like what humans do. "
After the priest finished speaking in a tone of bemoaning the state of the universe and pitying the fate of mankind, he sighed again and again and drew a holy cross on his chest. His lips moved slightly, as if he was chanting something.
"It's that serious …" Zhang Zian frowned. What did it mean by "not human"?
Since the cat abuse incident had been exposed, Zhuang Xiaodie could no longer hide it. She wanted to figure out how this non-existent memory appeared.
"So, you said that you want to ask members of the church in the United States to solve the cat abuse incident. What is going on?" she asked.
Zhang Zian was also very interested in this topic. He knew that the cat abuse incident would be difficult to solve in a short period of time by relying on the power of the government, but it was clearly something that happened in Binhai City. Why did the priest ask for help from abroad? Was this the so-called foreign monk who could recite scriptures?
The priest smiled confidently, his gaze alternating between the two of them. He said, "Children, if you want to know, I have nothing to hide. However, this will involve some past events that may sound unbelievable to you. Perhaps you will think that I am using this to preach my doctrine to you, and you will feel disgusted. This goes against the original intention of my conversation with you. Even so, do you still want to hear it? "
"I don't have anything …" Zhang Zian disagreed. After all, he was an adult, and he should have his own opinions. The world was full of temptations. If he was persuaded by a few words, then in the end, he could only blame himself for not having a strong will and being too soft-hearted.
In addition, he was basically an atheist. He believed more in science and did not believe in things like religion and ghosts.
"I don't mind, either," Zhuang Xiaodie said.
"Okay, then I'll talk about it." The priest stopped smiling and said solemnly, "According to the feedback from the church members, we have determined that the series of cat abuse cases in the vicinity are not simple. More than one abuser later claimed that he had been bewitched by an evil statue, and that was why he had committed heinous crimes against stray cats. We have also conducted private investigations. The common characteristics of the abusers are introverted and unhappy, but they have not done anything extreme before. "
Evil statue?
Somewhere in Zhang Zian's brain suddenly jumped, and some dusty memories seemed to come out.
The priest continued, "In fact, similar incidents are not the first time that such incidents have happened. When we heard about it, we immediately remembered what had happened before. It was in the 13th century. The Germans dug up an equally strange statue from the ground and carried out evil sacrificial activities on it, which caused the wrath of the Vatican. Pope Gregory IX issued the teaching of 'The Voice of Rome,' which was equivalent to issuing an order to slaughter cats … "
His face was sorrowful. "God is omnipotent, but we, his followers, can misinterpret his meaning and make irreparable mistakes. I have no intention of justifying past mistakes, but this incident is very similar to that one. We do not want the same mistake to happen again. "
Zhang Zian had an impression of this rumor. He seemed to have heard it somewhere before, but the few versions he had heard all had a common flaw. It was unclear how the matter ended. The statue that was dug up by the Germans, how was it dealt with in the end? Regarding this point, the different versions of the legend were vague. He did not know whether it was deliberately concealed or it was really not known to outsiders.
"How was this matter resolved at that time?" Zhuang Xiaodie asked the same question he wanted to know.
The priest smiled, drew a cross on his chest, and then looked up at the sky devoutly. "Almighty God did not abandon his children. He sent us the holy exorcism object to suppress the evil statue."
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