This parish was under the charge of Deacon George.
George really didn't look like a clergyman of the Divine Sect.
He had a big beard,
He didn't shave his head,
He had a rough voice and a muscular chest. He often had some unrefined and vulgar catchphrases on his mouth.
People occasionally saw him swagger into the tavern and shout, "Come! A pot of wine! "
Then he preached drunkenly.
The simple church was filled with rows of worshippers.
He opened his mouth and burped. He curled his big tongue and couldn't read a whole scripture. "You don't need to listen to my sermon,
God is in your hearts! "
Or he might as well read a poet's masterpiece,
A scripture that pretended to be God.
So perfunctory.
He was rough and rude,
He was also a complete eccentric,
There was no virtue at all.
There was once an elegant rich businessman who spent some money,
And played with a poor man's wife. That woman was fierce. She killed herself, but her husband framed the rich businessman for raping his wife.
The poor man went crazy,
He actually dared to cause trouble in the court of the Divine Sect.
That George,
Took the money of the rich businessman,
But deliberately favored the poor man in court, beat the rich businessman with a board, and even helped the poor man extort a large sum of money from the rich businessman.
There was once a noble noble who raised a good dog. The dog only gently bit a little beggar a few times,
But was beaten to death by that vicious little brat.
Despicable biased George,
He actually protected the little beggar who killed the noble's dog,
The court sentenced the noble to commit murder with his dog.
Such evil deeds,
Were countless.
Therefore, although George had once been the chief shepherd of this area, he was demoted back and continued to hide in a remote place. He was still a deacon to this day.
Only those skinny people, as if they didn't know that he had been demoted, continued to call him "Pastor."
When Lin Daiyu saw him, George was drunk as usual. He had a green foxtail in his mouth, squinted his eyes, and swaggered across the street on a donkey.
Donkey: Ang Ang Ang
George: "I have a little donkey ~"
Donkey: Ang Ang Ang Ang
George: "It's burping in the world."
Donkey: Ang!
The people's voices mixed with the donkey's cries. The common people on the street couldn't help but laugh.
When Ernest pulled his donkey, he sat on the donkey's back and stared straight at him. "Hey! Where did you come from? How dare you block my way! "
"Are you so drunk that you can't recognize people?"
George jumped down, shook his head, and spat out a green foxtail. The eight-foot-tall Zang man was very valiant. He grabbed Ernest's head and spat out a mouthful of alcohol on his face. "Damn you! You are the one who is drunk! "
"Oi oi oi, softer, softer …" Ernest was strangled by his neck, and he almost sucked in a breath of cold air.
George walked past him and squinted at Lin Daiyu beside him. "Woman! A beauty! Anna! "
Lin Daiyu was very surprised.
"You recognize me?" She had never seen this tall clergyman before.
George didn't answer. He just grinned.
Ernest explained, "Don't be fooled by George's behavior. He has always been meticulous and can see the big picture from small details."
"What do I look like? What do you look like! "George slapped his big palm on his shoulder." What do you want from me? "
Lin Daiyu's beauty and Ernest's rich college student outfit attracted a lot of attention. Moreover, George had always been very famous in the area.
"Let's go to your place to talk," Ernest said.
The few of them stepped on the street that was full of mud, vegetable leaves, and feces. In the warm weather, it gave off an indescribable stench.
George was obviously used to it. Ernest wrinkled his nose slightly. The two of them walked in front and behind, with Lin Daiyu walking in the middle.
George glanced back at Lin Daiyu from time to time. Seeing that she was born delicate and weak, but walking in such a place without showing any abnormalities, he nodded. After a few times, he didn't look back at her anymore.
When they reached the local church, George was mostly sober. "I live in the church. Come in."
This was a relatively simple church. Simple was compared to other churches. No matter how poor the local area was, the church would always be able to plunder a considerable amount of wealth to build a church. This kind of undignified simplicity was rare.
The church was simple and crude. The interior was old, but it was clean.
"Sit wherever you want. You can even sit on the statue." George said to the two who were looking about the church, after tying up the donkey, and coming in, he skillfully took out three rough cups, and carefully and painfully took out two small handfuls of tea leaves from one of the bags, poured them carefully, and poured them into the cups with boiling water, and gave each of them a cup.
Such a heroic man did the action of pouring tea leaves very skillfully. It could be seen that it was a daily routine.
Lin Daiyu wanted to laugh when she saw this. Then she remembered the deeds she learned on the road. She knew that this was a rare honest priest. Her heart was filled with respect. She took the cup and didn't dare to neglect it. She thanked him and took a few sips.
After drinking more than half of the tea in one gulp, Ernest wiped the corner of his mouth under George's distressed gaze. "George, we came to you today because of one thing. You know Anna's identity. She has been lacking some writing material recently. I saw the places where some of the news happened in the newspaper. They are in your jurisdiction, or not far from your jurisdiction. "
"What news?" George asked.
"One is the suicide of a merchant, and the other is a peasant riot."
George was very forthright. "Okay, I'll look for the files and newspapers. You wait."
George turned to the back of the church to flip through the files. Lin Daiyu frowned and said to Ernest, "This priest, although he is an upright and chivalrous person, he is still a member of the church. But in the end, I am still a member of the Divine Religion. Now that I have such a reputation, I am afraid the majority of the Divine Religion's priests in the world hate me. If Priest George is implicated, it will be my sin. "
Ernest waved his hand. "You don't know George's background. George's family originally had a few acres of land. It was a small aristocratic family that became rich by trading. He still has the title of a noble — a knight. George's father was killed by the ubiquitous bandits when he was out trading. George's mother heard the bad news and fell ill overnight. Not long after, she died of a serious illness. In George's family, there were no uncles, brothers, sisters, relatives, or even distant relatives. He was the only one. So … in such a situation, the Church came to the door and adopted George, who was ten years old at the time. "
At this point, he sighed and said, "We have told you before that the Church adopts orphans, especially orphans like George. It is to 'take care' of the property and land left behind by his family before the child reaches adulthood and starts a family. George grew up in the Church of God and was forced to escape to Buddhism. Although he was in the Church of God, he was free to roam the world. If there was anyone who looked down on the hypocritical rules and precepts of the Church of God, George was definitely the first. He had already offended his superiors for this before, and he was demoted again. Later, when the matter of Bona Judgment Day came, George was so happy that he danced. "
As the two of them were talking, George had already brought out a pile of files in one breath.
Bang. Dust rose. It could be seen how long it had been piled up.
"Here. It has been here since I took office ten years ago at the age of nineteen. The news you mentioned is probably the most recent. "
Lin Daiyu thanked him and only picked up the most recent ones.
After flipping through a few, she pointed to a file. "This is it."
George took a look. "Sure enough, this is it."
This file recorded the name of a businessman who had committed suicide, the cause of death, and the oral account of his relatives and friends.
The churches of the Church of God were all over the countryside, and most of them were responsible for collecting the local bones of the dead, birth, funeral, and marriage.
This was a foreign businessman. He committed suicide here, and no one collected his bones. It was George who collected his remains and waited for his relatives to come.
The reason why the newspaper reported this businessman was that this businessman had committed suicide because he owed a large debt and didn't pay it back. The creditors came all the way to the orphan and widow to ask for an explanation, which caused a big commotion.
The file wrote even more clearly:
This businessman committed suicide because he was bankrupt.
George said, "He borrowed money to do business, and in the end, he went bankrupt. He lost the courage to live and didn't dare to face the debt he owed, so he chose to commit suicide."
"How did he go bankrupt?" Lin Daiyu asked.
"How could he go bankrupt?" George was familiar with the ways of the world and said casually, "Miss, many businessmen these days want to send their goods to other places to make a profit, but in the end, they come one after another, big mountains, big passes, big moths! My church takes a bite, the nobles take a bite, the bandits take a bite, and the guilds take a bite. In the end, there's nothing left. The goods are shipped to other places, but in the end, in order to not lose money, they can only double and double. Who can afford it? No one will buy it. Even if they don't go bankrupt, they will go bankrupt. "
Lin Daiyu nodded thoughtfully.
"That was the recent peasant riot outside Bona. The parish where they rioted is not far from here. Do you know? "Ernest asked.
"I know." George told them generously, "I also helped a few of the peasants who were hunted down and fled here after the riot."
Ernest had expected it, but he was still shocked. He laughed and scolded, "You have guts."
"I help whoever suffers. Who told me to be biased, George? "
"You think the peasants suffer?" Lin Daiyu caught his words and asked.
George glanced at her, "Miss, in the third class, the peasants also suffer. The peasant riot is nothing more than that they can't survive. "
How could she not know this? Lin Daiyu thought of the former rebel army in the Central Plains and thought with a bitter smile, so she sighed, "I'm talking about the specific reason for the riot. I know that most of the peasants live in poverty all year round. But in most cases, although it was caused by a long period of suffering, there was often a specific fuse. What I want to know is the fuse of this riot — a specific reason. "
George looked at her in a new light, "Miss Anna is really knowledgeable. That's right. The cause of this riot is that the merchants maliciously lowered the price of the peasants' food. "
"For a long time, the peasants have to sell the rest of their food in exchange for some daily necessities other than the food they eat and the food they pay taxes on. The rest of their food is mainly supplied to the city. "George gestured for the two of them to come to the window.
Looking out of the window of the church, he saw farmers who were barefoot, with dark faces and cowering faces. Their clothes were ragged, and their bodies were covered in straw. They were sweating profusely as they carried large and small bags to and fro in the market.
"We are in a remote place, not far from the countryside. Many of the peasants carry their own food to sell. There are no towns nearby where the riot happened, and the closest to Bona is a few days away. They can only rely on the merchants to buy food and sell it to Bona. "
"However, when the merchants buy, the price is extremely low, and the local peasants have been dissatisfied for a long time. The cause of the riot is because the price was lowered too low. In addition, the weather is bad, and there is a food shortage. The poorer peasants were already dissatisfied with selling their food, but when the price was lowered too much, they all buzzed and rose up. "
Lin Daiyu nodded, but asked, "Then why did the merchants lower the price so low? Don't they know that doing this for a long time will cause problems? Don't they have a conscience and no brains? "
"It's not that the merchants don't have brains and conscience, but if the price is not lowered, after a few rounds, the cost will increase by more than ten or twenty times …" George said and suddenly stopped.
He looked at Lin Daiyu.
Lin Daiyu asked this question, but there was no doubt on her face. It was clear that she had an answer in her heart.
After a while, George said, "Anna, I admire you."
Lin Daiyu only waved her hand, "I already got what I wanted. Thank you. "
She called Ernest and said goodbye to George.
On the way, Ernest asked her excitedly, "Anna, have you thought about how you want to write your next novel?"
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