Anne was recaptured.
The pagans found Manuel's church. At that time, he happened to be debating the Bible outside, and Anne happened to think that her uncle had returned.
Anne was not lucky again when she was recognized. She was dragged and pulled out of the church with her hands tied. The monk who rushed to stop him was pushed to the ground and smashed his head. The dripping blood stained the tiles of the church. He was frightened. The scared girl even forgot to cry. She stared dryly, her feet in the cloth shoes softened, and she was dragged into the prison with almost her knees on the ground. The last thing the prisoners saw was that her trouser legs were torn. A miserable look.
Opening the prison door, Anne fell into the arms of her panicked mother. At this moment, she finally shed tears in a mute voice without realizing it.
The prisoners and the heretics stared at each other with almost the same hatred.
And when Chen Yi came to the prison, she could hear the lonely crying in the corridor.
"The girl who escaped was caught." Xisen, who had been guarding the prison, told Chen Yi.
When Chen Yi heard this, she lost consciousness and asked, "Is her name Annie?"
"Yes, you have to register again... What a lovely girl, even a true believer..." Xisen said with the sympathy of the onlookers: "I can only say that I was implicated by that priest."
Chen Yi didn't speak. He squatted down silently and rummaged through the cabinet for red and black ink, quill pens, and linen paper. He held the rough paper between his fingers.
Xisen thought he was going to register now, so he pushed the door open. However, he saw him sitting in front of the wooden table belatedly, with the items he just picked out sitting quietly.
The jailer had no choice but to walk out of the warden's room angrily and close the door behind him.
Chen Yi sat there for a long time.
The church bell rang, low and dull, and through several walls, one could still hear the regular prayers.
The golden afterglow was dim and the night was tired. Standing by the wooden framed window, you could see the light gray clouds. The town was sparsely lit up. She was bored and sticky like sweat. Chen Yi let out a deep breath and picked out the Pick up the quill.
The firelight in the lampshade was as thin as copper wire and smelled of rust.
Chen Yi held the lamp and those items and pushed open the corridor door. The women's hoarse sobbing could be heard more clearly.
He walked slowly to the cell. When the women saw the oil lamp, they stared at him warily as if reflexively.
Chen Yi knelt down and saw Annie nestled in the woman's arms. She half-closed her eyes tiredly and her eyes were red from crying. Her mother, a thin woman, held her hand and placed it next to her ear. , praying to the icon around her neck.
Alina moved her knees and crawled over, "Mr. Clerk, do you want to..."
"I want to help Annie register." Although it was unkind, Chen Yi said slowly.
"Mr. Clerk...can you do it tomorrow? Anne is very tired." Elena requested. It was almost night, and her vision was blurry, and the outline of her cheek bones was vaguely visible.
Chen Yi looked inside. Their thin bodies were leaning against the wall, listlessly silent, and just scanning themselves with their eyes.
After a long life as a prisoner, the true believers in the cell did not have enough to eat, and it was normal to be thin. Breakfast and dinner were just a meal of wheat paste. Even so, their daily prayers were still as bright as the candlelight of the Holy Silver Cathedral.
Annie raised her eyelids, saw Chen Yi, rubbed her eyes, "Sir, I'm still coming in." She said in a thin voice.
The girl broke away from her mother's arms, hugged her mother's forehead, kissed her, and said something in her ear. The woman took her to the cell door.
"Mr. Clerk, thank you for helping my Annie." The woman then said a blessing to Chen Yi.
Annie sat on the ground, raised her face shyly and smiled at Chen Yi. She turned to ask Alina, "Sister Alina, do you want to register?"
Alina nodded.
The girl sat up straight, Chen Yi unscrewed the ink bottle and spread the linen paper on the floor.
Her mother told the story of Anne one by one. She was not born out of wedlock and was the descendant of a certain knight from the Holy Land. When the pagans invaded the Holy Land, her father got on a ship to the Sola Empire early and fled south. He is now estimated to be in the Holy Land. Serving Sora's Holy Lord was a foregone conclusion, and I learned about it from the souvenir sent by the empire.
Chen Yi wrote these down truthfully.
"...She is only seven years old and has not even been in a convent for long...," her mother said and cried, "Lord, how can you bear to let such a child suffer."
Anne listened, sensibly wiped away her mother's tears on her cheek bones, kissed her cheek, and whispered about the angels her mother had told her about, those people wrapped in white robes and with clean and white wings...
Beside them, Elena had tears in her eyes and closed her eyelids in prayer.
The whole cell fell into a long and powerless sorrow. The kissed icon pendant and clasped hands were not so much prayers as silent questions to the gods.
Chen Yi had nothing to say and stood up silently.
Holding an oil lamp, he walked through the long corridor.
"child."
Chen Yi turned around.
Christopher was sitting in front of the cell door, his face looked old and his eyebrows seemed to be more curved than yesterday.
Chen Yi walked over, squatted down, and Christopher forced out a warm smile.
"Father, I have realized my ancient saying." Chen Yi said.
"Yes, I can feel that it has a deeper connection with you." Christopher said gently, "In such a short time, child, you have been getting closer to God. There is no doubt that you are under His care. This is His will. "
Chen Yi touched his temples and sorted out the doubts in his heart.
"Father, you said, understand the ancient sayings of the Zhena language family from a perspective that is consistent with divinity." After a moment of pause, Chen Yi asked his question, "My ancient sayings are 'fraud', so in the name of the Lord, I use the name of God to To incite, to deceive...is this considered divinity? I still don't understand what divinity is."
Christopher was slightly absent-minded, lowered his head slightly, and pondered for a long time.
In the corridor, devout bursts of soft prayers were heard, long and sad.
Letting children go to the stake...is that also the Lord's will? No one said this, but Chen Yi seemed to be able to hear the questioning in the prayers of the true believers, a kind of ideological questioning.
Chen Yi waited quietly for the priest's answer.
"Have you seen my memory? The day the Holy Land fell." After a while, Christopher said.
Chen Yi shook his head and said: "The ceremony... failed. Maybe some aspect was not done well."
"This is also common." Christopher said.
The priest lowered his head, pondered inexplicably for a long time, and said slowly: "You know, many things are out of your control. I have also been wandering and confused."
He rubbed the icon on his neck, "If you read my memory, you will see that your uncle, Raymond, told me not to let the holy relics fall into the hands of others. My best friend, Bishop Kaloyan, also told me not to let the saints fall into the hands of others. He warned me that when faced with all kinds of difficulties, the only option is to die as a martyr. Only in this way can I reach the Kingdom of Heaven."
Although for people like Chen Yi who do not believe in faith, converting to faith is no more than a thought, but they can still understand the meaning of the kingdom of heaven to the world.
"You will also see how I offer the holy relics of the gods with both hands. Those devout believers cursed me... I deserved this situation now because I caused the holy relics to fall into the hands of others.
I was confused before, maybe not before, but also now.
But...I think, why did I believe in the Lord?
And why did the Lord make me believe? "
Christopher asked gently. He was not asking Chen Yi, nor was he asking himself, but in response to the questions he had heard before, and to the questions in the prayers.
"When I was just a monk, I embarked on a pilgrimage with my mentor.
That was really a distant past. Before we landed, we encountered storms, monsters, and reefs... After we landed, we encountered stingy profiteers, a rough and rough life, collapsed mountain roads... dangers and sufferings were always endless.
I wonder every day, how far is the Holy Land, and how far is the Kingdom of Heaven?
The long and difficult journey was tiresome.
And one day, I saw my teacher, on a difficult journey, saying mass for an old pagan man who was dying in his sleep.
I ask him why.
'You know, the Pope has said that saving infidels is not considered saving people, and killing infidels is not considered killing. '
He said,
'Nothing else, my child, nothing else.
If only the body is performing pilgrimage, that is meaningless. '
I asked him what the point of pilgrimage was.
He said to me,
The good things that people do casually are the Lord’s kingdom of heaven
Therefore, salvation is the greatest meaning. '"
Speaking of this, Christopher's eyes became hazy under his vicissitudes of eyelids.
The flame flickered in the oil lamp.
“I hesitated about that Mass, I hesitated, and now that I have fallen into this situation, I regret it inadvertently day and night.
Even if the past is like smoke and time has passed,
But the actions of the past can still shake the soul. "
The priest's voice was gentle and trembling.
The fingertips with wrinkled skin were trembling.
“You know what, God is there.
...the meaning of salvation is there. "
Chen Yi was speechless and could only sit quietly. In the dark prison, the gentle sound of prayer stopped at some point.
There is no time more peaceful than now.
Christopher gently held the icon up and pressed it against his forehead.
The folds of the loose monk's robe sank and became silent.
"They will not die. I will go to the Holy Land." After a long time, the priest suddenly said: "I will confess my sins. I am the only one who should be sacrificed, and I will be the only one who is burned to death."
Chen Yi looked at him in surprise.
Christopher's face was calm, as if he had already made up his mind.
"I will personally sign that line and personally say to those pagans that I have blasphemed their gods.
So, I plead guilty.
I pronounce myself guilty. "
Chen Yi was stunned and didn't know what to say.
After a while, Chen Yi said subconsciously: "Father, you are undoubtedly denying faith and declaring the Lord guilty."
Christopher smiled and said nothing.
He kissed the icon in his hand.
To save, he pronounced his Lord guilty.
For the sake of faith, he denied his faith.
As he said before,
Christopher now says, "Yes, so, only He knows how much I love Him."
