If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon

Chapter 917 Church
July 7, a Christian Sunday.

United States, Chicago, Cathedral of the Holy Name.

As the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Chicago, this revival Gothic building has everything that Gothic architecture should have, spires, ribs and flying columns, and flower windows.The overall building structure is 233 feet long, 126 feet wide, and can seat 1520 people.The ceiling is 70 feet high, while the spire reaches 210 feet.

Perhaps it may not be the best church in Chicago in terms of size data, but in terms of location, it must be the most popular church in Chicago among Christians.

The massive 1200-pound bronze doors of Chicago's Cathedral of the Holy Name were pushed open, revealing a turquoise blue sky that streamed through the cracks, a clear Sunday sky in Chicago.

In the hot weather, the blue sky is like a piece of glass, baked by the sun into deep sticky honey, flowing along the skyline into the blue Lake Michigan.

Pedestrians are bustling on the shore of the dark blue Lake Michigan. The white girl wearing a sunhat is chasing with her companions on a skateboard. She turns her head between flips and glances at the church with a steeple reaching into the sky on the opposite corner. A tall and straight figure stood in front of the bronze gate of the church.

A black custom-made suit, meticulous silver hair, and a handsome side face that can accelerate the secretion of hormones in a young girl just by glimpse That figure's glimpse of the jaw line is nothing more than that, but sometimes to tell whether a person is stunning, a jaw line silhouette can make a conclusion.

At least judging from the jawline of this silver-haired elderly gentleman, his handsome aura must be as strong as the Daiqing Lake of Lake Michigan today.

The girl didn't have time to look or think too much. In her eyes, the gentleman with the best jawline had already entered the church.The door of the church was also closed after the person entered, and a notice board saying "the church is temporarily closed for religious activities" was quietly placed in front of the stairs.

Hilbert Jean Angers was never a devout Christian.

Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for him to have anything to do with the religious activities on Sundays, but today's Holy Name Cathedral is indeed open for him. If there is a private charter in the church, then this Cathedral is It was contracted by him in his own name.

After entering the church, standing under the huge pipe organ, Angers raised his eyes and saw the shocking floating sculpture of "Resurrected Crucifixion".

In the design of the interior of the church, it may be because the cathedral has a history of rebuilding on the ruins of St. Mary's Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Name, which were burned in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, so the purpose of the whole church is to 'Resurrection', solemn and silent.

Today's church does not have a figure of clergymen coming and going. The water waves in the brass basin engraved with angels on the pulpit reflect the complex dome like interlaced trees and vines. Figure - There is nothing more suitable for the theme of architectural design than the 'tree of life' to fit the purpose of 'resurrection'.

Sad purple satin hangs behind the sacred sculpture that symbolizes 'resurrection', and the stained glass windows without any decoration dye the sunlight that penetrates into the empty main hall with more distinct colors.

Angers, who stopped in his pocket, slid his eyes along the interior of the church, and finally stopped at a sitting figure in the large blank seats.

It was a boy, dressed in the same formal attire as Angers, sitting in the seat on the left with his waist slightly bent, his elbows resting on his legs, his fingers intertwined, his head slightly bowed like in the flower window Fall asleep in the dazzling light.

Angers came from the aisle between the seats. The sound of hard-soled leather shoes stepping on the reddish-brown ground echoed in the main hall. He walked to the seat on the right opposite to the boy and sat down. He looked up at the sculpture and then After performing a Christian etiquette, after the cross was drawn on the shoulder and forehead, a boy's voice came from the seat on the left:

"Principal, you don't seem like a religious person."

"I just need a quiet place that is relatively suitable for chatting." Anger raised his right hand and put it on the seat, his head was bathed in the colorful halo, "How did you rest on the flight? Did you successfully book a novel hotel in Chicago?" ? If not, I recommend you to stay in the business suite of 'Hyatt Regency Chicago', where the night view is very good, you can see the cruise ships passing by the Chicago River and the neon lights on the bridge at night."

"Hotel. Do you have any tasks in Chicago? I received a text message from you as soon as I got off the plane. Chu Zihang, Lu Mingfei, and Su Xiaoqiang should have arrived at the Chicago train station by now, and they will report to the college headquarters in two hours."

"I'm sorry to tell you some bad news. Maybe you don't know that the train station in Chicago is out of service."

"Out of service? Why."

"The subway workers are on strike and the subway has been shut down for at least a week. The city government is negotiating with representatives of the subway workers. According to the current progress, the negotiation process is not ideal. The subway workers have higher quality demands for daily working hours."

"So this meeting with the principal wants me to solve the strike of the subway workers?" Lin Nian raised his head slightly, "If it's a threat of violence that avoids surveillance without leaving evidence, I can try it."

"No, you misunderstood. The strike of the subway workers was just an accident. I have no intention of participating in the conflict between the working class and the capitalist class. This time I asked you to meet just because I wanted to chat with my favorite student." Angers shook his head and said .

"Sometimes I suspect that you, principal, have said the same thing in front of Lu Mingfei or Chu Zihang. Or maybe you have said the same thing to every student?" Lin Nian looked at Ange with a flat gaze.

"Why do you say that?" Angers also looked sideways, "Could it be that among the small group of students stranded in Chicago who returned to school because of the subway workers' strike, I was the only one who couldn't wait to ask you out in private immediately after getting off the plane?" An 'afternoon tea', doesn't this incident show how much I value and love you?"

Lin Nian didn't answer, probably because he felt that the topic he raised was meaningless.

"I"

"However... there is indeed more than one student I like the most." Angers said suddenly.

"." This sudden self-explosion was beyond Lin Nian's expectation.

But why did he suddenly slap himself in the face? Was Hilbert Jean Angers really a hidden Christian who felt guilty for lying in front of the statue of God?But that should also be going to the confessional to confess, not self-exploding hypocrisy in front of one's own students.

Of course this is not the case.

Lin Nian was silent for a while before he understood the meaning of Angers' words.

"My students, things change, and people change. It's like one day when you walk down the street and see a beautiful white flower, you think it's the most favorite flower you've ever seen in your life. You took her off and pinned it to your chest, and after a day, the white flower on your chest had withered and turned yellow, so you replaced it with a new rose."

Lin Nian, who was sitting on the seat, did not change his movements, but looked sideways at Angers. Sure enough, there was always a freshly picked bright red rose with dew on his chest.

There may be a story hidden in the rose, the tragedy between Angers and a favorite student, the white-haired man sent away the black-haired man corrupted by blood with a knife?It must be a story that can be called literature when written down, but Lin Nian does not want to dig deeper. After all, no matter how changeable the core of literature is, it will never change, and the tragedy of white flowers for roses is the same.

There is nothing new under the sun.

"I never question the unreserved enthusiasm that people express for the things they love, and of course I never criticize their tragic endings." Angers said slowly.

"But if a story has a tragic ending, then someone must be wrong in the story." Lin Nian gradually looked away.

"The thing that's wrong is definitely not the loyal and unchanging feelings." Ange tapped the top of the seat with his right hand lightly, "It's just those things that are wrong. They entrusted all their feelings but happened subtly. things that change."

Lin Nian was silent for a long time, and finally spoke, bringing the topic back to the original starting point, "So, principal, are you really a believer in Christianity?"

The topic was a bit torn and jumped, but Ange still took it without any complaints, "The Secret Party does not prohibit members of the party from having other beliefs. The Secret Party was originally just a group of people with different wisdom and different opinions. It's just a brotherhood where people of different faiths come together for the same ideal."

"Is it surprising that the headmaster of Kassel College has faith? As people on our side, every time you pack your pocket and fold a plane ticket, you should be prepared to go away forever, and you have no time to die. It's always nice to have some faith on the road."

"Faith will always give you the courage that people don't have. It allows you to silently recite the name of the god you believe in when facing Longyan, let him bless you, and bestow you with one more step forward, one more roar, and one more cut. The courage of a knife. So it is not a strange thing that people in our line of work generally have faith."

The old guy paused and said, "So if you are careful and pay more attention to the details of the people around you, you will find that more than [-]% of the members of the equipment department in Watt Alheim that you contact most often believe** *teach."

The church was quiet for a while, and then Lin Nian in the seat on the left nodded silently, "Not a bad joke."

“A good conversation always starts with a joke, it’s a great way to put distance between the people talking, and if it was Cesar Gattuso who was talking to me right now, he would laugh without restraint. "

Judging from Ange's tone, it seemed that Lin Nian felt a little regretful that Lin Nian didn't laugh out loud.

"So I will take it as a joke, principal, that you are a Christian." Lin Nian nodded, "If I'm not wrong, principal, you should be an excellent student who graduated from the Philosophy Department of Cambridge University. If you have faith, you should only believe in it. philosophy."

"Yes, I don't believe in religion. I'm just friends with the archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. It should be said that I'm friends with every archbishop." Angers raised his left hand on his thigh and swayed it slightly. Admitting that I believe in Christianity is just a joke, "But I really don't dislike Christianity, and I even find time to go to church every weekend."

"Because the principal, when you were 12 years old, you were funded by a bishop's annuity to go to London to study, so that you could enter Cambridge University and get acquainted with the first generation of Lionhearts, such as Menek Cassel, who you regard as your predecessors and colleagues, and use this He joined the secret party for the media." Lin Nian said, "It can be said that without that bishop, there would be no Angers in Cambridge, and naturally there would be no Angers in the secret party."

Angers looked up, but said nothing, then hung down again.

After a while, the old man said, "Actually, even if there is no such bishop, at most there will be only one less 'Anger of Cambridge' in the future historical trajectory, and it will only be a matter of time before the appearance of 'Anger of the Secret Party'." The secret party’s means of selecting people is not limited to the option of recruiting elites and screening them one by one. For the core members who are really valued by the secret party, they have already been included in the list before they were born or even had names.”

"Cassel College is an elite college. Some people ridicule it as a 'gu cup', or a 'cricket pot' with a castle standing. To be honest, I prefer the latter kind of ridicule, because the college is located in the mountains. Crickets also live in the mountains." Anger said, "If you know the history of raising Gu and fighting crickets, you should know that whether it is raising Gu or fighting crickets, there will be a large-scale selection of 'gladiators'. However, what is interesting is that nine out of ten people who finally win the championship in this life-and-death fight are the offspring selected through artificial and systematic cultivation, the offspring of previous champions."

Lin Nian remained silent, and the topic was tilting in the direction it should have gone.

"I don't like pedigree theory, no one likes pedigree theory." Angers closed his eyes, "But every July, which is also the season at this moment, there will still be countless people rushing to fertile horse farms to find champion stallions Breeding, so that the next horse racing champion will be born in the womb of his own mares. In the subsequent training of horse racing, the offspring of these stallions will always be on the top of the candidate list, which is the so-called 'seed runner' '."

"The ones who can really win the championship in the racetrack, win undefeated in the cricket championship, and survive to the end in the Gu Cup, most of them are the 'seed players' who have already been given high expectations."

Lin Nian raised his head, remained silent for a few seconds, and finally said, "Then when did I get picked up by the secret party, no, the principal? As the same 'seeded player'? After all, it's just like the principal you said Yes, before the name of Hilbert Jean Angers appeared in this world, the baby in the womb of the excellent mixed-race mother in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, was already on the list of the Secret Party. I'm the same, I'm just curious, when and how did I appear on the principal's list in the earliest days?"

"If you really want to go back, it was really a long time ago." Anger replied.

"Principal, how much do you know? How much have you been involved in?" Lin Nian asked.

"A lot. After all, for people my age, many things that you think of as the past, in my opinion, just happened yesterday." Anger said, "I asked you to come here this time, isn't it just to come here?" Answer your doubts?"

"I also specifically reminded me to attend in formal attire." Lin Nian said.

"In a place like a church, there are only two occasions to attend in formal attire." Angers said, looking up at the brass sacred basin of the pulpit. "Weddings and funerals."

He touched the brand-new dew rose on his chest, and the light flicked on the edge of the sculpture hanging in the depths of the church, outlining light or thick shadow tracks.

Lin Nian closed his eyes, but he didn't open his mouth to avoid the topic that was bound to usher.

"I'm sorry about your sister." Ange took off the rose and placed it on the seat beside her, "But you and I both know that as time goes by, this is something that will inevitably happen, but sooner or later. "

　ps: I came back from the material (referring to the book), and the plot of the next story will start to go off track. The preface is indeed a prophecy, but do you, Ah Shui, seem like someone who can throw knives at random? (probably not)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)