Chapter 6
Ye Yihe could guarantee that he had absolutely no connection to the profession of priest; he had never actually seen one in real life.
The closest he ever came to encountering a clergyman was when a stranger knocked on his college dorm room door to ask if he was interested in Christianity, and he politely declined…
Given the environment of scientific materialism combined with pragmatism, Ye Yihe also found it difficult to determine whether the other party could successfully expand the religious group within the school.
He'd seen many priests in movies and TV shows, but the most memorable priest character he could immediately recall was actually Kirei Kotomine from Type-Moon, a quirky character whose real name was Kirei Kotomine.
Last time it was a fugitive, this time it's a priest... This is truly unlocking a new career experience.
However, he knew absolutely nothing about religion—but at this moment, it seemed to make no difference whether he knew it or not, since he couldn't speak at all.
It is certain that not much time has passed since the last car accident and prison break, which can be sensed from the still throbbing pain in the head wound.
After only a brief moment of distraction and reflection, Ye Yihe focused on dealing with the situation at hand.
This place, which was originally an open space at the entrance of a market, is now crowded with poor people who have come to receive relief porridge. They are emaciated and their brows are furrowed with sorrow—but their expressions are still full of hope for the row of porridge buckets.
Although Ye Yihe had glanced at the porridge earlier and noticed it was watery and soupy, leading him to believe it was just a thin porridge made with a little rice, a closer look now suggested a strange, cheesy smell emanating from the porridge bucket in front of him… Did they put dairy products in it?
Standing on either side of him were priests dressed in the same solemn black attire—their collars neatly pressed against their necks, and cross pendants adorning their chests—who were earnestly distributing porridge to the people queuing in front of them.
Ye Yihe's right hand was still holding the spoon handle. When he saw the old woman walk away after giving her thanks, and another old man followed behind her shakily, he immediately filled the bowl to the brim for him and began to do the same almsgiving as the other priests.
Although they would all offer some blessings to the believers, Ye Yihe found that it didn't seem to matter if he didn't say anything, so he simply pretended to be a taciturn porridge-scooping tool.
Given his experience of angering the Russian man when he smiled, Ye Yihe carefully managed his expression this time, keeping a straight face throughout the entire process, with his lips pressed tightly together and never curving upwards even half an degree.
If helping to make porridge this time counts as doing a good deed, then that's too easy; he could do that all day.
Because of its high latitude, it gets dark very early in Russia. Not long after Yeikh finished serving his bowl of porridge, the sun quickly set, and an elderly priest came over to urge them to hurry up and catch up.
He was dressed in a black robe, but on his head he wore a cylindrical hat with a long white shawl, making him look like a gender-swapped version of a nun at first glance, which made Ye Yihe, who had never seen such an outfit before, steal several curious glances.
"Has the cheese porridge been distributed? Very good," the other person said slowly and softly, with a rhythmic quality. "Thank you all for your hard work. If God were here, He would surely praise you, for you have done the right thing."
"Let's go, it's almost time for us to eat."
The other person was of higher status than them, and after thanking them, the others quickly gathered up their empty buckets and followed the priest in an orderly manner.
Ye Yihe followed suit, albeit a beat behind.
Although he didn't understand the religion, he understood its followers. These guys might be able to accept that someone didn't believe in their religion, but they would never accept someone deliberately performing even a single wrong procedure or ritual in front of them—that was no joke, it could turn into a holy war in a heartbeat.
Right now, he is surrounded by seven or eight believers.
Fortunately, none of these people seemed to be familiar with the original owner. As Ye Yihe carried the empty bucket all the way to the church entrance, no one came to greet him or chat.
This trip exhausted him.
With his physical strength far below the passing grade, he might not even be able to walk 800 meters on his own, let alone carry a rather large solid wooden barrel for 800 meters. It's really asking too much of him.
Fortunately, some of the people sharing the porridge with him were not very strong, and the priest in the white hat cooperated by walking and stopping intermittently, which gave him a chance to catch his breath.
That being said, isn't simply distributing porridge to the people enough to complete a good deed? Why hasn't he received a system settlement notification yet?
Ye Yihe finally followed them to a church that was not large in scale but had a very ornate architectural style. The light blue domed building always reminded him of temples in India, but it ended with a cross at the very top.
He looked up and examined it carefully for a moment, and found that there were two short diagonal lines above and below the horizontal bar of the cross, which was not the most common type of cross formed by intersecting horizontal and vertical lines.
There is also a short vertical line at each end of the horizontal bar itself.
There was a subtle feeling, as if I had entered a Christian society, yet it wasn't quite Christian... But even though I could speak Russian, Yeikh couldn't bring himself to ask this question.
He followed these people to the carved and sculpted church door, and before entering, he had to put the tips of his thumb, index finger, and middle finger together, make the sign of the cross on his chest, and bow three times. As for what the others might have prayed silently, Ye Yihe had no idea; he was just doing his job by following their example.
"Father."
Ye Yihe saw a young man inside the church dressed in the same clothes as him, and immediately bowed to greet the priest in the white hat.
Only those who were tidying up would bow and greet them, but they would address them as "sir"; their attire was also different from theirs, consisting of a pale white, unbuttoned shirt with wide sleeves.
Judging from this, he shouldn't be a priest... or perhaps a priest himself? Ye Yihe followed at the back, pondering silently, while also observing the surroundings to see if there was anyone he needed to do a good deed for.
He didn't really care whether it was a priest or a priest father; he preferred to finish the good deed quickly and return these things to their original owners who truly believed in them, rather than following the complicated and strange procedures.
The interior of the church is even more elaborate than it appears from the outside. A row of large bronze portraits of figures is displayed in the center, and various oil paintings hang on the other walls. Apart from the well-known images of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Jesus, none of the other paintings by Yeikh are recognizable.
This is utterly a complete disaster, comparable to a husky sneaking into a pack of wolves.
On the left-hand wall, there was a large, ornate gold cup with an unknown purpose but which looked very valuable. Behind it, on a mahogany table, were two huge flatbreads with several burning orange candles stuck in them, their meaning equally unclear.
After finally managing to move with the crowd to the large dining table, Ye Yihe, who thought he could finally eat, was forced to stand in front of the pile of bread, beet soup and potatoes under the priest's guidance and perform three pre-meal prayers.
Ye Yihe, whose stomach was already empty from hunger: ...Forget it, he can't trust this teaching at all.
He could only wait for the long prayer to finish before he was allowed to sit down at the table with candlesticks lit. He then began to eat dry bread with cold soup, accompanied only by mashed potatoes with a few mushrooms and a lot of salt.
...In short, it was awful.
No wonder the original owner had such a poor constitution; if it were him, he would also lose ten pounds.
Even so, Ye Yihe noticed that everyone else was eating with great relish, and even quietly praised them.
"My God, the beet soup has milk in it, it's absolutely delicious."
"The olive oil added to the mashed potatoes is so generous, thank you, Your Excellency the kind bishop."
"Today's bread must have had eggs added when kneading the dough to make it so soft, I'm 100% sure."
"I'll miss out on such good food tomorrow during my fast, it's so sad it makes me want to cry."
"Yeah yeah."
Ye Yihe, who was listening in while clutching a piece of bread, couldn't swallow anymore, his throat hoarse from hoarseness: …………
Seriously? Tomorrow's food can't be any worse??
You could serve a fried egg or stir-fried shredded potatoes, but this is just bread with potatoes, it's making me feel so sad... If the chef doesn't know how, you could let him cook it.
After barely finishing what he considered a non-dinner, Ye Yihe had to get up and recite the post-meal prayer three more times before he was allowed to return to his dormitory.
Throughout the entire process, he couldn't find any target that required him to do good deeds, but the system didn't initiate any settlement, so he could only stay there.
Ye Yihe was worried about not being able to find his dormitory, but luckily it was a single room. As he walked through his own door, someone gently tapped him on the shoulder to remind him, "Hey Cyril, I think you know you've gone too far."
“Cyril, you don’t look well, and you didn’t eat much for dinner,” another person said.
"Oh dear, I hope it's not a fever."
"Poor Cyril, he stood in the cold wind all day today to give alms!"
More and more people looked in his direction. Ye Yihe, who had been forcibly silenced, could only shake his head to indicate that he was fine, and then left the crowd and returned to the dormitory with the nameplate.
The furnishings inside were very simple, but the overall place looked very clean and tidy, and even the bedding on the bed was new.
So the name of this body is... Cyril?
However, Ye Yihe felt that the fugitive—that is, the original owner—was more likely to use a false name, in order to avoid being caught by the police.
Although he felt that the other party's decision to hide in the church was quite risky, he didn't know if the bishop would blame them for desecrating the sacred place.
After the lights were turned off, the entire church fell into complete silence.
But unable to accomplish anything good, having not eaten enough for dinner, and with the dormitory freezing cold due to the lack of air conditioning, Ye Yihe, unable to sleep, simply got out of bed, put on his clothes, and tiptoed out the door.
He didn't have a cold, but he was starving. For Cyril's sake, he had to go to the kitchen and stir-fry some shredded potatoes.
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