Angel on earth

It has been raining intermittently for half a month, and the summer is humid and hot, and the sewage pits and garbage dumps are endlessly breeding mosquitoes.The city government consulted the church’s opinion and decided to start the mayoral election in advance after the funeral of Father Vasily. Several meetings were held on the issue of epidemic prevention in summer, and many policies and details have not yet been finalized. Chalek needs a leader .

Father Vasily was buried early one morning.His body stayed in front of the Ark of the Covenant for fourteen days. The nuns, monks, children, priests, and visiting citizens of the monastery recited scriptures and prayed for him day and night. The poor man who was cured by Suizi was obviously useless, but he showed his piety very much.In the end, both of them went to the Lower District with Dr. Edwards who came to offer flowers, and they recovered within three days.

The priest is buried in the monastery's cemetery.The fledgling monastery was established less than 40 years ago, and the cemetery is still very empty. The monks chose an open space that can be exposed to the sun all year round for the venerable priest Vasily.But on the day of the funeral, like the day the priest died, it had been raining since morning.Mikhail Kupala did not want to interfere too much in the kingdom of God the Father, and only stopped the rain for a while before and after the coffin was buried. Soon after the tomb was sealed, everyone held an umbrella in the rain to listen to another priest’s eulogy .

Mikhail suddenly felt a group of dissatisfaction.Following this emotion, he saw a middle-aged man with a black beard in a purple velvet-lined dress in the crowd.The man had broad shoulders and a thick waist, and was not tall. He wore a pair of shiny leather shoes, his hands were behind his back, and he had a cold and sinister smile on his face.Behind him, a tall servant was bending over to hold an umbrella for him. The latter was almost soaked through.

After the rest of the process, everyone took turns to lay flowers.The middle-aged man also presented a bunch of flowers, like most people, it was yellow and white chrysanthemums tied together.He paused in front of the tomb, quickly sneered, pushed away other people's bouquets as if nothing had happened, and placed his own bouquet on the edge of the cockscomb in the center.

The middle-aged man stood in front of the tomb for a while, then left.Mikhail felt uncomfortable instinctively. He was the first to offer flowers, and he was the one who put the red flowers that symbolized the eternal life of the soul.He wasn't sure what the other party meant. Was it a difficult question, a kind of dissatisfaction, or just doing it casually?

"Who is that gentleman?" Mikhail bent slightly.Rollins replied:

"Skurtu, according to the previous statement, is the Baron, a rival of Kozlov and Morozov."

"Is that so?" said Mikhail. "The fifth. I'm not good at it."

"I'm good at it," Rollins said lightly. "The church is not that peaceful, you know. We've dealt with a lot of traitors."

"Thank you Mithra, the sun god. It is He who bestowed all kinds of authority and power, so that brothers and sisters can serve him with love." Mikhail saw Arnold in black in the crowd. Edwards, the other party also looked over, and the two nodded distantly, "But I still have to learn. Well, for the sake of the church, I have to work harder to take responsibility."

Arnold's windbreaker was a bit old, but the brogue shoes on his feet were new. Mikhail remembered that they were wearing these shoes when they went to Dorota together.The formal clothes inside are also straight but a bit old, and together with the gray and black mixed hair that was not so messy in the morning, it shows a kind of vicissitudes.He sent a bouquet of white flowers, and was stopped by a patched footman to chat.

After chatting with Rollins again, Mikhail saw that Arnold was about to leave, so he hurriedly ended the conversation and wanted to catch up.

"...Your Highness." Rollins stopped Mikhail, and looked up at his clear and psychedelic blue-purple eyes without flinching. "There is another suspect. You know it."

Mikhail's expression froze for a moment, subconsciously wanting to refute, and finally told the truth: "I know. He invited Terekin, Olga is Catherine's sister, Father Paisi knew him well, and Koz The Loves tended his business, and Brother Vasily was under his care. In any case, the suspicion of Dr. Arnold Edwards cannot be ruled out."

Rollins smiled kindly, looking at him with a look of sadness from an elder: "It's good that you know. Let me take my leave first, Your Highness."

Rollins straightened his back and slowly walked out of the cemetery.Mikhail stared blankly at the spot for a while, looked up at the gray sky with a bit of orange red, and walked outside the monastery.

Going down the Central Avenue to the foot of Mount Grant, Mikhail realized that Arnold hadn't returned to the clinic, but had gone straight out of the city.He asked a few more questions, and the wives who had not been down the mountain for a long time talked a lot enthusiastically, and they wanted to invite him to their house as a guest.The smell of powder and perfume was not so sweet in the light rain, but Mikhail had never been surrounded by so many women except the sisters of the church, and finally fled out of the city in a rather embarrassing manner.The ladies laughed for a while, but didn't follow, and each took their servants back.

On weekdays, they may not be restricted by dogma, follow the saints to see the excitement, and get compliments from their husbands when they go home, but the problem is that a group of leprosy patients came from outside the city this time. In the face of life safety, Faithfulness to the saints is not so important.

Not knowing what news they got, they walked all the way from Kara Town and asked the doctor for help outside the city.After mourning for several days, two of them were almost beaten to death by the city guards before the servant who drove back agreed to pass the news into the city for them.Dr. Edwards met the servant at the priest's funeral. The latter slapped his head and remembered the incident, and hurriedly told the doctor.This day happened to be his rest day. He entered the city yesterday evening, and he is still in the church to receive the exorcism ceremony.

The funeral attire of the monastery is uniformly black robes, and the nuns of the monastery made this set on Mikhail day and night.Rollins was unwilling to recruit girls from the city because he didn't have enough manpower to investigate hidden dangers. Only Olga Chicherin received the unanimous trust and praise of the priests and nuns and stayed.

At the city gate he saw Arnold talking to lepers in wide-brimmed hats with two white hands folded on their chests.It's a conversation, but it's just that the two sides are shouting at a long distance.The patients had to shake the castanets bells in their hands from time to time, one of them was blowing the trumpet, and some excited patients screamed in the middle.There weren't many people, but in the light rain, it seemed noisier than Chalek's market.

"Okay, okay!" Arnold looked back vigilantly and saw Mikhail. For some reason, he became a little annoyed, and pointed at the patrol guards and shouted, "I will do my best! Stay here and don't wander around, or you If you die here, no one will bother!"

Mikhail wore a little black hat, and the brand new black clothes on him, not only did not look lifeless, but made him look more youthful.When Arnold turned around after shouting, he couldn't help taking a step back.Immediately, an officer became anxious: "Doctor! Come here! You are too close to them!"

"Thank you for reminding me, sir." Arnold nodded at the man, then looked at Mikhail, put away his umbrella, and said, "Good morning, Misha."

Mikhail's eyes lit up, and he smiled, "Good morning, Arnold. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Arnold scratched his hair subconsciously, and the raindrops made the glasses lenses into pieces: "No—no, if you are kind, find a place for these people to stay."

"You're very kind," said Mikhail cheerfully. "Leave it to me. Can you even cure leprosy? It would be a pity to stay in Chalek. If you..."

"What if I'm not Edwards?" Arnold raised his eyebrows, "There's nothing to regret, just try. I can't even save Chalek's patients."

"It's not like that... well. I'll see you later."

"OK, bye."

"See you in the afternoon!"

Arnold held up his umbrella and hurried away, almost as if fleeing.Mikhail stood in the rain for a while, and ordered the two soldiers to find some canvas and hemp rope, while he went to the woods outside the city to chop a few big trees, and carried them all at once.Instead of asking the soldiers to help, he built a big shed by himself. After all, he would not get sick, but for ordinary people, leprosy is very terrible.

Mikhail used some small spells to dry the remaining branches and leaves, lit a fire, and invited the sick people in Kara Town to come in and take shelter from the rain.At first those people were very silent, except for ringing bells and trumpets and moaning, they didn't make any sound.It wasn't until Mikhail walked out of the awning and yelled several times to identify himself that two seriously ill old men came out of them and helped each other to try.

These patients consumed Mikhail all morning.After inviting them into the canopy, he went into the city to buy some food, but as soon as he approached the canopy, the patients stood up hurriedly, screaming in anxiety because they could not go anywhere else.At last an officer who knew the situation came, shouted for a while, and a long pole was stretched out, and the officer asked Mikhail to hang the food on the hook of the pole.

After it rained heavily, Mikhail managed to get into the canopy and sat down with the lepers to eat bread.There was a woman who was disappointed. She touched his tassels and kissed the ground he walked on, but nothing good happened.Her husband flinched and offered Mikhail the tea, and soon went off to attend to his wife on the other side.

The air was filled with the smell of earth and river, and the smell of white bread warming over the fire.Mikhail asked some questions, how he got sick, whether the plague was serious, how to maintain life and so on.A middle-aged man who had just been ill touched the white ribbon hanging from his wide-brimmed hat and told him many things. Others also spoke intermittently. Only the last question was unanswered.