Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The priest’s words made Zhang Zian feel awkward. There were rumors of cat abuse in the neighborhood. He had heard that from the old grandmother who had been scavenging, and it was not the first time that cat abuse had occurred. There was sporadic news about this all over the country and even around the world. Therefore, it was not something new. The freshness of it was… Why, when there were cat abuse incidents in Binhai City, the priest now had to report it to American church members and ask them to solve this problem?
Was it true that…the American cleric referred to by the priest was the international warrior Bethune? That guy was Canadian!
To Zhuang Xiaodie, the priest’s words were not worthy of hearing, because this was a memory that Zhang Zian did not have!
The incident of cat abuse, or the incident of malicious abuse of small animals, had existed in ancient times. It would be illogical to remove this from his memory, so she’d reserved some common knowledge about cat abuse incidents, but only limited to his common sense. The memory of “a large-scale cat abuse incident in Binhai City” had been blocked. Otherwise, it would remind him of the cat god statue and the Russian blue cat.
But the priest had just said that the cat abuse incident occurred in the vicinity. This was actually very close to the “massive cat abuse incident.”
Even in a dream, Zhang Zian tended to say hello to those whom he had known in reality. This was because he felt that they were very familiar and naturally felt attracted to them, besides those like taxi drivers, whom he would only speak one or two sentences to. Zhang Zian would speak more with everyone else, as if he did indeed know them.
However, she repeatedly checked his memory and determined that he had never seen this priest in reality.
When he’d first come to this street in reality, he had also met this photography society and the guy named Luo Qingyu at the entrance of the church. However, he had not met this priest, nor had he been stopped by the priest.
How was this happening?
Had the dream been modified by that dog yet again?
“Child, you don’t look very good. Do you want to come in and sit for a while?” The priest noticed that Zhuang Xiaodie’s face was a little tense and pointed to the church. He was much older than Zhang Zian, and it was, therefore, normal to call them “child,” although for him, calling the person “child” had another meaning.
Perhaps afraid that Zhuang Xiaodie would think otherwise of his intention, the priest hurriedly explained, “Just sit for a while. We will not preach the doctrine to you against your wishes.”
Zhang Zian asked her, “Would you like to go in and sit for a while?”
“No need to.” She glanced at the church and felt that there was something…a strange feeling. “I really want to know about the cat abuse incident. Can you please tell me more?”
The priest glanced at the black-and-white kitten again. Following conventional thinking, he thought that she was worried that her cat would get hurt, so she was concerned about the cat abuse incident.
“Of course. The sporadic cat abuse incident was discovered nearby by church members. At first, we thought it was just one case. However, since that time, cat abuse incidents have become more frequent, and the methods have become more and more cruel… I am afraid to scare you and will not elaborate on the specific details. In short, it is horrible, and it is not like something human beings would do.”
The priest finished on a sad and sorrowful note, and he sighed again and again. He made a cross sign across his chest, his lips moving slightly. it seemed he was saying a prayer.
“So serious…” Zhang Zian also frowned. What did he mean by “not like something human beings would do”?
Since the cat abuse incident had been made known to him, Zhuang Xiaodie had no way to hide it. She wanted to find out how this nonexistent memory had appeared in her dream.
“So, you said that you have to ask the American church members to solve the cat abuse incident. What is this about?” she asked.
Zhang Zian was also very interested in this topic. He knew that the cat abuse incident would be difficult for the government to solve in a short period of time, but it was clearly happening in Binhai City. Why did the priest want to ask for help from abroad? Was this the origin of the phrase “Foreign monks chant better”?
The priest smiled and looked at their faces. He said, “I don’t have anything to hide from you children if you really want to know. However, this will involve some…of the past that may sound incredible when you first hear it. You might think that I am here to preach the doctrine to you and feel resentful. This is against the original intention of my conversation with you. Even so, do you want to hear it?”
“I don’t have anything against it…” Zhang Zian said. After all, he was an adult. He should have already formed his own opinion. This world was full of temptations. If a person was moved by a mere few words, then, in the end, they only had themselves to blame for not being determined to stand their ground and being easily convinced by others.
In addition, he was basically an atheist—more convinced of science, and less convinced of things like gods and ghosts.
“I don’t mind,” said Zhuang Xiaodie.
“Okay, then let me talk about it.” The priest smiled and said awkwardly, “According to feedback from the members of the church, we judged that the series of cat abuse incidents in the vicinity were not that simple. More than one abuser claimed that he was being tempted by an evil statue and then committed the horrendous act against stray cats. We also conducted private investigations. The common characteristics of the abusers are that they are introverted and lead unsatisfactory lives, but there had not been any abusive behavior in their lives prior.”
Evil statue?
Somewhere, something in Zhang Zian’s brain suddenly jumped, and some of the dusty memories seemed to be coming out.
The priest continued, “Actually, similar incidents have happened before. We immediately call to mind the past events. In the thirteenth century, the Germans dug up an equally strange statue. After that, they carried out an evil sacrificial activity, which triggered the wrath of the Holy See. Pope Gregory IX promulgated the teachings as ‘The Voice of Rome,’ which is equivalent to the release of the cats…”
He looked dejected and said, “God is omnipresent, but our followers may misinterpret his meaning and therefore make irreparable mistakes. I have no intention to justify the mistakes of the past, but this incident and those of the past are extremely similar. Thus, we don’t want the same mistake to be made again.”
Zhang Zian was impressed by this rumor he heard. He seemed to have heard of it before, but several versions he’d heard had a common flaw. It was not clear how the matter ended. The statue that had been dug up by the Germans… What had happened to it in the end? The different versions of the legend did not address it. He did not know whether it had been deliberately concealed or that outsiders truly did not know anything about it.
“How was this solved at that time?” Zhuang Xiaodie asked the same question he wanted to ask.
The priest smiled, made a cross over his chest, and looked up at the sky. “The Almighty God did not abandon his children and sent us a sacred object to suppress the evil statue.”
