Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 16 Will you come back again?

In Alice's impression, church worship ceremonies should be solemn and serious. For example, an old priest with a white beard and high moral character would preach the gospel of God on the altar, and his soothing and peaceful tone would echo under the majestic dome, like chanting a sacred piece of music; the believers below would bow their heads and listen, feeling the grace of God, and in the resonance of their souls, all the impurities of their faith would be refined, leaving only the purest and flawless emotion.

Stepping devoutly into the palace of the gods, you can see its ancient and glorious appearance. The brilliant sunlight shines like gold, casting colorful fragments through the stained glass windows on the walls. Arches, stone pillars, bell towers, spires, relief murals, smooth marble floors, as well as white-robed priests, black-robed monks, and praying believers, all prostrating themselves at His feet, becoming a speck of dust that the gods are watching... That's probably what it's like.

But the seven-day ceremony at Tianxin Church is different from that elsewhere.

Since not all the people who attend the worship are believers of the goddess, Ling usually just briefly preaches the goddess's teachings, such as "be helpful" and "don't be prejudiced" mentioned by Metien before, which are easy to understand but difficult to do. For those living at the bottom of society, it is not even as good as a piece of bread. Then he leads everyone to pray briefly and then starts to distribute relief food.

Therefore, when Lingge calmly announced "The ceremony begins", the people under the altar all thought that the seven-day ceremony would follow the same process. However, what everyone did not expect was that after saying this, Lingge did not say anything else, but just pursed his lips and slowly scanned the people with his eyes, looking very seriously, as if he wanted to remember all their faces.

This unusual behavior caused a wave of uneasiness and vigilance, but Lingge didn't care. After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke: "This is the last seven-day service of Tianxin Church. Due to some reasons, the church will be temporarily closed from tomorrow, but it may never reopen."

For some reason, he did not directly state that this was a requirement of the Religious Decree, perhaps because he felt that this was irrelevant to the people in the audience. They were not believers of the goddess, and there was no need or possibility for them to worry about the survival of the church. And he was just fulfilling his duties as a resident pastor and making routine notifications.

Just like he had informed these people in the past that "next week's seven-day service is temporarily cancelled", they would then spread the message to more people, letting everyone know that they could not come here to receive bread and milk next week. So next weekend, when he opened the door of the chapel, he saw that there was indeed no one outside the door.

This is all very normal. Now it's just that "next week" has become "later". Can humans not accept life "later"? Will they panic once a certain routine is broken? Ling Ge felt that they were probably not so fragile.

The chapel fell into a dead silence, as if the breathing and heartbeats had stopped temporarily. Alice even wondered if her headphones were broken, so she took off her silver-white rabbit ears and hung them around her neck. But she still heard no sound, so she suddenly realized that it was not her headphones that were broken, but she had muted the game?
Metien, who was still standing by the door, opened her eyes wide unconsciously. She didn't expect her brother to be so direct and unyielding. She opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end she couldn't say it.

Only those who are alive are qualified to talk about faith, and they are the ones who are alive.

Alice heard someone heave a sigh of relief, and it wasn't just one person. Then the frozen air began to flow again, and the heartbeat and breathing sounds that had just stopped a moment ago entered her ears again, hitting her eardrums again and again.

Linger continued, "After the closure of Tianxin Church, the church union will build more churches in the two blocks of Holy Cross District and White Citizen District, and increase investment in public services, including new relief centers, church hospitals and public hospitals. Mr. Langning of the City Parish Committee promised me this. He is a believer in the Herb Garden, so you don't have to worry."

The depressing atmosphere in the chapel was thus relieved, which made her deeply aware of two things: first, the reputation of the church union in the minds of the lower classes was indeed very high, and second, these people really regarded Tianxin Church as a relief center.

Mingxin Church had stood at No. 13 Songshi Street for so long, distributed so much free bread and milk, and saved countless lives... But when everyone heard that more relief centers would be established, they immediately forgot the misfortune it had encountered. Even the brief silence was not about grieving the fate of the church, but about grieving their own future fate.

Alice wanted to feel sorry for Lingge. Even if he thought it was not an important matter, she should at least feel sorry for Metien who had been trying hard to save the church. But when her eyes fell on the plain clothes and the sad and distressed looks of those people, this thought disappeared in an instant, like a candle flame being gently twisted by someone's fingers and extinguished with a hiss.

So there is no right or wrong in this matter.

One thought dies and another is born: It would be nice if it were a game.

In the game, she has a million ways to solve the dilemma. Even if she can't solve it now, she can solve it as the plot progresses. But this is the real world. She has no game system, no character panel, no task guide... She can't even start a game console. How can she solve the dilemma? Does she have to rely on her head full of game knowledge?

What a failed time traveler, Alice. The girl sighed with melancholy, and the sigh echoed in the chapel, dimming the bright sunshine. She did not notice that the amplitude and frequency of the blue light flashing on the surface of the silver-white cube hanging on her belt seemed to become stronger.

As if he didn't hear Alice's sigh, Linger maintained a calm expression and said to the audience, "Since this is the last seven-day ceremony, it's better to keep it simple and skip the previous procedures. You can come up in order to receive the food. Each person will get four loaves of bread and half a pint of milk. The quantity is enough, so don't crowd or make noise."

No one answered. After a moment of silence, the man sitting in the front stood up and walked to Lingge. Under the goddess's compassionate and sympathetic gaze, Lingge took out four loaves of bread from the carton and handed them to him. He also scooped half a spoonful of milk from the wooden barrel next to him and poured it into the empty can that the other person carried with him. Then he nodded to him and said, "I remember you, Mr. Hank. Winter will soon pass. I wish you all the best."

Although he is the goddess's priest, he never blesses in the name of God.

Mr. Hank, a ragged tramp holding four loaves of bread and a can of milk, didn't know how many times he had come to the church, nor how many times he had heard Pastor Ling say this. He didn't take it to heart in the past, but now a complex emotion surged in his heart.

He suddenly felt a little regretful, but he didn't know what he regretted. After a moment's silence, he suddenly lowered his head and replied in a slightly hoarse voice: "I, I am very grateful to you, Pastor Ling, so..." He paused, trying hard to recall something, and said awkwardly: "May you and the innocent...the sinless live in His worry-free kingdom..."

Alice saw that Lingge was obviously stunned for a moment, and Metien at the door was also surprised, because she knew that this was a prayer in the Goddess's Canon. Lingge would end every prayer of the Seven Days Ceremony with this sentence. Does this mean that the past efforts were not meaningless, and that God's mercy could eventually leave a shadow in the hearts of the unbelievers?
Even if it's just a very shallow mark.

Linger's shock was so fleeting that no one noticed. He responded calmly and politely, "Thank you."

The tramp heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the thanks, bowed slightly, and then turned away, giving his place to the next person. When he passed the door, he said goodbye to Metien in the words he had just learned. The little girl smiled happily and told him enthusiastically that she would come again in the future, just as she still believed that there was still a "later".

Ling Ge turned back to look at Alice on the altar. The girl remembered that she still had work to do, and hurriedly took a pen to write down the information of the homeless man in the register. Like the language, she also learned the words of the other world without a teacher. This was probably the only benefit of her as a time traveler, which was really sad.

After that, it was just the normal process: food was distributed, a few simple greetings were exchanged, and Alice wrote down their information in the register. However, I don’t know if it was influenced by the first person, but almost everyone said the same words to Lingge after receiving the food.

Alice sometimes thought while writing, was their behavior based on guilt or uneasiness?

Because the previous process is omitted, simply distributing the food does not take too much time and can be completed in about an hour.

After Alice wrote down the last person's information, she looked up and saw an old woman in plain clothes and an old plaid scarf talking to Metien at the door. She didn't know what they were talking about, but the little girl's eyes sparkled and an expression of surprise and joy appeared on her face.

Well.

She looked down and saw the old woman's name written in the register: Mrs. Maggie of Turquoise Street.

He was a resident of the same street and appeared in the register quite frequently. He also received £2 10 shillings from the church to treat his youngest son's fever. There was no record of bread and milk on the page of the same week, indicating that the seven-day service was probably cancelled that week.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)