The Sick Beauty in the Republic of China

Just as Father Will was still immersed in his inner struggle, there was a sudden sound of footsteps on the altar.

He raised his head tremblingly, and although he had already prepared in his heart, he still opened his eyes uncontrollably, and the hand holding the goblet also trembled.

A small figure, wrapped in a soft white cloth, walked from the lampstand with burning candles. The warm candle light illuminated his body exposed from the white cloth. It had already withered and rotted into a dark brown, without a trace of life.Even the movement of walking, because of the loss of muscle and moisture, looked extremely strange.

With great difficulty, Father Will wanted to look at Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng aside, but found in despair that there was no panic or strangeness on their faces, but full of anticipation and admiration, watching the corpse walk up to them In front of him, he bowed down like a gentleman.

Wang Luan also nodded with a smile, and raised his wine glass to him, his thin pale lips parted slightly: "Ian, I look forward to your singing tonight."

Hearing that name, Father Will suddenly felt that his heart was beating like it was about to burst, but his body had turned into an inescapable cage, imprisoning him and waiting for the judgment of fate.

He could only watch as Ian's corpse left in front of Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng, and then walked up to the organ under the cross step by step.

Ian stretched out his hands from the clean white cloth, his dry skin wrapped tightly around the bones of his hands, and he seemed to be pressing on the keys stiffly, but unexpectedly a smooth and heavy sound popped out.

Every note is expanded along with the tunnel of the organ, driving away the silence of the night, and echoing in the dome of the church painted with heaven.

"Agnus Dei, quttollis spec catamundi: misererenobis—"[1]

(Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us)

The heavenly singing voice stayed forever in his youthful youth. He sang with all his heart, as if he had returned to those days and nights when he confessed to God with unspeakable love.

He used to be depressed and entangled, but he never gave up hope, but he didn't know that his life was about to come to an end under the sinful greed.

The golden light descended from the Jesus statue on the height, and sprinkled on Ian's body, like spring rain falling on the dry land, finally bringing life.

The young man's dark brown skin gradually filled up, his dry blond hair became shiny again, and his deep-set eyes also glowed with radiance.

The hands that played the piano had faded away, and the neat nails stuck to the fingertips, dancing on the keys.

Ian turned around in the golden light, and looked at Father Will sitting on the bench in the same way as before.

Although no one continued to play, music still sounded in the pipe organ, and the singing of Tian Lai continued to resound through the night.

"Agnus Dei, quttollis spec catamundi: misererenobis."

In the midst of this singing, Ian walked down the altar at the end, and golden broken feathers were scattered all over the place he passed.

In the midst of the great fear, Father Will became surprisingly quiet at some point. He no longer made any unnecessary resistance, but his bloodshot eyeballs turned slightly following Ian's figure.

Until Ian walked up to him.

Father Will opened his mouth, his voice was so hoarse that it almost covered the trembling: "...you are here."

"Finally... it's here."

This kind of beginning seems to be able to lead to enough dialogues, but Ian has no interest. He is just very satisfied with Father Will's calmness at this moment, and he runs directly to the answer he wants.

"You were the one who killed me back then?"

Father Will looked at him, he had fooled the old man, Ian, and everyone in the church, but at this moment, seeing the old boy standing in front of him again, he felt Can no longer deny it.

"Yes."

"it's me."

Ian looked down at him, and he really wanted to ask why Father Will was the oldest priest in Skoll Church back then.Although everyone did not get as close to him as they did to Father Chinon, they still had deep respect and love for this elderly priest from the bottom of their hearts.

Until the final answer was revealed, he still couldn't believe that the person who bullied and insulted him and trapped him cruelly to death in the wine cellar was Father Will.

"Actually, there's no reason," Father Will seemed to know what Ian was thinking. His lips were already dry and blood was faintly oozing: "I don't know...what the hell I'm doing."

"I disobeyed God and attracted the devil—"

He closed his eyes hard, as if he could escape everything, but the figure of the young Ian kept flashing before his eyes.

Father Will couldn't forget the way he sang in the sun, he couldn't forget the smiling face he showed to Father Chinon, and he couldn't forget the red corners of his crying eyes when his love affair was exposed.

He couldn't remember exactly when he had such an evil idea towards Ian. In this sacred and ascetic church, he allowed this idea to grow and spread slowly in the filth that was darkened by the light.

Knowing that Ian was about to leave that night, Father Will knelt in front of the cross for a long time. He repented and prayed, hoping that God would empower him and make him forget those thoughts he shouldn't have.

But in the end he failed, he disobeyed God and went to the end of the devil.

Father Will can't remember what happened later. For many years, he couldn't recall at all how he found the old man, how he covered his face, and how he went to the wine cellar to wait for Ian's arrival. .

When Ian was trying to escape in a panic, Father Will's terrified and desperate scream woke him up from his dream.At that time, his first thought was that Ian must not be allowed to leave here, and Ian must not be allowed to tell the story.

So his eyes turned red, he grabbed the boy by the back of the neck, and forced his head into the wine barrel.

He didn't know how many times he repeated this until Ian couldn't move at all, only dying, and fell to the ground like a corpse. Then he became scared after a while, grabbed the cross in his hand and knelt down and cried bitterly. , Then tightly locked the door of the wine cellar, and escaped from the ground.

"I go to see you every night, I'm afraid you're dead, and I'm afraid you're not dead yet."

It seemed that only when Ian was immersed in a state of drunkenness could he be at ease.

So Father Will could only paralyze himself, and kept feeding Ian cold and dark red wine.

Until No. 13 days, he pushed open the door of the wine cellar and found that the boy had no more breath.

He was relieved, as if he had finally solved something, secretly put Ian in a wine barrel, and hid it on a row of shelves in a confusing manner, hoping to bury this secret here forever...

"Don't make any more excuses for yourself." Ian shook his head, stretched out his hand and pointed to Father Will's heart, and the broken feathers kept falling from his body: "There is no devil in this world... If there is, it is with you .”

From the beginning to the end, it was not because the devil deceived him, but because the devil was born in his heart.

"Now, it's time to end."

Cloudy tears flowed from Father Will's eyes. He heard Ian's voice and shook his head in resistance: "No, Ian, no..."

"I know I was wrong, I will repent to God, I will repent here forever, just ask your soul to rest in peace."

"I don't need to rest in peace," Ian interrupted Father Will suddenly. He was no longer cowardly, nor was he as crazy as before. He just looked at Father Will calmly, breaking his last hope: "From the time I stepped into the wine cellar From that moment on, I will never be able to rest in peace."

"As for now," he moved his hand on Father Will's heart, held the goblet containing the bright red wine, and brought it to Father Will's mouth: "Please drink it."

"All sins will be handed over to God for judgment."

"No, no..." More tears flowed down Father Will's face. He begged bitterly and promised more conditions, but Ian never even blinked his eyes.

He held his glass steadily, watching the cold liquid finally poured into Father Will's mouth.

Father Will tried to resist swallowing, but the wine went down his throat like a poisonous snake and crawled towards his stomach.

What made him gradually collapse was that the seemingly small glass of wine seemed to be endless.

Sip after sip, he was forced to swallow more wine until he felt that his stomach had been stretched, and the wine in his esophagus was about to overflow from his throat, but the red wine in the goblet did not decrease at all.

I'm about to die...

Father Will wanted to call for help, but before he could make a sound, the liquor quickly occupied a new gap and poured into his trachea crazily!

help -- help --

He wanted to struggle to push Ian's hand away, but he didn't expect him to succeed this time!

Father Will watched in ecstasy as Ian got farther and farther away from him, and his body fell backward due to inertia. He thought he would bump into the long table in the back row, but what greeted him was a bottomless glass of wine. deep.

Ian stood where he was, still holding the goblet in his hand, watching Father Will penetrate the ground and fall into the bright red wine.

His body was constantly ups and downs in it, his hands were struggling to get out of the drink, his neck stretched out with stretched veins, but he couldn't breathe any air.

No repentance will work, all the gods have abandoned him.

He could only use up the last bit of his strength cruelly, feeling his mouth and nose were drowned by wine, and in the suffocation of dying, he sank into the cold depths with his body full of sins——

"Agnus Dei, quttollispeccatamundi: donanobispacem."

As the sound of the piano stopped, Ian muttered the last line of the lyrics, and the figure of Father Will finally completely disappeared.