The Sick Beauty in the Republic of China

Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng looked at each other secretly, and they decided to try to avoid Father Will and ask this nun named Tim alone.

"Our friend before, Lena is also practicing here, can you take us to meet her?" Wang Luan tentatively asked, but fortunately, this nun who didn't look very easy to get along with didn't refuse him requirements.

"Yes," Sister Tim's voice was still cold and stubborn. She looked up at Father Will, and then said to Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng, "Please follow me."

Qi Chensheng nodded slightly to Father Will, as a temporary farewell, Father Will also smiled at them, and they separated.

Supported by Qi Chensheng, Wang Luan followed in the footsteps of nun Tim and stepped onto the side corridor outside the hall again.

At this time, it happened that there was an autumn wind, and a few fallen leaves blew in from nowhere, blowing in through the window sill embossed with religious patterns, and fell right in front of Wang Luan.

Wang Luan reached out to catch the fallen leaf, and sighed inadvertently: "Autumn really doesn't make people like it, spring is better... Aunt Tim, will children come to church to sing in spring?"

The back of nun Tim was half-hidden by the black veil hanging from her head, and as she walked, she could only see the shadow of Qiaoyue, and her almost undulating voice came from behind the black veil: "Yes, But it's not just spring."

"Every time we go to church, there are children coming here."

"Really?" Wang Luan looked at Qi Chensheng, the two exchanged glances, and said: "The children's singing is really a beautiful thing... It's like the crowing of canaries—"

Tim's steps paused unnaturally, and Wang Luan's heart skipped a beat, knowing that he might have probed something.Just as he was about to follow the trend and ask some more questions, he saw Mammy Tim suddenly turn around. Her old and serious face showed a hint of admonishment.

"Sir, why do you compare children with such frivolous things?"

Wang Luan couldn't help being stunned for a moment, but then Qi Chensheng held his hand tightly, narrowed his eyes slightly in gray, and said as if he didn't care: "It's our words that are careless——"

"However, I heard that there were a few children with good musical talents in the church. Where did they go? I want to support one or two."

Tim still maintained his turning posture, and his original rigid expression seemed to become more rigid, but his eyes dodged for a moment.

After a long time, she turned around and said in a very indifferent voice: "They have all grown up and left."

"Not all of our children will remain in touch with us as adults."

"Are you sure he's gone?" This time, Qi Chensheng's words changed a little, and he asked, looking at Mother Tim's back.

"Yes." Sister Tim said firmly, and then her pace suddenly accelerated, ending the topic abruptly: "Lena is in the room ahead, you two follow me."

Wang Luan nodded to Qi Chensheng, and that's enough for the initial negotiation. From the attitude of Sister Tim, they were almost sure that she knew who Canary was referring to, and she didn't seem to like that child.

Was it because Canary's sexuality was later discovered?Could his death have something to do with it?

Sister Tim obviously didn't intend to continue talking, so she led them to the small door of a room and left with an excuse.

Lena should be inside. To be honest, Wang Luan doesn't want to see her very much. Everyone has to pay for their mistakes. For Lena, becoming a nun is already a very light punishment.

"Let her inquire about some news among the nuns." Qi Chensheng could see Wang Luan's hesitation. After all, the experience related to the Lena brothers and sisters was not very good, so he reminded him.

Indeed, there are some things that the nuns are reluctant to tell outsiders like them, but Lena, as a companion, sounds easier. He sighed lightly, raised his hand and knocked on the door: "Then try it." .”

There were footsteps in the room, followed by Lena's voice: "Who is it?"

Qi Chensheng was about to speak, but before he could answer, the door was opened, and they met each other's astonished gazes.

"Why... could it be you?" Several months have passed, and Lena has indeed changed a lot. She is wearing the white robe of a trainee nun, and her eyebrows and eyes are still beautiful but look very dull. After seeing Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng, First he was stunned, and then he felt great fear.

"Yes...is that matter, hasn't it been resolved yet?"

Wang Luan quickly understood what she meant, shook his head and said as gently as possible: "No, Miss Claus, that matter is over."

Hearing what he said, Lena breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly made a cross on her chest with her hand wrapped around the long chain of the cross, but she was still a little apprehensive: "Then what are you here for?"

"Of course there are other things." Compared with Wang Luan's gentleness, Qi Chensheng was as indifferent as ever. He glanced at the room behind Lena with his broken eyes, and said directly: "Can we go in and talk?"

"Yes, yes," Lena didn't dare to refuse, and quickly nodded to let the door open: "Please come in."

Compared with the guest room, the nun's room in the church is even smaller. There is only enough space for a bed and a small desk in it. The walls on all sides are damp and moldy, and the windows at the end can't let in much light.

Wang Luan looked at Lena, and then at the room in front of him, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The foreign girl who used to be so glamorous can only live here now, but he doesn't know if the guilt on her body can really be relieved by this.

"Sit down, both of you. Do you need some tea?" Lena looked at them a little awkwardly, dragged out a stool from under the desk, but didn't know how to arrange the two of them to sit.

Fortunately, Qi Chensheng had no intention of embarrassing her, so he helped Wang Luan to sit down, holding on to the gentleman's stick that appeared in his hand at some point, and stood behind him: "Don't bother, you can sit too, let's ask some questions Things go."

"Okay, okay." Lena sat on the edge of the bed holding the empty teacup in her hands, but she didn't dare to look up at the two people opposite her.

"How are you doing here?" Wang Luan noticed that the atmosphere in the room was really tense, so he chose a gentler beginning.

"It's okay... I'm here, with my brother, so I feel more at ease." Lena lowered her head even more, her hands were already rough, and she rubbed the teacup vigorously.

When Wang Luan wanted to say something more, Lena suddenly interrupted him.

"Actually, Mr. Wang...you don't have to do this," her voice trembled, but she still didn't dare to raise her head, but she said as if she had made a decision, "I know you came to find me because... Things I need to do."

Wang Luan looked at Qi Chensheng beside him, unexpectedly, Qi Chensheng did not bluntly state their purpose as before, but tapped the desk a few times.

"What?" Wang Luan's attention was immediately attracted by him, and under Qi Chensheng's half-curved fingers were pictures pasted on the desk.

This was an extremely common thing, but when Wang Luan leaned over to look carefully, he noticed that these photos looked a bit old, and it didn't look like they were pasted after Lena came.

"You didn't take this photo, did you?" Qi Chensheng picked up one of them, and the background was a photo of Scholl Church.

"Yes," Lena obviously didn't expect him to ask these questions, and nodded hurriedly: "These are all from when I came here, and they should be left by the last nun."

"The last one? Then she is not in the church now?" Wang Luan seemed to see some hope, caught the light in Lena's words, and asked, "Did she leave anything else?"

"Yes," Lena nodded, got up and squatted beside the bed, while dragging something out with some difficulty, explained: "According to what they said, this room originally belonged to Madam An."

"Nurse An is getting old. She was taken away by her family last year, but she didn't take many things with her. I packed them up after I moved in."

Following what she said, a moldy cardboard box was dragged out from under the bed by Lena.

Other than that, Wang Luan immediately noticed that there was a small photo album in the box.

"Don't move." Qi Chensheng pressed Wang Luan's hand, afraid that the dust accumulated on it would choke him, took out the album and wiped it briefly, and then put it on his lap: "Okay, brother Jiu can read it."

Wang Luan smiled helplessly, but he did not reject Qi Chensheng's move, but turned his body slightly to let him watch it with him.

In fact, for most people these days, although photos are not as rare as in previous years, they are still rare after all.It should be fortunate that there are many photos left in the album in Qingyangfang, a place where foreigners live together.

At first, most of them were single photos. The mother An in Lena's mouth is a Chinese, with pure black eyes and black hair. From the photos, it is not possible to know why she believed in God, but it is clear that Mother An was very young. , has come to the Scholl Church.

"This is Sister Tim?" From the second and third pages, the group photos in the album began to increase. Wang Luan pointed to a girl next to Sister An. In outline, he still recognized that it was Sister Tim.

"Yes," Lena also confirmed his guess, and added: "I saw a photo of her when she was young at Sister Tim's place, and this is indeed her."

Wang Luan nodded, and continued to read back. He originally thought that the time of Canary's death should be in the last few years, so even if there were clues, it should be in the second half of the book, but before turning a few pages, Qi Chensheng stopped.

"Ninth brother, wait." Qi Chensheng bent down, put his left hand on Wang Luan's shoulder, and cast his eyes on one of the photos.

Wang Luan also followed him subconsciously, and found that it was a group photo of many people.

Nanny Ann is standing on the far left side of the photo, Tim is on the other side, and in the center of the photo are two young girls who look quite young.

They have handsome faces, and their eyebrows and eyes are somewhat similar, so they should be related by blood.Although both of them were wearing old-style shirts and gowns, and although the photos were colorless, looking closely at the clothes and jewelry, they were all considered exquisite, and their backgrounds were not bad.

In addition, there is a fifth person in the photo. Compared with the two girls, her clothes are much rougher. She is just standing in the corner, and she may be a servant or something.

"Shen Sheng?" As if feeling something in his heart, Wang Luan suddenly thought of the stone tablet he saw in the cemetery behind the church.

Qi Chensheng stared at the photo with gray remnant eyes. The figure left by the old man confirmed Wang Luan's conjecture.

He pointed to one of the young girls and said, "This is an old lady. I have seen photos of her when she was young."

Then Qi Chensheng didn't take his hand away, and then pointed to the poorly dressed maid in the corner: "And this, is Zhuo Mo beside the old lady."