CH-006

After Shu Li finished his last sentence, he hoped to receive an affirming look from any side of the audience.

Although he wasn’t a professional actor, he had organized numerous psychodramas in school clubs and during his hospital internship. He also had a hobby of performing small magic tricks. Setting aside the quality of his acting, his sense of conviction was quite strong.

However, the two of them looked as if they had run into a debt collector; they fled the confessional as if facing a formidable enemy, leaving Shu Li facing an empty room, sinking into a brief silence.

The day after the public mass ended, the growth in the number of believers was 0.

Despite this, Shu Li was very confident in his performance; at the very least, he had planted a seed in the hearts of the visitors.

In fact, this was just like psychological counseling—a counselor should never expect a visitor to dare to hand over their heart the very first time. Not to mention, this was a paid service “believers have to donate”, which added even more psychological pressure to the visitors.

Thinking on the bright side, the Constable had already begun to waver.

The other two people who came with the Constable were clearly existences beyond Shu Li’s imagination, yet they followed the Constable just because of a few words. Therefore, they must certainly harbor doubts or ideas regarding him.

Shu Li believed they would definitely come back, sooner or later.

And he had, more or less, helped do a good deed.

Good people will have good rewards; Shu Li thought optimistically in this way.

However, his stomach wasn’t quite as patient.

Originally, meat was forbidden on Fridays and Saturdays. Shu Li had eaten his fill on Thursday, and he didn’t have high demands for life anyway, so he spent the two days gnawing on the leftover unleavened bread from the public mass and drinking cold water.

But by Sunday morning, Shu Li looked at the unleavened bread on the dining table—identical to the previous two days—and then glanced at the deserted church entrance, feeling as though he could see the end of his future at a glance.

The unleavened bread had no flavor and was hard as a rock; it was truly disgusting to eat…

If he kept eating like this, Shu Li felt he would lack sufficient carbohydrates and sugar, eventually dying in depression.

Did no one truly feel moved by his “miracle” of predictive crime-solving from the day before?

Shu Li didn’t believe it.

Yet the facts laid before his eyes left him with no choice but to believe—the townspeople were just that rational, almost to the point of being heartless.

The next round of public mass was scheduled for next month.

Unless the number of believers increased, public mass would be held once a month from now on.

This was the agreement made with Elder Jager.

A bit of introduction is needed here.

In fact, mass had always been an excellent activity for promoting the church’s influence.

Thus, holding it regularly served as a “check-in” for believers, which could enhance their loyalty to the church. Consequently, churches in large cities needed to perform public mass every day, while township churches had to do it at least once a week.

However, given that the church in the Savoy Parish was on the verge of bankruptcy, and every mass required the preparation of many sacraments—even the lowest version of “unleavened bread and grape juice/wine”—they couldn’t afford such high expenses.

After all, besides supporting eight people, the church itself was a gold-consuming beast.

There were places that needed repairs everywhere.

When Shu Li first moved into the church, he felt that the infrastructure in all aspects was quite complete, and he was even moved for a long time because there was a flush toilet. As it turned out, most things were just for show and useless, breaking easily at a touch.

At the beginning, he had spent five silver coins just to fix that easily clogged and frequently bursting flush toilet.

After that, he didn’t dare to be so extravagant.

Shu Li learned from the painful experience and re-clarified his action goals for himself—

First, solve basic survival.

Second, achieve community infiltration, collect intelligence on potential believers, and get the townspeople used to stepping into the church.

On Sunday morning, after finishing morning prayers with Elder Jager’s family, Shu Li kept Elder Jager behind alone to discuss in detail the development plan for the Savoy Parish.

“The issue is still the lack of believers; this isn’t something that can be achieved in the short term.”

Elder Jager had grown accustomed to living without believers for so long, especially since he was getting older and truly couldn’t work hard anymore. Therefore, he easily recognized the facts and yielded to them.

Elder Jager sighed, “To say something that might hurt you, back when you spoke up for the Duke’s son, you made it so the townspeople didn’t like you very much. The fact that there’s a dead rat in front of the door every day already explains everything. Now, moving the hearts of the believers is truly a challenge among challenges.”

So direct.

Do you always speak so directly, old man?

But Shu Li didn’t feel that clarifying the charges for Leslie was a wrong move.

Even if it made people hate him, some things simply had to be done. Furthermore, Leslie was someone who, because he was branded with the name of “demon” and imprisoned in a basement for years, would eventually dig up the bones of those who spoke wrongly and scatter their ashes to the wind.

Elder Jager’s words certainly didn’t come from nowhere.

Thus, Shu Li quickly thought of how the townspeople at the morning market had price-gouged him, and thinking of Elder Jager, he couldn’t help but worry in his tone, “You guys won’t be bullied by the townspeople too, right?”

If a truly unsolvable crisis occurred, at worst, Shu Li could still move away.

Their whole family lived in this parish; they wouldn’t be able to leave so easily.

Upon hearing this, Elder Jager waved his hands repeatedly and said, “We’ve all been neighbors for over twenty years; they haven’t vented their anger on our family because of your business.”

Shu Li felt slightly relieved.

Organizing his thoughts slightly, Shu Li said, “I was actually thinking that being collectively hated by the townspeople is actually a good thing.”

“What?” Elder Jager was shocked, his eyes widening.

Who in their right mind likes being hated?

Shu Li said, “It shows that their impression of me won’t get any worse than this. Afterward, I can slowly improve their impression of me, and their favorability will eventually return.”

Elder Jager felt Shu Li was very optimistic, but knowing he shouldn’t speak any more cruel realities, he could only let out an “oh” and unconsciously looked at Shu Li with a gaze of pity.

Shu Li was still very full of ideas in his heart and wasn’t discouraged by Elder Jager’s gaze.

However, to avoid making it a one-man show, Shu Li asked Elder Jager if he had any ideas to draw from before speaking his mind.

“A way to change the townspeople’s impression?” Elder Jager began to think seriously.

Shu Li nodded repeatedly.

After a short while, Elder Jager actually thought of something, “I remember there was a Stone Hedge Church in the Northern Territory. The church environment was also very poor, surrounded only by a circle of low stone walls originally used as windbreaks. Believers in that parish were also very few. When he held public mass, only a few old people came to attend—they seemed to all be his relatives?”

“Did he successfully change the townspeople’s impression?” Shu Li couldn’t help but wonder. Surely the other person’s methods wouldn’t overlap with his own? So he began to probe cautiously.

Elder Jager said, “His preaching wasn’t as skilled or as captivating as yours; most of the time he could only follow along with the reading to avoid stuttering. People’s impression of him wasn’t that great either, but he was very hardworking.”

“Every morning, he could be seen carrying heavy stones and walking around the town, saying he wanted to accumulate blessings and pray for the townspeople. Besides that, he fasted on fixed days every week, eating nothing at all. On the remaining days, he only ate black bread and clear water, giving all the food from his own farmland to the poor and the homeless. He would often stand and pray in the church all night, with only the eternal lamp accompanying his solitude. Additionally, someone discovered he used a penitential whip to scourge his own body. After seeing the bloodstains on his shirt, some townspeople saw his persistence and perseverance…”

“So… he succeeded?”

Elder Jager nodded, “His church gained over a dozen more believers.”

Shu Li: “…” Is that it?

Elder Jager’s gaze was cautious, and he lowered his voice to test the waters, “Would you like to try this kind of asceticism?”

“This…” Shu Li changed the subject, “I actually thought about directly manifesting a “miracle.” Do you think that could change the townspeople’s thinking?”

He already had a blueprint in his heart, intending to carry out a soft sell of faith, making the townspeople learn to actively seek help from the church.

This idea had a theoretical basis.

After staying for so many days, Shu Li discovered that although the townspeople didn’t believe in the church—or rather, to them, believing in the church was equivalent to believing in those abstract doctrines—they believed very much in the existence of demons and curses that directly brought misfortune or trouble to their lives.

This led to two conclusions.

One is that the church’s authority is weak, but superstition is rampant in the small town, which fits the psychology of the general public who lacks scientific knowledge.

The other is that under the folk animistic beliefs, the townspeople are more inclined toward pragmatism.

Elder Jager was profoundly shaken and almost blurted out, “Is a miracle something that can appear just because you want it to? What kind of miracle do you want? Icons weeping, the Holy Grail glowing, the cross blooming?”

Icons weeping is actually just applying pine resin or honey with pigment to the eye area of the icon; once the sun shines on it long enough, it naturally creates the illusion of tears and can even attract butterflies.

A glowing Holy Grail can be achieved using fluorescent powder, or by increasing the light source and using a copper mirror to reflect light.

As for the blooming cross, it involves planting some plants that easily take root and sprout—like Hoya or pea sprouts—inside the crevices of the wooden cross.

Although Shu Li indeed planned to do some theological packaging, he didn’t truly intend to cheat people out of their money. Taking things out of other people’s wallets definitely wouldn’t be done through blatant deception like a malicious charlatan.

“To be honest, these so-called “miracles” are just childish tricks in my eyes.” The corners of Shu Li’s mouth curled up slightly, and his tone slowed down, speaking in a deliberate manner, “Let me tell you, I can make all the crops take root and sprout five to ten days early.”

Shu Li had researched beforehand that the planting technology in this world was still at a very rudimentary stage, and the crops in the town were singular. This made him breathe a sigh of relief—it gave him the perfect opportunity to show off and make bold claims.

Speaking of which, he hadn’t originally thought about anything agriculture-related.

He initially thought about focusing on the education of children.

After all, having received years of compulsory education, before fully entering society, his best skill was learning. If he could make the children’s practical knowledge reach a level the townspeople couldn’t imagine—even simple mental arithmetic—those townspeople would likely show him some kinder faces because of their children.

But Shu Li quickly remembered that Leslie had mentioned in his memories that the year he was locked in the basement, there was continuous heavy rain, and winter arrived earlier than in previous years.

That passage was a classic scene describing the hardships of his childhood, using the technique of “using a mournful scene to set a mournful mood.”

To Shu Li, this was a powerful piece of intelligence, suggesting that this year, crops would likely see a massive reduction in yield due to the rainfall and the cold, dry onset of winter.

Increasing crop yield now was a plan for a rainy day.

“Making seeds sprout early… how can that be done?”

Just after the Elder Jager opposite him finished speaking, his body suddenly seemed to be pushed by something, shrinking directly backward.

This gave Shu Li a fright, and he quickly looked up, down, left, and right to see if something had fallen.

“Lord Alis…”

Elder Jager’s voice was tight, his throat bobbing,

“Just who on earth are you?”