Chapter 69: Are you no longer qualified to call me father?
"It was winter back then, but it was colder than now, and the days of snow came earlier."
Ringer traced that extremely long winter day in his memory, and saw snow covering the entire street, and fine goose-feather snow floating in the sky, burying the figures of pedestrians.
Under the gloomy and heavy sky, well-dressed gentlemen passed by with elegant steps, tired workers kept cleaning the snow on the streets, and immature children hawked newspapers along the street, stepping over the potholes of snow and sewage;
The horse-drawn mail coach drove all the way from the city gate to here. The kerosene lamp hanging on the high seat seemed to melt the snowflakes from last night.
"Mr. Yang Ke ordered a batch of bread from Uncle Moredi's bakery, intending to use it for the next seven-day gift. But when he returned to Tianxin Church, he discovered that someone had sneaked into the house and wanted to steal these for the seven-day gift.
The person who prepared the bread was not only an acquaintance of Mr. Yang Ke, but also a resident of Songshi Street. He was also a believer of the goddess. He had come to Tianxin Church many times in the past to participate in the seven-day ceremony."
"It can be imagined that Mr. Yang Ke must have been very disappointed at the time. But he was not angry. Instead, he asked the other party why he did such a thing. But in fact, the answer was not beyond everyone's expectations."
There is a kind of alienated emotion in Ringer's voice, as if he has deliberately placed himself in the position of a bystander. Only in this way can he maintain a calm narrative: "Since the invention of the steam engine and the beginning of the era of large-scale factory production, the rich and the poor have
The wide disparity has always been a major problem that cannot be solved in the civilized world, and Linville City is no exception."
"The cold winter has worsened the living conditions of the people at the bottom, and the city government's inaction has made it worse. The high road tax, cleaning tax, heating tax, gas tax, building maintenance tax and many other taxes are enough to make a family miserable in the spring.
It was torn to pieces before, and even the bones were buried under the snow and turned into ashes."
"The righteous deeds of Tianxin Church have slightly improved this bad situation, but a person's power is limited after all. Mr. Yang Ke cannot distribute bread and milk to every resident in the Holy Cross District and Baicheng District.
What I do is only what I can do.”
"The thief's family situation is relatively difficult. He lost his job before the winter. He has a wife and multiple children who need to be supported by him. He originally expected to survive the cold winter with the food distributed during the seven-day ceremony, but he failed to
There were many people who had the same idea as him, and the number of places for food distribution was limited. After not receiving relief food for two weeks, he finally had the idea of taking a risk, and abandoned the teachings given by the goddess.
, and transformed from the identity of a believer to an ordinary human being."
"This is the fragility of his personal will, but it is also a tragedy created by the times."
Ringer concluded in a calm tone.
But in comparison, Alice is more concerned about the next development of the story: "What happened later, did Mr. Yang Ke forgive him? I think so?"
After all, Mr. Yang Ke is a good man.
Lin Ge nodded lightly and said: "Mr. Yang Ke not only forgave him, but also gave him his own food. Because if one portion of the food reserved for the seven-day ceremony was given to him, it would
Mr. Yang Ke is not willing to do such things that harm the interests of other people and prevent a certain person from getting the help he needs."
Alice sighed with emotion: "He is indeed a good person."
The quality of self-sacrifice for others would be praised by people on earth in the 28th century when material life was extremely abundant, let alone in the steam age of the 19th century?
She was very impressed, at least she felt that she could not do this.
But.
"Good people may not necessarily have good luck." Ringer said calmly, and under Alice's doubtful eyes, he continued: "Human desire is an evil thing that can surpass all good qualities. Generous gifts and selfless dedication, but
It only inflated the greed of the thief. So he asked for more from Mr. Yang Ke, wanting to get enough food to sustain him through the whole winter, and even targeted the bread for the seven-day gift. Even his hard pleas were not enough.
The despicability of the fact cannot be concealed."
"After Mr. Yang Ke rejected him, he actually wanted to use force to seize it, so a conflict broke out."
When Alice heard this, she puffed up her cheeks angrily: "That's too much! How can you do such a shameless thing?"
Mr. Yang Ke had already forgiven him for his theft and generously distributed food to him, but in the end he went even further and wanted to use force to snatch more. Such a person is completely unworthy of the kindness given by others.
"Because people are only human when they are living." Ringer glanced at the indignant maid: "And when they are living, they are just beasts."
Beasts never care how shameless their actions are or how despicable their conduct is. For them, it is a matter of course, and there is no position or need to criticize.
Alice choked immediately and didn't know how to answer.
"During the quarrel and conflict, the thief mistakenly pushed Mr. Yangke to the ground, hit his head on the corner of the table, and fell into a coma. In panic, he snatched the bread from the kitchen and fled without even thinking of calling a doctor.
Tianxin Church. It wasn’t until I returned home from school in the afternoon that I found Mr. Yang Ke who had fainted on the ground and sent him to the hospital. But by then, his condition was already very bad due to his long coma.
”
"This -" Alice suddenly had a premonition when she heard this.
Sure enough, the next moment, Ringer said in a tone that was so calm that it made people feel that he could not have any emotional changes: "That night, Mr. Yang Ke died due to ineffective rescue efforts."
"..." Alice didn't know what words to use to describe her astonished mood now, and she was even less willing to raise her head to face Lin Ge's calm gaze. A conversation she had with Metien two weeks ago suddenly appeared in her mind.
, asked dully: "Medien said that Mr. Yang Ke died of severe lung disease..."
"Mr. Yang Ke does have lung disease, but it is not serious to this extent." Linge's tone was still calm: "That was the statement I used to hide Metien."
Understandable.
If that innocent and kind-hearted little girl knew the true cause of her father's death, I'm afraid she would be very sad and even start to doubt humanity, right?
Everything you believed in in the past will fall apart in an instant.
The maid's voice deepened: "What happened next? Did the thief get the punishment he deserved?"
Because of his lust, he indirectly killed a respected priest. Such a crime will never be forgiven, at least Alice hopes so.
Faced with this question, Ringer did not answer immediately. Instead, after a moment of silence, he suddenly talked about another seemingly unrelated matter: "During the treatment process in the hospital, there were several times when Mr. Yang Ke briefly
He woke up and regained consciousness. Perhaps at that time, he realized that his time in the world was running out, so he left a few last words, hoping that I would follow them. Do you know what kind of last words they were?"
Alice recalled her conversation with Metien and replied: "I hope you and Metien can live a stable and peaceful life?"
On his deathbed, he was still worried about his two adopted children.
"This is just one of his last words." Ringer said flatly: "There is another last word that is, forgive him."
Alice's eyes widened in disbelief, her expression even more shocked than when she heard the real reason for Mr. Yang Ke's death.
Two words came to her mind: Holy Mother.
A person who forgives the evil deeds of sinners but ignores the harm he has suffered can only be described as a "Mother". Mr. Yang Ke is not only a good person, but perhaps also divorced from the common moral concepts of this era.
Entering a state of pure kindness.
Ringer said: "In the teachings of the goddess, there is a sentence she personally said: cleanse the mess of the world, and then, may the guilty and the innocent live in that worry-free country."
Mr. Yang Ke has always used his own practical actions to practice the goddess’s teachings.
However, by forgiving the other person so easily, are you ignoring the feelings of your loved ones? It must have been very difficult for Ringer at the time to ask a child who lost his father to forgive his father's murderer, right? He must have respected his adoptive father so much.
It’s hard to give a no answer.
Alice thought, and she became a little uncomfortable, as if she and Ringer at that time suddenly had the same mood.
"I promised Mr. Yang Ke that I would abide by his last words, so he closed his eyes with peace of mind and returned to the lightless sea in the sky. But I broke the promise. I had promised him what he should do, but
Didn’t do it.”
On the day when Mr. Yang Ke passed away, the snowstorm in Linwell City was unprecedented.
When Ringer recalls the past, he will feel that the snow came at the right time, because every snow in this world is to pick up someone's soul and bring someone's soul. After the snow stops, the glacier solidifies, and after the ice disappears
Melting into a river, the water condenses and turns into clouds, and after the clouds gather, snow falls. The cycle of snowflakes is the cycle of life, and the life of life is also like the life of snowflakes.
When the most pure soul dies, the greatest snow falls in the world.
"After burying Mr. Yanko in the Eterni Cemetery, I reported the case to the city police without telling Metien, and soon found the escaped murderer. At that time, he was at home, feeding his children blood-stained bread." "I watched with my own eyes as he was taken away and sent to Baishan Prison; later I attended his trial and learned that he was sentenced to thirty-five years of hard labor; when I finally got news about him, he died in the mine.
While working in the quarry, the cause of death was that he was hit on the head by a falling stone."
"It happened to be winter at that time, and it was snowing in the sky. It was light snow like goose feathers."
"I did what I wanted to do, but it was not what I should do as a son of man, because it went against Mr. Yang Ke's last wish and made him unable to rest in peace even if he returned to the sunless sea in the sky. So, it was there
In the snow, I suddenly realized something."
"I'm afraid I'm not qualified to call him father."