96 Worrying

A few dozen seconds later, having passed the stretch of path where Wu Qingchen had deliberately created an "interruption" and dropped "hints," a completely oblivious Andre soon fell back into the routine meticulously designed by the Earth team and resumed teaching Wu Qingchen the hymn.

Walking alongside him, Wu Qingchen kept humming and hawing, successfully tricking his way into securing the right to interpret a few more vocabulary words himself.

By now, the winding path was nearing its end. Through the gaps in the trees, the towering spire of the church had already begun to emerge faintly in their sight.

Seizing the final moments, little Andre sang the hymn in its entirety once more, "guiding" Wu Qingchen to correct several mispronunciations from the first two stanzas.

Accompanied by the final sounds of humming and hawing, Wu Qingchen and Andre, carrying the water urns, returned to the church.

After hoisting the urns back onto the lectern, Andre inspected the church once more, tidying up a few minor spots that had been missed during the cleaning. He then stepped out the side door toward the priest’s living quarters.

Not long after, the wooden door on the side of the church was pushed open again. Little Andre reappeared, and following him was the spiritual leader of the medieval village of Eakli, Vicar John Playa Ackford, holding a thick sacred scripture.

"Good morning, Father..." As the wooden door opened, Wu Qingchen had already stood at attention, lowering his head and fixing his gaze on his toes, striking the most submissive and pious pose.

"Hmm... Good morning, Los... You are quite early... Sit down!" The priest slowly turned his head and greeted Wu Qingchen as well.

Perhaps because they had spoken too much on the way, Wu Qingchen and little Andre had changed the stream water later than usual that day. This, in turn, had caused Father Playa to emerge later than his customary time.

"Andre..." Glancing at the sundial placed outside the side door, the priest signaled for Andre to hurry. "...Pick up the pace."

"Yes! Father..."

Andre nodded quickly, hastening his steps to take the feather duster and perform a symbolic cleaning of the altar and the lectern at the front of the church. Once Andre retreated, the priest straightened his robes and stepped onto the altar.

"Ding..."

Little Andre, standing by the side, immediately raised a small wooden mallet and struck the small chime right on time.

The third cycle of the Morning Radiance had begun, and the early prayer service commenced once more. Starting with that crisp "ding," the priest began to chant from the scriptures. The church’s routine morning prayer was not particularly long.

About ten minutes later, after reciting the final lines of the prayer, Playa opened his eyes and gave a casual wave. Wu Qingchen and Andre immediately stepped forward to clean up the altar and the lectern together.

Next came the time for instruction.

Signaling for Wu Qingchen and Andre to sit on the benches, the priest took the sacred scripture he had just brought in from the lectern, flipped to the passages he had discussed over the past few days, and began to test the two children on their proficiency with their recent lessons.

The results were just like every other day over the past half-month: progress and proficiency were both quite good. Since designating Wu Qingchen as a candidate for the church, the priest had found many things much less worrisome.

Unfortunately, today he had to do something that was not so worry-free. The time for the third parish inspection was drawing ever closer.

Yesterday evening, after receiving a letter from yet another stingy cousin, the priest had carefully reviewed all the parchment scrolls of recent correspondence and reached two conclusions—one good, one bad.

The good conclusion was that, in order to learn the method for treating plow oxen, many influential members of his family and various in-laws had pledged their support and had already begun taking actual steps to back him. Passing the final round of the parish inspection and dropping the "Vicar" prefix to become the full Pastor was no longer difficult.

The bad conclusion was that, in order to secure this support, he had inadvertently promised over a dozen gentlemen that he would help their interests—or the interests of their kin—by training people in an equal number of villages to treat plow oxen as quickly as possible.

"Over a dozen" was not a small number. "As quickly as possible" was not good news.

"Over a dozen" meant that Wu Qingchen, the only person under his command capable of teaching cattle treatment, would have to increase the number of his apprentices, allowing them to spread out everywhere and significantly increasing the risk of his trade secrets being leaked.

"As quickly as possible" meant that Wu Qingchen/Los would have to invest more time and energy into numerous apprentices and then let them leave immediately, meaning he would bear the burden of teaching for a long time without ever enjoying the dividends of having trained them.

While lost in these thoughts, the priest finished testing the lessons of his official student and his guest student. After teaching a few more lines of scripture, the priest slowly closed the tome.

"Los..."

"Yes! Father!" On the front bench, Wu Qingchen stood up immediately, looking disciplined and respectful.

This was another part of the reason the priest felt uneasy.

As a member of the upper class destined for his position since birth, Father Playa was naturally long accustomed to the submissiveness and obedience of those around him. However, such submissiveness and obedience were usually driven either by the pursuit of gain or the desire to avoid punishment.

Throughout the first half of his life, Playa had seen countless times that when interests could not be satisfied or punishment could not be avoided, these superficial displays would instantly transform into "bitter pleas" or "grievance-filled" expressions, sometimes even evolving into hysterical faces.

Wu Qingchen/Los, however, was an exception.

Just like when his family's plow ox was injured and the entire household was in dire straits a while ago, this little fellow had never made things difficult for him. From beginning to end, he had never proposed difficult requests like "exempt our family from summer labor during the busiest farm season" or "begging to borrow an ox when the shortage was most critical."

From the moment his own ox was injured, to figuring out how to treat the cattle, helping neighbors cure their oxen, taking on the medical cases of the whole village, and being appointed as the ox-herd...

In such a difficult situation and under such heavy burdens, Wu Qingchen/Los had never made a single demand, never complained once, and never displayed the self-satisfied pride common in children.

These were dozens of injured oxen, and even more healthy ones!

Moreover, even during this time, the hours Wu Qingchen/Los spent at the church remained exactly as they were when he first appeared: arriving much, much earlier than the third cycle of the Morning Radiance every single day.

Thinking of such submissiveness, such piety, and such hard work, Playa found it increasingly difficult to voice his upcoming request.

Hmm...

Perhaps, he should just ask first!

After all, with so many oxen, maybe Los couldn't handle the treatment by himself? Perhaps he could find a good excuse and naturally slip a few people in?

The priest made his decision.

"Los..." calling Wu Qingchen's name once more, Playa coughed.