As soon as I returned to Grande, I received a strange invitation. Let’s not talk about this first, let’s talk about old Hank.
Old Hank and Winston talked about old times all night, and Zach, who had just participated in a human fight, just watched it all night. When Zach was here, even though due to the topic, (Zach couldn't get in the conversation between Winston and Old Hank about their time in Grande), Zach was far away, and the two of them were very self-disciplined and didn't talk about anything revealing. A purposeful topic—just reminiscing about old times.
But reminiscing about the past has its own purpose. Without the future, there is no point in looking back at history. This is the truth. Zach watched it all night and already concluded that Winston had selfish motives for contacting Old Hank.
So the sky was slightly brighter, and when he returned to the city, Zach asked directly, "What does he want."
This was the same topic they talked about when they went to Newton. But the difference from when he went there was that this time Old Hank participated in the question and answer, "You left for a while, what did you do?" It was not an answer, but a rhetorical question.
"Didn't you hear those gunshots? When you were disposing of the bodies, there was a lot of fighting over there. I went to take a look."
Old Hank glanced at Zach, "Just a glance?"
"Took a look three times." This was a fact. Zach had only 'taken a look' at three forces lurking in the dark.
Old Hank stopped looking at Zach and started to say as if he was minding his own business: "During the time you left, Winston told me what was going on over there. He knew that his clients were competing with each other for novices. He Ask me why I’m not worried about Grande’s son being near that dangerous situation.”
Zach raised his eyebrows but said nothing.
Old Hank didn't expect Zach to respond, "My answer is that Grande's son will not die anyway. Winston said that I still blindly believe in 'Grande' as before."
Zach instinctively felt something was wrong. Because it can be heard that the effect of Winston and Old Hank reminiscing has already appeared - Old Hank is missing Grande. This quotation mark should be easy to understand. 'Grande' is the old Grande, the Grande before the vampire character played by Zachary Grande appeared.
Speaking of which, what is Old Hank's sense of belonging to Grande? I knew from the beginning that this old man, who has lived a life different from most human beings, only thinks of Grande. 'Those three words.
After a long silence, when the car drove back to the gravel road in front of Grande, Old Hank spoke again, "Winston invited me to work in his motel. I said I would consider it."
This meant not giving Zach a chance to stop him, so he accelerated back to Grande. Even if Zach wanted to say something to old Hank, there was no time—
Earl, the former artificial man and now Rimmer, who was deliberately arranged by Eve Rimmer to work next to Mr. Smith, was waiting for Zach in Grande.
"Mr. Smith invites you to attend church services with him in the West End."
"Sorry, can you say it again?" Zach heard clearly, but the invitation itself was too 'magical'. Invite people to worship, ha.
"Mr. Smith invites you to go to the church in the West End with him to worship." Earl actually repeated it, with the corners of his ugly face curling up in an uncontrollable arc, "Please." He had already opened it to Zach. door.
Zach pouted, got in the car, and watched Earl get in the car as well, "Have you been demoted and become a driver?"
The last time Zach saw Earl was at Harrison and Amelia's party. Earl was regarded as a representative of the Smith Group and held up by many people in social situations, remember (Shelter Project Quinn Group has withdrawn, and Smith Group is looking for new partners).
"No~ you are an important friend of Mr. Smith. I came to pick you up because I am trusted~"
Okay, "A hint?" Zach said, trying to be sincere, a genuine distress call from a vampire going to church to another vampire. "What should I 'expect' at church?"
Earl, apart from being ugly, is actually pretty good. Remember how this artificial man came into this story? He helped Zach and Benjamin arrange their gray career income, and then accepted Zach's suggestion and put aside the twisted entanglement between artificial people and secretive, Sabbat vampires ( Toledo complied with the times and freed slaves, so that the artificial human race that relied on the blood of vampires to safely produce descendants lost their asylum in the central part of the Federation. When they went to the Sabbat to defect to the Sabbat, they were used by Cozier as a tool to obtain information about the secret alliance. Finally, Abandoned), joined Rimmer and became a vampire.
Earl said what was probably what Zach cared about most, "You don't have to expect to see Louise. Lydia Smith doesn't have church. Her schedule today is to oversee the renovation of the underground club on Becky Street in the North District. She Louise has been invited to accompany us.”
The club should be the nightclub where the Xiaobai incident originated in Barton. The Xiaobai case was completely buried and disappeared due to the joint efforts of the Barton society. As Lydia Smith's only business in the Smith family, there is nothing to say about starting over.
What we need to understand is that when we say Lydia Smith, we should think of the Rimmer clan.
So this is the Rimmer clan, Eve's daughter Lydia invited the Toledo clan, Zachary's girlfriend Louise, into Barton's first estate. Historical significance... Forget it, don't be so serious, anyway, for Zach who is going to the church, he can't participate.
"Why is it worship?" Zach was a little helpless, "Did I let Smith misunderstand something? He thought I was a believer or something."
Knowing that he couldn't see Louise, Zach's mind began to wander. The most unpleasant thing at the moment was the occasion of the invitation itself.
"You're overthinking it. Week is just an occasion where Mr. Smith thinks he won't be disturbed." Earl was kind enough and didn't use the 'special' relationship between vampires and faith to push Zach. Glancing at Zach's image in the rearview mirror, "What I can tell you is that it has something to do with Newton."
"So it's not an invitation from Smith, it's an invitation from the West End people." Zach is right to think so. People in the West End have the habit of worshiping. As mentioned earlier, people in the West End like to donate money to the church and wear a religious title on their body. Combined with Earl's words, "not to be disturbed" obviously refers to other West Enders who are not and will definitely be present at the church.
"Is it about the annexation of Newton?" Zach frowned, "I thought the person in charge of this matter was the Barton family." Even if Zach was invited, Mrs. Barton should have come forward.
Earl gave Zach no more clues, "Why do you have so many questions? If I can explain clearly, I'm not the driver. Why don't you just send the message?" He complained patiently.
Forget it, Zach didn’t ask any questions and waited quietly for the car ride to end.
This was Zach's first time attending a church on the West Side. It looks similar to the Gospel Hall in the South District. The hardware may be better. After all, it was renovated after an accident (Mrs. Quinn's caregiver Amanda was injured).
Zach saw a lot of familiar faces. The faces of the people from the West End were introduced one by one, and no one had to worry about Zach's etiquette. He walked up to the inviter in a dignified manner and said, "This is the first time in my life that I have been invited to worship. This is dedicated to you."
There is no problem with this joke. Remember, Smith himself said that he is not a believer in the Holy Lord Faith and he is very self-aware. Everything he did for his faith was just for others to see. He doesn't believe in heaven or hell, he just pretends to be in heaven in the eyes of outsiders.
All the familiar faces Zach saw here should be the same as Smith...
Oh yes, there used to be true believers in WestEnders, Mr. Pickles, and as we all know, Pickles has declined and now there's no one in Barton anymore.
"Is it the first time?" Mr. Smith seemed really surprised, "I just heard about you and several priests from the Church of the Holy Child... "Constantine, Eric, and now Dance (Danny the Phantom Man)" We have a good relationship, and you often go to Mary Church, so I always thought you were a believer."
Earl also said that Zach was overthinking. Tsk, sure enough, Mr. Smith misunderstood something.
"The Church of the Holy Child is a business cooperation." The funeral industry, right? "The training hall of Mary's Church is where Louise grew up." Zach's explanation was easy to come by, and it was all true anyway.
"Oh." Mr. Smith smiled, "Then just tolerate it with me~" To Zach, Mr. Smith really didn't hide anything, and handed Zach a holy book inlaid with gold edges, "It'll be fine in a moment. ~”
Just for a moment, Zach listened to the devil (priest) in front of the altar tell a story—
The Origin of Worship.
In fact, it is the story of Creation. Everyone should know it, so I won’t repeat it. But the focus of this sermon is not how the Holy Lord created the world, but that after the Holy Lord created mankind... he needed to rest.
"From the moment we were born, we were endowed with divinity by the Holy Lord..." A priest played by a demon said this, which made Zach unable to evaluate, "We have the image of the Lord, and we have the soul of the Lord. , we have the Lord’s…” The meaning of the sermon, at least what the priest wanted to express, is the Lord’s emphasis on mankind. Human beings are God's creations. but…
Smith, who was next to Zach, suddenly spoke in a low voice, "You know what's interesting? Genesis is the first chapter of the Holy Scriptures. If this so-called Lord rested directly on the sixth day of creation, he didn't create humans at all. , then, the Holy Scripture is over~"
Yo?
Zach looked at Smith, didn't say anything, just stared.
The person who answered was Mr. Bishop... Yes, that's right, Bishop's appearance, but inside, we know, is the soul of the evil spirit Shel.
We can speculate that the evil spirit Sher's limited travel time was wasted on things like worship, and she was full of resentment - evil spirit, does she still have any illusions about the world where she believes in the Holy Lord
"Who says it isn't? From the beginning of the Bible, what we see is that this perfect God is working non-stop for the last creation (human beings). Hum, as a result, it (the Holy Lord) also rests That Sunday."
Zach's eyes moved to Mr. Bishop again, still just looking and saying nothing.
"Bishop." Since Zach didn't speak, Smith crossed Zach and looked at Bishop with a smile. "I've been thinking recently, have you become more cheerful? Haha, it feels like you have changed after being bored at home for more than half a year. It’s a bit big~”
"Of course, this is thanks to the toys Grande sent~"
Zach avoided the lewd look cast by 'Bishop'. You all know what this evil spirit is talking about, Evan.
The next time for Zach was a bit difficult.
It seemed that the West Enders were indeed getting used to having their own way, and the chat session started by Smith and Bishop began to spread.
The sound also changed from a single small sound at the beginning to a humming noise, which was enclosed in the space of the church.
The preaching priest has no self-awareness? maybe not. All the conversations that took place below were under the devil's surveillance.
Zach felt deliberately targeted.
"I saw a new face." Zach was named by the priest. "This gentleman should be Mr. Grande who is often mentioned in Mary's Church. You set a special day for the Holy Lord so that everyone can rest and worship. What do you think of the Lord’s divine power?”
What does Zach have to say? Hehe, if Zach were to speculate, it should be the Holy Lord who discovered this world, studied day and night, studied land and sea, studied fish and birds, studied... When he came to humans, he was shocked I'm stunned... There is actually a world of infinite value-added souls!
As a reminder, Zach does not now know the truth about the faith Sissy revealed to Chris. What Zach is doing now is his own inference—
Then, the Holy Lord spent a day thinking quietly about how to harvest these souls. So there was Sunday.
Zach stood up and looked directly at the priest, "A mortal like me is not worthy to speculate on the holy meaning of the Lord."
"Hehehe, Mr. Grande is humble." The demon priest let this self-conscious vampire sit down.
The buzzing gossip everywhere also stopped. This is a church after all, mortals, please show some respect. The effect is good.
It continued for a while and finally stopped when the priest estimated that even the vampires no longer had the patience to continue listening.
Smith moved quickly, and before anyone else could approach Zach, he pulled Zach directly to his car.
Earl consciously drove for a while, stopped the car, left, and handed over the closed car to the inviter and invitee.
"You stayed in Newton for a while." Mr. Smith did not waste time and got to the point at the beginning, "What did you do?"
The tone was not questioning, so Zach answered truthfully, "I didn't do it voluntarily." I believe that because of the fact that Louise was a guest at Smith, Mr. Smith also knew the truth, "I was 'kidnapped' by two of our Barton police detectives. Past.”
"The unnatural death that originated from Lydia Club." Xiaobai's name, as mentioned earlier, was obliterated with the joint efforts of the entire Barton society. Then, what is left is the same 'unnatural death' as the dilemma Newton is facing now.
Zach nodded, "The same case occurred in Newton, with a wider scope and worse impact. Detectives Lance and Weiss were sent to Newton by our North District Police Department to serve as case consultants." Zach began to clarify some of Smith's purpose. This has nothing to do with Barton's annexation of Newton. It is a private matter of the Smith family -
Sure enough, "Detectives Lance and Weiss are your people (don't complain, this is the truth in other people's eyes), they didn't bring the case back to Lydia."
Now that Zach was confident, he calmly said, "Of course not. You can rest assured."
"Okay, then." Looking at Zach, "I think I know what's going on. Do you know Winston?"
… (To be continued)