"So there could be a lot of people? Was there anyone else in the church while she was praying?"
"Of course. She's not the type to cause trouble. She won't ask others to go out."
Hitzfeld thought.
"Excuse me, Miss Detective."
The priest turned the steering wheel and glanced at the girl again.
"Instead of doubting us, I think you should focus on her relatives."
"You should know her family situation. Of course, some relatives have nothing to do with her, but they are related to her husband... I mean, if something happens to the child and she can't bear it and suffers misfortune, then the person who will benefit in the end is—"
"I know," Hitzfeld interrupted, grinning.
"I know...but thank you for the reminder, Father Vander."
Father Vander blushed visibly.
He is only twenty-eight years old this year.
Compared to his position, he is indeed very young.
Chapter 19: The Noble Remnant Soul
Through reading and consulting professionals, Hitzfeld has now determined that unless one becomes bishop of a district, one cannot be prohibited from marrying while serving in the church.
But there are also restrictions - the prerequisite for breaking the precepts is long-term dedication, and this restriction can only be lifted after working in the sect for 11 years.
Compared to this dark era, this restriction is not excessive. You have to know that many people were promoted to join the cult from the bottom. Before being helped by the cult, they even had problems with having enough food and surviving, and they didn't care about having to abide by so many rules.
Moreover, a considerable number of these people have entered the career sequence since childhood. According to the fact that the earliest age allowed to take up a position is 15, they will be allowed to get married when they are 26 or 7 years old at the latest.
After a detailed discussion, Hitzfeld learned that Father Vander was just such a person.
He is 28 years old this year, but he was adopted by the sect when he was 9 years old, officially took up the position at the age of 15, and was able to marry and have children two years ago.
But he didn't. Considering how concerned he was about Mrs. Sinlai's situation and how he blushed after being pointed out by Hitzfeld...even Ethan next to him could guess what he was thinking.
Ethan frowned slightly. He just couldn't figure it out.
It was understandable that Bill Ponson wanted to have an affair because of his neighbor, but Father Vander had a formal church position. He might even take over an entire parish from Bishop Lanno in the future, so why did he also fall in love with the widow?
"Tell us about the Bishop." Hitzfeld changed the subject wisely. "How old is he this year?"
"He is 73 years old," the priest said. "He looks older because he was so tired in his early years. He worked a lot on the orchard."
As they were talking, the car finally drove into the orchard.
What appeared before Hitzfeld and Ethan was a vast expanse of green. Tall and pretty pole-shaped plants spread out on both sides of the road like a bamboo forest, stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see.
"Is this sugar cane?" Hitzfeld recognized the species of these plants at a glance. "The main product of the orchard in New Lunso is sugar?"
"And there's red ketchup." Father Vander raised his hand and pointed to a place farther away. "This is a potato and sugarcane field, and in front is a tomato orchard... Even though we're small, nearly 70% of the sugar supply for the entire Fellington and surrounding areas depends on this orchard."
"It's really spectacular..." Ethan rolled down the car window and stared at the sugarcane fields on both sides of the road. "It's a pity that we came at the wrong time."
The potato and sugarcane are planted in spring and autumn. Spring planting is usually planted in February and harvested in July. Now it is just after March, and the sugarcane forests they see are far from fully grown.
"If you come here in June, the sunlight here will be completely blocked by the sugarcane forest." The priest said cheerfully, "Then this place will become the most ideal summer resort. You can come and have a look when you have time."
Perhaps because he was not too old, Father Vander revealed some of his true nature after getting to know the two men.
He was very talkative. Not as talkative as Darent, but his frequency and desire to talk were obviously much stronger than Ethan's.
"You just said that Bishop Lanno worked very hard for the orchard."
During the conversation, Hitzfeld casually asked, "Can you give some specific examples? Of course, if it's offensive, forget it."
"No offense." The priest still had a smile on his face from the previous topic. "In fact, many people know about these things... It's just that managing such a large orchard involves a lot of interests, which can easily incite people."
At this point, the smile on his face gradually disappeared, and he returned to the rigid look he had when they first met.
"In the beginning, the orchard adopted a recruitment system, and all the work was done by directly recruiting people from the surrounding areas."
"Everyone got along well at first, but after a while, some people started to take advantage of the orchard's profits."
"For example... each group of fruit farmers only needs to keep half of the harvest for themselves during the harvest season... that is, they take one out of ten miles and then take half of that one mile. The money they get from selling that harvest privately will far exceed the compensation paid by the church."
"Wouldn't a penalty contract solve the problem?" Ethan asked in surprise, "As long as the penalty exceeds the profits they made from their crimes, they won't take risks again."
"It's not that easy." The priest shook his head. "They are just farmers. Sorry, I don't mean to discriminate against them. I just want to say that many of them can't even understand numbers. It's difficult to restrain them with simple documents."
"That means we can't do anything about it." Ethan understood a little.
He had also encountered similar examples. Some people lacked education due to their poor growing environment, and their outward appearance was extremely primitive and ignorant. No matter how he reasoned with them, it would be impossible to convince them.
This cannot be entirely blamed on themselves. It can only be said that this is a tragic situation created by the environment and themselves.
Let's take the example Father Vander gave... Those fruit farmers have no idea of the consequences of violating the contract. What's the point of catching them? They are not rich to begin with, and they can't pay the penalty after their illegal gains are confiscated. Maybe the fruit farmers still think that they grow the crops themselves, so deducting only half of the profit is not enough.
This is not the same as exploitation. The output of the orchard is not to fill the pockets of the sect, but to help the poor.
"The meaning of our existence is to reduce the number of such people." The priest said with emotion, "But it was still relatively early at that time. The Fellington Orchard had just started, and there were many conflicts of interest entangled with it... You will never guess what its predecessor was."
"What is it?"
"Nicholas Brand's red tomato orchard." The priest's answer surprised both of them. "The orchard in the city... If there was no such plan at the beginning, it would be unrealistic to open up such a large area later. It has grown to its current size only because we took over the earl's red tomato orchard. It was built on the basis of the red tomato orchard."
"Is this a royal appointment?" asked Hitzfeld.
"Not really... This is the Earl's last words. Of course, it is also protected by the law issued by the royal family."
"Then I roughly understand..." Hitzfeld turned his head and looked at the sugarcane field next to him, "There will indeed be a lot of disputes."
From the biography "Candy Factory," she learned that Nicholas Brende's main focus was on inventing and sharing candy.
He had a hard life since childhood and dreamed of tasting that sweetness. After putting himself in the shoes of all the poor people, he felt that they were just like him, and after they got rich, they did a lot of things that were extremely crazy in the eyes of the world.
For example, based on the patent of red tomato sauce, the profits gained from red tomato sauce were invested heavily in the war with many sugar merchants, which greatly lowered the market price of all sugars at that time.
The sugar merchants hated him. They didn't understand why this man did this when he could have become one of them and enjoyed the huge profits with them.
There is an upper limit to market demand.
The body requires people to replenish sugar regularly. After the emergence of red tomato sauce, it has already taken away part of the market share that originally belonged to white sugar, and has lowered the price of sugar a lot. However, the damn Nicholas Brand still thinks it is not enough and wants to further suppress the price.
In fact, even today, the Earl of Candy has mixed reviews in some circles.
Some people praised his nobility, while others said he was a foolish idealist paranoid. They believed that he did not understand economics at all, and his series of actions had a terrible impact on Sara and the surrounding related industries, and they have not recovered to this day.
Hitzfeld was undoubtedly on the former side. She had read the history of Sarah. The price of sugar in the early days was so expensive... In many places, it was not the price of food but the price of medicine. It was difficult for ordinary families to afford it.
As for the economy...
You are about to lose your life, and yet you are still talking about the economy.
It's just the sophistry of the vested interests.
But unfortunately, not everyone has the realm of a count. Nicholas never married in his life, and left no offspring until his death. The candy kingdom he created, whether those "ministers" were willing to let the red yogurt garden fall into the hands of the church, whether they were willing to let go of this cash cow, whether they were willing to honestly continue to practice the ideals of the deceased... These things can be roughly guessed by just thinking about them.
That's probably why Bishop Lanno looks so old.
You have to fight these people from above, and you have to fight the ignorant and easily influenced lower classes from below...
But he did everything very well, and it is indeed a great achievement.
But that's not the point.
The point is -
"Is Nicholas Brende's former residence nearby?"
Hitzfeld stared at Father Vander.
"Tell me, Father."
"What was Enling Road like before?"
Chapter 20: The Whore's Child
Unfortunately, Father Vander was unable to answer her question.
He also didn't know what Enling Road looked like before. According to him, Enling Road had been arranged like this since he could remember. Over the years, the trees and vegetation on the roadside and in the park had grown more lush, but other than that, there was no change.
Hitzfeld didn't ask any more questions. After being taken to visit the red tomato garden and seeing a field of unripe fruits, she and Ethan returned to the backyard of the church to say goodbye to Bishop Lanno.
Bishop Lanno had fallen asleep in his chair. She had no choice but to write her farewell words in a letter and ask Father Vander to pass it on later.
"Woof woof!" Just before leaving, Lily suddenly emerged from the bushes, turned into a white shadow and was about to pounce on Hitzfeld.
"Stop messing around..." Hitzfeld raised his hands to catch its two paws and found that the dog seemed to have grown again.
Standing upright on her hind legs, with her head raised up, she is almost as tall as herself. If she grows up a little bit more, she will be surpassed by a dog one day, right?
"Woof!" The big white dog refused to give in and kept trying to put its paws on her. It kept looking back at Bishop Lanno: "Woof woof woof woof!"
"Quiet!" Hitzfeld swung out its front paws, grabbed its head, and kicked its butt.
"Woo~" The big white dog was scared now. It tucked its tail between its legs and dared not jump anymore. It walked to her side and rubbed its head against her boots: "Woo woo woo woo~"
"I'm sorry..." Hitzfeld looked at Father Vander embarrassedly, "This dog often acts crazy. I will educate it well."
"That's not a problem, Miss Hitzfeld." The priest shook his head and said seriously, "On the contrary, I... I sincerely hope that you can catch the murderer as soon as possible, whether it is a human or an evil spirit."
"Thank you for your blessing, then."
After saying goodbye formally and leaving the New Lunso Church, they began to walk back the way they came, intending to return to Room 14 on Enling Road before the sun sets.
This was because touring the orchard took up a lot of time. They arrived at the church before 2pm, but it was almost 6pm when they came out.
The dusk stretched the two people's shadows on the ground, and one of them was a long shadow swaying left and right.
That was Lily. After coming out, she quickly forgot the lesson she had just received from the girl with her boots, and began to jump back and forth around her again, wagging her tail quite frequently.
"Ethan...actually you know something, right?"
On the way, Hitzfeld suddenly spoke.
As she said this, she looked towards the center of the street - there was a cordon there, with both ends wrapped around the lampposts, and no vehicles were seen passing on the road.
It was the right move. After all, it had been proven that Enling Road was haunted. If Daisy still didn't think of doing this, she would really despise her.
"I know a little, but I'm not sure." Ethan nodded, "And I don't know if it has anything to do with Enling Road. I can only say that his childhood was far more miserable than what is recorded. He may not have had an alcoholic father at all."
"What do you mean?" Hitzfeld raised his eyebrows slightly.
"How did you learn his story, Xi...Aisun?" Ethan asked back.
"There are some books about him in the collection that Madam left me." The girl answered honestly, "But you know, I'm not interested in these things, so I didn't spend much time to verify them in detail... Most of my impressions come from a biography called "Candy Dream Factory"."
They had talked about the Candy Count when they were on the airship, and Ethan knew her general impression of the Count.
But now it seems inaccurate? Is there some hidden secret history that is unknown to the public?
"This... I can't say I'm 100% sure." Ethan frowned, "But I... because I admired him, I frantically collected information about him when I was a child."
"Yeah." The girl nodded.
"Because of me, I joined the Security Bureau when I was over six years old. I have more channels to obtain these materials than most people." Ethan gestured to her, "Just like you are not interested in these things, no one is interested except me, so almost no one cares about them. I specially copied them out and sorted them. More than half of his personal entries in the archives are my contributions."
"That's good." The girl narrowed her eyes, "Go on... Ethan."
"I found that there were two versions of his origin in the early records." Ethan nodded. "One of them is naturally the one you have seen, that is, his father was an alcoholic and gambler...his mother remarried because she couldn't stand her husband."
"But in another version, his father was already dead."
"died?"
"Well, he died in a fight. You can understand it as a family living on the edge of a slum that got in trouble with a local gang. His father died because of it, and his mother also... Anyway, their later days were pretty difficult."
"What does his mother do?" Hitzfeld asked him.
"A theater actor." Ethan replied, "All the girls in Ferrington who are a little bit pretty have dreamed of becoming stars. When they grow up, most of them will choose to become theater actors."
"What about after marriage?"
"No more." Ethan sighed, "Who likes to watch a married girl perform lovemaking? Not only do others dislike it, but the girl herself will also be accused of being promiscuous. So she stopped doing it after she got married."
"You can imagine, Aisuen... a woman who can no longer make a living with the professional skills she once had, and suddenly lost her husband, and has not only one mouth to feed at home, but also a child to feed... What do you think she can do?"
Hitzfeld frowned and said nothing.
"In that account, Nicholas was ridiculed as the child of a prostitute."
