Chapter 1484: The Flower Bet

Xia De took out the letter while speaking. Although it had been written only half an hour ago, he did not forget to dry the ink completely and press out obvious creases in the paper to prevent it from being seen that the letter was too new.

Bishop Mo Feisi opened the letter with great surprise, scanned it twice, and asked in surprise:

"Is it Late Ao Gu Si? Old Ao Gu Si is actually still alive. We haven't been in touch for many years."

"Yes, when I was in Tobesk, I often asked Priest Ao Gu Si for help. The priest has a very high reputation in our parish."

Xia De nodded, looked at the Doctor, and then said embarrassedly:

"Speaking of which, we are actually also curious about something."

He smiled:

"Priest Ao Gu Si mentioned something related to you to us. He said that when he was on a business trip in the Randall Valley when he was young, he once made a bet with you. He lost 10 Jin Bang and has not returned it to this day. May I ask if you can tell us what you bet on at that time? I am really curious. After all, what Priest Ao Gu Si says most often on weekdays is to let young people stay away from Luo De Pai."

"He is still the same as when he was young."

Bishop Mo Feisi carefully folded the greeting letter from his old friend whom he hadn't seen for a long time and put it away, then sighed:

"That was many years ago. If you hadn't mentioned it today, I would have almost forgotten it. Late Ao Gu Si is a very peculiar person. To be honest, in so many years, I have never met anyone as conservative, cautious, and devout as him."

The bishop gave a very high evaluation and then shook his head with a smile:

"As for the bet back then, he can actually still remember it. Young people, you may have come here with curiosity, but in fact, the answer is very boring. This was just a casual conversation between young people of the last era."

"Then can you waste some time to satisfy our boring curiosity?"

Doctor Shi Nai De also asked, and the bishop nodded:

"That was also a season between winter and spring, just like now. Of course, it wasn't as cold as this year.

At that time, I was just an ordinary priest in this church. On the way back from delivering documents to the city's children's welfare institution with Ao Gu Si, who came to this city on a business trip when he was young, when we were looking at the scenery along the Ailong River, we guessed when spring would arrive that year. That is, when the first Randall flower of that year would bloom."

Xia De and Doctor Shi Nai De looked at each other again:

"So, the content of your bet was the time when the first Randall flower bloomed that year?"

Xia De asked. This answer was indeed very boring, but at least they got the answer.

"No, no, we are not diviners from the Diviner Society, nor are we weather researchers from the Higher Academy. How could we guess such a question?"

The bishop shook his head with a smile, squinting slightly, as if being brought back to his youth by memory:

"The weather that day was really good. I remember that Ao Gu Si and I were both wearing the church's standard clerical robes. On my feet were the cowhide shoes I bought after saving money for a whole winter. Those shoes are still in my wardrobe to this day. As a local, I talked to Ao Gu Si about how every year someone would rush to take Randall flowers to the City Hall just for the bonus for offering the flowers, while Ao Gu Si mentioned that he raised a pot of Randall flowers in his room. The sun was good that day, and the return journey was also boring. Since we had a common topic, the two of us started a boring bet..."

In fact, hearing this, Xia De and Doctor Shi Nai De already felt it was not boring.

"We started guessing whether the first person to take a blooming Randall flower to the City Hall to claim the reward that year would tamper with the flower."

The old man winked at the two:

"In fact, there are many ways to make flowers bloom abnormally, but the tradition of Randall flowers has continued for so many years, and the City Hall also has inspection methods. Do you want to guess which side Ao Gu Si and I bet on?"

"Priest Ao Gu Si must have thought that the first person to bring the flower must have tampered with it."

The Doctor answered without thinking:

"I have known Priest Ao Gu Si for a long time, and I found that he always likes to think about things in the bad direction and always speculates about strangers in the direction of the most sinister human nature. I once tried to use a psychologist's means to speculate on the reason for this way of thinking, but I could only think that it was influenced by some past experiences."

Xia De nodded deeply, and Bishop Mo Feisi also nodded gently:

"He is indeed still like this. Yes, Doctor, you guessed right. Ao Gu Si thought that the first person to bring the flower that year would definitely use tricks, while I thought not. Because it was just casual talk, the bet was only 10 Jin Bang. Although the prices in that era were different from now, 10 Jin Bang was something we could both afford."

"There is a follow-up to this story, right? We all know now that Priest Ao Gu Si lost, but I think the follow-up situation should not just be that Priest Ao Gu Si underestimated the kindness of human nature."

Xia De asked, because he saw clues from the old bishop's expression. The old man nodded again, with his hands behind his back, to look at the oil painting on the wall. Xia De noticed that the oil painting was newly hung, and the picture was a banquet by the dense forest river.

"Spring came quickly, and the news was published in the newspaper. A poor woman living in a small village in the east of the Randall Valley, who raised two children alone, brought the first Randall flower of that year and won the bonus from the City Hall. I inquired through the church's channels. Before her, no one had offered flowers that year, so she was the first, so I won."

Doctor Shi Nai De raised an eyebrow:

"But in fact, it was..."

The old bishop continued to look at the new oil painting on the wall with his hands behind his back:

"Ao Gu Si has always been a cautious person. I was very happy to win money from him back then. We didn't mention paying the bet later, and Ao Gu Si soon ended his trip to the Randall Valley and returned to Tobesk, Delarion.

Half a month later, the church arranged for people to go to the countryside to preach. I took the initiative to participate, and then found the 'lucky' woman in the countryside on the way. At that time, I also had the idea of recording this matter and showing off to Ao Gu Si later. After all, I was still young... As of now, that woman passed away twelve years ago. She was a very devout believer, and that year, she admitted to me that she had lied."

"The flower she brought had a problem?"

Xia De asked.

"Yes, she was just a woman in the countryside and could not really distinguish between Randall flowers and similar flowers. She just went to the City Hall with the hope of the whole family's survival. Coincidentally, there was another gentleman at that time who also brought flowers. The latter was the true owner of the bonus. But that gentleman persuaded the City Hall official to let the poor woman get the bonus and leave her name in the newspaper, which greatly improved her life. And since the City Hall got the flowers of that year, they wouldn't mind this proposal."

Bishop Mo Feisi took a deep breath, Doctor Shi Nai De nodded slightly, and then suddenly froze:

"Although this is a coincidence, the person who brought the real Randall flower that year wouldn't be Priest Ao Gu Si, right?"

The bishop nodded:

"Yes, that was something I found out later. So, did I win or did he win back then? I couldn't figure this out when I was young, but I felt ashamed of my 'arrogance'. As I grew older, I felt that I had lost again. In fact, even if Ao Gu Si didn't send me a letter, after a few years when my body could no longer support this responsibility, I would also send him a letter to talk about what happened back then."

The Doctor showed a moved expression. Although this story was not exciting or thrilling, it was definitely interesting.

Xia De shook his head with a smile. In his view, Priest Ao Gu Si back then should also have cared about the bet, otherwise he wouldn't have offered that pot of flowers. Moreover, the priest had already experienced that "Unknown-level Relic Out-of-Control Incident" at that time, and even if he hadn't become a Ringed Shushi, he definitely had supernatural abilities.

Xia De didn't believe it was such a coincidence that Priest Ao Gu Si happened to encounter the first Randall flower of that year. He was more inclined to believe that the priest took the initiative to use some kind of ability to predict the time and place of the flower's appearance in advance.

Things from many years ago let two young people know that they should not be arrogant and should know how to be compassionate, and also saved a poor family. Thinking about this matter again many years later, the "10 Jin Bang bet" was indeed not important.

The three of them did not speak for a while, but savored the story. Until the old bishop said:

"Gentlemen, can I delay you for ten minutes? I will write a reply to Ao Gu Si. Can you take it to him when you go back?"

"Of course you can. You don't have to invite us to wait in the office. This gentleman and I will wait outside the church. We can't keep chatting in the church."

Doctor Shi Nai De nodded, and Xia De looked at the brand-new oil painting:

"Speaking of which, is this painting a religious story? I don't seem to have heard of it. The nameplate is... Banquet in the Dense Forest?"

The bishop raised an eyebrow:

"This, this is another interesting story."

The weather today was indeed quite good, and even waiting outside could allow one to see the scenery, so Bishop Mo Feisi did not keep them. So Xia De and the Doctor returned outside together, still sitting on the bench on the riverbank directly facing the church entrance. It was just that the old gentleman who was feeding pigeons and the man who was tidying his child's clothes had already left.

The wind carried warmth, and even sitting here with nothing to do, watching the people coming and going at the church entrance was quite good.

Since they had temporarily left the church, Xia De asked some sensitive topics:

"Doctor, did you go to find them? Those people related to demons." ===== CHAPTER 1485 =====