Chapter 16 14

August 20, 1916 all saints church Sutton, Berkshire︱Courtney Village * The church park under the night sky is full of dark shadows.Yin Mozhen was not afraid of weeds, and strode ahead.Ashley followed after two steps, his shoes knocked over a hard object and almost fell down.Yin Mozhen suppressed her laugh. Have you ever been here? We don't go to this church.Ashley said in a low voice: My mother is a little disgusted with the priests here, so I was baptized in Abingdon. Um.Enter the cemetery area, there is no fence here.Be careful walking, some of the tombstones are very low. Ashley took another sip of champagne and threw the bottle into the bushes.He has had enough.He didn't know how much Yin Mozhen drank, it didn't matter how much she drank, she couldn't tell.Ashley quickened his pace to follow behind her, passing through the moss-covered tombstones.Yin Mozhen is not afraid now, and speaks louder.

I had a great time walking around the village today, did you know there are German prisoners of war working in the fields across the river?Just a little further past the monastery.I chatted with them Don't talk in German. In German, of course.They're from Saxony and they're super nice.They said they would rather spend a month in the fields harvesting than an hour in the trenches; and that they hadn't heard a woman speak German in months.Of course, the guards came to make trouble when they heard me speak German, and it took me fifteen minutes to convince them that I was not a foreign spy, as if I had memorized the names of every English king since the Conqueror.Afterwards, I came to the church and met the sexton who was mowing the grass.The old sexton told a lot about the history of this church, and took me in to see something, I must let you see it too.

As they approached the church, Ashley saw the black nave and the square tower above it. Are we going to break in?They won't unlock the door, will they?I don't want to be fired before I go to France. She shouted back: The door will be open. Won't. They walked along the church wall to the front door.Yin Mozhen touched the wall with her fingers while walking, feeling the gap between the stones.Arriving at the gate, it was an arched wooden door on the base of the tower, Yin Mozhen held the iron ring on the door, and smiled at Ashley. Do you believe me or not? Believe in you, nothing else.

Yin Mozhen turned the door knocker, and when she pushed it, the door rattled open. First lieutenant, please. The nave was very dark, only the stained glass windows at the top let in a faint starlight, and they walked towards the altar side by side without touching each other.Ashley's hand accidentally touched hers and wanted to hold it, but she moved away. I don't want to kiss you in church.I may not believe in God, but I am still afraid of Him. What are we doing here? Yin Mozhen stepped onto the altar two steps at a time, took out a candle and threw it to him. then. Ashley reached out to catch the candle, but she couldn't throw it correctly and dropped it on the ground.He picked up the candle.Yin Mozhen stepped onto the central aisle, walked towards the door, and brought a chair along with her.

follow me. Ashley obediently followed behind, holding the candle in his hand.Yin Mozhen put the chair in front of the door and stood on it. Please light the candle. Ashley struck a match, and the yellow flame instantly drove away the darkness.He lit the candle and handed it to Yin Mozhen.Yin Mozhen put the candle over the door frame and touched the dark wood. right here. Ashley narrowed his eyes, only to see that there were many knots on the wooden frame. The sexton said the church was a typical fourteenth-century church, but even a typical church had something interesting about it. She got out of the chair.

It's your turn, stand on it. Ashley stood on the chair and moved the candle closer. It turned out that something was carved on the wooden frame, which looked particularly three-dimensional under the firelight.They were crucifixes, carved in old oak of great age; some were square Greek crosses, others Latin; Ashley murmured: Crusaders. Yin Mozhen told Ashley what she heard from the sexton in the afternoon.Hundreds of years ago, she said, crusaders stopped here to kneel and pray before sailing to Constantinople.They heard the priests say that if they die in battle, they will return to God.They stepped on chairs to carve these crosses, and then walked out of the last English church in their lives.

Ashley reached out to touch those notches, and Yin Mozhen behind her took out a pocket knife from her bag, which Ashley had never seen before. He said: You are too exaggerated, you can't carve something on it. This is for you. You are kidding. Yin Mozhen shook her head and said: As soldiers of Christ, they engraved the cross here just to be able to come back. You are crazy, you can't. I want you to engrave.Ashley, don't you understand?They don't care about God and heaven, they just want to go home with their wives, drink like us, and stay up all night.That's why they carve, they hope to return safely.

I can't do it. If you can't do it, I'll do it for you. She pulled another chair, put it next to his, climbed up, held the knife in both hands, and stood up. Yin Mozhen.Ashley begged her.For god's sake don't mess around, it's history We are history! Yin Mozhen took the knife and swiped left and right, then stopped to catch her breath.Ashley stretched out his hand to hold the handle of the ivory knife, and carved it together with her, at first gently, then more and more forcefully. She said: You will come back, I just got you, I can't lose you so soon. Ashley let go of the handle of the knife and looked at Yin Mozhen.

The war won't last forever, and maybe I'll be back in the spring.When I get back, we'll go to the Valais to see the snow melt on the mountains Yin Mozhen didn't speak, she finished carving the cross silently, and carved a row of short grooves at the end to serve as flower decorations, then she moved the candle over to look at her work, blew off the sawdust, and cleared the grooves with a knife. Ashley laughed and said: Did you know that more than half of these people may not have returned. Yin Mozhen folded the knife. I thought about it, but can you just cooperate with me?

Don't be angry, I have been very cooperative. They got out of their chairs, and Ashley put them back in place.Yin Mozhen was standing at the door holding a candle, she turned her head away, her face was hidden in the shadow, and she couldn't see her expression clearly. Ashley said: By the way, how do you know the door is open?Is this fate again? Yin Mozhen blew out the candles. No, I bribed the sexton.