Chapter 534
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"Phoebe." The pope lowered his head, his eyes were dim, "You? Are we? The best nun. In this battle with the witch, you? You have to do a good job of serving as a spiritual symbol and don't let the people believe blindly. Quan Paula, her power to deceive people is extraordinary, you? You want to win her."
"Afterwards, I promise you? Go to the island."
"But I'm not yet an adult, so can I?" Phoebe asked with a puzzled expression on her innocent face, "Castle in the sky, isn't it only grown-up nuns who can go there?"
Looking at Phoebe's pure and beautiful appearance, the Pope smiled meaningfully: "There are exceptions."
"The last special queen left the island temporarily due to some incidents, and a place is just vacant for you? You? You have to take over his duties and continue to perform the duties of a nun on the island, purifying the filthy place for everyone who goes to the island. Yu, you? It seems that you have this potential, so I give you permission to go to the island in advance."
Phoebe blinked, she smiled? Laughed?: "Then? I thank the Pope in advance?"
Unable to hear Phoebe's questioning tone, the Pope nodded quite complacently, and then waved his hand: "You? Go down first. I will explain the details to the bishop who led you. Now I will discuss other matters with him first."
Phoebe bowed obediently and backed away.
After Phoebe left, the pope's face quickly darkened: "Has the male eel production situation improved?"
"No." The bishop shook his head with some fear on his face. "In the beginning, the female eels we stole from us continued to produce female eels, but gradually, there were one or two male eels out of ten thousand. Eels, we? We were happy at first, because then these male eels could have sex with all the female eels, not like before? Only one male eel could have sex, so the production speed would be faster, we? At that time Just let all the women hand over the eels they couldn't digest, that is, the male eels, to the Holy See, saying that we?
"Soon, we ushered in the period of the eel explosion. In fact, at this time, the production speed of eels has become a little out of control. There are eels everywhere. Some people will drill eels out when they turn on the faucet. The Holy See originally wanted to stop this. The eel was planned, but because the people at that time were in such a situation, they became more and more dependent and trusting on the Holy See who proposed the eel solution. Not only did they collect a large amount of eel that was digested and handed over by each household every day. eel bones, and the popularity and income increased day by day, so the Pope at the time acquiesced in the eel project’s continuation.”
The bishop swallowed his saliva: "But wait? In the later stage, when the first witch appeared, the pope was? frightened. He really wanted to suspend the plan, but Quan Baola appeared."
"As soon as she appeared, she attracted the attention of all the people. She appealed to the people not to blindly let women eat eels, but to find other ways, and she was willing to come out and solve everyone's problems first. Soon she formed the Saintess Patrol At that time, the Saintess Patrol was a spontaneous organization independent of the Holy See. It solved problems quickly. The attitude of the leader, Quan Baola, was vigorous and close to the people. Gradually, everyone was more willing to go to Quan Paula to solve the problem than the Holy See. , the power of the Holy See is getting weaker, after hinting to Quan Paula twice, after the Saintess patrol team who wanted to capture her was rejected, this made the Pope at that time angry and increased the intensity of male eels. "
"Under such circumstances, witches began to appear in piles, and the Holy See kicked off the witch trial, but Quan Paula did not agree with this kind of trial. She unequivocally opposed this kind of trial and stood on the side of the Holy See." opposite."
"But in the later stage, there were more and more eels and witches. The people who had been under the protection of the Saintess Patrol finally lost control. They fell to the Holy See. At this time, you seized the right moment and successfully tried Quan Baola, after Quan Baola was tried and defected, the country was finally completely under the control of the Holy See, and even the Saintess Patrol was incorporated into the Holy See."
"We? Finally stopped the eel project, but, but..."
The pope added the second half of the sentence in a gloomy tone: "But the production of male eels is completely out of control."
The bishop nodded tremblingly: "Yes! The indigestible male eels collected from all over the country by the preparatory witches can already fill up the pool under the Sky City Prison, and this amount is still flowing. Climbing, we? Have no idea? How many wild male eels there are in the wild...”
"This male eel is, but..." the bishop couldn't help but shuddered, and cried out in a broken voice, "But it needs our? intestinal juice to dissolve it, my lord pope!"
"Shut up!" The pope interrupted the bishop's screams viciously, "Don't I? Don't know?! Otherwise, why should I hide these male eels on the island of the sky and isolate them from these female eels?! "
The bishop was shuddered by the roar, paused, and quickly said in a low voice: "Why? Why are there more and more male eels? Aren't all the eels produced all the time before?"
The Pope also fell into an eerie silence.
That's right, aren't all the eels produced at the beginning? How did male eels suddenly start producing in abundance?
the other end.
The night was silent, and everyone curled up on the ground and fell asleep. The full moon hung in the sky, but half was blocked by a huge island.
Bai Liu sat on the top floor, looking at the island, his eyes narrowed.
"You? You came up alone, are you planning to chat with Jiayi? What?" Tang Er? He and Bai Liu are used to keeping watch for other people before they go to sleep. They are usually the first night when they join the game? No Sleeping, the others slept, so when he saw Bai Liu coming up, he also came up.
Tang Er sat down next to Bai Liu and looked at him with his head tilted: "You? Still worried about Jiayi?"
After all, it was the first time to take over the authority of a tactician, and it was such a crucial round.
"No, she is more thoughtful and prudent than me." Bai Liu shook his head, he looked up at the island, and said calmly, "I'm thinking about other things."
"What's the matter?" Tang Er asked.
"Jiayi just told me that the witch said that the eels that were polluted in large quantities are all female eels, and that male eels cannot be digested by witches, but male eels are rare." Bai Liu was thoughtful, "Any creature Both have a tendency to overpopulate, and in an overpopulated species it is rare for females to outnumber males so much, generally males outnumber females."
"If a creature takes reproduction as its task, it will indeed produce a large number of females in the early days, but when the number of females reaches a certain amount, it will be reversed, and this creature will start to produce a large number of males again. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of overbreeding."
Tang Er was a little puzzled, and he asked hesitantly, "You mean...Actually? There are still a lot of male eels that witches can't digest, right?"
"Well, I personally guess like this." Bai Liu paused, "Any kind of monster has its corresponding weakness and elimination method. This is the setting of this game. I'm actually thinking. Eliminate male eels, then? According to the symmetrical setting of this game, the one that can digest male eels should be..."
Tang Er? said slowly: "Male digestive juice."
Bai Liu smiled: "Bingo, that's what I thought, and what's worse, I think it might be intestinal juice."
Tang Er felt a chill down his back. He looked at Bai Liu's wicked smile and raised his forehead helplessly: "I finally understand you. Why? Why did you bring me up to tell me this? Mu Sicheng wants to listen." To you? Guessing this setting can make you jump up with your butt covered in fright."
"Why? Guess it's intestinal juice?"
"Because if men can digest the eel's liquid, it's also saliva, then it's impossible to be discovered in this situation." Bai Liu held his chin and spoke lazily, "Now the amount of eels is so high that we need to smuggle women abroad. It was resolved, but ordinary civilian families cannot afford the price of preparatory witch services, and because of the large-scale witch trials, many families have lost a single woman."
"In such an extreme and desperate situation, some men will imitate the behavior of witches and swallow eels, trying to digest each other."
"We? The group of people rescued downstairs had at least two men who did this. They? There were strange scratches on the corners of their mouths, which were still fresh."
"If it is true to assume that men's digestive juices can digest eels, then at least the upper digestive tract, a place where ordinary people can easily experiment, is unlikely, otherwise the situation for witches would not be so one-sided , then I think it is relatively more difficult to experiment, or the lower digestive tract that few people think of? It is more likely.”
"That's the intestines."
"Jiayi's guess is consistent with mine, but at present she doesn't have suitable candidates for the experiment, so she can't draw the most accurate conclusion. In order to avoid temptation, she has not drawn her own conclusion for the time being. Tell the witch." Bai Liu glanced at Tang Er, "So our mission tomorrow is to save the witch who was judged by you, and we have another mission."
Bai Liu smiled and said, "——that's to arrest a priest from the Holy See jury and give Jiayi an experiment."
Tang Er, who was sweating wildly, let out a long breath: "This is no problem!"
Scared him to death! When Bai Liu glanced at him just now, he thought that Bai Liu was going to say that since there is a lack of people, he is not as good as you? Let's go and do experiments for Jiayi, this kind of thing is not impossible for this person!
On the other end, the Pope's Palace.
The smile on Phoebe's face when she came out of the main hall disappeared instantly, and turned into a bored expression. She walked quickly across the garden, and before arriving at the nuns' hall, she looked at the one on her right hand. Looking at the ladder leading directly to the island, his gaze paused for a moment.
This ladder is shrouded in a layer of silver-blue light. When she came here, she tried to go up twice, but she lost seventeen points of blood, and got nothing - just like what the Pope said? In the same way, without a key, it is true that no one can go up.
But the [scepter] which is the key is held in the hand of the Pope without leaving it for a moment.
The Pope can lock Hearts into prison, so there must be some special monster setting or buff on him. Before she finds out, she'd better not act rashly.
But that doesn't mean she can't move.
"Qi Yifang, the bishop, etc.? I will issue a mission for me to take charge of some witch trials. You? Remember, where did he ask me to go? You and Liu Ji will apply for which trial court to go to." Phoebe said coldly. Qi Yifang ordered.
Qi Yifang asked suspiciously: "What are you going to do?"
Phoebe looked up at him. There was no emotion in her green eyes, but she had a pure smile on her face. She clasped her hands together and prayed devoutly: "What else can I do? Of course. Send the Inquisitors to hell."
"—Isn't this the essential work of a nun?"
The pope can't move, so let's start with the priest at the bottom and see which floor of the Holy See the monster she can kill is on.
Qi Yifang was horrified by Phoebe's laugh, but as a player with league quality, when he knew that Phoebe got the tactician authority, he knew that there was only one word left for him to say to Phoebe , that? That is: "OK."
"Tomorrow will be a tough battle. Let's have a good rest tonight." Phoebe smiled and waved her little hand at Qi Yifang. "Remember to pray before going to bed, so that the Lord will bless you. Sleep well."
Qi Yifang: "...Okay, okay qaq."
Woohoo, queen, miss you!
Phoebe returned to the nuns' hall. She was standing beside her white lace bed, and the silvery white moonlight was shining on the edge of the bed. She slowly raised her head to look at the impossibly bright moon outside, and the moonlight fell on her long golden curly hair. , shining brightly, her expression was indifferent and holy, her emerald green eyes were like emeralds on a laurel wreath, with a misty halo, she closed her eyes, folded her hands together and prayed on her chest.
She has always stood up and prayed, she has never knelt down to anyone, even when she is praying, no one in this world can make her kneel down, not even God? No way.
"May the Lord bless..." Phoebe said. Here, she suddenly stopped, and then she shrugged indifferently, "Of course you? It's okay if you don't protect me. I will personally? Let them? Go to hell."
After she finished speaking, she lay on the bed, with her head lying in the center of the pillow evenly, and there was no wrinkle on the quilt covering her. Her hands were folded in front of her chest. This is a very regular way of sleeping. — This is the way her pious mother taught her to sleep, just like praying.
It's all things that she didn't understand and found troublesome, but she's used to it.
Ever since she could remember, she had been noticed by her father.
Her father looked at her in disbelief, and rarely among a bunch of boys hugged her to his lap, took off the gun she was clutching tightly in his hand, and asked her: "You? Why? Pointing a gun at your brother? You're loaded? Who taught you?"
How did she answer it? It's like, "Kill him and I'll get his cub. It's mine. I've warned him three times and he still hasn't returned it to me."
"No one taught me, but I saw you? Used."
Her father asked the so-called her brother to return the bear to her, but the other party would only cry and scream, and would not return it, and even wiped her tears with the bear, so she grabbed the gun without hesitation. She shot the little bear in the little boy's hand. The huge recoil of the gun dislocated her arm. Everyone stood up, including her father.
"What are you doing? Phoebe?!" Her father looked at her in surprise.
The stupid boy who snatched her little bear grabbed the wreckage of the little bear puppet that was smashed by the gun, and sat on the ground in fright, peeing all over the floor, she looked at her father, but smiled strangely He got up: "Little Bear was dirty by him. I don't want it anymore, but he can't have it either."
Her father looked into her eyes as if seeing a monster, or as if seeing a genius? He asked her in amazement, "You? How do you feel now, Phoebe?"
Phoebe smiled crookedly, "I feel very happy."
——a pure power of domination, the joy of threatening an opponent?
Since then, no one in the Hinchmani family has dared to snatch what belongs to her. In order to compete for her a rightful heir, her father married her biological mother, a woman of unknown origin. Entered Hinchmany's house.
The first time the woman saw her, she froze in place.
She was standing next to her father, dressed up like a little boy, wearing a boy's riding boots, a little jacket, her blond hair was cut by a few centimeters, tucked into a hat, to herself The biological mother, who had never met before, just saluted politely: "The Hinchmani family welcomes you, mother."
—she looked exactly like her father.
That night, her mother knelt on her bed and prayed all night. She shed tears and said, "I'm sorry, I came too late. They? turned you into this."
"You? It looks like you? A cold-blooded and cruel father..."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that about you." She put her hands on her heart and prayed for her devoutly, "The Lord will protect us."
"Mom." Phoebe, who was lying on the bed, said coldly, "The Hinchmani family doesn't believe in gods, we? We only believe in ourselves. I respect your beliefs, but if you want to pray, you can go back to your room. If it is not enough, I will ask the servant to build a special prayer room for you, if possible, please go back and rest, I have a firearms class tomorrow morning."
Her mother knelt beside her bed in silence for a long time, and left in a daze.
After taking back her mother, her life experienced short-term turmoil. Her mother is really a very strange woman. She always has some unrealistic expectations and wishes, and there are always some Incomprehensible tears and prayers, there are always some delusional longings for freedom, talking to herself all day long, saying that she hopes the Lord will destroy the dark family and let her and her children be free again.
Many people around her said in her ears that her mother was actually a lunatic.
But Phoebe didn't think so. She thought her mother should be a normal person, but in the Hinchmany family, normal people couldn't survive.
Just a poor and helpless normal person?
When her mother cried again and begged Phoebe to pray with her, Phoebe lowered her eyes and looked at her mother, very rarely agreeing to this waste of her time practicing martial arts and guns.
"Only five minutes." She said calmly, "I can accompany you on Monday, Wednesday?, Sunday? Pray for five minutes."
Her mother wept with joy and said, enough is enough for the child.
She was put on the service of a nun, and when her mother said that she would kneel down and pray, Phoebe refused coldly. Her mother had nothing to do with her, so she had no choice but to kneel beside her and pray.
"Pray that my Phoebe can escape here as a bird and go to a free paradise."
Phoebe followed up indifferently: "Pray that during training today those idiots can shoot themselves to death and go to endless hell."
Phoebe's mom: "..."
After her mother cried and laughed and corrected Phoebe's prayers three or four times to no avail, Phoebe finally fell in love with the prayer(?) activity of verbally going to hell before going to bed, and her mother No, a normal human being who she had always felt weak and incompetent in the Hinchmany family condoned her damning act of prayer.
Wasn't this an insult to her pious faith? Why? Instead of blaming her for doing something wrong, instead of covering her face and laughing helplessly every time she finished cursing?
Finally, once she asked, her mother smiled and looked at her, stroking her forehead hair: "People's unrealistic belief in gods is a kind of escape from their own weakness, you? Say That's right, praying is indeed a very weak act, no matter how much I pray, I can't take you away from Hinchmani's house. Under this premise, I have no way to accuse you, Because you're right."
She asked, "Then why are you still praying?"
"I'm not praying to God," her mother answered her softly, "I'm praying to my soul, to your? Here, we must have love and hope in our hearts, whether it's you or me, we must maintain the original appearance of our souls, and wait for the day when we turn into birds and fly away from here."
"Even if that? One day is the moment of death."
"It's just a reminder."
Dressed in a nun's service, her mother knelt down devoutly in front of her, closed her eyes and clasped her hands in the moonlight, whispering softly: "My children, Phoebe and I, will one day get the freedom we want. "
Looking at her mother's pious, almost holy face in the moonlight, she saw for the first time that this woman possessed a power she had been ignoring.
——A kind of power that is completely different from holding a gun. It is a sense of belief that guns and external forces cannot be destroyed.
In something she believed in, even if it wasn't going to come true, Phoebe saw for the first time such a strange belief--a weak, pliable, yet indestructible belief that she dared say even if she Her father held a gun to her mother's head, and she wouldn't stop praying.
Phoebe had been taught by her father that the weak could be crushed, but now she felt that no one in the Hinchmany family could crush her praying mother.
But she is supposed to be a weak person, but she is clearly a weak person.
Phoebe doesn't like underdogs.
But she extended her daily prayer time with her mother to fifteen minutes.
Gradually, as she grew up, her advantages among the heirs became more and more obvious. Her father's subordinates' attitude towards her changed from disapproving at first to admiring her excellence, but every time they would be followed by a sentence of "it's a pity" Phoebe's a girl."
Phoebe has almost heard this sentence cocooned, and she is completely indifferent.
It's just that her father would sigh every time: "Yeah, if only she was a boy like Daniel."
Daniel is another child of her father, three years older than her. He is another heir whom her father favors very much. She has a similar experience with her—married Daniel’s mother as his wife, and Daniel is like her, and they ? Fathers are very similar.
This similarity can be said to be in character, or it can be said to be in appearance. They are both standard blond and blue-eyed. When Phoebe cut her hair short and wore men's clothing, the two stood together like twins, exactly the same His arrogance, indifference and strength.
Of course they? Never stand together.
Just like the offspring of lions compete for food before they open their eyes, before they realize that they are "brothers and sisters", they first realize that the other party is "competitors" compared to themselves.
"The heir is about to be selected." Her father patted her on the shoulder. "Phoebe's grades have always been the best. Except for her gender, she is the most suitable heir."
"I thought about it all night. If she succeeds in the selection of the heir, then? I can basically take her identity. As for the troublesome matter of gender, I am going to let her always show people in male attire."
"You always wear men's clothing?" Some subordinates joked, "What a cruel father, Phoebe hasn't developed yet, how will you make her pretend to be a man in the later stage?"
"What's the matter?" her father said lightly, "the corset is fine, she won't grow any more."
"Phoebe is as cruel as a man, as strong as a man. The only shortcoming is that she is not really a man, but fortunately, she is not weak at all, and she will not be unable to bear the pain of breast corset."
So that night, Phoebe received a corset. Her mother was beside her, and when she held up the corset, her expression was completely dazed: "What is your father going to do?!"
"You're only ten years old with such a tight corset! This will deform your chest!"
"Really? Not today." Phoebe lay on the bed indifferently, and she yawned, "When? When I start to grow, I will wear it."
"No!" Her mother became serious in a rare way. "You? You can't wear this! You? You are a child, you should develop as you want, and no one can destroy your normal growth process!"
"I'm not obsessed with breasts." Phoebe lazily turned her head and looked at her mother who was lying on the bed. "It's just an organ. It doesn't matter how big or small. If you need to corset your breasts to win the position of heir, then ? Just tie it up."
"That's not the problem!" Her mother refuted her sternly. "The problem is that you? You can win even if you don't tie your breasts! Why? Why do you have to tie your breasts!"
"Can you win without a corset?" Phoebe asked suspiciously, "Then? The subordinates said that if the chest is too big, it will keep shaking, which will affect the speed of drawing the gun, isn't it?"
"Damn you fucking dog men?!" Her mother swears in front of her for the first time ever, and she explains to Phoebe seriously, "Someone told you? It's too big for men to run Speed?"
Phoebe thought about it, and she stroked her chin. "That's not it."
Daniel should grow up, right? When he was running fast? No crotch stuck.
Her mother asked, "So? Why? Why do breasts affect the speed of the gun?"
"Why? Why don't tools adapt to the organs that humans already have, and organs to adapt to the tools invented by humans? Humans can invent different underwear for gender, why? Can't they invent different guns?"
Phoebe paused. Looking at her mother who was suddenly furious, she paused subtly: "You? Calm down."
"But my father won't be satisfied if he doesn't wear a corset." Phoebe spread her hands flatly, "He's not dead yet, at least I can't disobey him publicly, of course, let alone you. "
Her mother languished quickly, looking tearfully at Phoebe.
After a while, her eyes lit up: "I can change this corset for you so that you can wear it without squeezing it."
"You? Put it on and try it?" Her mother nervously handed it to her after finishing the correction, "Do you still want to tighten it?"
Phoebe took the corset, which didn't seem to have changed much, paused, and then put it on: "It's not tight."
She used to be able to hold her breath when she put it on, but now she has a gap to breathe.
Watching her mother stay up all night beside her mending corsets, Phoebe felt... amazing.
She doesn't really care about it, the lack of breast development is really insignificant to her, and her seemingly gentle and weak mother will get so angry about this insignificant thing, and then... I tried my best to modify her clothes, just to give her a space to breathe.
With her strength as a weak person, she can only be given such a little space in Hinchmani's house.
Her mother let out a long breath: "Then? That's good."
Phoebe looked at her, wanting to tell her that in Hinchmany's house, it's pointless for weaklings to struggle with this little gap, but seeing her mother begin to kneel and pray again, she added the phrase The words were swallowed back.
Her mother knelt by her bedside and prayed devoutly: "May my children and I grow up and die freely."
After her mother prayed and left, Phoebe looked at the moon through the skylight and thought, What is freedom?
Phoebe reached out and touched the looser bra under the pillow, allowing her to continue to develop normally. She stroked the fine stitches on it, thinking—is this freedom?
What a fragile freedom.
Soon, the heir's experience will come. After all the children got the content of tomorrow's experience, they squatted in place and cried loudly. The only ones who could maintain their manners and leave after saying goodbye to their father were only her and Daniel.
But she saw Daniel's hand that opened the door? Twisting twice, his hand? Shaking violently, his apple-green eyes were empty and clouded—the servant who was going to jack the apple was left for him by his mother, yes One of his most loyal servants and playmates.
Finally she reached out to help Daniel unscrew the door.
When she was leaving, she could still hear her father's complaints behind her: "This group of children are too delicate, they should have broken off their intimate relationship earlier."
"They? They will be betrayed at any time in the future. If they don't even have the courage to raise a gun to those close to them, how can they inherit the Hinchmani family."
The subordinate next to him praised: "Yes, when you found out that your wife was betraying you, you killed her without any hesitation. It can be said that you were very resolute."
"My heir should also have such a demeanor." Her father replied lazily, with regret in his words, "Daniel looks cold-hearted, but in fact he is very affectionate. This is not as good as Phoebe. Back then After I killed his mother, he and I fell out for a while."
"I hope he won't let me down again this time, and he can show the courage to draw a gun at his mother tomorrow like Phoebe."
Go? Daniel’s back in front paused, Phoebe clearly saw his fists clenched, and then left.
Phoebe turned her head and went back to her room indifferently. She opened the door twice this time, not because her hands were shaking, but because her palms were sweaty—why? Bi Ye? Can't figure it out, she knows? She is not a person who sweats easily, otherwise she would not be able to hold the gun.
But why? Why?
"You? You're back." Her mother opened the door, and asked cautiously and worriedly, "You? You look so ugly. What is the content of the heir trial?"
Phoebe looked her in the eye, that sweaty palm feeling came back, and she took a deep breath and told her all.
But to Phoebe's surprise, her mother was very calm about it. She said: "You? Have the freedom and ability to fight for an heir. If you want to shoot me, then? Shoot me."
"No matter what it is, you are the best child I have ever seen. I believe you will not miss it."
Phoebe was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hands were just starting to shake. "What if I miss it?"
"Then? I might die." Her mother's voice was as calm as a lake with no wind under the moon. When she said this, she smiled dignifiedly and subtly, "But I died on your behalf." Better to die in the hands of the rest of the Hinchmany family?"
"You? Will see my soul turn into a bird and fly away from here?"
"Mom." Phoebe interrupted coldly, "I don't believe in fairy tales."
Her mother sighed regretfully: "Okay."
When she prayed that night, her mother prayed those contents as always. She did not stand up very rarely, but sat up with her on the head of the bed, looked at the moon outside the window, closed her eyes, and for the first time really ?Pray in my heart:
"God... I hope you? Bless me not to miss tomorrow."
"Of course you? It doesn't matter if you don't bless me." Phoebe opened her eyes. She looked at her mother's face that was still praying with closed eyes, her eyes were piercing, and she took a deep breath.
next day?
After everyone fired the first shot, the whole venue was in chaos. Phoebe's mother squatted down as if she had been shot, and her mind went blank for a moment—she knew clearly? What? Why would she fall?
Soon, someone came up to report: "A bullet from another child flew over, crossed the barrier we erected, and grazed Madam's arm."
"Would you like to pause for a while?" His father asked her gently, "I'll ask her to change her position and continue to push the apple."
Her face was grim, but her chest was heaving violently in the corset—she was grateful for the gap, allowing her to breathe normally in this situation, otherwise she would have been starved of oxygen and suffocated.
"Temporary..." She was about to put down the gun and opened her mouth when she saw her mother's mouth shape through the scope.
Her mother half-kneeled on the ground, in a praying posture, with an apple placed on her head, she looked at her, although there were tears in her eyes, but there was no fear in her expression, and she said—【Shoot. 】
[You will win, you will win, you are a genius. 】
【You? You won't miss it. 】
"No pause," Phoebe said calmly. "Stay Mommy in place and keep changing apples. It'll be over soon."
She pulled the trigger.
——Just like her previous results, ten shots, she didn't miss even one shot.
Her father looked at her in wonderment, as if looking at a formed leader, and sighed, "You? Perfect as a boy, Phoebe."
"That's not considered a compliment, Father." Phoebe put down the gun with a cold expression, she shook her hand that was numb from the shock, and looked around, "I'm better than you? many."
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"Phoebe." The pope lowered his head, his eyes were dim, "You? Are we? The best nun. In this battle with the witch, you? You have to do a good job of serving as a spiritual symbol and don't let the people believe blindly. Quan Paula, her power to deceive people is extraordinary, you? You want to win her."
"Afterwards, I promise you? Go to the island."
"But I'm not yet an adult, so can I?" Phoebe asked with a puzzled expression on her innocent face, "Castle in the sky, isn't it only grown-up nuns who can go there?"
Looking at Phoebe's pure and beautiful appearance, the Pope smiled meaningfully: "There are exceptions."
"The last special queen left the island temporarily due to some incidents, and a place is just vacant for you? You? You have to take over his duties and continue to perform the duties of a nun on the island, purifying the filthy place for everyone who goes to the island. Yu, you? It seems that you have this potential, so I give you permission to go to the island in advance."
Phoebe blinked, she smiled? Laughed?: "Then? I thank the Pope in advance?"
Unable to hear Phoebe's questioning tone, the Pope nodded quite complacently, and then waved his hand: "You? Go down first. I will explain the details to the bishop who led you. Now I will discuss other matters with him first."
Phoebe bowed obediently and backed away.
After Phoebe left, the pope's face quickly darkened: "Has the male eel production situation improved?"
"No." The bishop shook his head with some fear on his face. "In the beginning, the female eels we stole from us continued to produce female eels, but gradually, there were one or two male eels out of ten thousand. Eels, we? We were happy at first, because then these male eels could have sex with all the female eels, not like before? Only one male eel could have sex, so the production speed would be faster, we? At that time Just let all the women hand over the eels they couldn't digest, that is, the male eels, to the Holy See, saying that we?
"Soon, we ushered in the period of the eel explosion. In fact, at this time, the production speed of eels has become a little out of control. There are eels everywhere. Some people will drill eels out when they turn on the faucet. The Holy See originally wanted to stop this. The eel was planned, but because the people at that time were in such a situation, they became more and more dependent and trusting on the Holy See who proposed the eel solution. Not only did they collect a large amount of eel that was digested and handed over by each household every day. eel bones, and the popularity and income increased day by day, so the Pope at the time acquiesced in the eel project’s continuation.”
The bishop swallowed his saliva: "But wait? In the later stage, when the first witch appeared, the pope was? frightened. He really wanted to suspend the plan, but Quan Baola appeared."
"As soon as she appeared, she attracted the attention of all the people. She appealed to the people not to blindly let women eat eels, but to find other ways, and she was willing to come out and solve everyone's problems first. Soon she formed the Saintess Patrol At that time, the Saintess Patrol was a spontaneous organization independent of the Holy See. It solved problems quickly. The attitude of the leader, Quan Baola, was vigorous and close to the people. Gradually, everyone was more willing to go to Quan Paula to solve the problem than the Holy See. , the power of the Holy See is getting weaker, after hinting to Quan Paula twice, after the Saintess patrol team who wanted to capture her was rejected, this made the Pope at that time angry and increased the intensity of male eels. "
"Under such circumstances, witches began to appear in piles, and the Holy See kicked off the witch trial, but Quan Paula did not agree with this kind of trial. She unequivocally opposed this kind of trial and stood on the side of the Holy See." opposite."
"But in the later stage, there were more and more eels and witches. The people who had been under the protection of the Saintess Patrol finally lost control. They fell to the Holy See. At this time, you seized the right moment and successfully tried Quan Baola, after Quan Baola was tried and defected, the country was finally completely under the control of the Holy See, and even the Saintess Patrol was incorporated into the Holy See."
"We? Finally stopped the eel project, but, but..."
The pope added the second half of the sentence in a gloomy tone: "But the production of male eels is completely out of control."
The bishop nodded tremblingly: "Yes! The indigestible male eels collected from all over the country by the preparatory witches can already fill up the pool under the Sky City Prison, and this amount is still flowing. Climbing, we? Have no idea? How many wild male eels there are in the wild...”
"This male eel is, but..." the bishop couldn't help but shuddered, and cried out in a broken voice, "But it needs our? intestinal juice to dissolve it, my lord pope!"
"Shut up!" The pope interrupted the bishop's screams viciously, "Don't I? Don't know?! Otherwise, why should I hide these male eels on the island of the sky and isolate them from these female eels?! "
The bishop was shuddered by the roar, paused, and quickly said in a low voice: "Why? Why are there more and more male eels? Aren't all the eels produced all the time before?"
The Pope also fell into an eerie silence.
That's right, aren't all the eels produced at the beginning? How did male eels suddenly start producing in abundance?
the other end.
The night was silent, and everyone curled up on the ground and fell asleep. The full moon hung in the sky, but half was blocked by a huge island.
Bai Liu sat on the top floor, looking at the island, his eyes narrowed.
"You? You came up alone, are you planning to chat with Jiayi? What?" Tang Er? He and Bai Liu are used to keeping watch for other people before they go to sleep. They are usually the first night when they join the game? No Sleeping, the others slept, so when he saw Bai Liu coming up, he also came up.
Tang Er sat down next to Bai Liu and looked at him with his head tilted: "You? Still worried about Jiayi?"
After all, it was the first time to take over the authority of a tactician, and it was such a crucial round.
"No, she is more thoughtful and prudent than me." Bai Liu shook his head, he looked up at the island, and said calmly, "I'm thinking about other things."
"What's the matter?" Tang Er asked.
"Jiayi just told me that the witch said that the eels that were polluted in large quantities are all female eels, and that male eels cannot be digested by witches, but male eels are rare." Bai Liu was thoughtful, "Any creature Both have a tendency to overpopulate, and in an overpopulated species it is rare for females to outnumber males so much, generally males outnumber females."
"If a creature takes reproduction as its task, it will indeed produce a large number of females in the early days, but when the number of females reaches a certain amount, it will be reversed, and this creature will start to produce a large number of males again. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of overbreeding."
Tang Er was a little puzzled, and he asked hesitantly, "You mean...Actually? There are still a lot of male eels that witches can't digest, right?"
"Well, I personally guess like this." Bai Liu paused, "Any kind of monster has its corresponding weakness and elimination method. This is the setting of this game. I'm actually thinking. Eliminate male eels, then? According to the symmetrical setting of this game, the one that can digest male eels should be..."
Tang Er? said slowly: "Male digestive juice."
Bai Liu smiled: "Bingo, that's what I thought, and what's worse, I think it might be intestinal juice."
Tang Er felt a chill down his back. He looked at Bai Liu's wicked smile and raised his forehead helplessly: "I finally understand you. Why? Why did you bring me up to tell me this? Mu Sicheng wants to listen." To you? Guessing this setting can make you jump up with your butt covered in fright."
"Why? Guess it's intestinal juice?"
"Because if men can digest the eel's liquid, it's also saliva, then it's impossible to be discovered in this situation." Bai Liu held his chin and spoke lazily, "Now the amount of eels is so high that we need to smuggle women abroad. It was resolved, but ordinary civilian families cannot afford the price of preparatory witch services, and because of the large-scale witch trials, many families have lost a single woman."
"In such an extreme and desperate situation, some men will imitate the behavior of witches and swallow eels, trying to digest each other."
"We? The group of people rescued downstairs had at least two men who did this. They? There were strange scratches on the corners of their mouths, which were still fresh."
"If it is true to assume that men's digestive juices can digest eels, then at least the upper digestive tract, a place where ordinary people can easily experiment, is unlikely, otherwise the situation for witches would not be so one-sided , then I think it is relatively more difficult to experiment, or the lower digestive tract that few people think of? It is more likely.”
"That's the intestines."
"Jiayi's guess is consistent with mine, but at present she doesn't have suitable candidates for the experiment, so she can't draw the most accurate conclusion. In order to avoid temptation, she has not drawn her own conclusion for the time being. Tell the witch." Bai Liu glanced at Tang Er, "So our mission tomorrow is to save the witch who was judged by you, and we have another mission."
Bai Liu smiled and said, "——that's to arrest a priest from the Holy See jury and give Jiayi an experiment."
Tang Er, who was sweating wildly, let out a long breath: "This is no problem!"
Scared him to death! When Bai Liu glanced at him just now, he thought that Bai Liu was going to say that since there is a lack of people, he is not as good as you? Let's go and do experiments for Jiayi, this kind of thing is not impossible for this person!
On the other end, the Pope's Palace.
The smile on Phoebe's face when she came out of the main hall disappeared instantly, and turned into a bored expression. She walked quickly across the garden, and before arriving at the nuns' hall, she looked at the one on her right hand. Looking at the ladder leading directly to the island, his gaze paused for a moment.
This ladder is shrouded in a layer of silver-blue light. When she came here, she tried to go up twice, but she lost seventeen points of blood, and got nothing - just like what the Pope said? In the same way, without a key, it is true that no one can go up.
But the [scepter] which is the key is held in the hand of the Pope without leaving it for a moment.
The Pope can lock Hearts into prison, so there must be some special monster setting or buff on him. Before she finds out, she'd better not act rashly.
But that doesn't mean she can't move.
"Qi Yifang, the bishop, etc.? I will issue a mission for me to take charge of some witch trials. You? Remember, where did he ask me to go? You and Liu Ji will apply for which trial court to go to." Phoebe said coldly. Qi Yifang ordered.
Qi Yifang asked suspiciously: "What are you going to do?"
Phoebe looked up at him. There was no emotion in her green eyes, but she had a pure smile on her face. She clasped her hands together and prayed devoutly: "What else can I do? Of course. Send the Inquisitors to hell."
"—Isn't this the essential work of a nun?"
The pope can't move, so let's start with the priest at the bottom and see which floor of the Holy See the monster she can kill is on.
Qi Yifang was horrified by Phoebe's laugh, but as a player with league quality, when he knew that Phoebe got the tactician authority, he knew that there was only one word left for him to say to Phoebe , that? That is: "OK."
"Tomorrow will be a tough battle. Let's have a good rest tonight." Phoebe smiled and waved her little hand at Qi Yifang. "Remember to pray before going to bed, so that the Lord will bless you. Sleep well."
Qi Yifang: "...Okay, okay qaq."
Woohoo, queen, miss you!
Phoebe returned to the nuns' hall. She was standing beside her white lace bed, and the silvery white moonlight was shining on the edge of the bed. She slowly raised her head to look at the impossibly bright moon outside, and the moonlight fell on her long golden curly hair. , shining brightly, her expression was indifferent and holy, her emerald green eyes were like emeralds on a laurel wreath, with a misty halo, she closed her eyes, folded her hands together and prayed on her chest.
She has always stood up and prayed, she has never knelt down to anyone, even when she is praying, no one in this world can make her kneel down, not even God? No way.
"May the Lord bless..." Phoebe said. Here, she suddenly stopped, and then she shrugged indifferently, "Of course you? It's okay if you don't protect me. I will personally? Let them? Go to hell."
After she finished speaking, she lay on the bed, with her head lying in the center of the pillow evenly, and there was no wrinkle on the quilt covering her. Her hands were folded in front of her chest. This is a very regular way of sleeping. — This is the way her pious mother taught her to sleep, just like praying.
It's all things that she didn't understand and found troublesome, but she's used to it.
Ever since she could remember, she had been noticed by her father.
Her father looked at her in disbelief, and rarely among a bunch of boys hugged her to his lap, took off the gun she was clutching tightly in his hand, and asked her: "You? Why? Pointing a gun at your brother? You're loaded? Who taught you?"
How did she answer it? It's like, "Kill him and I'll get his cub. It's mine. I've warned him three times and he still hasn't returned it to me."
"No one taught me, but I saw you? Used."
Her father asked the so-called her brother to return the bear to her, but the other party would only cry and scream, and would not return it, and even wiped her tears with the bear, so she grabbed the gun without hesitation. She shot the little bear in the little boy's hand. The huge recoil of the gun dislocated her arm. Everyone stood up, including her father.
"What are you doing? Phoebe?!" Her father looked at her in surprise.
The stupid boy who snatched her little bear grabbed the wreckage of the little bear puppet that was smashed by the gun, and sat on the ground in fright, peeing all over the floor, she looked at her father, but smiled strangely He got up: "Little Bear was dirty by him. I don't want it anymore, but he can't have it either."
Her father looked into her eyes as if seeing a monster, or as if seeing a genius? He asked her in amazement, "You? How do you feel now, Phoebe?"
Phoebe smiled crookedly, "I feel very happy."
——a pure power of domination, the joy of threatening an opponent?
Since then, no one in the Hinchmani family has dared to snatch what belongs to her. In order to compete for her a rightful heir, her father married her biological mother, a woman of unknown origin. Entered Hinchmany's house.
The first time the woman saw her, she froze in place.
She was standing next to her father, dressed up like a little boy, wearing a boy's riding boots, a little jacket, her blond hair was cut by a few centimeters, tucked into a hat, to herself The biological mother, who had never met before, just saluted politely: "The Hinchmani family welcomes you, mother."
—she looked exactly like her father.
That night, her mother knelt on her bed and prayed all night. She shed tears and said, "I'm sorry, I came too late. They? turned you into this."
"You? It looks like you? A cold-blooded and cruel father..."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that about you." She put her hands on her heart and prayed for her devoutly, "The Lord will protect us."
"Mom." Phoebe, who was lying on the bed, said coldly, "The Hinchmani family doesn't believe in gods, we? We only believe in ourselves. I respect your beliefs, but if you want to pray, you can go back to your room. If it is not enough, I will ask the servant to build a special prayer room for you, if possible, please go back and rest, I have a firearms class tomorrow morning."
Her mother knelt beside her bed in silence for a long time, and left in a daze.
After taking back her mother, her life experienced short-term turmoil. Her mother is really a very strange woman. She always has some unrealistic expectations and wishes, and there are always some Incomprehensible tears and prayers, there are always some delusional longings for freedom, talking to herself all day long, saying that she hopes the Lord will destroy the dark family and let her and her children be free again.
Many people around her said in her ears that her mother was actually a lunatic.
But Phoebe didn't think so. She thought her mother should be a normal person, but in the Hinchmany family, normal people couldn't survive.
Just a poor and helpless normal person?
When her mother cried again and begged Phoebe to pray with her, Phoebe lowered her eyes and looked at her mother, very rarely agreeing to this waste of her time practicing martial arts and guns.
"Only five minutes." She said calmly, "I can accompany you on Monday, Wednesday?, Sunday? Pray for five minutes."
Her mother wept with joy and said, enough is enough for the child.
She was put on the service of a nun, and when her mother said that she would kneel down and pray, Phoebe refused coldly. Her mother had nothing to do with her, so she had no choice but to kneel beside her and pray.
"Pray that my Phoebe can escape here as a bird and go to a free paradise."
Phoebe followed up indifferently: "Pray that during training today those idiots can shoot themselves to death and go to endless hell."
Phoebe's mom: "..."
After her mother cried and laughed and corrected Phoebe's prayers three or four times to no avail, Phoebe finally fell in love with the prayer(?) activity of verbally going to hell before going to bed, and her mother No, a normal human being who she had always felt weak and incompetent in the Hinchmany family condoned her damning act of prayer.
Wasn't this an insult to her pious faith? Why? Instead of blaming her for doing something wrong, instead of covering her face and laughing helplessly every time she finished cursing?
Finally, once she asked, her mother smiled and looked at her, stroking her forehead hair: "People's unrealistic belief in gods is a kind of escape from their own weakness, you? Say That's right, praying is indeed a very weak act, no matter how much I pray, I can't take you away from Hinchmani's house. Under this premise, I have no way to accuse you, Because you're right."
She asked, "Then why are you still praying?"
"I'm not praying to God," her mother answered her softly, "I'm praying to my soul, to your? Here, we must have love and hope in our hearts, whether it's you or me, we must maintain the original appearance of our souls, and wait for the day when we turn into birds and fly away from here."
"Even if that? One day is the moment of death."
"It's just a reminder."
Dressed in a nun's service, her mother knelt down devoutly in front of her, closed her eyes and clasped her hands in the moonlight, whispering softly: "My children, Phoebe and I, will one day get the freedom we want. "
Looking at her mother's pious, almost holy face in the moonlight, she saw for the first time that this woman possessed a power she had been ignoring.
——A kind of power that is completely different from holding a gun. It is a sense of belief that guns and external forces cannot be destroyed.
In something she believed in, even if it wasn't going to come true, Phoebe saw for the first time such a strange belief--a weak, pliable, yet indestructible belief that she dared say even if she Her father held a gun to her mother's head, and she wouldn't stop praying.
Phoebe had been taught by her father that the weak could be crushed, but now she felt that no one in the Hinchmany family could crush her praying mother.
But she is supposed to be a weak person, but she is clearly a weak person.
Phoebe doesn't like underdogs.
But she extended her daily prayer time with her mother to fifteen minutes.
Gradually, as she grew up, her advantages among the heirs became more and more obvious. Her father's subordinates' attitude towards her changed from disapproving at first to admiring her excellence, but every time they would be followed by a sentence of "it's a pity" Phoebe's a girl."
Phoebe has almost heard this sentence cocooned, and she is completely indifferent.
It's just that her father would sigh every time: "Yeah, if only she was a boy like Daniel."
Daniel is another child of her father, three years older than her. He is another heir whom her father favors very much. She has a similar experience with her—married Daniel’s mother as his wife, and Daniel is like her, and they ? Fathers are very similar.
This similarity can be said to be in character, or it can be said to be in appearance. They are both standard blond and blue-eyed. When Phoebe cut her hair short and wore men's clothing, the two stood together like twins, exactly the same His arrogance, indifference and strength.
Of course they? Never stand together.
Just like the offspring of lions compete for food before they open their eyes, before they realize that they are "brothers and sisters", they first realize that the other party is "competitors" compared to themselves.
"The heir is about to be selected." Her father patted her on the shoulder. "Phoebe's grades have always been the best. Except for her gender, she is the most suitable heir."
"I thought about it all night. If she succeeds in the selection of the heir, then? I can basically take her identity. As for the troublesome matter of gender, I am going to let her always show people in male attire."
"You always wear men's clothing?" Some subordinates joked, "What a cruel father, Phoebe hasn't developed yet, how will you make her pretend to be a man in the later stage?"
"What's the matter?" her father said lightly, "the corset is fine, she won't grow any more."
"Phoebe is as cruel as a man, as strong as a man. The only shortcoming is that she is not really a man, but fortunately, she is not weak at all, and she will not be unable to bear the pain of breast corset."
So that night, Phoebe received a corset. Her mother was beside her, and when she held up the corset, her expression was completely dazed: "What is your father going to do?!"
"You're only ten years old with such a tight corset! This will deform your chest!"
"Really? Not today." Phoebe lay on the bed indifferently, and she yawned, "When? When I start to grow, I will wear it."
"No!" Her mother became serious in a rare way. "You? You can't wear this! You? You are a child, you should develop as you want, and no one can destroy your normal growth process!"
"I'm not obsessed with breasts." Phoebe lazily turned her head and looked at her mother who was lying on the bed. "It's just an organ. It doesn't matter how big or small. If you need to corset your breasts to win the position of heir, then ? Just tie it up."
"That's not the problem!" Her mother refuted her sternly. "The problem is that you? You can win even if you don't tie your breasts! Why? Why do you have to tie your breasts!"
"Can you win without a corset?" Phoebe asked suspiciously, "Then? The subordinates said that if the chest is too big, it will keep shaking, which will affect the speed of drawing the gun, isn't it?"
"Damn you fucking dog men?!" Her mother swears in front of her for the first time ever, and she explains to Phoebe seriously, "Someone told you? It's too big for men to run Speed?"
Phoebe thought about it, and she stroked her chin. "That's not it."
Daniel should grow up, right? When he was running fast? No crotch stuck.
Her mother asked, "So? Why? Why do breasts affect the speed of the gun?"
"Why? Why don't tools adapt to the organs that humans already have, and organs to adapt to the tools invented by humans? Humans can invent different underwear for gender, why? Can't they invent different guns?"
Phoebe paused. Looking at her mother who was suddenly furious, she paused subtly: "You? Calm down."
"But my father won't be satisfied if he doesn't wear a corset." Phoebe spread her hands flatly, "He's not dead yet, at least I can't disobey him publicly, of course, let alone you. "
Her mother languished quickly, looking tearfully at Phoebe.
After a while, her eyes lit up: "I can change this corset for you so that you can wear it without squeezing it."
"You? Put it on and try it?" Her mother nervously handed it to her after finishing the correction, "Do you still want to tighten it?"
Phoebe took the corset, which didn't seem to have changed much, paused, and then put it on: "It's not tight."
She used to be able to hold her breath when she put it on, but now she has a gap to breathe.
Watching her mother stay up all night beside her mending corsets, Phoebe felt... amazing.
She doesn't really care about it, the lack of breast development is really insignificant to her, and her seemingly gentle and weak mother will get so angry about this insignificant thing, and then... I tried my best to modify her clothes, just to give her a space to breathe.
With her strength as a weak person, she can only be given such a little space in Hinchmani's house.
Her mother let out a long breath: "Then? That's good."
Phoebe looked at her, wanting to tell her that in Hinchmany's house, it's pointless for weaklings to struggle with this little gap, but seeing her mother begin to kneel and pray again, she added the phrase The words were swallowed back.
Her mother knelt by her bedside and prayed devoutly: "May my children and I grow up and die freely."
After her mother prayed and left, Phoebe looked at the moon through the skylight and thought, What is freedom?
Phoebe reached out and touched the looser bra under the pillow, allowing her to continue to develop normally. She stroked the fine stitches on it, thinking—is this freedom?
What a fragile freedom.
Soon, the heir's experience will come. After all the children got the content of tomorrow's experience, they squatted in place and cried loudly. The only ones who could maintain their manners and leave after saying goodbye to their father were only her and Daniel.
But she saw Daniel's hand that opened the door? Twisting twice, his hand? Shaking violently, his apple-green eyes were empty and clouded—the servant who was going to jack the apple was left for him by his mother, yes One of his most loyal servants and playmates.
Finally she reached out to help Daniel unscrew the door.
When she was leaving, she could still hear her father's complaints behind her: "This group of children are too delicate, they should have broken off their intimate relationship earlier."
"They? They will be betrayed at any time in the future. If they don't even have the courage to raise a gun to those close to them, how can they inherit the Hinchmani family."
The subordinate next to him praised: "Yes, when you found out that your wife was betraying you, you killed her without any hesitation. It can be said that you were very resolute."
"My heir should also have such a demeanor." Her father replied lazily, with regret in his words, "Daniel looks cold-hearted, but in fact he is very affectionate. This is not as good as Phoebe. Back then After I killed his mother, he and I fell out for a while."
"I hope he won't let me down again this time, and he can show the courage to draw a gun at his mother tomorrow like Phoebe."
Go? Daniel’s back in front paused, Phoebe clearly saw his fists clenched, and then left.
Phoebe turned her head and went back to her room indifferently. She opened the door twice this time, not because her hands were shaking, but because her palms were sweaty—why? Bi Ye? Can't figure it out, she knows? She is not a person who sweats easily, otherwise she would not be able to hold the gun.
But why? Why?
"You? You're back." Her mother opened the door, and asked cautiously and worriedly, "You? You look so ugly. What is the content of the heir trial?"
Phoebe looked her in the eye, that sweaty palm feeling came back, and she took a deep breath and told her all.
But to Phoebe's surprise, her mother was very calm about it. She said: "You? Have the freedom and ability to fight for an heir. If you want to shoot me, then? Shoot me."
"No matter what it is, you are the best child I have ever seen. I believe you will not miss it."
Phoebe was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hands were just starting to shake. "What if I miss it?"
"Then? I might die." Her mother's voice was as calm as a lake with no wind under the moon. When she said this, she smiled dignifiedly and subtly, "But I died on your behalf." Better to die in the hands of the rest of the Hinchmany family?"
"You? Will see my soul turn into a bird and fly away from here?"
"Mom." Phoebe interrupted coldly, "I don't believe in fairy tales."
Her mother sighed regretfully: "Okay."
When she prayed that night, her mother prayed those contents as always. She did not stand up very rarely, but sat up with her on the head of the bed, looked at the moon outside the window, closed her eyes, and for the first time really ?Pray in my heart:
"God... I hope you? Bless me not to miss tomorrow."
"Of course you? It doesn't matter if you don't bless me." Phoebe opened her eyes. She looked at her mother's face that was still praying with closed eyes, her eyes were piercing, and she took a deep breath.
next day?
After everyone fired the first shot, the whole venue was in chaos. Phoebe's mother squatted down as if she had been shot, and her mind went blank for a moment—she knew clearly? What? Why would she fall?
Soon, someone came up to report: "A bullet from another child flew over, crossed the barrier we erected, and grazed Madam's arm."
"Would you like to pause for a while?" His father asked her gently, "I'll ask her to change her position and continue to push the apple."
Her face was grim, but her chest was heaving violently in the corset—she was grateful for the gap, allowing her to breathe normally in this situation, otherwise she would have been starved of oxygen and suffocated.
"Temporary..." She was about to put down the gun and opened her mouth when she saw her mother's mouth shape through the scope.
Her mother half-kneeled on the ground, in a praying posture, with an apple placed on her head, she looked at her, although there were tears in her eyes, but there was no fear in her expression, and she said—【Shoot. 】
[You will win, you will win, you are a genius. 】
【You? You won't miss it. 】
"No pause," Phoebe said calmly. "Stay Mommy in place and keep changing apples. It'll be over soon."
She pulled the trigger.
——Just like her previous results, ten shots, she didn't miss even one shot.
Her father looked at her in wonderment, as if looking at a formed leader, and sighed, "You? Perfect as a boy, Phoebe."
"That's not considered a compliment, Father." Phoebe put down the gun with a cold expression, she shook her hand that was numb from the shock, and looked around, "I'm better than you? many."
"Phoebe." The pope lowered his head, his eyes were dim, "You? Are we? The best nun. In this battle with the witch, you? You have to do a good job of serving as a spiritual symbol and don't let the people believe blindly. Quan Paula, her power to deceive people is extraordinary, you? You want to win her." "Afterwards, I promise you? Go to the island." "But I'm not yet an adult, so can I?" Phoebe asked with a puzzled expression on her innocent face, "Castle in the sky, isn't it only grown-up nuns who can go there?" Looking at Phoebe's pure and beautiful appearance, the Pope smiled meaningfully: "There are exceptions." "The last special queen left the island temporarily due to some incidents, and a place is just vacant for you? You? You have to take over his duties and continue to perform the duties of a nun on the island, purifying the filthy place for everyone who goes to the island. Yu, you? It seems that you have this potential, so I give you permission to go to the island in advance." Phoebe blinked, she smiled? Laughed?: "Then? I thank the Pope in advance?" Unable to hear Phoebe's questioning tone, the Pope nodded quite complacently, and then waved his hand: "You? Go down first. I will explain the details to the bishop who led you. Now I will discuss other matters with him first." Phoebe bowed obediently and backed away. After Phoebe left, the pope's face quickly darkened: "Has the male eel production situation improved?" "No." The bishop shook his head with some fear on his face. "In the beginning, the female eels we stole from us continued to produce female eels, but gradually, there were one or two male eels out of ten thousand. Eels, we? We were happy at first, because then these male eels could have sex with all the female eels, not like before? Only one male eel could have sex, so the production speed would be faster, we? At that time Just let all the women hand over the eels they couldn't digest, that is, the male eels, to the Holy See, saying that we? "Soon, we ushered in the period of the eel explosion. In fact, at this time, the production speed of eels has become a little out of control. There are eels everywhere. Some people will drill eels out when they turn on the faucet. The Holy See originally wanted to stop this. The eel was planned, but because the people at that time were in such a situation, they became more and more dependent and trusting on the Holy See who proposed the eel solution. Not only did they collect a large amount of eel that was digested and handed over by each household every day. eel bones, and the popularity and income increased day by day, so the Pope at the time acquiesced in the eel project's continuation. The bishop swallowed his saliva: "But wait? In the later stage, when the first witch appeared, the pope was? frightened. He really wanted to suspend the plan, but Quan Baola appeared." "As soon as she appeared, she attracted the attention of all the people. She appealed to the people not to blindly let women eat eels, but to find other ways, and she was willing to come out and solve everyone's problems first. Soon she formed the Saintess Patrol At that time, the Saintess Patrol was a spontaneous organization independent of the Holy See. It solved problems quickly. The attitude of the leader, Quan Baola, was vigorous and close to the people. Gradually, everyone was more willing to go to Quan Paula to solve the problem than the Holy See. , the power of the Holy See is getting weaker, after hinting to Quan Paula twice, after the Saintess patrol team who wanted to capture her was rejected, this made the Pope at that time angry and increased the intensity of male eels. " "Under such circumstances, witches began to appear in piles, and the Holy See kicked off the witch trial, but Quan Paula did not agree with this kind of trial. She unequivocally opposed this kind of trial and stood on the side of the Holy See." opposite." "But in the later stage, there were more and more eels and witches. The people who had been under the protection of the Saintess Patrol finally lost control. They fell to the Holy See. At this time, you seized the right moment and successfully tried Quan Baola, after Quan Baola was tried and defected, the country was finally completely under the control of the Holy See, and even the Saintess Patrol was incorporated into the Holy See." "We? Finally stopped the eel project, but, but..." The pope added the second half of the sentence in a gloomy tone: "But the production of male eels is completely out of control." The bishop nodded tremblingly: "Yes! The indigestible male eels collected from all over the country by the preparatory witches can already fill up the pool under the Sky City Prison, and this amount is still flowing. Climbing, we? Have no idea? How many wild male eels there are in the wild... "This male eel is, but..." the bishop couldn't help but shuddered, and cried out in a broken voice, "But it needs our? intestinal juice to dissolve it, my lord pope!" "Shut up!" The pope interrupted the bishop's screams viciously, "Don't I? Don't know?! Otherwise, why should I hide these male eels on the island of the sky and isolate them from these female eels?! " The bishop was shuddered by the roar, paused, and quickly said in a low voice: "Why? Why are there more and more male eels? Aren't all the eels produced all the time before?" The Pope also fell into an eerie silence. That's right, aren't all the eels produced at the beginning? How did male eels suddenly start producing in abundance? the other end. The night was silent, and everyone curled up on the ground and fell asleep. The full moon hung in the sky, but half was blocked by a huge island. Bai Liu sat on the top floor, looking at the island, his eyes narrowed. "You? You came up alone, are you planning to chat with Jiayi? What?" Tang Er? He and Bai Liu are used to keeping watch for other people before they go to sleep. They are usually the first night when they join the game? No Sleeping, the others slept, so when he saw Bai Liu coming up, he also came up. Tang Er sat down next to Bai Liu and looked at him with his head tilted: "You? Still worried about Jiayi?" After all, it was the first time to take over the authority of a tactician, and it was such a crucial round. "No, she is more thoughtful and prudent than me." Bai Liu shook his head, he looked up at the island, and said calmly, "I'm thinking about other things." "What's the matter?" Tang Er asked. "Jiayi just told me that the witch said that the eels that were polluted in large quantities are all female eels, and that male eels cannot be digested by witches, but male eels are rare." Bai Liu was thoughtful, "Any creature Both have a tendency to overpopulate, and in an overpopulated species it is rare for females to outnumber males so much, generally males outnumber females." "If a creature takes reproduction as its task, it will indeed produce a large number of females in the early days, but when the number of females reaches a certain amount, it will be reversed, and this creature will start to produce a large number of males again. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of overbreeding." Tang Er was a little puzzled, and he asked hesitantly, "You mean...Actually? There are still a lot of male eels that witches can't digest, right?" "Well, I personally guess like this." Bai Liu paused, "Any kind of monster has its corresponding weakness and elimination method. This is the setting of this game. I'm actually thinking. Eliminate male eels, then? According to the symmetrical setting of this game, the one that can digest male eels should be..." Tang Er? said slowly: "Male digestive juice." Bai Liu smiled: "Bingo, that's what I thought, and what's worse, I think it might be intestinal juice." Tang Er felt a chill down his back. He looked at Bai Liu's wicked smile and raised his forehead helplessly: "I finally understand you. Why? Why did you bring me up to tell me this? Mu Sicheng wants to listen." To you? Guessing this setting can make you jump up with your butt covered in fright." "Why? Guess it's intestinal juice?" "Because if men can digest the eel's liquid, it's also saliva, then it's impossible to be discovered in this situation." Bai Liu held his chin and spoke lazily, "Now the amount of eels is so high that we need to smuggle women abroad. It was resolved, but ordinary civilian families cannot afford the price of preparatory witch services, and because of the large-scale witch trials, many families have lost a single woman." "In such an extreme and desperate situation, some men will imitate the behavior of witches and swallow eels, trying to digest each other." "We? The group of people rescued downstairs had at least two men who did this. They? There were strange scratches on the corners of their mouths, which were still fresh." "If it is true to assume that men's digestive juices can digest eels, then at least the upper digestive tract, a place where ordinary people can easily experiment, is unlikely, otherwise the situation for witches would not be so one-sided , then I think it is relatively more difficult to experiment, or the lower digestive tract that few people think of? It is more likely. "That's the intestines." "Jiayi's guess is consistent with mine, but at present she doesn't have suitable candidates for the experiment, so she can't draw the most accurate conclusion. In order to avoid temptation, she has not drawn her own conclusion for the time being. Tell the witch." Bai Liu glanced at Tang Er, "So our mission tomorrow is to save the witch who was judged by you, and we have another mission." Bai Liu smiled and said, "that's to arrest a priest from the Holy See jury and give Jiayi an experiment." Tang Er, who was sweating wildly, let out a long breath: "This is no problem!" Scared him to death! When Bai Liu glanced at him just now, he thought that Bai Liu was going to say that since there is a lack of people, he is not as good as you? Let's go and do experiments for Jiayi, this kind of thing is not impossible for this person! On the other end, the Pope's Palace. The smile on Phoebe's face when she came out of the main hall disappeared instantly, and turned into a bored expression. She walked quickly across the garden, and before arriving at the nuns' hall, she looked at the one on her right hand. Looking at the ladder leading directly to the island, his gaze paused for a moment. This ladder is shrouded in a layer of silver-blue light. When she came here, she tried to go up twice, but she lost seventeen points of blood, and got nothing - just like what the Pope said? In the same way, without a key, it is true that no one can go up. But the scepter which is the key is held in the hand of the Pope without leaving it for a moment. The Pope can lock Hearts into prison, so there must be some special monster setting or buff on him. Before she finds out, she'd better not act rashly. But that doesn't mean she can't move. "Qi Yifang, the bishop, etc.? I will issue a mission for me to take charge of some witch trials. You? Remember, where did he ask me to go? You and Liu Ji will apply for which trial court to go to." Phoebe said coldly. Qi Yifang ordered. Qi Yifang asked suspiciously: "What are you going to do?" Phoebe looked up at him. There was no emotion in her green eyes, but she had a pure smile on her face. She clasped her hands together and prayed devoutly: "What else can I do? Of course. Send the Inquisitors to hell." "Isn't this the essential work of a nun?" The pope can't move, so let's start with the priest at the bottom and see which floor of the Holy See the monster she can kill is on. Qi Yifang was horrified by Phoebe's laugh, but as a player with league quality, when he knew that Phoebe got the tactician authority, he knew that there was only one word left for him to say to Phoebe , that? That is: "OK." "Tomorrow will be a tough battle. Let's have a good rest tonight." Phoebe smiled and waved her little hand at Qi Yifang. "Remember to pray before going to bed, so that the Lord will bless you. Sleep well." Qi Yifang: "...Okay, okay qaq." Woohoo, queen, miss you! Phoebe returned to the nuns' hall. She was standing beside her white lace bed, and the silvery white moonlight was shining on the edge of the bed. She slowly raised her head to look at the impossibly bright moon outside, and the moonlight fell on her long golden curly hair. , shining brightly, her expression was indifferent and holy, her emerald green eyes were like emeralds on a laurel wreath, with a misty halo, she closed her eyes, folded her hands together and prayed on her chest. She has always stood up and prayed, she has never knelt down to anyone, even when she is praying, no one in this world can make her kneel down, not even God? No way. "May the Lord bless..." Phoebe said. Here, she suddenly stopped, and then she shrugged indifferently, "Of course you? It's okay if you don't protect me. I will personally? Let them? Go to hell." After she finished speaking, she lay on the bed, with her head lying in the center of the pillow evenly, and there was no wrinkle on the quilt covering her. Her hands were folded in front of her chest. This is a very regular way of sleeping. This is the way her pious mother taught her to sleep, just like praying. It's all things that she didn't understand and found troublesome, but she's used to it. Ever since she could remember, she had been noticed by her father. Her father looked at her in disbelief, and rarely among a bunch of boys hugged her to his lap, took off the gun she was clutching tightly in his hand, and asked her: "You? Why? Pointing a gun at your brother? You're loaded? Who taught you?" How did she answer it? It's like, "Kill him and I'll get his cub. It's mine. I've warned him three times and he still hasn't returned it to me." "No one taught me, but I saw you? Used." Her father asked the so-called her brother to return the bear to her, but the other party would only cry and scream, and would not return it, and even wiped her tears with the bear, so she grabbed the gun without hesitation. She shot the little bear in the little boy's hand. The huge recoil of the gun dislocated her arm. Everyone stood up, including her father. "What are you doing? Phoebe?!" Her father looked at her in surprise. The stupid boy who snatched her little bear grabbed the wreckage of the little bear puppet that was smashed by the gun, and sat on the ground in fright, peeing all over the floor, she looked at her father, but smiled strangely He got up: "Little Bear was dirty by him. I don't want it anymore, but he can't have it either." Her father looked into her eyes as if seeing a monster, or as if seeing a genius? He asked her in amazement, "You? How do you feel now, Phoebe?" Phoebe smiled crookedly, "I feel very happy." a pure power of domination, the joy of threatening an opponent? Since then, no one in the Hinchmani family has dared to snatch what belongs to her. In order to compete for her a rightful heir, her father married her biological mother, a woman of unknown origin. Entered Hinchmany's house. The first time the woman saw her, she froze in place. She was standing next to her father, dressed up like a little boy, wearing a boy's riding boots, a little jacket, her blond hair was cut by a few centimeters, tucked into a hat, to herself The biological mother, who had never met before, just saluted politely: "The Hinchmani family welcomes you, mother." she looked exactly like her father. That night, her mother knelt on her bed and prayed all night. She shed tears and said, "I'm sorry, I came too late. They? turned you into this." "You? It looks like you? A cold-blooded and cruel father..." "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that about you." She put her hands on her heart and prayed for her devoutly, "The Lord will protect us." "Mom." Phoebe, who was lying on the bed, said coldly, "The Hinchmani family doesn't believe in gods, we? We only believe in ourselves. I respect your beliefs, but if you want to pray, you can go back to your room. If it is not enough, I will ask the servant to build a special prayer room for you, if possible, please go back and rest, I have a firearms class tomorrow morning." Her mother knelt beside her bed in silence for a long time, and left in a daze. After taking back her mother, her life experienced short-term turmoil. Her mother is really a very strange woman. She always has some unrealistic expectations and wishes, and there are always some Incomprehensible tears and prayers, there are always some delusional longings for freedom, talking to herself all day long, saying that she hopes the Lord will destroy the dark family and let her and her children be free again. Many people around her said in her ears that her mother was actually a lunatic. But Phoebe didn't think so. She thought her mother should be a normal person, but in the Hinchmany family, normal people couldn't survive. Just a poor and helpless normal person? When her mother cried again and begged Phoebe to pray with her, Phoebe lowered her eyes and looked at her mother, very rarely agreeing to this waste of her time practicing martial arts and guns. "Only five minutes." She said calmly, "I can accompany you on Monday, Wednesday?, Sunday? Pray for five minutes." Her mother wept with joy and said, enough is enough for the child. She was put on the service of a nun, and when her mother said that she would kneel down and pray, Phoebe refused coldly. Her mother had nothing to do with her, so she had no choice but to kneel beside her and pray. "Pray that my Phoebe can escape here as a bird and go to a free paradise." Phoebe followed up indifferently: "Pray that during training today those idiots can shoot themselves to death and go to endless hell." Phoebe's mom: "..." After her mother cried and laughed and corrected Phoebe's prayers three or four times to no avail, Phoebe finally fell in love with the prayer? activity of verbally going to hell before going to bed, and her mother No, a normal human being who she had always felt weak and incompetent in the Hinchmany family condoned her damning act of prayer. Wasn't this an insult to her pious faith? Why? Instead of blaming her for doing something wrong, instead of covering her face and laughing helplessly every time she finished cursing? Finally, once she asked, her mother smiled and looked at her, stroking her forehead hair: "People's unrealistic belief in gods is a kind of escape from their own weakness, you? Say That's right, praying is indeed a very weak act, no matter how much I pray, I can't take you away from Hinchmani's house. Under this premise, I have no way to accuse you, Because you're right." She asked, "Then why are you still praying?" "I'm not praying to God," her mother answered her softly, "I'm praying to my soul, to your? Here, we must have love and hope in our hearts, whether it's you or me, we must maintain the original appearance of our souls, and wait for the day when we turn into birds and fly away from here." "Even if that? One day is the moment of death." "It's just a reminder." Dressed in a nun's service, her mother knelt down devoutly in front of her, closed her eyes and clasped her hands in the moonlight, whispering softly: "My children, Phoebe and I, will one day get the freedom we want. " Looking at her mother's pious, almost holy face in the moonlight, she saw for the first time that this woman possessed a power she had been ignoring. A kind of power that is completely different from holding a gun. It is a sense of belief that guns and external forces cannot be destroyed. In something she believed in, even if it wasn't going to come true, Phoebe saw for the first time such a strange belief--a weak, pliable, yet indestructible belief that she dared say even if she Her father held a gun to her mother's head, and she wouldn't stop praying. Phoebe had been taught by her father that the weak could be crushed, but now she felt that no one in the Hinchmany family could crush her praying mother. But she is supposed to be a weak person, but she is clearly a weak person. Phoebe doesn't like underdogs. But she extended her daily prayer time with her mother to fifteen minutes. Gradually, as she grew up, her advantages among the heirs became more and more obvious. Her father's subordinates' attitude towards her changed from disapproving at first to admiring her excellence, but every time they would be followed by a sentence of "it's a pity" Phoebe's a girl." Phoebe has almost heard this sentence cocooned, and she is completely indifferent. It's just that her father would sigh every time: "Yeah, if only she was a boy like Daniel." Daniel is another child of her father, three years older than her. He is another heir whom her father favors very much. She has a similar experience with hermarried Daniel's mother as his wife, and Daniel is like her, and they ? Fathers are very similar. This similarity can be said to be in character, or it can be said to be in appearance. They are both standard blond and blue-eyed. When Phoebe cut her hair short and wore men's clothing, the two stood together like twins, exactly the same His arrogance, indifference and strength. Of course they? Never stand together. Just like the offspring of lions compete for food before they open their eyes, before they realize that they are "brothers and sisters", they first realize that the other party is "competitors" compared to themselves. "The heir is about to be selected." Her father patted her on the shoulder. "Phoebe's grades have always been the best. Except for her gender, she is the most suitable heir." "I thought about it all night. If she succeeds in the selection of the heir, then? I can basically take her identity. As for the troublesome matter of gender, I am going to let her always show people in male attire." "You always wear men's clothing?" Some subordinates joked, "What a cruel father, Phoebe hasn't developed yet, how will you make her pretend to be a man in the later stage?" "What's the matter?" her father said lightly, "the corset is fine, she won't grow any more." "Phoebe is as cruel as a man, as strong as a man. The only shortcoming is that she is not really a man, but fortunately, she is not weak at all, and she will not be unable to bear the pain of breast corset." So that night, Phoebe received a corset. Her mother was beside her, and when she held up the corset, her expression was completely dazed: "What is your father going to do?!" "You're only ten years old with such a tight corset! This will deform your chest!" "Really? Not today." Phoebe lay on the bed indifferently, and she yawned, "When? When I start to grow, I will wear it." "No!" Her mother became serious in a rare way. "You? You can't wear this! You? You are a child, you should develop as you want, and no one can destroy your normal growth process!" "I'm not obsessed with breasts." Phoebe lazily turned her head and looked at her mother who was lying on the bed. "It's just an organ. It doesn't matter how big or small. If you need to corset your breasts to win the position of heir, then ? Just tie it up." "That's not the problem!" Her mother refuted her sternly. "The problem is that you? You can win even if you don't tie your breasts! Why? Why do you have to tie your breasts!" "Can you win without a corset?" Phoebe asked suspiciously, "Then? The subordinates said that if the chest is too big, it will keep shaking, which will affect the speed of drawing the gun, isn't it?" "Damn you fucking dog men?!" Her mother swears in front of her for the first time ever, and she explains to Phoebe seriously, "Someone told you? It's too big for men to run Speed?" Phoebe thought about it, and she stroked her chin. "That's not it." Daniel should grow up, right? When he was running fast? No crotch stuck. Her mother asked, "So? Why? Why do breasts affect the speed of the gun?" "Why? Why don't tools adapt to the organs that humans already have, and organs to adapt to the tools invented by humans? Humans can invent different underwear for gender, why? Can't they invent different guns?" Phoebe paused. Looking at her mother who was suddenly furious, she paused subtly: "You? Calm down." "But my father won't be satisfied if he doesn't wear a corset." Phoebe spread her hands flatly, "He's not dead yet, at least I can't disobey him publicly, of course, let alone you. " Her mother languished quickly, looking tearfully at Phoebe. After a while, her eyes lit up: "I can change this corset for you so that you can wear it without squeezing it." "You? Put it on and try it?" Her mother nervously handed it to her after finishing the correction, "Do you still want to tighten it?" Phoebe took the corset, which didn't seem to have changed much, paused, and then put it on: "It's not tight." She used to be able to hold her breath when she put it on, but now she has a gap to breathe. Watching her mother stay up all night beside her mending corsets, Phoebe felt... amazing. She doesn't really care about it, the lack of breast development is really insignificant to her, and her seemingly gentle and weak mother will get so angry about this insignificant thing, and then... I tried my best to modify her clothes, just to give her a space to breathe. With her strength as a weak person, she can only be given such a little space in Hinchmani's house. Her mother let out a long breath: "Then? That's good." Phoebe looked at her, wanting to tell her that in Hinchmany's house, it's pointless for weaklings to struggle with this little gap, but seeing her mother begin to kneel and pray again, she added the phrase The words were swallowed back. Her mother knelt by her bedside and prayed devoutly: "May my children and I grow up and die freely." After her mother prayed and left, Phoebe looked at the moon through the skylight and thought, What is freedom? Phoebe reached out and touched the looser bra under the pillow, allowing her to continue to develop normally. She stroked the fine stitches on it, thinkingis this freedom? What a fragile freedom. Soon, the heir's experience will come. After all the children got the content of tomorrow's experience, they squatted in place and cried loudly. The only ones who could maintain their manners and leave after saying goodbye to their father were only her and Daniel. But she saw Daniel's hand that opened the door? Twisting twice, his hand? Shaking violently, his apple-green eyes were empty and cloudedthe servant who was going to jack the apple was left for him by his mother, yes One of his most loyal servants and playmates. Finally she reached out to help Daniel unscrew the door. When she was leaving, she could still hear her father's complaints behind her: "This group of children are too delicate, they should have broken off their intimate relationship earlier." "They? They will be betrayed at any time in the future. If they don't even have the courage to raise a gun to those close to them, how can they inherit the Hinchmani family." The subordinate next to him praised: "Yes, when you found out that your wife was betraying you, you killed her without any hesitation. It can be said that you were very resolute." "My heir should also have such a demeanor." Her father replied lazily, with regret in his words, "Daniel looks cold-hearted, but in fact he is very affectionate. This is not as good as Phoebe. Back then After I killed his mother, he and I fell out for a while." "I hope he won't let me down again this time, and he can show the courage to draw a gun at his mother tomorrow like Phoebe." Go? Daniel's back in front paused, Phoebe clearly saw his fists clenched, and then left. Phoebe turned her head and went back to her room indifferently. She opened the door twice this time, not because her hands were shaking, but because her palms were sweatywhy? Bi Ye? Can't figure it out, she knows? She is not a person who sweats easily, otherwise she would not be able to hold the gun. But why? Why? "You? You're back." Her mother opened the door, and asked cautiously and worriedly, "You? You look so ugly. What is the content of the heir trial?" Phoebe looked her in the eye, that sweaty palm feeling came back, and she took a deep breath and told her all. But to Phoebe's surprise, her mother was very calm about it. She said: "You? Have the freedom and ability to fight for an heir. If you want to shoot me, then? Shoot me." "No matter what it is, you are the best child I have ever seen. I believe you will not miss it." Phoebe was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hands were just starting to shake. "What if I miss it?" "Then? I might die." Her mother's voice was as calm as a lake with no wind under the moon. When she said this, she smiled dignifiedly and subtly, "But I died on your behalf." Better to die in the hands of the rest of the Hinchmany family?" "You? Will see my soul turn into a bird and fly away from here?" "Mom." Phoebe interrupted coldly, "I don't believe in fairy tales." Her mother sighed regretfully: "Okay." When she prayed that night, her mother prayed those contents as always. She did not stand up very rarely, but sat up with her on the head of the bed, looked at the moon outside the window, closed her eyes, and for the first time really ?Pray in my heart: "God... I hope you? Bless me not to miss tomorrow." "Of course you? It doesn't matter if you don't bless me." Phoebe opened her eyes. She looked at her mother's face that was still praying with closed eyes, her eyes were piercing, and she took a deep breath. next day? After everyone fired the first shot, the whole venue was in chaos. Phoebe's mother squatted down as if she had been shot, and her mind went blank for a momentshe knew clearly? What? Why would she fall? Soon, someone came up to report: "A bullet from another child flew over, crossed the barrier we erected, and grazed Madam's arm." "Would you like to pause for a while?" His father asked her gently, "I'll ask her to change her position and continue to push the apple." Her face was grim, but her chest was heaving violently in the corsetshe was grateful for the gap, allowing her to breathe normally in this situation, otherwise she would have been starved of oxygen and suffocated. "Temporary..." She was about to put down the gun and opened her mouth when she saw her mother's mouth shape through the scope. Her mother half-kneeled on the ground, in a praying posture, with an apple placed on her head, she looked at her, although there were tears in her eyes, but there was no fear in her expression, and she saidShoot. You will win, you will win, you are a genius. You? You won't miss it. "No pause," Phoebe said calmly. "Stay Mommy in place and keep changing apples. It'll be over soon." She pulled the trigger. Just like her previous results, ten shots, she didn't miss even one shot. Her father looked at her in wonderment, as if looking at a formed leader, and sighed, "You? Perfect as a boy, Phoebe." "That's not considered a compliment, Father." Phoebe put down the gun with a cold expression, she shook her hand that was numb from the shock, and looked around, "I'm better than you? many."
