In 716 A.D., after ten years of recuperation, the Arab Empire once again marched on Constantinople with 80,000 troops on land and water. At that time, the Byzantine Empire was in frequent rebellions and the state was declining. The master of Constantinople, Theodosius III, was a tax collector, and although he was supported by the army to become emperor, he had nothing to do in the face of the declining empire. The city is about to be destroyed, and the city, like the ancient empire it symbolizes, is already in turmoil.

An old man drove a horse-drawn carriage through a winding and rugged mountain road. The old man's body was stiff, his palms were thick and deformed, covered with calluses, and his face was wrinkled like walnut pits, and the burden of life weighed him down.

The old horse pulling the cart was the same as its owner, without a majestic posture, not only a short and incompetent inferior breed, but also a sickly thin one. But it was familiar with this mountain road, and although it stopped and went, even the most precious war horses could not do it better than it in this place where the road could not be reached.

The treacherous politics, the bloody wars, for the old man and the old horse, it is another world thing. All the old man wanted was to have a good meal, and if he could occasionally sip a sip of wine, it would be a great gift, and as for war, he didn't know much about it, and he wasn't interested in it, anyway, he didn't believe that the army of the infidels could occupy this land blessed by the Lord.

Sitting in the carriage was a man wrapped in a black robe, his stature was unusually tall, and one could not help but wonder what kind of mighty face he had, but even in this daytime, his face was still hidden deep under the black robe, so that people could not see it clearly.

The old man had been doing business with this man for almost ten years, but he had never seen his face. But the old man didn't care about this, he was nothing more than an ascetic with a quirky temperament. The old man cared about his generous shots. The man would come to the old man once a year at this time, paying him a large sum of money to take him on this journey, and their destination was a secret garden hidden deep in the mountains. The old man's work also includes the maintenance of the garden.

Touching the heavy coins in his pocket, the old man's hands became more and more itchy, and he wanted to drink and gamble tonight.

The tall man in the carriage was silent all the way, and the old man tried to talk to him at the earliest, saying some words of praise and compliment, in the hope of more payment, but this behavior was never reciprocated, so the old man gradually got used to the man's quirks, and said no more.

The old man wondered if this could be a peculiar penance, and a person like this could only be a monk of the church, or a nobleman, but the nobleman must have a large number of followers when he went out, and he would definitely not be alone like him.

Walking and stopping along the way, except for the birdsong in the mountains, there is only the old horse has a weak rhythm, two people and one horse, in this silence actually gave birth to a solemn sense of ceremony, as if going to a sacred date.

Finally, when the old man and the old horse were already sweating profusely, the secret garden hidden in the mountains was finally looming.

"Stop. The tall man in the car suddenly ordered. His voice was deep and deep, with a magical magnetism.

The old man didn't have to move his hand, he just snorted, and the old horse had stopped.

"Is there any problem?" said the old man, who had always stopped at the garden gate. How long has it been since I heard this man's voice? Take money, do things, never need to talk much, the old man is used to it.

"Go back. The man got out of the car and said to the old man.

"Don't you need me to take you back?"

The man ignored him and headed straight for the garden.

The old man looked in the direction of the garden, there was nothing strange, could it be that he had discovered that I had been lazy and had not cleaned up the weeds? Forget it, the money is already in hand anyway, so it's the right thing to go back and try your luck.

The old man patted his old partner's buttocks, and turned away a little impatiently.

The black-robed man looked in the direction of the garden, and he saw a person who should not be in the garden the least, and he saw a person who was the least deserving to be in the garden. The black-robed man was like an active volcano about to erupt, he desperately suppressed the anger in his heart, step by step, without fear of death, without retreating towards the garden.

At the entrance of the garden, a Christian monk dressed in coarse linen was gently caressing a petal of a flower, with curious hesitation and confusion on his face. He was not tall and small, but everyone who saw him could feel a kind of tallness, which was by no means aggressive and aggressive, but full of fatherly intimacy and intelligence.

His curly blonde hair had turned a few strands white, and the wrinkles on his face showed signs of age, but his thick eyebrows trembled slightly, and his face smiled, like an innocent child, who seemed to have no desire to leave a filth on this body.

The black-robed man approached step by step, and soon he was less than ten steps away from the monk.

The monk seemed to reluctantly withdraw his gaze from the petals, and he looked at the black-robed man, as if calling the name of a close friend, "Devil." Finally seeing you. ”

The black-robed man stopped and said mockingly, "Hmph, Sage. ”

The monk squinted his eyes at the sky and stretched out his hands as if to embrace the sun, "You are still the same as before, you will never be able to enjoy this divine radiance. ”

The black-robed man sneered, "How can the Venerable Sage still have time to meet me, a lowly person, the heretics in your eyes have already arrived outside the city, and they are about to burn your hypocrisy to ashes, aren't they?"

"When an elder brother comes to his sister, the Lord will not stop it. ”

The black-robed man's fists creaked, and he couldn't help but reprimand, "Why do you dare to say such a thing?"

"Is this the garden you built for my sister?" violets, thyme, lilies, daffodils, mallows, impatiens, ......."

The black-robed man took a step forward, "What the hell do you want to do?"

The monk seemed to be silent in his memories, not noticing the killing intent of the black-robed man, and he said with endless emotion: "I remember that when I was a child, she taught me to recognize these flowers one by one. ”

The black-robed man took another step forward and said in a deep voice, "You are enough, if you want to provoke me, then you have done well enough." I don't want to do anything here, let's change places. ”

"You still don't understand that the Lord's light is everywhere, and what is the difference between here and there? Let my sister see you redeemed with her own eyes, I think that is also her wish. ”

"Ahhhh......h