Chapter 434: The Zoroastrian's Secret

Wei Zhuang once suggested that Tang Zhangwei should pay attention to Zoroastrians, and Tang Zhangwei also asked Wei Wan'er and Wei Youji to observe Zoroastrians for a long time, and even Sima Qingshan, as well as Yanling noblewoman, as well as the princess of the Eastern Roman Empire, Princess Suining and others have monitored Zoroastrians.

However, the Zoroastrians never showed any of their feet.

All this made Tang Zhangwei have to shrink his forces, because Tang Zhangwei had too many things to do, and he couldn't sprinkle pepper noodles.

Because of this, Tang Zhaozong asked his subordinates to transport the obelisk into Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty.

Tang Zhangwei also once doubted this obelisk, after all, this thing is so big that it is easily reminiscent of a Trojan horse.

However, when Tang Zhangwei sent people to inspect the site in detail, they ruled out this possibility.

Cuthbert looked at him strangely. "Remigius? Can he straighten things out? ”

Philip didn't quite know what Cuthbert meant. "Remigius isn't going to be the new vice president, is he?"

"Probably."

Philip was discouraged. "He's no better than Vice Dean James! Why did the brothers choose him? ”

"Alas, they don't trust strangers, so they don't choose people they don't know. That is to say, only one of us can be chosen. Remigius, on the other hand, was the assistant vice-dean, the highest-ranking monk here. ”

"But there is no rule that we must choose the highest monk," Philip argued, "and we can choose another from among the stewards." It could be you. ”

Kathbert nodded. "Already asked me. I refused. ”

"Why?"

"I'm old, Philip. I'm going to be exhausted by what I'm doing now, but I'm already familiar with it, and I can do things naturally. No amount of responsibility can be endured. I certainly don't have the energy to take over a loose monastery and reform it. In the end, I'm not going to be any better than Remigius. ”

Philip still couldn't believe it. "There are others—priests, inspectors, trainee friars, ......"

"The trainee monk mentor is old and tired more than me. The head of the room is a gluttonous drunkard. And the priests and inspectors swore an oath to choose Remigius. Why? I don't know, but I can speculate. I suspect that Remigius had promised to promote the priest to the rank of assistant vice-president, and to make the inspector a priest in return for their support of him. ”

Philip sat down in the flour bag he had used as his seat.

"You're saying Remigius has monopolized the election?"

Cuthbert didn't answer immediately. He stood up and walked to the other end of the pantry, where he had a row of things: a wooden tank full of live eels, a bucket of fresh water, and a barrel of a third of the brine. "Come and help me," he said. He took out a knife, picked an eel out of the wooden jar, smashed its head on the stony ground, and cut it open with a knife. He handed the eel, which was still writhing weakly, to Philip. "Wash it in a bucket of water and throw it in a bucket of salt water," he said, "and this thing can suppress our appetite during Lent." ”

Philip carefully rinsed the half-dead eel in the bucket before throwing it into the brine bucket.

Cuthbert said as he dissected another eel, "There is another possibility: there is another candidate, and he will be a brilliant vice-president for reform, and his rank will be lower than that of the assistant vice-president, but he will be on the same level as the priest and the secretary." ”

Philip dips the second eel in clean water. "Who?"

"You."

"Me!" Philip was taken aback and dropped the eel to the ground. Theoretically, he was the equivalent of the steward of the Great Abbey, but he never thought of himself as an equal to the priests and the like, because they were all much older than him. "I'm too young—"

"Come to think of it," said Cuthbert, "you've been in the monastery for half your life. You've been a minister at twenty-one, you've been abbot of a monastery for four or five years—and you've reformed it. Everyone knows that the hand of God has fallen on your head. ”

Philip retrieved the slippery eel and threw it into the brine bucket. "The hand of God falls on the heads of all of us," he said impartially. He was a little overwhelmed by Cuthbert's suggestion. He wanted an energetic new vice president to manage Wang Qiao, but he never thought of taking that position himself. "Honestly, I'll be better than Remigius as vice-dean," he said thoughtfully.

Cuthbert looked satisfied. "If something goes wrong with you, Philip, it's unintentional."

Philip didn't think he was going wrong. "What do you mean?"

"You can't see the heart of a villain. Most of us have a villainous heart. For example, the whole monastery is talking about you being a candidate, saying that you are here to canvass votes. ”

Philip was annoyed. "What proof do they have for that?"

"Imagine what a suspicious mind would think of you. You came here just a few days after Vice President James died, and it seems that someone here has reported to you in time. ”

"But how could they imagine that I had planned this?"

"They don't know — but they believe you're smarter than they are." Cuthbert picked up the eel again, "Let's see how you did today." When you come, tell the groom to clean up the dung and urine. And then you deal with the nonsense of the big Mass. You talk to young William Bowes and ask him to be transferred to another monastery, and everybody knows that transferring a monk is the power of the vice-president. You take a hot stone and send it to Brother Paul on the bridge, which implies a criticism of Remigius. You also brought delicious cheese to the kitchen, and each of us got a small portion after the meal – no one ever said where the cheese came from, but none of us could be mistaken, the cheese that tasted like it could only come from St. John's Abbey in the woods. ”

Philip was embarrassed to think that his series of actions had been so misinterpreted. "Anyone can do this kind of thing."

"Any high-ranking monk could do one thing. But no one can do all of these things. You walked in and took responsibility! You've already started reforming here. And, needless to say, Remigius's cronies have fought back. That's why Priest Andrew reprimanded you in the cloister. ”

"I see! I don't understand why he's so angry. Philip thought as he washed the eel, "Now that I understand, I think the same reason the patrol won't let me eat lunch." ”

"Not bad at all. Make a fool of yourself in front of everyone. But I feel like both things are counterproductive, blaming you twice is unfair, but you accept it with grace.

(End of chapter)