"I'm not ready yet, why don't you let the cardinals speak first?" Lu Chen replied with a light face, "Put my speech at the end, and I'll memorize the draft." ”

The Pope was stunned for a moment, then nodded open-mindedly:

"Absolutely. ”

He patted Benedict on the other side, who quickly stood up, pulled his speech out of his sleeve and read it.

Compared with the Pope's speech, Benedict's bald speech is lackluster - Lu Chen even wonders if he asked one of his bishops to help write it, and the dry cliché throughout, basically repeating the fact that "we are going to surrender" in a different way.

Obviously, the audience felt similar to Lu Daguan's: they listened only a few ears, and then began to doze off with their cheeks, until Benedict's speech was over, and then they applauded with the crowd.

Next came Cardinal Houghton's session.

The old man stood up from his seat tremblingly, his lips squirmed a few times, and he didn't say a word.

If he hadn't seen the teardrops in the corners of his eyes, Lu Chen would definitely have thought that the old man Horton was already demented and couldn't speak.

Seeing that Horton's voice was too small, the Pope hurriedly beckoned to one of Horton's young attendants.

The squire trotted all the way to the rostrum and put his ear to Horton's mouth.

In this way, Horton whispered, and the attendant "translated" loudly, so that everyone in the minaret could hear the cardinal's New Year's message:

"I came to the Holy Church...... It was 70 years ago......"

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the church was in awe.

Cardinal Horton is so rarely seen that almost everyone has forgotten that he is the oldest living fossil in the Church.

The young squire continued to speak in place of Horton:

"Seventy years ago, the New Year's celebration was much more lively than it is today, but the people at that time are no longer there......"

Lu Chen and the Pope glanced at each other, and they couldn't help but feel concerned.

Seventy years ago, the Industrial Revolution was far from beginning, and the Church was at its heyday. The prosperity of the world has disappeared, and I don't know how Horton, as a bystander, feels in his heart.

"I ...... I never thought of it...... Our church is about to dissolve......"

The squire's voice came abruptly in the middle of speaking. Everyone hurriedly looked at the rostrum, and Cardinal Horton was already in tears, choked up and speechless. Hot tears flowed down his cloudy eyes and into the wrinkles on his face.

People looked sympathetically at the elderly cardinal: for Houghton, who had spent most of his life in the Church, the loss of the Church was undoubtedly the loss of his only home.

Horton can't seem to say any more. He shook his head in pain and sat down in his chair in despair.

Apparently the Pope did not expect this to turn out either. He glanced at Horton with a wry smile, his eyes filled with sympathy and hesitation.

Next up is Cromwell.

The youngest cardinal did not act rashly at first, but turned his head to look at the Divine Envoy, but did not receive any response from Lu Chen. Cromwell bit his lip, then stood up and said aloud:

"Thank you, thank you, Your Majesty the Pope and the two Lords for your ...... Message. Happy New Year to you all. ”

Cromwell's popularity among the clergy seems to be good. As soon as these opening remarks were finished, there was warm applause below.

As the applause subsided, Cromwell gritted his teeth and looked around, took a deep breath, and said loudly:

"His Holiness the Pope has just mentioned the dissolution of the Church, but I will reserve my opinion on this matter!"

A sudden, but not violent, commotion spread through the crowd.

Cromwell is well known for his staunch stance as a Resistance, so it is not surprising that he openly contradicts the Pope in his congratulatory message – rather, the vast majority of those present have already guessed his position.

The Pope also showed a wry smile of "sure enough". He looked up at Cromwell, then silently lowered his head to stare at his gold-rimmed white porcelain plate.

The divine envoy, Eliot Savile, sat as if he had not heard the cardinal's astonishing words.

Cromwell looked at the whispering crowd, gritted his teeth, and continued to say loudly:

"As clergy and devout followers of the Holy Spirit, we must do everything in our power to protect the authority of the Holy Spirit......!

The young bishop continued to speak impassionedly about his resistance. Lu Chen didn't listen to Cromwell's speech, but carefully looked at everyone sitting below: some of them were young, some were old, but their respective cheeks were dyed red under the brilliant candlelight of the minaretade—

“...... That's all for me, and I wish you all a happy new year. ”

I don't know how long it took for Cromwell to conclude his argument. The applause rang out again, but not everyone agreed: Lu Chen found that only about half of the people applauded, and among them were many familiar faces of the resistance.

The Pope cast an inquiring glance at Lu Chen.

Lu Daguan understood that the time for him to play had finally arrived.

He slowly stood up, only to feel that the crowd in front of him was gradually becoming blurry and illusory. This is a critical moment, this is a turning point in his life, as long as he takes this step, he will change the fate of himself, as well as countless others-

Lu Chen cleared his throat.

Almost all of them held their breath. They stared at the black-robed young oracle, quietly awaiting his speech.

Lu Chen suddenly wondered: What were they expecting? Blessings, Entrustments, Hopes?

- What can you give them?

He opened his mouth slightly, feeling his almost frenzied pulse at the same time:

"Thank you...... Speeches by adults, addressing everyone at the New Year's celebration is not a simple task. ”

In the ballroom, applause was overwhelming. Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Chen saw that Yun Ston and the few ponies who were stealing things together were clapping their hands desperately like crazy, as if they wanted to convey their support to the divine envoy as much as possible. This small discovery made Lu Chen feel a warm current surging through his heart.

He paused for a moment to wait for the applause to subside, then continued:

"This is not a simple task to send a New Year's message, so our dear Pope has kindly prepared a text for me, which I hope I will read from the text......"

Under the curious eyes of the crowd, in the stunned gaze of the Pope, Lu Chen took out the speech from his sleeve, held it in the air, and shook it slightly.

The miserable white speech is reminiscent of the flags hanging at the head of the city.

Then, to everyone's surprise, God sent out his other hand, and grasped the speech at the same time, folding, folding, folding, folding, and then his hands were violently separated—

A complete speech was suddenly torn into countless shredded pieces of paper. These shredded papers flew like snowflakes, and slowly fell on the rostrum under the indifferent gaze of the divine envoy.

"Today," Lu Chen raised his head again and showed a smile to everyone, "I don't plan to read it." ”