After the speeches, the entire New Year's luncheon was held in a dull atmosphere that caused heart palpitations.

The speeches of the three cardinals, the oracle and the Pope revealed very different positions. In this minareta, even the most foolish clergyman can clearly feel the sharp contradictions that pervade the upper echelons of the Church, and in such an almost suffocating atmosphere, all everyone can do is bury their heads in their meals and stay out of the conflict that determines the fate of the Church as much as possible.

On the podium, the twelve church leaders were not having a good time either: a few tried to tell a few playful New Year's jokes to the next table in order to ease the tension, but the conversation always quickly descended into an awkward silence.

As for the most unsettling of the high-level leaders, it was the pair of supreme leaders of His Holiness the Pope and the Emissary: Ever since Eliot had delivered his New Year's Message, which was full of resistance, the air between the two men had been cringefully cold—and although the Emissary and the Pope were seated next to each other, neither of them had spoken a word, or even looked at each other.

The bishops are secretly complaining in their hearts: in the history of the Church, almost always the divine messenger unconditionally agreed with the Pope's proposition, who would have thought that today these two people would actually fight against each other!

Finally, the awkward luncheon was the early departure of Lord Eliot Savile.

"I'm full. Lu Chen put the knife and fork on the table, lifted the napkin and wiped his mouth, turned his head and said lightly to Cromwell, "I'll leave first if there's nothing to do." ”

Cromwell looked at Lu Chen in a daze: According to the traditional rules, the participants of the New Year's luncheon should wait for everyone to finish eating, and then leave the venue together......

However, it was clear that the Divine Envoy had no intention of asking Cromwell for advice at all. Lu Chen stood up to himself and left the minaret from the side door in four directions, attracting almost everyone's attention-

- just "almost" everyone. On the rostrum, although all the high-ranking people watched the divine envoy leave, only His Majesty the Pope remained unmoved: the old man was still quietly tasting his food, probably only his slightly trembling fingers slightly revealed the emotions stirring in His Majesty's heart.

As the Pope who is actually in power, he was confronted in public by a puppet envoy, not to mention that this puppet envoy had sworn to support the Pope before - after being put on this path, the Pope's old face can be regarded as a disgrace!

Cromwell looked at the side door where the divine envoy had left, and then turned his head to look at the Pope, who was forcibly suppressing his anger, and couldn't help but smile wryly—

Elliot, you're in trouble today!

......

After leaving the minus hall, Lu Chen lowered his head and went directly out of the main building of the central cathedral and came to the backyard of the church.

Traces of the morning's celebrations remained: the circular fence that enclosed the jousting venue had not yet had time to be removed, the whole venue was still covered with fine rose petals, and the armor and weapons used by the jousters were reclining against the log shelves next to the venue; by the church wall, the morning booth was still there, but because the presiding officer was now enjoying a luncheon in the church, only a pile of tattered props remained on the stall table; as for the stage where the religious drama had been staged, of course, it was still here, with the blood-red curtain hanging empty on the wooden shelf, and the audience seat below had long since been deserted。

The huge venue, there is no one at the moment, exuding an inexplicable atmosphere of depression.

Given that it's a day off and the servants in the church won't be working, it is possible that no one will come back to the backyard until tomorrow morning to clean up the mess.

Lu Chen walked slowly to the stage, tugged at the dangling red curtain, and tried its load-bearing capacity.

"This place is not bad...... Lu Chen muttered.

The simple but standardized style of this makeshift stage reminded him of the performances organized at school when he was a child.

The gods dragged the curtain and wasted all their might, and then the curtain was re-drawn from both sides: so that the backstage of the show was completely obscured by the curtain, as if it were ready for the actors to come on and start the next performance.

"Performance ......" Lu Chen couldn't help but smile, "I don't know how many points I can score for my performance today?"

The speech at the luncheon was basically a plagiarism of Churchill's two speeches during World War II, and the content of the main station and the main station was barely appropriate, but Lu Chen actually didn't expect this scribbled speech to stir many people's hearts - even if everyone listened to it drowsily, his purpose had actually been achieved.

The best is always behind.

Lu Chen climbed off the stage and sat down in the center of the first row of the audience.

On the table at hand, there was also a teacup, filled with jet-black black tea, which looked like it had not been touched.

Lu Chen stretched out his hand and touched the wall of the cup, only to be slightly disappointed to find that the cup of tea was already cold.

He pondered for a moment, and finally picked up the cup of herbal tea, tilted his neck and drank it all.

Whatever, the steak oil I ate at noon today is too big, and I really need to drink tea to relieve my greasyness.

"Ai, Lord Eliot, why are you here?" a surprised voice came from behind him.

The god made the adult's heart startled, and quickly put down the teacup and turned around, only to find An Jie standing not far behind him, staring at him with a confused expression.

Lu Chen remembered in a trance that An Jie, as his personal maid, had lunch in a sub-dining room outside the Xuanli Hall like other servants, and of course he didn't see the "feat" of Lu Daguanren in the Xuanli Hall, let alone that he had offended the Pope completely.

"Oh, I finished eating early, rest here for a while. Lu Chen replied lightly, "What about you, why are you coming to the backyard if you don't eat well?"

"I forgot to pick up the prize for the morning contest!" An Jie grinned and pointed to the knot contest booth not far away.

- Speaking of which, her prize was won back with the help of Lu Daguan: although it was shameless to cut the rope with a sword, the stall owner obviously did not pursue it because of the face of the divine envoy.

"Then you go about your business, I'll sit here a little longer. Lu Chen smiled and waved his hand at An Jie, "By the way, help me get a pot of hot tea, the tea here is too cold to drink—and if the Pope looks for me, tell him I'm here." ”

An Jie agreed with an "oh", pointed to the empty stage and tilted her head and asked:

"But what's the point of you staying here?

"Is the show finished?" Lu Chen showed a sly smile, "No, no, no, it's still early before the show is over, and now it's just a ...... Just a break. ”