The sun and moon are both wrong; who made him seek the Dharma?

Chapter 17 Holy Infant

After circling in the sky and showing Bai Xiaoxiao the view outside the mountains,

The three turned around and returned to Black Mountain Village.

They dug the pits and carefully collected the villagers' bodies.

Afterwards, Xia Chuan and Gao Haoguang brought the surviving children to the provincial capital.

To avoid making the children feel awkward when they see Bai Xiaoxiao, Xia Chuan arranged for her to wait for them at an inn in the city.

There are several Catholic churches in the provincial capital, most of which are willing to take in orphans.

"Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism... and what about the Immaculate Conception?"

Gao Haoguang stared at the signs on the street, completely bewildered.

"Don't they believe in the same God? Why are there so many different sects?"

There are five churches in the provincial capital, but to Gao Haoguang, an outsider, they all look the same.

Xia Chuan sighed as he looked at the priest receiving the children in the courtyard:

How would I know?

Perhaps you should ask that girl who had the affair back then why she insisted on claiming she was a virgin when she got pregnant.

"Then this lie sparked the world's largest religious war over the next few centuries."

The number of people who died indirectly because of her is probably greater than all the Nirvana corpses in the world combined.

Upon hearing such outrageous remarks, Gao Haoguang immediately tensed up, glancing left and right while lowering his voice:

"Senior brother, isn't it inappropriate to say such things on someone else's turf?"

Xia Chuan nodded in deep agreement:

"really.

So if anyone asks later, I'll just say it was you who said it.

Gao Haoguang's expression immediately turned as if he had swallowed a fly.

Xia Chuan laughed heartily and vigorously rubbed his junior brother's head: "Don't be nervous, this guy won't mind."

The priest here is a remarkable man named Xu, whom Xia Chuan had met a few years ago.

Father Xu, having heard that a vampire had appeared in a rural church, volunteered to go and investigate.

As a result, they encountered an attack by Nirvana Corpses.

Startled, he threw out all the Buddhist beads, Taoist talismans, and the cross and Bible he always carried with him.

After realizing that nothing else worked, he lit some homemade explosives he had somehow acquired at his waist, and charged toward the Nirvana Corpse while shouting "Long live God!"

Xia Chuan, who was chasing after the Nirvana Corpse, was stunned.

Fortunately, Xia Chuan was right behind Nirvana Corpse and rescued him in time.

It was only through repeated interactions that he became acquainted with Xia Chuan.

In the courtyard, after Father Xu checked the children and confirmed they were unharmed, he looked at Xia Chuan with a puzzled expression:

"Why are you all investigating this lately?"

Xia Chuan frowned sharply: "What do you mean by 'all'? What happened here?"

Father Xu sighed: "To be honest, recently there have indeed been frequent cases of missing infants in the city's orphanages."

Xia Chuan and Gao Haoguang exchanged a glance.

In today's turbulent world, with rampant theft, abandoned infants are frequently seen even in the provincial capital.

Poor families who couldn't afford to raise their children would send them to orphanages.

But in some dark corners, young children are a valuable "resource".

Those who are not good-looking are beaten, have their arms and legs broken, and are thrown into the streets to beg.

Those who were beautiful were sold to high-ranking officials and nobles to be their playthings.

But the words "orphanage" made Xia Chuan think of something even worse.

"What exactly happened?"

Seeing that Xia Chuan had become interested, Father Xu lowered his voice:

There is a "Holy Infant Nursery" in the east of the city.

Recently, a group of Han-looking guys have come over there, and they're always going in and out of there.

"Han Chinese appearance?"

Gao Haoguang was taken aback.

"Yes. I found it suspicious, so I asked someone I knew about it."

Father Xu's face was grave.

"It turned out that the children in that orphanage were disappearing without a trace."

Conservative estimates suggest the number of missing persons has exceeded one hundred.

Xia Chuan's brows furrowed more and more:

"What did the government say?"

"So many people have been lost in your own family, aren't you going to report it to the authorities?"

In this Qing Dynasty, the government treats foreigners better than their own fathers.

The church has lost face, and the government will certainly not sit idly by.

"That's the strangest part."

Father Xu leaned closer. "That orphanage... never reported it to the authorities."

Gao Haoguang looked on in astonishment: "Hundreds of children have gone missing, and you haven't reported it to the authorities?"

The two brothers exchanged a glance.

Something's not right, there's definitely something wrong here.

"I understand, we'll investigate."

Xia Chuan nodded, then pointed to the children in the yard.

"But I'm leaving these children in your care."

"What kind of talk is that?"

Father Xu waved his hand, "Even if we don't mention our friendship, would I have the heart to abandon an orphan?"

Don't worry, I'll cut off their queues, teach them to read, and when they're a little older, I'll teach them Western knowledge. I'll make sure everything is taken care of perfectly.

Xia Chuan and Gao Haoguang left most of their money behind, bowed to Father Xu, and turned to leave.

As Gao Haoguang walked out of the church, he couldn't help but ask:

"Senior brother, do you think the disappearance case could be related to the Nirvana Corpse?"

Xia Chuan stroked his chin:

"Not really."

"The Nirvana Corpse eats people; you can catch one anywhere on the street. Why bother sneaking into a church to steal babies?"

"And the biggest question is," Xia Chuan's gaze turned cold, "why did the orphanage cover it up and refuse to report it to the police?"

Gao Haoguang was taken aback and fell into deep thought.

Xia Chuan didn't continue, but he actually had a more chilling guess in his mind.

He suspected that the orphanage, which operated under a Western guise, was using infants for shady dealings.

For example, infanticide in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

For example, the so-called "Holy Communion".

"Anyway, let's go and meet up with Bai Xiaoxiao first."

Xia Chuan snapped out of his thoughts and strode forward.

(The priest is based on Mr. Xu Chuncao, who was a believer in his early years, later converted to the church, and eventually became a revolutionary. However, this book cannot say too much about him; he is just a fictional character.)

(Regarding what the church did back then, you can search for the Guangzhou Holy Infant Orphanage. They only accepted female infants, and the survival rate was only 6%.)