Chapter 8

An Xu was haunted by a nightmare.

She couldn’t feel her own limbs, couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t touch. Something held her in place, making it impossible for her to break free. An Xu could feel himself being suffocated a little bit, like being locked in a vessel where the air was getting thinner and thinner.

She began to struggle hard, trying to push away the weight that was weighing on her. Struggling is hard when you can’t feel your body. An Xu tried his best, but only managed to “open his eyes”.

A layer of plastic film was broken, and suddenly there was a crack in the empty darkness, allowing the maddening nothingness to become solid. Through this gap, An Xu suddenly saw countless lights entangled together in front of him, spinning at an incredible speed without interfering with each other. That magnificent picture attracted her, and at the same time a breath of fresh air slipped in from there, saving Anxu’s withered lungs. She was like a tadpole landed in a swamp, frantically wagging her tail and crawling towards the light.

The crack closed.

An Xu woke up from the dream, gasping for breath, and found himself lying on the hard bed. It’s no wonder that this sleeping position doesn’t cause nightmares, she propped herself up on the bed board and tried to get up.

“Be careful, don’t get up yet,” said a voice.

She turned her head and looked at the person beside the bed. Sitting next to her was a small old lady with withered and yellow hair. She wasn’t pretty, but her smiling face looked festive, and An Xu couldn’t help laughing too.

“Your injury has just been healed, and you still need some time to cultivate.” The little lady said, “I am Nancy Hayden, the instructor of the basic course, and I will be your lecturer for a while. Every morning I There are classes, and I will go to the library to help in the evening, so starting tomorrow, I will teach you how to read every afternoon, okay?”

This is still the same dream, An Xu felt a little unbelievable, in her more than 20 years of dreaming history, she has never encountered such a logical long dream. But who knows, the longer she wakes up, the more the dream disappears, maybe she had a similar dream, but she just forgot it when she woke up.

“Okay,” she said.

This is not an infirmary, but Nancy’s residence. Nancy lives in a corner of the college, which is larger than Anxu’s room, but not much rich in things. When she came back at night, Nancy brought An Xu a small bowl filled with fresh finger-sized fruits. Coming here for the first time, An Xu saw food other than manna.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Plums.” Nancy said, put the bowl where An Xu could reach, picked up one and ate it.

Aren’t plums the kind with purple skin and yellow flesh that are as big as a child’s fist? An Xu thought to himself, it tastes unambiguous. The fruit that Nancy calls a plum tastes sweet and sour, the skin is a bit astringent, and there is a nucleus the size of a fingernail inside, so the taste is not bad.

“Is it delicious?” Nancy asked.

“Delicious! Thank you!” An Xu said, “I thought only manna could be grown here!”

“I planted the plums.” Nancy pointed out the window, where there was a small yard, “Alingu is very cold, and almost no crops can survive. I brought the most cold-resistant wild species from further south , It can only be imported after several years of screening. As for the manna, it is the product of plant power ascetics.”

“Grown from plant supernatural beings?” A row of vegetative people appeared in An Xu’s mind, with white bumps all over his body, and his hairs stood on end.

“Many people like to say that.” Nancy said with a low smile, “‘Sacrament is the flesh and blood of God, and manna is the flesh and blood of ascetic monks’. However, in fact, it has little to do with the ascetic monk himself, and it is just a catalytic plant.”

Also an elderly woman, Nancy was much gentler than Mother Mary. She has a peaceful affinity that brings peace to those around her.

“Why are you different from them?” An Xu asked directly.

“I am also the Lord’s shepherd.”

“The saying is the same, but the difference is huge, from the gap between Sister Rong and Dumbledore.”

“There’s no nanny with the surname ‘Ron’ in the college?” Nancy blinked. “Is ‘Dumbledore’ a character in any story?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” An Xu waved his hand, “They all want to kill me, why are you so nice to me? Do you have a child my age?”

“The clergy don’t marry for life.” Nancy laughed, “but all the children are my children, just like all the shepherds are my brothers and sisters.”

“Aren’t you afraid that I’m a bad person?”

“Then are you a bad guy?”

“I don’t think so.”

“In the square, did you lie?”

“I’m not lying!”

“Then the inside story is worth discussing.” Nancy said with a smile, “And now your physical condition is not good, you need to rest, and other things will be discussed later. Shall I sing you a lullaby?”

“I’m twenty…twelve!” An Xu retorted, for the first time he was a little hot for pretending to be young. Nancy said “huh”, picked up the empty bowl, and hummed a song.

They said no lullabies! An Xu thought to himself, but didn’t say it, because Nancy sang very well. She lay on the bed and listened, wondering if it was an illusion, she felt a little lighter.

An Xu thought in his heart that everyone who was present when he was whipped was mentally ill. But dreams are such illogical things. She once dreamed of people who asked her to pay the bill with a goat or they would not be allowed to use public toilets (thanks to this person, she did not wet the bed at the age of ten), and she also encountered people who forced her to pay the bill. The counselor she copied political books from, the rabbit who tried to pull out her teeth. Dreaming of being publicly executed by a psychopath is certainly unpleasant, but it is not worthwhile to be too angry to enjoy the next dream.

Since Nancy didn’t rush over to tell her to “repent”, An Xu temporarily regarded her as a well-meaning believer who saved the suffering. From the next afternoon, she started the first grade of elementary school.

Nancy is a good and patient teacher. She originally taught reading and writing courses for first-year students in the seminary, and the teaching materials and teaching content are all ready-made. One afternoon passed, and she actually missed half a semester’s class. This remarkable progress surprised the two of them, and they both felt that the other party was a remarkable person.

Nancy repeatedly confirmed that Ann did not know a single word before the teaching, but after the course ended, she memorized every word, which can be said to be easy to teach. She wondered that the other party probably had a foundation in the first place, because of many reasons, she couldn’t remember it for a while, just like a person who is temporarily aphasia after being frightened.

As for An Xu, she originally had the idea of ​​breaking the jar, thinking that it would be normal if she couldn’t learn the garbled characters in her dreams, but she never expected it to be so smooth. She has learned several new languages ​​because of her work. Even if it is from the same language family, learning a new language is very painful. With a lot of repeated practice, this time she learned the language of dreams without any reference. Teacher Nancy only taught it once. , she got started easily!

An Xu respected the teacher from the bottom of her heart, and felt that to explain it scientifically, Teacher Nancy must be a super subconscious in her heart. Didn’t someone say that after a car accident, they suddenly speak a foreign language very fluently? It probably woke up the teacher Nancy in that person’s heart.

In less than a week, Ann’s reading and writing skills were on par with Nancy’s, and Nancy began teaching her to use priest sign language. This time really frightened Nancy, Ann’s sign language teaching went as smoothly as her writing teaching.

St. Andrew’s Seminary, like monasteries everywhere, does not allow conversation at the dinner table and in many solemn occasions. Over time, the monks invented a unified sign language. This language has no written records, no special courses, and the only way to learn it is to become a member of the priesthood and learn it through observation and communication with others.

anna. Ms. Sullivan definitely did not have the opportunity to learn sign language at home, and because she was isolated after entering the college, she had little contact with sign language. If the previous speed can still be regarded as a foundation, the speed of learning sign language can undoubtedly prove her intelligence.

“Did you learn this fast before?” Nancy asked.

“Nope!” An Xu also thought it was miraculous, and after thinking about it, he was relieved. Learning something from his subconscious mind, isn’t it the same as letting a question maker solve a problem by himself, is it not difficult at all?

“In other words, this change started after the awakening of the ability?”

An Xu thought about it, and he was right. She nodded, Nancy pondered for a moment, and said, “You may also have awakened the power of thinking.”

“Can the ability awaken two?”

“The situation is very rare, but it does exist.” Nancy said, “Some alphas awakened their abilities during the differentiation, but because they couldn’t master them for a while, they were considered to have no abilities. They accepted the second baptism, and in the second baptism I received the favor of the gods and got the second type. The God’s Chain of Retaliation doesn’t have much effect on the weak and non-lethal type that speeds up thinking.”

“Second baptism?” An Xu asked again.

After getting along for this period of time, Nancy also discovered that An’s lack of common sense, just as An Xu was sure that Nancy was a good-tempered teacher who would not be bored with endless questions. She explained: “Believers are baptized a week after birth, and alphas without supernatural powers after differentiation can be baptized a second time.”

“Uh, bathing in holy water?”

“Some kind of ritual of pouring holy water on the head under the auspices of a priest.” Nancy said helplessly. “This explanation sounds like washing your hair. Alas, God forgive me.”

An Xu laughed loudly, and began to cough violently with a smile, his lungs made a strange sound like a bellows. Nancy’s expression became serious, she clasped An Xu’s wrist, and took a while to let it go.

“The rest can be put aside for the time being.” Nancy said, “You can read now, and I will borrow related books for you. You have to learn meditation first from tomorrow.”