016 The Working Woman

Early in the morning, the Anderson House was busy. The long wooden table was placed in the backyard. Alice shuttled between the courtyard and the kitchen. In addition to Benjamin, Matthew, and old Hank, there were seven or eight strange men sitting at the table enjoying the free breakfast. Not strangers, but nearby farmers, so to speak, distant neighbors. Accepting the employment of the Anderson family usually makes a day's meal.

Ryan was not at home, but in the church on the west side, watching a few nuns cleaning the church, holding a checklist in hand, checking the list of arrangements that were sent.

"And then we wait for Benjamin to bring the coffin?" Louise asked quietly, standing behind Ryan.

Ryan nodded, "Yes." The vampire looked at the woman behind him, and Louise looked curiously at the church, "Have you never been to the church?"

Louise glanced at Ryan and shook her head, "No, I just rarely see churches with the theme of 'Atonement of the Son'. I grew up in a correctional facility, and I am very familiar with Gospel Church."

Something flickered in Ryan's light green eyes, Ryan saw Louise perform a standard blessing of the cleaning nuns, bowing her head and making a cross in front of her forehead and chest. The nuns smiled, stopped what they were doing, and returned the salute. This is the etiquette of praying and blessing each other, of course, it has no practical effect.

"That reminds me." Ryan's eyes retracted, and he put his arms around Louise's shoulder with a smile in the corner of his eyes, "We've never talked about our past lives, and if you want to talk to someone, I'm a very good listener."

Louise had been cold to everyone this week, and today she suddenly asked to help. Ryan was a little surprised, but obviously, he couldn't let Louise do the coolies that Benjamin and the others were doing, so he had Louise by his side.

The vampire took this as a sign that the cold period had passed, and now that Louise suddenly brought up her past, it was an opportunity to strengthen the relationship, how could the vampire let it go.

Louise was pulled by Ryan, her blue eyes under the eyelashes looked at the vampire, and after a brief stun, the corners of her eyes were also bent, and her cheeks were slightly puffed up because of the raised mouth, like a ripe apple.

"You're not." Louise pushed Ryan away and said with a smile, "Kim is."

Ryan remembered Kim's expression at all times, and nodded with a smile, "You're right, would you rather chat with him?"

Louise stretched out a finger and swayed in the air, her rosy lips slightly pouted, her eyes seemed a little erratic, "It's not called chatting with him, it's called talking to the wood."

"We can chat, and I can tell you everything for as long as I can remember." Ryan's face was expressionless, looking at Louise.

Louise's eyelashes fluttered, her slender eyebrows were slightly raised at the end, and the slight emotional ups and downs were captured by the vampire. But immediately, Louise's eyes turned away from Ryan, with a hint of women's complaints, "This is too cunning, if I ask 'how many women before me', you just have to answer and forget."

Ryan thought about what Louise's words really meant, whether it's the 'past' brought about by the huge age gap between vampires and humans, or what 'woman' means, or what 'forgetting' really means, Ryan didn't even want to touch it.

Louise looked at Ryan again, with a hint of comfort in her eyes, "I don't ask, you don't have to answer, it doesn't matter."

Ryan raised his eyes and looked at Louise. He seemed to understand some of his recent relationship with her and also understood why Louise suddenly asked for work. With a hint of mixed emotions, he reached out to Louise.

Louise took a breath, and changed the subject, "When will the funeral begin?"

"Nine o'clock." Ryan adjusted his breathing and raised the temperature of the hand holding Louise. "The ceremony will take about an hour, and then free time. After the guests disperse, the burial ceremony will be performed."

"Oh." Louise nodded, looking at the delivery person, the flowers and incense on the wall. These are things that can only be arranged after the coffin is delivered. The nuns checked all the facilities one last time, nodded to the two, and backed away from the church.

Louise took the checklist handed by Ryan and settled with the delivery person under Ryan's instruction. Ryan walked out of the church and looked at the hearse coming from the east. Benjamin, who was impossible to see with normal human eyesight, waved from behind the car window.

After a while, Ryan and Benjamin stood behind the church, connected to the backyard of the clergy's accommodation, where the hearse was parked, and Matthew and a few hired farmers carried the coffin behind the hearse and walked to the church.

Matthew looked at his two bosses and probed.

"Louise is inside." Ryan waved, Matthew nodded and carried the coffin into the church.

Benjamin glanced at Ryan, jokingly, "What did Louise say?"

At dawn this morning, Louise said without warning that she would go to work with Ryan, which surprised everyone.

Ryan gave Benjamin a resentful look, "Everyone can watch jokes, but you can't."

"Why?" Benjamin frowned suspiciously.

"Because you gave Matthew the job." Ryan sighed, continuing to use a 'sorrowful' tone.

Benjamin scratched his beard. "What does it matter? Does she need money? You can give it to her directly."

Ryan glanced at Benjamin who was watching the show, "Why don't you just give Matthew the money and keep him with you?"

Benjamin stretched his arm, avoiding his weakness. "She's too sensitive. If Ian is here, he doesn't have to work."

The vampire's spirit slumped, "Why do you want to mention Ian."

The Anderson brothers' dialogue is to hurt each other.

Benjamin smiled and patted Ryan's back, "I'm just giving an example, or do you have other 'offspring' that I don't know about wandering outside?"

"No more." Ryan shook his head, the flash of emotion in his eyes was undetected by the werewolf, "but you really embarrassed me, and now she's trying to find her place at the Anderson House."

"She has one." Benjamin pouted. "Your girlfriend. What else does she want?"

Louise's foothold in Anderson was just emotion, what was the emotion? The relationship between humans and vampires seems to be tragic.

Benjamin made the point.

"Here's the problem." Ryan frowned. "She's caught in a blurred line now. Unlike you and Matthew, she can't see where she is."

"Then transform her," Benjamin said impatiently, not wanting to discuss more about the vampire's affair.

Ryan was silent.

It took a while for Benjamin to react, and Ryan was silent, "Hey, your face looks like shit."

Ryan raised his head and shook it with a bitter look, "I shouldn't have given her a choice, and now if I offer it, she will definitely refuse."

Benjamin looked at Ryan who was really worried. He no longer acted like it was none of his business. He frowned and thought for a while, then shook his head and sighed, "You're right." Benjamin chuckled twice. "Ian is a really, really bad role model, and you're a very, very bad 'father'."

Remember when Ryan explained the vampire heritage to Louise?

There is no ethical conflict, loss of personality, physical and mental pain, on the contrary, it seems more like the beginning of an intertwined fate.

So let's take a look at what happened to Ian and Ryan, who were intertwined with fate. As Benjamin said, 'a very, very bad role model'.

Louise is so smart, she sees, she waits, she thinks, and she draws conclusions. This conclusion is not good.

"Then what are you going to do?" Benjamin asked Ryan.

Ryan thought for a moment, stretched out his hand, and pushed forward aimlessly, 'Let's go with this,' and that was the message Benjamin received.

"Mr. Anderson." Father Constantine's voice came from behind.

The two turned their heads and saw that the priest was already wearing the attire for the ceremony, a black robe, a long white collar spread directly on the chest and pale silver cross marks on both sides.

Constantine nodded slightly and saluted, "The inside of the church is ready, and the back hall is also furnished. After a while, the host of the ceremony will come. The two of you should go to the back hall to rest and wait."

Ryan returned the salute with a smile and followed behind the priest. He thought for a moment, and suddenly asked, "Father, has anything happened in the church recently?"

The people of Anderson and Constantine are very familiar, and the two have been working together for almost ten years. At first, it was just prisoners sent from prison, and in the past two months, there have been more real funerals. The two usually chatted when they met.

Constantine smiled and said, "Except yesterday's offering?" He thought for a while, "It seems that nothing special happened."

"Oh." Ryan responded with a smile, "I'm curious. Father has heard about accidents in other churches too."

Constantine put away his smile, drew a cross on his chest, and nodded, "I heard that it is said that the second floor of Mary's Church collapsed, the most serious. Fortunately, no casualties were caused, the Lord bless."

Ryan also crossed, with a hint of "sincere" grief, "Does the priest think it's a coincidence?"

Constantine smiled helplessly, "Apart from coincidence, there is no other reason to explain it. The church is already making arrangements, and our church in Porto seems to have to be renovated." Constantine said this with a hint of apology.

Ryan was stunned, smiled, and understood what the priest meant. If the funeral was to be closed for renovation, the funeral would be postponed again.

"Is the time set?" Ryan asked.

"It's not there yet," Constantine said. "I'll let you know if I have news."

Ryan nodded. "Then sorry to trouble you!"