That familiar description made Xu Huo pause. Then he asked, "Was it like that in the recordings too?"
"I don't know. I only saw it on the news." A Hai pushed him into the room and positioned him in front of the television. Then he hurried to fetch a carefully wrapped box, unwrapped it layer by layer, took out the tape inside, and inserted it into the player.
The recording was a promotional video about the Holy Land of the Goddess—that is, this country, and the capital of this Sub-district. It had been aired during the news, so it was divided into several segments.
An aerial view gave a rough sense of the city's size, then the camera cut to the temple. To show respect, every shot was taken from the ground; there wasn't a single overhead shot.
"...This temple at the heart of the city is both a sacred hall dedicated to the Goddess statue and a symbol of the Holy Land's civilization and history. The story of how our ancestors first encountered the Goddess, received her help, and gradually developed to their present scale under her power has all been solemnly recorded in our history books and preserved in the temple..."
After a brief introduction, the video began to explain the Goddess Cult, with the main purpose of promoting religious faith. The footage showed Saintesses circling the temple in prayer, though no one was allowed inside. Unlike the people in the town, who generally looked more masculine, these Saintesses wore loose ceremonial robes and covered their faces, but their physiques still seemed more feminine—though they were taller than the women Xu Huo had seen in other Sub-districts.
Just as A Hai and the promotional video had said, some intersex people truly combined the features and strengths of both