His voice was very gentle. Despite his peculiar intonation, his Chinese was clearly quite good; he was probably a missionary who had spent a long time in China.
Old Hu replied, "Your believers? Those neither-Chinese-nor-foreign, neither-Eastern-nor-Western things? What did they send you here for?"
Father Thomas waved his hands. "Oh, sir, they are believers in God, exemplary members of the church, not the things you call them.
"When they encounter things they cannot understand in this bewildering world, naturally they turn to the almighty Lord for help.
"I am the Lord's spokesman, and also his eyes.
"So I must come to this village full of dead people and see for the Lord what evil has taken place here.
"Although most of the villagers are not believers in my Lord, they are merely lambs who have temporarily lost their way.
"I will not allow any devil to harm them, and the Lord is a kindly shepherd who treats even his lost sheep equally."
Cui Jiuyang thought, Is this Father Thomas a devout, traditional clergyman?
Standing behind Old Hu, he watched this uninvited guest, yet sensed a familiar aura about him.
However, some inexplicable power surrounded this foreigner, preventing Cui Jiuyang from divining exactly what familiar thing was attached to him.
That surrounding power felt somewhat unfamiliar, but it did not come from anything evil. Perhaps-that was his god?
Old Hu had originally intended to humor the priest and send him away with a few pleasant words.
Now that they had touched on the sensitive subject of faith, however, he dropped his friendly expression. He said coldly, "Father Thomas, is it? Let me make this perfectly clear: this is a village in China, on Chinese soil. These dead people are all Chinese, not your sheep. We Chinese like being people, not sheep."