Cui Jiuyang smiled to cover his reaction, turned around, and asked casually, "Nothing, just looking around. Why not stay a little longer? Did you come alone?"
As he spoke, he quickly scanned his surroundings out of the corners of his eyes, trying to find the source of that watching gaze.
Liu Jingye shook his head, fatigue showing on his face. "No, there's still a mountain of things waiting to be dealt with back there. I thought the fewer people who knew you and Jingtang were here, the better, so I drove here myself without bringing any of the workers."
Afterward, Cui Jiuyang and Liu Jingye exchanged a few more words about how their stay at the church had been going and whether they had encountered any inconveniences.
Seeing that he and Jingtang were both well, Liu Jingye finally felt completely reassured and asked, "But how much longer will you have to stay in this church? When can I bring you and Jingtang back to live at the freight depot, Brother Cui? Hiding like this all the time... when will it ever end?"
Thinking of the cold, sinister gaze that had flashed past earlier, Cui Jiuyang shook his head. "I'm afraid we'll have to stay a while longer. Let's wait until things die down."
At that, Liu Jingye asked no further questions. He simply nodded, reminded Cui Jiuyang a few more times to take good care of Jingtang, then hurried away alone in his horse-drawn carriage.
Cui Jiuyang watched Liu Jingye's carriage disappear around the street corner before turning, pushing open the door, and entering the church.
The young priest who had shown him the way then shut the small door firmly from inside, keeping out the biting wind.
Not long after Liu Jingye's carriage had gone into the distance, a