As soon as the phone rang for the delivery, Lu Ren took the initiative to go downstairs and help Meteor bring the milk tea back to the room.
While drinking the free milk tea and watching Xu Wenxing constantly yawn while taking notes, Lu Ren felt that this peaceful life was quite nice.
When Jiang Yuening resumed the lesson for Xu Wenxing, Lu Ren turned away, took out his mobile phone, and began browsing the forum to pass the time.
As usual, the forum today was filled with a large number of suggestive Magic Girl images and various clickbait titles that offered no actual content.
After scrolling down casually and saving a few images, Lu Ren suddenly saw a post with more than 100 replies.
The title of the post was: “Say, did anyone else get pulled aside by people trying to proselytize on the street today? I met a weirdo and ended up coming back with a dozen free eggs.”
The title wasn’t very original, and the poster’s own description was very consistent with the typical recruitment process of those sects, so there was nothing special about it.
However, the number of replies…
The corners of Lu Ren’s mouth curled up slightly as he suddenly became interested. He clicked into the post, intending to see what kind of outrageous comments the netizens would leave.
“I did, I definitely did. That proselytizing idiot was wearing a black robe and said that if I joined now, I could feel the Lord’s grace. I just told him right then and there that if he harassed me again, I’d report him, and then he slunk away like a coward.”
“Me too, I ran into them as well. But when he heard me say the entire universe was created by an invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster after a bout of heavy drinking, his face turned all sorts of colors. It was hilarious.”
“Are the people trying to recruit you guys all so sincere? The believer I met wasn’t like that at all. He just asked me to stand by the door for a moment, took a photo together, and then gave me four bottles of yogurt. Then he considered his mission accomplished.”
“How are you guys getting yogurt? I only got one bottle of iced tea.”
“You should be happy with iced tea. All I got was one bag of instant noodles.”
“Not bad, I got half a dozen eggs over here. The original poster completely beat me.”
“Tsk tsk, it’s not as good as the return of our English class MVP…”
The replies below were varied and filled with all sorts of comments, which made Lu Ren laugh.
However, he soon realized something was wrong when he noticed that almost every reply mentioned encountering a proselytizer.
‘What is going on?’
‘Does City A really have a religion with so many members that they can send out this many people to proselytize?’
‘Publicly proselytizing like this is illegal. Wouldn’t they be finished if they were reported?’
‘Hmm…’
Lu Ren frowned, feeling that things were not as simple as he thought.
He exited the post, opened his browser, and typed in the keywords: “City A, religion, giving eggs, and today’s date.” Relevant results quickly appeared on his phone.
Clicking on a relatively reliable news website and reading carefully, the doubts in Lu Ren’s heart deepened.
According to the news report on the website, after this emerging religion finished proselytizing, they would give the person one small badge to mark them as an official member.
The formalities were incredibly simple.
Furthermore, according to the reporter’s account, the person responsible for the proselytizing did not force anyone the entire time.
They simply said a few words to the reporter and let the reporter take a badge and leave without even paying any money.
‘How strange. Is there really a religion these days that doesn’t charge membership fees?’
Lu Ren couldn’t figure it out. He shook his head helplessly, put down his phone, and organized all the clues he had obtained.
After clearing his thoughts, Lu Ren stretched his body and continued searching the forum for related information.
After spending about half an hour, Lu Ren managed to clarify the situation regarding this emerging religion.
First, all the proselytizing believers said they worshipped the great Fanxing.
The Fanxing Church believed that sentient existences lived on distant planets, and that these existences were intelligent and benevolent.
Therefore, they advocated that believers should face life with kindness and become friendly people.
Second, the interior of the church was dim, and the only things used for lighting were oil lamps or candles.
According to high-level believers, they did this because they believed Fanxing hated intense light.
Third, the Fanxing Church was not short on money. Acts of voluntarily donating money to them would be refused.
They only required believers to be sincere, to believe that the distant Fanxing would look after them, and to believe they could get through their difficulties under the protection of Fanxing.
Finally, after joining the Fanxing Church, the believers would say that holding the badge would allow them to sing the Holy Anthem and praise Fanxing’s grace.
But strangely, not a single person had felt any trace of a Holy Anthem from the badge; it was nothing more than an ordinary iron item.
After understanding the current state of the Fanxing Church, Lu Ren actually felt that it wasn’t too bad.
Aside from openly spreading religious beliefs on the street, everything else seemed quite normal.
‘Could I have misjudged them? Did I wrongly suspect good people?’
Regardless, he would give this Fanxing Church a free report first.
He threw the empty milk tea cup into the trash can, called Director Xu, explained the situation of the Fanxing Church to him, and requested an investigation into the church’s background.
After receiving Xu Panfeng’s reassurance, Lu Ren leaned back in his chair, cleared his mind, stared at the ceiling, and relaxed his body while waiting for the return call.
……
It wasn’t until after lunch, when Jiang Yuening finished the day’s training and left the room with Lin Yiyi, that Lu Ren finally received Xu Panfeng’s call.
“Hello! Blazing Flame! I found some leads on the matter you asked me about! However, I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”
“Let’s hear the bad news first. Leave the good news for last,” Lu Ren said with a smile, comforted by the man’s energetic voice.
Since he was speaking with such a steady tone, it seemed the bad news wouldn’t be that bad.
“Cough, the bad news is that the Fanxing Church’s paperwork is legally compliant. They haven’t committed any major mistakes so far, so it’s impossible to just shut them down immediately.”
“It seems they were prepared… then what’s the good news?”
“The good news is that all of their current assets are of unknown origin. That’s right, every single bit of it! If you want, we can start from this angle and cause some big trouble for them.”
“I see. Let me think about it first.”
“Alright, I’ll wait for your word!”
Lu Ren was not surprised by the information Director Xu provided.
Since the Fanxing Church refused voluntary donations from believers, it proved they must have sufficient funds behind them to ensure the church’s daily operations.
If they started from this angle, they might actually catch a vulnerability.
But…
“Director Xu, just proceed with the normal investigation process. Don’t look too deeply into the source of the Fanxing Church’s assets for now.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“I want to lure the snake out of its hole. I plan to observe for a few more days to see if the one standing behind them is a person or a monster.”
“Oh… alright, I’ll get right on it! If there’s any news, I’ll let you know, Blazing Flame!”
“Yes, thank you for the trouble, Director Xu.”
After hanging up the phone, Lu Ren rubbed his temples, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.
For some reason, he felt that if he directly sabotaged the Fanxing Church over the financial issue, it would lead to some unbearable tragedy.
However, by following a normal investigation process, the bomb that might be hidden behind the Fanxing Church would not be detonated.
‘Is this just my imagination?’