1. Sleeping Flowers"Why don't you let us out? We are not prisoners, we want to go home!" A young man who was being guarded in the church loudly vented his anger towards the guard through the crack in the door."Please wait patiently a little longer." The gatekeeper said patiently. "The mayor will definitely come over and explain the situation.""We've been waiting since noon until dark, and we haven't eaten yet! What are we doing?" An old man also stood forward to express his dissatisfaction.."I'm very sorry. We did not arrange it properly. Don't worry, food and water will be delivered soon. You can wait a little longer.""How long will it take soon? There are old people and children here! How can they bear it?""That's right! How can you just lock us up like this!?""It's just, it's too much!"Seeing the anger of the people in the church, the gatekeeper was very anxious. Looking at this situation, if the mayor doesn't come over, everyone will rush out of the church. But in this hometown, the folks in the country look up and down every day. Even if they run out, they can't be violent with them! Just when the gatekeeper was helpless, the noise inside the church gradually subsided."Brothers and sisters, don't be anxious! I've brought you some fruits and snacks, let the children and the elderly eat some first! Oh, there's a pregnant woman here! Come on, come and eat too !" With that said, the pastor distributed the food brought from the lounge to everyone. Seeing this scene, the gatekeeper outside the window finally breathed a sigh of relief."Mom and Dad, isn't there no worship today? Why don't we go home yet?" the little girl asked in a sweet voice as she took a sip of apple milk."Because the mayor asked everyone who came to the church today not to leave for the time being. There may be some special arrangements.""But Dad, I see the flowers on those people are getting bigger and bigger, it's so scary!"Hearing his daughter mention those flowers again, the father couldn't help but ask her: "My child, can you really see the flowers on them? No matter how I look at them, there are only spots!" Um! They were really covered with flowers, just like what I dreamed about! Moreover, people with flowers also have a layer of light on their bodies! ""Light? My child, why do you keep talking more and more mysteriously?""It's true! It's like the light was squeezed out of them by the flowers, and the flowers would suck the light away!""Uh... My child, come here, daddy have a look if you have a fever." Seeing that his daughter's words were getting more and more outrageous, the father even began to wonder if she had a fever and was hallucinating."Oh, the child definitely doesn't have a fever. If she had a fever, she would have been listless already!" After saying that, the mother hugged the child and comforted her warmly: "Baby, if you are scared, can mom play that song for you again?" ""Okay!" The little girl clapped her hands excitedly."Pastor, do you think we can play some songs in the nave of our church like we do every Sunday during worship?" Seeing his daughter so happy, the father, who was left alone by the mother and daughter, hurriedly ran to seek the pastor's opinion. ."Of course! In fact, I just wanted to ask you to play a few hymns, but seeing that you have been practicing in the music room all day, I was afraid that you were too tired, so I didn't have the nerve to say it."Hi! You are so polite, why are you embarrassed? Just a moment, we're going to bring the instruments! "After saying that, the little girl's parents immediately went to the music room and moved the harp and violin to the podium in the nave.When everything on the stage was ready, the pastor slowly stood up and said to the bored people in his slightly hoarse voice: "Everyone, please sit down! The musician couple from our church are going to play for everyone!" Hearing the pastor 's words, everyone who was already upset by the long wait was so happy that they quickly sat down in their seats and waited quietly for the show to start."I can listen to some good songs again!" the little girl sitting in the corner muttered.Under the expectant gaze of her daughter, the mother on the stage gently put the harp on her right shoulder as usual, then raised her hand to twist the string, causing ripples in the sky to create an infinitely extending picture on the little girl's face. Before the aftermath of the painting had dissipated, the father on the side moved his fingers to vibrate the string again, and thousands of peaches fell down beside the bow. Suddenly, the scales were like sleet, and the two melodies were flying in tandem, chasing each other, painting the picture in the little girl's eyes very vividly.And everyone in the audience was even more fascinated. Even the lavender flowers blooming on people fell asleep to this melodious tune, temporarily stopping their activities of sucking human life.However, good times are always short-lived. The warm applause had just reached the final note, and The door of the church was flung open with a loud cry."Mayor!" The people trapped in the church immediately surrounded him.Facing the excited crowd in front of him, the mayor's expression was very calm. He first asked his men outside to close the door, and then told everyone the doctor's guess and the gardener's experience in detail. Everyone's reaction was just as the mayor expected, panic, despair, suspicion, anger... Various emotions quickly filled every corner of the church, almost completely overwhelming the mayor’s party of three."I don't believe it! I want to go home!" A young man roared hysterically."We stay here so that our relatives and friends outside can be safe! From now on, all people with those purple spots on their bodies are not allowed to leave the rows of benches in the nave! As for those who are not infected in the church...except for doctors and No one except the assistant can come near this place!" The mayor stared into the young man's eyes and ordered in an unquestionable voice. Where is the safety? "The pregnant woman wiped away tears. "If this disease can really be passed on to others, then my husband and my parents will no longer be able to escape! We had lunch together at noon! ""It's just a possibility," the doctor said. "But precisely because of this possibility, we can only choose to control the risk to a minimum.""How to control it? Let us die of illness in the church!? But the child in my belly has not been born yet!" This sudden cry suddenly broke through everyone's defenses, and in just a blink of an eye, the huge crowd actually had cried down in the church."This is a church! It's a place where we worship God! If you let us die here, wouldn't it turn this place into a hell! Will God agree!? Pastor, please say something!" The young man collapsed! He shouted helplessly at the pastor.Seeing the familiar scene in front of him, the pastor looked around in confusion. But the moment his wandering eyes met the mayor's firm eyes in mid-air, he still chose to believe in this close friend. So the pastor took a deep breath, pressed his hand on the Bible, raised his head and closed his eyes, and led these unfortunate people to pray loudly. At first, everyone was still in panic and didn't know what to do. But as the pastor's voice gradually became louder, people began to calm down."It seems there won't be any trouble for a while." The assistant breathed a sigh of relief."Don't be too optimistic. We have only temporarily appeased the people in the church, but their families...""Mayor, it's not good! The deputy mayor and the people in our town ran outside the church to protest!" Before the mayor could finish speaking, the panicked shouts of the gatekeeper came from outside the window."Deputy mayor? Isn't he at home on sick leave?" the doctor whispered."Doctor, please go out with me and have your assistant help the pasto maintain order.""Okay!" the doctor agreed.Outside the church, the protest crowd had already filled the Flower Clock Square, and there were even a few more swaying figures in the sea of flowers, which was forbidden to approach. Seeing this scene, the mayor couldn't help but take a breath. He hurriedly told everyone to stay away from the sea of flowers, and said that he would only be willing to have further negotiations when there was no one near the sea of flowers."It's obvious that you detained our relatives without any reason, why do we need you to impose conditions?"Just because you need an explanation! "Faced with the protesters' doubts, the mayor remained unmoved. Therefore, the protesters, who were intimidated by the mayor's authority, had no choice but to agree to his conditions and keep everyone away from the sea of flowers."Then, please explain the reason why you did this! Also, no matter what the reason is, please let them go immediately!" The deputy mayor asked the mayor in a serious tone to give an explanation."No matter what the reason is, we have to release them? Mr. Deputy Mayor, this is not okay!" The mayor found this request unreasonable. "First of all, what I want to tell you all is that a disaster may have occurred in our town! And the source of this disaster is the lavender sea of flowers!""Impossible!" The protesters said they could not accept the mayor's explanation. "That sea of flowers is so beautiful, how could it be the source of disaster!""I don't believe it anyway! This sea of flowers is obviously here to replace the flower clock! You tried so hard today but couldn't hurt them at all. This is the best proof!""Even if there is something wrong with these flowers, it is not the reason for you to detain our relatives! Don't talk about other things!"…The mayor looked calmly at the shouting crowd and slowly stretched out his hands to signal everyone to be quiet.Don't be impatient, listen to me! As everyone said, this sea of flowers is indeed beautiful, but beauty does not mean harmless! I believe everyone already knows that many people in our town have purple spots on their bodies, but what everyone doesn’t know is that these purple spots are actually caused by a deadly poison that we have never seen before. It is caused by a terrible disease, and the source of this disease is the flowers in the sea of flowers behind you! What’s even more frightening is that now this disease has the possibility of spreading from person to person. In order to prevent the disease from spreading to more people, we can only isolate the patients first! ""Mayor, it's not that we don't want to believe you, but your statement is too bizarre. Do you have any evidence?""Do you want evidence? Okay, then I'll ask the doctor to tell everyone!" After that, the mayor asked the doctor to tell everyone everything that happened, including the fact that they secretly cremated the gardener just now. . However, the residents of the town were still skeptical about this, and several friends who were close to the gardener directly expressed their indignation. They believed that even if the gardener's family had passed away more than 20 years ago, the mayor and others should not have cremated his body without even holding a funeral. This behavior not only insulted the deceased, it also hurt the feelings of the gardener's friends.I do feel sorry about the gardener! However, when urgent matters arise, I... have no choice! ""No choice? Mr. Mayor, what do you think of human life? Those who are locked up in the church, what does their personal freedom mean?" The deputy mayor once again challenged the mayor."It is because human life is important that I made such a decision! It is precisely because the prerequisite of personal freedom is to live that I want the patients to be isolated in the church!""But, you took advantage of me to recuperate at home and did this on your own initiative, completely ignoring the rules that require discussion on major decisions!""It's indeed against the rules for me to make my own decisions, but the matter is urgent and you are recuperating at home, who can I talk to for discussion?""Huh, you said it lightly! Since that doesn't make sense to you, let's go back to the topic we just talked about - I remember you just said that the spread of this disease between people is only a possibility, right? Then What if this possibility does not exist? Or is the transmission ability very weak? Or, in fact, the vast majority of patients will not have any adverse consequences from contracting the disease? Do you really want to lock up the people in the church until they die? ?”"Actually, it's not up to you or me to decide how long you will be detained!""Oh?" The deputy mayor smiled softly. "Why, didn't you order these people to be locked up?" I locked them up, but how long they need to be locked up depends entirely on the condition of the disease. After all, we can’t ignore the disease and quarantine, right? ""Then how do you determine the condition? And as far as I know, there are some people in the church who don't have spots, such as the pastor and the musician's family!""I……""Mayor, let me tell you!" The doctor interrupted the mayor's speech and expressed his thoughts to eve