Andrea Family, the "parvenus" who Nangong Sanba talked about had been rooted in the land of snow for 300 years. They were wealthy and had a long history. They had incredible properties and ancient foundations in Europe. However, few people in the world knew of their existence: for more than 300 years, this family had always followed strict admonitions handed down from ancient times—not getting involved with the outside world, not attempting to escape the snowland, not attracting the attention of others. Their ancestors and every patriarch were convinced that those were the only ways to keep the family's wealth, and of course, their lives.
The mottled façade of the castle was the witness to all the ups and downs the family had been experiencing. The elegant and luxurious interior of the castle displayed their wealth and history. The castle had undergone many renovations and modernization over hundreds of years, but without changing the most important parts of the framework. It was clear that every generation in the family knew what was hidden beneath their own castle: they were afraid to disturb the beast in this cage.
Later that day, Hao Ren saw some of the servants in the castle as they busily prepared dinner, which somehow added life to the castle building. He wondered where the servants came from: such a lonely and remote place, not to mention mysterious, gloomy, and reclusive; he could imagine that they did not casually recruit people to work here.
Since Nangong Sanba knew a thing or two about the situation there, he naturally played the tour guide role. "Most of the servants in the castle are from of line of servants as well. The Andrea Family uses their wealth to feed these people so that their offspring receives professional education as a servant. And, they also recruit outsiders at a high price, but even so, they still lose people every few years—some have died of accidents and some who couldn't stand the atmosphere fled. However, in any case, the rich always have their own solutions."
Hao Ren and the others were now staying on the third floor of the VIP area. Their gorgeous room was covered with thick velvet carpet and palace-style decorations. The firewood crackled in the fire, in addition to all the primary furniture and appliances. However, this luxurious and comfortable room did not make them feel at ease. From the moment they entered the castle, Hao Ren had an uncomfortable feeling coming from under his feet. He asked several others and found that this was not an illusion.
Vivian had several encounters with the vengeful spirit before. She could generally make out the situation there. "The vengeful spirit must be underground, but it hasn't fully entered the material world. And to be honest... I have a weird feeling about this building."
Hao Ren glanced at Vivian. "Yeah, it's weird. The house looks like a prison from the outside."
Vivian shook her head, opened the window, and looked out at the dark atrium. The two wings of the building had two rows of low-rise houses, which extended out to form a cage-like structure behind the castle. She looked at the gloomy and overcast weather outside thoughtfully. "I mean something else... I feel that I've seen this place before."
"I don't know if you've really seen it before, but I'm freezing." Becky jumped around with her arms around herself, then she slammed the window closed. "It's freaking cold here! Are you freaking out of your mind?"
Lily was lying down in front of the fireplace, staring at the flames in a daze. She threw a spiteful look at Becky when she heard her. "Oh, come on. At this temperature? I find it just right!"
Vivian chimed in, "It's like fish to water, eh? After all, this is the Arctic Circle, the place of your ancestors. I bet you could make 80, pulling a sleigh behind you."
Night fell, but the place was close to the Arctic Circle, so the polar day and night phenomena affected the day-to-day life here. The sun gradually set right above the horizon, but stayed there. It stubbornly shone its weak light upon the earth. The polar night sunlight did not give much light to the castle, instead it caused the castle to look even more gloomy, because of its angle.
After dinner in the room, Hao Ren decided to take a stroll ouside in the hallway.
Outside the room was a straight hallway laid with dark red carpet with many portrait paintings on both sides. The portraits here were no longer full-body images, but avatars framed in oval frames. These lifeless figures looked weird in the warm light. While walking, Hao Ren whispered to himself: he could not understand the pervenu who hung these portraits along the hallway. Was it because the parvenu was mentally too tough or something? As if the gloomy hallway was not enough, he also hung two rows of his ancestors'zombie faces there as well. To make matters worse, the parvenu decided to place a pair of dim lights on both sides of each portrait. Anyone who had a weak bladder and needed to make trips to the loo outside at night would literally just pee out of fear.
Outside the castle, the temperature was tens of degrees below zero, but inside the castle, it was still warm and pleasant. Wearing an unlined garment as he strolled across the hallway, Hao Ren suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He was counting the portraits of the Andrea ancestors, from the youngest generation—that was the father of current head of family, Igor—to those of the Bolshevik period, the Alexander period, and Catherine period. Under the cold glances of the portraits in the oval frames, Hao Ren had unknowingly reached the end of the hallway.
In front of him was a weird portrait, which hung on the wall at the end of the hallway.
Unlike the oval frames on either side of the hallway, this portrait was a full-body portrait of a woman in a black dress, standing in a dark red, rose background. However, the woman's face was shrouded behind a black gauze.
The names and years of all the Andrea ancestral portraits were displayed in a uniform format, but the weird portrait of the female only had one simple word: ведьма (witch).
This strange thing immediately aroused Hao Ren's interest. He began to study the portraits and texts on both sides. Finally, he established that the one hanging on the left, an old man with a white beard was the earliest ancestor of the Andreas, while the woman, whose face was shrouded was not a member of the Andrea Family.
She did not even have a name. However, this nameless woman who was simply called a "witch" was hung in the foremost prominent position of all.
Right when Hao Ren was about to go and ask the others to come check it out, he suddenly heard a burst of noise.
The sound seemed to come from some room on the upper floor of the castle. Despite the thick walls, he could still heard it clearly. It sounded like someone was crying and wailing. This was accompnied by the shattering sound of glass and dishes, as well as furniture tipping over. And there were voices of people breathing, dissuading, and screaming. This disturbance continued for a few minutes before it died down. Finally, Hao Ren faintly heard the sound of the heavy iron gate shutting. Then, no noises were heard again.
Hao Ren suddenly felt a stranger next him. He instinctively turned around and was almost scared to death: a white figure, who appeared out of nowhere was standing behind him like a wandering soul!
When he looked closely, he realized that it was not a wandering soul, but a young, skinny girl in a white dress. The girl seemed to be seriously ill. Her face was pale, and her steps were staggered. Her body rocked involuntarily from left to right and back to front as she stood there. She shrunk her shoulders and looked at Hao Ren for a while before suddenly lifted the hair in front of her face, exposing a weird smile. "Did you hear the sound upstairs?"
Hao Ren patted his chest, his heart pumping fast as cold sweat trickled down his spine; despite his warfare experience in alien worlds, he could not help but be frightened upon seeing that. What he saw now was totally different. His experience seemed to be of no help in such circumstances. He looked at the strange girl curiously and asked, "You are?"
The girl did not know the person in front of her, but judging from his attire, he was probably not one of the servants in the castle.
The young girl did not seem to hear Hao Ren's question as she just listened to the movements upstairs. On top of that, there was a weird smile on her face. "That's my brother." She giggled. "He's the last male in the Andrea Family. If he can't survive past this year, this prison is going to collapse!"
She then suddenly looked up at Hao Ren. "You're all here to cast out the spirit?"
"Sort of." Hao Ren was having goosebumps as he was being stared down by her pair of white eyes. But, he also realized that the girl could be mentally unsound. He wanted to leave quickly.
"Another group of conmen..." The young girl giggled. "Well, well, take all the money. After all, it's a curse... The witch will not spare us, and she will not spare you lot either... Take all the money away!"
Hao Ren ears stood erect. "Who is the witch?"
However, at this moment, the girl's mental illness suddenly took over. She no longer took questions from Hao Ren. Instead, she muttered as she walked away, with only intermittent words coming out of her mouth. "The money should have gone just like the way it came... Endless of money, endless of deaths ... The prison's going to collapse, it's going to collapse, it's going to collapse..."