Looking at the herbal gift pack Nangong Sanba had taken out, Nangong Wuyue felt the itch in her spine. She smacked her brother's shoulders and said, "Brother, do you believe that I will whip you with my tail if it's in a different occasion?"
Nangong Sanba did not get what she meant. "What's wrong? Do you know how important this thing is to people with anal fissure?"
Hao Ren quietly put his hand on the shoulders of Nangong Sanba. Just when he was about to say something, he saw a classic car in his peripheral vision hustling toward them—Ogyust is back, coincidentally.
"Tuck away your Chinese herbal gift pack, the old man might get irritated and kill himself together with you." Hao Ren grinned. "Let's just play it by ear, and see if Ogyust knows about the legend of the witch. If Rakikh Family has lost it, we will use solving the curse of the evil spirit as an excuse."
The old car jolted along the trail into the garden which was surrounded by thorns and bushes. The man inside the car had obviously noticed the strangers in front of his house. He honked twice. Hao Ren could almost guess there was a pair of cautious and neurotic eyes behind the tinted car window observing him. As the car came to a stop in the garden, the door was pushed open and an old man in a woolly coat with grey hair who looked about fifity alighted from the car. He looked at the strangers at his doorpstep, his face cautious with a sense of despise. "Who are you guys?"
"Mr. Ogyust," said Nangong Sanba as he stepped forward and greeted the old man enthusiastically. "It's me — these are my colleagues. They are experts in occultism and witchcraft. We come to you to discuss about incantations and mysterious knowledge."
"I have nothing to say," Ogyust scoffed, his face deadpan, and never bothered to hide his despise as he raised his voice. "God, why can't you let an old man live a normal life?"
Meanwhile, Vivian was studying with interest the air-dried wild herbs and animal skins hanging on the outer walls of the house. When she heard the conversation, she felt a bit dissatisfied. She turned her head around and said, "Aren't you being harassed by the evil spirit? Maybe we can... eh?"
When Vivian saw Ogyust, she was stunned as if something stuck her. At the same time, Ogyust's response was even more dramatic: he was wide-eyed, his voice choked as though he was strangled, and he started to shiver!
The old man staggered backward, as if he were ready to turn around and run. Vivian finally recalled something in her mind, "Pavel? You're still alive?"
"Pavel..." Ogyust tripped and fell on his back. He looked at the sky dazedly. "Pavel...no one has ever called me by this name for three centuries...Mastress, you finally come to get back your stuff?"
"How could this be..." Vivienne was stunned. "Was it you who had been in contact with the Andre family al the while?"
Hao Ren had guessed the truth from the inexplicable conversation. He looked at the shivering old man in in disbelief. Meanehile, Lily was quick as lunged to hold the old man up, together with Nangong Saba, they helped the old man who was about to pass out walk to door. "Don't say anything yet. Let's get side which is warmer."
The wooden house was clean and tidy, except that there was a sense of oldness, not keeping up with times. Nevertheless, there were a few modern electrical appliances and daily necessities which contrasted with the ancient wooden tables and chairs. It exuded a wonderful sense of space-time confusion.
The half-body portrait of Alexander I was hung below the portrait of Lenin. A Soviet rocket copper mold was placed next to a silver candlestick from the Tsarist Period. Old-fashioned mud-brick fireplace was crackling with fire, and fireplaces used the Red Army era. A metal lunchbox from the Red Army era was placed above the fireplace warming up the soup left in the morning. This was an time-warped old house which contained many things older than the house itself.
This was also the dwelling place for the reclusive man who had lived for three centuries.
Three hundred years ago, the Witch had left two stones for her two human minions, and inadvertently changed the fate of the two exiles who had embarked on an incredible and completely different life. The careless witch simply did not foresee the kind of consequences that would bring upon the two.
A servant had become incredibly wealthy while another servant had become immortal.
And the price they paid for these was all the same: a nightmare that haunted them for life.
"Each time, at sixty years old, I would 'die' of acute hemorrhage. Incredibly, I would wake up after three to ten days of sleep and return to the moment when I first came into contact with the stone—me at twenty-two years old with a strong body," Ogyust Futoryak Rakikh aka Pavel was wrapped in a thick blanket and sitting on a rattan chair, crouching all over his body as if he had crumbled in the cold winter of his life. "I don't know what's going on in my body, but I know it must be a curse which keeps me alive forever only to be tangled up with the crazy voice in my head."
Ogyust lowered his head and clutched his own hair. "I tried several times to put an end to all this, and once I even pointed a gun to my head, but in the end I still couldn't make up my mind. Die and resurrect—the same process repeated over and over again until today."
Vivian looked at her former servant. She finally recalled her memory. From the 50-year-old face, she could still vaguely remember his young face. "It was you who had been in contact with Andrea's descendants all this while? So they could only receive letters from Rakikh Family. Have you ever married? Any children?"
"During the first two resurrection cycles, I got married twice," Ogyust shook his head. "But soon I discovered that it would only cause trouble. I had to find ways to conceal my immortality. Even my family couldn't understand this phenomenon—my second wife accidentally found out the secret of my resurrection, she reported me to the church, I was deemed a witch and was almost burned alive. Since then I stayed away from humans, and kept moving around to try to conceal my secrets. I had also tried to disguise myself as my son, which worked well in a time when household registration system wasn't that perfect... It was difficult in the first hundred years, but then I became familiar with such life. The census and personal identity system were rather troublesome things. During the entire Stalin era, I lived in the mountains and almost became a savage. During that time, I lost contact with Andrea Family. But thankfully, everything returned to normal after that. Such is life, there were ups and downs. Once I thought the world was a dull place, but after living long enough, I began to be amazed by ridiculous changes taking place in the world.
"So you played your own descendants or changed your identity again and again. While you kept in touch with Andrea's descendants, you kept a safe distance," Vivienne sighed. "You're not comfortable with them, worried that once they found out your secret of immortality they would put you into danger?"
"I did have that concern indeed," Ogyust said in a deep voice. "After learning the death of Andrea from old age, and his descendants were unfathomable stranger to me, I chose to guard my secret cautiously. But this' not the main reason why I keep a distance from Andrea Family. The main reason is that voice."
Ogyust said pointed at his own head. "It's here. The voice came every night, urging me to go to Siberia to reunite the two cursed stones. The dark forces were divided by the witch, so they're eager to come together. I am not sure whether it's attached to the stone or me. I dare not imagine once I go to Andrea's house, what will happen if the two dark forces merge into one... It may recover fully, and break the seal of the mastress. No mortal strength could defeat the monster."
Hao Ren glanced at Vivian, surprised. "Divided into two? You cut the vengeful spirit in half?"
"Don't be kidding, vengeful spirit is not tofu," Vivienne gave Hao Ren a sideways glance. "It may be a part of the obsessiveness of the vengeful spirit is on another stone. Nevertheless, Pavel's decision to distance himself from Andrea Family is right. If the obsessiveness returns to Siberia, it could have destroyed the seal. Pavel, give me the stone."
Ogyust got to his feet obediently just like he used to be. But he still mumbled. "Just call me Ogyust... I have been using this name for years. I feel odd being called Pavel now."
After Ogyust walked into his room, Lily looked at Vivian, couldn't help but sigh. "Look at the mess you left behind."
Vivian: "....."