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Click!
A slight noise came from outside the window, startling Shiller, who had been dozing off in his chair. He stood up and walked over to the window, only to find that the postman had arrived— it was the sound of the mailbox flag being pushed down.
Shiller opened the door and stepped outside. The postman was a young Mexican Descendant, who, seeing Shiller come out, flashed a brilliant smile and waved, saying, "Hello, sir, I heard you're the new resident."
"Yes, did you come over just to say hello to me?" Shiller's mind was still a bit sluggish, and he realized his words sounded somewhat sharp. So he quickly added, "Don't worry, I won't report a stranger with a postman's bag, perhaps that would give thieves an opportunity."
The postman realized he was joking, so he smiled again and said, "I'd like to do that, but I'm on a tight schedule, and there are quite a few new residents recently. I can't greet everyone door by door, so I can only come when they have their first piece of mail."
"Do I have any mail?"
"Of course." The postman took a letter from his bag, but didn't hand it to Shiller directly. Instead, he placed it into the already open mailbox, then said, "It was sent last night, but there is no marked address or sender, perhaps you can take a look."
The postman stood at the doorway, waiting. With such mysterious letters, he generally had to make sure they weren't dangerous or threatening. If they were, the residents might ask him to testify, and running back later would be too much trouble. The best way was to wait there before the police arrived.
Shiller took the letter from the mailbox; he appreciated the postman's caution. Perhaps that was the biggest reason he could work in an affluent area.
Indeed, the envelope bore no usual identification, proving it was an anonymous letter. As he turned the envelope over, Shiller was stunned.
The back of the envelope featured awkwardly written Chinese characters. Even as someone who had been Chinese in his previous life, Shiller thought at first glance they looked like gibberish, no wonder the postman's smile was a bit odd.
But he recognized these scribbles all too well, and the content of the scribbles also indicated the sender of the letter. After careful scrutiny, it read, "Hello, A Zhi."
"Is it some strange letter?" the postman asked.
Shiller hesitated for a good ten seconds before speaking, but he finally said, "It's from an acquaintance of mine. Do you know how it was sent?"
"Sorry, sir, I can't see the mailing process of anonymous letters. If you want to inquire, you might need to visit the post office, but there might not be a result. The management here is not strict, and we always receive all kinds of strange letters."
"Alright, thank you." Shiller pulled out two tips and handed them to the postman, saying, "If there are more letters like this in the future, please pay attention to them."
"I will, generous sir. But 'letters like this' refers to...?"
"The ones with these kinds of symbols on the front."
"That, I've been meaning to ask..." The postman rubbed his hands together, looking a bit embarrassed to ask, "Is that some religious or magical symbol? Are there curses involved?"
"It's Chinese, just written a bit oddly. It's not a magical symbol, and there are no curses, you can rest assured."
The postman clearly breathed a sigh of relief, waved at Shiller, and after mounting his bicycle, said, "If you confirm that you've received a threatening letter, you can report it to the police station, afterward, let them check the surveillance to see when the letter was slipped in, perhaps some useful clues can be found. Goodbye."
"Thank you, goodbye."
Shiller took the letter back to his room and sat down in the chair he had been sitting in before. He turned the letter to the front again, looking at those four long-unseen Chinese characters and sighed helplessly.
Each of these characters was written in a single stroke, but not in the connected order familiar to Chinese people. Instead, there was a unique understanding, drawing whichever stroke was closer from left to right.
Moreover, the characters that were supposed to be squarely shaped had been elongated and rounded like letters, with every square shape turned into a circle from right to left.
Simply put, it had the beauty of a new script created after China joined the Soviet Union one day.
Shiller was so familiar with this peculiar font that he didn't even need to read the content to know that the sender had to be Anatoli.
Shiller observed the four characters closely; they were even uglier than what he had seen in his past life. Anatoli must have been drunk.
Before opening the envelope, Shiller had never prayed so earnestly that the main text wouldn't be written in Chinese; otherwise, he would have to spend the next few days cracking codes.
Thankfully, when he opened the envelope, the main text inside was a somewhat sloppy Russian. Although it was also a bunch of circles, at least it didn't come with the mental pollution effect of a magically altered mother tongue, making it barely readable.
"Long time no see, A Zhi.
I heard you've learned that I'm still alive and you've recently moved to a new home, so I've sent you this letter.
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I know you recently encountered an annoying guy, but at the same time, he brought you an exhilarating piece of news, because that even more annoying country has finally embarked on their destined path of decline.
What I want to talk to you about is my current job, you should know that, in addition to the countless beings above the surface, there are also countless eyes within the deepest spaces watching over this cosmos.
If we compare the cosmos to a Magic Cube, and you are inside one of the blocks, no matter how the cube is turned, you would always think it's by your own will, but in reality, the hand holding the Magic Cube is the most important force.
I am trying to catch a glimpse of this part of the scenery, so I can't leave for now, but I have left something for you in an interesting universe. You can go look for it, consider it entertainment amidst moving house.
Your Doctor, Anatoli."
After reading the letter, Shiller let out a long sigh, one could only say that everyone will encounter their destiny's Riddler.
Through this letter, Shiller confirmed several things.
Anatoli was indeed still alive, and he was also continuing to pay close attention to this cosmos, apparently in pursuit of some secrets in the depths of the universe.
As for the reason he was alive, that's important because in Shiller's past life, when the young Shiller met Anatoli at the research institute, he had already been not young, and after several decades went by, Shiller grew up, and Anatoli had aged and was in bad health, teetering on the brink of Death before his accident occurred.
The reason he didn't die could be many, but Shiller speculated that the most likely was a compensation from God.
As said before, to prevent Lucifer from collapsing, God sent Shiller's soul away, but didn't want to let this little boy die, so Lucifer randomly pulled another soul over, which might have been Anatoli's.
Even though this saved Anatoli, who was about to commit suicide at that time, and Anatoli even taught Lucifer a lesson, all the tragedies that happened afterwards started from this point.
More importantly, Lucifer's remorse over Anatoli was obviously greater than his anger, and God couldn't bear to let Lucifer's friend just die like that, so perhaps the subsequent travels through time and the escape from near-death were all God's doing.
Otherwise, it's really hard to explain how a common person's soul could travel through so many worlds and still live so lively.
Another important thing was that Anatoli had found a communication channel with him, making it very unlikely for Shiller to have any peace in the coming days.
As for whether the letter was sent by Anatoli, there was no need to doubt, because no one other than him could write Chinese characters in such a style, a unique anti-counterfeiting mark indeed.
Speaking of why he wrote Chinese characters in such a style, it goes back to the life at the research institute in the beginning. Shiller remembered that there were no dedicated Chinese teachers for teaching foreigners Chinese, only language arts teachers for the Chinese, and these language arts teachers didn't speak Russian, whereas the translators who knew Russian couldn't teach Chinese.
Anatoli's Chinese was self-taught, especially the writing, a language with an oddly high difficulty in writing, nearly impossible to learn without a teacher.
Especially since Anatoli didn't have much patience and didn't want to follow the dictionary and write stroke by stroke, so he continued with the writing style of Russian, with the main goal being that as long as a Chinese person could understand, it was sufficient.
Chinese people could indeed understand, as native speakers, even if only a few strokes were in the right positions, the paper filled more with similarity in spirit than in form, they could still make it out with some effort.
This disorganized writing style wasn't something ordinary people could imitate; even if the shape could be mimicked, the essence that screamed of having been written after downing two kilograms of vodka couldn't be replicated, making it the best anti-counterfeit signature.
Upon receiving the letter from Anatoli, Shiller was not particularly excited, because he knew it meant more trouble.
And sure enough, even before the afternoon arrived, the mailman had once again pressed down the sign on the mailbox. Shiller went out to check, and it was another letter with scribbles all over the envelope.
"Honestly, sir, is your friend really not a Wizard from China?" The mailman still looked somewhat uneasy, as he seemed to be sure that the scribbles on the envelope had some sort of Mana.
Shiller shook his head lightly, reached out to take the letter from inside, and then handed the envelope to the mail carrier saying, "You can just take it somewhere and burn it."
The mailman was so scared that he nearly threw the envelope away, but Shiller said, "This is a sorcery from the ancient East that can bless you with safety."
The mailman looked at the envelope with astonishment, indeed feeling the symbols painted on it had an aesthetic appeal, so he carefully placed the envelope Shiller handed back into his bag.
Returning inside with the letter, Shiller found that it was about the interesting things mentioned in the previous letter, though it didn't mention what these things were, it described more specifically where Anatoli had left them.
"... My old home is cold and desolate, with heavy snow burying the house until only the weathervane on the roof remains visible, spinning in the howling wind, making a screeching sound that makes one want to drink and then fall asleep by the fireplace...
Once outside, there is a lake, and across the lake stretches a vast Forest. In winter, all the leaves fall off, and snow rests on the branches. When the wind blows through the woods, it looks as if a brown and black train is passing by on the opposite shore.
Do you remember the pile of comics I brought you that day? Among them, there was a story I really liked, filled with American Arrogance, their deconstruction of us, but I still loved the absurd tale..."
I knew Anatoli must be drinking a lot, Shiller thought.
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