"I think we need help," Yunlan said crossing off the last thing on his list.

"I agree," Yezun conceded. "But who can help us?"

They were now at a small table at a nice local bar, drinking tea and eating cake.

They were speaking in a low voice, their heads close since they were seated next to each other, neither of them realising that it looked a lot like they were out on a date.

That wasn't the case, though. They were both thinking of Shen Wei.

Suddenly Yunlan asked, "Who told you that Wei was cursed?"

Yezun jumped up. "That's right! The woman at the sanctuary!" he shouted, and he pulled a reluctant Yunlan away from his cake.

"One more minute wouldn't hurt." Yunlan tried to protest but Yezun kept pulling him until he had to give up. He gave a last longing look at the abandoned slice and followed him.

They reached the sanctuary where the Shen brothers had met that woman the first time, but they saw nobody there.

Yezun couldn't contain his impatience and started calling. "Ehi! Woman! Come out!"

Yunlan scolded him. "Can't you be a little more polite?"

"But I don't know her name!" Yezun replied, feeling too restless to calm down.

"If you're looking for me, the name's Pipi." The words were spoken by a soft voice that gave out an aura of wisdom.

Yezun turned towards the female voice, and he saw the exact image that he remembered. The woman hadn't aged a day.

"You're still so young!" Escaped his mouth, and the woman smiled at him.

"Thank you. You've become a handsome young man, I see. Were you looking for me?"

"You know me?" Yezun asked.

"We've met before," was the only answer he got.

It was enough to encourage him to speak. "When we met, you told me and my brother that he was cursed."

"I know. Poor soul. And you're here because... ?"

"Because I need your help, I want to help him, but everything I tried has failed."

"We want to help him." Yunlan corrected him.

Pipi looked from one boy to the other, then murmured softly. "Finally!" Then she gestured for them to come closer.

They did.

"What have you tried?" She asked.

They told her.

"Please, can you help him?" Yezun pleaded. "I don't know what else..."

Yunlan cleared his throat loudly.

"We don't know what else we can do." Yezun corrected himself, rolling his eyes in a slightly annoyed manner.

The woman smiled. "I can't help him," she started, and their faces fell.

"But I can help you two," she continued, and hope came back to them.

"Someone probably put that curse on him, so you need to find that someone and ask them to annul it."

"How can we find this person?" They both asked.

She sighed. "You need to bring him here."

They both groaned, that wasn't going to be easy.

"If you bring him here, I can help you look into his past, and if that's not enough, we'll look into his past lives."

"You can do that?" Yunlan asked, and she simply nodded.

The two boys exchanged glances, whatever they needed to do, they had to find a way.

"Okay." They both agreed.

~~~~~

"Why don't you stop with this nonsense?" Wei asked his brother.

"Please? It'll be fun, and we will spend time together, it's what brothers do right? Share things and spend time together."

Wei sighed considering his words, maybe it really was what good brothers should do, it sounded reasonable enough that they ought to do stuff together, and did it really matter what they did?

So he reluctantly agreed, and Yezun grinned satisfied.

They reached the sanctuary together, and they saw that Yunlan was already there.

He came forward. "Hello Shen," he greeted full of hope, but Wei turned away to speak to his brother.

"What's he doing here? This won't do, I told you I find it useless and annoying to spend time with someone who wants too much from me."

Yunlan's heart ached, he didn't want to leave, he wanted to stay with him, it had already been so long since they spent time together, but Yezun helped him out.
"He's not here for you, he's... he's my boyfriend, he's here for me."

Wei looked at his brother, then at Yunlan. "Is it true? You won't bother me?"

Yunlan looked at Yezun who gave him an encouraging smile; he didn't like to pretend to be Yezun's boyfriend, but it was the only way to stay near Wei, so he nodded.

Wei's careless expression hurt him more than words could say, 'he doesn't care' he thought, and it hurt so bad.

He wished they could do something to let love in his heart. He knew that didn't mean that Wei would love him, maybe he would fall in love with someone else, but at least there was a chance they could be friends. The fact that Wei avoided him was killing him.

The woman came forward to meet them, and she smiled seeing that Wei was with them. "You came!" She said, looking relieved. Delighted even.

Wei nodded, looking annoyed.

They followed her inside the sanctuary of good fortune and they sat down in a circle.

"Join hands, so you will be connected," she said, then she put her hands on each side of Wei's head.

They all saw images in their heads. Since there were no major, shocking events in Wei's life, they saw images of his past lives.

As the images went by, they saw different men, either poor or rich, all linked by the same cold expression.

It was rather strange, even though the men had different faces, in the vision they could recognise the soul and know it was him.

At some point Yunlan saw his own soul, keeping a crying angry woman from hurting Shen Wei.

Her face covered in tears, she was shouting at Wei.

"Why does he love you and not me? You're nothing! I love him with all my heart but he only thinks of you! You don't deserve him, you don't even have a heart, you will never be able to love anyone!"

"Stop!" Both Yunlan and Yezun yelled, then looked at each other.

"She cursed him, she said he would never love anyone!" Yezun said.

"I know her. I mean her soul felt like one of my friends." Yunlan volunteered.

"Does this mean that he was obsessed with me in other lives too," Wei asked at no-one in particular, looking at Yunlan with annoyed eyes.

They didn't reply to him, instead they kept speaking vehemently about what they saw under Pipi's sad eyes.

"What should we do know?" They wondered, looking at her for directions.

"When you find the person that cursed him, you must convince this person to break the curse and release him," she said.

Yezun turned to Yunlan with excited, expectant eyes. "You said you know her?"

"Yes", Yunlan said. "She's a friend from my other school. Her name is Zhu Hong."