Chapter 639

My name is Shi Rou, I was born into the foremost technique practitioner family of Lingnan.

The Shi Family became Lingnan's foremost technique practitioner family because our ancestors started in grave robbing, and we are the heirs of the Mountain-Moving Strongmen lineage.

The Mountain-Moving Strongmen lineage began as the Army Grave-Digging Battalion, later left the military and gradually formed a civilian sect; at its peak in the Prosperous State it had seventy-two rudders, three thousand able-bodied troops, numerous members, each mastering extraordinary skills.

In the Mountain-Moving Strongmen's ranking system, the four most important levels are Chief, Red Armor, Black Armor, and White Armor; the Shi Family are heirs of the Red Armor.

Red Armor units are the core combat force in tomb-raiding operations, responsible for breaking mechanisms and fighting zongzi; they are the vanguard troops, also containing many sworn warriors with a certain martial prowess and Xiūwéi.

I don't know why our ancestors brought an entire Red Armor unit to retreat to Lingnan.

But after taking root here, they never left for generations.

This unit has long infiltrated every trade in Lingnan, every nook and cranny, supporting the Shi Family as the sole entity in Lingnan capable of standing equal to the Wang Family, Lingnan's foremost feng shui clan.

Even to this day I don't know how extensive the Shi Family's connections are, or how many gray-industry ventures they have.

All I know is that the Shi Family's population is extremely thin.

From as long as I can remember, the sentence I've heard most often is: "The Shi Family passes down only through a single line, generation after generation of male heirs; I'm afraid it will end with me."

But my grandfather, now the head of the Shi Family, treats me like the apple of his eye and strongly supports me becoming the Shi Family's leader of this generation.

He has only two strict requirements for me: one, no tomb-raiding; two, I must bear children, the more the better.

He said the Shi Family's sparse population is due to our ancestors' excessive tomb-raiding, which damaged our yin virtue; therefore, to preserve the lineage, after settling in Lingnan, the Shi Family established the rule forbidding tomb-raiding.

But outside rumors persist that the Shi Family washed its hands in a gold basin (i. e., quit tomb-raiding) because we touched some taboo and had no choice.

In fact, before I turned eighteen, I had no concept of the Shi Family's misfortune.

Those were the eighteen most smooth-sailing years of my life.

Until I started discussing marriage.

I had a childhood sweetheart lover named Wang Chengjin.

He was the young master of the Lingnan Wang Family at the time, about my age; we grew up together, our feelings were deep, and just as I turned eighteen, my grandfather began looking for a suitable son-in-law to move into our family.

I told my grandfather I had someone I liked, and Wang Chengjin also expressed to his family his intention to marry into the Shi Family as a live-in husband.

At that time, not only the Wang Family, but even my grandfather strongly opposed it.

Wang Chengjin and I were puzzled: the Wang and Shi Families each held half of Lingnan's feng shui and divination world; an alliance between them would be a perfect match, so why did everyone oppose it?

Wang Chengjin went even further to marry into my family, causing an uproar at home—he went on hunger strikes, threatened to run away from home, and knelt outside his father's study for a day and night… After all, he was also a cherished treasure held in the palm of the Wang Family, and in the end the Wang Family relented.

Wang Chengjin happily brought a matchmaker to our door to discuss the marriage.

No one expected that, as his carriage just got onto the Guard-City Bridge, a sudden downpour struck, sending him and his carriage into the river; when he was fished out, he was already dead.

Because of this, relations between the Wang and Shi Families turned icy; for many years they had no contact unless forced to cooperate on major matters.

I, too, fell into a deep depression over Wang Chengjin's death, even once wishing I could follow him to the grave.

If it weren't for my grandfather's constant persuasion, and if it weren't for the burden of the Shi Family that I must bear…

In the ten years that followed, no matter who proposed marriage to my family or who within the clan urged me, I never spoke of feelings again.

That was also the ten years in which I rapidly grew in the business world.

At twenty‑eight, I had already established a firm foothold in the entire Lingnan business community.

It was that same year when my parents met with an accident and both passed away.

This blow was fatal for both me and my grandfather.

After seeing to my parents' funeral, the matter of my marriage was brought back onto the agenda.

This time my grandfather took a very hard line, directly picking a man who was a suitable match for our Shi Family in terms of social standing and whose horoscope complemented mine, urging us to get along well.

At first things went smoothly.

He invited me out for meals several times, we watched a movie together and attended two operas, and I brought him home.

As for me, my love had already died when Wang Chengjin passed away at eighteen.

Who I marry and spend my life with makes no difference to me.

As long as he is suitably compatible and can win my grandfather's approval, that's enough.

When things were gradually going well, my grandfather specially set up a banquet, inviting the man's family over for a meal to finalize the arrangement of his moving into our family.

It was at that banquet that the man, after drinking a little too much, suffered a sudden heart attack and died vomiting blood.

Even the man's parents said they had no idea their son had a heart condition.

He had drunk more alcohol before without ever experiencing anything abnormal.

After another two years, my grandfather again screened two suitable candidates for me.

Without exception, they all died in sudden accidents while we were preparing the engagement.

From then on, all of Lingnan whispered that my fate was too harsh—I not only killed my parents, but also my husbands; whoever marries me will not live long.

Consequently I earned a notorious nickname—the Lingnan Black Widow.

At that time I was already thirty‑three years old.

In the business world I acted decisively, managing the Shi Family's enterprises in orderly fashion, yet my reputation outside remained tarnished and I had no romantic prospects.

My grandfather seemed to have resigned himself as well; he no longer made unilateral decisions, stopped seeking good matches for me, and stopped pressuring me to marry, merely hinting, both openly and subtly, that he wished to hold a great‑grandson.

Nowadays, with advanced medical technology, if one truly wants to, it is possible to achieve having a child without a father.

But deep down I still fear that I might also harm my children.

I secretly consulted several fortune‑tellers, who all said my children's palace is dark, making conception difficult but not impossible, advising me to let things take their natural course.

Since everything should be left to fate, I will just wait a bit longer.

Until I was thirty‑eight, when I met a man.

At first sight I knew he might be the person I had been waiting for.

His name is Jin Wuya; he is an orphan, also a practitioner of the yin‑yang arts, and he is a deceitful craftsman.

I first saw him at the Wufu Town Pawnshop.

During that period, the Wufu Town Pawnshop had a female manager named Xiao Jiu; it was said she was very capable, repeatedly solving several thorny strange matters in the vicinity, and her fame spread abroad.

Grandfather said, in earlier years, my family's ancestors also had dealings with the Yin Dang Hang; if the Wufu Town Pawnshop is truly as formidable as the rumors say, we may later have business dealings with them, so grandfather had me personally investigate the Wufu Town Pawnshop.

During the process of investigating the Wufu Town Pawnshop, I discovered that this middle-aged man named Jin Wuya had close dealings with the pawnshop, so I paid him more attention...