"Yes. You really are Brother Mu Yun, always so ticulous," Ruan Yuling said with a trace of affection naturally woven into her words, "Children are scared of graveyards, and no one passes by there. So they don’t know that there’s a small waterfall behind the graveyard, and underneath the waterfall is a pond, surrounded by a swath of beautiful, truly beautiful flowers. No matter how upset I am, just spending a little ti there lifts my spirits."
"So then, what happened?" you clearly weren’t just listening to Ruan Yuling reminisce about the past.
"Brother Yun seems a bit impatient," Ruan Yuling’s use of your nickna beca a touch more affectionate, her words carrying an alluring charm.
"It’s not impatience, it’s a desire to understand the full story as soon as possible. After all, it’s getting late, and we can’t possibly have Sister Ling stay overnight with us four old n here, can we? That wouldn’t be good for your reputation."
Ruan Yuling covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, "Reputation hasn’t been useful to for a long ti, the only thing I want now is to be free of the shackles binding ."
"Please, continue Sister Ling."
Ruan Yuling paused for a mont, then continued, "One afternoon, as usual, I went to play by the pond, and as I passed by the graveyard, I saw a ragged Taoist muttering to himself. He looked scruffy and was even talking to a tombstone; I was so scared that I turned and ran ho. For the next three days, I saw that scruffy Taoist every ti I went through the graveyard. One day, he suddenly called out to , saying that if I could treat him to a full al, he could make beautiful and stop others from rejecting ."
"Interestingly, I believed him," Ruan Yuling couldn’t help but let out a wistful sigh, "If heaven gave another chance, I think I would reject him."
"Why? Isn’t becoming beautiful what you’ve always wanted?" Xiao Feng beside you was completely engrossed.
Ruan Yuling let out a deep sigh, "The price of beauty was just too high. I spent all my pocket money to treat the Taoist to a full al. Afterwards, he gave a small stone coffin."
"A small stone coffin?"
Before you could finish, Wei Shuxian pointed to a sandalwood box on the table and said, "That’s right, it’s inside this box, it’s very sinister."
Without opening the sandalwood box imdiately, you turned to Ruan Yuling, "Please, keep going."
"The Taoist told that if I wanted to be pretty, I should drop a drop of blood into the stone coffin every month, and it had to be blood from the tip of my index finger."
You nodded in understanding, "The index finger is the finger we use most in our daily lives, and its blood is the most vigorous and relatively clean in the human body."
Ruan Yuling went on, "The Taoist also said there are no free lunches in this world. If I wanted to beco beautiful, my family would lose so of their fortune and longevity. He particularly warned not to be greedy, saying one drop a month was enough."
"At first, I followed his instructions. The results weren’t very noticeable, but I felt the freckles on my face lessening, and my skin seed a bit whiter. That alone was enough to fill with joy, but then, things started to change," Ruan Yuling continued with a heavy sign.
"One day, as usual, I was playing by the pond with my schoolbag on my back, the stone coffin inside it. While playing, I accidentally fell into the chilly water, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in my abdon, followed by a lot of blood flowing from below. I was terrified. Funnily enough, that was the first ti I got my period."
"Getting your first period at sixteen is indeed quite late," Zong Wangyue comnted.
"After that day, I changed. In less than a month, my weight dropped drastically from over 180 pounds to 120, and my body and bones began to grow rapidly; my skin turned pale all of a sudden," Ruan Yuling said as she held up her fair hands, turning them in front of her eyes, and went on, "Every girl loves beauty, and I was no exception. Thus, I quickly forgot the Taoist’s words and started to use the blood from my period each month, dropping it onto the small stone coffin."
"Foolish!" Wei Shuxian sighed heavily, "The blood from nstruation is tainted blood, it’s the filthiest thing on a woman’s body! Using that kind of blood on the stone coffin, what awaited you wasn’t happiness from beauty, but disaster!"
You said nothing, just quietly watched Ruan Yuling.
Ruan Yuling’s beautiful face now bore a hint of sorrow, "Yes indeed, this beauty brought disaster. But back then, I had no idea that awaiting were pain and misfortune one after another."
After a short pause, Ruan Yuling continued, "Half a year later, my father was injured at a construction site trying to save a manager and was impaled by falling rebar. Although the construction team compensated us handsoly, my father could only sit in a wheelchair afterward. Then ca my mother; she... she was working in a textile factory that caught fire, and she didn’t make it out."
"With good fortune cos misfortune; the more changes you underwent, the more suffering befell those around you."
Ruan Yuling’s eyes were already reddened, "A year later, my father passed away due to complications, leaving alone and helpless. Afterwards, I was taken in by a distant relative to work in Yuhang, just like you guys, I was only eighteen. Through my relative’s arrangent, I worked in an advertising agency as a clerk and, due to my standout appearance, was chosen as a model, beginning to appear on magazine covers. Later on, I t my first husband and quickly fell head over heels in love, and we married within half a year. Less than two months into our marriage, his family started dying off due to various reasons, my husband was overwheld with grief and fell ill, and he didn’t survive the next six months."
Ruan Yuling’s voice grew hoarse as she spoke.
Seeing this, Zong Wangyue shook his head slightly and said, "I’ll take over from here; people in the circle know the rest. Sister Ling got married six more tis, each of them to n of renown. What baffled everyone was that none of Sister Ling’s marriages lasted more than a year. From the day of each wedding, her husbands’ family mbers would begin to die under mysterious circumstances, be it illness, natural disaster, or even man-made tragedy. Only relatives living overseas remained unaffected; those in Huaxia, no matter how far, all suffered. So over ti, Sister Ling earned the nickna ’Black Widow’."
You slowly closed your eyes and sighed, "The Lone Star of Tiansha."
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