The Family Register

Madam Zhou gently approached the ancestral altar, carefully taking out an old, worn book. She meticulously wiped away every speck of dust clinging to its cover.

At that moment, the four characters "Zhou Family Register" appeared before our eyes.

This was the most important book of the Zhou clan, recording their most significant events. People could speak falsely, but books must always be true; this was a rule of Xuanmen: "Every cause has its effect"—whatever one does has karmic consequences; if one doesn't know the cause, how can there be an effect?

Within it was a tragic passage, like a heroic ode, recounting a glorious era of the Zhou family.

According to the book, the Zhou family was originally a branch of Xuanmen descendants, renowned throughout the Southwest region at that time.

During a major Xuanmen-related business deal, Zhou Cheng Bi—Old Master Zhou—unfortunately suffered a setback, failing to keep his promise to help a client, which turned that person's anger into hatred. It was precisely because of this that the Zhou family brought upon themselves the calamity of clan extermination.

That year's disaster was a fatal blow, causing all the Zhou family's assets and prestige to plummet from the pinnacle of glory into a bottomless abyss.

Fortunately, the Zhou family's only daughter, Zhou Meng Tang, narrowly escaped death. Afterwards, she wandered far from home, was taken in by the Chu family as a maidservant, and given the name Chu Xing.

Chu Xing was fifteen that year, lively and exceptionally intelligent. She was highly skilled in everything related to talismans and incantations.

The Chu family's assets at that time were already among the wealthiest in Bian Jing. Madam Chu was endlessly worried about this. Firstly, she feared that others would become greedy and harm the Chu family; secondly, she grew suspicious, fearing that the servants in the household would scheme and cause trouble.

Reading this far, we understood some things, but still hadn't discovered anything unusual, so we continued reading.

However, an entire night passed, and we found no clues related to Wu Ming, only mentions of Chu Yao's marriage.

Due to a chance encounter, Madam Chu met Mu Gui An and wished to arrange a match for Young Master Chu. Thanks to this karmic connection, Chu Xing was redeemed and had the opportunity to rebuild the Zhou family as it is today.

Many pages at the back were torn out. Madam Zhou also didn't know why, as this family register was extremely important, and only the family head was allowed to view it.

Speaking of this, it was quite strange. Only the family head was allowed to view this family register. Madam Zhou, of course, didn't know these things, so... was there another reason?

The previous family head was Chu Xing (Zhou Meng Tang)—a woman who built her career herself, so it was natural for her to be recorded in the family register. So, for this generation, would the next person recorded in the family register be Madam Zhou?

I quickly turned to Madam Zhou and asked:
"For this generation's family register, who will be recorded?"

Madam Zhou was a little surprised, replying:
"If we're talking about this generation, the ones recorded would be Old Master and Zhou Ying."

I quickly flipped to the last pages, but found no results, my voice a little anxious:
"Why is there no record here?"

Madam Zhou hurriedly approached us, thought for a moment, then replied:
"Every three generations, the family register is replaced..."

Madam Zhou didn't finish her sentence, continuing to ponder.

"That's right, Master Chu Ling, if you hadn't asked, I would have forgotten. I was so busy with Zhou Ying's funeral arrangements earlier that I didn't pay attention to this. The next generation's family register was originally written by my husband. After he passed away, it was passed on to my son."

With that, Madam Zhou led us to Young Master Zhou's room. This room seemed a little unfamiliar compared to our previous visit.

Madam Zhou rummaged through every drawer, finally finding the remaining family register. She opened it and continued to read to us. Old Master Zhou's generation had nothing particularly special; it was just that from his generation onwards, they no longer followed Xuanmen. Subsequent generations had to emulate him, prioritizing good deeds and accumulating virtue, with business being secondary.

By Zhou Ying's generation, after Old Master Zhou's sudden death, he was still young. He mainly focused on his studies, and after finishing, he continued to help Madam Zhou manage the pharmacy.

He had a bitter fate and died young, so the family register didn't record much. I had thought that I wouldn't find any more clues in this family register.

But in the end, Madam Zhou read out a sentence with a voice full of surprise:
"The previous generation's family register had its last three pages torn out by Zhou Ying's descendant."

About Zhou Ying, only that one sentence was recorded, and he never mentioned what the content of those three pages was.

Su Er wondered:
"Why did Zhou Ying do that?"

Madam Zhou honestly shook her head, indicating she didn't know. That's right, besides Chu Xing (Zhou Meng Tang) being the only woman allowed to read the family register herself, no one in subsequent generations was permitted to do so.

Madam Zhou thought to herself that Zhou Ying must have known something about this, but no one knew what the torn pages were about.

Su Er and I knew that there were no clues for this matter for now, so we intended to go back and discuss it further, when Madam Zhou suddenly bumped into a vase. This collision accidentally opened a secret chamber hidden in Zhou Ying's bed.

The three of us walked to the bed. Indeed, there was a wooden box inside. I took the box out and carefully observed it. The box was tightly locked, and only Zhou Ying knew the key, but he was gone, so how could we open it?

Su Er, Madam Zhou, and I searched the entire room but still couldn't find it. Finally, we had to break open the box to see what was inside. I thought this must be what Zhou Ying least wanted anyone to know.

Sure enough, after opening the box, there were three pieces of paper inside, made of the same material as the previous family register.

On the three pieces of paper was content about Chu Xing later in her life. She was the one who taught Madam Chu how to use the Ghost Mother's Pupil to protect the house and guard the gate. From then on, Madam Chu followed her advice, arranging a ghost marriage for Wu Ming with Chu Che, who had died ten years prior.

Afterwards, because Madam Chu thought that since Wu Ming was married to Chu Che, she was more or less Chu Yao's sister-in-law. Her son couldn't marry her, and even less could he love her. Therefore, Madam Chu gave Chu Xing, also known as Zhou Meng Tang, a sum of money to rebuild her career, and personally tore up her deed of sale.

However, in her final days, Zhou Meng Tang could not escape the torment of guilt. She decided to write down the evil deeds she had committed, firstly to comply with the laws of Xuanmen, and secondly to warn her descendants to do good and avoid evil.

Chu Xing's karma was too heavy; her descendants all had to bear the retribution.

Madam Zhou was utterly stunned as she read this. Before, she had thought Zhou Ying's death was at most just bad luck; she never imagined this deep-seated blood feud.

Inside the box, there was still a small piece of paper, Zhou Ying's handwriting. He wrote that after reading the family register, he believed his great-grandmother was not wrong; her method of house protection was a Xuanmen technique, and she never specifically named Wu Ming. Therefore, he had torn out these pages.

If anything happened, he alone would bear the consequences; others were absolutely not involved.