In Shige Village, the only ones with connections to the Guild were the village chief's family.
They had connections in Taiping City.
It was by relying on these connections that their family had snatched the position of village chief from Lu Yuan's family back in the day.
Otherwise, with Lu Yuan's great-grandfather having been the County Magistrate, the village chief position should have been passed down from his generation.
But by Lu Yuan's grandfather's generation, once the great-grandfather passed away, the position of village chief went to the Li Family.
For one, during the years his father was still around, Lu Yuan's grandfather had abused his power and made a mess of things, leaving the villagers quite unhappy.
For another, the Li Family was large and prosperous. Including the chief's household, there were five sons in total.
The third son, in particular, had gone to the city back then and was said to have made connections.
That's how the village chief ended up being Li Guanghan.
Later, however, everyone discovered that this so-called connection wasn't much of a connection at all.
He was just a lowly clerk in a shop run by the Guild.
But after so many years of struggling, his time had finally come.
After all this time, the third son's family had really managed to make a name for themselves in the city.
And now, the third son's son had transformed into the Steward for the Shige Village area.
It really left you speechless.
Whenever the third son's family returned to the village for festivals, Lu Yuan would see his son.
A total hooligan.
'Someone like that can become a Steward?'
'This region is probably in for some trouble.'
Of course, that was none of Lu Yuan's business. He didn't plan on living in the village forever anyway.
He just needed to familiarize himself with this world a little. After all, this body's previous owner was a pedantic, inflexible Scholar.
The man had spent all day cooped up reading, completely oblivious to the outside world.
Once Lu Yuan understood this world a bit more, he would buy a house in the city and move there.
Although Shige Village was under the protection of his great-grandfather's legacy...
...that protection couldn't compare to the safety of the city.
The Officials were all in the city, after all.
...
The weather was lousy today. The sky was gloomy and overcast; even at eight or nine in the morning, it wasn't very bright.
Autumn had set in, and a chilly, piercing wind blew from time to time.
Just as Lu Yuan estimated they were getting close, the driver outside suddenly lifted the curtain, stuck his head in, and said:
"Sir, there are people coming up ahead. We'll have to wait by the roadside for a bit."
Hearing this, Lu Yuan nodded and got out of the carriage.
The driver, meanwhile, moved his carriage to the side of the road.
After getting out, Lu Yuan saw a procession of carriages approaching on the road in the distance. What a grand display!
At the front was a row of household guards, all tall men nearly six feet, equipped with sabers at their waists. There were at least twenty or thirty of them.
They looked quite imposing.
Behind them were five large carriages, each one incredibly ornate.
They were inlaid with all sorts of decorations.
They even had Spiritual Lamps mounted on the sides of the carriages.
'Damn,' Lu Yuan had just been thinking that let alone Taiping City, even in the Provincial City, few could afford to use Spiritual Lamps.
'And here they are, with so many mounted directly on their carriages.'
Behind the carriages were even more people, all wearing identical clothes and carrying sabers at their waists.
At a rough glance, the approaching party consisted of five large carriages and another forty to fifty people.
They blocked the road completely.
No wonder the driver wanted to pull over and wait.
Soon, the driver parked the carriage and trotted over to Lu Yuan.
He stood with Lu Yuan under a tree by the side of the road.
Lu Yuan took out the pack of Luchun brand cigarettes he'd bought in the city yesterday, pulling one out and offering it to the driver beside him.
The driver was taken aback for a moment, then quickly took it with both hands, smiling.
"Thank you, sir, thank you, sir~"
Lu Yuan stuck one in his own mouth, and seeing this, the driver quickly took out his matches and lit it for him.
After taking a drag, Lu Yuan looked at the distant procession and asked:
"Whose family is this? What's with the huge procession?"
The driver took a puff of his cigarette before replying:
"That's got to be the Black Widow of Taiping City. Only she can pull off a procession this grand."
Hearing the driver, Lu Yuan looked completely baffled.
"The Black Widow of Taiping City?"
Seeing Lu Yuan's baffled expression, the driver now looked equally confused.
He looked Lu Yuan up and down again, took a drag from his cigarette, and said with astonishment:
"Sir, you don't know the Black Widow?
Are you from out of town?
You don't sound like it."
Lu Yuan waved his hand.
"No... I've been studying at home all this time. I don't pay much attention to outside affairs, so I really don't know."
Hearing this, the driver glanced at Lu Yuan's attire and seemed to have an epiphany.
He then began to explain to Lu Yuan:
"Heh, Sir, in a place like Taiping City, you have to remember this: you'd rather offend the County Magistrate than the Black Widow.
If you offend the County Magistrate, as long as you haven't broken the law, he still has to come up with a reason to punish you.
But if you offend the Black Widow... well, if you offend her in the first half of the night, you'll be buried by the second."
Lu Yuan took a drag of his cigarette and raised an eyebrow.
"She's that powerful?"
The driver immediately nodded.
"You bet!
There are three Guilds in all of Taiping City, and two of them belong to her family!
The third one is about to be hers, too!
That woman is ruthless. She supposedly killed her husband's entire family and took all their assets for herself."
Hearing this, Lu Yuan couldn't help but ask, stunned:
"That ruthless?
Doesn't the Government Office do anything about it?"
The driver just pursed his lips.
"Hah, that's just the rumor. There's no proof, so how can they do anything?"
The driver was about to say more, but he caught sight of the approaching procession out of the corner of his eye and immediately fell silent.
Lu Yuan didn't ask any more questions.
He just stood under the tree, smoking his cigarette.
Soon, the procession passed in front of them.
The carriage window was open, and through it, Lu Yuan saw an extremely beautiful woman—one might even call her bewitching.
Her beauty was different from his wife's.
His wife was the cool, sophisticated type in her twenties.
But the woman in the carriage was a mature beauty in her thirties or forties.
Although her features couldn't compare to his wife's, a woman of her age was like a ripe peach.
She exuded an incredible femininity.
Her hair was coiled behind her ears, with a curled, permanent wave on one side of her forehead.
Heavily made-up, she looked like the wife of a Republic-era warlord.
Who knows how much expensive powder was caked on her pale face, not to mention those sexy, bright red lips.
Even from this distance, when the wind blew, Lu Yuan could smell the fragrance from her face.
'This must be that Black Widow, right?'
Of course, apart from her appearance, what attracted Lu Yuan the most was the Multiplication Factor above the Black Widow's head.
[Multiplication Factor: 5]
This was already the second-highest Multiplication Factor Lu Yuan had seen in this world.
More importantly, Lu Yuan had figured out that his Multiplication Factor wasn't just based on a person's status.
It also depended on their character and whether he could gain any benefits from interacting with them.
For such a ruthless woman to have such a high Multiplication Factor, it was clear just how formidable her status must be.
True enough. A single word from a woman like her could completely change the fate of an ordinary person like Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan stood by the roadside watching for a while without saying a word.
He had no particular designs on this Black Widow.
Even though her Multiplication Factor was high, the woman was far too dangerous.
Besides, it wasn't as if you could just walk up, say a few words, and trigger the factor to get a reward.
You had to do something that established a connection with the person.
It was just like when he'd first met his wife. Lu Yuan had said so much to Su Liyan without getting any reward.
He only got it after he decided to marry her and told the village chief.
'Who the hell knows how to get connected with this woman?'
So, even though the woman was a [Multiplication Factor: 5], Lu Yuan had no intentions of pursuing it.
Soon, the large procession passed by.
Lu Yuan and the driver got back into the carriage and set off again.
"Where are they headed?"
Before getting back in the carriage, Lu Yuan glanced at the procession that had already passed and asked curiously.
The driver replied from the side:
"Probably to pay respects to her husband's family. Today should be the day for burning paper offerings for them."
Lu Yuan looked baffled again.
"Huh?
Didn't she kill her husband's whole family?"
The driver grinned.
"That's just the rumor everyone spreads.
Besides, the people are dead. The living just put on a show for others to see."
Lu Yuan nodded and said nothing more.
In his heart, however, he had made a mental note of this Black Widow of Taiping City.