As Elder Li left, he immediately called his wife.
"How did your visit go?" Old Madam Li asked.
"There are good news and bad news. Good news is that we can go to dinner with Kris at the Shen Family house this weekend. Bad news, she"s not pregnant."
"What? But the doctor"s visit said that she was?"
"I don"t know. I"ll look into it more. How is it on your end?"
"I just got to the temple. I will go and talk to the old shrine lady."
Old Madam Li hung up the call as she got out of the car and entered the shrine. She had visited Lady Wu many times regarding the situation of the Li family.
"Welcome. Lady Wu is already expecting you." A young female worker greeted her.
"Good."
The old lady rushed into the room. When she opened the door, she did not expect to see Li Bai (Madam Li) there too.
Madam Li glanced at her mother-in-law but continued to drink her tea.
"You have arrived. Sit." Lady Wu gestured toward an empty seat next to her and across from Madam Li.
Lady Wu was an old woman in her late 80"s but she had been known as Lady Wu for the longest time. Her family had a long history of having a spiritual gift. In the old days, her ancestors were honored by the royal family. They give blessing to the kings, performed rituals, and predicted disasters and miracles.
"Greetings, Lady Wu."
"Please spare me the greetings. I know both of you are here for one purpose and that have to deal with the curse my family put on the Li family."
It was indeed true. Decades ago, the Li family was cursed by the Wu family. One of the Li sons promised to married a Wu woman after going to war. She waited for him, never getting married. She later found out he already came back from the war and married a n.o.ble lady instead. She was already old and spent her years waiting for him.
She later died from loneliness and her sister, who was a royal priestess at the time placed the curse on the Li family. The heir of the Li family may only bear one son who carries the curse. And he must only be married and faithful to one woman. If the heir dies, his death will be painful and end the entire Li bloodline.
In all honesty, it was not such a bad curse. It"s not like the curse was saying the family will have bad fortunes.
There were other small parts of the curse, but those were lost during the decades of history. Because the Li bloodline had carried wealth, prosperity, and greed, the family had continued to grow in power to make sure their Li legacy continued to thrive.
When Li Jun (Kris" father) was born, Lady Wu said that the son was different. He was the first in a long time to carry the Li blood but had no greed. Because of that, he had the possibility to break the curse.
If he married someone from the w.a.n.g family that carried royal blood, the curse may be broken. Li Jun was a good and loving husband when he married Madam Li. But he did not have the mindset of scheming and intelligence like his ancestors.
Although Li Jun was forever faithful to his wife, because his father (Elder Li) had pushed negative influence to his relations.h.i.+p, the curse was never broken. So in the end, it was the greed of Elder Li that set the curse again.
"I already told you last time when the little Li boy was born, that he was born with greed. He will not be able to break the curse." Lady Wu sipped her tea. "I doubt he can even bear you the next heir."
"What do you mean?" Both the Madam Li"s asked.
"I could care less about this old stupid curse my family put on you. Feel like they are just giving me more work to do." Lady Wu sighed. "The boy"s fate is too dark, he"ll never be able to be pulled out of the abyss. It"s too late. This is the end of the Li family line. Now go and never come see me again. There is nothing I can do to help your family. You brought this upon yourself."
"Wait!" Old Madam Li shouted. "Kris... he has a woman now."
Lady Wu finally looked up from her teacup. She stared at Old Madam Li and then to Madam Li who nodded too. Lady Wu was never very fond of the old lady.. but the young lady from the w.a.n.g family had always been a good woman.
"A woman?"
"Yes, yes. And... she cured him also." The old lady added.
"That"s right. He can touch woman now with no side effects. He had also become more... normal and happy." Madam Li clarified.
This was the first time that Lady Wu saw both of them not arguing over things.
"So the young boy has a woman now... so what? He still carried the curse and his soul is still stuck in a dark place." Lady Wu continued to drink her tea.
"But.. the lady said she was blessed!" Old Madam Li spoke. "Here, I brought information on her birthday. Maybe you can see if she is really blessed."
Lady Wu grabbed the papers from Old Madam Li and looked at it. She burst into a small laugh.
"Blessed? This woman"s fate is as dark as your son. A black and dark soul. I don"t know how both dark souls can survive together. More like they would be killing each other"s life faster."
Both of the Madam"s heart stopped. Did Lena just spout nonsense then?
But just then, Lady Wu dropped her teacup. Her eyes widen and her heart started racing. She can sense a strong spiritual presence... as if the G.o.ds were speaking to her.
"By any chance, you have brought something that belongs to the lady?" She asked.
Old Madam Li shook her head.
Madam Li shook her head too but then, she thought of something. "I don"t have a personal item of hers... but something she had recently touched? Would that work?"
"Give it here."
Madam Li opened her bag and brought out an item. She handed it to Lady Wu.
Lady Wu closed her eyes as she tried to feel the lasting presence of the woman. She turned her head a feel times, trying to make out the energy.
"Hmm..."
"What is it?" Madam Li asked curiously.
"Old Lady... are you sure you gave me the correct birthday?" Lady Wu asked.
"Of course! I even confirmed it with several sources. This old lady even checked her social media accounts to confirm."
Lady Wu was confused. For sure her first sight of the birthday, her gift told her such information was the birth of a dark heavy soul.... but why is all the energy that she is getting from this item all pure energy?
She knew that something was unique about the situation.
"Bring me the lady. I would need to see and talk to her personally to give you a definite answer." Lady Wu spoke.
"So... she is blessed or not?"
"I can"t tell at the moment. I would need her here."
The Madam"s looked at each other.
"Li Bai, you bring her here. She would surely follow you better than me." Old Madam Li spoke.
Madam Li sighed. She did not like following directions from the old lady but what she said was correct. Lena already know how Kris dislike his grandparents, she would not interact with the couple at all.
"Very well then, Lady Wu. I will bring her to see you another day." Madam Li thanked Lady Wu and exited.
Old Madam Li did the same too and left.
Lady Wu wrote down the woman"s birthday and Kris" birthday next to each other. She also put in the time they were born and looked at any auspicious event when they were born.
She was sure that both of them were dark ill-fated souls.... but she had never felt such strong spiritual energy telling her otherwise. Lady Wu had once thought that her gift was fading away from her old age... but it seems like the gift was just waiting for something worthy to be used on.
Author"s Disclaimer:
So I am not chinese.... so i don"t 100% know if royal priestess or shaman or spiritual people exist or their roles in history. Of course as you have seen in my writing, the timeset is kind of like now but more technological advance. There are contents where I use real history and content where I just fake history. Just be open minded that this is a fictional book.
But feel free to correct me on some stuff so I can edit it or make it less irky :D