Immortality: Starting with a grave, I'm invincible when burying corpses.

Perhaps because she harbored many grievances about her past experiences, or perhaps because she felt she shouldn't confide her sorrows to such an important figure as Mu An, Lin Yu didn't mention much about her husband.

She glossed over her husband's death by saying that they were ambushed during an operation and the entire army was wiped out.

Lin Yu talked more about what happened later, things that other important figures might want to hear.

This includes the conflicts between the Dark Feather Guard and various forces, as well as the changes that have taken place within the Dark Feather Guard in recent years.

In other words, Lin Yu was only sharing information that she thought was useful, and all of that information came to an abrupt end four years ago.

It wasn't that Lin Yu didn't want to say more, but that was all the information she knew.

After the last remaining spies were killed, Lin Yu lost contact with the Dark Feather Guard. He had no idea what had happened to the Dark Feather Guard during those four years.

Even the "Kaiyang Envoy" token left by her husband Jiang Lin was not taken back by the Dark Feather Guard.

Over the past four years, a former young lady from a wealthy family, a woman who knew nothing about martial arts, traveled thousands of miles with her frail and sickly child before finally settling down outside this small county town.

The hardships involved are easy to imagine, even if Lin Yu never mentioned them.

Lin Yu didn't go into detail about any of this. She simply shared the information she knew and interspersed her conversation with some information about her child.

Lin Yu repeated the phrase "the child is very well-behaved and can handle all sorts of miscellaneous tasks" four times, adding it occasionally while recounting information to reinforce this impression.

It's not hard to guess what her ulterior motives were in smuggling in her own agenda.

If the person listening to the story is indeed a powerful figure vying for power and profit, then Lin Yu's behavior can only be considered somewhat clever, or even a transgression of the rules.

But here is Mu An, an ordinary pawnshop owner.

The Dark Feather Guard's grand plan to restore their kingdom, the struggle for royal power, and the bloody battles between various factions...

These things, which seem like huge deals to others, are insignificant to Mu An now, not even as important as the pawnshop's business.

In Mu An's eyes, neither royal power nor wealth, nor the title of ruler of the world, held much meaning.

The most important thing to him was the game with Mu Ling'er, and he had no intention of admitting defeat in this game.

It was precisely this mindset that made Mu An's eyes light up when Lin Yu tried to promote her own child.

Because Mu An hadn't spoken much before, his reputation in this small county town was already ruined, and he had become synonymous with terror.

Mu An felt that, given the current situation, he might not be able to sell all ninety-nine items even in another ten or eight years.

But if we hire a waiter like we did in Shuzhou City, business might improve.

Surely people in the city can't be afraid of even a child?

Thinking about it carefully, Bai Ling was indeed quite useful when we were in Shuzhou City.

With this thought in mind, Mu An looked at the boy standing next to Lin Yu.

From the moment he stepped into the pawnshop, the boy never raised his head; at such a young age, his back was bent more severely than that of an adult.

As Mu An looked at him, the young man named Jiang Yunzhi immediately bowed to Mu An.

"Yunzhi has met with his benefactor. He has no way to repay the life-saving grace. If there is anything he needs from his benefactor in the future, Yunzhi will repay his kindness even at the cost of his life."

There's nothing wrong with polite words in themselves, but when these words come from the mouth of an eight-year-old boy, they sound strange no matter how you look at them, and it's easier to think that they were lines that had been memorized beforehand.

Fortunately, Mu An didn't care about these things; he just glanced at the boy a few more times.

He's fairly good-looking and seems quite clever; he'd be a good fit as a waiter.

As for the complicated background and potential troubles, it all comes down to the same thing.

Mu An didn't care.

……

After that day, the pawnshop gained an inconspicuous shop assistant.

Just as Lin Yu said, Jiang Yunzhi is a very obedient and hardworking person.

Every morning he would rush from home to the pawnshop, and every evening, after the pawnshop closed, he would politely say goodbye to Mu'an and head home outside the city in the last rays of the setting sun.

Unlike Bai Ling, who did whatever she wanted and treated Mu An's shop as her own territory, the eight-year-old Jiang Yunzhi was much more cautious.

Whether there are customers or not, he is always quietly busy.

Whether it's cleaning, making tea and serving water, or tidying up, he always finds something to do, even when there's nothing else to do, and never lets himself be idle.

In receiving guests, Jiang Yunzhi performed no worse than Bai Ling; in fact, most of the time, the eight-year-old boy did a better job than the somewhat socially awkward Bai Ling.

Three months later, the pawnshop had completed seven transactions.

Although it wasn't much, it was a very good start for the infamous "Nine Pawnshop".

In this respect, Mu An was very satisfied with the waiter.

If there's anything wrong with it, it's that the waiter is a bit too cautious and never expresses his desires.

Mu An noticed several times that Jiang Yunzhi would look at the books on the counter, but he never heard him plead or see him pick up a book to read.

On several occasions, when Mu An came out of her room, she saw the boy pausing in front of the counter while cleaning, his eyes filled with longing as he looked at the books.

However, every time Mu An approached, the boy would stay far away, as if he felt that his previous behavior was an offense.

A boy who was overly cautious.

This is Mu An's evaluation of Jiang Yunzhi.

Having lost his father at a young age and endured many hardships, he and his mother depended on each other for survival, constantly on the run. The two of them had already done everything they could to survive, so Mu An could easily understand why the boy had developed such a personality.

But I can only understand it.

Objectively speaking, Mu An didn't like this kind of personality, especially among people around him; he preferred those who were more lively and cheerful.

There wasn't any complicated reason; it was simply because he himself had this kind of personality a long, long time ago.

They are cautious and rarely express their own thoughts.

Because it had been like that before, Mu An later found this behavior very distasteful.

……

Sometimes, this caution and politeness are indeed a good thing.

However, if one wants to climb the social ladder and stand out from the crowd, then Jiang Yunzhi's approach is quite inappropriate.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

This seemingly inappropriate statement is actually a true reflection of life.

Being able to cry and make a scene, and to express one's needs at the right time, is essential to winning more opportunities for oneself.

Often, important people don't really care about the small things below them, and those who are promoted are not necessarily the most diligent and hardworking.

More often than not, those who are eloquent and good at presenting themselves are more likely to be appreciated by their superiors.

Those who are always hesitant and afraid to express themselves will miss out on opportunities for various reasons, even when they are presented with them.

This becomes even more apparent if we take Bai Ling and Jiang Yunzhi as examples.

In terms of both professional competence and diligence, Jiang Yunzhi is far superior to Bai Ling.

But Bai Ling received hundreds or thousands of times more from Mu An than Jiang Yunzhi did.

The reason is simple: Bai Ling knows how to express her needs and says whatever comes to mind, while Jiang Yunzhi always remains silent.

People like Mu An don't really care about these trivial matters, whether it's Bai Ling or Jiang Yunzhi.

As long as they offer their opinions, whether it's a few books or even a word or two of guidance, Mu An doesn't really care.

But Bai Ling would say it, while Jiang Yunzhi wouldn't.

It was precisely this difference that prevented Jiang Yunzhi from ever communicating with Mu An, and he remained as busy as a ghost every day.

One spring afternoon, several martial arts practitioners from the Heavenly Blade Sect stormed into the pawnshop and smashed the pawnshop table to pieces in front of Mu An.