Honeyed words, luscious fruits, broken branches

Honeyed words, luscious fruits and broken branches is the motto of the Ling family branch currently residing in the Diamond Bay of the Silver state, a sleepy town two hours away from the Muddy Estuary. According to its patriarch, the first of his branch to arrive here some 100 years ago, this has been the motto of the family since they were first given a fiat by the emperor of their homeland for meritorious deeds. However, it has been recently uncovered by a descendent that the saying was not a motto at all, but a prophecy instead.

Ling Family origin

The Ling family claims to have been descended from a lineage of the same name somewhere from the Middle Kingdom. According to family lore, they supposedly can trace their lineage all the way back to the Founding Era, though some family members dispute the veracity of the stories. What is written in the older scrolls and modern research has uncovered, is that a family with the same characters and motto was given a fiat during the Warring Era. The Ling family is one of the few aristocratic families to have a specifically worded motto to guide family conduct and rules; this has never been a common practice, and led to speculation that the patriarch of the Ling family was not a native from the River tribes, but a man from the steppes and beyond instead.

Motto myth

The Ling family has long considered the phrase Honeyed words, luscious fruits and broken branches to be a sign that the family should deal in commerce. Indeed, according to histories and some local legends, the family was well known for their negotiating acumen, and were exceptionally good at picking out trending produce. They have also been excellent speakers and are said to be able to charm anyone they desire. This has also led to the breaking of many a family, as Ling family members are known seducers of both men and women.
Their skills were so great that at one point they were appointed to be suppliers of fruits and winery to the then-Prime Minister's family. It was a position they relinquished three generations later, due to "changing tastes" as per the official records.
Local myth and gossip indicate it was actually because a Ling son had seduced someone he should not, and in order to protect his family, they would not only give up this business, but he would also give up his life. An old tree stands in a field no one has touched for centuries, its branches broken and burnt. Yet a constant buzzing emanates from the tree - it is said there is a beehive there that have been there for years, and will be there for years to come. No one has ever survived attempting to harvest honey from the tree, but some say the luscious fruits of the Ling family will approach the tree in the future and be able to take the honey away.

Discovery of prophecy

Somewhere in 20xx, a Ling family descendent returned to the Middle Kingdom to make sense of her grandfather's debauchery. In his diaries, he had admitted towards seducing his daughter-in-law, breaking trust between him and his son forever. While there were no children between him and the daughter in law, he had, by this time, fathered enough children in the town that the third generation children were forbidden from marrying anyone from the same state. In the diary, he claimed to be following the motto of the family, interpreting Honeyed words to be seduction, luscious fruits to mean children of his peers, aka fruit of the loin, and broken branches to mean breaking of trust and being removed from from the main family lineage, which his son did by disowning him.
The Ling family descendent discovered that the motto was actually a prophesy given by the court fortune-teller when the fiat and title was bestowed upon the family. Apparently there was more to the prophecy, but only the six words have survived so far.