In no time, everyone in Green Bamboo Lane knew that the Yu family was about to form a marriage alliance with the Wei family.

However, before Chen Shi could wait for the Wei family’s matchmaker to formally arrive with betrothal gifts, she first received Mrs. Tang instead.

She complained the moment she entered: “Didn’t I tell you to wait a bit? How could you be in such haste? Looking across all of Lin’an City, who can compare to the Li family, who can compare to Second Young Master Li? You can’t be so short-sighted. Among those willing to become live-in sons-in-law, how many are any good?”

These words angered Chen Shi, and her response was not polite.

Chen Shi drank her tea unhurriedly and said coolly, “That depends on what kind of family it is. Our daughter has such good fortune. No matter how good the Li family is, you had us wait before precisely because the Li family was also considering having their second young master become a live-in son-in-law for our family, weren’t they? It’s just that the Li family wasn’t as sincere as the Wei family, and the Wei family got ahead of them. How can Mrs. Tang say the Wei family isn’t as good as the Li family?”

Mrs. Tang was left choking on her words.

Chen Shi continued, “Mrs. Tang probably doesn’t know yet, does she? Our two families are planning to settle the marriage before the Mid-Autumn Festival. When the time comes, we’ll invite Mrs. Tang to drink a cup of wine. Please don’t refuse, Mrs. Tang.”

Mrs. Tang left in disgrace.

Chen Shi spat “ptui!” at her retreating back and instructed Chen Pozi, “Throw away the teacup she drank from.”

Chen Pozi laughed and said, “Why get so angry? Even if it’s an old teacup, it’s still worth a few copper coins. Better to keep it at home. When beggars pass by our house asking for water, we can use it to serve them tea.”

Chen Shi sneered, “Even giving it to beggars would sully them.”

Chen Pozi chuckled heartily.

Chen Shi went off to supervise Yu Tang’s embroidery of shoe uppers, which need not be mentioned further.

When Lin Shi received Mrs. Tang’s report, she was so angry her face turned iron-gray. She wanted to shout that this matter was over, but thinking of her younger son still making a fuss at home and her mother-in-law who had called her over for a scolding, her words came out stammering: “This Yu family is too, too ungrateful!”

Mrs. Tang thought this matter was finished and, while breathing a sigh of relief, couldn’t help developing some shared enmity with Lin Shi. She said, “Isn’t that so? That Chen Shi is especially arrogant beyond measure. Just because she gave birth to a daughter? Relying on having some beauty, she looks down on this one and dismisses that one. When beauty fades, so does love. She’s not afraid that one day the live-in son-in-law will become disobedient…”

Who knew Lin Shi would turn on her, saying, “It’s not taking a concubine, is it? What’s this about beauty fading or not fading?”

Mrs. Tang got rebuffed and, thinking that neither the mistress nor young miss of the Pei family had thrown her dignity in her face like this, felt somewhat unhappy too. She hastily exchanged a few perfunctory words and left.

On the Yu family’s side, Yu Wen asked several more people to make inquiries. Everyone said the Wei family had good family values, the various households helped each other, and Wei Xiaoshan was especially loyal and filial. Only then did Yu Wen feel at ease and discussed the marriage arrangements with Chen Shi: “Since the Wei family honors our family so much, we cannot let the Wei family lose face either. We don’t need them to bring anything. For the betrothal, we’ll provide one hundred taels of silver, two pigs, ten jars of Jinhua wine, one load of tea leaves, one load of rice, and you should arrange the four seasons’ clothing properly. In any case, we can’t let others find any fault.”

Chen Shi said with some difficulty, “One hundred taels of silver? We also need to furnish the bridal chamber, and A’Tang’s jewelry needs to be added to…”

Coming up with everything at once would be somewhat difficult.

Yu Wen smiled and said, “I’ve already arranged it with Shopkeeper Tong. He’ll lend me sixty taels of silver at six percent interest, to be repaid within a year. Just rest assured. I have all these matters figured out in my mind. You just go ahead and handle it.”

Chen Shi said happily, “Shopkeeper Tong has been a great help this time. Does he have a little grandson yet? If he has a little grandson, I’ll make a few outfits for their little grandson.”

“Not yet!” Yu Wen said. “He’s fretting over this very matter! If you have time, you could talk to Mrs. Tong—didn’t you used to go to temples often? See if there’s any efficacious temple, and have Mrs. Tong go worship there too.”

Chen Shi said hesitantly, “Speaking of efficacy, Lingyin Temple is the best. But Lingyin Temple is somewhat far…”

Yu Wen laughed, “What’s the problem with that? After our A’Tang is married, you’ll have nothing else to do and can go with Mrs. Tong. You can also draw a fortune lot for our A’Tang while you’re there.”

Chen Shi immediately became interested and started discussing Hangzhou’s delicacies with Yu Wen, even saying, “You should go then too, and A’Tang as well. We’ll treat it as a trip to Hangzhou City to have fun.”

Seeing his wife in such good spirits, Yu Wen kept nodding and actually started pondering this matter in his heart.

Unexpectedly, when the time came for the Wei family’s matchmaker to arrive, she didn’t come.

Chen Shi was secretly anxious in her heart. She wanted to send A’Tiao to inquire, but feared leaving traces that would make people think the Yu family was eager to marry off their daughter, which wouldn’t be good for Yu Tang’s reputation. She could only pace in circles at home, and couldn’t even let others know.

Yu Wen, waiting at home, was somewhat angry, feeling the Wei family wasn’t keeping their word. This created a thorn in his heart about forming a marriage alliance with the Wei family. But fearing Chen Shi would worry herself sick, he could only suppress his anger and comfort her: “They said they’d come today, but didn’t say whether it would be morning or afternoon. The Wei family is four or five li away from us. If something delayed them, they’d arrive at our house around noon. Would they come to our house to mooch a meal? For country folk, rice is precious—they don’t easily eat at others’ homes.”

Chen Shi smiled reluctantly and said weakly, “That’s true, but shouldn’t they have prepared early and left before dawn? To come in the afternoon…”

It showed insufficient sincerity.

The married couple was discussing this when Wang Shi, who had come to help receive guests, arrived.

Seeing the house cold and quiet, she was startled and quickly said, “What? The Wei family’s matchmaker didn’t come?”

Chen Shi shook her head with a worried face.

Wang Shi’s face darkened. “This won’t do. I’ll have A’Yuan go ask right now.”

Chen Shi held Wang Shi back, saying, “Let’s wait a bit longer! Perhaps something delayed them.”

Wang Shi had no choice but to give up, though she was very unhappy.

Naturally, this matter couldn’t be hidden from Yu Tang either.

She was stunned, then felt a wave of relief in her heart.

She thought that if this marriage match just fell through like this, it wouldn’t matter. She could continue living a few more years of such carefree days. She only feared the elders in the family would be unhappy, since they had already met in person and the family was very satisfied with Wei Xiaoshan.

She went to see Chen Shi and Wang Shi. Seeing them forcing smiles in front of her, she couldn’t help feeling guilty about her own indifference and quickly said, “Mother, Sister-in-law, good things take time. If this match with the Wei family doesn’t work out, it only means our fate wasn’t sufficient. You two needn’t be sad or upset.”

“You child,” Chen Shi rallied her spirits to comfort Yu Tang, “don’t meddle in adult matters. Your mother knows what to do about your marriage. You just stay in your room and embroider your shoe uppers properly.” Then she sent her to her room to do needlework.

Yu Tang could only instruct Shuang Tao that if anyone from the Wei family came, she should come inform her so she would also know what had gone wrong with their family’s marriage arrangement with the Wei family.

Shuang Tao agreed with a bitter expression.

The Wei family didn’t send anyone until after noon.

And it was the Wei family’s eldest son Wei Xiaoyuan who came together with the matchmaker.

Moreover, they came empty-handed, wearing plain clothes with mourning bands tied at their waists.

The Yu family’s hearts sank.

Chen Shi and Wang Shi whispered in the room, “Who in the Wei family has passed away? They just talked about a marriage match with our A’Tang. It won’t implicate A’Tang, will it?”

Wang Shi made a decisive decision: “Come on, let’s go see!”

According to propriety, Wei Xiaoyuan first went to see Yu Wen.

Chen Shi, Wang Shi, and Yu Tang who had received the news all listened outside Yu Wen’s study.

“Uncle Yu,” Wei Xiaoyuan said with red eyes, his face full of grief, “my brother Xiaoshan and Miss Yu have no fate together. Xiaoshan, Xiaoshan went out fishing last night and didn’t come back. This morning we discovered that he, he drowned!”

“Ah!” Yu Wen, who had been preparing to give the Wei family a show of authority, trembled and dropped his teacup. With a clang, tea water splashed onto his newly changed cloth shoes.

“How could this happen?” He was furious. “Didn’t your family know he was about to get engaged? He still went fishing? Is your family that short on money?”

But in his heart he kept shouting “it’s over, it’s over.” Their A’Tang had just discussed marriage with Wei Xiaoshan, and Wei Xiaoshan died. This “husband-harming” label would surely be pinned on their A’Tang’s head.

The three eavesdroppers were also stunned.

Yu Wen’s words were harsh and cutting. Anyone who had just lost a brother would quarrel with Yu Wen. Not only did Wei Xiaoyuan not quarrel with Yu Wen, he didn’t even say a harsh word. Enduring his grief, he said, “Uncle Yu, this matter is our family’s fault. The reason I came only now is because before coming, Father and I discussed for a long time, precisely because we feared ruining Miss Yu’s reputation. My father’s thinking is that if anyone asks, we’ll say the one who met Miss Yu was our third son, but our second son had this accident, so we can’t discuss marriage with your family for the time being. Your family can just say you couldn’t wait and will find a better match for Miss Yu. Initially, we never specified whether we were discussing marriage with our second son or third son.”

“Ah!” This was yet another surprise.

Yu Wen was so shocked he couldn’t speak for a long time.

The three eavesdroppers outside, especially Chen Shi and Wang Shi, immediately had tears streaming down.

“Such a good family… such a good child…” Chen Shi couldn’t help sobbing.

Yu Tang, thinking of the joyful look in Wei Xiaoshan’s eyes when he looked at her, also silently wept.

Yu Wen and Wei Xiaoyuan heard the commotion and rushed out. Seeing the three people with tears streaming like rain, Yu Wen couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh. Slowly recovering, he said apologetically to Wei Xiaoyuan, “Just now I spoke without thinking. Don’t blame this uncle. Anyone encountering such a matter would feel terrible. You should also console your parents more and accept this change with restraint. I’ll go with you to your home shortly and have her cousin go burn incense for Xiaoshan.”

The Wei family being so reasonable and still being able to consider Yu Tang’s reputation during their grief over losing a son—they should be grateful.

Wei Xiaoyuan was very surprised. He looked several times at Yu Tang, who was crying while comforting her elders, and his heart ached.

This must be what they meant by “deep feelings lead to short life.”

Xiaoshan, knowing the Yu family also favored him, had been so excited he didn’t know what to do with himself.

But who could have expected such an accident?

If these two could have become husband and wife, how wonderful that would have been!

However, now that Xiaoshan was gone, the Yu family hadn’t avoided them like the plague, and Miss Yu had even shed tears for him. If Xiaoshan had knowledge in the underworld, he would surely be happy.

He wanted to say a few words of comfort to the Yu family, but Yu Wen had already patted his shoulder and said with pain in his voice, “I’ll go change my clothes right now and have someone summon A’Yuan. I’ll go with you to your home.”

Wei Xiaoyuan hesitantly glanced at Yu Tang, wanting to tell her about his younger brother. But then he thought again—even if Yu Tang knew, what would it matter? It would only make her sadder. If she had a good life in the future, that would be fine, but if she encountered difficulties later and kept thinking about this unconsummated match, wouldn’t that make her future unsettled as well?

In the end, he said nothing. He solemnly bowed to the Yu family womenfolk and left through the Yu family’s main gate.