“Your third older brother?” Aunt He thought for a moment, “Is he called Shi Chonghai? I remember he’s a scholar?”

“Yes, my third brother is studying. He became a disciple of a reclusive great Confucian scholar, and just recently returned from his scholarly travels.” Shi Fa Ke subtly bragged about her third brother in a roundabout way.

“Oh my, how accomplished!” Aunt He nodded repeatedly, her satisfaction evident on her face. “I like scholars.”

Upon hearing this, Master He, who had been maintaining a calm expression, immediately pulled his face long. “What’s so good about scholars? ‘Righteousness is often found among butchers, while heartlessness is common among scholars.'”

Aunt He understood – he was being jealous. But this jealousy was inexplicable; she was choosing a son-in-law, not a husband. So she silently rolled her eyes at him.

“Yes, yes, Uncle He makes a good point too. However, my third brother had the opportunity to become that great scholar’s disciple originally because he has considerable talent in painting. He studies diligently and practices hard. These past few days, he’s been hanging his paintings in the shop for sale, and one painting can sell for about several hundred taels of silver.” Shi Fa Ke quickly smiled to smooth things over, working hard to praise her unreliable third brother.

In fact, the reason he put his paintings up for sale was… because he was going crazy from poverty!

Previously, he would rather die than sell his paintings.

There’s quite a story behind this… It’s said that earlier, third brother was very confident in his painting skills. One day, joking with second brother, he said he wanted to put his paintings up for sale in the family shop to see what they were worth. Second brother said they were worth ten taels.

At the time, naive third brother was quite pleased. Later, when that painting actually sold for one hundred taels, he was even more pleased, thinking he truly had outstanding painting skills and great talent.

Then one day, second brother came back very excited, saying he’d found a great bargain – someone had pawned a painting by Master Linyuan at the shop, worth a thousand taels! Third brother collapsed right then – why could this Master Linyuan’s painting be worth a thousand taels, while his painting was only worth ten taels in second brother’s mouth? And he had been so pleased before!

So he got stuck in this mental trap and refused to sell paintings anymore.

Master He didn’t know about these complications. After hearing this, his expression immediately softened. Out of a merchant’s instinct, he calculated – one painting could sell for several hundred taels, which was much more profitable than selling wedding cakes. This son-in-law wouldn’t be a loss.

Seeing Master He’s expression soften, Shi Fa Ke secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After finishing her guilty praise of her third brother, she changed the subject and began to eloquently praise Ke Tian: “My mother particularly likes Ke Tian, saying Ke Tian is gentle and virtuous, and knows music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. She often sighs that Aunt He really knows how to raise a daughter.”

Upon hearing this, Aunt He felt pleased, but after the pleasure, she began to feel somewhat guilty. What kind of character her own daughter had – if others didn’t know, how could she not know? High expectations but low abilities, bad temper, and scheming too. She put on the face of a refined young lady, but actually… well, it was simply beyond words.

“I also know that many families want to marry Ke Tian. My third brother isn’t particularly outstanding either. Originally, I was too embarrassed to come to your door, but it was my third brother who begged me, so I came to try. I hope Uncle He and Aunt He won’t throw me out.” Shi Fa Ke said carefully with a smile, appearing calm on the surface but feeling somewhat nervous inside.

After all, the last time she came to discuss marriage, she was practically driven out.

The difficulty of this matter was that clearly third brother and Ke Tian were mutually attracted, but she couldn’t say this… This already belonged to the category of private romantic involvement. Saying it would only cause trouble and ruin Ke Tian’s reputation. She also couldn’t say that Ke Tian had asked her to be the matchmaker, since a young lady arranging her own matchmaking… if the girl’s parents knew, they would probably, possibly, likely be quite unhappy… right?

Just as she was feeling anxious, Aunt He suddenly stood up with a serious expression.

Shi Fa Ke thought she was about to serve tea and see her out, and her nerves immediately tightened. But she saw Aunt He turn around and pull out an almanac from the cabinet, then drag Master He over to look through it together.

“I think the seventh day of the eighth month looks good.” Aunt He flipped through several pages and said.

“Mm, I also think it’s good.” Master He nodded.

“Then let’s make it the seventh day of the eighth month.” Aunt He looked up at Shi Fa Ke. “Ah Ke, does that work for you?”

“Ah? What… what?” Shi Fa Ke didn’t react for a moment and stuttered.

“The wedding date – let’s set it for the seventh day of the eighth month.” Aunt He said seriously.

Huh? What just happened… how did they even set the wedding date?

Shi Fa Ke opened her mouth, and it took her a long time to find her voice: “Uh… isn’t this too rushed?”

“Not rushed. I originally planned to set it for the seventh month, but the timing was too tight and might not work out.” Aunt He seriously flipped through the almanac in her hands to show her. “The seventh day of the eighth month is a good day. Look, it’s auspicious for marriage – a most fortunate day.”

“No… don’t you need to consider it more?” Shi Fa Ke looked at the almanac with some difficulty.

As a matchmaker, this was her first time encountering this situation. She really lacked experience!

If it were mother, she would definitely know what to do!

Indeed, mother was right – she still had too little experience. She couldn’t get complacent just because she had successfully arranged one marriage. She still needed to cultivate herself!

“No need to consider further. Aunt trusts you.” Aunt He gave her a warm and encouraging smile.

However, Shi Fa Ke didn’t feel encouraged at all. She even began to doubt herself again…

You don’t need to trust me this much!

You’re making me start to doubt myself!

If she accidentally harmed Ke Tian, she would feel guilty for life… After all, her third brother wasn’t actually that reliable either…

Perhaps Shi Fa Ke’s expression was too obviously conflicted, because Aunt He suddenly laughed out loud. She came forward to take Shi Fa Ke’s hand, patted it gently, and said with a smile: “You don’t know this, but Uncle He and I were matched by your grandmother back then. We’ve lived harmoniously our whole lives and have your grandmother to thank. At that time, no one was optimistic about us…” Aunt He’s expression became very emotional as she spoke, then continued: “Your mother is also a good matchmaker. Aunt trusts that you are good too.”

Thus, the marriage between He Ke Tian and Shi Chonghai was settled just like that.

When Shi Fa Ke walked out of the He family gate holding Ke Tian’s birth chart, still feeling dizzy, she was still in a state of intense unreality.

It was… done?

Surprisingly smooth.

After the dizzy feeling of unreality passed, Shi Fa Ke triple-checked that the marriage contract in her hand was real, and suddenly became radiant with joy. She must have been driven silly by the twists and turns of Lu Chi and Zhu Yanyan’s marriage arrangements. Encountering such a smooth case for once, she couldn’t believe it for a moment.

Sighing about Second Brother Lu’s difficult marriage situation, Shi Fa Ke carefully put away Ke Tian’s birth chart and walked back with light steps. Being in a good mood, she felt that everything before her eyes was beautiful.

The weather was clear, the sunshine was bright, and even the gentle breeze that brushed against her face carried a warm scent. The street vendors calling out their wares and the children running and cheering were all part of the warm human atmosphere!

Shi Fa Ke happily calculated that since she had handled this matter so efficiently this time, she would definitely not be polite with third brother when she returned. She must ask him for a generous matchmaker’s red envelope, especially since third brother had made quite a small fortune selling paintings recently!

When passing by the Golden Fullness Building, Shi Fa Ke remembered the VIP card Zhu Yanyan had given her previously, and decided to go in and look at the jewelry set that father had fancied for mother.

Upon entering, she discovered that the Golden Fullness Building had changed managers. Standing behind the counter was not the original old manager who always smiled kindly with a money-making face, but a different person… and this manager was a familiar face – none other than Shen Qing.

Uh, although he had always been the manager of Golden Fullness Building, hadn’t he rarely shown himself there before?

Obviously, Shi Fa Ke wasn’t the only one surprised to see Shen Qing sitting behind the counter. Over there, a couple was looking at jewelry and seemed very surprised to see Shen Qing. The man stepped forward and asked: “Why is the owner here personally today?”

“I’m not the owner, just a manager.” Shen Qing touched the small mustache at the corner of his mouth and greeted them with a smile. “What would you two like to look at?”

“No… how can you be just a manager? Haven’t you always been the owner?” the woman instinctively asked.

Her husband coughed lightly and quickly pulled her aside.

“No harm. I previously managed more than one shop for the owner, so I was quite busy and arranged for a deputy manager to watch over this shop. Recently, our owner gave Golden Fullness Building as a betrothal gift to his newly married daughter-in-law. The owner was worried that the subordinates wouldn’t work diligently, so he asked me to come here and keep watch for now.” Shen Qing explained with a smile, not minding at all.

In fact, he was forced into this situation too.

He very much wanted to follow his previous manager’s example – directly resign from all duties, be free and unencumbered, and return to the village to enjoy his retirement in peace. But the chief wouldn’t agree! The chief insisted that his business skills would be wasted if he went back to the village, and insisted on keeping him in Copper Gong Town to handle local affairs… Heh, the chief was still as petty as ever. Even though he had married, had a daughter, and was over fifty, even if he had any thoughts about his wife before, he had long let them go. Why did he still need to guard against him like guarding against a thief?

As for why he was sitting here, it was mainly to remind Qi Niang and Tong Yun not to forget their roots.

Thinking of his wife and daughter, Shen Qing felt heavy-hearted. After so many years as husband and wife, as a bedside companion, only now did he discover that he had never truly understood Qi Niang… Usually when she mentioned the madam, her face was full of gratitude and adoration. Now it seemed she had hated the madam to the bone.

“Betrothal gift?! Such a large shop?” The woman showed a greatly surprised expression, then seemed to remember something and said mysteriously: “Your owner wouldn’t happen to be surnamed Lu, would he? The family that recently married the eldest daughter of the Zhu family?”

Shen Qing smiled and nodded: “Exactly.”

“Oh my! Doesn’t that mean this shop is now surnamed Zhu?!” the woman exclaimed in shock.

Shen Qing stroked his small mustache and just smiled without speaking. At this moment, he noticed Shi Fa Ke had walked in and was looking their way, so he gave the couple an apologetic expression: “Please look around and see if there’s anything you like. I’ll go attend to other customers.”

“Please, go ahead.” the woman’s husband said hurriedly.

Shen Qing bowed slightly and turned to leave.

“He’s just a manager, why are you being so polite to him?” the woman quietly complained behind him.

“Woman’s perspective. Who is Shen Qing? Even if he’s just a manager, he’s still a figure of importance.” her husband scolded in a low voice.