Ch.2- Young Miss of the Marquis Household
Only one sentence was spoken, but it was like a clap of thunder, leaving everyone stunned.
Every single one of them wondered if their ears had gone bad. Did they hear it wrong?
They are but a small and somewhat poor commoners’ family. How could they even dream of marrying into the Marquis’ family? Could it be that they were all experiencing the same hallucination?
Not only was the entire Li family shocked to the core, even the person who spoke this sentence had not recovered and could still feel his heart shaking, even now. However, despite his astonishment, his eyes showed uncontrollable ecstasy and delight.
Although he always carried himself with the aloof attitude of a scholar, right now he showed flashes of his true self, and was unable to hide his true nature. Fortunately, no one noticed as they were all still dazed at the news of the marriage with the Marquis’s family.
Grandmother Li was the first to recover. She took a few deep breaths and then hammered the table vigorously as she asked urgently, “What did you say, my dear grandson? Say it again, I’m afraid my ears have gone bad.”
Li Chengze felt extremely proud of himself. He could see it now, the good days that are to come when he becomes the son-in-law of the Marquis.
This man has always put up a facade everywhere he goes so even if he was beyond excited by this turn of events, he still restrained himself and maintained his poker face. Then he told his family the story he had concocted and polished up early in the morning.
Of course, the story he told was far from the actual truth.
Li Chengze cut out most of the main parts and only gave his family a rough version of the events. Essentially, the story he gave was like this: about half a month ago, he and his fellow scholars went to a literary gathering hosted by the Fourth Young Master of the Marquis’ household. During their talks, they walked past the garden and saw the Sixth Young Lady of the household playing in the garden with her sisters. However, she accidentally stumbled over a bamboo root and then fell into the lotus pond. Li Chengze saw everything with his own eyes and, fearing for Young Lady Gu’s safety, directly jumped into the pond to rescue the poor girl.
Fortunately nothing happened to the Young Lady and so he left after making sure she was not harmed.
He thought that was the end of it, but just now, the Old Matriarch of the Marquis’ household sent someone over to thank him for saving her granddaughter. To show her gratitude, she promised him her granddaughter’s hand in marriage.
After Li Chengze finished telling his tale, the Li family finally understood the real reason behind all this. They sighed a few times and paced back and forth with worry.
Both Matriarch Sun and Bai shi were not fools and they had quickly figured out the truth behind the matter. Although on the surface the Marquis’ household say they’re grateful and they’re repaying their savior, in reality it’s because of the ‘improper’ skin-to-skin contact between Ze-er and this Young Lady Gu. The Marquis’s residence was holding a big banquet at the same time as the literary gathering so just how many eyes had witnessed the loss of the young lady’s innocence? Which family would be willing to marry a soiled woman like her? Therefore, the only plausible choice left was to marry her off to their grandson/son.
In just a blink of an eye, Matriarch Sun and Bai shi were able to guess the key point.
Bai shi felt a little shocked, a little scared, and a little happy. She also felt a little overwhelmed because she didn’t dare to feel truly happy. After all, who would believe that such an illustrious and distinguished young lady would marry into their common household?
However, her doubts were soon swept away.
About half a month later, the Marquis’ household sent a matchmaker over to negotiate the marriage.
Only then did the Li family finally let go of the breath they were holding and started to believe that this fortune was real.
Immediately after that, the entire family was full of joy.
However, before they could enjoy their happiness for more than a day, they were greeted with a problem. A problem about their residence.
When the matchmaker came over the first time, she subtly said a few barbed words. One of them being that the Young Lady of the Marquis’ household was marrying below her rank, so much so that she couldn’t marry lower even if she wanted to. To put it bluntly, it is almost the same as the emperor’s daughter marrying a poor street merchant.
“Old lady, not even mentioning anything else, where will the Miss live when she enters your household?” The matchmaker shook the handkerchief in her hand and glanced at Matriarch Sun in disdain.
Although Bai shi sat to the side and did not interrupt, she couldn’t help muttering in her heart, ‘where else will she live? In their Li residence of course!’ Hasn’t their residence been empty this entire time? The entire west courtyard hasn’t been touched in years! Is the Young Lady of the Marquis household so pretentious that she has to take up the entire residence?
However, Madam Bai did not have the guts to say this out loud and only thought about it, but her face did reveal a little dissatisfaction.
The matchmaker was a very sharp person so she easily could see what Bai shi was thinking. She sneered inside her heart, sure enough, this is indeed a second-rate household. Their thinking is shallow and they have no insight, bah!
Moreover, even though the heir of the family looks honorable, his personality is actually quite despicable and his misconduct ruined Young Lady Gu’s innocence. For a daughter of the Marquis household to marry into this family was really pitiful!
She cursed them three times over in her heart but a smile remained on her face. She put on a cooperative and kind expression as she talked. The Second Furen had told her earlier in the morning to handle things properly.
So she turned her head to look at Bai shi and said with a smile that was not quite a smile: “Madam, you have not visited the Marquis residence before so Madam might not be familiar with the situation there. As the sixth daughter of a high-ranking family, just what kind of residence does she have? She is only a daughter of a Marquis yet her backyard is twice the size of your entire residence. Your place is too small and it may be fine for ordinary people, but consider this. Your family is going to marry a noble and elegant young lady from an official’s household! Pardon my blunt words, but it is your family’s fortune to tie themselves with such a noble household! When the Young Lady enters the residence, I’m afraid the dowry alone will fill this entire residence!” The matchmaker emphasized the severity of the situation.
Bai shi’s complexion didn’t look good when she heard the matchmaker’s words. The matchmaker was only one step away from calling her son a chicken or dog that had somehow landed the good fortune of marrying a young lady. She had never heard a bride’s family treat their husband with such impertinence.
Even a daughter from the Marquis’ household must observe the three obediences and four virtues that every woman must learn. When a woman marries into her husband’s family, she should portray the virtues of being a woman. She must restrain herself and return to the rites. She must be gentle and docile, yet adept and skilled so as to serve her husband well in times of crisis.
And after hearing those last few words from the rude matchmaker, the anger within Bai shi boiled over.
Meanwhile, Matriarch Sun kept a sunny smile on her face and conversed happily with the matchmaker. After they decided on a few details, she invited the woman to dinner but the matchmaker declined before leaving.
When the matchmaker left, Matriarch Sun’s amiable mask dropped and the folds of her forehead wrinkled in discontent. The matchmaker’s meaning was clear, this residence was not good enough for the new bride to live in.
Although the old lady was unhappy in her heart, she also knew that she couldn’t afford to offend the Marquis’ household.
The Li family did not have many customs or rules that needed to be observed for the marriage. They talked about the matter one more time during dinner and Matriarch Sun discussed most of it with her son, Li Baode.
Buying a new residence was easier said than done. The price of land in the imperial city is very expensive and a good residence is hard to find. The Li family did not have the money to buy another one.
Li Chengze feared that his grandmother would accidentally offend the Marquis’ household by refusing to get a new residence. The Young Lady hasn’t even married into their family yet, they can’t let the chicken escape the coup and leave only broken eggs. (T/N: An idiom that roughly means the ‘opportunity slips out of one’s hand and leaves behind no profit whatsoever’)
So he privately conversed with the old lady again and said a few more words. In short, the new residence must be bought. He hinted to Matriarch Sun that it doesn’t matter if they give up some money as the dowry will be more than enough to make up for it.
Matriarch Sun has always doted on this grandson of hers the most and a hundred sentences from others couldn’t compare to a single sentence from her grandson. So she happily agreed.
The old lady called her son over the next day and the two spoke for other shichen*. (1 shihen = 2 hours)
After that conversation, Li Baode went out everyday for half a month before the family next door finally agreed to sell their residence to them. The new residence was roughly the same size as the Li family’s residence.
This was the only way to satisfy the new bride and it was Matriarch Sun who proposed this idea. The Li family has been living in their current residence for decades. Naturally they would not sell it and even if they did, they wouldn’t get enough money to buy a bigger residence. Therefore, the only solution was to buy the residence next door and combine it with their current residence.
When the time comes, all they have to do is repaint and renovate a few rooms and it’ll be good enough for the new bride.
At first the previous family was unwilling to sell, but Li Baode deliberately brought up their ties with the Marquis’ household. Hearing this, the head of the family was afraid of offending the rich and powerful, and finally compromised. However the selling price was much higher than what they bought it for, a total of one thousand taels. No more, no less. If the Li family agreed to hand over that much money, the head of the household agreed to immediately move out without creating any trouble.
Li Baode negotiated with them and said that the price of such a residence should be only 800 taels and 900 taels at most.
But the head of the household shook his head and refused. In the first place they weren’t planning to sell and were only doing so now because they would suffer otherwise.
The Li family didn’t have that much money in the first place. Yet in the end they could only bite their teeth and sell one hundred Mu of their paddy fields to pay the ridiculous price. Furthermore, since the paddy fields were of high quality, they were able to receive 9 taels per Mu for a total of 900 taels. The remaining 100 taels could only be taken out from the household’s account.
After digging up all this money, Li Baode didn’t wait as he hurriedly bought the new residence.
For this one residence, the Li family sold a hundred Mu of paddy fields. Although this was Matriarch Sun’s idea, she was still distressed about it and for a few days she had no appetite.
Those fields were a part of the family’s property their ancestors had accumulated bit by bit. Their family had depended on those fields to earn money and feed themselves for generations. Now suddenly half of it was sold off! Who would feel good about that?
Anxiety, so much anxiety. If they cannot marry the Young Lady home then it will be a devastating loss.
After the contract was drawn and signed, Matriarch Sun didn’t dare to delay and invited someone to send a letter to the Marquis’ household. A few days later, two momos came over with four or five servants. All of the servants were well-behaved and dressed in beautiful satin clothes. The women in the lead wore extraordinary crimson and dark green outfits.
When the Li family first laid their eyes on the women, they panicked like a small family would.
Fortunately, in the end, no matter how noble the Marquis’ household is, his daughter is still marrying into the Li family.
Matriarch Sun understood this point very well. After all, her grandson had skin to skin contact with the Young Lady so even if the girl doesn’t want to marry him she still has to in the end.
Meanwhile, the Marquis’ household felt that the girl had clowned herself and made herself a laughingstock among the upper class. Therefore, the girl can only grit her teeth and try to get this marriage over with as soon as possible. There is no need to make it extravagant, as long as the ancient rituals are performed, the marriage will be deemed official.
However, even preparing for these customs and rituals takes a lot of effort and time.
Finally, the two sides agreed to set the marriage date for the fifth day of September.
MooMoo’s Translation Notes:
Furen: reserved for high-ranking females, a wife of a noble or official is usually addressed as this
Momos: high-ranking female servants that have usually raised their master since they were a baby and so they tend to be elderly women.
Shi: title used for common people meaning missus, miss (basically women without a noble title is Madam “blank” but in this case shi was kept in the Romanized pinyin for translation purposes).
Twin Dragons Translations 