Chapter 130: A Person of Understanding
“Sister Miao, come and look at this fine cloth. It even has patterns, and the patterns are really nice, very auspicious.” Aunt Wu examined the fine cloth piece by piece.
“This one is pretty. Let’s make a half-sleeved shirt for our Third Sister with it, how nice!” Matchmaker Miao patted a piece of fine cloth with a geometric pattern and said to Aunt Wu with a smile.
“Third Sister’s dowry needs to be prepared quickly. It’s just that the colors are too plain.” Aunt Wu scratched the edge of the cloth hard with her fingernail. “This piece is quite fine, but the last piece wasn’t.”
“Sister Yin, do you have other colors of this fine cloth?” Matchmaker Miao asked Sister-in-law Yin.
Sister-in-law Yin was looking at the edge of the cloth that Aunt Wu had scratched, her heart aching. Hearing the question, she first laughed heartily twice, “We really don’t. We only do business with unbleached fine cloth. Once it’s dyed, it becomes more expensive. This is a small business for us.”
“Then can you help me dye a few pieces?” Aunt Wu immediately asked with a smile.
“Dyeing cloth is a very meticulous job, and Aunt Wu is a very particular person. None of us here understands it, so we dare not take on such a task carelessly,” Sister-in-law Yin said, speaking and laughing.
“It’s just a matter of adding money. Sister Yin, don’t worry, I’ll pay you every single copper coin.” Aunt Wu was clearly a bit displeased.
“In business, there’s no reason to turn away business,” Matchmaker Miao chimed in.
“This is a small business for us. We can’t sell many pieces of cloth a day. If there’s business, how could we possibly turn it away? We truly don’t understand it.
“Nanny, you know, we originally did business with preserved eggs. Selling cloth is one thing, but dyeing cloth? We don’t understand that at all,” Sister-in-law Yin said, her smile unchanged.
Matchmaker Miao looked at Aunt Wu, and Aunt Wu’s face fell.
“Is Third Sister’s marriage settled?” Sister-in-law Yin immediately changed the subject.
“Mm,” Aunt Wu replied with a noncommittal hum.
“Oh, that’s wonderful news! Which young master is it? I really can’t imagine which young master could be worthy of our Third Sister!”
Sister-in-law Yin clapped her hands together, exclaiming with surprise.
“If this family and person have caught Nanny’s and Auntie’s eyes, they must be exceptional. Which family is it?”
“It’s Da Lang Yu, who used to live in our neighborhood,” Matchmaker Miao said, her face beaming with joy.
“Oh my! It’s Da Lang Yu! He’s someone you can’t find even with a lantern! Their family moved away, I said, there’s no one in our neighborhood who is worthy of our Third Sister!
“Da Lang Yu is so picky. He’s been picking and choosing for over ten years, hasn’t he? After all this picking and choosing for so many years, he was just waiting for our Third Sister to grow up, right?”
Sister-in-law Yin spoke and laughed, clapping her hands incessantly, creating an atmosphere of joy throughout the room.
“No matter how picky he is, can he find fault with our Third Sister? Let me tell you, regarding this marriage with the Yu family, other things aside, I just like their courtyard full of flowers and plants. Our Third Sister has a quiet disposition and loves flowers and plants. Other than that, it’s just so-so!”
Matchmaker Miao’s already irrepressible joy was spread everywhere by Sister-in-law Yin’s continuous clapping.
Aunt Wu also lifted her head and smiled with reserved dignity.
“Da Lang Yu is so handsome. Standing next to our Third Sister, oh my! How handsome they’ll be! A match made in heaven!” Sister-in-law Yin continued to clap and praise.
“I just think they’ll look so well-matched and handsome standing together!” Matchmaker Miao said with a beaming smile.
“Da Lang Yu is so capable. When it comes to doing business, there’s no one in Pingjiang Prefecture more capable than him!”
Sister-in-law Yin kept clapping and exclaiming, her praises flowing like the mighty Yangtze River, making Matchmaker Miao and Aunt Wu giggle non-stop.
Li Xiaonan, in time with Sister-in-law Yin’s clapping, lifted and lowered her feet, falling and rising.
Sister-in-law Yin’s praising rhythm was so distinct, it was much more pleasant to listen to than a folk song!
Amidst the praises, Sister-in-law Yin saw Matchmaker Miao and Aunt Wu out of the shop, walking an extra five or six steps with them, waving goodbye for a while before turning back into the shop and spitting, “Pah!”
“Sister-in-law, you’re amazing!” Li Jinzhu praised sincerely.
“A pair of little rascals, very wicked. You must avoid them if you see these two! Pah!” Sister-in-law Yin spat again.
“Nanny Miao came to my house a while ago, wanting to arrange a marriage for Yuzhu. I didn’t dare to agree, I just felt she wasn’t straightforward,” Li Jinzhu said in a low voice.
“She wouldn’t be so kind!” Sister-in-law Yin raised her eyebrows. “Tell me carefully, she definitely doesn’t have good intentions!”
Li Jinzhu spoke, and Li Xiaonan added, detailing the visit from Matchmaker Miao.
After listening, Sister-in-law Yin clapped her hands, “She didn’t come to arrange a marriage, she must have come because someone fancied our Yuzhu, and something wasn’t to their liking. She came to stir up trouble! She’s very experienced in such matters!”
“Perhaps it’s the Yu family,” Li Xiaonan chimed in. “They seemed to have come specifically to talk about their Third Sister being betrothed to Da Lang Yu.”
“Exactly! They were so smug. If it really is the Yu family, then it’s a real shame,” Sister-in-law Yin frowned.
“It’s not a shame.” Li Jinzhu said calmly. “Sister-in-law has said that the neighbors all know what kind of person Matchmaker Miao is. If the Yu family doesn’t know, then they are too blind to recognize people. If they know and still entrusted her, then they are foolish. In any case, they are not sensible people, and such a family cannot be considered a good family.”
“Well said!” Sister-in-law Yin clapped several times. “The Yu family’s shop is diagonally opposite our general store. If they were truly interested in marriage, it would only be a matter of crossing the street. If they couldn’t ask you directly, they should have told me. Why would they need to go through intermediaries like this!
“Your Eldest Sister is a sensible person!”
Sister-in-law Yin said, patting Li Xiaonan and smiling.
“Of course, Eldest Sister is sensible, insightful, polite, generous, and…”
Before Li Xiaonan could finish her string of flattery, Li Jinzhu leaned forward and looked outside the door, “What does she want to eat now?”
Sister-in-law Yin burst out laughing.
………………………………
Linhai Town.
At the entrance of the He Family General Store next to the Maritime Tax Bureau, He Ruiming jumped off his horse and strode directly towards his father He Chengzhe’s small house.
“What’s wrong?” He Chengzhe took off his glasses and looked at his son, who was covered in sweat, with a frown.
“There’s been another fight at the wharf. This is the third fight today,” He Ruiming said, reaching for the teapot, pouring a cup of tea, and drinking it in one gulp.
He Chengzhe frowned.
“Have you found out how many outsiders have come to the wharf?” He Chengzhe asked after watching his son drink two cups of tea.
“There are still two wharves that haven’t reported yet. The ones that have reported so far, confirmed, are already nearly five hundred people!” He Ruiming’s brow was tightly furrowed.
He Chengzhe relaxed slightly. A few hundred people, compared to the tens of thousands of porters in Linhai Town, was not much.
But where did these few hundred people get the nerve to constantly provoke fights?
“Father, they say these people come in groups, and they are all skilled fighters,” He Ruiming said in a low voice.
He Chengzhe frowned again. He Ruiming watched his father’s tightly furrowed brow, and his own brow furrowed even tighter.
His father had been very worried lately. He also felt as if something big was about to happen, even a sense of impending doom.
After a long silence, He Chengzhe asked in a low voice, “How has that Huang Xianzhou been recently?”
“Since the first day he arrived, he’s been at the wharf before dawn every day and only returned after it was completely dark. Whichever wharf he inspects, he stays in the nearest public housing to that wharf.
“He and his strategist are on one side of the wharf and the other, constantly taking notes. They even eat with the porters,” He Ruiming said in a very low voice.
He Chengzhe listened intently, his eyes slightly closed, his thumbs slowly rotating. After a while, he opened his eyes and said, “These two matters, observe them from afar for now, no need to get close.”
“Okay,” He Ruiming nodded.
