Chapter 246: Position Determines Perspective
“The official matchmaker in this town says he’s playing hard to get.”
“Playing hard to get,” Gu Yan repeated the two words, mimicking the Wu dialect, and looked at Li Xiaonan. Li Xiaonan immediately translated, “It means being coy.”
“When he was sixteen, a matchmaker came to propose the first marriage, saying it was for the youngest daughter of the Zhang family, who owned a southern goods shop across the street. She was a year older than Ni Rush, and the Zhang family offered a small courtyard and a full set of furniture as dowry. The matchmaker thought it would be settled with just one conversation, but unexpectedly, Ni Daniang refused outright.
“After that, there were seven or eight more families, intermittently. The best offer was from a wealthy household ten li away. The girl was two years younger than Ni Rush, said to be beautiful as a flower, and her dowry included fifty mu of paddy fields and one hundred taels of silver cash.
“Both Ni’s mother and son refused them flatly.”
“What kind of person are they looking for? Are they targeting Second Sister, or is it just Second Sister’s own wishful thinking?” Li Xiaonan frowned.
“To know what kind of person they’re looking for, we’d have to ask them, mother and son. Haven’t you managed to get any information from your Second Sister?” Gu Yan looked at Li Xiaonan.
“Second Sister is either reconciling accounts or discussing matters every day, and there are always people around her. I haven’t found an opportunity yet,” Li Xiaonan sighed.
Her Second Sister was even busier than the Young Lord.
“Shall we ask him to come up?” Gu Yan suggested.
Li Xiaonan was startled. “Who do you want to ask to come up? Ni Rush? And what would we ask him? Ask him why he’s not getting married?”
Gu Yan nodded.
Li Xiaonan looked at Gu Yan as if he were an idiot, not knowing what to say.
“Even the shopkeeper of this restaurant knows that the backing behind the Yueyang Preserved Egg Shop is Prince Rui’s Mansion. A smart person like Ni Rush must know even more. Since he knows, why not ask him directly?”
Gu Yan used his folding fan to push Li Xiaonan’s forehead, causing her head to tilt back.
Li Xiaonan raised her hand to bat away Gu Yan’s folding fan, opened her mouth, and subconsciously looked around.
Gu Yan immediately raised his hand to signal Shi Gun.
Shi Gun led the servants and withdrew.
“Go ahead,” Gu Yan gestured for Li Xiaonan to speak.
“What kind of connection makes you treat me like a brother or sister?” Li Xiaonan asked directly.
Gu Yan was silent for a moment, then twirled his folding fan between his fingers. “Just consider it the grace of rebirth and a second chance.”
“It wasn’t me,” Li Xiaonan looked at Gu Yan.
“Everything you do is what she wanted to do,” Gu Yan said with a smile.
“I won’t stay by your side. I want to marry someone I like. If I can’t find someone I like, it’s fine not to marry. I’ll just stay with Eldest Sister and continue to run the fine cloth business well.
“Is that what she wanted too?”
Gu Yan met Li Xiaonan’s gaze, remained silent for a long while, and then gave a low, affirmative hum.
Li Xiaonan was somewhat surprised and froze for a moment. “Then,” she paused, frowning, “what if I get married?”
“I have to agree to it,” Gu Yan replied unceremoniously. Seeing Li Xiaonan’s glaring eyes, Gu Yan spread his hands and smiled, “I don’t mean anything else, I just don’t want you to marry the wrong person.”
Li Xiaonan rested her arms on the table, propped her chin, and after a moment, let out a long sigh. “Alas, I feel unworthy.”
“You’ve tried your best to teach women weaving, to provide looms on credit and buy back cloth, making the sound of looms echo in every household in Jiangnan. This is something I wanted to do but couldn’t do well. This alone is enough. You don’t need to feel unworthy,” Gu Yan said with a solemn expression.
“I’ve been using your prestige to my advantage all along,” Li Xiaonan said.
Gu Yan smiled.
“Do you really want to ask him to come up?” Li Xiaonan changed the subject.
“Do you want to see it for yourself?” Gu Yan retorted.
Li Xiaonan hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. “Seeing it won’t help now. I’ll try to probe Second Sister first.”
Gu Yan hummed. “I have three older sisters.”
Li Xiaonan raised her eyebrows and looked at Gu Yan. Why was he telling her this?
“Eldest Sister is ten years older than me. Even now, her most frequent saying is: An elder sister is like a mother.”
Gu Yan paused. His Eldest Sister’s letters, almost every one of them contained this phrase. He used to find these four words incredibly annoying, but later, they made his heart ache with tenderness. Now, amidst the tenderness, there was a touch of helplessness and speechlessness.
“I remember clearly the day Eldest Sister got married. Outside, the wedding drums and music were deafening. Eldest Sister placed both her hands on my shoulders and solemnly entrusted me to Second Sister: ‘I’m leaving my brother to you.’ Second Sister put one hand on her hip, pointed at my forehead, and said: ‘Did you hear that? You have to listen to me from now on!’”
Gu Yan raised his hand and pointed at his own forehead.
Li Xiaonan listened, her eyebrows raised. She couldn’t imagine that this imposing Young Lord, who held such authority, actually had two older sisters who dominated him.
These two sisters sounded much fiercer than her own sisters!
“Third Sister is only three years older than me. After Second Sister got married, she still dared to take charge of me. The year Third Sister got married, I was already more than a head taller than her. I had been fighting in the north for four or five years. Once, I went with her to pick beads, and a horse bolted in the street. She immediately rushed in front of me, shouting: ‘You step back! I’ll handle it!’”
Li Xiaonan made a sound of surprise.
His three sisters, just like her three sisters, would shield her from anything. But she really couldn’t do that!
“My sisters took care of me in every way. In front of them, I never had to pour my own tea.”
Gu Yan said, pouring himself some tea, and then refilling Li Xiaonan’s cup.
“I have never treated you as a sister,” Gu Yan said, putting down the teapot and tapping it twice with his fingers.
Li Xiaonan glanced sideways at the teapot and turned to look out the window.
“It’s difficult to probe into Ni Rush’s situation. You’d better ask your Second Sister directly. If your Second Sister really has any intentions, I’ll arrange for someone to look into Ni Rush again, have a chat with him, and then we can still see how he does in this year’s Child Scholar Examination,” Gu Yan said with a smile.
“I think he seems too ambitious,” Li Xiaonan said after a moment of silence, sighing.
“Whether his ambition is too high depends on his capabilities. As it stands, he’s smart enough, has determination, can endure hardship, knows your Second Sister, and his luck is also good.”
He paused, and Gu Yan continued with a smile, “As for playing hard to get in marriage, his marriage is the only opportunity he can grasp. He should handle it cautiously.
“Looking at his essays and scholarship, he can certainly become a Xiucai scholar. Let him become a Xiucai first before discussing marriage. If he can endure it and has good fortune to assist him, he might even pass the Autumn Imperial Examination in one go. If he were to discuss marriage then, compared to the families now, it would be a world of difference.
“Your brother’s marriage was decided too early.”
“My brother’s marriage is excellent!” Li Xiaonan retorted first, then sighed, “Someone with such high ambition as him, if he takes one step up, he’ll definitely want to climb higher. I…”
“Is there anything higher than Prince Rui’s Mansion?” Gu Yan interrupted Li Xiaonan, asking with a look of surprise.
Li Xiaonan glared at Gu Yan, not knowing what to say.
“If you climb high, you climb me,” Gu Yan said, tapping the table with his curled fingers. “You need to stand higher and have a broader vision. High aspirations are good; only with great ambition can one achieve something. If everyone were like your brother, content with three meals a day, the court… I mean, among you siblings, there must be at least one person with ambition and courage, someone who can hold things up, not just relying on you alone.”
