Chapter 57
◎A Matchmaker’s Mouth, a Lying Ghost◎
Zhang Chunni’s marriage was settled. After years of being picky, she had finally found a man from the city who ate commercial grain. Although he had a slight limp and was a few years older than Zhang Chunni, he worked at the grain bureau, had a city household registration, and a stable job. It was said that his in-laws had also promised to help Zhang Chunni find a job in the city in the future. This made the Zhang family overjoyed. For several days, Zhang Guixiang walked around the village with her back straight, truly feeling proud.
On this day, Yu Yahong was assigned to weed the cornfield. She was wearing a straw hat, and sweat was constantly dripping down her body. The autumn tiger of August and September was even more vicious than the scorching heat of June. Yu Yahong had been working for half a day. Seeing that there was still a large patch of green cornfield left, she felt a wave of dizziness, her legs couldn’t help but feel weak, and her body was also limp. She couldn’t muster any more strength.
She tremblingly stuck the hoe in her hand into the ground and walked to a shady spot with her legs shaking like a sieve.
Yu Yahong thought of when she was young. She was a whirlwind when she worked, and she could finish weeding this whole field in one go without feeling weak. Not like now. She was getting old, after all.
After drinking a few mouthfuls of cold water, just as Yu Yahong was about to go back to weeding, she saw Wani silently pick up the hoe and start weeding the rest of the field for her.
Wani had been doing farm work at home for two or three years. Her neck, sticking out from her round-collared undershirt, was tanned into different shades. The back of her neck was charcoal black, and the front of her neck, from often bending over to work, was tanned a light brown. Her sweat-soaked clothes stuck to her back, and her once flower-like hands were covered with calluses.
Yu Yahong’s nose stung. “Wani, let Mom do it.”
“Mom, it’s okay. You can rest. I’ll finish this patch of land quickly.”
Wani finished weeding the land for Yu Yahong, and then the mother and daughter walked home together.
After returning home, Wani scooped a ladle of water from the vat, washed the sorghum and black beans, and started to cook congee by the stove. The weather was hot, and it was more comfortable to eat congee. The pickled sour cabbage from a few days ago was also ready to eat.
At dusk, the second branch of the old Su family began to eat dinner. There was a pot of black bean and sorghum congee, a plate of pickled sour cabbage, and a few leftover sorghum buns from the morning.
Yu Yahong looked at Wani’s slender hands, tanned red and black. She put a mouthful of pickled sour cabbage into her mouth, and tears almost fell.
After a day’s work, Wani filled an enamel basin with well water, took a quick bath, changed into a set of washed-out coarse cloth clothes, and went to bed. Yu Yahong lay in bed with her eyes open, looking at the dark beams of the roof. She tossed and turned for a long time, and finally, unable to sleep, she sat up from the bed.
“What’s wrong? Why are you tossing and turning in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? You have to get up for work tomorrow…” Yu Yahong’s tossing and turning was so big that it woke up the second son, Su.
“You go to sleep. I won’t toss and turn anymore.”
Yu Yahong still wanted to find a good match for Wani. Wani had been graduated for more than two years. If this dragged on year after year, she would become an old maid.
She and the second son, Su, were not capable. They couldn’t give Wani a strong family background, nor could they prepare a generous dowry for her. Wani’s advantage now was that she was not old, she was quick and nimble, and she had attended high school. But in another two or three years, when she became an old maid, that advantage would not be so great.
The matchmakers in the village often said that an old maid had the price of an old maid, and she shouldn’t expect to marry up.
“No, I can’t let this go on.”
The rooster crowed twice before Yu Yahong finally closed her eyes.
The next morning, Yu Yahong was not in a hurry to go to work. She took out a few banknotes from her money box, rushed to the supply and marketing cooperative, weighed out half a catty of fruit candy, and then hurried to Matchmaker Yang’s house.
“Oh, Second Brother’s wife, a rare guest. Are you here for your Wani?”
Yu Yahong was carrying something in her hand and had a fawning smile on her face. “That’s right. How did you guess so accurately? I think you’re not only a good matchmaker, but you could probably be a fortune-teller too. I bought some fruit candy at the supply and marketing cooperative and left it for your children.”
Matchmaker Yang was the most powerful matchmaker within a ten-li radius. Eight out of ten marriages were arranged by her. Matchmaker Yang looked as if she had just finished breakfast and was using a toothpick to pick out the vegetable leaves from between her teeth. She opened her mouth and said, “I say, your Wani is very arrogant because she’s studied for a few days in high school. It’s not that I’m criticizing you, but you shouldn’t have agreed to let her study so much back then. When a girl studies too much, her heart becomes wild. How can she have the appearance of a virtuous wife and good mother!”
Matchmaker Yang clapped her hands. “Last time, during the wheat harvest, when the work points were being calculated, your Wani stubbornly insisted that the two decimal places of the work points were not calculated correctly. What’s the difference between 3.25 and 3.2? Haven’t we always calculated it this way in previous years? This girl is too stubborn. If she marries into a family, I’m afraid she’ll turn the kitchen upside down!”
“If you ask me, you shouldn’t have let her graduate from high school in the first place—look at the girl from the widow Liu’s family in the neighboring village. She got married before she even finished primary school, and now she has three grandsons.”
Yu Yahong sighed in distress. “This girl is just stubborn. I didn’t want her to go to high school either. It’s my fault. I couldn’t win against her.”
After Matchmaker Yang finished speaking, she took a sip of tea. Her left eyelid lifted first, and her right eyelid slowly followed. She sized up Yu Yahong with the corner of her eye. “If you ask me, with Wani’s conditions, the betrothal gift should be thirty percent less than that of an ordinary girl.”
Yu Yahong’s heart hardened. She gritted her teeth. “As long as the marriage is good, not to mention thirty percent, even if the betrothal gift is half, I’ll agree! After the matter is settled, I’ll prepare a generous thank-you gift for you!”
Matchmaker Yang smiled with satisfaction. “Alright! With your words, I’ll definitely arrange a good marriage for your Wani!”
After leaving Matchmaker Yang’s place, before Yu Yahong reached home, she ran into Yu Juanfang, who was returning from the river with a washbasin.
“I heard from the fourth sister-in-law that she saw you at Matchmaker Yang’s place?” Yu Juanfang had always looked down on that Matchmaker Yang. She was the type who would say one thing to your face and another behind your back, and who looked down on people. A few years ago, when her younger brother, Yu Laowu, couldn’t find a wife, she had said a lot of things that belittled Yu Laowu to the dust. She had even asked their old Yu family to pay a sky-high betrothal gift to marry a 200-catty fat woman, which almost made Yu Juanfang’s father faint from anger.
“Are you looking for a match for Shuanfu?”
Yu Yahong felt as if the huge rock in her heart had finally been moved away. She was now looking forward to Matchmaker Yang finding a good match for Wani. A smile appeared on her face. “No, I want to find a suitable match for Wani.”
Yu Juanfang frowned. “Have you asked for Wani’s opinion? This child may not want to get married so early.”
“When this child gets married, isn’t it up to her parents to decide? I really don’t want Wani to continue to suffer at home like this. A girl’s marriage is her second reincarnation. Maybe she can be reborn? Tangtang is graduating from the county high school next year, right? I don’t believe you won’t worry about her marriage then. You don’t know the pain until the fire burns you. I’d like to see if you’re willing to let Tangtang become an old maid in the future.”
Yu Juanfang’s eyebrows knitted together. “What’s wrong with being an old maid? If Tangtang is not willing to get married in the future, Third Brother and I will never force her to. At worst, we’ll support her for the rest of her life.”
Yu Yahong couldn’t help but sigh. “In the end, my Wani is not as fortunate as Tangtang.”