When Yanxia entered the room, she saw Qiu Yanfu holding a hebao in her hand and was dazed. Yanxia walked over and asked, "Miss, what's wrong? Did you stab your hand?"
Qiu Yanfu shook her head and asked in a low voice, "No. Has the Second Miss been picked up yet?" She didn't expect Yujing to find such a good family in the end. The Song family, that was Song Guifei's maiden family. If the 9th Prince became the Emperor, the Song family would be the kinsman and relatives of the Emperor. Yujing, this time around, was lucky as usual. If Qiu Yanfu could marry into the Song family, she would wake up laughing in her dreams.
Yanxia shook her head as she answered, "No. I heard that the Old Lady said that she would let Second Miss cultivate herself in the mountains and will only return a bit later."
Qiu Yanfu commented, "The Old Lady is angry, but she will definitely let Second Miss return before the end of the year." She knew that the Old Lady was angry, but so what if she was angry again? She still had to marry Yujing to the Song family.
Qiu Yanfu had hated more than once on why she was not a young miss of the State Residence. Even someone as stupid as Yujing could marry into the Song family, while she could only marry someone who was not up to her standard, or someone who was either in his 30s or 40s years old. Why was it like this?
As she was depressed, she saw the old woman servant who served Wu Shi come over, "Miss Biao, my Lady is asking you to come over."
Qiu Yanfu put the hebao in her hand back into the embroidery basket, then took Yanxia with her to the Biteng Courtyard. This time, Wu Shi sought Qiu Yanfu regarding Qiu Yanfu's marriage. This time, Wu Shi had chosen the second di son of a Supervisor working under the Minister of Ceremonies Ministry.
Wu Shi told Qiu Yanfu, "Second Master Qiao is nineteen years old this year. His wife passed away at the beginning of the year, and he has no children with his late wife. I think these conditions are pretty good."
Qiu Yanfu inquired with some disbelief, "How did Second Madam Qiao die?" When Qiu Yanfu heard that she had died of illness, she didn't think much more of it.
Seeing that Qiu Yanfu was somewhat relieved, Wu Shi continued, "Second Master Qiao became a jinshi three years ago and he is currently working as an upper seventh rank administrative clerk in the Ministry of Ceremonies."
Qiu Yanfu thinks this person was a good candidate. Even if she would be a jishi, there were no children left by the late wife before her, so this did not hinder her in any way.
Wu Shi had been having headaches for a year because of Qiu Yanfu's marriage. Since Qiu Yanfu was not satisfied with all the candidates that she had chosen before, she could not force this matter on Qiu Yanfu. However, when she saw that Qiu Yanfu had a positive inclination to the current candidate, her heart felt relieved, "The Supervisor of the Minister of Ceremonies Ministry is a colleague of your Uncle, and he has also seen this Second Master Qiao, whom he said was good in appearance and temperament, and was also a calm person. If you are okay with this person, I will agree to the Qiao family’s marriage proposal."
Qiu Yanfu nodded as she responded, "It's all up to Aunt." There was definitely no problem with Uncle's vision. The most important thing was, the other party's conditions satisfied her. Because she trusted Han Jingyan, Qiu Yanfu did not even propose to look at the other party.[+]
The two families quickly went through the procedures. After both families had passed the proposal and the wenming steps, the next thing to do was for the Qiao family to send the betrothal gifts to the Han family. After this procedure, the marriage had been thoroughly finalised. Of course, even without following this procedure, the marriage was also basically settled.
Three Letters & Six Etiquettes in Chinese Traditional Wedding
Once this marriage was established, Wu Shi didn't hide it from others either and the news soon got out. Bingmei was quick to tell Yuxi about it.
After hearing this, Yuxi wondered, "Why would the Qiao family want a marriage with Qiu Yanfu when Second Master Qiao is in such a good position?" If one had to say, a marriage paid particular attention to how well-matched the families in terms of social status. If Qiu Yanfu was to be married to a juzi or a xiucai, Yuxi would not have been surprised. But Second Master Qiao was so well endowed that he could marry a shu daughter of the family that was well-matched with his family in social status. So why would he want to marry Qiu Yanfu?
Bingmei said, "I heard that this marriage was agreed between the Lord and Master Qiao. Perhaps, the Qiao family wants to tie the knot with the Han family through marriage!"
Yuxi snickered, "Qiu Yanfu is merely Wu Shi's niece, not a young miss of the Han family. What kind of marriage relationship with the Han family is that?"
Bingmei heard the dissatisfaction in Yuxi's words and lowered her head, not daring to speak any longer.
Yuxi also felt that her tone was wrong just now and instructed, "You should withdraw first!" Whether Qiu Yanfu married the Second Master Qiao or not, it had nothing to do with her.
Bingmei asked cautiously, "Miss, why don't I ask my brother to inquire about the Qiao family?" Looking at her Miss unhappy look, she guessed that Miss was angry about the Lord's partiality. It was incomprehensible, to say the least, her own master was the Third Lord's own daughter, but the Third Lord was better to an outsider than to his own daughter.
Yuxi shook her head, "No need. It's not like it has anything to do with me whether the Qiao family is good or bad." If the Qiao family was good, then it was Qiu Yanfu's luck. If the Qiao family had something to hide, then it was also Qiu Yanfu's bad luck. Either way, it had nothing to do with her.
Apparently, Qiu Yanfu was not as lucky as Yujing. It was in the following setting, during the naji, that things went awry.
Madam Qiao came to their door herself and said that the marriage was not going to work. Madam Qiao knew that her family was in the wrong that she kept apologising to Wu Shi.
Wu Shi's face turned purple with anger, "You were the ones who said you wanted to tie the knot that day, but what exactly do you mean by this now? If we don't make it clear today, we won't be able to settle this matter." What kind of thing was it to withdraw from a marriage when it had been first agreed upon?
Naturally, Madam Qiao could not tell Wu Shi the real reason and made a random excuse. Then she told a load of nice things to Wu Shi.
Wu Shi was angry, but there was nothing she could do if the other side was unwilling to tie the knot. In the end, she returned the Second Master Qiao's gengtie and took back Qiu Yanfu's gengtie. Afterwards, she drove Madam Qiao away.
Qiu Yanfu was happily starting to embroider her dowry when she heard the news and felt that the sky was spinning, while the earth went round. She ran to Biteng Courtyard and wailed at Wu Shi, "Aunt, they're making a fuss over nothing. For the Qiao family to withdraw the marriage for no reason, where are they putting me?" If people wanted to cancel a marriage engagement, it was not good to immediately agree to it, for that would make people look down on them. But Qiu Yanfu just had to be clear on the reason for the cancellation. If of course, the Han family hadn't said yes, in the beginning, it would have been fine, but both families had already made their decision, and then the Qiao family came up with such a stunt.
Qiu Yanfu had no feelings for Second Master Qiao. She couldn’t have feelings for him when she had never even seen him yet. She just thought that Second Master Qiao's conditions and other aspects were good, so she agreed. Now that she had been humiliated by the Qiao family in this way, how could she just swallow this anger?
The State Residence couldn't hide the matter, especially when Madam Qiao leaves the State Residence dejectedly. The discerning eyes could see that something was wrong.
When Yuxi knew that the Qiao family had withdrawn from the marriage, she found it quite interesting. "The Qiao family doesn't know which immortal they've hooked up with, that they're blatantly feuding with my Father." It wasn't exactly a feud with the Han family, but the marriage had been arranged by Han Jingyan. However, since the Qiao family had withdrawn from the marriage, it was the same as stepping on Han Jingyan's face. This was tantamount to saying that the Qiao family had made enemies with their Third Han House.[+]
Bingmei thought that Yuxi would be happy, but she didn't expect her Miss to do what she just had done, which was, didn't take the matter to her heart. But Bingmei was well-informed about it and told Yuxi what she had heard from home, "Miss, after the Qiao family withdrew from Miss Biao's marriage, they settled for the Third Young Miss from the Minister of Personnel's family."
Yuxi had some knowledge of the situation of the most famous families in the capital. "The Third Young Miss is favoured dearly by Minister Wang of the Ministry of Personnel!" To be exact, it was the concubine mother of the Third Young Miss who was very favoured by Minister Wang.
Bingmei was a bit confused. "Miss, as far as the Third Young Miss Wang is concerned, she can easily marry someone better than the Second Master Qiao. So why does she have to steal from Miss Biao?"
Yuxi smiled and said, "There must be something fishy here." As for what had made the matter look fishy, Yuxi wouldn't take her time and money to check on it. She would just watch on the sidelines and wait for news to come out by itself.
The next evening, Yuchen asked her maid to invite Yuxi to Tingyun Pavilion.
When Yuxi arrived at Tingyun Courtyard, she noticed Yuchen's face looked so ugly that she asked, "San Jie, what's wrong?"
Yuchen explained, "The Second Master Qiao had an affair with the Third Young Miss Wang. This affair had been discovered by Madam Wang, and she also got the evidence of it." As for how Madam Wang had found out, there was no need for Yuchen to explain this. She had her own sources of information.
Shiqin brought Yuxi a plate of cherries.
After Yuxi waved her hand to ask Shiqin to withdraw, she then said, "I have never met the young misses of the Wang family, and I don't know much about their nature. Can San Jie tell me about them specifically?"
Yuchen told Yuxi what she had inquired, "The Third Young Miss Wang inherited her mother's beauty and heart, and Madam Wang has never personally taken advantage of the mother and daughter." After a pause, she continued, "Madam Wang is actually a jishi, not a zhengshi."
Yuxi was a bit puzzled and asked another question, "I was wondering before, why the Qiao family would let Second Master Qiao marry Qiu Yanfu? It's not that I think lowly of Qiu Yanfu because of her condition. Even if she lived in our State Residence for the past two years, she's a merchant's daughter after all. She's not even qualified to be a jishi for Second Master Qiao."
Yuchen said, "Second Master Qiao had a favoured maid. I heard that Second Madam Qiao had fallen sick of anger over this at the time, and then somehow she suddenly passed away. It's just that the Qiao family hid this matter so well that Father didn't get the news at that time." The bad thing about this was the Qiao family's target for matchmaking was Qiu Yanfu. Han Jingyan, a real man, would certainly not have paid attention to the affairs of the inner courtyard. While Wu Shi rarely went out to socialise and was unaware of what was going on outside. As for the rest of the Han family, they all had the same attitude as Yuxi, which was feeling unconcerned about it and just let the matter rest.
Yuxi looked at Yuchen in disbelief. There was a contradiction between the two statements! If he had a favoured maid, then how did he have an affair with the Third Young Miss Wang?
Yuchen looked at Yuxi and explained, "The maid favoured by Second Master Qiao has eyebrows very much like the Third Young Miss Wang." [T/N]
Hearing this, Yuxi asked, "How did Madam Wang find out that Second Master Qiao was having an affair with the Third Young Miss Wang? Third Young Miss Wang is only sixteen this year!" Qiu Yanfu was also sixteen. Both were sixteen years old, but the difference in their age was not that big.
Yuchen replied, "Madam Wang has found evidence on the matter, and the Third Young Miss Wang's personal maid has also confessed." This meant that there was human and material evidence regarding the affair between Third Young Miss Wang and Second master Qiao.
Yuxi smiled a little, "What does San Jie think?"
Yuchen frowned as she said, "The Qiao family is bullying people too much, but if this matter is publicized, then it will offend Master Wang." The Minister of Justice was not someone Han Jingyan could afford to offend.
Yuxi laughed a little and said, "San Jie should have noticed that something is wrong too, right? Young Miss Wang is only sixteen this year. She has both beauty and intelligence. Even if she is going to have an illicit affair with someone, it should be a young man from a family that was well-matched in terms of social status with her family or a royal son or children of nobility. How could she possibly see the Second Master Qiao." If she hadn't guessed right, it would have been the Second Master Qiao had unrequited love for Third Young Miss Wang.
Yuchen nodded and said, "I have thought the same thing." She also thought that it was a bit unbelievable that the Third Young Miss Wang was having an affair with the Second Master Qiao. After discussing it with Momo Gui, she felt that the matter must have been planted by Madam Wang and that Third Young Miss Wang had probably been framed.
Noob Translator's Musing
Wow, Second Master Qiao's life is really like a melodramatic drama. He probably was forced to marry a girl because of his family, but he has fallen in love with another girl who doesn't know that he likes her. He decided to take in a maid who looks a bit like her. His crush probably doesn't like him though, because she's a smart one who wants to marry the one who has the same family status as her family. My mind has just gone overdrive.
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The Rebirth of Han Yuxi