Chapter 157

Yan, Ma, and Jin — the three official matchmaker women — could finally say they'd cornered Master Huang today. Thinking back on half a year of hard work chasing this deal, then tallying up all the performance bonuses once it closed, the three 'women' couldn't help but simultaneously... glare daggers at their rivals.

Master Huang then entered the Flower Hall. Because there was a female guest, an extra serving woman trailed behind him today. The three 'women' saw Master Huang come in and hurriedly rose to salute; at that moment, their attention was all focused on Master Huang in his plain, unadorned robe.

In the three 'women's' long careers, a template like Master Huang was truly rare, which was also one of the biggest motivations for them chasing his deal: a unique case meant a unique achievement once secured.

Huang Ping's background had long since been thoroughly investigated by the matchmaker world: before passing the provincial exam, he was just a down-and-out licentiate, living in a monks' temple outside the city, scraping by writing letters for others. Then overnight he passed the exam and changed his family's fortunes.

The remarkable part was right here: Master Huang's rise had simply been too explosive.

An ordinary provincial graduate, on the official registers, was only entitled to a 400-mu tax exemption on farmland. After passing the exam, various overt and covert income streams did exist, but expenses were just as considerable. A loser like Huang Ping, with no powerful clan backing him, and having to live in a high-cost city like Hangzhou, would initially only be middle class at best — things like fancy carriages and luxury mansions couldn't be achieved without a generation of accumulation.

Yet Master Huang had achieved it. Ordinary Ming people had long grown accustomed to provincial graduates striking it rich overnight — otherwise, what was the Ming Dynasty Dream for? But matchmakers were different; investigating a client's household secrets was a professional requirement, and they knew very well just how vast the difference was here.

No parents-in-law to support, a luxury mansion at home, a fine carriage, an excellent job... a diamond bachelor like this would have people fighting over him just the same in later generations. What Master Huang didn't know was that the matchmaker women had long since bumped him up to the highest tier, his conditions second only to those young masters from great aristocratic households.

After Master Huang entered the Flower Hall and took his seat, he casually picked Yan Pozi to make her pitch first; the other two could wait in the side hall, no rush.

This Yan Pozi was around thirty, wearing a light red Hangzhou silk jacket and a green satin skirt, her face caked in white powder, thick lips and plump cheeks — one look told you she made her living by her mouth. After stepping forward and exchanging pleasantries, Yan Pozi's face creased into a smile, and she opened her mouth to unleash a string of formulaic flattery, nearly exalting Master Huang as a reincarnation of a sage, a deity possessed.

Huang Zhicheng smiled wryly and waved his hand, signaling Yan Pozi to get to business quickly — didn't she see he had dozens of taels flowing in and out every second?

Only after the old fox Yan saw the master's signal did she temporarily shut her mouth, reach into her sleeve pouch, and pull out a small, cleverly made "embroidered register," beginning to flip through and introduce.

An "embroidered register" was an essential data book for every formally licensed matchmaker, listing some of the clients' public information, along with private annotations: these were in a personal cipher only the matchmaker herself could read; the Zhang family daughter has body odor, Master Li is impotent... all internal data that could never be made public.

Yan Pozi flipped through her embroidered register while pitching to Master Huang; Master Huang sipped tea while listening.

A situation like Huang Ping's, where no family elder came forward to take charge, was truly too rare. The phrase "parental command and matchmaker's word" was no joke — without parental consent, it was a private marriage; without matchmaker procedures, it was an illicit union, and this one was even stricter, which was why matchmakers were usually quite arrogant — for reference, see the monumental work The Plum in the Golden Vase.

Of course, matchmakers definitely liked a situation like Master Huang's; this one looked like he could make decisions on the spot, a real Golden Triangle style... when the time came for an elder to appear, probably one or two deaf and blind old folks would be trotted out to keep up appearances.

And so Yan Pozi kept pitching one young lady after another, while Master Huang sat in the seat of honor, half-listening, half-not. Before he knew it, half an hour had passed, and Huang Zhicheng grew more and more irritated the more he listened.

He knew his own qualifications were good, so the matchmaker would naturally start by introducing girls of roughly matching status — but that meant foot-binding. An unbound-foot girl was an exception, and definitely wouldn't appear in the first wave of pitches.

What was even more frustrating was that during this process, he couldn't reveal a subjective wish like "I want a big-footed wife"... once a matchmaker spread that around, Master Huang would instantly become the laughingstock of scholarly circles.

Everything had to happen very naturally: the matchmaker introduces some big-footed girl, the matchmaker frantically covers it up, the matchmaker desperately touts the girl's other advantages, Master Huang is deceived, Master Huang has his attention diverted from the big feet by the matchmaker's superb verbal skills...

This was called sociology — when an entire society was so pathologically twisted that foot-binding was revered as the standard of nobility, certain people had to act very carefully to avoid being treated as freaks.

Yan Pozi ultimately failed.

After listening to Yan Pozi's recommended candidates, Master Huang politely said, "Matchmaker Yan, you've worked hard. Allow me to deliberate a little." Then he handed out a gratuity and sent her on her way.

Next was Ma Pozi, and a certain someone, amidst animated expressions, began enduring a new round of bombardment.

Huang Zhicheng was starting to regret at this point: he had been derelict before. If he had started arranging the marriage two months earlier, he wouldn't need to be in such a rush now: once he entered Xiong Wencan's Shogunate as planned, what if the wedding date didn't line up? If he had to go to Fuzhou afterward, what if it delayed important matters?

In short, certain reasons that couldn't be aired publicly had created this awkward situation, and might even drag down serious business.

"Ah, I was too carried away before; I need to find a way to make up for it." Master Huang's spirit had already wandered off by now.

Unknowingly, the matchmaker spraying spittle before him had already switched to Jin Matchmaker, and Huang Zhicheng had been suffering for a full hour and a half: "Tomorrow let the steward listen!" Watching Jin Matchmaker's register about to flip to the end, Huang Zhicheng thought with no small relief.

Just then, a turning point appeared. In Huang Zhicheng's ears, for the first time today, he heard that key phrase: "bound feet."

Without a flicker of change in his expression, he gave a light cough. A servant had long been standing by with a spittoon; Master Huang spat, wiped his mouth, then smoothly rose and went to the back to relieve himself... sitting for over an hour, drinking tea and all, one had to allow the master to answer nature's call.

After relieving himself, Huang Ping returned once more to the Flower Hall, wiping his face with a damp hand towel. Master Huang seemed considerably more alert and refreshed at this moment: "Mm, that household just now — start from the beginning."

Jin Matchmaker, suspecting nothing, retold the story of that household, the one interrupted earlier, from the beginning.

This household was surnamed Zhong, not particularly prominent in reputation within Hangzhou City, but they were undeniably gentry. Master Zhong's ancestor was a collateral branch descendant of Zhong Fang, a famous official from Qiongzhou during the Zhengde Era Era Era. The Zhong family had passed down poetry and books through the generations, rising and falling several times over the years. Fortunately, their family rules were strict, with few instances of unworthy descendants, and every few years someone would enter officialdom, so the family fortune never declined.

Master Zhong himself had served one term as Director of Studies at the Nanjing Imperial Academy and one term as Prefect. A few years ago, when Wei Zhongxian rose to power, Master Zhong saw the court situation heading the wrong way and decisively retired; currently, he was idle at home.

The Zhong family had two sons and one daughter. The eldest son had entered officialdom as a provincial graduate and currently served as County Deputy of Nanhai County in Guangdong; the second son held no examination degree.

And the one the matchmaker intended to pitch to Master Huang was precisely the Zhong family's eldest daughter by the principal wife: her maiden name was Zhong Xiuxiu.

The reason Zhong Xiuxiu was placed at the very end of Jin Matchmaker's register was this: this eldest daughter of the Zhong family had been abducted and sold as a child.

Back then, when the Zhong family daughter was tricked away by a kidnapper, she was only five years old. Later, she was sold to a household of the Xu gentry family in remote Pingyang County in Wenzhou. Fortunately, this Xu Xiangshen had bought her because he had seven sons and lacked only a daughter. Seeing that Zhong Xiuxiu was clever and well-behaved, he bought her from the kidnapper to raise as an adopted daughter.

So-called "gentry" here really just meant country folk, and in the countryside there weren't so many fussy rules. Zhong Xiuxiu had never had her feet bound from childhood. The situation didn't turn around until Zhong Xiuxiu was sixteen: the kidnapper was arrested and thrown into the yamen for another case.

A few rounds of the Leg Press applied, and the kidnapper, pissing and shitting himself on the Public Hall floor, immediately began to talk, then talked more and more. Zhong Xiuxiu's case was mixed in among it all. After that, things proceeded naturally. Master Zhong, having recently retired, sent a visiting card straight to the Renhe County Yamen upon hearing the news, along with silver for expenses. The yamen runners immediately threw themselves into the work, and within days captured the secondary kidnappers — it was quite common for kidnappers to pass children around among themselves.

The Zhong family's eldest daughter was finally found.

When Master Zhong saw his own daughter again after more than ten years, Zhong Xiuxiu had grown into a graceful, poised young woman, heroic and dashing... with seven older brothers leading her around to play, it would've been hard not to be dashing. Seeing Zhong Xiuxiu, now renamed Xu Bao'er, who closely resembled himself, Master Zhong immediately broke down in loud, racking sobs.

After this came negotiations between the two families: Xu Xiangshen and his wife had raised Zhong Xiuxiu like a beloved daughter, never lacking food or clothing, with maids and serving women all provided, never treating the girl with the slightest neglect. Now that she was raised into a grown young woman, on the verge of betrothal and marriage, ahem... her real father showed up.

On Master Zhong's side, the first feeling was relief: a girl abducted and sold to a brothel or entertainers' house was all too common. That Zhong Xiuxiu could grow up safe and stable in the Xu household was already a stroke of tremendous luck.

The second feeling was difficulty: she wasn't a beaten child-bride you could just righteously take away and be done with it — they had raised her as a young lady!

Originally, they planned to compensate the Xu family with silver, but Xu Xiangshen refused... country folk might be stubborn, but was this something silver could solve? How about I give you a few more, and you just leave, alright? If you leave, I still have to shell out a huge dowry to marry off my daughter!

... Master Zhong, born of a scholarly family, was naturally not the sort to be unreasonable. In the end, after negotiations, the two families finally reached an agreement: from then on, the two families would be bound as close family friends; Zhong Xiuxiu would change back to her original name and recognize Xu Xiangshen and his wife as her adoptive parents.

So thus, and thus so, when the Zhong family daughter returned to Hangzhou, she was already seventeen.

Coming back was good; coming back meant getting married. However, solidly good descriptors like "heroic and dashing" and "walking with a vigorous stride," when placed within the disgustingly twisted Ming dynasty Scholar-Official circles that the Transmigrators had sworn to topple, instantly became objects of snickering mockery...

Two years. After Zhong Xiuxiu returned to Hangzhou for two years, she was already at the "advanced age" of nineteen, and still hadn't been married off.

Master Zhong's face was lined with wrinkles; his daughter was unsellable stock — help us...

The story of the Zhong family daughter ended here. Jin Matchmaker's mouth was parched, and Master Huang was secretly satisfied — he was certain he had just heard Jin Matchmaker say this line: "Country places are a bit laxer in discipline; the Zhong family daughter's foot-binding time was short, so her feet are slightly, just slightly larger than other young ladies'."

Normally, if some young lady had a hidden ailment like a bit of body odor, the matchmaker could completely pretend not to know — you could sort it out among yourselves later.

But a major matter like not binding feet — the matchmaker absolutely dared not conceal it. First, it couldn't be hidden; second, even if the groom's side was deceived, a personage like Master Huang — could you possibly get away with it afterward?

So no matter how difficult, no matter how hard to bring up, Jin Matchmaker today still had to obliquely put it out there first: the Zhong family daughter's feet were just a little bit larger than other families' daughters.