The Prestigious Family’s Young Miss and The Farmer – Chapter 46 Part 3

Chapter 46 Step Three – Lay a Trap Part 3

What about this family possessing ten mu of fields and older brother being a carpenter? What’s with that one What’s residing in a big roof-tiled house, and the gufu being Lizheng of a certain village…. Her son was going to be a respected xucai! How could this sort of poor household be worthy of her son?! 

亩 (mǔ): classifier for fields/unit of area equal to one-fifteenth of a hectare

姑父 (gūfu): father’s sister’s husband/husband of paternal aunt/uncle

(里正/里長 ( lǐ zhèng/lǐzhǎng): A village chief – main duties include managing household registrations and taxes. (Previously, I wasn’t sure of what Lizheng actually was and was a bit confused. So I left it as it is. Now, I have updated and included this note in previous chapters as well. By the way, do you guys prefer Lizheng/ Village Chief?)

However, He-shi seemed to have forgotten that their Yang jia also comes under the very same poor section of households and might not even be better than the other person. Immersed in the happiness of her son becoming a respected xucai, she had become delusional momentarily, seemingly completely overlooking this point and wanted to match her son with a young lady hailing from the best households. To the point that she felt even a Young Lady of the County Magistrate’s family is also worthy of her son.

Hearing He-shi’s words caused a frown to form upon the Matchmaker Ma’s brows. 

She was distinctly aware of Yang jia’s situation and particularly Yang Xuezhang’s. 

In their line of business, the information they have in their hands might not be that much, but they can’t lose the business. Matchmaker Ma, particularly, has the profiles of all the unmarried men in nearby ten li and eight villages. 

She also had Yang Xuezhang’s profile in her hand’. Er, how to say it…. Factually speaking, Yang Xuezhang could not be regarded as a potential partner in her point of view.  

If all the profiles in Matchmaker Ma’s hands could be categorized into three grades, Yang Xuezhang would at best fall under the second grade.

Firstly, he doesn’t even have the strength to truss a chicken. Second, he had taken the county-level exam several times, only to fail again and again. Third, at home, there is even this sort of mother and saozi. 

手无缚鸡之力 (shǒuwúfùjīzhīlì): lit. lacking the strength even to truss a chicken (idiom) / fig. weak/unaccustomed to physical work

嫂子 (sǎozi): older brother’s wife/sister-in-law

Generally, even a little bit well-off family would rarely give their daughter to this sort of household, despite it being considered a family with a good financial situation in Luoxia village. 

Even if Matchmaker Ma found it a bit awkward, she still professionally introduced another set of young girls who came from slightly better families. 

Seeing He-shi still dissatisfied, Matchmaker Ma’s face gradually became grim, puzzled, how this old lady could be this ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. 

不知天高地厚 (bù zhī tiān gāo dì hòu): to not know the immensity of heaven and earth / an exaggerated opinion of one’s own abilities

Isn’t she well aware how her son is? Even more, a toad wants to eat swan meat! You sure want to look for a good match! But here, the key point is to see if the other person would be willing to send their daughter to your gates!  

癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉 (lài há ma xiǎng chī tiān’é ròu): lit. the toad wants to eat swan meat (idiom) / fig. to try to punch above one’s weight

Catching on Matchmaker Ma’s bad face, and the possible thoughts that might be going on in her head, He-shi couldn’t help but be annoyed at Matchmaker Ma for acting snobby.  

If it were any other usual time, He-shi would have already started making a din. But this time, she didn’t dare to do so. After all, they had just started to look for a matchmaker for Yang Xuezhang. If she, by any chance, offends Matchmaker Ma now, no other matchmaker would dare to help matchmake for her son. Considering all of this, she had no other alternative but to suppress her fury and perfunctorily ask her to keep an eye on any good-looking young girls for her son before she saw her off.  

Once Matchmaker Ma left, He-shi furiously discarded the leftover tea in the courtyard. Wait till her son comes back as an honorable xucai. She will then see if that Matchmaker Ma could still act snobbish! 

All this while, Wang-shi wasn’t in the room and wasn’t aware of the situation. 

“Mother, how did it go? How did talks about laosi’s marriage go? Which family’s young lady is she? Only a young lady from the best household is worthy of our family’s laosi!” She had originally rushed up here to butter up He-shi, but ended up getting up on the wrong foot, completely offending He-shi. 

Laosi: an appellation used by the elders of the family to address the fourth child. (Laosi would literally mean old four in English. I felt laosi would be better, so I went along with it till now. Which one would you guys prefer – Laosi or old four?)

He-shi rolled her eyes as she impatiently bellowed Wang-shi.

“Go, go, go! You are quite idle, right? If you are this idle, go and shovel the pigsty.”

Wang-shi curled her lips, discontented. Nevertheless, she quickly turned around to move far away from He-shi, fearing that she might invite disaster upon herself.

Every day He-shi kept counting days. The days gradually passed by. By now, Yang Xuezhang should have finished his exam and ought to have returned home. But, with Yang Xuezhang and Yang Tiegen still nowhere in sight, He-shi couldn’t stop the anxiousness building up in her heart.  

But on second thought, they might also have stopped to take a rest somewhere on the journey. Thinking this, He-shi once again eased her heart. 

A day, two days, three days – gradually, one after the other, days sped by in a blink of an eye, and it was already five days past the scheduled day Yang Xuezhang should have returned. Yet, Yang Xuezhang was nowhere in sight.

He-shi was unable to sit any longer and summoned her eldest son, Yang Tieshuan, to go and look for Yang Xuezhang’s whereabouts in the county. Her second child, Yang Tiezhu was injured and wasn’t in a position to go. Yang Tieshuan was the only adult male in the house who was suitable to go out at the moment. 

In the main room, the old couple was just in the middle of a discussion when Yang Tiegen returned back. 

Only he came back. Yang Xuezhnag was nowhere to be seen. With eyes bloodshot, untidy beard, and clothes disheveled – Yang Xuezhang appeared haggard and awfully exhausted.  

As soon as He-shi saw Yang Tiegen, she hauled him into the main room. Finding the situation amiss, Yao-shi and Lin Qingwan also followed after them.  

“Laosan, where is your younger brother? Where did you leave your younger brother?” At this moment, He-shi’s liver and gall both seemed to have been torn from within, as she bellowed Yang Tiegen whilst continuously shaking him.

肝胆俱裂 (gān dǎn jù liè): one’s liver and gall both seemed torn from within.; extremely frightened; heart-broken or terror-stricken; overwhelmed by grief or terror

This conduct of He-shi has never changed, disregarding the matter and reason, completely disregarding red-green or black-white. Other than Yang Xuezhang, everyone else could only go through condemnation. 

不问青红皂白 (bùwèn qīnghóng-zàobái): not distinguishing red-green or black-white (idiom) / not to distinguish between right and wrong

Even if he wanted to say something, Yang Tiegen was rendered speechless by He-shi’s act of continuously rocking him.

Yang laoyezi was also feeling anxious to death, but seeing his third son’s face become red through and through while being unable to say something, he quickly pulled He-shi to sit on the kang.  

“Alright, don’t push him like that. Let laosan speak slowly. Getting anxious now is also of no use.”

He-shi, also realizing that it wasn’t time to yell, let Yang laoyezi pull her to the kang, with her hands and feet becoming completely soft. Here at Yang Tiegen’s side, Yao-shi moved a stool to have him sit down before pouring water for him. 

Yang Tiegen sat down and gulped down a large bowl of water before he slowly began filling them in on the happenings of the past few days.  

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