Chapter 71 – Message
Yu Wen, who was sitting in the hall, did not know about the happenings in the drawing room.
He answered Pei Yan openly and honestly. “…..it was all my daughter’s plan. Originally, I refused, as | was afraid my daughter would be criticized, but she vehemently insisted. She said in recruiting a son-in-law, if we did not show our strength, we will only be bullied by our son-in-law. I then discussed with her eldest uncle for a day and realized she had a point. Moreover, my brother and I could not produce a better idea than hers. This matter was thus settled.”
He was afraid that his daughter’s assertiveness would cause Pei Yan to have a negative impression of her. In the future, when his daughter becomes the head of the family, Pei Yan may not be willing to help their family in times of trouble. He hurriedly continued, explaining, “Although she acted a bit impetuous and willful today and seemed to be stirring up trouble, she is not usually like this. She is lively and cheerful and also very considerate and attentive. Otherwise, my wife and I would not have been so firm in our decision to keep her in our house and not marry her out. Her actions today were deliberate as she wanted Li Duan take the bait.”
Pei Yan nodded his head, but in his heart, it was in a mess.
So, all of this was really Lady Yu’s idea.
His intuition was right!
Such boldness and fierceness.
An average male would not have had half the amount of courage she had.
However, her father and cousin were still too indulgent with her, such a serious matter and they allowed her to do whatever she wanted.
If Li Duan were a little smarter and Li Jun a little more cunning, the Yu family would not have even gotten half as much as they did today.
Did Lady Yu not think of the consequences if her strategy failed?
As Pei Yan thought of this, he could not help but look again at Yu Wen.
He looked like a typical Jiangnan scholar, well-kept, refined and with a touch of carefreeness. At a glance, he looked like those people who disliked handling the common household affairs and only know how to enjoy themselves all day, yet he doted on his daughter to the extent of indulging her every whim.
Perhaps, it was precisely this reason that caused Lady Yu to develop such a fearless approach to life?
Usually, families whose parents were weak-willed would have strong and capable children.
Pei Yan could not help but remark, “Lady Yu, did she not think about the potential ramifications if the Li family did not take the bait?”
Yu Wen could not let Pei Yan doubt his daughter – every day that their Yu family was in Lin’an City, no, even if they were not in Lin’an City, they and the Pei family still needed to be on good, neighborly terms with the Pei family. Just like in Hangzhou City, when Yu Tang had a stomach upset in the middle of the night, if it wasn’t not for the Pei family’s third master’s name card, how would they have gotten the imperial physician to visit them?
This is the kind of friendship that cannot be forsaken!
“Of course, we did.” He said immediately, “However, according to my daughter, knowing Li Duan’s character, he will definitely fall for it. She also said that everyone has a weak spot and have something they desire the most, so as long as we can find the right thing to reel them in, they will be caught.” Speaking of this, as he recalled the words used by Yu Tang to describe Li Duan, the corners of his mouth curved upwards, and he smiled, “My daughter had always been a naughty child, so I treated her like an naïve little girl all this well. However, unexpectedly, when such things occurred, she was the one who stood forward and took the lead. Clearly, I lack enough concern over her, and she had grown up even before I knew it. If I had known, I would have let her read more books and increase her knowledge, perhaps she would be a talented scholar too!”
Pei Yan could not help but recall the way Yu Tang munched on the pig’s trotters.
Even if she read more books, I’m afraid she would not change that much either…
He pursed his lips inwardly but did not show it as he said, “I thought you were the one who taught her all of this, but now that I heard you say this, she seemed to be born talented.”
“Exactly!” Yu Wen sighed, “If only she were a son, then I really wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.”
Only then did Pei Yan divert the topic to Yu Tang’s marriage. “I find that Li Jun is a good marriage partner, so why didn’t your family consider him at all? Although recruiting a son-in-law is a good option, but I see that your nephew is also an honest and sincere person, so he should be able to fully take over the business and support both families, right?”
He was implying that since the Yu family loves their daughter so much, they should make their daughter’s lifelong happiness their priority, instead of arbitrarily deciding to pick a son-in-law or to marry her out. This was indeed Yu Wen’s plan. Speaking of this, he poured out his worries to Pei Yan.
“Her mother and I did have such an intention.” He said, “My daughter didn’t have to stay at home to manage our family affairs either.”
He continued, “The Li family came before the Wei family to ask her hand in marriage, but our daughter refused, saying no matter how good Li Jun was, no husband would go against his mother for the sake of his wife, and that Mrs. Li, was a difficult person to live with. My wife carefully inquired of this as our daughter’s words were reasonable. Right at this time, Supervisor Tong suggested the Wei family as a choice. We didn’t know what to expect, so we just went along with it. Who knew that after just a few exchanges, both parties were extremely pleased with the marriage and the matter was thus settled ….. Never did we expect that this in turn would harm the child Xiaoshan. This incident deeply saddened my daughter, and by chance she found some suspicious points, which made her start investigating. This was also the reason no matter how hard it was, she was unwilling to give up.”
In Lady Yu’s eyes, she found the deceased Wei Xiaoshan to be more appealing than Li Jun?
Pei Yan thought of the way Yu Tang enticed Li Jun at Zhao Ming Temple …… was Wei Xiaoshan more handsome?
He tried hard to recall the appearance of Master Wei and Wei Xiao Yuan.
But they didn’t seem all that exceptional …..
Then was his character outstanding? Or was it just more towards her liking than Li Jun?
Pei Yan became curious about Wei Xiaoshan.
He said, “So you’re saying that Lady Yu only objected to marriage to the Li family, and it was never about the issue of recruiting a son-in-law?”
Because Mrs. Li was not only Li Jun’s mother but was also Li Duan’s mother. Yu Wen nodded and did not hide anything. “She just did not want to marry the Li family.”
Pei Yan thought of how Li Duan looked at Yu Tang with a burning passion, and his forehead sweated.
It seemed that Li Duan’s affections for Lady Yu went unreciprocated.
He then asked, “Regarding Lady Yu’s marriage, are you going to let her make her own decision?”
Even if Yu Wen indeed thought so, he wouldn’t dare to admit it!
If they admitted, what would people say about their family if it were to be known that his daughter’s marriage was decided by herself?
“The main things is that we have only a few people in the Yu family.” Yu Wen said tactfully, “Be it my eldest brother or me, we all want our children to lead a good life. Marriage is a bond of union, and not a rope that restricts and breeds hatred. If both children can live happily with one another, its union will be sweeter than a forced marriage. Don’t you think so?”
Pei Yan didn’t feel the same.
Didn’t his father think of the same thing at the very beginning as well? Take for example his eldest brother and second brother’s marriage, both of which had met their significant other and their respectve families beforehand. However, the result ended up being that his eldest brother and his sister-in-law were very loving towards each other, yet their Pei family and the Yang family in laws were like enemies even now.
Clearly it was subjective.
So why did Lady Yu target Li Duan?
Listening to Yu Wen, Lady Yu seem to understand Li Duan’s character very well.
Pei Yan felt vexed if he didn’t clear things up today.
He said, “If Wei Xiaoshan was still alive, then you wouldn’t have to worry so much about her marriage.”
“Exactly!” Yu Wen felt that he couldn’t hide Yu Yuan’s marriage for much longer anyway, so he said, “The Wei family is really a rare and generous family.” He told Pei Yan what happened after Wei Xiaoshan’s death and said, “This is also because our two families are fated to be tied by marriage. When the time comes, we will also be inviting third master Pei to share in a celebratory cup of wedding wine.”
Pei Yan stilled.
The Yu family really liked the Wei family, even if they couldn’t be in-laws through the daughter, they found a way to be tied through the son.
However, there was no such thing as a perfect, harmonious match.
Perhaps it was due to Wei Xiaoshan’s death, that everyone had a favorable impression of both families.
If Wei Xiaoshan was still around, the Wei family and the Yu family might have quarreled over the dowry for the wedding, and cause a rift.
Pei Yan scoffed at the Yu family in his heart and said somewhat perfunctorily, “I will go to congratulate them when the time comes.”
At that time, Pei Yan had not yet come out of mourning, so how could he possibly go to the wedding reception?
Yu Wen knew that Pei Yan was only being polite, but when he replied so readily, he was still very happy and had a better impression of Pei Yan, so he spoke even less defensively and continued on about Yu Tang’s marriage: “If Master Pei knows anyone suitable, we would be delighted if you can introduce them to us as well.”
Yu Wen was afraid that after today’s incident, settling Yu Tang’s marriage would be more difficult.
Supervisor Tong was only an ordinary steward of the Pei family and he already knew such a good family as the Wei family. Therefore, with the Pei family’s third master’s connections, he must know even more good families.
“As long as the child is good, we aren’t that particular if it’s a marriage into our family or marrying her out.” He emphasized.
Pei Yan’s jaw dropped.
Countless people have asked him for favors before, but this was the first time he was asked to be a matchmaker.
Pei Yan looked at Yu Wen carefully.
Surely, he didn’t really mean for him to be a matchmaker for Lady Yu, did he?
However, this was indeed Yu Wen’s intention, therefore he quickly shared with PeiYan their family’s background, thinking that it would help PeiYan find a suitable match for YuTang.
He lamented, “Our family originally had a good inheritance, but it was all my fault. I was fooled by my supposedly good friend, and lost our savings.”
Yu Wen told Pei Yan about the fake painting he bought as well.
“Wait!” Pei Yan listened for a while, and once he came back to his senses, he couldn’t help but interrupt Yu Wen’s rambling, “You mean, you bought a fake painting and Lady Yu helped you clean up the mess?!”
What do you mean by ‘mess’!
Yu Wen was a little dissatisfied with Pei Yan’s choice of words, but in order to show Pei Yan some respect, he did not show his displeasure, but said patiently, “It’s not a mess, it’s only because I didn’t notice it and was deceived by my friend ……”
Wasn’t that clearly a huge mess?!
Pei Yan ignored Yu Wen’s act of justification. his eyes were unable to hide his shock, as he continued “So, if Lady Yu hadn’t recovered the silver at that time, all the silver for your wife’s medical treatment and medicine would have been gone?”
Being so bluntly put in the spot by Pei Yan, and thinking of the situation at that time, Yu Wen blushed in embarrassment and said, “That’s not exactly true.. It’s just that my family would have a hard time……”
He had really misunderstood Lady Yu.
Thinking that she had gone to the pawnshop to earn some quick money.
No, the events haven’t changed, Lady Yu did go to pawn the painting. However, going to a pawnshop for personal wants and having to go to a pawnshop to save her mother’s life were two different things.
Pei Yan thought of his chance encounter with Yu Tong on Changxing Street.
And what he had said when he scolded Yu Tang.
It was indeed a bit too harsh to speak those words to a young girl.
Pei Yan could not stay still in his seat any longer.
He straightened his back and drank another cup of tea, but the uneasiness in his heart not only did not disappear, but intensified.
Especially when he thought of the fact that Yu Tang had never once explained her actions to him from the beginning to the end, nor had she ever complained.
He forgot, however, that it wasn’t that Yu Tang didn’t try to explain to him or complain, it was just that even before she could open her mouth to speak, his face would grow cold and Yu Tang did not have the chance.
Chapter 71 – Message
Yu Wen, who was sitting in the hall, did not know about the happenings in the drawing room.
He answered Pei Yan openly and honestly. “…..it was all my daughter’s plan. Originally, I refused, as | was afraid my daughter would be criticized, but she vehemently insisted. She said in recruiting a son-in-law, if we did not show our strength, we will only be bullied by our son-in-law. I then discussed with her eldest uncle for a day and realized she had a point. Moreover, my brother and I could not produce a better idea than hers. This matter was thus settled.”
He was afraid that his daughter’s assertiveness would cause Pei Yan to have a negative impression of her. In the future, when his daughter becomes the head of the family, Pei Yan may not be willing to help their family in times of trouble. He hurriedly continued, explaining, “Although she acted a bit impetuous and willful today and seemed to be stirring up trouble, she is not usually like this. She is lively and cheerful and also very considerate and attentive. Otherwise, my wife and I would not have been so firm in our decision to keep her in our house and not marry her out. Her actions today were deliberate as she wanted Li Duan take the bait.”
Pei Yan nodded his head, but in his heart, it was in a mess.
So, all of this was really Lady Yu’s idea.
His intuition was right!
Such boldness and fierceness.
An average male would not have had half the amount of courage she had.
However, her father and cousin were still too indulgent with her, such a serious matter and they allowed her to do whatever she wanted.
If Li Duan were a little smarter and Li Jun a little more cunning, the Yu family would not have even gotten half as much as they did today.
Did Lady Yu not think of the consequences if her strategy failed?
As Pei Yan thought of this, he could not help but look again at Yu Wen.
He looked like a typical Jiangnan scholar, well-kept, refined and with a touch of carefreeness. At a glance, he looked like those people who disliked handling the common household affairs and only know how to enjoy themselves all day, yet he doted on his daughter to the extent of indulging her every whim.
Perhaps, it was precisely this reason that caused Lady Yu to develop such a fearless approach to life?
Usually, families whose parents were weak-willed would have strong and capable children.
Pei Yan could not help but remark, “Lady Yu, did she not think about the potential ramifications if the Li family did not take the bait?”
Yu Wen could not let Pei Yan doubt his daughter – every day that their Yu family was in Lin’an City, no, even if they were not in Lin’an City, they and the Pei family still needed to be on good, neighborly terms with the Pei family. Just like in Hangzhou City, when Yu Tang had a stomach upset in the middle of the night, if it wasn’t not for the Pei family’s third master’s name card, how would they have gotten the imperial physician to visit them?
This is the kind of friendship that cannot be forsaken!
“Of course, we did.” He said immediately, “However, according to my daughter, knowing Li Duan’s character, he will definitely fall for it. She also said that everyone has a weak spot and have something they desire the most, so as long as we can find the right thing to reel them in, they will be caught.” Speaking of this, as he recalled the words used by Yu Tang to describe Li Duan, the corners of his mouth curved upwards, and he smiled, “My daughter had always been a naughty child, so I treated her like an naïve little girl all this well. However, unexpectedly, when such things occurred, she was the one who stood forward and took the lead. Clearly, I lack enough concern over her, and she had grown up even before I knew it. If I had known, I would have let her read more books and increase her knowledge, perhaps she would be a talented scholar too!”
Pei Yan could not help but recall the way Yu Tang munched on the pig’s trotters.
Even if she read more books, I’m afraid she would not change that much either…
He pursed his lips inwardly but did not show it as he said, “I thought you were the one who taught her all of this, but now that I heard you say this, she seemed to be born talented.”
“Exactly!” Yu Wen sighed, “If only she were a son, then I really wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.”
Only then did Pei Yan divert the topic to Yu Tang’s marriage. “I find that Li Jun is a good marriage partner, so why didn’t your family consider him at all? Although recruiting a son-in-law is a good option, but I see that your nephew is also an honest and sincere person, so he should be able to fully take over the business and support both families, right?”
He was implying that since the Yu family loves their daughter so much, they should make their daughter’s lifelong happiness their priority, instead of arbitrarily deciding to pick a son-in-law or to marry her out. This was indeed Yu Wen’s plan. Speaking of this, he poured out his worries to Pei Yan.
“Her mother and I did have such an intention.” He said, “My daughter didn’t have to stay at home to manage our family affairs either.”
He continued, “The Li family came before the Wei family to ask her hand in marriage, but our daughter refused, saying no matter how good Li Jun was, no husband would go against his mother for the sake of his wife, and that Mrs. Li, was a difficult person to live with. My wife carefully inquired of this as our daughter’s words were reasonable. Right at this time, Supervisor Tong suggested the Wei family as a choice. We didn’t know what to expect, so we just went along with it. Who knew that after just a few exchanges, both parties were extremely pleased with the marriage and the matter was thus settled ….. Never did we expect that this in turn would harm the child Xiaoshan. This incident deeply saddened my daughter, and by chance she found some suspicious points, which made her start investigating. This was also the reason no matter how hard it was, she was unwilling to give up.”
In Lady Yu’s eyes, she found the deceased Wei Xiaoshan to be more appealing than Li Jun?
Pei Yan thought of the way Yu Tang enticed Li Jun at Zhao Ming Temple …… was Wei Xiaoshan more handsome?
He tried hard to recall the appearance of Master Wei and Wei Xiao Yuan.
But they didn’t seem all that exceptional …..
Then was his character outstanding? Or was it just more towards her liking than Li Jun?
Pei Yan became curious about Wei Xiaoshan.
He said, “So you’re saying that Lady Yu only objected to marriage to the Li family, and it was never about the issue of recruiting a son-in-law?”
Because Mrs. Li was not only Li Jun’s mother but was also Li Duan’s mother. Yu Wen nodded and did not hide anything. “She just did not want to marry the Li family.”
Pei Yan thought of how Li Duan looked at Yu Tang with a burning passion, and his forehead sweated.
It seemed that Li Duan’s affections for Lady Yu went unreciprocated.
He then asked, “Regarding Lady Yu’s marriage, are you going to let her make her own decision?”
Even if Yu Wen indeed thought so, he wouldn’t dare to admit it!
If they admitted, what would people say about their family if it were to be known that his daughter’s marriage was decided by herself?
“The main things is that we have only a few people in the Yu family.” Yu Wen said tactfully, “Be it my eldest brother or me, we all want our children to lead a good life. Marriage is a bond of union, and not a rope that restricts and breeds hatred. If both children can live happily with one another, its union will be sweeter than a forced marriage. Don’t you think so?”
Pei Yan didn’t feel the same.
Didn’t his father think of the same thing at the very beginning as well? Take for example his eldest brother and second brother’s marriage, both of which had met their significant other and their respectve families beforehand. However, the result ended up being that his eldest brother and his sister-in-law were very loving towards each other, yet their Pei family and the Yang family in laws were like enemies even now.
Clearly it was subjective.
So why did Lady Yu target Li Duan?
Listening to Yu Wen, Lady Yu seem to understand Li Duan’s character very well.
Pei Yan felt vexed if he didn’t clear things up today.
He said, “If Wei Xiaoshan was still alive, then you wouldn’t have to worry so much about her marriage.”
“Exactly!” Yu Wen felt that he couldn’t hide Yu Yuan’s marriage for much longer anyway, so he said, “The Wei family is really a rare and generous family.” He told Pei Yan what happened after Wei Xiaoshan’s death and said, “This is also because our two families are fated to be tied by marriage. When the time comes, we will also be inviting third master Pei to share in a celebratory cup of wedding wine.”
Pei Yan stilled.
The Yu family really liked the Wei family, even if they couldn’t be in-laws through the daughter, they found a way to be tied through the son.
However, there was no such thing as a perfect, harmonious match.
Perhaps it was due to Wei Xiaoshan’s death, that everyone had a favorable impression of both families.
If Wei Xiaoshan was still around, the Wei family and the Yu family might have quarreled over the dowry for the wedding, and cause a rift.
Pei Yan scoffed at the Yu family in his heart and said somewhat perfunctorily, “I will go to congratulate them when the time comes.”
At that time, Pei Yan had not yet come out of mourning, so how could he possibly go to the wedding reception?
Yu Wen knew that Pei Yan was only being polite, but when he replied so readily, he was still very happy and had a better impression of Pei Yan, so he spoke even less defensively and continued on about Yu Tang’s marriage: “If Master Pei knows anyone suitable, we would be delighted if you can introduce them to us as well.”
Yu Wen was afraid that after today’s incident, settling Yu Tang’s marriage would be more difficult.
Supervisor Tong was only an ordinary steward of the Pei family and he already knew such a good family as the Wei family. Therefore, with the Pei family’s third master’s connections, he must know even more good families.
“As long as the child is good, we aren’t that particular if it’s a marriage into our family or marrying her out.” He emphasized.
Pei Yan’s jaw dropped.
Countless people have asked him for favors before, but this was the first time he was asked to be a matchmaker.
Pei Yan looked at Yu Wen carefully.
Surely, he didn’t really mean for him to be a matchmaker for Lady Yu, did he?
However, this was indeed Yu Wen’s intention, therefore he quickly shared with PeiYan their family’s background, thinking that it would help PeiYan find a suitable match for YuTang.
He lamented, “Our family originally had a good inheritance, but it was all my fault. I was fooled by my supposedly good friend, and lost our savings.”
Yu Wen told Pei Yan about the fake painting he bought as well.
“Wait!” Pei Yan listened for a while, and once he came back to his senses, he couldn’t help but interrupt Yu Wen’s rambling, “You mean, you bought a fake painting and Lady Yu helped you clean up the mess?!”
What do you mean by ‘mess’!
Yu Wen was a little dissatisfied with Pei Yan’s choice of words, but in order to show Pei Yan some respect, he did not show his displeasure, but said patiently, “It’s not a mess, it’s only because I didn’t notice it and was deceived by my friend ……”
Wasn’t that clearly a huge mess?!
Pei Yan ignored Yu Wen’s act of justification. his eyes were unable to hide his shock, as he continued “So, if Lady Yu hadn’t recovered the silver at that time, all the silver for your wife’s medical treatment and medicine would have been gone?”
Being so bluntly put in the spot by Pei Yan, and thinking of the situation at that time, Yu Wen blushed in embarrassment and said, “That’s not exactly true.. It’s just that my family would have a hard time……”
He had really misunderstood Lady Yu.
Thinking that she had gone to the pawnshop to earn some quick money.
No, the events haven’t changed, Lady Yu did go to pawn the painting. However, going to a pawnshop for personal wants and having to go to a pawnshop to save her mother’s life were two different things.
Pei Yan thought of his chance encounter with Yu Tong on Changxing Street.
And what he had said when he scolded Yu Tang.
It was indeed a bit too harsh to speak those words to a young girl.
Pei Yan could not stay still in his seat any longer.
He straightened his back and drank another cup of tea, but the uneasiness in his heart not only did not disappear, but intensified.
Especially when he thought of the fact that Yu Tang had never once explained her actions to him from the beginning to the end, nor had she ever complained.
He forgot, however, that it wasn’t that Yu Tang didn’t try to explain to him or complain, it was just that even before she could open her mouth to speak, his face would grow cold and Yu Tang did not have the chance.
