“Is Aunt Gan home?”
“Aunt Gan!”
Just as he was pounding on the courtyard gate and calling for someone, Zhang Fangyuan saw a woman returning from outside, a conspicuous silk flower pinned in her hair.
The woman he called Aunt Gan was known by everyone else as Matchmaker Gan. Zhang Fangyuan’s father and the woman’s husband were distant maternal cousins, so they were considered to have a little kinship.
“Fangyuan, why did you come over? The Xu family is slaughtering their New Year pig today. Didn’t you go?”
Seeing the sturdy, thick, powerful palm pounding on her courtyard gate so hard that it seemed the entire gate might topple inward into the yard, Matchmaker Gan hurriedly called out to him.
Inwardly, she could not help cursing her own husband.
That damned man was lying around at home and could not even be bothered to come open the door.
“I came back after eating. Besides, the Xu family is nearby, so I thought I’d drop by and see you, Aunt Gan. Did you just get back?”
Matchmaker Gan had not expected this nephew of hers to come and make conversation with her today. His father had been an honest man, too, but he had died young, leaving behind only this one son. It was rather pitiful.
“Yesterday, Madam Wang at the head of the village asked me to find a girl for her eldest son. I didn’t even go to the Xu family to have their pig-slaughtering soup. I hurried over to take care of her business.”
Zhang Fangyuan said, “For matters like these in our village, there’s no one more suitable to handle them than you, Aunt.”
“Oh my, you boy, your mouth is especially sweet today.”
“Your nephew has something he’d like to trouble Aunt with.”
Matchmaker Gan immediately understood. “You finally got anxious about this matter. The last couple of years, I tried talking to you about it, but you weren’t willing. Now you’ve gotten tired of drinking and having fun in town, and you think it would be more comfortable to marry a wife and raise a child, don’t you?”
Zhang Fangyuan laughed. “I’m not young anymore in the village. Just now, I saw people younger than me at the feast already holding babies. How could I not be anxious?”
Matchmaker Gan smiled knowingly. People in the matchmaking business were naturally curious and enthusiastic about gossip. When someone came to ask her for help of their own accord, she was naturally enthusiastic.
However…
Matchmaker Gan looked Zhang Fangyuan up and down.
He was an outstanding-looking man and had a skill to make a living. Normally, he should have been one of the easiest men to arrange a marriage for. It was just that his character and reputation made things rather difficult.
She did not agree too readily.
“If Aunt comes across someone suitable, I’ll call you over to meet her.”
Zhang Fangyuan sincerely wanted her help. He took the two jin of meat hanging from his fingers and transferred it into Matchmaker Gan’s hands.
“Please put some thought into it, Aunt.”
What village woman could see such a large piece of meat being handed to her for free and not feel tempted?
Matchmaker Gan verbally tried to refuse, but her hands moved extremely quickly. She happily took the meat, and her tone immediately became much warmer.
“You’re too polite, nephew. Tell Aunt properly what kind you like.”
Zhang Fangyuan thought about it.
“As long as she’s not like Xu Shaochun, anything will do.”
Matchmaker Gan’s eyes widened as she looked at Zhang Fangyuan.
“Which unmarried man in the village doesn’t want to marry the Xu family’s second daughter? Did you say that backward?”
“Your nephew couldn’t afford to raise a woman like the Xu family’s second daughter.” Zhang Fangyuan grinned.
Hearing this, Matchmaker Gan looked at him with newfound approval.
“You silly boy, you actually see things clearly. That saves me some trouble, too.”
“In any case, I’m not picky. As long as she can live a proper life with me, that’s enough.”
“Got it. Aunt will compare the marriageable girls and ge’ers I have on hand, go to their families and sound them out. If there’s anyone who seems promising, I’ll come find you.”
Seeing that the most famous matchmaker for miles around had agreed, Zhang Fangyuan felt much more at ease.
“Good. Your nephew will wait for your good news.”
After Matchmaker Gan saw Zhang Fangyuan off, she weighed the meat in her hand.
This was great. She could save the trouble of buying pork for the New Year.
She opened the courtyard gate, and her husband came out of the house.
“You dare agree to anyone’s business. What if things don’t work out and he comes causing trouble? Won’t our neighbors get a good show?”
“Zhang Fangyuan has two good hands and two good feet. Why wouldn’t he be able to find himself a wife?”
Her husband snorted.
“How many days a month is he even in the village? When he comes back, he’s like a drunkard. Who knows whether he’ll get drunk and start beating people? Didn’t his own mother get beaten by his father when he was drunk? What family would be willing to let their daughter or ge’er be mistreated by him?”
Matchmaker Gan, however, said, “He’s not the only man in the village who’s no good. That Zhou San, who walks with a limp and is ugly to boot, didn’t he still manage to find himself a ge’er?”
Her husband scoffed.
“You should see how much money the Zhou family spent to marry that person. Ten taels! They emptied their entire household savings and still had to borrow from here and there to gather it all. In a year of famine, that would be enough to buy a wife. Can Zhang Fangyuan come up with that much money?”
“How do you know the Zhang family didn’t leave Zhang Fangyuan money to marry a wife? The Zhang family used to be quite well-off, too, and his uncles are all among the better-off families in the village.”
Her words were not false, but Matchmaker Gan was somewhat lacking in confidence as she said them.
Even if the Zhang family had some wealth, it could not withstand Zhang Fangyuan’s spending and squandering. His reputation was terrible now, and there was no way Zhang Fangyuan’s uncles would want to manage him.
Besides, when other families came asking her to arrange marriages, they would bring at most a basket of eggs or several pieces of pastry wrapped in a handkerchief. Who would give such a substantial gift before the matter was even settled?
Even the village chief’s family would not be this generous.
Ultimately, it was because this bachelor did not know how to live within his means. Yet, the fact that he had given away so much also showed how sincere he was about finding a wife. He really wanted someone to keep him in line.
But then she thought about Zhang Fangyuan’s domineering nature and fierce appearance.
Even if he brought a wife home, could a young wife really control him?
She withdrew from her thoughts and instead lifted the pork in her hand, trying to regain some dignity in front of her husband.
“Look. Zhang Fangyuan gave this to me.”
When her husband saw the streaky pork, he instinctively swallowed.
He pursed his lips, but when faced with the undeniable appeal of meat, he ultimately stopped arguing.
Zhang Fangyuan still had no idea that his prospects on the marriage market were already so poor.
Humming a popular little tune from town, he happily returned home.
He did not know how many days he had previously spent fooling around in town, but the kitchen at home had already gathered a layer of dust.
It was cold anyway, so he simply lit a fire and boiled a large pot of water. That would both warm the house and give him hot water to wash the stove, pots, and bowls.
Having just finished handling his business, he could not help thinking that once the matchmaker brought back some news and he married a wife, someone would take care of the kitchen.
Then he could earn money outside, while his wife would not need to work too hard or do too many things. She would only need to keep the household neat and tidy. That way, when he came back from outside, he would not have to face cold pots and a cold stove and start a fire himself.
After placing two pieces of dry firewood into the stove, he passed through the central room and went into his bedroom.
There was a faint smell of liquor in the room.
The entire room was a complete mess. Clothes he had worn were simply hung wherever it was convenient to toss them. The moment he entered, he nearly tripped over a pair of trousers lying on the floor.
He did not know whether a cat had gotten into the room or whether he had been too drunk to notice anything. The charcoal brazier in the room had also been kicked over, lying upside down in the middle of the room, with extinguished charcoal and ashes scattered all over the floor.
Zhang Fangyuan was a rough, unsophisticated man. He was not good at managing household chores, nor did he have the same fondness for cleanliness as women and ge’ers. He had not paid much attention earlier, but seeing the state of things now, he still could not help feeling troubled.
He stepped over to the side of the bed and pushed aside the long wooden bench used as a footstool. He pried up two floor tiles and pulled a small solid-wood box out from underneath. Holding it in his arms, he blew away the layer of accumulated dust and hurriedly opened it.
Inside the box lay a few pieces of broken silver, along with a silver bracelet engraved with auspicious ruyi patterns and mandarin ducks.
There were five taels of broken silver, while the silver bracelet was worth about four taels.
In other words, aside from some loose change and various household items that could be sold for money, this was all the savings he had left.
His parents had both been hardworking people. They took on all kinds of difficult and exhausting work. Although they did not know much about managing a business, the couple had lived frugally and still managed to save quite a bit of money for him.
Zhang Fangyuan remembered that after his parents died, when this box containing the family’s belongings came into his hands, there had been a full twenty taels of silver inside.
After these past two years of living recklessly, he had managed to spend more than half a lifetime’s worth of his family’s savings, without even leaving behind anything worthwhile.
First, he had neither repaired nor expanded the house.
Second, he had bought no household furniture or belongings.
Third, he had neither married a wife nor had children.
Holding the box, he let out a faint sigh.
The bracelet absolutely could not be touched. It had been his mother’s dowry back then, and in the future it was meant to be given to his wife as part of her wedding gifts. It would not be handed over to her maiden family; it was simply meant to become jewelry for his wife.
This meant that the only money he could actually use was five taels.
For ordinary daily expenses, that was already a considerable sum. One had to know that among the better-off farming households, after paying taxes and corvée labor for the year, being able to have two thousand qian left over—that is, two taels of silver—already required a good harvest and a year without disasters.
As long as he stopped going into town to drink and have fun and slightly restrained his habit of spending lavishly, he actually would not need to spend much money.
But he had an important matter to deal with now, and he still did not know the going rate for betrothal gifts.
He absolutely could not borrow money from everyone just to marry someone and then make her suffer alongside him while they repaid the debt. That would be too humiliating. He could not bring himself to do that.
Besides, his reputation was poor now. His uncles and other relatives from the Zhang family did not like him. Who would lend him money? They would probably think he was making up an excuse to borrow money so he could go off drinking and having fun.
Even a dog would shake its head at his current situation.
With a snap, Zhang Fangyuan closed the box.
Money could not be accumulated simply by sitting on it. He still had to go out and earn it. He had perfectly good hands and feet. Surely he was not afraid he could not make money?
Once he had made up his mind, he thoroughly cleaned the house inside and out.
If it had been hot weather, he would even have wanted to use hot water to scrub every corner of the house. But it was winter now, the sky was gloomy, and the house would take a long time to dry. It would easily become damp and develop a musty smell, and mold could also grow.
The next day, after the sky had become fully bright, Zhang Fangyuan carried a large bamboo basket woven from bamboo strips on his back. Inside were some hunting tools, and in his hand he carried a long-handled sickle that had been sharpened to a keen edge.
He tied his trouser legs tightly with rope.
Contrary to his usual behavior, he did not head toward the main road at the village entrance in the direction of town. Instead, he followed a narrow winding path toward the mountains behind the village.
Before the snow came and while the weather was not yet too bitterly cold, he planned to go up the mountain and cut some firewood.
It could be used as firewood for the stove, and some could also be burned into fuel charcoal for use during the twelfth lunar month.
He also planned to set some traps on the mountain and see if he might get lucky enough to bring something home.
At this time of year, there were slightly more people going into the mountains than usual.
After the autumn harvest, the fields were mostly idle. At most, people could plant some seasonal vegetables. Crops could no longer be planted, so the farmers had some free time.
But although the fields could lie idle, people could not.
After all, they still needed to eat.
The villagers either picked vegetables from their fields and took them into town to sell, or looked for odd jobs to do. In any case, they could not simply sit around and wait to enjoy an easy life.
Ji Jiu Village was far from the county town. Going back and forth took several shichen, so carrying vegetables on a shoulder pole to sell in town was impractical. Very few people in the village went to sell vegetables.
As for odd jobs, there were plenty of laborers during the farming off-season. Not only were jobs difficult to find, but wages were also lower than usual.
Compared with these options, more people naturally went into the mountains.
Whether hunting, cutting firewood, or digging wild vegetables, there was always something to do.
Ji Jiu Village was surrounded by mountains on all sides, with mountain paths running everywhere. Thus, although even more people went into the mountains during winter to find ways of making a living, they did not necessarily encounter anyone.
Sometimes they were separated by the mountain forests and could only hear the distant sound of someone chopping firewood on the other side.
Zhang Fangyuan swung his long-handled sickle all the way up. Wild grass and vines covered in dew were chopped down by several strokes of his blade, falling to the roadside.
By the time he reached the mountain, he had already hacked out a clear mountain path.
After entering the mountains, he headed deeper into the wilderness.
He set up small animal traps, dug pits and placed iron-spike boards inside them…
These tools were the equipment of a skilled hunter. Iron was expensive, and ordinary households did not have such things.
Back then, in order to buy these pieces of iron equipment, he had exchanged all the meat and pig offal he earned from slaughtering animals for money. He had also bought damaged iron from villagers at low prices and taken it to the blacksmith shop in town to have it forged into these tools.
He had not saved a single coin back then. Every bit of money had gone into buying these things.
Perhaps he had simply been born with a strong physique, and consequently, the things he liked were also these cold, hard iron implements.
Other people’s treasures might be gold, silver, or money, but his were knives, sickles, traps, spike boards, iron chains, and things of that sort.
Fortunately, he had spent his money on buying these things back then.
If he had saved the money instead, he probably would have spent it all himself long ago.
At least these tools could keep him alive.
After setting up the traps, he marked each one clearly. This would make it easier to come back and collect them later, while also preventing villagers from accidentally stepping into the traps when they came into the mountains.
After doing all this, he left the deeper part of the mountain and went to cut firewood, so that he would not disturb the prey and cause them to come out looking for food.
He had been gone for less than two hours when a figure furtively approached and began lifting the traps he had marked to inspect them.