This time, the matchmaker was a plump woman in her forties.
When Ye Yong and Xiu Xiu got married last time, she was the one they hired for the engagement and wedding procession.
"Please sit down," said Grandma Ye with a smile as she served tea.
The matchmaker looked around the courtyard and showered it with praise: "This is my first time here. Everyone says Sister Ye is very capable, and I thought it was an exaggeration, but now that I see for myself, I know the rumors are true!"
Grandma Ye smiled so much her eyes crinkled at the praise.
Old Mrs. Ye knew that the matchmaker was after Ye Caiping; otherwise, she would have gone directly to Mrs. Du or Mrs. Wei.
Although she knew her daughter wasn't particularly interested in getting married, it wasn't right to turn away the matchmaker when she came to the door.
She still has several grandchildren who are not yet engaged.
The matchmaker said, "Auntie, let me tell you, I have a good family to marry into, and I'm going to arrange it for Caiping."
Grandma Ye waved her hand: "It's no use talking to me about this; she has to agree herself. Oh, you're back."
Grandma Ye heard the sound of an oxcart.
A short while later, Ye Caiping and Ye Daquan, a married couple, entered through the side door and went straight to the inner hall.
“Mother, the matchmaker is here too.” Ye Caiping sat down gracefully next to Old Madam Ye.
The matchmaker looked at Ye Caiping and couldn't help but smile broadly:
"Your sister is more and more beautiful the more I look at her. When she was a young girl, she was a beauty in the surrounding villages. I saw her a few years ago and she looked a little haggard, but today I see that she has recovered."
"Now that she's changed her outfit and has great skin, while others look like they're in their early twenties, she looks like she's in her thirties."
Grandma Ye and Ye Daquan looked proud.
Ye Daquan said, "There are no ugly people in our Ye family. My little sister is the prettiest one in the family."
That's the truth. After being fed good rice and meat for the past six months, their complexions have improved, and even the Ye brothers have become more handsome, not to mention the younger ones like Ye Xuan and Jin Hua.
Du said, "The matchmaker has come today to arrange a marriage for my younger sister, right?"
The matchmaker glanced at Ye Caiping, who was calmly eating sunflower seeds, and without further ado, spoke directly:
"Yes, yes. It's time for the girl to find a man to take charge of the household."
Ye Caiping smiled and asked, "Tell me, what kind of family do you think they are?"
The matchmaker got even more excited: "He's a scholar from Daliu Village. He's twenty-seven years old, a few years younger than you. As the saying goes, 'A woman three years older than you is like holding a gold brick,' hahaha, it's a good match."
Ye Caiping: "You're twenty-seven and still unmarried?"
"You've been married once before, haven't you? His first wife passed away from illness four or five years ago, leaving behind a son and a daughter. They're only eight or nine years old. They're young, so there's no need to worry."
"Now that he's a student of the Imperial Academy, you'll be a ready-made scholar's wife once you marry him!"
Ye Caiping nodded: "Oh, I see, he wants to be a kept man."
The matchmaker exclaimed, "No, no, no, that's not it at all. He wants to find a kind and caring wife to spend the rest of his life with."
Ye Caiping chuckled: "His wife has been gone for four or five years. Why did he only think of looking for someone now? There are countless good women in this area, and plenty of them are unmarried. He is, after all, a scholar who has never been married. It's not unreasonable for him to find someone who has never been married."
The matchmaker was speechless for a moment before laughing and saying, "Isn't it because I've taken a liking to you? I think you're good."
"Me? What does he see in me? I don't know him, I've never even met him, what does he see in me?"
"Your goodness...isn't everyone aware of it? You're smart and capable."
"So what I just said wasn't wrong either. I'm capable and can make money. He just wants to be a kept man, doesn't he?"
The matchmaker nearly fainted: "No, no, that's not what I meant. It's not that I'm attracted to your talent, it's just that you're good-looking!"
Ye Caiping nodded: "So it's because you're attracted to her looks?"
Matchmaker: "..."
Ye Caiping: "Matchmaker, why aren't you saying anything? Does he mean he's after both beauty and a freeloader?"
The matchmaker's smile was strained. She said she liked her because she was capable, which meant she wanted to be a kept woman! She said she liked her because she was good-looking, which meant she was lustful.
After thinking for a while, the matchmaker forced a smile again: "No, that's not it. Everyone in the entire Big Tree Town knows your name; they think you have a good reputation!"
Ye Caiping covered her mouth in surprise: "Oh, he's after my reputation for beating up my mother-in-law?"
Matchmaker: "..."
After a long pause, the matchmaker finally said, "Girl, if you keep chatting like this, you'll easily lose all your friends."
Ye Caiping laughed: "Matchmaker, if you keep arranging marriages like this, you'll easily lose all your business."
Seeing Ye Caiping's ambiguous smile, the matchmaker's chubby face turned bright red.
Having been a matchmaker for so many years, she could easily see through what Liu Tongsheng was after.
But she felt that Ye Caiping liked the pale-faced scholar Li Zhiyuan, so she decided to give it a try.
Ye Daquan slammed his fist on the table in anger, “Look at the rubbish you’ve introduced! There are so many girls in this town, who else would pick my little sister? Is my little sister even that close to him?”
"She's never even seen this before. If she really wanted someone who cared about her, she would have found someone long ago. The fact that she's dragging it out until now just means she wants to find someone rich to live off. So she can support her whole family. What, does my little sister look like a victim of injustice?"
Du: "What is a great victim?"
Ye Daquan: "Don't interrupt, I'm in the middle of a tirade! I hate these kinds of lowlifes the most. Isn't it enough that he already has Li Zhiyuan? He wants a second one too? Pah!"
The matchmaker, having been spat on in the face, hurriedly stood up: "Sorry, sorry, so you don't like scholars... Well, since it's not suitable, I'll go back now."
After saying that, he slunk away.
Ye Daquan, hands on his hips, continued to berate Ye Daquan angrily: "My little sister will never marry a scholar again. None of those scholars are good; they're all heartless beasts!"
"Stop!" Du pulled him back. "Your son is a scholar too, and you're even scolding him."
“Xuan’er is different. All other scholars are beasts.”
Grandma Ye leaned back in her chair, annoyed. "I thought this matchmaker was a good one..."
Ye Caiping said, "I'll do anything for money."
Grandma Ye sighed softly, "Speaking of which, that matchmaker Huang was more reliable. Although she introduced you to a butcher the first time, your reputation wasn't good back then. She spoke ill of him regardless of who he was, good or bad."
Yang Xiaoyan brought in tea: "Didn't you say that my second cousin was going home for lunch? Uncle and Aunt, you both went home first, so how will he come back for lunch?"
Ye Daquan said, "After school, he would wait at the oxcart parking area. If he happened to run into Erquan delivering goods, he would go back with him. If he didn't run into him, he would take another oxcart back."
Ye Caiping looked at Yang Xiaoyan and said, "By the way, I'm planning to send Jin'er and the others to Master Shen's place to learn things the day after tomorrow. Xiaoyan, would you like to come along?"
Yang Xiaoyan was taken aback: "What are you studying?"
"There is no need to pay tuition for things like playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, and social skills."
Yang Xiaoyan shook her head: "It's useless for me to learn this. I'd rather stay here and help my great-grandmother!"
She couldn't understand what the bird-like language was, and now she just wanted to save more money so that she and her mother could have a good future after her mother left the Yang family.
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