Chapter 46 Breaking off the Engagement
It was impossible for Chunxi to give up her position as an official wife and become Wei Lingze's mistress. Wang hesitated for a long time, but finally took out the five hundred taels of silver.
Chunxi reached out to take it, but Wang Shi asked persistently, "Are you sure Lord Shen can really protect you?"
She was still afraid that Wei Lingze would retaliate.
Chunxi was too lazy to comfort her, so she just took the banknotes and went to find Zhang the matchmaker with Cao Wu.
Matchmaker Zhang arranged two marriages for Chunxi. The first one ended in unpleasantness because of the betrothal gift, and this time she even ran away from the marriage!
When she saw Chunxi again, Matchmaker Zhang's face became very long, and she picked up the rice washing water at hand and splashed it on the two of them.
Chunxi and Cao Wu dodged quickly, but they were still splashed with mud.
"What are you doing? Didn't you see anyone coming?"
Cao Wu roared in anger. Matchmaker Zhang put her hands on her hips and sneered, "Oh, it really is you guys. I thought I was still asleep and my eyes were blurry. Aren't you planning to run away from the marriage? Why are you still coming to my place?"
Chunxi held Cao Wu, stepped forward and said, "Don't be angry, auntie. I'm here to explain this matter today."
"What's there to explain? You're a 19-year-old maid, and you've been serving the Wei family's eldest young master for three years. It's already good enough that someone is willing to marry you. Mr. Liu is rich and handsome, but you've done something like running away from your marriage. No one in Hanjing dares to mediate for you. You should just find a temple and become a nun."
Matchmaker Zhang was furious and put her hands on her hips and cursed. When the neighbors heard the noise, they all crowded to the door to watch.
Cao Wu's fists clenched until they made a crackling sound, and he glared at Matchmaker Zhang fiercely. Matchmaker Zhang's husband and son were at home, but she wasn't afraid at all. She even scolded Cao Wu, saying, "Why are you glaring at me? Are you going to hit me too? What's the point of showing off here? If you have the guts, go find a powerful and suitable husband for your sister."
These words touched Cao Wu's heart, and his eyes immediately turned red.
He really has no ability, otherwise Ah Xi would not have sold herself into slavery, and it would not be so difficult to find a marriage partner now.
Cao Wu fell into self-blame and completely lost his fighting ability.
Chunxi sighed secretly.
Brother, if someone scolds you, you have to scold back.
Chunxi patted Cao Wu's arm and then said loudly, "Aunt, I originally respected you and didn't want to say it so clearly, but with your attitude, you can't blame me."
Matchmaker Zhang raised her nose to the sky and said, "You are so arrogant, little girl. I want to hear what you have to say."
Chunxi turned around and looked at the people around him, and briefly told them about how he had asked Zhang the matchmaker to arrange a marriage for him, as well as the situation of the Zhou and Liu families.
Chunxi didn't hide or exaggerate. Matchmaker Zhang said bitterly, "Before, Zhou Qin insisted on breaking off the engagement and I couldn't persuade him. But I immediately found a good family like the Liu family to negotiate with you. Everyone knows about the Liu family's tung oil shop, and Mr. Liu is also a handsome man. What are you dissatisfied with that you have to run away from the engagement?"
Everyone was whispering, obviously on the side of Matchmaker Zhang.
Chunxi remained calm. She nodded and said, "Mr. Liu is indeed a very good man, but he's going to Qingzhou to get married in order to bring good luck to Grandmother. He might even have to stay there for a few years. I felt something was wrong from the beginning and didn't agree to meet him, right, Auntie?"
"You didn't agree, but two days later your mother agreed."
Marriage has always been a matter of parents' orders and matchmaker's words. Since Wang agreed, Chunxi had no right to refuse.
Matchmaker Zhang was still very confident. Chunxi nodded and said, "My mother did agree, and I couldn't persuade her. I wanted to accept my fate and follow Master Liu to Qingzhou, but I unexpectedly found out halfway that Master Liu only wanted to marry me to cover up his true intentions. The person he really liked was his family's coachman!"
"Impossible! You can't say such things casually, or you will be punished!"
Matchmaker Zhang objected loudly, both for the high amount of money the Liu family gave her as a thank you and for her own reputation.
If Young Master Liu is really a homosexual, then she will ruin Chunxi's life. Who will dare to ask her to be a matchmaker in the future?
Chunxi pretended to wipe away her tears. "I've always been timid. How could I dare to say anything that would damage Master Liu's reputation? If you don't believe me, you can ask someone to go to the Yu County government office and inquire. If they hadn't taken advantage of me sleeping soundly in the carriage and couldn't wait to run outside and do that, I wouldn't have been caught naked."
“…”!!!
Such a shocking news left everyone stunned.
No wonder the Liu family was willing to spend five hundred taels of gold to marry Chunxi. It turned out that it was because he was a homosexual and took advantage of his fiancée falling asleep to fool around with the coachman in the wild.
This... this is too explosive.
Chunxi told everyone about the county government office, and everyone immediately believed it about 80%.
So Chunxi didn't run away from her marriage, but came home because her fiancé and his lover were caught. And because this kind of thing was too difficult to talk about, she never said anything?
Seeing the situation change, Matchmaker Zhang's momentum suddenly weakened. She asked with a stern face, "If you are right, why didn't you say it earlier?"
Chunxi shook her head aggrievedly: "After all, the Liu family is rich. If this matter gets out of hand, I'm afraid of retaliation. Besides, I thought that since I had run away from the marriage, the Liu family would be willing to cancel the engagement and stop holding me back. I didn't expect that they would even hide it from my aunt."
Chunxi's last words pushed Matchmaker Zhang out. Matchmaker Zhang's expression softened a bit, but she still didn't believe it. She was about to ask her son to go to Yu County to find out what was going on when her eldest daughter-in-law came in in a panic: "Mom, this is bad!"
Matchmaker Zhang was already feeling annoyed. She frowned and yelled fiercely, "How many times have I told you not to panic? Why are you so impatient?"
The eldest daughter-in-law shrank her neck, took out a notice and handed it to Matchmaker Zhang.
The notice was crumpled, and when it was unfolded, Liu Fengyuan's face appeared in the eyes of Zhang the matchmaker.
This is a notice posted by the Yun County government office. The notice states that two men were arrested by the government officers because they were half-naked and behaved suspiciously. However, because they had no tokens to prove their identities, they were detained in the government office for several days and no family members came to look for them. So the only option was to post a notice and wait for their families to identify them and pay a fine to redeem them.
The notice certainly wouldn't say that Liu Fengyuan and the driver had done anything shameful, but the fact that they were two grown men, half naked, spoke volumes.
Matchmaker Zhang's face suddenly turned ugly.
Yu County is not far from Hanjing, and the news will be here soon.
In order to protect her reputation, Matchmaker Zhang made a quick decision.
She crumpled the notice into a ball and threw it on the ground, then stomped on it twice, saying viciously, "The Liu family is really too much of a deceiver. Don't worry, Chunxi girl. I'll take you to the Liu family to break off the engagement right now!"
Matchmaker Zhang called her entire family together, and then took Chunxi and Cao Wu and rushed to Liu's shop angrily.
Manager Liu was also surprised to learn that his son was imprisoned in the Yu County Government Office. He was about to call his servants to redeem his son when he saw Chunxi walking over behind Zhang the matchmaker and her family.
Shopkeeper Liu's eyelids twitched and he felt a little toothache.
He hasn't caused any trouble in the past two days, why is this girl here again?
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