Lu Ming

Chapter 157
Yan Majin's three official matchmakers can be considered to have caught Mr. Huang today.Thinking about the hard work of following the order for half a year, and then calculating the many achievements after the success of this order, the three women couldn't help but gouged out their opponents at the same time.

After speaking, Master Huang entered the flower hall.Because there are female guests, there is an extra woman behind the master today.Seeing Mr. Huang coming in, the three wives hurriedly stood up and saluted. At this moment, their attention was focused on Mr. Huang in plain robes.

In the long career of the three women, there are really not many templates like Mr. Huang. This is also one of the biggest motivations for the three women to pursue the single Mr. Huang: the case is special, and there will be special achievements after winning it.

Before this, Huang Ping's details had been found out by the matchmaker circle: before Zhongju, he was a down-and-out scholar, lived in a monk's temple outside the city, and made a living by writing letters to others.Later, it was lifted overnight and the lintel was changed.

Here's the wonderful thing: Mr. Huang's hair growth is too violent.

Usually, for a successful candidate, the official book is 400 mu of tax-free land. After the successful selection, there are various types of income, but the cost is also not small.A dick like Huang Ping, without the backing of a rich family, and living in a high-consumption city like Hangzhou, is just a middle-class person at the beginning. Luxury cars and luxury houses can’t be achieved without a generation’s accumulation.

However, Master Huang did it.Ordinary Ming people are already accustomed to juren who get rich overnight, how about the Ming Dream?But matchmakers are different. It is a professional requirement to inquire about the inside story of the client's family, and they are well aware of the difference between them.

There are no parents-in-law to support, and there is a luxury house, a fragrant car, and a good job at home. This kind of diamond king will be robbed of his head in later generations.What Master Huang didn't know was that he had already been transferred to the highest rank by the wives, and his conditions were second only to those of the yamen of the big houses.

After Mr. Huang entered the flower hall and sat down, he ordered Mrs. Yan to do promotion first, and the other two went to the side hall to wait not too late.

This Mrs. Yan was about 30 years old, wearing a light red silk jacket and a green silk skirt, her face was covered with white powder, her lips were thick and her cheeks were fat, she looked like she was living by her mouth.After going up to see Li, Mrs. Yan was all smiles, and she opened her mouth to burst out a series of clichés, almost praising Mr. Huang as Ze Ju's rebirth, tearing the onion into his body.

Huang Zhicheng waved his hand with a wry smile, signaling Mrs. Yan to hurry up and get down to business, didn't you look at me tens of taels a second?

After seeing the master's signal, Yan Renjing stopped talking temporarily, reached out and took out a small "embroidered book" from his sleeve, and began to read it.

"Embroidery book" is a necessary information book for every official official media. It lists some customers' public information, and there is also a private note: this is a secret key, only I can understand it; Miss Zhang has body odor, Li If the master doesn't mention it, it's all internal information that cannot be made public.

Mrs. Yan began to promote Mr. Huang while flipping through her embroidery book; Mr. Huang listened while drinking tea.

It is very rare for Huang Ping to have no elders in his family to make decisions. The phrase "the order of the parents, the words of the matchmaker" is not a joke. Without the consent of the parents, it is a private marriage. Without the matchmaker procedure, it is adultery. This is more severe, so usually the matchmaker is more dragging. If you don't believe it, you can refer to the great book "gold**".

Of course, the matchmaker would definitely like Mr. Huang's situation. This man seems to be able to make decisions on the spot. He has a golden triangle style. When the elders are required to appear on the stage, it is estimated that one or two deaf and blind old men will come out to support the front .

In this way, Mrs. Yan kept promoting the ladies of various families, and Mr. Huang sat at the top and seemed to be listening, half an hour passed without knowing it, and the more Huang Zhicheng listened, the more irritable he became.

He knew that his qualifications were good, so the matchmaker would definitely choose some girls with similar qualifications to introduce to him at the beginning, but this meant binding their feet - those who did not bind their feet were a special case and would definitely not appear in the first wave of promotions.

What's even more frustrating is that during this process, he couldn't reveal the subjective desire of "I want to find a wife with big feet". Once the matchmaker spread the word, Master Huang would instantly become a laughing stock of scholars.

Everything had to happen naturally: the matchmaker introduced a girl with big feet, the matchmaker tried her best to cover it up, the matchmaker tried her best to praise the advantages of the girl's family in other aspects, Mr. Huang was deceived, and Mr. Huang was distracted by the matchmaker's superb language skills. force
It's called sociology - when society as a whole is so sick that bound feet are the standard of dignity, some people have to be careful not to be seen as different.

Yan Pozi finally failed.

After listening to Mrs. Yan's recommended candidates, Mr. Huang said politely: "Matchmaker Yan has worked hard, let me think about it." After that, he gave some rewards and sent them away.

Next was Mrs. Ma, someone who was beaming with joy and began to accept a new round of bombing.

Huang Zhicheng felt a little regretful at this time: he had neglected his duty before.If the marriage had been arranged two months earlier, there would be no need for such urgency now: Once I enter Xiong Wencan's shogunate as planned, what if the wedding date does not cooperate?If you go to Fuzhou later, what should you do if you delay the matter?
In short, due to some unforeseen reasons, the current embarrassing situation has been caused, and it may drag down the business.

"Oh, I was too complacent before, I have to find a way to make up for it." At this time, Master Huang was already out of his mind.

Unknowingly, the frothy matchmaker in front of him has been replaced by Mrs. Jin, and Huang Zhicheng has been suffering for a full hour and a half: "Let the housekeeper come and listen to it tomorrow!" Looking at the booklet in Mrs. Jin's hand, Huang Zhicheng almost turned to the end. Not easy to think of.

At this moment, a turning point appeared. In Huang Zhicheng's ears, he heard the keyword "foot wrap" for the first time today.

He coughed calmly, and a young servant brought a bucket of saliva to the side. Master Huang spat, wiped his mouth, then got up and went to the back to relax and sat for more than an hour, drinking tea and so on. Always allow the master to be convenient Bar.

After finishing the toilet, Huang Ping returned to the flower hall again, and wiped his face with a wet towel. At this moment, Master Huang seemed to be much more energetic: "Well, that family just now, you start from the beginning."

Mrs. Jin did not doubt that there was him, so she retold the story of the family that was interrupted just now.

The family's surname was Zhong, and they were not well-known in Hangzhou city, but they were undoubtedly gentry.Mr. Zhong's ancestors were the offshoots of Zhong Fang, a famous minister in Qiongzhou during the Zhengde period. The Zhong family's poems and books were heirlooms from generation to generation. During this period, there were several ups and downs. Someone became an official, so the family luck did not fall.

Mr. Zhong himself served as the secretary of the Nanjing Imperial Academy and the magistrate once. A few years ago, when Wei Zhongxian gained power, Mr. Zhong saw that the situation in the court was not right, so he resigned decisively. Now he is at home.

The Zhong family has two sons and a daughter.The eldest son became an official as a juror and is currently the county magistrate of Nanhai County, Guangdong Province. The second son has no fame.

And the one the matchmaker plans to sell to Mr. Huang is the eldest daughter of the Zhong family: her boudoir name is Zhong Xiuxiu.

There is a reason why Zhong Xiuxiu was put at the end of the brochure by Mrs. Jin: the eldest lady of the Zhong family was trafficked when she was a child.

Miss Zhong's family was only 5 years old when she was cheated away by kidnappers. Later, she was sold to the family of a squire named Xu in Pingyang County, a remote place in Wenzhou.Fortunately, the reason why the squire bought this person was because the family had seven sons, but the only daughter was missing. At the beginning, seeing Zhong Xiuxiu was smart and well-behaved, he bought it from the kidnapper to raise him as a foster daughter.

The so-called country gentry are actually country people. The country is not so particular, and Zhong Xiuxiu has never had his feet bound since he was a child.Things didn't turn around until Zhong Xiuxiu was 16 years old: the kidnapper was caught in the Yamen because of another case.

A few clamp sticks were pulled down, the kidnapper poured urine and feces in the courtroom, and immediately began to spit, and then spit more and more, Zhong Xiuxiu's incident was also mixed in.Then it was a matter of course. Not long after Mr. Zhong became an official, he heard that a piece of film was handed over to the Renhe County Yamen, and he was rewarded with money. The servants immediately worked hard and arrested the second kidnapper within a few days—— It is not uncommon for children to change hands in between.

Miss Zhong's family was finally found.

When Mr. Zhong saw his daughter again more than ten years later, Zhong Xiuxiu was already slim and handsome, with seven older brothers who led her to play with her since she was a child.Seeing Zhong Xiuxiu who had changed his name to Xu Baoer and looked exactly like him, Master Zhong burst into tears immediately.

After that, there was a negotiation between the two families: Xu squire and his wife raised Zhong Xiuxiu as a padded jacket, and they had enough clothes for snacks since childhood.Now that she has grown into a big girl, she is about to talk about marriage, and her own father will appear on the stage.

First of all, Mr. Zhong is rejoicing: it is not uncommon for a girl to be abducted and sold to a brothel. It is already a fluke for Zhong Xiuxiu to grow up safely in the Xu family.

The second is the difficulty: it's not a child bride who is beaten every day, just take it away with confidence and it's over, she was raised as a young lady!
Originally, he planned to pay the Xu family money, but the squire Xu is a bit stupid for not wanting country people, but can this matter be solved with money?I'll give you a few more, can you leave, I have to pay a large dowry to marry a daughter after you leave!

Mr. Zhong was born in a scholarly family, so naturally he is not the kind of person who makes trouble without reason. After negotiations, the two families finally reached an agreement: from now on, the two families will become a good family, Zhong Xiuxiu will change back to the original name, and the squire couple will be recognized as adoptive parents. .

And so, and so and so, when Miss Zhong returned to Hangzhou, she was already 17 years old.

It's fine when you come back, and you have to get married when you come back.However, such good words as "heroic and valiant" and "walking like flying" suddenly became the object of people's sniggering in the circle of perverted scholar-bureaucrats in the Ming Dynasty who were disgusting and vowed to work hard.
In 2 years, when Zhong Xiuxiu returned to Hangzhou for 2 years, she was already 19 years old and still not married.

Mr. Zhong has wrinkles on his face, his daughter is unsalable, please help us.
This is the end of Miss Zhong's story, Mrs. Jin's mouth is parched, and Mr. Huang is secretly satisfied - he is sure that he heard Mrs. Jin's words just now: "Regulations in the countryside should be relaxed, Miss Zhong's feet will be covered for a long time. It is short, so it is slightly larger than Miss Bie's feet."

Generally speaking, if a young lady has a hidden disease such as body odor, the matchmaker can completely pretend not to know it, and you can talk about it later.

However, a matchmaker would never dare to lie about such a big event as not binding your feet. Firstly, it cannot be concealed, and secondly, even if the man was deceived, how can someone like Mr. Huang spare you afterwards?
So no matter how difficult it is, no matter how difficult it is to speak, Mrs. Jin still has to covertly get to the bottom of her words today: Miss Zhong's feet are slightly bigger than daughters of other families.

(End of this chapter)