After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

"You should ask them carefully. The Yang family is quite wealthy in town. They've run a cloth shop for decades, and with three generations of accumulation, their wealth is definitely greater than ours. Why would they want to marry a girl from our village? It's not that Qingqing is bad—Qingqing is literate, can embroider, and can do accounting. She can also help out in the shop. She's outstanding among the girls in town—but our family and the Yang family are still different in terms of social standing. They've taken the initiative to come to us. Is there some hidden story we don't know? We need to find out carefully, lest they're hiding something. Qingqing is our only daughter; we can't just arrange a marriage for her without careful consideration."

Chen Dashan and Chen Xiaohe both nodded. Shitou and Aji had also returned from the county town—the school was closed today, and Afu had taken half a day off from the clinic, so the brothers were all together for once. Shitou put down his bowl and said that when he went to the county school tomorrow, he would ask the headmaster. The headmaster had lived in the town for many years and knew many people, so he might know the details of the Yang family. Aji also said that he copied documents at the yamen, and Old Liu, the clerk in the county yamen's household registration office, was from the town and had been the Yang family's neighbor for decades. He would know better than anyone else.

Afu sat at the corner of the table, breaking off pieces of steamed bun and dipping them in vegetable soup. He looked up and said, "Many of Dr. Li's medicinal herbs come from the herbal medicine shop next to Yang's Cloth Shop. The shopkeeper there and Manager Yang are old friends. I'll ask him when I go to the clinic tomorrow." Father Chen nodded, tapped his pipe, and said, "Then let's split up and ask around. Let's gather together tomorrow night and see what we find out."

The next day, everyone in the Chen family except for Mr. and Mrs. Chen sprang into action.

Chen Dashan and Chen Xiaohe drove their oxcart to town early in the morning. Chen Dashan went to several shops that did business with the Yang family's cloth shop, using the excuse of buying cloth to chat with the shopkeepers and casually ask about the Yang family's character. Chen Xiaohe, on the other hand, sat at a tea stall near the cloth shop for most of the day, treating a few old men to a pot of tea and extracting bits and pieces of information from them.

When Shi Tou arrived at the county school, he went to see the headmaster during the break between classes. The headmaster, surnamed Zhou, was a tall, thin man in his fifties who had lived in the town for twenty years before moving to the county seat a few years ago. Shi Tou explained his purpose, and Headmaster Zhou thought for a moment before saying that he knew the Yang family well. The shopkeeper's father had been his classmate back then, and the family was honest, didn't cause trouble, and didn't flaunt their wealth; they had a good reputation in town. He had also met the only son a few times; he wasn't talkative, but he was well-behaved and didn't seem like the kind of person who would cause trouble outside.

During his lunch break at the yamen, Aji approached Old Liu, the clerk in the household registration office, and told him that his family was looking for a husband for his younger sister and asked Old Liu to inquire about the Yang family. Old Liu glanced at him from above, put down his brush, took a sip of tea, and slowly said, "The Yang family? They're old neighbors. The Yang couple are kind-hearted people who have lived in town for decades without ever arguing with anyone. That young man even went to school with their grandson when he was a child. He's quiet and doesn't play much with others, but he's not a bad person." Hearing this, Aji felt much more at ease and thanked Old Liu.

While getting his medicine at Dr. Li's clinic, Afu went to the herbal medicine shop next door. The shopkeeper, surnamed Zhao, had been neighbors with Shopkeeper Yang for over twenty years, their houses separated by a wall. Shopkeeper Zhao said that Yang's son wasn't particularly robust, but he'd improved a lot in recent years. Last year, he even went to the prefectural city with his father to buy supplies, a round trip that took half a month, and he hadn't heard of him experiencing any discomfort. As for his bad habits, he didn't gamble, frequent brothels, or drink alcohol, not even smoking. He was just a bit too quiet, but his character was impeccable. Afu wrote down every word Shopkeeper Zhao said, got two more doses of medicine, and then returned to the clinic.

In the evening, the family sat together in the main room.

Mr. Chen adjusted the kerosene lamp, the wick covered in a layer of soot. The flame flickered a few times before settling down. Mrs. Chen poured everyone a bowl of water and sat down beside them. Chen Dashan spoke first, recounting what he had learned. The Yang family's cloth shop had been in town for decades, passed down through three generations. After Manager Yang took over, the business, though not greatly expanded, had been steady and profitable. The family was well-off, owning a house and shops in town, and had no debts. Manager Yang and his wife had a harmonious marriage; there had never been any reports of them arguing. Mrs. Yang also had a good relationship with her mother-in-law; the two had lived together for twenty years without separating, a fact well-known in town. The only drawback was that they only had one son. After several failed pregnancies, and Mrs. Yang's health not being good, they stopped having children, leaving them with a small family. But this couldn't be blamed on them.

Su Xiaoqing added, her tone much lighter, as she organized the bits and pieces of gossip she'd overheard at the tea stall earlier that day. The Yang family had a good relationship with their neighbors; during festivals, Madam Yang would send gifts to them—homemade zongzi, mooncakes, and Laba porridge—to every household in the alley. The Yang family's son, aside from attending school and helping out at the shop as he grew older, had never been seen associating with shady characters or going to disreputable places. Except when he had to speak while selling goods, he was usually rather quiet and reserved, not the talkative type. But that wasn't a flaw; being honest and straightforward was better than being glib and smooth-talking.

Chen Dashan then recounted what he had heard from the cloth shop owner. There were three reasons why the Yang family favored Qingqing. First, Yang's son had seen Qingqing several times in town and had taken a liking to her. Second, Madam Yang had heard that Qingqing was a skilled embroiderer—her handkerchiefs, sachets, and pouches had been sold in the general store for several years, and her reputation had gradually spread throughout town. Madam Yang had come to see her and praised her highly. Madam Yang thought that Qingqing could embroider, help run the shop, and had a good business sense; she could work well with her son to run the cloth shop, with the couple complementing each other perfectly, one managing the household and the other the business. Third—Chen Xiaohe interjected, chuckling twice.

"Another thing is, Qingqing is a twin, right? My sister-in-law gave birth to twins, and Xiaoqing also gave birth to twins. Our family has twins one after another, which is a blessing. The Yang family has only had one son for three generations, and their population is small. Maybe they want to borrow our family's good fortune to improve their fate of having only one son. This may sound superstitious, but the older generation believes in this. I also inquired indirectly and found out that Madam Yang's mother was a twin. She herself has always hoped to have twins, but unfortunately, she didn't get them. Now, when she's choosing a wife for her son, she's thinking of finding a girl from a family with a tradition of twins, so that she can fulfill her own wish from back then."