Chapter 634: Chapter 634: Scared Away
Qi Kangle nodded upon hearing this: "Aunt, rest assured, I was wrong first, and today I will certainly give your family an explanation."
Gu Jinli saw she was determined to speak up, and said: "Cousin Le, Aunt Yuan is very fond of you. She has come several times. Why not invite her to sit in your room and have a good talk?"
With matchmaker Jin present, it was not appropriate to talk here.
Ms. Chang had already stood up, helping Qi Kangle up: "Xiao Yu is right, come, take your aunt to your room to have a look, she has come several times and hasn’t sat there yet."
And to matchmaker Jin she said: "Sister Jin, please have a seat first. I will accompany this child to talk."
Matchmaker Jin noticed something was amiss and nodded with a smile: "Please feel free, Ms. Chang."
Ms. Chang followed Qi Kangle out of the main hall.
Gu Daya caught up to stop them, but Qi Kangle just smiled and said: "Mother, let your daughter speak with Aunt Yuan herself."
Saying that, she pried loose Gu Daya’s hand that was holding her and took Ms. Chang to her room, without bringing the maid Xiao Min; just the two of them closed the door to talk.
Inside the room, Qi Kangle knelt down again and kowtowed to Ms. Chang: "This bow is to apologize to you, aunt. It’s been dragging on for years, and it’s my fault."
Ms. Chang originally liked Qi Kangle very much, wanting wholeheartedly to marry her as the second daughter-in-law. It was only because she refused Qi Kangle these past two years that Ms. Chang became angry and her countenance toward her soured. Seeing her like this, Ms. Chang helped her up and said: "There’s no need for this... It’s also because that boy has you in his heart and is unwilling to marry anyone else."
Hearing this, Qi Kangle let the tears she had been holding back finally fall. But she quickly wiped away the tears and spoke out about why she didn’t agree to the marriage and didn’t want to get married.
Ms. Chang was completely dumbfounded after listening: "What, what are you saying? Your family used to be servants? You were a maid? And you’ve been in a brothel!"
Ms. Chang nearly fainted.
She knew that Gu Daya’s house came from fleeing famine and surely had some secrets, but she never imagined it would be something this significant.
Being a servant wasn’t a big deal, and being a maid... as long as she hadn’t been touched by a male master, it also wasn’t a big deal, but having been in a brothel – even if for just a few days – was a mortal issue!
Even though Qi Kangle said she and Gu Daya only did the rough work in the brothel and hadn’t lost their virtue, still remaining pure, who would believe such a statement if it got out? Who would!
If her family married Qi Kangle, and if the matter came to be known by others later, not to mention her family would become the laughingstock of the entire county, Qi Kangle would be drowned in the pond, and her family would be expelled out of the clan and driven out of the village.
The matter was too grave, and Ms. Chang, who had lived for most of her life and helped her father with business when she was young, could accept Qi Kangle running a tavern but could not accept her having been in a brothel.
Qi Kangle had anticipated that Ms. Chang would not be able to accept this once she revealed the secret. She smiled and said: "Aunt Yuan, please go back. Find another good bride for Brother Chang Er and tell him to stop thinking about me... If he asks, just tell him I am infertile, menstruation has stopped, and I cannot have children."
Such a reason was quite fitting.
After listening, Ms. Chang, looking at Qi Kangle’s smiling face, shed tears: "Sister Le, I..."
Qi Kangle said: "Aunt, there’s no need to speak further, you haven’t done wrong, it’s all destiny."
She smiled again: "Not marrying isn’t too bad. Now I have a tavern, fields, and in a few years after buying a house, hiring some servants, and adopting a couple of children, I can still live a good life."
After hearing this, Ms. Chang cried even harder. Being an only daughter, she had known since childhood that it wasn’t easy for women to live in this world. She felt sorry for Qi Kangle, but she truly could not say words of immediate indifference right now.
After a long while, Ms. Chang only said one sentence: "Sister Le, you are a good person, Aunt thanks you."
If Qi Kang Le had any selfish desires, she could have kept this secret and married Brother Rui. If they were unlucky, by the time the matter became known, Qi Kang Le would already be part of their family, and her family would have to bear the brunt of mockery for a lifetime.
...
minutes later, Ms. Chang herself returned to the main hall, and said to Gu Daya: "Gu Family’s eldest daughter, I’m at fault today, there are matters at home, so I must leave first."
She also said, "Please accept the gifts I brought as a token of my apology."
With that, she called for matchmaker Jin and left the Qi Family’s house.
Gu Daya was weeping while chasing after Ms. Chang, dragging her into a corner and begging in a low voice: "Please don’t talk about this matter, I beg you, dear elder sister, I will kowtow to you."
Ms. Chang nodded: "Sister Gu, rest assured, I will not talk about it... Sister Le’s periods are just irregular, find a good doctor to take a look at her, maybe she can be cured, and in the future, she might be able to have children."
Ms. Chang knew their family’s matter with the Qi Family had caused a stir for three years, and many people were watching the excitement, wanting to hear gossip. To prevent others from knowing the truth, she simply used the excuse given by Qi Kang Le, leading others to believe that the marriage negotiation between the two families failed due to Qi Kang Le’s difficulty in bearing children.
After hearing this, Gu Daya nodded: "Thank you."
But her heart was torn apart; she had cursed Sister Le for three years and still couldn’t dissuade her from revealing the truth.
Ms. Chang did not stay long at the corner and quickly left with matchmaker Jin.
Ms. Chang had come by mule cart, and when the mule cart left the village, it really attracted many people’s attention. Along the way, people were asking the mule cart: "Yo, has the Yuan Family come again? Did the marriage talk succeed? Or was it rejected again?"
Ms. Chang ignored them altogether, but matchmaker Jin couldn’t help herself and asked: "Sister Chang, what exactly is going on?"
Ms. Chang, knowing the mouths of these matchmakers and afraid that Qi Kang Le’s affair might leak out, causing trouble for both the Qi and Gu families, used the same excuse again: "The young lady has irregular periods and is afraid that she can’t conceive, so she has repeatedly refused our family’s marriage proposal."
Upon hearing this, matchmaker Jin suddenly realized: "So that’s the case, then the girl cannot be married. Your second son still needs to continue the Chang family’s lineage. What use is a girl who cannot bear children to be married into the family?"
Having no descendants is a serious matter. Matchmaker Jin thoroughly believed this statement and would give the same reason when other gossiping matchmakers asked in the future.
Ms. Chang just nodded her head and said nothing more, feeling exhausted in her heart. After arriving in town, she gave matchmaker Jin five taels of silver as remuneration and hired another mule cart to send her back to the prefecture.
...
In the evening, when Chang Errui returned home and learned that his mother had gone to the Qi Family’s house to propose marriage again, he was furious: "Mother, how could you secretly go to the Qi Family to propose marriage without your son, I said let me do it myself, your actions will only push Sister Le further away."
This time, Ms. Chang did not shout at him, but gently persuaded: "Brother Rui, stop waiting for Sister Le, she is infertile, she will never be able to bear children in this lifetime."
Hearing this was like a bolt from the blue for Chang Errui: "Mother, who told you this? How is that possible?"
Ms. Chang said: "Sister Le told me herself, this is why she stalled the marriage proposal for three years."
She continued earnestly: "My child, mother knows you like her, but you have to carry on the Chang family’s lineage. If Sister Le cannot bear children, how can she ensure the continuity of the Chang family’s line of succession?"
To her surprise, after a moment of shock, Chang Errui knelt down and said: "Mother, if Sister Le cannot have children, we could adopt from the elder brother’s family, or let the little brother continue the Chang family’s lineage."