119 How Did The Rumor Spread?
Matchmaking was a special profession. It was generally divided into official and private matchmaking. Private matchmaking were also divided into civil society and individuals. Official matchmakers usually dealt with the businesses of large families. They were registered with the government.
If anything happened to the official matchmakers, the offender would be imprisoned and it might even implicate their families.
But with the private matchmakers, it was different. The big families never looked for them. It was basically some civilian business. Sometimes they worked with the local matchmaking agencies.
Some families could not live anymore and might sell their children through the hands of the private matchmakers.
“Back then, when we went to the county office to collect food, we once met a matchmaker who wanted Ah Yu to be a child bride…”
Seeing that her family did not understand, Old Madam Wang recounted the incident she encountered back then, including her conflict with the matchmaker.
Before Old Madam Wang could finish speaking, Wang Chuanman panicked. “How can they be like that?! Are you alright? Did you suffer any losses? Why didn’t I hear you say anything when you came back?!”
At that time, there were also many villagers who went with them. However, when they returned, they did not say a word about this, so the rest of the Wang Family did not know.
Actually, it was Village Chief Hu who had instructed those people and said that Little Ah Yu was still young. It was best to hide such a conflict with the matchmaker.
This was to prevent it from affecting Little Ah Yu’s marriage in the future.
A child’s reputation had to be managed from a young age. If they accidentally ruined her reputation, it would take many years to rebuild it. It was not easy to have a good reputation.
The other villagers also knew about this, so they did not say anything.
Old Madam Wang rolled her eyes at Wang Chuanman. “Who dares to make your mother suffer? Do you think everyone is like you? You’re just a fool.”
On the other hand, Liu Shi was a little worried. They had a conflict with the matchmaker at the county office. Many people in the county city must know about it. Would they spread the news about Ah Yu?
Although Liu Shi had never thought that Ah Yu would marry someone from the county city in the future, if she ruined Ah Yu’s reputation, it would definitely have a huge impact in the future.
Madam Feng was even more anxious. “Mother, what should we do?! We can’t delay this matter. He’s our eldest son and your eldest grandson. If even his marriage goes wrong, the other younger siblings will be affected in the future.”
The prospective families would not only care about the family’s conditions, but also their personalities.
It could be said that if a family produced someone with bad character, the marriage prospects of the entire family might be affected.
Perhaps he could have married into a rich family originally. But because there was a problem with the marriage of his other relatives, he would only be able to marry a useless poor person.
Dalang did not realize the importance of this matter and only said, “Could it be that the matchmaker who gave us the match is the same person as the matchmaker in the county city back then?”
At most, they would find another matchmaker.
Madam Feng shook her head. “It’s not that simple. Matchmakers are all connected to each other.”
Generally speaking, offending a matchmaker was equivalent to offending all the other matchmakers.
Unless all these matchmakers were dead or they occasionally encountered one or two unsociable people, their marriage plans would definitely be affected.
In this era, marriage was based on the orders of the parents and the words of the matchmaker. Neither could be missing.
Even if the Wang Family could find a good wife for their eldest son, it was definitely impossible without a matchmaker as a guarantor. They could not skip this step.
Once there was no matchmaker, others would say that they were having illicit sexual relations or other horrible stuff. Arranging a marriage without a matchmaker would mean that the child would not be able to raise his head in the future.
The Wang Family wanted to take the Imperial Examination. If it was discovered that someone in the family arranged a marriage without a matchmaker, they could forget about continuing the examination.
“Back then, your Fourth Uncle offended a matchmaker…” Madam Feng was anxious and almost said something about the past.
Old Madam Wang glanced at her, and Madam Feng was like a rooster being strangled, unable to say a word.
In front of the children, she really could not say these words.
Their Wang Family’s reputation in Hu Family Village was still considered good because the people of the entire village had good morals. However, once they left Hu Family Village, there were all kinds of rumors spreading outside.
This was because when they first came here, they had unintentionally offended a matchmaker. At that time, it was Wang Chuangui who wanted to arrange his marriage.
For the first time, Old Madam Wang lowered her head to the matchmaker to resolve the issue.
Later on, when Wang Chuanman arranged his marriage, he offended another matchmaker. However, it was not their family’s fault in the end. Old Madam Wang refused to lower her head no matter what.
That matchmaker was also a petty person. While she was going to mediate, she said as much bad stuff about the Wang family as she could.
She said that they were poor, hungry, and picky. They were a group of bandits from outside who occupied the land of Hu Village and bullied people every day.
It was said that they had even killed someone.
Hence, Wang Chuanman’s reputation was completely ruined outside, and even Old Madam Wang’s bad reputation spread.
In addition, back then, someone had taken a fancy to Wang Chuanman’s character and did not believe what the matchmaker said. She planned to come over personally to take a look.
Coincidentally, at that time, Third Aunt Hu and Old Madam Wang had a huge argument. That person came over and asked Third Aunt Hu, “How’s Old man Wang’s family?”
Third Aunt Hu was in a fit of anger and immediately spouted nonsense, portraying Old Madam Wang as an old tigress.
She said that she treated no one well and made things difficult for the villagers. Every day, she would hold a broom and hit people.
When the family heard this, they were so frightened that they immediately returned.
They exaggerated the story and spread it around. Coupled with the matchmaker’s interference, they later formed the image of the Wang Family torturing several daughters-in-law to death.
Why was Old Wang’s family poor? Why did they only have grandsons?
It was because that old woman forced her daughters-in-law to have children and they had to give birth to grandsons. All the granddaughters they gave birth to were drowned and only the grandsons were left behind.
Several daughters-in-law had been tortured to death, and the Wang Family had no choice but to compensate money. The more they compensated, the poorer they became.
Because of this, there were also some people who wanted to marry their daughter over. When their daughter died, they could extort money from the Wang family.
However, they heard from the matchmaker that the Wang family wanted a dowry of ten taels of silver, and they scolded Old Madam Wang for being black-hearted.
With this interference, Wang Chuanman’s marriage was delayed from the age of 16 to the age of 20. The Wang family was extremely anxious, but with the rumors outside, there was no way to wash them away.
Suddenly, one day, a little girl came to Hu Family Village and found Old Madam Wang while trembling in fear. She said to Old Madam Wang, “Our family is very poor. We can’t afford a dowry of ten taels of silver, nor do we have a dowry. If I marry into your family as your daughter-in-law, if I die in the future, we won’t extort your family’s money. How much dowry can you give?”
Old Madam Wang had long lost hope in Wang Chuanman’s marriage. She said angrily, “What dowry! 10 catties of food is the maximum!”
Unexpectedly, the little girl’s eyes lit up. She mustered her courage and said, “Then, I’ll marry into your family!”
This little girl was the 18-year-old Liu Shi.
Now, the Wang family had offended another matchmaker.
The Wang family was in despair.
Was their family at odds with matchmakers?