“Leave it to this old woman,” Granny Wei agreed. Considering the beauty of that Xianbei man and worrying that someone else might get to him first, she sprang into action immediately: “I have a niece married in this village. I’ll go to her place to scrounge up a meal. You go on back yourself.”
Fu Ruyi glanced toward the Wang family’s house. This family really had no manners—Granny Wei had first been commissioned by them to play matchmaker, then invited by Wang Erlang to keep her company, going back and forth and using up no small amount of breath and shoe leather, yet today she hadn’t even managed to get a single meal out of them.
Looking at it this way, her temperament didn’t mesh with the Wang family’s ways. It was a stroke of luck that the match hadn’t gone through.
“Granny Wei, in a couple of days I’ll invite you to my home as a guest. I’ll cook myself.” Fu Ruyi figured that in another two days, Granny Wei would have gathered all the information about this Xianbei family.
Granny Wei nodded. She also looked toward the Wang family and said, “I’ll come to your home later. I’ll return that pig’s head myself.”
Fu Ruyi shook her head. She looked at the empty little courtyard next to the Wang family’s house, thinking to herself that since they’d provoked her, they shouldn’t expect things to pass so peacefully.
“Don’t worry, Granny Wei. I’ll return it.”
The two parted ways in front of the Wang family’s gate. Fu Ruyi strode off with big steps, leaving Pinghe Village, crossing the pontoon bridge, and returning to the south bank of the Yellow River.
* * *
The Fu household.
The Fu family had just picked up their bowls when, in the blink of an eye, the dog watching for scraps bolted out with a whoosh. Mother Fu followed with her bowl in hand, and there stood Fu Ruyi in the courtyard, panting heavily.
“You haven’t eaten yet? Good thing I ran fast—I made it in time.” Fu Ruyi giggled.
Mother Fu’s heart sank. She looked up at the pig’s head hanging under the eaves.
Fu Ruyi gave a dry laugh and said sheepishly, “I’ll take it to the Wang family in a bit.”
Fu Yuan shoved past his mother, poking his head out of the kitchen, and asked with a mix of surprise and delight, “Little sister, did you break off another match?”
Fu Ruyi glanced sidelong at her mother and nodded. “That Wang Erlang isn’t good enough for me.”
Fu Yuan slapped his thigh in glee. “I thought so too—that kid wasn’t good enough for you. My little sister deserves better. Good thing, good thing—keep looking, keep looking—ow!”
Mother Fu’s fan-sized palm smacked down on her younger son. She looked coldly at Fu Ruyi. “What are you up to now?”
“His family has designs on our candle-making formula.”
“Tell the truth.” Mother Fu didn’t believe that excuse. Making candles took time, labor, and plenty of materials—every year they couldn’t make enough to meet demand. Even if two more Wang families got involved, it wouldn’t affect the Fu family’s business. Besides, the candle formula was something Ruyi had received in a dream; if she took it with her and taught it to her in-laws, that was only proper. No one in the Fu family had any objection.
“I just don’t want to.” Nothing had even been settled with that Xianbei man—she didn’t even know his name. Fu Ruyi didn’t want to say more, lest she be interrogated from all sides with reminders that the two of them weren’t suited.
“Just go ahead and offend everyone, then.” Seeing that Ruyi’s temper had flared up, Mother Fu knew she wouldn’t get anything out of her, so she could only vent her frustration: “They’re all country folk—what kind of man do you expect to find? You’ve picked through all the men for miles around these past few years and still haven’t found a gem. Twenty-one years old—at your age, I already had one by the hand and another in my belly.”
“Some people didn’t even live to see twenty-one. Should I compare myself to them too?” Fu Ruyi shot back with a stern face.
Mother Fu used to get angry hearing such words, but now she was used to it—it went in one ear and out the other. She went on, “I’m not going to bother with you anymore, lest you anger me to death. I want to live a few more years.”
“That’s right.” Fu Ruyi had already reached the outside of the kitchen. She guided her mother inside by the shoulders, and asked the woman who was holding a child and feeding him: “Sister-in-law, is there any food left?”
“It’s on the stove, already served for you.” Lin Juan pointed with her hand, then added: “Father served it for you.”
Fu Ruyi broke into a smile. “Father treats me the best.”
“Old thing, you always play the good guy.” Mother Fu was annoyed. This old man never worried about household matters, leaving all the thankless tasks to her.
Father Fu pretended he hadn’t heard a thing.
Fu Ruyi was the youngest daughter Father Fu had at the age of thirty-five. That same year, he also held his eldest granddaughter in his arms—wasn’t this the most powerful proof of his vigor despite his years? Moreover, this youngest daughter resembled him the most: tall stature, long arms and legs exactly like his, and a mind even sharper than his own. Even the gods favored her, and he adored her deeply. Over the years, he raised his daughter as if she were his granddaughter—spoiling her without ever scolding, never interfering in anything concerning her.
Fu Ruyi had changed her mind about marriage so many times that the three generations of the Fu family, from old to young, had been worn out by her antics and had grown accustomed to them. They had asked and scolded, and that was that—no one bothered to dig deeper into the matter.
In the third month, it was the critical season for hatching silkworms and picking mulberry leaves. After the meal, Mother Fu went to chop the mulberry leaves picked that morning, Lin Juan took her daughter to the silkworm room to select newly hatched silkworm larvae, Father Fu took his little grandson out to graze the cattle, and Fu Yuan went to dig in the vegetable garden to prepare for planting scallions and ginger.
Fu Ruyi washed the bowls and chopsticks clean, banked the embers, then went to the neighboring granary to bring out a wooden ladder. She climbed up and took down the salted pig’s head hanging from the eaves.
Mother Fu sighed. “A whole bowl of coarse salt wasted, and the Wang family gets the advantage again.”
“Give up the small to protect the big—at least a precious pearl like me wasn’t lured away by the Wang family,” Fu Ruyi said, patting her chest.
Mother Fu was amused by her shamelessness and laughed. “The Wang family won’t send a matchmaker again, will they?”
“No, they won’t.”
Mother Fu visibly breathed a sigh of relief. The Wang family had sent matchmakers three years in a row. Refusing them once or twice had already become a joke in the village. Whenever the villagers talked about Ruyi’s marriage prospects, they all seemed to have taken favors from the Wang family, urging the Fus to accept this good match. The two young people had no secret feelings for each other, but word spread and spread until the story became that Wang Erlang was deeply in love with Ruyi and would have no one else. Some people, the moment they saw Ruyi, would inevitably bring up the second son of the Wang family. Her innocent, pure daughter had already become, in the mouths of outsiders, half a daughter-in-law of the Wang family.
When the Wang family sent a matchmaker for the third time, Mother Fu was already being roasted over the fire of gossip. She thought, might as well go along with the Wang family’s wishes—half helpless, half compromising, she urged Ruyi to consider Wang Erlang.
“Mother, I’m off now.” Fu Ruyi didn’t hide anything. Just as Wang Erlang had come, she carried the pig’s head out by the rope tied to its ear.
As soon as she stepped out, she ran into her eldest brother, who shared her father but not her mother. Before he could ask, she took the initiative to explain that the meeting with the Wang family was over—they had parted ways, and nothing had come of it.
She spread the news all along the way, taking twice as long as she had in the morning to reach Pinghe Village. She walked to the Wang family’s door, her eyes fixed on the neighboring household, and loudly called for Wang Erlang to come out.
Wang Erlang came out looking thoroughly dejected. Seeing her eyes light up like an eager dog’s, all the pleas he had been about to make died before he could utter them. He said irritably: “You’re blind as a bat. The Xianbei people look down on the Han. He won’t marry you.”
“What’s his name?” Fu Ruyi asked.
Wang Erlang was furious. “You’ll regret this.”
Fu Ruyi was taken aback. “There are more men in the world than just the two of you. It’s not that I must have him or you, nor you or him. I have far broader choices. Why would I regret anything?”
Wang Erlang couldn’t understand her convoluted phrasing—he was illiterate and couldn’t follow such wordplay—but he got the gist: this was a greedy, unsatisfied woman.
“Here.” Fu Ruyi tossed the heavy pig’s head into his arms and warned, “Stop pestering me. If you send another matchmaker to my door, I’ll tear your arms off.”
Wang Erlang caught the pig’s head awkwardly and sneered. “We’ll see what becomes of you.”
Fu Ruyi thought to herself that knowing such a person was pure bad luck. She patted the rope marks on her hands and, under Wang Erlang’s glare, walked to the neighboring yard and pushed open the sparse fence gate, unmoved by the loud slam of the door behind her.
The golden-haired boy crouching inside the fence, who had been eavesdropping, hadn’t expected her to walk straight into his home. He stared up at her, dumbfounded, too guilty to shoo her away after being caught listening.
“Eavesdropping?” Fu Ruyi asked with a smile. “Could I borrow a bowl of water?”
A moment later, Fu Ruyi stood alone under the eaves of the Lou family home, holding half a bowl of water as she surveyed the humble little courtyard. A few steps away, low voices murmured in a side room.
Lou Zhaoshui walked out with a sleepy expression, startled to see the woman standing a few steps away, peering boldly into every corner of his home—and at him—as if she owned the place.
“Do you understand Chinese?” Fu Ruyi asked. “We met this morning.”
“I do.” Lou Zhaoshui spoke clearly.
“You can speak Chinese?” Fu Ruyi was delighted.
“A little.”
“My name is Fu Ruyi. What’s yours?”
Lou Zhaoshui was silent, glancing toward the neighbor to the east.
“I turned him down,” Fu Ruyi offered as a trade.
Lou Zhaoshui understood. A smile spread across his face, and his gray-blue eyes brightened as if the clouds had parted.
Fu Ruyi’s eyes lit up too. She couldn’t help stepping forward three paces, and up close, she could see him even more clearly—he was truly handsome, his lips so red, his chest so fair.
Lou Zhaoshui’s smile faded.
“You’re half a head taller than me—about six chi two cun, right?” Fu Ruyi rarely met men taller than herself; among her three older brothers, only Fu Yuan was just barely her height.
“Something you need?” Lou Zhaoshui asked.
“What’s your name?”
“Lou Zhaoshui,” he told her.
Fu Ruyi repeated it silently to herself. What a beautiful name. She pointed at the Wang family next door and said boldly, “Part of the reason I turned him down is you. I’ve taken a liking to you.”
Lou Zhaoshui wasn’t surprised—her intentions were written all over her face.
Seeing him so calm and unruffled, Fu Ruyi suddenly felt at a loss. How did one pursue a man? She’d never done it before.
Lou Zhaoshui looked down at her. What a fickle, free-spirited woman—her disregard for convention was much like that of his own Xianbei people.
Fu Ruyi didn’t know what else to say and found herself in an awkward spot. Her face flushed, she scratched her head, blurted out “Let’s leave it at that for now,” and ran off.
Lou Zhaoshui watched her figure disappear, then his gaze drifted to the house on the east side. He had overheard their argument at noon and knew that this woman had only agreed to a meeting after the Wang family had sent matchmakers three times.
* * *
Fu Ruyi slowed her steps as soon as she left the Lou family’s gate. She casually plucked a blade of thatch grass and held it between her teeth, strolling leisurely toward the pontoon bridge.
“Ruyi.” Granny Wei stepped out of Pinghe Village and spotted a figure ahead, calling out to her.
Hearing this, Fu Ruyi turned joyfully and hurried over to Granny Wei’s side. “Granny Wei, what did you find out?”
“I found out everything there was to find. That Xianbei man is called Lou Zhaoshui. His family has nine members in total—his parents are still alive and well, and he has two elder brothers and one elder sister. He’s the youngest, only seventeen. His two elder brothers aren’t at home—the eldest serves in the army, and the second works for some household or another. His elder sister is a widow with a young daughter. The family moved here in the sixth month last year to be reunited, as the two eldest Lou brothers had come to Luoyang three years ago with the emperor’s great army during the relocation of the capital,” Granny Wei explained. “As for the feud with the Wang family, it has to do with Old Woman Wang. When the Lou family settled in Pinghe Village, they were allotted wasteland from the village. Twenty mu of that land was land Old Woman Wang had her eye on, wanting to keep it for her future daughter-in-law—everyone in the village knew this. But when those twenty mu ended up under the Lou family’s name, she was displeased and held a grudge. In the seventh month last year, the youngest Lou boy raised two lambs. After only one day, one of the lambs squeezed through the fence, ran into the Wang family’s vegetable garden, and ate some of the crops. Old Woman Wang saw it, and without saying a word, struck it dead with a single blow of her iron shovel.”