The Whole Place Talked Down
With a slight lift of her chin, Shen Taohua said, “You answered very well on the issues of mother-in-law relationships and sister-in-law relationships. You said that if your mother made things difficult for me, you would stop her and try to reason with her, and if your younger sister didn’t get along with me, you would educate her to respect and love her sister-in-law.”
The man replied, “Are you still not satisfied with that answer?”
Shen Taohua smiled. “I am satisfied. But ask yourself honestly, is what you said the truth? Your eyes kept shifting, you didn’t dare look people in the eye when answering, you kept touching your nose out of guilt, and you repeatedly raised your voice to emphasize your points. Not just me, my father could tell at a glance that you were lying!”
“How well you answer is important, but whether you can actually do it is even more important. Lying about something like this only proves that in reality you would do the opposite. Whoever marries you is just waiting to be bullied to death by your mother and your sister.”
The man’s face turned red, and he couldn’t say a word.
When she moved on to the third person, she pointed out a different issue.
“You said you have a childhood cousin you grew up with, but your relationship is average. You tried to downplay her existence in your words, but your private feelings are impossible to hide. You think you’ve concealed it well, but every sentence you mention her in carries obvious bias, and even affection.”
In the system records of emotional history, that cousin’s name was clearly listed, and her status was even marked as “in a relationship.”
And yet he still wanted to claim innocence? He was trying to fool a fool.
“You and your cousin have over ten years of shared history. How could I possibly compare? If you really married into your family, the moment any conflict arises between me and your cousin, you would side with her, and the result would inevitably be a complete mess.”
The third man’s face instantly cycled through red and green, an extremely ugly expression.
The others also more or less exposed issues they had tried to hide but failed to conceal during their answers. Some had even concealed a broken engagement and were exposed on the spot.
Not to mention how she knew all of this, but as she pointed out each problem one by one, most of the onlookers were completely convinced.
Some issues were indeed unacceptable, for example, mother-in-law and sister-in-law conflicts.
A daughter marrying into another family was already an outsider; if her husband still didn’t stand on her side, wouldn’t she just end up exactly as Shen Taohua said, bullied until she had nothing left?
Having a childhood sweetheart cousin was also unacceptable. Everyone knew what “cousin relationships” often meant these days. Who knew if they had already been secretly entangled? If after marriage they produced an illegitimate child and forced his wife out to make space, just imagining it was infuriating.
Of course, some people still felt that no one in the world is perfect and everyone has flaws. Could Shen Taohua herself really be flawless?
She did not avoid this either.
“I admit I have many flaws. But so what? Even if I can’t marry, I won’t starve to death, and I don’t need to rely on a husband to support me because I have no way to make a living. In that case, why shouldn’t I choose someone I am fully satisfied with in every aspect?”
The crowd was momentarily left speechless by her words.
But soon someone noticed something was off. “Wait, there are still two people you didn’t point out any problems with. Why are they also being eliminated?”
Shen Taohua looked at the two men, whose expressions were indeed somewhat dissatisfied, and shrugged. “These two don’t have any objective issues. Simply put, they’re just not to my taste. I’m not interested in them.”
At most, their compatibility with her only reached fifty.
In fact, after the initial screening when she scanned everyone and confirmed that not a single person had a compatibility score above sixty, the outcome had already been decided.
It was just that the others clearly couldn’t accept this answer.
The two men in question were especially indignant. “What kind of reason is that?!”
Shen Taohua raised an eyebrow. “If that doesn’t count as a reason, then what does? Marriage is a lifetime matter. If I don’t choose someone who appeals to me, am I supposed to pick someone I feel nothing for and spend my entire life treating each other like strangers under the same roof?”
“I’d like to ask you two, do you actually have any affection for me? If you do, then we’ve only just met. That affection would be far too cheap. If you don’t, then I’ll say it again: if neither side likes the other, what’s the point of getting married?”
A woman nearby couldn’t help but say, “Isn’t that how most marriages work anyway? After marrying and spending time together, you naturally grow to like each other.”
“Pfft.” Shen Taohua laughed outright.
“So liking someone is that simple? Then is the important part not who you marry, but simply the act of marriage itself? As long as someone becomes your wife, even if she’s a beggar or covered in festering sores, you’ll still end up liking her?”
“Ugh—!”
Everyone was visibly disgusted by her description. The two men involved even turned away and retched after imagining it.
Shen Taohua continued leisurely, “A person only lives a few decades. If it isn’t someone you truly like, why force yourself? And what do you even gain from forcing it? Maybe just decades of grievance.”
“Some of you might say that life always involves hardship, and you just endure it because everyone else does. But I simply don’t want even the slightest grievance, what’s wrong with that? No one is born into this world to suffer.”
Shen Feibai nodded. He hadn’t raised his daughter so she could suffer.
Her words struck a nerve. For a moment he almost impulsively said, “Fine, no more matchmaking, we’ll support you for life,” but managed to hold it back at the critical moment.
If he really said that, his daughter would probably end up running wild.
Better not. Better wait and see.
Most of the men who had gone through the interview-style matchmaking were dismissive and didn’t take her words to heart, instead thinking she was being overly picky and difficult.
But among the crowd, there were indeed some of the same gender who were deeply affected. Those words—”no one is born into this world to suffer”, kept echoing in their minds. Their eyes grew unfocused as they thought of something, and their fingers unconsciously dug into their arms, almost drawing blood.
Someone couldn’t help but ask Shen Feibai, “Doesn’t Master Shen have anything to say about this? Are you just going to let Miss Shen do whatever she wants?”
Shen Feibai glanced coldly at the speaker. Wasn’t this the man with the unclear relationship with his cousin? And he still had the nerve to speak?
Shen Feibai let out a cold laugh. “Say what? Let my daughter knowingly marry a man who is in love with his own cousin, watch you two be affectionate in front of her, and force her to swallow her grievances in silence?”
The man’s expression stiffened.
Shen Feibai snorted. “My stance is the same as my daughter’s. The children of my Shen family will absolutely not, and cannot, suffer even the slightest grievance. The reason I arrange matchmaking for her is so she can find someone reliable to depend on in the future, not so she ends up less happy than she is staying at home.”
“Well said!” Shen Taohua clapped hard and said loudly to her father, “Dad, you’re the best! I love you!”
Shen Feibai gave a restrained hum of acknowledgment, then looked at the remaining unmarried men and said calmly, “Since none of you are suitable today, please disperse. If the woman hasn’t chosen you and you continue to pester, it won’t reflect well on your reputations.”
The rejected suitors all looked displeased.
The Shen family not only had wide connections in Taohua County, but also an excellent reputation. Among those who came for today’s matchmaking, there had originally been a few from similarly well-off families, but they left as soon as they heard it would be a group-style selection, deeming it humiliating.
Those who remained were mostly from ordinary households or small merchants, barely upper-middle class at best, and they simply couldn’t compare to the Shen family. On top of that, many of them had already been exposed for hidden flaws, so standing in front of Shen Feibai’s scrutiny, they had even less confidence.
In the end, after a brief period of hesitation and reluctance, they could only leave one by one in anger and unwillingness.
The onlookers exchanged glances and gradually dispersed as well.
Shen Taohua naturally spotted familiar faces like Hua Gu and Fat Auntie in the crowd, but this wasn’t the right moment to chat, so she simply waved at them as a greeting and planned to catch up later.
After most people had left, the previously hidden Xue Yutang inevitably came into view.
Seeing him, Shen Taohua couldn’t help twitching the corner of her mouth.
Xue Yutang smiled and waved the unopened folding fan in his hand before walking over to Shen Feibai first. “Uncle Shen.”
Shen Feibai looked slightly surprised. “What a coincidence. You’re here too? How is your father doing lately?”
Xue Yutang replied politely, “Thanks to your concern, my father is in good health.”
Shen Feibai gave a sound of acknowledgment and exchanged a few more casual words of concern. Noticing that Xue Yutang clearly had something he wanted to say to his daughter, he took the initiative to end the conversation and went to speak with Zhang the shopkeeper instead, after all, they had made things quite difficult for Moonlight Tower today.
Even while talking to Zhang the shopkeeper, however, his gaze couldn’t help drifting back toward Xue Yutang and his daughter. Seeing how naturally the two were interacting, he couldn’t help letting out a quiet sigh.
If not for Xue Yutang’s chaotic private life, and that even more absurd condition he once proposed, he would actually have been a decent candidate.
Shen Taohua folded her arms and looked at Xue Yutang unhappily. “Did you enjoy watching my show?”
Xue Yutang laughed. “Enjoyed it, very much! Today’s spectacle was truly eye-opening!”
To think she had gone through over a hundred candidates and ended up eliminating all of them, she really wasn’t afraid of offending people or getting blacklisted by every matchmaker in town.
Shen Taohua snorted. “What do you know? This is called efficiency!”
She could finally take a break for a while!
After hearing her explanation, Xue Yutang was somewhat tempted. “Why don’t I try this method too?”
Shen Taohua rolled her eyes at him. “Dream on. You think you’re me? It doesn’t matter if a group of men are eliminated, they can just go find another wife. But if you gather a group of women and don’t take responsibility for all of them, what then? You had your fun and enjoyed yourself, but what about those women?”
When they later go out to be matched again, if the men find out they had previously been ‘screened’ by Xue Yutang in a competitive, selection-style process, even if nothing actually happened between them, wouldn’t it make people overthink? Or even hold it against them?
If the marriage doesn’t work out in the end, that’s one thing. But once it does, would those women still be able to live peacefully afterward?
Shen Taohua didn’t think there was anything inherently wrong with her selecting men or men selecting women, but the limitations of this era were right there in plain sight. In the end, the one who would suffer was always the woman, that was simply reality.
Xue Yutang wasn’t foolish. He quickly realized the problem as well and couldn’t help showing a regretful expression.
So in other words, she gets to be temporarily free, but he still has to keep getting pushed into matchmaking?
He couldn’t help rubbing his forehead in frustration.
Not long ago, he had been watching the chaos from the sidelines with amusement. But now… he admitted he was starting to feel bitter about it.