Early that morning, just as dawn was breaking, Bai Lan was still lying in bed when she heard the faucet in the courtyard blasting away.
She pulled the blanket over her head in exasperation, hoping to sleep a little longer, but immediately after came Widow Hu’s booming, energetic voice.
“Aiyo, Aihua, hurry up and boil some hot water. Plucking the duck’s feathers is going to take a good while.”
“Hey, hey, Aimin. Don’t you sleep in either. Go to the state-run restaurant early and buy a few meat buns.”
Bai Lan pulled out her watch from under her pillow and checked the time. She was dumbfounded. It was just past five in the morning. The Hu family was already making such a big production out of this. Anyone who didn’t know better would think Hu Aimin was getting married today!
“Ah, so you’re finally willing to kill that wild duck. Honestly, if you’d waited any longer, I would’ve done it myself.”
Another young woman’s voice rang out in the yard. Bai Lan recognized it immediately as Wan family’s daughter-in-law, who lived next door to Widow Hu.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t just Wan’s daughter-in-law who had complaints. Several households in the back courtyard had issues with that wild duck, more or less.
It wasn’t that they were petty or jealous that Widow Hu’s family kept a wild duck. It was that the duck was clearly hard to tame. It had been quacking nonstop for days, starting before dawn every single day. It really was quite annoying.
Finally, the weekend had arrived — Hu Aimin’s matchmaking prospect was coming over. Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief now.
“Sure, come on. Since we’re so busy today, you can kill the duck for me.” Widow Hu, completely oblivious to the sarcasm, smiled warmly at Han Cuihua.
Han Cuihua spat in her direction from inside her window: “I don’t have that kind of free time. Kill it or don’t — if I did kill it, I’d chop off a duck leg and take it home for my kids to eat…”
Bai Lan lay in bed listening to the two of them bicker and suddenly found it quite entertaining.
—
Around nine in the morning, Bai Lan was in the yard playing with her two nieces. Xu Jianbei had something to do today, so their date was off. Bai Lan had planned to stay home and also watch the excitement of a formal matchmaking visit.
Just then, the girl’s family, led by the matchmaker, walked straight into the back courtyard.
The matchmaker was a middle-aged woman. Before she’d even stepped through the moon gate, she was already pointing at the east wing and announcing loudly: “See, that biggest room in the east wing is the Hu family’s place. They have only one son. After the wedding, the young couple can live in a room that big.”
Qin Yan had appeared out of nowhere and whispered: “So Hu Aihua is invisible, huh?”
Bai Lan: … Was this a different kind of “only son”?
The matchmaker, having finished introducing the house, pressed on: “Aimin may be a bit shy, but he’s an electrician at the textile factory. You know the textile factory, right? Work there, and you’ll never have to worry about clothes. And an electrician — you know what that means, right? All those wires and such — they rely on electricians to maintain them.”
Qin Yan muttered: “Working at a textile factory doesn’t mean you never lack clothes! And an electrician — ha. If Hu Aimin can tell the difference between a ground wire and a live wire, that’s already impressive enough.”
Bai Lan stifled a laugh, afraid that if she laughed out loud, she’d interrupt the matchmaker’s exaggerated performance.
But it was true — most of the people in their compound worked at the textile factory. And yet, not a single family never lacked clothes. Working at the textile factory at most meant you could buy defective goods more easily. But that still cost money. If any family brought fabric home from the factory without paying, word would spread through the whole neighborhood overnight.
Take her family and all those wild ducks the other day — if they hadn’t lived in a compound where too many people talked, her dad would’ve loved to keep them and eat them slowly.
“So, Aimin is really a good match. If I didn’t have such a wide network, I couldn’t have introduced you to such a fine prospect…”
—
As the matchmaker gave her over-the-top spiel, more and more people gathered in the yard. Bai Lan also took the opportunity to observe the family of three.
Yes — a middle-aged man and woman with a young girl.
The middle-aged couple’s clothes were quite new, with no patches, but they showed creases from being folded. Clearly, these were the “special occasion” clothes they kept at the bottom of a trunk. Their expressions were a mix of nervousness and delight, clearly trusting the matchmaker’s words.
As for the young girl, her features were actually a bit plain. But her eyes were very lively — the kind that showed intelligence.
Bai Lan nodded to herself. She figured someone this sharp and clever wouldn’t be fooled by the matchmaker’s exaggerations.
Just then, Widow Hu came up with a big smile to greet them: “Aiyoo, honored guests, honored guests! Come in, come in, let’s go inside. Xiao Gao — you’re young, so you can stay in the yard and play with the other young folks.”
With that, Widow Hu called out to the cluster of young people standing or squatting in the yard: “Young lads and ladies, please help entertain our guests!”
In No. 3 Compound alone, there were ten unmarried young men and women of appropriate age. Add to that the people from other alleys who’d come to watch the excitement — it was a noisy crowd of nearly twenty. Seeing this, Bai Lan took a few steps back toward her house, wanting to give the young people more space. But Qin Yan immediately grabbed her.
“Come on, come on, let’s go watch the fun. My idiot brother got dragged out early by Skinny Pole, and he’s still just standing there like a fool.”
—
Bai Lan looked over and saw the stone table in the yard. Hu Aimin, Qin Tang, and a few other young men were shoving each other back and forth, too shy and nervous to step forward.
But the girl called Xiao Gao was quite bold. She walked straight up to the stone table and greeted them with a smile: “Good morning, Comrade Hu.”
Bai Lan’s expression grew strange as she watched this.
Then, when she saw Xiao Gao naturally start talking to Qin Tang, her expression shifted to shock.
“Lan… Lan… Lanlan…” Qin Yan grabbed Bai Lan in shock. “She… she… she… why is she talking to my brother so familiarly?”
It wasn’t just Bai Lan. The young people gathered around the stone table, along with some neighbors lingering in the yard to watch the excitement, had also started to catch on.
Aunt Wan, who loved to undermine Widow Hu, slapped her thigh: “Aiyo, oh no, oh no. She’s mistaken him for someone else!”
“Mom, keep your voice down. They’ve all met before. It’s not like the old days when people didn’t see each other and went straight to the bridal sedan — how could she mistake him?” Han Cuihua quickly urged her mother-in-law to lower her voice. If she started shouting before things were clear, she might ruin someone’s marriage prospects.
But soon enough, even Han Cuihua realized the girl really had mistaken him.
Because Xiao Gao was indeed sharp. After exchanging a few words with Qin Tang, she noticed everyone’s expressions were off. She immediately asked Qin Tang directly: “Aren’t you Comrade Hu Aimin?”
Qin Tang was completely bewildered. Since when had he changed his name to Hu Aimin?
He shook his head. Hu Aimin, standing nearby, was already grinding his teeth in frustration: “I’m Hu Aimin.”
Xiao Gao’s pupils dilated in shock: “That’s impossible. The other day when we met, we didn’t speak, but who brings someone taller, more handsome, and better-looking than themselves to a matchmaking meeting?”
Her assumption left everyone around speechless.
Bai Lan turned to Qin Yan: “Your brother went with Hu Aimin that day, met her from a distance, didn’t say a word, right?”
Qin Yan nodded: “Yeah. At dinner, my brother said Hu Aimin was like a block of wood during the meeting. He took two looks at the girl and then dragged my brother away first.”
Bai Lan: …
—
Aunt Qin had been sitting outside her door all along, soaking up the sun and watching the excitement. Now that the excitement had landed on her own doorstep, she jumped up and started calling her son back home. She didn’t want her family getting mixed up in Hu family affairs. Besides, her son was tall and handsome with a good future ahead of him. She wasn’t about to let him marry a rural girl.
Qin Tang naturally headed home immediately. He was loyal to his friends, but he wasn’t stupid. The mistaken identity wasn’t his fault. Besides, he wasn’t looking for a match right now anyway. So Qin Tang stood up, simply said, “You’ve got the wrong person,” and hurried back inside.
Miss Gao wanted to reach out and stop Qin Tang, but Widow Hu, who had appeared out of nowhere, immediately blocked her way.
“What’s going on? What’s going on?”
Hu Aimin’s face was ashen: “Mom, what a great match you found. She mistook me for someone else. Hmph, I told you I should have gone alone…”
Bai Lan heard this and a thought flashed through her mind. But then she wondered if she was thinking too badly of people.
But Widow Hu, over there, genuinely didn’t seem angry. Instead, she put her arm around Miss Gao and started steering her toward the house.
“Come, come, come. Let’s go inside and talk. Your parents are still in there chatting. If there’s been a misunderstanding, we can clear it up.”
Hu Aimin, after being glared at by his mother, followed along.
A lively matchmaking visit had suddenly hit pause.
Once all the parties involved had left the yard, the back courtyard erupted. Everyone buzzed with commentary, all saying how fortunate it was that the girl’s family had come for the home visit. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have realized the mistake until they were picking up the bride!
Qin Yan had gone home to interrogate her brother, so Bai Lan had no one to gossip with. But she suspected that the reason Hu Aimin had dragged Qin Tang along to meet the girl in the first place was exactly to make her mistakenly think Qin Tang was Hu Aimin.
After all, Qin Tang’s appearance was much better than Hu Aimin’s. Bai Lan had heard that Hu Aimin had gone on many matchmaking meetings, only to be rejected because of his looks.
But this wasn’t the old days, with a red veil over the bride’s head so she didn’t realize she’d mistaken the groom until the wedding night!
What kind of trick could Widow Hu possibly have up her sleeve to make the girl agree to marry him?
—
And indeed, the atmosphere in the Hu family home was rather strange at that moment.
On the surface, the blame for mistaking the person was squarely on Gao Qingqing’s shoulders. As soon as Gao Qingqing entered the Hu house, she told her parents she’d mistaken the person. The Gao couple were honest, simple people and immediately felt deeply embarrassed.
A girl mistaking the man she was supposed to meet, showing up at his house only to realize the error — even Chinese opera wouldn’t dare write such a plot. It didn’t sound good at all.
“Well, daughter, why don’t you take another look? Apart from his looks not being great, Hu Aimin’s family circumstances are quite good. Decent job, few burdens.”
The passbook Widow Hu had just shown them — the balance had shocked her deeply. She’d farmed her whole life and had never seen so much money. And she’d heard that after marriage, it would all be in her daughter’s hands.
Besides, the Hu family had no father-in-law. Her only mother-in-law was young. When the couple had children, the mother-in-law could even help raise them.
There was just one younger sister, who was clearly about to marry out. There would be a bride price, and the family wouldn’t have to spend much.
No matter how you calculated it, it was a good deal.
But Gao Qingqing wasn’t happy about it. She found Hu Aimin skinny, short, and ugly. There was no comparison with Qin Tang. If she was going to marry, she wanted to marry someone like Qin Tang.
Widow Hu, being remarkably considerate, pulled the matchmaker aside to whisper, giving the Gao family some time to talk among themselves.
After the Gaos finished discussing and said they wouldn’t go through with the match, Widow Hu still didn’t get angry. Instead, she calmly said one sentence.
Suddenly, the Gaos changed their minds.
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