Chapter 3: Zuo Junjie
Grandmother was also aware of the matter and advised Aunt, "Do not underestimate a young man! That Zuo Junjie is handsome and studies diligently. Who knows, he might even pass the imperial examinations one day. Besides, many add flowers to brocade, but few offer help in times of need. The Fu family still has seven or eight daughters yet to be betrothed!"
Ultimately, she feared this marriage would tarnish the Fu family's reputation and jeopardize Uncle's future prospects.
It never hurt to be cautious.
Aunt found her mother-in-law's reasoning sound and thus declined the Hao family's proposal.
Upon hearing the news, Sister-in-law was naturally overjoyed.
But Zuo Junjie was unwilling. "I am alone in this world, having sold all my family's property to treat my parents' illnesses. She is not only a concubine-born daughter but also has nothing beyond the standard hundred taels of dowry from the family coffers... Since the matriarch has shown such kindness, why not seek the hand of Third Sister from the second branch?"
The second aunt's maiden family were major landowners in Sichuan, owning salt wells. When she married into the family, her dowry of utensils alone filled an entire three-masted ship. Third Sister was the legitimate daughter and the only girl in the second branch. Second Aunt had long declared that all her dowry would go to Third Sister as her marriage portion.
"This is impossible!" Sister-in-law's face darkened at once, and she rejected Zuo Junjie without hesitation. "In the Fu family, only Father-in-law and Fifth Uncle currently hold official positions. The two cousins from the second branch show little talent in scholarly pursuits. The reason Second Aunt declared she would leave all her dowry to Third Sister is to secure a Presented Scholar as a son-in-law—or at the very least, a provincial graduate—to ensure future support. You are merely a licentiate. Second Aunt would never agree."
"So you’ve all decided I’ll never pass the imperial exams?" Zuo Junjie retorted indignantly. "If you don’t even try, how do you know Second Aunt won’t agree?"
Sister-in-law thought Zuo Junjie was being utterly unreasonable. "Even if Second Aunt agreed, my mother-in-law has already turned down the Hao family. There’s no room for reversal now. Say no more—just wait for me to arrange a matchmaker and have your Destiny matched with Second Sister before the wedding." With that, she turned and left.
Zuo Junjie believed Sister-in-law was merely afraid of offending her mother-in-law and had no genuine concern for his future. Without consulting her, he hired a matchmaker the next day to propose to Second Aunt.
Of course, Second Aunt refused.
No sooner had the matchmaker left than she reported the matter to Grandmother.
Grandmother trembled with rage and refused to speak properly to Sister-in-law for a long time.
Humiliated beyond measure, Sister-in-law wished she could vanish into the ground. She stormed into Zuo Junjie’s room and berated him harshly. Yet Zuo Junjie remained unrepentant. "Fine, fine! Since you’re in such a difficult position, I’ll just marry Second Sister as you say!" His tone was dripping with condescension.
Sister-in-law was left speechless. She collapsed at Aunt’s bedside and wept bitterly.
Aunt was both anxious and furious, taking to her bed for two days over the matter. But one was a daughter-in-law who had remained chaste for her own son, and the other was her concubine-born daughter. No matter how great her anger, she could only swallow it like a broken arm hidden in a sleeve. A few months later, Second Sister was betrothed to a local licentiate surnamed Huang from Pucheng County. Within two years, Brother-in-law Huang passed away, leaving behind a daughter barely a month old and a household so destitute they relied on the Fu family’s aid to survive.
Meanwhile, Hao Jianfeng rose steadily in wealth and rank, becoming Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel within a few years.Later, when the Yellow River breached at Xiangfu in Kaifeng, Henan, the provincial governor impeached the river workers for substituting inferior stone materials. Both Qu Yang and the uncle were implicated, with the uncle even being dismissed from his post. After the turmoil subsided, the uncle sought Hao Jianfeng’s help to regain his position. Whether fearing entanglement in the scandal or still resentful over the Fu family’s rejection of the marriage proposal, Hao Jianfeng refused to meet him, let alone offer assistance.
The thought of this still rankled the Aunt, and the elder sister-in-law bore much of the brunt of her displeasure.
Of course, these were events that came later.
At the time, the elder sister-in-law had arranged for Zuo Junjie to rent a courtyard in the back street and move out overnight.
Zuo Junjie’s face darkened with anger. With a cold laugh, he left without taking anything, striding away defiantly.
Within days, he became a private tutor for a Liu family in Xi’an Prefecture.
The following year, he failed the provincial examination.
By year’s end, Zuo Junjie returned to Huayin. Braving the heavy snow, he knelt outside the elder sister-in-law’s door for an entire day, refusing to rise no matter who tried to pull him up.
Out of courtesy, the second aunt, fourth aunt, mother, and sixth aunt all interceded on his behalf before the Aunt.
Seeing her younger brother—the last remaining heir of her maternal family—looking haggard and defeated, the elder sister-in-law wept bitterly.
The Aunt sighed deeply and personally pleaded with the grandmother, allowing him to return to the Fu family’s school.
From then on, Zuo Junjie seemed a changed man, shutting out all distractions and devoting himself entirely to his studies. After earning the title of Provincial Graduate, he bought land and hired servants, settling in Guangtao Lane and becoming the coveted son-in-law in the eyes of Huayin’s elite.
The fourth aunt soon set her sights on him.
“The previous match didn’t work out because the second girl was both a concubine’s daughter and lacked a dowry. A proud and capable man like him naturally wouldn’t be interested,” she said to the fourth uncle. “But our fifth daughter is different. Not only is she a legitimate daughter, but she’s also beautiful. Besides the family dowry, I have three hundred acres of fertile land and two thousand taels of silver set aside for her.”
“That’s out of the question!” The fourth uncle shook his head like a pellet drum. “People would think our Fu family’s daughters are desperate to cling to him!”
“Oh, must you be so stubborn?” the fourth aunt chided. “Think about it—though the uncle was dismissed, he still holds an official rank and can sit in the presence of the county magistrate. As for the fifth uncle, he’s now a lecturer in the Hanlin Academy, teaching the imperial princes. Who knows? He might even become the emperor’s tutor one day—his future is boundless. The second branch’s third daughter married a Provincial Graduate, the third branch’s seventh son passed the county exam this year, and the sixth branch’s elder brother is a Presented Scholar… Only our branch lacks anyone with an official title. Do you want to live forever in the shadow of your brothers? Even if you don’t care, what about our children’s future?”
After a long silence, the fourth uncle finally nodded in agreement.
The fourth aunt then asked the mother to act as matchmaker.
Mother, sensing this was no auspicious match, tactfully declined. Privately, she confided, “Zuo Junjie is merely a Provincial Graduate, yet he even accepts land registered under his name from loan sharks like Wang Xiaoxiao. His actions lack prudence—he may bring trouble upon himself.”
Undeterred, the fourth aunt sought the sixth aunt’s help instead.
The sixth aunt cautioned her, “I’ve heard the Han family in the northern city wants to marry their daughter to Zuo Junjie…”
The Han family of the northern city dealt in bamboo crafts.Upon hearing this, Fourth Aunt curled her lips and said, "Matchmaking is like measuring—you have to try before you know if it fits or not!"
Sixth Aunt had no choice but to relay the message to Eldest Sister-in-law.
This time, Eldest Sister-in-law dared not make any decisions on her own. She sent her trusted Housekeeper to Guangtao Alley as a gesture of response to Fourth Aunt.
The Housekeeper returned and reported, "Young Master Zuo said the Han family in the northern part of the city offered a dowry of five thousand taels of silver."
Eldest Sister-in-law was so furious she nearly fainted. She replied to Fourth Aunt, "They’ve already begun marriage negotiations with the Han family from the north!"
Who would prefer a merchant’s daughter over forming ties with the Fu family?
Fourth Aunt thought Eldest Sister-in-law was incompetent and secretly sent someone to investigate. Upon learning it was about the dowry, she directly sent a message to Zuo Junjie: "Our Fifth Sister comes with not only five thousand taels of silver but also three hundred acres of fertile land."
The Han family, hoping to gain a scholar-son-in-law to bolster their status—whether in business, corvée labor, or taxes—carefully calculated the benefits and instructed the matchmaker to tell Zuo Junjie, "In addition to the five thousand taels, there’s also a shop that generates five hundred taels annually."
Fourth Aunt retorted, "What’s more valuable—a shop yielding five hundred taels a year, or being the son-in-law of the Fu family?"
The matter eventually reached Grandmother.
Grandmother slapped Fourth Aunt right in front of the servants and decided to betroth Fifth Sister to the son of Scholar Yao from Tonglin County.
After learning of this, Zuo Junjie never set foot in the Fu household again. Once, drunk, he confided to someone, "That old hag keeps ruining my plans. One day, I’ll make her regret it."
Somehow, these words reached the Fu family. No one dared breathe a word of it to Grandmother, and they even avoided Guangtao Alley when passing by.
Eldest Sister-in-law kept her head down even more within the Fu household.
Zuo Junjie, upon realizing this, declared, "...I’ll marry no one but the daughter of an official family!" His engagement with the Han family also fell through.
But Huayin was, after all, just a small county town—how many official families could there be? Those who favored him couldn’t offer a substantial dowry, which he deemed beneath his dignity. Those he fancied, aware of his entanglement with the Fu family, considered him fickle and lacking integrity. Huazhou and Xi’an Prefecture had more official families, but their standards were even higher. After much back-and-forth, Zuo Junjie’s marriage prospects remained unresolved.
Until two months ago, when he suddenly sought out Mother, humbly stating he had an important matter to discuss.
One doesn’t strike a smiling face.
Mother dismissed her attendants.
"Fifth Madam," he said with exaggerated reverence, bowing deeply, "Ninth Miss and I share mutual affection and wish to unite in matrimony. I beg for your blessing."
It struck like a bolt from the blue. Mother stood frozen, unable to react for a long moment. When she finally regained her composure, she found it laughable: "Our Ninth Daughter has been betrothed since childhood to the eldest son of the Yu Family from Nanjing’s Fengle Ward. Could Young Master Zuo be mistaken?"
When she was ten, she had accompanied Grandmother to visit an aunt who had married into Nanjing. While offering incense at Gongde Temple, they encountered Madam Shu, the second wife of the Yu Family.The Yu Family's great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-granduncle had all served as Chancellors of the Imperial Academy. Their grandfather, while serving as a Hanlin Academy Reader-in-Waiting, twice presided over the Jiangxi provincial examinations. By the generation of Yu Guodong, Yu Guoliang, and Yu Guocai, all three brothers successively achieved success in the imperial examinations and were appointed as Scholarly Candidates in the Hanlin Academy. Later, the second master of the Yu Family, Yu Guoliang, rose through the ranks to become the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, overseeing officials and impeaching misconduct. To avoid conflicts of interest, the eldest master Yu Guodong was posted away as the prefect of Jingzhou in Huguang, while the third master Yu Guocai, unwilling to leave Jiangnan, resigned and returned home to become a recluse. They were among the most prominent noble families in Jiangnan.
Perhaps nothing in the world is perfect. While the Yu Family had enjoyed smooth sailing in their official careers over the years, they faced increasing difficulties in producing heirs. Among the three brothers, only the second master Yu Guoliang had a son at the age of thirty-two.
This Lady Shu was the birth mother of the Yu Family's eldest young master.
Though not the Wife of a Clan Leader of the Yu Family, her merit in continuing the Yu lineage and her husband's high-ranking position among his brothers made her a formidable presence in the Yu household, with no one daring to cross her.
My aunt's marital family had some connections with the Yu Family. Since they happened to meet, they shared a midday meal together.
For some reason, Lady Shu took a great liking to me and kept engaging me in conversation.
My grandmother, noticing this, began recounting amusing anecdotes from my childhood, which delighted Lady Shu immensely.
Within a few days, Lady Shu sent a matchmaker to propose a marriage between her son Yu Jingxiu and me.
My grandmother was overjoyed and agreed to the match without even consulting my mother.
The exchange of the marriage contract and the initial betrothal ceremony were both completed in Nanjing.
My mother was deeply dissatisfied and wrote to my father, subtly voicing her concerns: "...We've never met this Young Master Yu. Who knows what kind of person he is?"
Wu Laoye replied swiftly. His letter stated that the eldest son of the Yu Family had been renowned for his intelligence since childhood, beginning his education at five and mastering the Annotations of the Four Books by twelve. Now studying under the great Jiangnan scholar Fan Kun to master the art of examination essays, his future prospects were boundless—this was a match of the highest order. He urged my mother to discipline me well, lest I bring disgrace to the Fu Family's reputation upon marrying into the Yu Family.
Reassured, my mother kept me close, tempering my disposition under her guidance, scarcely letting me out of her sight. How then, could I have suddenly developed a secret relationship with Zuo Junjie?
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Previously in The Commoner Daughter , I set up a placeholder post and will select suitable names for appropriate chapters. Everyone can find them in the book—I won’t explain each one individually!
O(∩_∩)O~
(End of Chapter)
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