Chapter Nine: The Matchmaker’s Lips, the Deceiver’s Trickery

“Speak the wrong words? How could anyone from your village say the wrong thing?”

Someone grabbed her, and the matchmaker finally found someone to confide in—or rather, to vent to!

“Their eldest daughter, she’s never really eaten or drunk water growing up, just survived on the northwest wind.”

“So, who in their right mind would demand a bride price? Thirty yuan for a bride price? Isn’t that heartless, like selling one’s daughter?”

“I’ve heard that in your village, when you marry a wife, you treat her like an ancestor—no chores, no children, just eating and drinking well every day!”

“That’s the way to do it! From now on, any girl wanting to marry into your old Qin family won’t just ask for a bride price, but a full bridal procession for ten miles—otherwise, why would she come just to enjoy the good life?”

“Heh, your Qin family really has some power.”

“In the future, the young men in your village won’t have trouble finding wives.”

“Every household treating their wives like ancestors—that would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m sure every parent would agree, scrambling to marry their daughters into your old Qin family just to enjoy a life of ease—and who cares about bride prices!”

This Aunt Li, a matchmaker through and through, sure has a way with words.

After her tirade, everyone understood exactly what had happened.

“Just over a thirty-yuan bride price? That can’t be, it just can’t!”

Captain Qin Zheng’s mouth twitched. Though he felt thirty yuan was a bit steep, he absolutely couldn’t say it out loud.

After all, their village was poor! And there were many unmarried young men.

The competition was fierce! Getting a wife wasn’t easy; they had to play along!

“How can it not be? Look at the ninth uncle and his wife—they look like a pair of split gourds. Are they ignoring me? Am I the unreasonable one?”

“No, definitely not. Those two don’t usually make a fuss. If they were eloquent, would their child still be unable to marry by now?”

Having said so much, seeing the Qin family’s attitude, Aunt Li wasn’t quite so angry anymore.

Besides, being a matchmaker is rarely smooth sailing.

She had encountered many such cases before. If she could calm down the main family now, maybe she could still secure a thank-you gift for her services.

A matchmaker’s mouth is truly a deceiver’s charm!

“Captain Qin, actually, I’m not that angry.”

“To be honest, thirty yuan is the highest bride price around these parts, but did the bride’s family ask for that much without reason?”

“Let them speak for themselves. When I first conveyed the message, what was the agreed bride price?”

“Just eighteen yuan. Though not exactly low, it’s certainly not excessive.”

“So why did it become thirty? Isn’t it because the couple made a fuss?”

“Midyear, they said they were building a new house. But look now—his old, dilapidated house; I’m afraid a strong wind would blow it down.”

“With such a house, the bride’s family wanted to leave right after seeing it; I had to persuade them to stay.”

“Look at your family’s clothes—if you had no good clothes, could you borrow a new set like borrowing money?”

“Dressed so shabbily, and the bride’s family didn’t say a word, right?”

“Then they kept bragging about having money but just hadn’t had time to build the house or buy decent clothes to put on their faces!”

“Heh, the money was real—they even pulled out five hundred yuan in cash, a huge pile. That really fooled people.”

“Haha, that’s hilarious. I’ve seen this many times. If you have that kind of money, why not build a house?”

“Why pretend to be rich with a swollen face? If you really had money, wouldn’t you show it on your face?”

“Now it’s backfired, hasn’t it? Isn’t that shameful?”

“I don’t know how many families they borrowed from, but they borrowed five hundred yuan. Are they trying to cheat their way into marriage?”

“The bride’s sister-in-law just tried a little test, saying since your family’s so rich, then give a thirty-yuan bride price.”

“But unexpectedly, you exploded over this small test and accused them of selling their daughter?”

“Even if it were selling their daughter, the bride’s sister-in-law has no right to do that. What were they thinking?”

“Even if they were borrowing money to trick the marriage, couldn’t they have at least kept appearances?”

“Why make a fuss over thirty yuan bride price?”

“Wait until the bride is married in! It’s only thirty yuan!”

“They never pressured you to build a house right away!”

“Stubborn! No, selfish! Only thinking of themselves. Forget it, I’m not angry, not angry...”

A matchmaker’s tongue—truly a master of persuasion.

Just a few words, and she cleared herself completely.

Seeing this, Qin Jun felt helpless. This was a common phenomenon in rural areas during the 1970s and ’80s.

It was a product of the times, for even the privileged city dwellers lived modestly.

After all, city people were considered the nobles of the Republic, being workers rather than farmers—an entirely different world!

As the late Mr. Lu Xun once said: the Republic has its aristocracy, and that’s the city folk.

They lived on government rations, received wages, had fixed food quotas, various coupons, and social benefits.

Yet compared to beggars decades later, their lives weren’t much better.

If the Republic’s “nobles” lived like that, imagine the plight of farmers in a small mountain village.

The matchmaker surely knew the village’s situation.

To Qin Jun, thirty yuan for a bride was hardly a loss.

But if you put yourself in that era, in a family of seven or eight with a yearly income of just one hundred thirty yuan, then thirty yuan was an astronomical sum.

Needless to say, the cousin in ninth uncle’s family would remain unmarried for now.

“Let’s go dig some bluestone, try to build a five-room tiled house after the new year!”

Not wanting to watch the drama any longer, Qin Zhihe said gloomily and pulled Qin Feng away.

Qin Jun glanced at his second brother’s sullen face—if they didn’t build a new house, his second brother’s chances of marriage would be bleak.

Walking out of the village together, Qin Jun’s expression grew complicated.

Originally, he just wanted to improve their living conditions and had thought of burning lime.

Now it seemed burning lime was indeed important and had to be done well.

To the west of the village were mostly flat fields, all dry land.

The soil here was littered with various-sized rubble, mostly limestone.

Because of this, nothing grew well here.

In such places, if you know where to look, you can find piles of round or oval bluestone.

Usually, these rocks weren’t buried deep, at most two or three meters underground.

There was no easy way to find these stone clusters; it relied on experience.

That meant Old Qin knew which plots were driest.

For example, with peanuts, the first to wither during drought indicated soil with sand or rock beneath.

Thin soil layers couldn’t retain water, so they dried out first.

This was experience. With Qin Zhihe choosing the digging spot, their family soon saw success.

In winter, the top twenty centimeters of soil was frozen and needed effort to break through.

Once that frozen layer was removed, the soil underneath was easier to dig.

Soon, a one-meter-wide pit appeared before Qin Jun.

Qin Zhihe’s choice was spot on; his first strike hit a stone.

Using a crowbar to pry it out, it was a bluestone roughly the size of a human head.

This was bluestone, useful for making stone carvings or as building material.

If they could get cement later, mixing it with sand and water would make concrete.

Limestone was a high-quality raw material with wide applications.

One find meant many more to come, a characteristic of limestone distribution.

In central Qilu, where Qin Jun was, there weren’t large limestone deposits; otherwise, they might have uncovered a huge cave.

Locally, limestone existed as round, oval, or irregular elongated ovals.

These shapes clearly resulted from prolonged water erosion.

Thus, where bluestone clustered, sand was usually nearby.

Bluestone came in large clusters; sand appeared in long bands.

For building, both sand and lime were indispensable, so these materials could be had for free.

“Third brother, you really know how to burn lime?”

Elder brother Qin Li, seeing the find, couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course!”

Qin Jun picked up a piece of bluestone and tossed it outside the pit.

“How did you learn? From whom? We don’t mind helping, but burning lime needs carbon, and carbon isn’t cheap,” Qin Li asked again.

“Do I need to learn that? Isn’t it obvious? Second brother, did you learn how to dig a field stove in the army? Don’t you know how to dig a smokeless stove?”