“What happened? What’s all this fuss?” asked Liu Qianqian.

  “Miss, your marriage is……I’m afraid it’s over. Just now the Jia Family sent someone to deliver a message saying, saying……that they don’t want to tie the knot with our family.”


  In the yard, Ye Xiaoxian, Xiao Baoshan and Liu Qianqian were all quite taken aback.

  It had been going so smoothly. Why had they suddenly turned the marriage down?

  Ye Xiaoxian asked the maid, “Have the Jia Family given any reason?”


  “They said that, that……miss has tried to kill herself before and starved almost to death. They are worried that you may have some sort of health problem. They are also concerned that you may have a recurrence of an old illness and try to kill yourself again.”


  “How could this happen!” Liu Qianqian said furiously. “I’m looking good right now, aren’t I? I can eat two liang (a unit of weight in ancient China, around 200 grams) of rice per meal. My appetite is more than good. The Jia Family has actually inquired about what happened to me. If my past concerns them so badly, I’d rather end this marriage. I don’t care!”


  However, Ye Xiaoxian sensed something strange here. “Have they heard something from others? Maybe some people don’t want your families to tie the knot and sow discord.”


  Liu Qianqian had suffered from anorexia before which was known by many in town. The Jia Family was seeking to tie the knot with the Liu Family, so they must have known this before the blind date. They must have asked and figured it out. Besides, matchmakers now were such smooth talkers and must be capable of making what happened to Liu Qianqian sound plausible.

  Liu Qianqian was not in a good mood now as she was thought so poorly of by others, so she felt so disgraced. She simply said, “Anyway, the Jia Family is not sincere at all. They can go back on their word when a deal has already been made.”


  Ye Xiaoxian knew that Liu Qianqian was at the peak of her fury, so it was useless to try and persuade her to be calm, so she tried to excite Liu Qianqian. “Qianqian, whether the Jias are sincere or not is not important. However, if there really is someone who has spoiled your marriage deliberately, can we just let them off? Don’t you want to know who’s behind this? If this person has said something bad about you this time wouldn’t he do so again? We can’t let someone spoil everything for you all the time, can we?”


  Liu Qianqian thought about it and felt that Ye Xiaoxian had a point. “But I don’t know who is gossiping about me behind my back.”


  “Then let’s check on it with the matchmaker. The matchmaker is so articulate that she surely can manage to inquire into it.”
……

  In the afternoon, Ye Xiaoxian and Xiao Baoshan had an afternoon nap. Just as they had woken up and were about to snuggle together, Liu Qianqian came again.

  When Liu Qianqian arrived she shouted, “Little Ye, are you home? Quickly, come out. I have something to tell you!”


  Ye Xiaoxian sighed helplessly, reluctantly got dressed and went out to see Liu Qianqian.

  Liu Qianqian did not care whether Ye Xiaoxian had just woken up or not. She complained, “I’m so angry. It’s killing me. Little Ye, you’re absolutely right. The matchmaker told me today. Do you know who is gossiping about me behind my back? It turns out to be Bai Qi and my cousin!”


  Ye Xiaoxian was also shocked. “Bai Qi? Isn’t he your cousin-in-law? Why should he do such a thing? Is it that he spends so much time sitting around idling that his balls……”


  She meant to say, “.……that his balls hurt”.

  Liu Qianqian sat down furiously and then said to Ye Xiaoxian, “Get a cup of water for me.”


  Ye Xiaoxian quickly went to pour a cup of tea for her.

  Liu Qianqian gulped the tea down like it was tap water. After she finished, she smashed the cup on the floor and the cup lay there in pieces.

  Ye Xiaoxian said nothing.

  Luckily the tea cup was not expensive, so it was okay.

  “This is so damn strange. Weirder than seeing a ghost during the day. In broad daylight Bai Qi has actually smeared my reputation like this. I even used to miss him so much that I didn’t even care about eating. Every single feeling I had for him was in vain, along with all my suffering and pain. I almost died for him. It was just yesterday. I don’t know where he heard about my pa meeting the Jias and wanting to tie the knot with their family. Then that nasty man actually treated Jia Zhenbo to a meal and carelessly mentioned me. He then started to gossip about me and exposed all the scandals from all seventeen years of my life. Damn, now he has talked about me like that who will dare to marry me?”