Chapter 581 Marrying Someone Out of Spite (1)_1
"You’ve already picked out a suitor so quickly?" Pei Qin was surprised, Old Fang’s efficiency was getting faster and faster.
Fang Liuming hung his head low, "A young miss from the Graduate Chang’s part of the Chang family."
The Changs mostly operated in the shadow of Landlord Chang’s house or engaged in petty business, but in Yuanyang County, the Changs were also a large clan with a vast population. Some of them pursued scholarly studies and took the imperial examinations, and Graduate Chang was one of those families. Looking after the family estate and having taken the examinations to gain scholarly recognition, it was after Graduate Chang, at over forty, had failed the exams once again that he put aside the thought of reattempting and took to educating the Chang family’s children in their literary and examination pursuits.
Although there were indeed many children in the Chang family, and they hardly needed to pay for their education, as it was sponsored by Landlord Chang, they hadn’t produced many scholars, and to this day only one had passed the provincial examinations, and he was already over thirty. Therefore, Graduate Chang paid special honors to young and promising scholars.
At a young age, Fang Liuming had already been chosen as a successful candidate in the spring examinations, and his scholarship was indeed very impressive, exactly the kind of youthful talent he favored. And this youth had not yet married, nor was he betrothed, which made him a perfect match for his own marriageable daughter! The Fang family boasting three Scholars, a family on the rise through scholastic endeavor, if the two families were to become related by marriage, it would indeed be a most splendid affair. When the matchmaker spoke of potential matches, Graduate Chang had inquired and then expressed interest.
Although Graduate Chang’s family had exhausted quite a bit of silver on the examinations, their estate was still substantial, much better off than the Fang family’s. Just the title of Graduate that he possessed was enough to plot a course for government service. His daughter was also raised in poetry, etiquette, and traditional learning from a young age. Old Scholar Fang, Grandma Fang, and Lady Yu were all very satisfied with this marriage proposal. Fang Li wanted to seek out someone even better, but he couldn’t find the words to object. Indeed, this marriage was the best available at the moment.
As the days grew colder, Old Scholar Fang took the opportunity to send cotton-padded clothes to Fang Fu and Fang Liuming at the county school and conveyed to Fang Liuming the matter of the marriage arrangement with Graduate Chang’s family.
Upon hearing it was a young miss from the house of a Graduate from the Changs, Pei Qin thought the conditions should be quite favorable, "I also think this marriage arrangement isn’t bad, so why don’t you agree?"
"...I have someone I like! I don’t want to marry a stranger. I want to marry like Cousin did, with someone I love and stay with them for a lifetime!" Fang Liuming said after a moment of silence, speaking frankly.