Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple-Chapter 44 - 38: Breaking Off the Engagement (Part 2)
The eldest Mr. Zhao hadn’t taken the talk of annulling the engagement seriously. He just assumed there was some friction between Zhao Jing’s family and Mrs. Chen over the betrothal gifts.
But when arranging a marriage, which families didn’t haggle over the betrothal gifts and dowry a few times?
It was no big deal. If they just talked it over, they were sure to find a solution.
But who would have thought that before he’d even had a proper drink, Jing would come to see him in person.
The two families really were going to annul the engagement, and it had already reached the point of no return.
The eldest Mr. Zhao was so worried he lost his appetite for wine. He knitted his thick brows, his eyes filled with distress.
He first looked at Zhao Jing. "You’re a grown man now, with your own ideas. Even your mother can’t make your decisions for you, so your uncle certainly can’t. But annulling an engagement is a serious matter, and this one was arranged by your father before he passed away. I am your uncle, after all, so allow me to pull rank and say this: unless it’s absolutely unavoidable, can’t we let this engagement stand?"
Zhao Jing served the elder some tea, his tone sincere and earnest.
"Uncle, you can’t force a happy union. Our eight characters are incompatible, and our personalities clash. If we force this marriage, our future will be filled with conflict. It’s better to let go now and preserve some dignity for both of us, rather than end up as a resentful couple who despise one another."
When the eldest Mr. Zhao heard the words "incompatible eight characters," his shrewd eyes narrowed.
’Jing and his family are in mourning and rarely leave the house, so where did this talk of "incompatible eight characters" come from?’
’It must have been Mrs. Chen. She must have specifically sought out a monk or a priest to read their characters and come up with this.’
’Then again, their characters weren’t incompatible when the engagement was first arranged. How could they suddenly be incompatible now?’
’Are their characters truly incompatible, or is this just a convenient excuse the Chen family invented to save face while annulling the engagement?’
The eldest Mr. Zhao’s sharp gaze fell upon the Chen Family. Even the other elders from the Zhao, Qu, and Chen clans, while puffing on their long-stemmed pipes, pointed at Chen Dachang’s family and said, "You people are truly muddle-headed!"
"What’s all this about incompatible characters? Everything has been fine for years. This ’incompatible characters’ business is just something those monks and priests say to fool people."
"You can’t take it seriously. You certainly can’t throw away such a good match over a lie they just made up on the spot."
"Jing is a promising young man. An opportunity like this won’t come around again."
With a pained expression, Mrs. Chen dabbed the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, as if wiping away tears.
Her voice was mournful. "I understand everything you gentlemen are saying. Jing is a promising and steady young man, and I wanted him as my grandson-in-law with all my heart. But it seems our family is fated to be unlucky. His and Wanyue’s eight characters are simply incompatible."
With trembling hands, Mrs. Chen took a slip of yellow paper from her sleeve.
She handed it to the eldest Mr. Zhao. "You’re a literate man, my dear brother. Please, take a close look."
Then she proceeded to spew the pile of complete nonsense she had fabricated to fool them.
She went on about how the abbot of Cien Temple had declared it "a terrible omen," and how if the two were to marry, "the couple would be mutually destructive, bringing harm to both person and fortune." She spoke with such convincing detail, it was as if she had actually gone to Cien Temple and met the abbot in person.
The eldest Mr. Zhao didn’t believe a word she said, but he couldn’t ignore the yellow paper she handed him.
The eldest Mr. Zhao had seen such yellow papers several times before. He had even gone to Cien Temple to request them himself before his own children and grandchildren were married.
The ones from the past were all inscribed with auspicious phrases like, "A match made in heaven, a couple joined on earth," "Mandarin ducks flying wing to wing, dragon and phoenix heralding prosperity," or "Many children and great blessings, a hall filled with gold and jade." They were all just a stream of lucky sayings, though it wasn’t as if the younger generation’s lives had actually turned out so lucky.
Because of this, the eldest Mr. Zhao had more than once suspected the monks at Cien Temple were charlatans who, for the sake of a little incense money, would say anything to fool people.
But the yellow paper in his hand was starkly inscribed with the words, "Incompatible eight characters, like water and fire. A mutually destructive couple, bringing harm to both person and fortune."
It was no exaggeration to say that in his seventy years of life, this was the first time the eldest Mr. Zhao had ever seen such a fortune.
He was dumbfounded for a moment. ’Well, I’ve certainly seen something new today!’
Seeing his reaction, the second Mr. Zhao, the third Mr. Zhao, Mr. Qu, and the others sitting beside him all leaned in to take a look.
Those among them who could read saw the words on the paper and wore the same astonished expression as the eldest Mr. Zhao. The illiterate ones grew frantic, craning their necks and staring as if they could will the meaning out of the paper itself. "What does it say?" they clamored impatiently. "What’s written on the yellow paper?"
"’Incompatible eight characters, like water and fire. A mutually destructive couple, bringing harm to both person and fortune.’ HISS... Is this really the reading from the abbot of Cien Temple? It can’t be a forgery, can it?"
The second Mr. Zhao looked astonished. He scratched his head, unable to figure it out. ’Our Jing is good-tempered and steady,’ he thought. ’And while that girl from the Chen family is a bit spoiled and headstrong, she seems to understand her etiquette.’
