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GNU Ch.26 Part 2 – Choosing a Husband (II)

Cheng Yujin’s biggest wish in life was to have both money and power. Unfortunately, both were too difficult to achieve on her own. Cheng Yujin could only invest in man and marriage. Ever since she could think on her own, she deliberately built a good reputation and always put on a mask in front of all the madams, showing herself to be an excellent candidate for a wife and mother. When she grew up, she became more beautiful, and her reputation also grew in an equally good direction. She was only one step away from her dream. But at this critical junction, people kept tripping her legs.

First, her engagement was canceled by that stupid Huo Changyuan, and her many years of reputation was in jeopardy. Fortunately, breaking this engagement could be considered as a stop loss. Cheng Yujin barely able to handle it, but she never expected that her father was rushing to seek death.

Cheng Yujin firmly thought to herself: no one can stop her from marrying her ideal husband. Not even her foolish father. This Buddha named crown prince was too big. Cheng Yujin didn’t dare to do anything excessive. But with a proper measure, she could still use this unexpected fact for her advantage.

Cheng Yujin opened her eyes and carefully considered her plans ahead.

After today’s experience, all the things from her previous life that she had always thought as strange were finally explained.

Cheng Yujin had a dream, in which she watched the life of ‘Cheng Yujin’ like a wandering soul. She hasn’t experienced that life in real. All those love and hate were simply like watching other people’s story; as if she was separated by a layer of fog, and nothing was real. Rather than experiencing such a lifetime, it was better to say that she accidentally caught a glimpse of one version of her lives.

However, she remembered a few fools, especially Huo Changyuan.

In that life, her contact with this so-called ninth uncle was almost non-existent. Her marriage contract with Huo Changyuan also never been broken; she never bumped into Cheng Yuanjing who was going home, and they never did the embroidered screen together. In the summer after Cheng Yuanjing’s return to the capital, she married Huo Changyuan.

To be precise, in this month.

She perfectly understood the way of living in the inner courtyard. Men were indeed powerful, but it was the legal wife who handled the food, clothing, and other necessities for all people in the family. Cheng Yujin has always been rational, both in this life and naturally also in that life. Therefore, it was certain that ‘Cheng Yujin’ never offended Old Madam Cheng for a nominal uncle that she had never known before. After she got married, they wouldn’t even have a chance to talk to each other.

‘Cheng Yujin’ only vaguely heard that Ninth Uncle had returned to the capital, then went again to another place as an official. After that, there was no news. Apparently, he died of illness on his post.

At that, Cheng Yujin was pregnant. Thanks to Huo Changyuan and Cheng Yumo, she had plenty of worries and naturally had no time to pay attention to an uncle that wasn’t close to her.

Afterward, she passed away in childbirth. ‘Cheng Yujin’ was only sixteen years old.

When she had that dream, Cheng Yujin didn’t notice anything was wrong. Now she thought back about it, she found out many strange points. For example, after her death, why did Huo Changyuan marry Cheng Yumo so smoothly; why did his career go so well; why did Cheng family, who had no talents at all, manage to survive without declining after so many years.

Another example, Huo Xue-shi obviously hated other women being close to her son. But after Huo Changyuan’s second marriage to Cheng Yumo, she treated Cheng Yumo so kindly.

Following the perspective of a book’s character, Cheng Yujin reluctantly admitted that it was Cheng Yumo’s fate. She was the female lead who was born to be loved by everyone. But thinking about it now, the hell with the so-called ‘fate’: it was clear that Huo Changyuan secretly leaked some words to Huo Xue-shi, letting his mother knew that there was a big Buddha behind Cheng family, and they had to treat the Cheng daughter well to get into the crown prince’s good grace.

Even if it was just borrowing an identity, after all, the fact was that the Cheng family had sheltered the crown prince for many years. In this respect, His Highness would always be their backing. Since no men from Cheng family were dependable, all of this glorious benefit fell into the son-in-law.

The hell with a talented youth! Huo Changyuan’s smooth-sailing career all depending on Cheng family. No wonder he was so adamant in marrying Cheng Yumo. The so-called savior, the so-called first love, and the so-called true love were all excuses. At most, it was only a small part of the whole picture. The real reason for him to marry Cheng Yumo was for her family’s grace towards the crown prince. A Cheng daughter was a ready-made amulet for instant success.

Anger filled Cheng Yujin’s mind. What kind of shitty luck she had in her previous life to marry Huo Changyuan? Changed to any other man, with her ability, plus the grace from the crown prince that he casually leaked, she would live satisfyingly no matter whom she married to.

But it was all for naught. ‘Cheng Yujin’ married into Huo family and was betrayed by her husband and sister. Before the crown prince recovered his identity, she died of blood loss due to her mother-in-law’s negligence. Up until her death, she was ignorant of the truth.

Cheng Yujin took a deep breath. The events from previous life have been cleared now. Since everything hasn’t occurred yet, she still has a chance to remedy the situation. This time, the crown prince was an extremely shiny trump card. She must use this fact well.

Cheng Yujin didn’t know whether to admire Old Master Cheng’s courage or her own courage. But since she had walked out of the cabinet alive today, it proved that the crown prince wasn’t interested in her life. Otherwise, he didn’t need to do all those things afterward. Since he didn’t want to kill her, the rest was much simpler. The crown prince had countless other things to do and shouldering a great cause. Why would he care about a little girl who simply took advantage of the situation? Cheng Yujin even planned to let Cheng Yuanjing to directly give her a marriage order to a good, powerful man. Wasn’t it equal to a chance to choose whichever man she fancy?

 

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21 thoughts on “GNU Ch.26 Part 2 – Choosing a Husband (II)”

  1. Huhuhu I know she’ll end up with Cheng Yuanjin and I wont lie on his own he would be a high spec ML but the way CYJ is written makes you root for her happiness and let her move away from palace drama. That means the author and translation are very good!!

    Many thanks! I havent connected with a character this much since Please Confess to Me!

    1. I have a sneaky suspicion that she would enjoy the palace drama. This is not a woman meant to be doing nothing but peacefully managing a household for the rest of her life, even if she thinks that is what she wants, she obviously has the skills to be the power behind both her husband and her son’s throne.

      1. I agree with you. She would thrive in the palace with all that politics and probably enjoy it also especially if she has a loved one that is genuinely true to her. Sort of like her partner in crime. There is nothing about her that screams normal or average. I hope the author stays true to her strengths and weaknesses even when she hooks up with our beloved ninth uncle.

  2. I really love this story, thanks for the translation! It is fascinating to watch how a smart, capable woman in this setting has to go about accumulating power and money through the only avenue available to her. This is one of my favorite protagonists ever because, aside from a half-remembered dream that warned her of marrying one guy, she has no other cheats (and she was only 16 when she died). Everything she is in the midst of accomplishing is all her own ability.

  3. hehe i agree with the previous comment. she is a great protagonist. growing up being seen as a tool she has the thought of doing the same, everything in her reach she will use but no but not without scruples. the ninth uncle is starting to fall in love with her. But will CY consider him a candidate? The road to the throne is not easy

  4. Who the hell marries a fourteen-year-old girl off?! Like, seriously! It’s such a tragic waste of life and potential. I know that in medieval Europe even younger girls could be married and bedded, but that was true mainly for royalty… Well, at least this time it’s going to be different. And Huo Changyuan is even more of a scum than I previously thought.
    Thank you for the translation <3

  5. Queenofthefuzzybugs

    To the person upstairs, it was rare in medieval Europe to marry before you were 17. The youngest a woman could marry was 15 but most married at around 18/19 years old. This included royalty. It was odd for there to be big age gaps too. Once you get into the 1800s married couples were in their 20s. Of course it varied from place to place, Europe is a big area to cover with lots of different cultures after all.

    I’ve personally always wondered how accurate these stories are about marital ages in ancient China. Just because they CAN marry at xyz age doesn’t follow they will do so. And it always struck me as strange having a 14 yr old married an adult (20+). Did the teen men never get married or what? It seems to me it would be much more logical to marry a 14/15 girl to a 16/17 year old boy. It’s still young but at least they’re both teenagers….

    1. It depends on the dynasty, but the ages are mostly accurate from what I can tell. Typical marriage age for a woman in Ancient China ranged between 13 and 15. Some claim that part of this was due to a gender imbalance in marriageable females stemming from high female infant mortality, societal/legal restrictions on remarriage of widows, and polygamy among noble families. Ironically, marrying girls so young also resulted in higher deaths in childbirth which only worsened the overall imbalance.

      Ancient China – probably in the top 10 of places you wouldn’t want to be born female.

    2. Well, first of all I was talking about the Middle Ages. AFAIK, the majority of historians think that this period was over by the middle/end of the 15th century. Unless you share the idea of much respected Jaques Le Goff about the “Long Middle Ages” lasting till the Industrial Revolution, your quoting the situation in the 19th century is not very relevant in THIS context.
      Second, you may be interested in looking at this “List of child brides” compiled by Wikipedia:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_brides
      You’ll see that there’s no shortage of 11, 12, 13-year-old girls on the list (hell, some of them were even 7 or 8!) Though not all of the brides mentioned there are from Europe, the majority of them are (again, I’m talking about the period starting in the 5th century and finishing in the 15th century AD)
      Hope that clarifies my words.

  6. Welp this girl clearly has big guys, she’s just the best.

    I kinda want to agree with some people that she would maybe thrive in a place like the royal harem with her intellect and that the slow life she wants may end up being too boring for her but … Idk just because you have a talent doesn’t gotta mean you enjoy using it, especially something like this.

    I really just want Yujin to be happy at this point. I don’t care about anyone else, she is just too great of a character and everyone else is scummy or uninteresting.

    I also hope she never helps her stupid family, i hate them all.

  7. I guess I’m the only one crying for Xu Zhixian (is that it). I really wanted that relationship, now I feel like crying. Sigh 😪

  8. “The hell with a talented youth! Huo Changyuan’s smooth-sailing career all depending on Cheng family.” Yeah, this is what I had suspected for a while, ever since reading Yumo also died young from an infectuos disease.

  9. This girl is clever hahaha. But be careful with your wish girl, it could be true.
    If you ask for a marriage decree, you might get one…but don’t get a heart attack when you read the groom’s name on the decree 🤣

  10. Just bcz she can doesn’t mean she want to, she was forced to that’s why she can if you give her a happy family she may also be like her twin sister, not caring for anything

  11. dang when you really think about it a young girl getting pregnant at 15 or 16 is really messed up… so glad i don’t live in that kind of society 😭

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