2024-11-04 ☼ translation ☼ translations
I might be mistaken, but I think that in all my years of dating, Wu Jiayu was the very first repeat customer. By the time my zodiac year swung around for the third time, my ma and various aunties had all but given up on me. Only Auntie Mei, whose matchmaking powers were renowned throughout the neighbourhood, persevered. She saw me as a blemish on her otherwise pristine record. Still, she wasn’t exactly giving me much to work with: the decline in the quality of dates was evident. Ma was unimpressed. ‘No one’s forcing Auntie Mei to help,’ she said. ‘Why even bother if she’s going to bring us matches like that?’ She didn’t acknowledge that even those matches were unwilling to meet me for a second date. ‘This one is a bank teller,’ said Auntie Mei. ‘A bank teller,’ Ma sneered. ‘What prospects does a bank teller have? Slave away for a decade and you still don’t get anywhere.’ She turned to me. ‘Still, she’s about a billion times better off than you.’ For all her bluster, Ma still pulled out some cash and told me to take this one seriously, to try not to screw it up.
Read the full story in issue 169 of Granta.