HPDBC Chapter 1632 Let’s go to pick up the bride!
Chapter 1632 Let’s go to pick up the bride!
Chapter 1632 Let’s go to pick up the bride!
Ten or twelve dishes are already the largest banquets held by Yong'an.
But at this time, Wang Meilan was still not satisfied and wanted more dishes.
Wang Meilan is good in every way except that she is very vain and likes to show off, which she admits herself.
Now the family is rich, no worse than the Wang family back then.
It is said that if you don't return to your hometown when you are rich and powerful, it is like walking in the night in fine clothes. Why do you return to your hometown when you are rich and powerful? Isn't it just to show off?
But if her son gets married, Wang Meilan can't show off properly once, then if she wants to show off again she will have to wait until her grandson gets married.
There was no other way. Wang Meilan raised three daughters and a son. She couldn't hold a big wedding banquet for her daughters because she had to consider the in-laws. She couldn't outdo the man's family.
Therefore, if her son’s wedding cannot be held in a grand ceremony, Wang Meilan will not be able to sleep well for at least twenty years.
Zhao Jun is also a person who cares about face. Of course, the more glorious his own business is, the better.
But at this moment, Zhao Jun glanced into the east room, then whispered in Wang Meilan's ear, "Mom, don't you have to discuss this with my dad?"
Hearing what Zhao Jun said, Wang Meilan subconsciously glanced towards the east room, then lowered her voice and said to Zhao Jun, "If not discuss it with him, what is there to discuss with him? He keeps dithering and nothing can be discussed."
"Are the dishes enough?" Zhao Jun asked Wang Meilan again, "There are about a hundred tables. Can we serve sixteen dishes each? Don't let it be until You'er is left. If we can't serve sixteen dishes, it will be embarrassing for us mother and daughter."
Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Wang Meilan squinted her eyes and continued in a low voice, "Let's do this for now. Wait for Mom's letter. I'll go discuss it with your aunt and uncle."
After saying that, Wang Meilan went to the west room.
Since Zhao Youcai was injured, the men have moved to the east room to eat and drink. So many people came today, including Li Ruhai, there are a total of 36 men, so they stand on the two side tables in the east room and put two large tabletops.
That big table was used when the production team ate from a big pot. I don’t know how it got to the Zhao family.
"Pour the wine!" Zhao Youcai didn't do anything, but he knew how to order people around. A bottle of Moutai would be empty if it didn't fill a few glasses.
Today, Zhao Jun went into the city and bought twenty bottles of Moutai liquor, intending to give them as gifts to leaders such as Chu Anmin and Yan Shugang tomorrow.
Zhao Jun discussed this matter with Wang Meilan when he was at home.
Nowadays, everyone takes away food after a banquet, but this is limited to people from the village. It's not that people from other villages are not allowed to take away food, but because there are no plastic bags at this time, and people from other villages can't take away food in sacks.
As for the leaders, they will not want leftovers.
So Zhao Jun suggested buying a few bottles of good wine, wrapping them in newspapers, and then giving them to the leaders when they leave.
At that time, Zhao Youcai said that it was unnecessary, but just now Zhao Youcai called Zhao Jun and asked Zhao Jun to take out two bottles of good wine.
With so many people, two bottles of wine are not enough.
The cups are 2.5 liang each, and each person has one cup, so eight bottles of Moutai are gone.
But Zhao Jun didn't care. At this time, except for his own people, all the people in the room came to help him.
Zhao Weipeng's three men brought prawns and yellow croakers from far away, and Huang Gui and his six men helped Zhao Jun catch wild boars. Not to mention Han Dachun and his twelve men, they worked all afternoon and would have to work all day tomorrow.
Good wine and good food go together, and the atmosphere in the room instantly reached its peak.
The atmosphere is good, but the air is bad.
An hour ago, Zhao Youcai opened a pack of Shilin cigarettes, but now not even half of it is left.
Nearly forty people were smoking together, filling the room with smoke and blurring out everyone.
Such thick smoke was bound to spread outside. So at this time, the door of the west room was tightly closed, and the women and children sat together. There were no outsiders in the room.
Wang Meilan had just taken the soda handed over by Yang Yufeng when she heard Jie Sunshi laugh and say, "Sister, there are too many dishes today."
Following up on what Jie Sun said, Wang Meilan discussed with the ladies the possibility of serving sixteen dishes tomorrow.
When the women heard that Wang Meilan was going to expand the size of the banquet, they looked at each other. Except for Xie Sun who looked excited, the others seemed to disagree.
"Hey, my girl." Seeing that no one else was talking, the old lady said to Wang Meilan, "Twelve dishes are not bad. No one would eat like this at a banquet. Well, sixteen dishes will be enough..."
Before the old lady finished her words, she heard a crisp child's voice, "Prodigal woman!"
"Huh?" Everyone was stunned. When they turned their eyes and saw that the person who spoke was Lin Xiaobao from Lin Xiangshun's family, everyone laughed again.
Lin Xiaobao, who just celebrated his fourth birthday, knows more than other children of the same age due to the Zhao family's conditions and television, but he is still in the stage of speaking without restraint.
Even if Zhao Na or Wang Tian were to say that, they would be slapped. When Lin Xiaobao spoke, Xu Chunyan only tapped his head and said, "What are you talking about, little brat?"
At this time, Wang Meilan smiled and looked at Lin Xiaobao. Just when she wanted to say something, Lin Xiaobao suddenly said, "You little loser!!"
As soon as Lin Xiaobao said this, Wang Meilan and others all changed their expressions.
Everyone who was cheerful just now was no longer cheerful now.
Wang Meilan's cheeks were tense and twitching slightly. She felt that she had been too nice to Zhao Youcai in the past two days.
How can you say some things in front of a child? Besides, the child is still so young, how can you teach him bad things?
At this moment, all the women in the room could see that Wang Meilan was angry.
"Well... that..." The old lady glanced at everyone and quickly said to Wang Meilan, "Sixteen dishes are fine. We have the conditions. It's fine as long as the dishes we prepare are good enough."
"Enough, enough!" Jin Xiaomei quickly added, "We have plenty of everything, it's good enough that there aren't too many left over."
"It's not good to have too much left!" Just as Jin Xiaomei finished speaking, Jie Sunshi said, "It's getting warmer now, and we can't keep anything anymore."
"That's right……"
Everyone agreed with Wang Meilan's decision to expand the table. Thinking that tomorrow was a big day for her family, Wang Meilan kept today's event in mind and invited everyone to eat.
The women ate quickly and left early. After they finished eating, they cleared the table in the west room and took their children to blow balloons.
Today, Zhao Jun went into the city and saw balloons for sale in a big store, so he bought 500 of the colorful balloons.
This thing is quite expensive, only 30 cents each. Zhao Jun bought 500 of them, and if I gave him a discount, he could get it down to 28 cents each.
Zhao Jun bought this, firstly because he had never seen it in Yong'antun before, and secondly because he bought balloons to decorate the yard and the trees outside the yard, so that Wang Meilan wouldn't have to put up pine torches.
Children especially like balloons. They puff out their cheeks and blow up balloons one by one.
The two tables in the east room drank until half past nine. The good food and good wine made the group drink a few more sips. But none of them were drunkards. They knew that the Zhao family had something to do tomorrow, so no one drank too much.
The Zhao army drove the Liberation Army and captured the people in Yongshengtun, along with the remaining sow wild boar of Huang Gui and his men, and sent them back to Yongsheng.
Those who lived in Yongli and Yongfu asked Li Baoyu and Jie Chen to drive a jeep each for a trip.
When Zhao Jun came back, all the balloon blowers had blown their balloons to Li's house.
There will be a lot of people staying at Zhao's house today, and it would be too much of a nuisance to put so many inflated balloons.
Wang Meilan arranged for Zhao Weipeng and his son and the three servants to live in the west room. Zhao Jun and Zhou Jianjun took Little Lynx, Little Black Bear and Little Black Fatty to the Li family next door to live with Li Baoyu and Li Ruhai.
After arranging the guests in the west room, Wang Meilan returned to the east room and prepared to clean up and go to bed.
At this time, Zhao Chun had already warmed the quilt and poured foot-washing water for Wang Meilan.
Feeling that Wang Meilan was sitting on the edge of the kang, Zhao Youcai, who had already lain down, propped himself up with a groan.
"Lan." Zhao Youcai called out to Wang Meilan, but found that Wang Meilan ignored him. Zhao Youcai was startled, and then called out again: "Lan?"
Zhao Chun knew that his mother was angry with his father, so he quickly helped Zhao Youcai find a way out and asked, "Dad, why are you scolding my mother?"
"Ah, nothing." Zhao Youcai said, "I was wondering, why didn't your Sixth Master come?"
Zhao Youcai was asking about Wang Changhai. After responding to Zhao Chun, Zhao Youcai called Wang Meilan and said, "That old man probably can't come."
When Zhao Youcai said this, Wang Meilan was stunned and she only glanced at Zhao Youcai.
If it were someone else, they would have kept silent at this time. But from the tone of Wang Changhai when he mentioned Zhao Youcai during his last visit, it was clear that the old man didn't like Zhao Youcai very much.
When Wang Changhai came that day, Zhao Youcai was not at home. When he came back and heard that Wang Changhai was here, it was not difficult to see from Zhao Youcai's words that he was not very proud of the old man.
At this time, Zhao Youcai laughed and said, "If you ask me, the old man didn't even want to come. He just said a few polite words to you, but you took them seriously."
Seeing this, Zhao Chun secretly thought that something was wrong and hurriedly winked at Zhao Youcai. However, her eyes were too small and Zhao Youcai did not receive any of her glances.
Wang Meilan did not speak at this time, and she just listened to Zhao Youcai continue to say: "I said, he came here just for the tiger beads. This guy, throw a few coins to a few kids, give you a bag of broken twists, and give us tiger bones..."
Zhao Youcai was speaking excitedly when he saw Wang Meilan suddenly turn around and look at him with a gloomy face and sharp eyes.
Zhao Youcai's heart skipped a beat and he quickly shut his mouth. At the same time, Zhao Youcai noticed that his eldest daughter was winking at him. Zhao Youcai quickly lay back in bed and dared not say a word.
Wang Meilan's chest heaved violently as she stared at Zhao Youcai who closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"Mom, please wipe your feet quickly. The water has gotten cold, hasn't it?" Zhao Chun's filial piety temporarily eased Wang Meilan's anger. She let out a long sigh and said to Zhao Chun, "Your sixth grandfather is afraid that he will come too early and cause us more trouble. He will definitely arrive early tomorrow morning."
These words seemed to be addressed to Zhao Chun, but actually they were addressed to Zhao Youcai.
Thinking about the big and important things happening tomorrow, Wang Meilan didn't bother with Zhao Youcai for the time being, but she kept the account in her mind.
……
The next day, March 1988, 3, was the third day of the second lunar month.
At the same time, this day is also the Spring Equinox of the 24 solar terms.
It was still dark in the morning, just a little after four o'clock, when Jin Xiaomei next door had already prepared the meal and brought it to the Zhao family.
After finishing her meal, Wang Meilan said a few words to Zhao Jun, then took Zhou Jianjun, Li Baoyu and Li Ruhai, boarded the Liberation train and hurried to the Zhao family's new house.
When Wang Meilan just arrived at her new house, it was just daybreak when the two brothers Han Dachun and Han Daming came with their families.
Han Dachun has no children, just the two of them at home, while Han Daming and his wife only have a fat daughter.
The Han brothers came to cook, while the women came to help.
As soon as the Han brothers arrived in the backyard, they washed the pots and boiled water.
"Dachun, Daming." Wang Meilan came over and said to the Han brothers, "I will not be in charge of the kitchen anymore. I will leave it to you two."
"Sister-in-law, just go and do your own thing." Han Dachun didn't say anything extra and just worked hard.
The two families have been friends for many years, and Wang Meilan trusts Han Dachun.
Wang Meilan walked towards the front yard and saw Li Ruhai coming towards her quickly.
"Auntie!" Li Ruhai came over and clasped his fists towards Wang Meilan, saying, "The big tofu and dried tofu are here. Can you ask them to bring them in?"
"Nonsense!" Wang Meilan had a lot of things to do this morning. She said impatiently, and waved her hand, "Let them take it to the backyard."
"Hey!" Li Ruhai responded and ran out of the yard.
As the big tofu and dried tofu entered the backyard, Wang Fu, the shop owner, came driving a bullock cart, which was loaded with liquor, beer and drinks.
Along with Wang Fu came Zhao Youcai's four apprentices, and the Wang, Zhang, Lin, and Jie families.
The ox cart drove directly to the backyard, and the cooks helped unload the wine into the shed.
At this time, the old house was cleaned up, and Zhao Jun asked Zhao Jinhui to drive the Jiefang to deliver another batch of goods to the new house. He sent melon seeds, peanuts, and inflated balloons.
Xie Chen climbed up the big willow tree at the gate and tied balloons to the branches. Li Ruhai tied balloons on both sides of the gate. They were making the final arrangements for the Zhao family compound.
After a jeep brought Zhao Youcai over, there was basically nothing to do at the new house.
Li Baoyu, Zhang Yuanmin and others hurried to Zhao's house. They wanted to accompany Zhao Jun to Ma's house to pick up the bride.
Zhao Youcai and Wang Meilan did not move. They sat in the house with red envelopes in their pockets, waiting for their daughters-in-law to come and give them flowers.
At 6:50, Liu Tiezui, wearing a flowery jacket, was picked up by Zhao Weipeng and taken to Zhao's house. Liu Tiezui was quite lucky to be picked up by a big boss like Zhao Weipeng.
When Liu Tiezui arrived, the Zhao army had already been packed up.
Seeing that everyone was there, Zhao Jun was the first to walk out of the house.
Adopting a daughter-in-law is different from other things. It must be done with pomp and ceremony, and you have to use your abilities to the best of your ability.
At this time, two jeeps and two big Liberation trucks were lined up outside the Zhao family courtyard. The front of the four vehicles were hung with red silk and each had a big red flower tied to it.
The left and right rearview mirrors of the four cars and the trunks of two Liberation trucks were all tied with balloons.
Ten or twenty years ago, the choice of bride's pick-up would depend on how many bicycles the family had.
Nowadays, there are still people who use bicycles to pick up their brides, but they are rare now.
Few families, like the Zhao family, used large jeeps to pick up their brides, and even fewer could afford four cars.
The moment Zhao Jun, in a woolen suit and carrying a big red flower, walked out of the house, the strings of firecrackers hanging on the tent were lit.
Amid the sound of firecrackers, Zhao Jun led his men out of the yard. As the firecrackers stopped, Zhao Jun walked to the first jeep and shouted, "Let's go pick up the bride!"
(End of this chapter)