novelraw Chapter 353 - 350: Getting Married
Chapter 353 - 350: Getting Married
"Sigh!" Seeing the two elders were determined not to back down, Lin Guozhu took a deep breath and pulled a letter from his pocket. "My girlfriend wrote. She said she’s coming to visit in June. Just give me two more months. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll go on the blind dates."
Lin Changyou didn’t hesitate. He took the letter, read it over, and nodded. "Alright. We’ll trust you one more time. Remember, a man’s word is his bond."
"I know," Lin Guozhu replied dejectedly.
****
In the blink of an eye, it was March. The eighth of the month was the day of Yang Dingbang and Yang Xiaoman’s wedding banquet.
Lin Guoliang and Lin Guodong put their business on hold for two days, returned to Dashiqiao to borrow a tractor, and then went back to Shilian. They transported all the timber and fruit trees they had bought in the mountains to Yucai Road.
Li Xiangyang and the Lin brothers unloaded the navel orange, cherry, pear, and persimmon trees, as well as the Sichuan and green Sichuan pepper trees. Lin Guoliang had also dug up numerous gardenia bushes, rose bushes, and galangal plants. Once they moved everything down, they saw the truck bed was packed to the brim with high-quality timber.
Lin Guoliang told him that all of it had come from Lin Changyou’s friends in the mountains.
The timber had only cost the equivalent of a thousand jin of grain, which wasn’t much all things considered. But for the mountain folk, it would be enough to get them through the lean months.
On this trip, the Lin brothers had also asked the mountain folk to help gather mushrooms, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise, as well as the large white beans, fava beans, and soybeans that Lin Lan needed.
Hearing this, Li Xiangyang felt that life for the mountain people was truly difficult. The mountains and East Market were like two different worlds.
After delivering some of the fruit trees to the homes of brothers Yang Dingbang and Xu Dong, the group planted the roses and the Sichuan and green Sichuan pepper trees in a circle along the base of their own property’s wall. Then they planted the navel orange, cherry, pear, and persimmon trees.
Seeing the neglected backyard, the Lin brothers helped dig it up, dividing it into plots and creating furrows.
Li Xiangyang found the vegetable seeds Old Li had put away and sowed a few types of greens. He also planted peas, green beans, cowpeas, and various types of gourds.
In mid-March, the Lexing Team held a members’ meeting. Lin Lan and Yang Liying went to the team headquarters.
Yang Meihua and Li Guizhi were standing at the entrance to the team grounds. Seeing the two approach, they greeted them with a smile. "What took you two so long? It’s already full inside."
Yang Liying laughed. "We can just listen from out here."
Li Guizhi pulled Lin Lan aside, her eyes crinkling with a smile. "Little Lin, we hardly see you anymore now that you’ve moved. How’s business?"
Lin Lan nodded. "About the same as before. Is the baked potato business going well?"
"Business is decent. My daughter has already started studying accounting," Li Guizhi said happily.
Lin Lan hadn’t expected the couple to have actually taken her advice. "That’s great. Accounting is a profession where you become more valuable with age."
Li Guizhi looked at her gratefully. "I really have you to thank. I also wanted to ask, are you still buying fava beans and old pumpkins today?"
"I am." As she spoke, Lin Lan remembered something else. "Tell your parents to increase their maltose production. The shop is having a hard time keeping up."
Li Guizhi nodded. "Okay, I’ll head over to my parents’ house after the meeting."
’Ever since Lin Lan started buying maltose from my parents,’ she thought, ’life at home has improved so much. My brother and sister-in-law don’t fight anymore. They spend their days helping harvest sweet potatoes and helping Dad make the maltose.’
’Thinking back, all their endless bickering was just because they were poor, forced to pinch pennies over every little thing.’
The four women found a long bench and sat down. They listened to Liu Guozhi on the stage give a brief, motivating speech encouraging everyone to be diligent in their production. In the afternoon, everyone went to the plot of land at the foot of Niu Bei Mountain, an area the Lexing Team traditionally reserved for its rice seedling nurseries.
As they walked, they saw that the rapeseed flowers in the fields had long since withered, giving way to oily-green pods.
At the foot of the mountain, the fava beans in that stretch of field had already sprouted small, pale purple flowers. The sweet rapeseed in the ground had bolted, bursting with golden-yellow blossoms.
Yang Liying tugged on Lin Lan’s arm. "Don’t you like eating the flowering stems? The ones from sweet rapeseed are even tastier than the regular kind."
Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Our family’s seedling plot is right next to yours. Let’s go down and pick a few handfuls of stems to take home."
"Okay!" The two sisters-in-law went into the field and picked a large bunch. Yang Liying pulled up some tough vines to tie the stalks together.
That afternoon, Lin Changyou led the Lin brothers in clearing out Lin Lan’s family’s seedling plot, pulling up all the fava bean sprouts, vines, and rapeseed plants.
The pulled bean sprouts, vines, and rapeseed plants were taken back, dried, and stored to be ground into chaff for pig feed.
Lin Changyou told Lin Lan about a hybrid rice seed, Shanyou 3024-1. He said it had high yields, good plant structure, strong disease resistance, and produced better-quality rice.
Lin Lan took his advice and chose Shanyou 3024-1 for her rice seeds.
Lin Changyou told Lin Lan to focus on her shop and not to worry. He led the Lin brothers, Li Xiangyang, and Zhigang through the process of preparing the fields: soaking and plowing the paddies, leveling the soil, soaking the seeds, dividing the plots, and smoothing the earth.
Under Lin Changyou’s guidance, the strong young men smoothed each plot with a mud board until it was as level as a mirror. They sprinkled a layer of plant ash, then evenly scattered the soaked seeds, which were just beginning to show their white sprouts. All they had to do then was wait for the seedlings to grow before transplanting them.
It would have taken others four or five days to prepare the same amount of land, but their group had the seeds sown in just two.
The members of the Lexing Team were incredibly envious when they saw the group of strong men working in Lin Lan’s seedling fields.
Not long after the seeds were sown, April arrived. In just a few more days, it would be time for Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang’s wedding banquet.
In the courtyard, an awning of Moso bamboo and asphalt felt had been erected. The space underneath was filled with Eight Immortals tables borrowed from relatives and friends.
Old Li had long before invited his old friend, a stout chef nicknamed "Fatty" who specialized in traditional "Nine Big Bowls" feasts, to take charge of the kitchen. Fatty had dug two earthen stoves in the courtyard and had the fires burning red-hot.
Fatty would have to cook all night to have the feast ready for the guests on the main day of the celebration.
Li Xiangyang’s maternal uncle’s family from the Construction Team also came to Yucai Road to help. The day before the main banquet, the Li family slaughtered two large, fat pigs and sent half the meat to Lin Lan’s home in the Lexing Team.
Yang Liying and her sister, along with other members of the Yang family from Lexing, also went to Lin Lan’s house, carrying more Eight Immortals tables.
The furniture Lin Changyou had commissioned was adorned with festive red "double happiness" symbols. The day before the wedding, the major items of the dowry were delivered to Yucai Road.
Wu Shufen and her two daughters-in-law spread two woven mats in the courtyard. Using bright red duvet covers printed with auspicious symbols, they finished sewing the new cotton and silk quilts. Then, they tied the quilts with red string and decorated them with red "double happiness" paper-cuts.
Ten sets of bright red wedding quilts—a number symbolizing perfection—were stacked on the bed, creating a joyous and festive sight.
On the day of the wedding, Lin Lan sat on the edge of the bed, dressed in a bright red outfit with two red flowers tucked in her hair. Little Douzi sat beside her, beaming. "Mama, are we going to live at Uncle Xiangyang’s house from now on?"
Before Lin Lan could answer, Wu Shufen ruffled the boy’s hair. "Douzi, now that your mom and Uncle Xiangyang have had their wedding banquet, you should start calling him ’Dad’."
"Uncle Xiangyang said I can call him whatever I want," Little Douzi mumbled, his head drooping.
Lin Lan remembered him saying he didn’t like the word "Dad." A pang of emotion hit her, and she pulled him into her arms. "My sweet boy, don’t be sad. You can call him whatever you feel comfortable with."
"Mhm!" Little Douzi looked up at Lin Lan. "I like Uncle Xiangyang, and I like Grandpa Li, too."
Lin Lan gave him a kiss. "Mama knows."