novelraw Chapter 284 I've never seen a bride like this before!
Chapter 284 I've never seen a bride like this before!
Chapter 284 I've never seen a bride like this before!
The Gu family at one end of the village was enjoying a happy time together, but the Gu family at the other end of the village was shrouded in gloom and the atmosphere was not good.
After being sent to the Gu family, Qian was temporarily assigned to live in the west wing.
Facing a crowd of strangers, Madam Qian was not intimidated at all. She got off the oxcart, stood under the west wing corridor, and, by the light of the lantern beside her, untied the fur blanket covering her body, revealing a beautiful face that left everyone stunned.
Is this Qian woman really that beautiful?
Why haven't I heard anyone mention this before?
As the saying goes, a beautiful woman is admired under the lamplight and a beautiful flower is admired under the moonlight. Under the candlelight, even a five-point beauty can be enhanced to a seven or eight-point beauty!
Even with her hair disheveled, Qian's beauty was still a 7 out of 10. Now, illuminated by candlelight, she became an alluring beauty, every smile and gesture exuding charm.
The men and women who came to help the Gu family were all farmers, their skin tanned dark. It was rare to see such a refined woman, so they were all stunned.
In fact, not only were the people in the courtyard stunned, but even Gu Liansheng himself was stunned.
He cleared his throat, his tone tender and affectionate, and urged Qian to go inside and rest.
"Let's go back inside? It's cold outside, be careful not to catch a cold."
Mrs. Qian smiled at him and said, "It's alright."
She shook the fur blanket in her hands twice, patting off the snow, and looked at the people in the courtyard. She then ordered them to move all the boxes and packages with the character "喜" (happiness) pasted on them from the oxcart into the west wing.
“The things in this carriage are all my dowry. Tomorrow is the actual day, so let’s put them in the west wing for now. We can move them into the east wing after the ceremony tomorrow.”
Everyone was stunned for a moment, and no one could react for a while.
In their minds, when a bride arrives at her husband's house, whether she is a virgin or a widow remarrying, she always blushes and dares not speak.
A woman with a gentle nature might still blush a few months after getting married, while even a woman with a generous and outgoing nature might need more than a month to let loose.
It was truly the first time anyone had ever seen someone like Qian, who, upon arriving at a man's house, showed no fear in her words or actions and even started ordering people around on her own.
A few honest people actually stepped forward to help move the things.
Fearing that they might be clumsy and stumble, Madam Qian kept following them in and out, directing everyone to carefully carry the items into the house one by one.
Gu Liansheng, who was standing to the side, froze instantly as he watched the oxcart being emptied.
The items on the oxcart were not all of Qian's dowry; some were "betrothal gifts" sent by the Gu family.
It was agreed beforehand that the Qian family would not accept the betrothal gifts; they were only sent to the Qian family to save face, and would be returned to the Gu family afterward.
But what does "right now" mean?
Madam Qian actually had the Gu family's betrothal gifts moved into the west wing.
Although these betrothal gifts were only superficially impressive, they still cost several hundred copper coins to prepare.
Gu Liansheng originally planned to bring it back and then sell it to get some copper coins, since he was really short of money right now.
For the past two days, Madam Feng has been in a daze, sometimes lucid and sometimes asleep. She doesn't know where she hid the silver in her hand. Gu Liansheng endured the smell of excrement and urine and searched the east room for a long time, only to find three taels of silver!
Gu Liansheng didn't care about the three taels of silver, so he thought of trying to get some more from Old Master Gu.
However, Old Master Gu was very skilled at hiding silver. While he was asleep, Gu Liansheng searched every corner of the house but couldn't find a single copper coin.
It's one thing if they can't find the money, but it was originally agreed that all the expenses for the wedding would be covered by Madam Feng. With the wedding date fast approaching, Madam Feng just won't mention the money.
Forced into a corner, Gu Liansheng had no choice but to ask Feng Shi for money directly while she was awake.
For some reason, Madam Feng refused to give up the money, no matter how eloquently Gu Liansheng spoke.
Gu Liansheng was furious. After arguing with Madam Feng for a bit, he turned around and shook Old Master Gu awake in front of her, demanding money from him.
Old Master Gu dared not admit that he had hidden any money, so he simply denied it, just like Madam Feng!
After being rejected repeatedly, Gu Liansheng became malicious. After the firewood in the stove burned out, he deliberately didn't add any more, leaving the elderly couple shivering in the cold inside the house.
Besides letting them freeze, Gu Liansheng also wanted to starve the old couple for a day, and he didn't believe they wouldn't give in!
Unfortunately, these two methods were only tried for one night. The next morning, all the people they had invited came to help with Gu Liansheng's wedding.
Fearing that his actions of letting the elderly couple suffer from cold and hunger would be exposed, Gu Liansheng had no choice but to resume adding firewood and feeding them.
Without the financial support of his parents, and without their constant running around and worrying, Gu Liansheng will have to take full responsibility for his marriage this time.
They had to spend money to buy things for the wedding, and also worry about the banquet arrangements, leaving them completely bewildered and overwhelmed!
Everything else is easy to manage; you can save money wherever you can, or use some cheap things to make up the numbers. But you can't skimp on banquets.
According to Gu Liansheng's suggestion, due to the heavy snow, relatives from other villages would not be invited, and only relatives and friends from the village would be invited.
But when they finally realized it, since Old Master Gu and Madam Feng rarely attended banquets in the village, according to Xun customs, if you don't attend banquets at other people's houses, then when your family has a banquet, others won't attend either.
After all that calculation, we can't even get enough people for three tables!
Gu Liansheng was concerned about his reputation, and it had been agreed beforehand that there would be at least six tables for the banquet.
Since there aren't enough people, he can only invite more people to his home to help, so that they can make up the other three tables and at least save face for him.
After deciding on the number of seats, the next step is to discuss the dishes.
This was arranged by Grandpa Gu beforehand: eight people at a table, eight dishes in total, two meat dishes and six vegetable dishes.
Vegetable dishes are easy to make; a simple pan-fried plate of tofu can count as one. The difficult ones are the two meat dishes.
According to Grandpa Gu's wishes, the two meat dishes are steamed chicken and steamed fish.
The chickens were eight roosters ordered from Gu Fengshou, a member of the same clan.
The fish were also ordered from Gu Fengshou's family. They had a broken fishing net, and with that net, they caught a lot of fish all year round.
In the evening, Gu Fengshou and his family came to deliver chickens and fish.
Thanks to the snow disaster! The prices of roosters and fish have all gone up.
A rooster used to cost forty coins, but now it costs sixty coins.
The price of fish has increased even more. Previously, any fish weighing less than two pounds was five coins each, but now it has doubled to ten coins each!
Eight chickens and eight fish cost him five hundred and sixty copper coins!
Half a tael of silver is gone.
Including other dishes, they gave seven or eight hundred copper coins, as well as candy, fruit, and pastries. One tael of silver wasn't enough, and they spent almost one and a half taels of silver in total!
When paying, Gu Liansheng felt a pang of heartache and was determined to make up for it.
After much thought, he came up with the idea of sending out betrothal gifts.
Besides worrying about the betrothal gifts that had been sent out, he also had his eye on Qian's dowry.
In his view, for a scholar like himself to agree to marry a widow was a great honor that Qian should be grateful for, and she should rightfully give him her dowry.
Just like the Wei family, if he said one, the Wei family dared not say two.
But looking at Qian's words, actions, and behavior, Gu Liansheng's heart was in his throat.
This person is different from Wei Shi; he can't be fooled. He frowned, a sense of dissatisfaction rising within him.
But the moment his gaze fell on Qian's face, his dissatisfaction vanished instantly.
After watching the Qian family members coming and going for a while, Gu Liansheng finally remained silent.
Never mind, there are too many people around right now, and it's not convenient to say some things in front of everyone.
After the ceremony is completed tomorrow, we will slowly teach Madam Qian.
After everything was moved, the dishes that had been kept warm in the pot were started to be served one by one.
The men and women were seated at two separate tables, one in the main room and the other in the west wing.
The men sat at the table in the main room, and no one disturbed them as they played drinking games.
The women sat at the table in the west wing, and each of them had a pot of wine and drank two cups to warm themselves up.
Before they started eating, the woman, following custom, called out to Qian Shi, inviting her to the table to eat.
According to custom, the bride should politely refuse.
But Madam Qian was different. Upon hearing the words "dinner is served," she didn't need them to invite her; she came over on her own and unceremoniously sat down in the head seat.
The people inside the house stood there dumbfounded, having never seen anything like this before. Everyone looked at Madam Qian, unsure of what to do next.
As if unaware of how shocking her actions were, Madam Qian smiled and gestured for everyone to sit down: "What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and sit down to eat. After you've eaten, you'll have to brave the wind and snow to get back. It's really hard on you!"
After these words were spoken, the room became even quieter.
It’s really contrary to Tiangang!
A woman with a bad temper wanted to say something, but was secretly stopped by the good-natured woman next to her, who then smoothed things over and pulled her to sit down and eat.
They were just here to help, and they couldn't control how the Qian family acted.
If they were to speak out of turn now, Madam Qian would definitely be unhappy, and might even come to hate them.
So, it's unnecessary, really unnecessary!
Let's just turn a blind eye to this.
With forced smiles, everyone sat down around the table.
Seeing that everyone had sat down, Madam Qian stopped talking and started eating with her chopsticks.
Besides the dishes, there was also a basket of flatbreads on the table.
Qian did not eat the pancakes, but only ate the vegetables throughout the meal.
You'd think she'd just eat vegetables, but she insists on eating meat!
Tonight is not a formal dinner; there are only four dishes on the table. Although there are few dishes, the portions are generous. In addition, there is a basket of flatbread, which is more than enough to eat, although there is not much meat.
Of the four dishes, only one, stir-fried pickled vegetables with meat, contained meat.
It's called meat, but it's really just a few slices of lean and fatty meat that are fried in a pan to render the fat, then stir-fried with pickled vegetables. The final dish is basically just meat flavor.
Faced with these few pieces of meat, a normal person would offer them humbly, especially Qian, who, as the bride about to be married, should be even more modest.
But to everyone's surprise, Madam Qian picked all the pieces of meat into the bowl in front of her and ate them all in one go, leaving not a single piece.
The atmosphere inside the room changed instantly.
Everyone stopped picking up food and looked at Madam Qian.
Unaware of anything amiss, Ms. Qian continued picking out her favorite dishes and putting them all into the bowl in front of her, showing no intention of leaving any for anyone else.
We ate the food and drank the wine.
Gu Liansheng was stingy; he only prepared one pot of wine for the women's table, thinking that one pot would be enough for six women, and he didn't even think about Qian Shi.
After finishing the meat, Madam Qian took the pot of wine to herself, poured herself a cup, and then drank it all in one gulp.
After that, she smacked her lips twice and said, "This wine is watered down; it's too weak!"
She then looked at the others sitting at the table and said, "Try it, this wine doesn't taste good. Will we drink this wine on the big day tomorrow?"
Everyone: ...How could they tell if the wine was diluted with water?
These women rarely drink alcohol in their entire lives!
Undeterred by the lack of response from the crowd, Madam Qian poured herself a few more bowls of wine and drank them all in one go!
In just a short while, half a pot of wine was gone.
Everyone watched eagerly.
You promised to let them eat too, so put the wine jug down!
If you hold the wine pot with one hand, they'll be too embarrassed to pry your hand away even if they want to eat!
After drinking half a pot of wine, Qian's complexion remained normal, and her eyes were clear. It was obvious that she was not drunk and had an excellent alcohol tolerance, probably because she often drank.
An angry woman tried to snatch the wine pot, but saw Qian pick it up again and pour herself another cup of wine.
The woman awkwardly withdrew her outstretched hand.
Everyone: ...This is the first time I've ever seen a bride like this. She and that unlucky guy Gu Liansheng are a match made in heaven.
Without meat, and now without wine, the women could only eat vegetables and flatbread in silence, their faces downcast and full of resentment.
Madam Qian, however, paid no attention to any of this. While enjoying her wine and food, she pointed to the east and asked the others.
"On the way here, we met a girl and two boys to the east. The girl was extremely beautiful, about thirteen or fourteen years old. The two boys were also incredibly handsome! One was about twenty years old, and the other was about eleven or twelve..."
Upon hearing this, everyone began to guess that Qian was probably referring to Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an, the siblings.
But who is that young man in his early twenties?
Could they be relatives of the Lian Shan family?
Madam Qian continued, "Brother Shunzi insisted that the girl call me Aunt, but that girl was sharp-tongued. First she called out her father, and then she said that she should call me Aunt, leaving Brother Shunzi speechless."
Tell me quickly, which family is connected to this area and what is their relationship with us? I just asked Brother Shunzi what happened, but he wouldn't tell me."
The group looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
Seeing their troubled expressions, Madam Qian's heart sank: "You seem so troubled, could it be that those two are enemies?"
Enemy?
The women were taken aback. Upon reflection, they realized it made sense. The two families did indeed have some grudges, and if things continued this way, they would become enemies sooner or later.
An older woman hesitated for a moment before telling Qian the truth: "The girl you saw, and the boy who looked eleven or twelve, should be the daughter and son of the Lian Shan family."
Just from their names, you should be able to tell that Lian Shan and Lian Sheng are brothers from the same parents. Lian Sheng is the elder brother, and Lian Shan is the younger brother. One was pampered from childhood, while the other suffered hardship from a young age…