Chapter 237 Marriage

At the end of November, Gu Chunyan, the eldest sister of the Gu family, was getting married.

She is going to marry into the neighboring Qianjia Village.

The situation in my eldest brother-in-law Qian Yulin's family is actually similar to that of the previous Gu family. There are many people but few houses, and the land is barely enough to make ends meet.

However, as the eldest of the Qian family, Qian Yulin was sent to the town to learn the craft from a carpenter since he was young. Now he can also make some small things on his own and start to earn money.

Although it wasn't much, if it was just the two of them spending it, plus the embroidery done by the eldest sister Gu Chunyan, the two of them could live quite comfortably.

But as I just said, the Qian family is large and all of them live together. No matter how much a small family earns, 90% must be turned over to the public.

Apart from the few acres of land at home, the whole family depends on Qian Yulin's work to make money.

Therefore, the Gu family was not very satisfied with this marriage from the very beginning.

But my eldest sister liked it, and grandma tried to persuade her several times but failed, so she stopped trying.

Grandma's original words were, "You are the one who lives your life. As long as you don't feel the hardship, we as parents won't feel the hardship for you."

This may sound a bit cruel, but it's the truth.

The person involved was stubborn and kept going, but outsiders talked too much and eventually they became enemies.

Whether a pair of shoes fits or not can only be known by wearing them. Whether life can survive or not, she can just try it out for herself.

So, the eldest sister also held her breath.

She was raised by her grandmother, so she naturally knew that her grandmother was doing it for her own good.

She also knew that the Qian family was not a good place to go.

But what could she do? When she was looking for a marriage partner, the Gu family's situation was no better than the Qian family's. Finding a young man like Qian Yulin was also a great effort by her grandmother.

At least Qian Yulin had her in his heart, and he was a decent person. Grandma had put a lot of effort into finding such a skilled and motivated young man. The eldest sister felt she had no better choice.

But then Jiayue returned, bringing a different kind of change to the family. Not only did she learn calligraphy, she also acquired impressive embroidery skills. Those who had previously praised their marriage began to say Qian Yulin wasn't good enough for her.

Even Qian Yulin's mother, who had been very satisfied with her at first, wanted to cancel the engagement and find her another marriage.

But marriage is such a serious matter, how can it be treated as such a joke? If the engagement is cancelled just because the Gu family has become prosperous, how will the people in the surrounding villages view the Gu family in the future?

Besides, in her opinion, Qian Yulin is not bad!

She is confident that she can live a good life.

So, she suppressed the disturbing thoughts in her mind, closed her eyes and let the matchmaker put on her makeup.

When Gu Jiayue walked in, she saw the matchmaker applying powder to her elder sister's face.

The white powder sprinkled on the face instantly lowered the person's appearance by three points.

But this is the custom here, and Gu Jiayue couldn't say anything. "Sister, grandma asked me to come over and comb your hair."

The "hair-combing" here does not mean that Gu Jiayue really helps her elder sister to comb a hairstyle, but uses the bride's horoscope to make calculations and chooses one among many sisters who has a compatible horoscope with the bride to perform the ceremony for her.

This is a form of blessing.

"Sorry to bother you, second sister." Gu Chunyan handed the comb on the table to Gu Jiayue.

Gu Jiayue took the comb and gently combed her elder sister's hair. Then she sang the blessing words that her grandmother had taught her long ago.

Yes, sing it.

As mentioned before, people in the southwest particularly love to sing folk songs. They sing a few lines in everything they do, especially during important events like weddings and funerals, when they sing non-stop day and night.

"Comb your hair once to the end, and you will be rich and worry-free; comb your hair twice to the end, and you will be free from illness and worry; comb your hair three times to the end, and you will have many children and a long life; comb your hair three times to the end, and you will have a high table and eyebrows; comb your hair twice to the end, and you will fly together as a pair; comb your hair three times to the end, and you will be together forever. With a beginning and an end, you will be rich and noble."

After the singing, the hair combing ceremony is over.

Next, we wait for the groom to come and pick up the bride with relatives and friends at dusk.

Around four in the afternoon, a burst of firecrackers rang out from far away, and the children in the village ran around, cheering loudly. "The groom is coming! The groom is coming with his ox cart."

Everyone who was busy in the yard quickly put down their work and went out to see the groom.

Qian Yulin had been to the Gu family's new house. He had invited his family when they moved, and he had come again when they paid the betrothal gifts.

But despite this, he still felt intimidated when he saw the Gu family's magnificent blue brick and tile house.

He likes Gu Chunyan and looks forward to becoming a family with her.

But the current Gu family is not one he can marry into, and he himself knows that some people in the current Gu family are not satisfied with this marriage.

He was prepared to be harassed by the Gu family.

Taking a deep breath, with a happy smile on his face, he jumped off the ox cart surrounded by his friends and walked step by step towards the gate of the Gu family.

As soon as I reached the steps, I was stopped as expected.

The one who takes the lead is naturally the eldest brother.

I saw my eldest brother Gu Yushan crossing his arms over his chest, and the burly aunt instantly blocked most of the door.

Qian Yulin quickly bowed, "Brother."

The eldest brother stretched out his hand and said, "Want to take my sister away? That's not an easy task!"

He turned sideways and someone behind him brought out two large jars of wine.

In the southwest, in addition to folk song culture, wine culture is particularly popular.

During good harvest years, families with a little extra food would brew their own rice wine, which was delicious and not intoxicating, so the villagers called it "biangbiang" wine.

However, the green wine that the Gu family bought specially in the county town for today's marriage was not the kind of rice wine that was delicious and non-intoxicating and had no alcohol content.

The Qian family was also prepared. When they saw the girl's family took out the wine, three young men immediately stood up. "Let's drink!"

These were all customs, so Gu Yushan naturally wouldn't say anything. He just stared intently, afraid that these people would waste the wine.

"good!"

Seeing the three men finish their drinks, the others cheered loudly with envy and joy.

After drinking, Gu Yushan should have let the groom into the house.

But he was still a little unwilling. His sister was so clever, beautiful and intelligent, how could he let this boy marry her home so easily?

His eyes rolled as a plan came to mind. He lowered his head and whispered a few words to Gu Yuhe beside him.

"I heard you're a good worker. My family just harvested corn a while ago. It just so happens that you can help me thresh this pot of corn."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Yuhe and Song Chuyan came over with a large basin of corn cobs.

When they heard that there was a new program, the villagers who were chatting in the yard gathered around.

"Wow, is the Gu family dissatisfied with this marriage? Why are they making things so difficult for me?"

"Hey, we're all ordinary people. Doing farm work is considered a hardship? You haven't seen the real hardship. Last year, a young man from another village went to get married, but his brother-in-law tied him to a tree with a rope and beat him."

"Yes, yes, yes. I also heard that there was an opinion last year, that the groom had to eat shit."

These aunts have loud voices, and their words can be heard clearly by everyone around them.

The man, who was originally a little dissatisfied, suddenly felt that this brother-in-law was very cute.

It's just corn on the cob, isn't it? No big deal. I've been doing it since I was a kid.

Qian Yulin waved his hand, and the people he brought immediately formed a circle and started working hard.

What they can think of, Gu Yushan can naturally think of as well.

So he silently took out a stick of incense. "If you don't finish it within a quarter of an hour, you can't marry my sister today!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the people who were originally talking and laughing suddenly changed.

"Hurry up! My brother's happiness is in your hands!" Qian Yulin was so anxious that he wished he had four hands.