A few days after the Chinese New Year, Xia Qingqing received a wedding invitation from Liu Dinglan.
Xia Qingqing thought she had misheard: "Lanlan, are you saying you're getting married on the tenth of the month?"
She was a little dazed; this was all happening too fast. They were getting married without any warning.
"Yes, I specially invited you to the banquet. Do you have time?" Liu Dinglan's face was beaming with a happy smile, clearly a young girl in love.
Xia Qingqing readily agreed: "Of course I will, don't worry, I will definitely be there on time."
Liu Dinglan was also very happy. Xia Qingqing had been admitted to university and was studying in such a far place. They would only see each other once or twice a year, and she thought that the two of them had become estranged.
As her savior, Xia Qingqing held a special place in her heart, which is why she personally came to invite Xia Qingqing.
"Lanlan, when did you start dating? I've never heard you mention it," Xia Qingqing thought with a mix of emotions. This must be the first person among all the friends she's known in both her lives to get married.
"It's been about six months. My relative introduced us," Liu Dinglan said, still a little shy when talking about her boyfriend.
The man worked for the government and was quite good in terms of his job, family background, and appearance. Liu Dinglan was satisfied with him, and they got engaged after dating for half a year.
She's already 21 years old this year, which isn't considered early for marriage these days.
Liu Dinglan left after sitting for a short while. She's getting married soon and has been quite busy these past few days.
After Liu Dinglan left, Xia Qingqing began to think about what kind of wedding gift to give her.
Since she also had to give money as a wedding gift, it wouldn't be appropriate for the gift to be too expensive. Xia Qingqing tried hard to recall what gifts were commonly given for weddings these days, such as enamel basins, thermos flasks, mirrors, and bedding sets.
Finally, she decided to send a pair of bright red pillowcases, but she didn't actually have any of those in her system's inventory, and she didn't want to go to the county to buy them because of the cold weather.
I simply sent Zhou Wei a message: "[Weiwei, can you buy me a pair of bright red pillowcases? I need them urgently.]"
Not long after, Zhou Wei sent back a message.
Zhou Wei: [Are these the kind of pillowcases used for weddings?]
Xia Qingqing: [That's right, just choose a festive style, it doesn't matter if it's a little old-fashioned.]
Zhou Wei: [Okay, is one pair of pillowcases enough? Should we buy a few more pairs?]
Xia Qingqing: [That works too. Let's buy a few more pairs, and different patterns!]
After confirming Xia Qingqing's needs, Zhou Wei opened a shopping app. These retro bedding items aren't usually available in stores, so it's more convenient to buy them online.
Entering the keyword "pillowcase from the 1970s and 80s" into the search box immediately brings up many links with different styles.
Zhou Wei selected a shop with decent ratings and clicked on it.
"Hey, this set of dragon and phoenix with a hundred children looks pretty good, this peony one is alright too, let's get a pair of mandarin ducks too..."
Besides bright red, there were other colors, such as green, purple, and pink, which Zhou Wei couldn't appreciate at all, but that didn't stop her from ordering one of each.
In no time, Zhou Wei had more than a dozen pairs of pillowcases with different patterns in her shopping cart.
Since she had already bought them, she might as well buy more, so she clicked on the store's homepage.
I discovered that this store also sells pillowcases and duvet covers, so I picked out many different styles of pillowcases and duvet covers.
After selecting the items, Zhou Wei paid extra to have customer service send them via express delivery.
After waiting for two days, I finally received the package and immediately sent everything to Xia Qingqing.
......
Soon it was Liu Dinglan's wedding day, and Xia Qingqing rode her bicycle to the county early in the morning.
She arrived relatively early; the groom's side hadn't come to pick her up yet.
Upon seeing Xia Qingqing, Liu's mother immediately greeted her warmly: "Qingqing is here! Lanlan has been talking about you. Come in with me quickly."
As he spoke, he took Xia Qingqing's hand and led her into Liu Dinglan's room.
As soon as Xia Qingqing entered the room, she saw that there were already several people inside, who were probably Liu Dinglan's relatives or friends.
One of the girls was carefully applying makeup to Liu Dinglan.
Liu's mother called out to her daughter and left: "Lanlan, Qingqing is here. You entertain her first. I have to go now."
Upon hearing the voice, Liu Dinglan immediately turned around to look at Xia Qingqing: "We've finally arrived. I was worried you might have forgotten the time, and I was thinking of asking my brother to pick you up."
"..." Xia Qingqing was so frightened by Liu Dinglan's appearance that she took two steps back.
Liu Dinglan's face was covered with a thick layer of powder, making her face look like it was covered in flour, which made the skin on her neck look even more yellow. Her eyebrows were drawn thick and black, and her lips were as red as if she had just eaten a child.
Xia Qingqing's complicated expression caught Liu Dinglan's eye, and she said somewhat awkwardly, "Doesn't it look pretty?"
Xia Qingqing quickly explained, "Well, I think it's alright, but is it possible that it's applied a little too white?"
The girl who was doing Liu Dinglan's makeup blushed and whispered, "I'm sorry, Lanlan, I... I'm not very good at makeup, this is my first time doing someone's makeup."
This girl is Liu Dinglan's colleague. She and Liu Dinglan have a good relationship. Knowing that Liu Dinglan is getting married today, she even borrowed a set of cosmetics from her cousin.
Her intentions were good, but none of them had ever used these things before, so they had to improvise.
"Forget it, I won't do any of this. I'll go wash it off now," Liu Dinglan said, her tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible disappointment.
Today is her big day, and of course she wants to look beautiful. She was so happy to hear that her colleagues could help her borrow some cosmetics. She never expected that makeup would be so difficult, and it was completely different from what they thought.
Xia Qingqing noticed her dejection and suggested, "How about I give it a try?"
"Qingqing, do you know how to use it?" Liu Dinglan looked at Xia Qingqing suspiciously, as she had never seen Xia Qingqing put on makeup before.
Xia Qingqing nodded with a smile: "Of course I would, otherwise how could I dare to help you with your makeup? Can someone bring a basin of water so Lanlan can remove her makeup first?"
Liu Dinglan quickly ordered her cousin, who was standing next to her, "Xiaoying, go to the kitchen and fetch a basin of water for me to wash my face."
"Yes, I'll go right away," the little girl named Xiaoying said and ran out immediately.
Xia Qingqing carefully removed Liu Dinglan's heavy makeup, then reapplied light makeup to her and styled her hair in a way that suited a bride.
The onlookers watched Xia Qingqing's actions intently, not daring to blink.
"Wow, you can actually style your hair like this?" Xiaoying exclaimed softly. They usually only know how to braid one or two big braids.
Liu Dinglan was quite excited when she heard Xiaoying's words, and she especially wanted to see what she looked like now:
"Is Qingqing done?"
"Almost there, just one more lipstick," Xia Qingqing said, dabbing a little lipstick on her fingertip and then applying it evenly to Liu Dinglan's lips.
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