Chapter 191 Let’s Play Together
He said, "The Zhou family is generous, so we won't make it difficult for them. The betrothal gift is three taels of silver. We'll keep two taels and give the remaining tael to Erniu. We'll also take the dowry with her, and that'll be enough."
There is a saying in the countryside: whether you have money or not, it is better to have a wife to celebrate the New Year.
More generous families would marry a daughter-in-law before the winter solstice, so that the new daughter-in-law could have two months of relief after entering the family, as they would be busy again after the New Year.
But there are also cases where the date is not right. One reason is that they did not choose a good day. The other reason is that like their two families, they proposed marriage late. Most of them would rush to get married before the New Year. Although it is the Little New Year now, people in the countryside do not care about it. As long as the betrothal gifts are received quickly, it is normal to hold the wedding banquet in three days.
That way, there will be one more person to help in the family at the beginning of spring, which is just in time for the busy spring season.
Some families are mean-spirited. Even if they propose marriage early, they will deliberately push the wedding date to around the New Year's Eve. This is to save on food rations in the early days and to get married before the busy spring season.
More mean-spirited families would choose to get married in the first month of the lunar year after the New Year, and the new bride would be busy as soon as she entered the house.
To be honest, they talked about getting married too late, and Zhou Silang was already quite old. The Fang family was really worried that the Zhou family would choose to get married after the New Year. In that case, Erniu would have to go to the fields as soon as she got married, and would have to adapt to the new life with her parents-in-law and sisters-in-law.
The Zhou family took the initiative to postpone the date to May, which shows that they care about them very much.
The Zhou family was generous and the Fang family was not unreasonable. After some communication through a matchmaker, the details of the engagement were finalized.
At present, three taels of silver is not a small amount for a betrothal gift, but it is not a large amount either. Considering the financial situation of the Fang family, three taels is considered a small amount.
Qian calculated that in addition to the betrothal gift, there were also banquets and some gifts required for the marriage, which would total about five taels.
Originally, after Zhou Silang gambled, she estimated that the cost of finding him a good wife would be between seven and nine taels.
There is no way. The groom’s quality is too poor, so I can only make up for it with the betrothal gift.
Fortunately, Zhou Silang did not cheat his family on this point. He relied on his face and mouth to deceive, oh no, he found a high-quality bride, Miss Fang.
Gongzhong doesn’t have that kind of money now, especially after moving into a new house.
Not long after Manbao recovered from his illness, the carpenter hired by Old Zhou finally delivered the customized furniture.
A bed was placed in each room. Xiao Qian and her family also made quilt covers with the cloth they bought and stuffed them with cotton. They also added some bamboo furniture woven by Zhou Erlang and placed them inside. Then the family chose an auspicious day to move into the new house.
Of course there was a wedding banquet, and Old Zhou received some gifts, but the gifts and the cost of the banquet were basically the same, so he had neither loss nor profit.
So the money box that originally only had a little over two hundred coins still only had a little over two hundred coins.
Therefore, the three taels of betrothal money given to the Fang family was borrowed from Zhou Xi. At the same time, Qian also borrowed two more taels to prepare for the banquet in May.
Because she estimated that the family would not have any significant income until the autumn harvest.
Although Old Zhoutou has been asking Zhou Silang to pay off this debt himself, it is actually impossible.
On the night before the New Year's Eve, Old Zhou held a family meeting on the matter.
"Old Four is a good-for-nothing. He lost fifteen taels of silver last year, but he paid it all back this year. The money he owes you is all with us. He used it all to build the house." Old Zhou said, "This part of the debt is your mother and me. I will pay you back when the public bank has more money."
No one has any objections.
Old Zhou continued, "Although I said that the money for the fourth son's wedding should be repaid by himself, the money for your wives was all paid by the public treasury, and he is an exception. Therefore, the five taels of silver that He Xi took should be repaid by your mother and me."
Zhou Xi opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything.
Old Zhou looked at Zhou Silang and said, "Once you're married, you're an adult. You might even become a father someday. Work hard and be ambitious. If you keep being so lazy, I'll spank you."
Zhou Silang responded softly.
That's how it was settled.
Because there was little money in the money box, this New Year was a bit dull. In order to save money, Qian cut out many necessary expenses.
For example, meat.
In previous Chinese New Years, except for last year when Zhou Silang lost all his family fortune gambling, the Qian family would always buy a batch of meat to make bacon.
Not only can you eat it at home, you can also take it to visit relatives.
This year, just like last year, our family didn’t buy any meat.
But it is different from last year. Although there are still fewer delicious foods this year, everyone is very happy because they live in a new house.
Especially Manbao and the other little ones, they are as happy as if it were a holiday every day.
She moved into her new house. Old Zhou took her money and although he didn't make her an extra-large bed, he did make her a normal-sized bed, which was much better than the simple small bed that Manbao was sleeping on now.
Manbao couldn't help but roll over twice on the bed before going to look at the furnishings in the room.
Zhou Erlang works hard at bamboo weaving every day. In addition to bamboo baskets, winnowing baskets and the like that can be sold at the market, he also makes bamboo that can be used at home.
For example, there is a bamboo screen in Manbao's room, separating the inner room from the study.
Knowing that Manbao liked all kinds of flowers and plants, Zhou Erlang also asked her to paint on a bamboo screen and put it in the room after drying.
In addition, Lao Zhoutou made her a dressing table and two chairs, one in front of the dressing table and the other in front of the desk.
The desk was also made by a carpenter hired by Old Zhou. He had held a family meeting a long time ago and announced that these things would be Manbao's dowry from now on.
It can be said that Manbao's room is the most expensive and has the most complete furniture.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang also built a three-grid bookshelf for her using bamboo and placed it next to the desk.
Then he used bamboo to weave two boxes for her to store clothes and various sundries.
Of course, bamboo items are naturally inferior to wooden ones, but for an unmarried girl, especially a little girl of six or seven years old, these things are very precious.
In short, Manbao was extremely happy.
So even though she could only eat meat a few times during the New Year, she was happy every day.
She was so happy that she forgot to be cautious. She ran around with Bai Shanbao every day. Even on New Year's Day, they got together to run around the village to pay New Year's greetings, and then received a lot of red envelopes.
Of course, most of the red envelopes given by the villagers only contained one penny, but Manbao was very happy anyway.
Then, she was so happy that she followed Bai Shanbao to the Bai family to pay New Year's greetings.
Of course, Mr. Bai would not just give them a penny. He gave them an exquisite purse, and inside the purse was a gold nude with the words "Jinshi Jidu" printed on it.
Manbao didn't notice it at the time, but she thought the purse was particularly beautiful and looked at it carefully.
Mr. Bai liked Manbao very much and thought she was a very smart child, so he specially brought his second son over and solemnly handed him to the two smart children, saying, "You must take your brother to play, don't leave him behind."
Bai Shanbao and Manbao accepted the gifts. Although they didn't want to play with this somewhat stupid classmate, they still patted their chests and told Master Bai that they would play with him in a friendly way.
Bai Erlang being carried: ...But I don’t want to play with you
(End of this chapter)
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