Chapter 2501 Bride Gift
At the end of September, Zhou Silang and Xiang Mingxue returned with the caravan.
He took off his dog-skin hat and said to them, "It's snowing in the north, but the weather is good here in the capital."
In Beijing, just wear a jacket now.
He went late this year, so he brought back fewer things than in previous years, but he also has his own regular customers, so the speed of sales, exchanges and purchases is still relatively fast.
If he hadn't been in a hurry to come back to attend Manbao's wedding, he could have stayed a little longer.
He looked around and asked, "Why doesn't Big Sister come to the capital? She was very excited to come to the capital when I went there."
Manbao said: "She is pregnant."
"Oh," Zhou Silang said in a high voice, pleasantly surprised, "That's great. Having only one child is still a little too little. Another one will give us company in the future."
Manbao said, "Dad and Mom are thinking of going home to visit this year. You can take them back with you then."
Zhou Silang said it was no problem and asked, "Are you and your sister-in-law going back?"
"If they don't come back, my second brother and his wife will stay to help Li Wei get married."
Zhou Liwei and the eldest daughter of Mr. Lan from Zhou Lixue's school were engaged, which was the proudest thing for Zhou Erlang during his last visit to the capital.
When Manbao came back, the marriage had already been settled. She heard the story from Zhou Lixue and Zhou Ligu. She had seen the little girl twice. She was about the same age as her, well, only less than a year younger, and looked very shy.
But she is not shy at all.
I heard that Mr. Lan initially took a fancy to Zhou Lixue. After all, Zhou Lixue was studying in the school, right?
But the girl was attracted to Zhou Liwei, and Zhou Lixue was only focused on copying books to make money and studying for the imperial examinations. He didn't really want to get married, and he didn't want to do that now.
So Mr. Lan could only sigh in regret, and since the Zhou family also came to propose marriage on behalf of Zhou Liwei, he reluctantly agreed.
When Zhou Lixue and his classmates first entered the school, they were often isolated and bullied because they were from other places and spoke with a Sichuan accent.
However, the three of them went to school together, so they could form a small group. They had a lot of things to do after school and didn't play with their classmates at all, so it was difficult for people who didn't like them to conflict with them.
But as time went on, they couldn't help themselves a few times and fought in the school. That year, Zhou Lizhong happened to follow Zhou Silang to the north, and Zhou Liwei, who stayed behind to take care of them, went twice without telling Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang when his parents were called, and later he went often.
I would bring them some food at noon, or occasionally call out to them when I passed by. Those students, who bullied the weak and feared the strong, were less willing to mess with them when they knew that their family opened a restaurant on the other side of the same street.
When Zhou Liwei occasionally brought food to them, he would also bring it to the teachers in the academy. Occasionally, he would run into Mrs. Lan who was also delivering food to Mr. Lan. As time went by, the two of them became familiar with each other...
Later, Xiao Qian came to Beijing. The steamed pork she made was delicious, so the restaurant started to sell out the steamed pork with rice flour. No matter who came, they would bring a basket and buy a few bowls to take home.
Mr. Lan also liked to eat it, so Mrs. Lan would go to buy it from time to time, and the two of them became more familiar with each other after a few visits.
When Mr. Lan said that Zhou Lixue had good knowledge and character and could be recruited as a son-in-law, Mrs. Lan secretly told her mother that Zhou Lixue was a good man, but she liked his brother.
Zhou Liwei is not young anymore, so Zhou Erlang wanted to take advantage of this time in the capital to get him married, but he hasn't set a date yet.
In fact, as the number of trips between the capital and Qili Village increased, they felt that the two places were not very far apart.
The main reason is that they have their own cars.
They didn't have horse-drawn carriages, but they had mule-drawn carts, donkey-drawn carts, and ox-drawn carts. They especially had mule-drawn carts, which they thought were no different from horse-drawn carriages.
It is very convenient to have a car. When you go out more often, you will feel that it is okay to stay in an inn and travel in a hurry.
The first and second times I had no experience and was always unable to find a place to stay and had to sleep outside. But after the third time, unless something unexpected happened, I could always stay in a place I was familiar with, so it didn’t feel so difficult.
Zhou Silang was now accustomed to going out. After finishing his meal, he put down his bowl and wiped his mouth and said, "By the way, Master Yang knew you were getting married, so he asked me to bring back two boxes of gifts for you. One is for you, and the other is for Bai Shan."
Manbao was happy, "Where is it?"
Zhou Silang took her to see it. When the box was opened, she found exquisite fabrics, a set of glass tea sets, and a set of jade jewelry inside.
Manbao was amazed, "How valuable."
Zhou Silang said, "He said he wanted to add a box for you."
Manbao looked at Bai Shan's box and wanted to open it to take a look, but Bai Shan was not there, so she held back. Well, she would wait until he came back from overtime to take a look.
Manbao asked Xibing and Jiulan to take the things back to her room and put them away.
Time passed quickly, and Manbao and Baishan took their wedding leave together on the fifth day of the New Year.
Yes, officials of the Jin Dynasty were entitled to marriage leave, for a maximum of nine days.
Manbao and Baishan both took nine days of vacation at once, including the two days of ten-day break in the middle, so they had a total of eleven days of vacation.
Bai Shan's family moved from Zhou's house to Changqing Lane and went to deliver the betrothal gifts on the sixth day of the New Year.
Bai Shan invited Bai Dalang, Bai Erlang, Yin or Liu Huan and others to be his relatives and friends who escorted the team.
Liu Huan, who was already on duty, happily took a leave and ran to join in the fun. He followed the people beating gongs and drums, carried the betrothal gifts around the inner city, and finally delivered them to Zhou's house.
Many families in Chongyuanfang stood at the door to watch the excitement. Of course, it was the servants who watched the excitement, while the masters waited in the back to listen to the report.
Only one or two mischievous ones couldn't help but lie on the wall of their own house and look out. Seeing the betrothal gifts being delivered to the Zhou residence one after another, they couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, "I just saw at least four houses. Is the Bai family so rich?"
If there is a house in the betrothal gifts, a model of a small house will be placed on the carrying pole, with the house deed underneath. When it arrives at the woman's house, it will belong to the woman. The woman's parents can choose to keep it or send it back as the bride's dowry.
Old Zhou walked around the betrothal gifts happily, and then took people to replace the wedding character on it with the Zhou family's seal. He then kept some things as a token of his gratitude, and recorded the rest intact on the dowry list as Manbao's dowry.
Old Zhou walked around and left two silver coins, one for him and one for Qian, and two pieces of cloth, one for each of them. That was all he left behind.
Old Zhou sat among a pile of betrothal gifts and dowry and sighed.
Zhou Dalang and his men brought over a small house model and set it up. Seeing this, they asked, "Dad, where's the deed to this house? We have to put it up, otherwise we'll forget about it later."
Old Zhou said, "Why rush? There's still a day left. You can bet on it tomorrow. What if it gets stolen if you bet on it now?"
Zhou Dalang: ...Who would come here to steal things? And stealing a house deed is even worse than stealing silver and cloth.
No, no one would steal anything, okay?
See you at 9pm
(End of this chapter)
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