Chapter 46: Wedding Ceremony
Lu Minghai happily called him to come and warm himself by the fire. Wang Jianmao had a good personality and got along well with the people on the team. The young man could also chat with a group of old men.
After chatting for a while, we talked about the Chinese New Year.
Lu Minghai asked him, "You still have to go back for the New Year this year, right?"
Wang Jianmao nodded: "It's rare for me to have some free time, I have to go back and take a look."
"Comrade Liu Changqing, are you going back too? It's already the 15th. If you want to go back, you should make preparations early. Once you're ready, come to me and write a note."
Wang Jianmao responded with a smile: "Thank you, uncle!"
After thanking him, he said, "It's almost enough to go back and forth for half a month. I can carry firewood for a few more days and then talk about it around twenty. I came here today to see if Uncle Minghai and Uncle Mingjiang are selling any meat. I plan to buy some."
Lu Minghai sniffed but still felt uncomfortable. He reached out and wiped his snot into the ash, then rubbed his hand twice on the mud.
"I know. You used to come here to buy meat, and every year I'd cut the best meat for you. But this year I can't sell it. The eldest brother is back, and we're having a banquet in a few days, so we have to have some meat. He hasn't been back in a few years, so he always takes some away when he leaves. After all this time, there's not much left, and we have a whole family to support!"
Wang Jianmao glanced at Lu Dongcheng and understood in his heart: "I just came to ask. It would be great if I can buy it, but there is nothing I can do if I can't." After saying that, he looked at Lu Mingjiang, thought about it, and didn't know how to start the conversation.
Lu Mingjiang didn't need him to speak at all, as people in the mountains liked to be straightforward.
"I can't sell it this year. Dongping plans to tear down the woodshed and build two new houses. I need all the things here, so I can't sell it."
He was talking about meat, but as soon as he said this, the gentlemen turned their attention to building the house.
"Want to repair the house? Dongping's father can do it!"
Lu Mingjiang scratched his head and smiled bitterly, "What's okay? You don't know my situation yet, so I'm bound to trouble you later. There are only three rooms at home, and seeing that the children are all grown up, it's not appropriate for them to live together."
He had said this to Lu Minghai before, so Lu Minghai wasn't surprised at all. He even agreed, "That's right. There will only be more and more people in this family, which is a good thing. While we're still strong and can still make some use of our strength, we have to build a nest for the children so they can stay."
Several people immediately changed the subject, and Wang Jianmao didn't know what to say anymore. He sat for a while and then stood up: "Then, cousin, you guys go ahead and do your work. I'll be going back first."
Lu Minghai stood up and walked him a few steps. "I'm really sorry about what happened. Keep an eye out and see if there are other members in the team slaughtering pigs. If so, buy them quickly. I'll also ask around in other teams for you."
Wang Jianmao smiled and said, "Uncle, I feel even more embarrassed when you say that. Every family has their own problems. It's nothing. This is not a big deal."
After saying that, he waved to Lu Minghai and called out to Wen Wan, "Are you going back or not? Let's go together?"
Lu Dongping answered for Wen Wan: "It's still early, she won't be going back for the time being."
Wang Jianmao kept smiling as he nodded and left.
Lu Minghai sat back and said, "These educated youth are the only ones with good temperaments, easy to get along with, and obedient and sensible."
Lu Dongping lowered his head and sneered, what a bullshit, a smiling face hiding a dagger, not even as good as that Liu Changqing, at least he shows everything on his face.
Lu Donglin couldn't sit still, he threw the bowl away and called Wen Wan: "Sister, Sister Wen Wan, come on, I'll take you out to play."
"Okay, let's go!" She had been sitting and wanted to get up and walk around.
Just as he stood up, Zhang Hongying came out of the kitchen and called out to Lu Donglin: "It's getting dark, where are you running to again? And take Wen Wan with you."
"It's right by the door. Turn around. You won't lose your daughter-in-law. Really!"
Wen Wan blushed when he called her "daughter-in-law". She walked out of the yard and poked him, "You are just a kid. Don't talk nonsense."
Lu Donglin pulled a piece of straw and chewed it in his mouth, humming twice and saying: "I'm not talking nonsense, sooner or later you will be my brother's wife, and my mother's daughter-in-law."
"Heh! I don't even know my own affairs as well as you do? Little brat!"
Lu Donglin smiled: "You definitely don't know, because you don't know how much my brother likes you. If you miss him, you will definitely never find someone who likes you as much in the future. Not only my brother likes you, but our whole family likes you. Isn't that good?"
"My brother is a decent-looking guy, but he's a little poor. But he works hard and has a lot of strength. He even gets a salary, so he definitely won't let you starve."
Wen Wan laughed: "You are not, are you really only twelve years old this year? How can you know what love is at such a young age?"
"How could I not know? What's wrong with being twelve? I was a man at twelve. If a man doesn't even know what love is, then he's a coward!" As he spoke, he picked up a few white grass roots from the side and cleaned the mud off them. After thinking for a moment, he ran out and washed them in the ditch again before returning and handing them to Wen Wan: "It's washed. Try chewing them and see how sweet they are."
"Thank you!" Wen Wan took the thatch root that was still wet and put it in her mouth to chew. It really had a sweet taste.
The Lu family slaughtered a pig, and the food at the end of the year suddenly became better. Cabbage and pig blood soup, pig lung and radish soup, the fragrance could be seen every day.
In this fragrance, the New Year is getting closer and closer.
I don’t know if it’s because it’s her first New Year in a foreign land, but Wen Wan, who originally thought she had adapted to life in the mountains, suddenly felt sad.
She wrote two letters, one to Lao Wen to let him know she was safe, and one to her grandmother and uncle, also reporting good news but not bad news.
Not long after the letter was sent, Wang Jianmao and Liu Changqing took leave, obtained their certificates, and returned home with their luggage.
There were only two people left at the educated youth point: she and Zhu Feng.
In a blink of an eye, it was the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the Lu family became extremely busy.
On the 26th, Lu Dongcheng was going to hold a banquet, and on the 25th, Gao Xiulan asked Li Laiying and her husband to go to their private plot and dig up all the edible vegetables.
The conditions are like this, and I won’t invite too many people. Just invite those from my family or those I’m familiar with, and just show your appreciation.
It’s not enough to just eat dry rice. We can’t sacrifice the whole family’s food rations just to do this one thing.
So we start to make the instant noodle dough rise on the 24th, and start to steam the buns on the 25th.
The mixed flour dough was mostly made of corn flour mixed with a little white flour. Zhang Hongying, Wang Mingfang and others were helping at the chopping board.
Lu Minghai's two married daughters, Lu Chunyan and Lu Chunmei, also came back with their children and son-in-law, making the party very lively.
The uncle Lu Donglin became the leader of the children, leading a group of children to play fighting the Japanese invaders, as if they were rebelling.
Lu Minghai's new house was built the previous year, shortly after Li Laiying moved in.
Originally, the brothers lived in the same house. When Lu Dongcai got married, Lu Dongfu moved to the small house at the back where the granary was located. If Lu Dongcheng got a partner, he would have no place to stay.
So, as soon as he knew that Lu Dongcheng had a girlfriend in the army, regardless of whether it would work out or not, Lu gritted his teeth and built two rooms, one for Lu Dongcheng and one for Lu Dongfu.
Lu Dongcai is an honest man and has no objection to this, but he can't help but feel that there are always people who don't want people to live in peace and are trying to stir up trouble.
Wang Mingfang had said this countless times to Li Laiying. After the two of them finished their work on the chopping board, they went outside to pick vegetables. As they worked, Wang Mingfang said, "Looking at this situation, I'm afraid six tables won't be enough. How many tables did you set up when you first came in?"
Li Laiying said, "Five tables."
"In the end, the eldest brother is still the most important. The house is new, the furniture is new, everything is new. This is what a wedding should look like. We didn't have much back then. Don't talk about me, that was decades ago. Take you for example, you entered the house a year later, and the difference is so huge."
Li Laiying lowered her head to work, and no one could see her expression clearly.
"The money for renovating the house was sent by the eldest son. Except for making an extra bed, everything else is the same. Mother made a new quilt, a big box, a pair of enamel basins, and a pair of teacups. There is nothing else." Even if there was something, it was the other person's own money. What does it have to do with her?
I said this and thought this, but deep down I felt uncomfortable.
Shengxia has been home for ten days, but he's still like a guest. He hasn't even helped to light a fire at home. As for me, after settling down, I've been doing everything. That's it.
Shengxia and Wenwan are packing in their new house right now!
Because it is a direct wedding ceremony, there is no question of where to get married. There are just a few tables of banquets, and people come out to toast and recognize each other, and the ceremony is considered complete.
As for clothes, she wore the military uniform she wore when she came.
Wen Wan sat on a chair with a scarlet wooden table in front of her. On it was a sieve filled with red paper, red cloth, a stack of toilet paper that Wen Wan had brought, and red ink that Lu Dongping had brought back for her.
Red paper was to be cut into window decorations, double happiness patterns, and folded into fist-sized red lanterns. After the window decorations were cut, Shengxia took some glue and pasted them on the windows.
Wen Wan folded all the remaining paper into small lanterns, and then folded toilet paper into flowers, and dyed them with red ink to make small red flowers.
Tomorrow, Lu Dongcheng and Shengxia will tie a little red flower on their chests, and string the rest together with red lanterns with needle and thread and hang them all over the room. It looks really interesting.
A middle-aged woman wearing a blue cotton-padded jacket and with a cadre-style haircut, holding a child of seven or eight years old, peeked her head out from outside, then walked into the house carelessly.
"Wow, this is really well done. Who did this? It's so clever. Why haven't I seen these two girls before? One is so pretty. Which one is the bride?"
Shengxia looked at Wenwan.
Wen Wan shook her head and said, "Don't look at me, I don't even know where I live."
Lu Dongcheng came in a little later and introduced the two people: "Second Aunt, this is Shengxia, and this is Wenwan."
Then he introduced her to the two people: "This is my second aunt. She works at the county steel mill and rarely comes home. This is her youngest child, Li Chunwu."
Shengxia called out "Second Aunt", and Wenwan just smiled as a greeting.
The woman responded, "She's really good-looking. She's a perfect match for Dongcheng."
Shengxia smiled and didn't respond. Lu Dongcheng ignored her completely and said to Shengxia:
"My second uncle is outside, Shengxia, shall I take you to identify him?"
Shengxia replied, "Okay!", and walked to the table and said to Wen Wan, "I'm going out for a while, I'll be back soon."
Lu Dongcheng said he wanted to take Shengxia out but he stood there without moving. He called out to the woman, "Second Aunt, it's cold here. You should take the children to the kitchen. They can play in the yard. There's a fire there, so they'll be warmer."
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