Chapter 102 She Gets Married, So Do I
Wang Ziru and her sister-in-law were both stunned and looked at each other. They still remembered clearly that what Pingping's mother mentioned casually at that time were two quilts.
They all knew Pingping's mother's temper. She might say one thing in the morning and another thing in the evening. It was inevitable that they would feel uneasy when they met such a mother-in-law. They just hoped that there would be no more trouble in the future.
"I heard it too. Pingping's mother was talking about two new quilts." Li Hui looked at her sister-in-law again and said with a smile, "Two quilts won't cost much. Mom, let's go to the town to buy some new quilts tomorrow."
"Zonghao's wedding will cost a lot of money. Can your family afford it now?"
Lin Xiuying turned and looked at her eldest daughter-in-law.
She knew very well that when her daughter got married, she was not given any decent dowry, so her in-laws were very dissatisfied with her.
Now that her brother Zonghao is getting married, they have also bought two new cotton beds for the bride. Although these things will eventually be moved to the Wang family, this matter...
Lin Xiuying looked a little embarrassed. "When you got married, your family didn't give you any decent dowry. If mom had more money, she would have given you a new cotton quilt."
"Well, mom, you don't have to worry about us. But the little money your son-in-law brought back from his home these days is only enough for food for our family. So we can't help much with Zong Hao's marriage." Wang Ziru never cried in front of her parents, but this time was special, so she should cry.
Otherwise, her second-rate brother would not know how much marriage money the lion would ask for from her, his sister.
Having said that, even two beds of new cotton would cost a lot of money.
Wang Ziru had a calculation in mind. The cheapest cotton nowadays is 15 yuan per pound. A quilt weighing 5 pounds costs 75 yuan. Buying two quilts at a time would cost more than 100 yuan.
The last time they went to town, they bought ready-made quilts, which were a few dollars cheaper than freshly-made cotton.
Wang Ziru originally thought that she would contribute a small amount of money to her brother's wedding, but no matter how she calculated it, each item would cost hundreds of dollars.
As smart as she is, she shouldn't force herself to give Zonghao gifts at this time.
Lin Xiuying smiled bitterly and said, "We know that Zonghao's wedding will cost a lot, so all the money your father and your brother have saved from selling fish in the past two years will be spent on Zonghao's wedding."
"However, your uncle said that they can lend us some money so that Zonghao can get married first and then pay us back slowly in the future."
Li Hui smiled but said nothing. The debt owed by her brother-in-law for the wedding should be repaid by him with his own money.
She is pregnant with her second child. Her brother-in-law will go to the county town to work after getting married, leaving Chen Pingping at home. Should they consider dividing the family property?
Wang Ziru didn't know what her sister-in-law was thinking, so she nodded slightly, "It can only be done this way. If Zong Hao can go to the county to work, he can use his monthly salary to pay off the debt he owes for his marriage first."
This touched Li Hui's heart. Li Hui smiled and said, "I think we may have to split up the family when the time comes. Otherwise, my brother-in-law makes a lot of money. If we share it with them, they won't be able to split it."
When the eldest daughter-in-law brought up the idea of dividing the family property, Lin Xiuying frowned deeply and looked unhappy.
"We'll talk about it later. Zong Hao hasn't gone to the city to work yet." Lin Xiuying responded casually and got up to go into the house.
Seeing that her mother-in-law was unhappy about the separation, Li Hui looked a little uncomfortable. "Mom doesn't seem to want to separate the family so soon, but you see, my dear sister, we will have more family members in the future, and living together will be a little inconvenient, right?"
"It will be a long time before the family is divided! You two older ones can't work so hard while the two younger ones just play around." Wang Ziru also realized that Chen Pingping's ability to manage household chores was not as good as that of her sister-in-law Li Hui, and even worse than that of Zhu Yan.
In the past two days, she saw with her own eyes that every time Chen Pingping came to Wang's house, she would wait to eat ready-made meals, and if she ate late, she would not even help to clean up the dishes.
After Zhu Yan finished her meal, she went to help her sister-in-law clean up the kitchen.
"Since Zong Hao's wedding date has been set, let's go back today." Wang Ziru stood up and prepared to go home. In the past few days, because of the things at her parents' home, she had originally planned to dig up the two dry fields and sow some vegetable seeds, but it was delayed. "Sister-in-law, I was thinking of planting some vegetables on the two dry fields that my in-laws gave me."
"Growing vegetables? What should we do? My brother-in-law has also been asked by our father to go to the mountains to carry wood." Li Hui felt a little sorry.
"We're going to plant vegetables in the mountains tomorrow. By the way, sister-in-law, do we have any vegetable seeds at home?"
"Vegetable seeds? Wait a minute, I'll go look for it in the room where you sleep."
Li Hui went straight to Wang Ziru's former room, searched for vegetable seeds in the drawer, and found a bag of cabbage seeds.
Each household in Longwang Village was allocated only a small amount of land.
We don’t go out of our way to buy vegetable seeds at home.
"Cabbage is fine. I can't grow anything good on my two plots of land, so just plant something random." Wang Ziru went to the toilet, turned around and went back outside to find the kid playing with the pillars on the rock, and took the child back to Hongmei Village.
When the mother and son returned to Zhai's house, it was almost dark.
There was actually a guest at home, waiting for them to come back.
"Uncle Zhang! Are you here to look for my dad?" Baoer lay on his mother's back for a while. As soon as he was put down from her back when they got home, the little guy rushed to Zhang Kang like a dragon.
Zhang Kang sat alone on a chair in the main room, bored, staring longingly outside the yard.
He must have come to see Zhai Ximo, so the other two families in the Zhai family would not pay attention to other people's guests. In the east room, Xu Ping and two maids were cooking, with smoke rising from the kitchen.
In the newly built brick and tile house in the west, Liu Xiangqin was also cooking.
No one lit the kerosene lamp in the main room, so it was pitch black.
Finally, Zhang Kang saw Baoer coming back from Dragon King Village with his mother. He sighed, "Baoer, you guys came back so late! Where's your dad?"
"Dad went to help my uncle carry wood, didn't you know?"
"Carrying wood?" Zhang Kang was slightly stunned, and thought that he might be going to help Chen Pingping's family, so he said "Oh".
Wang Ziru's feet were a little tired from walking, so she walked into the main hall and pulled a chair to sit down. "Aren't you going to the Zhu family to propose marriage this afternoon? Do you still have time to visit Hongmei Village?"
"I'm looking for Lao Zhai." Zhang Kang teased Baoer and said with a smile.
"What do you want to see him for? By the way, you went to Zhu Yan's house to propose marriage this afternoon. What did they think?"
Talking about his marriage, Zhang Kang smiled so hard that his mouth almost reached the back of his head. He never thought that in the end he would marry a girl as good as Zhu Yan.
Seeing Zhang Kang's happy face, Wang Ziru guessed that Zhang Kang and Zhu Yan's marriage must be coming to fruition.
Zhang Kang then told Wang Ziru the result of the discussion at Zhu's house, and said excitedly, "Now it all depends on when the wedding date is set. By the way, has your brother and Chen Pingping set a date for their wedding?"
"Why are you asking this?" Wang Ziru looked at Zhang Kang with interest. Do you still want to kidnap someone's bride?
"Although your brother's behavior was excessive, there is no feud between our two families. It won't be a big deal if you tell me."
"That's true! My mom, Pingping's mom and I went to have our horoscopes matched this afternoon, and the wedding date is set for the eighth day of next month."
"The eighth of next month?!" Zhang Kang pondered over the wedding date. It wasn't that close, as there was still a month and a half left.
"What? Do you have any shocking ideas?"
Zhang Kangting was speechless. His thick face was stunned for a moment, with a complicated expression, "Your brother is getting married on the eighth day of next month, right? This date is good. Zhu Yan and I are also getting married on the eighth day of next month. However, I have said in advance that when I get married, Old Zhai must not be absent. He has to help me get married."
"Zonghao is an ordinary person, so it doesn't matter what time the wedding is scheduled. But you, when will your army approve your marriage report?"
Zhang Kang smiled bitterly and thought for a while, "I will go to the post office tomorrow to send an urgent telegram!"
After all, he is part of an organization, and such an important life event as marriage has to be approved by the organization.
"Now that you have changed the woman, do you need to explain it before sending the telegram?" Wang Ziru didn't want to laugh at Zhang Kang, so she kindly reminded him.
Zhang Kang himself laughed and mocked, "Do I need to explain that I changed the woman? What if the chief sees the telegram and starts to think that I am unreliable?"
"It's up to you. Anyway, you'll be back in the army soon after you get married."
Finally, Zhang Kang decided to send a telegram to urge the troops.
As for the change of target, he decided not to talk about it for now, to prevent his comrades from hearing about it and spreading the news before he returns to the unit.
"Well, I'm an officer after all. I'd better wait until I return to the army and report this matter to the organization individually." Zhang Kang was not stupid and knew how to conceal his privacy appropriately.
Wang Ziru saw that Zhang Kang was easy-going and a good guy, so she stood up and invited him to have dinner. "You can stay and have a bowl of noodles. It's so late, Bao'er's father will be home soon. You can wait until he comes back before leaving."
"Okay! I have nothing else to do when I get home anyway."
"If it's cold, you and Baoer can go to the kitchen to warm yourself by the fire..." Wang Ziru said casually, went back to the side room, took some noodles and eggs, and went to the kitchen to cook dinner for the guests.
Wang Ziru had just lit the fire in the stove, making the stove room a little warm.
Baoer pulled Zhang Kang into the thatched shed and said in a clear voice, "Mom, it's a bit cold outside, let's come in and warm ourselves by the fire."
"Well, go sit by the stove and warm yourself by the fire, and chat with Uncle Zhang. Ask him if he wants to invite you to eat candy at his wedding."
Zhang Kang led Bao'er to a chair by the stove and glanced around the leaky stove room. It was still the same as before, without any change.
He chuckled and said, "Of course you should invite my eldest nephew, but your uncle is also getting married on that day, so you won't be able to eat there."
"So is my dad going to your house to eat wedding candy?"
"Well, if your father dares not go, I'll spank him."
The young man quickly held Zhang Kang's raised fist with both hands, and then he lay down in front of Zhang Kang and said seriously: "Ask my dad to bring back the wedding candy!"
"No problem at all! Uncle will make you a big bag of wedding candy, okay?"
Zhang Kang was making an exaggerated circle with his hands, teasing the kid, when he heard a familiar voice outside the kitchen door, "Why are you here?"
"You are finally back! Day by day, I have become your brother-in-law's long-term worker."
Seeing his old comrade finally come home, Zhang Kang felt like he had met a family member. He waved for him to come in and sit down to talk.
Compared to the chilly living room outside, the stove room is warmer.
Zhai Ximo carried a net bag with two kilograms of fresh oranges in it. He walked into the stove room and handed one to Zhang Kang. "What did you say when you went to the Zhu family today?"
"Hey, on the eighth day of next month, you go to the Zhu family to help me get married! Look, your status is there, I'll leave the position of Road Manager to you!"
"You and Zong Hao are getting married on the same day?!" Zhai Ximo was stunned. This was just looking for trouble.
They had just returned to Longwang Village carrying wood.
Upon hearing that his brother-in-law Zong Hao's wedding date had been set, his father-in-law immediately invited his son-in-law to go to the Chen family to get married.
Brat! You'll really cause him trouble.
"Yes! Chen Pingping thought that after dumping me, Zhang Kang, no one would be willing to marry her?" Zhang Kang sneered. At this moment, he felt that his decision was extremely wise and correct. "She is wrong! If she gets married, I will get married too, and let her be happy for nothing."