Someone in the crowd asked, "Aunt Zhao, what happy occasion has happened in your family?"
"You mean your orchid flower's birthday has been set?"
Zhao Chunmiao waved to the person who asked the question, about to say something, but then swallowed it back and just smiled.
Ignoring the others, Zhao Chunmiao ran straight to Qin Hanshu and stared intently at her.
"Godmother..." Qin Hanshu said shyly. She knew that Zhao Chunmiao must have read the letter.
Sure enough, Zhao Chunmiao grabbed her hand and said reproachfully, "You should change how you address her as godmother!"
"Come on! Come home with me first, I have something to ask you!" Zhao Chunmiao looked excited and pulled Qin Hanshu away.
As soon as they entered the Zhou family's house, Zhou Ruilan rushed up, hugged Qin Hanshu, and stomped her feet while screaming.
"You're my sister-in-law! You've really become my sister-in-law!!!"
Zhou Chang'an stood behind Zhou Ruilan, his hands behind his back, nodding with a smile.
Zhao Chunmiao pulled Zhou Ruilan off Qin Hanshu, saying, "You're acting crazy, be careful not to scare your third sister-in-law."
Qin Hanshu blushed and corrected her, "We're not married yet..."
Zhao Chunmiao said happily, "Wei Guang said in the letter that the marriage application will be approved soon. Once you've completed the formalities here, you can go over and get your marriage certificate!"
Zhou Chang'an walked over and said gently, "He said you've already discussed it and decided to hold it over there. The banquet at home can be discussed later?"
Qin Hanshu nodded and said, "Yes, he said the wedding leave is not long, and it would be too rushed to hold the banquet when he comes back... so that you two and Lan Hua can come with me and have some fun in Jiangcheng."
Zhou Ruilan clapped her hands excitedly, "I want to go! I've never been far from home before!"
Zhao Chunmiao glared at her, "Are you willing to part with Xiao Yang?"
Zhou Ruilan's expression froze for a moment, but she quickly recovered and said, "It's not like I'm not coming back, what's there to be reluctant about?"
Zhou Chang'an said, "After we return from Jiangcheng, we'll take care of things between you and Yang Guangyu. We'll try our best to let you spend the New Year at the Yang family's house this year."
Hearing this, Zhao Chunmiao felt a lump in her throat. Her children were growing up, and one by one they would have to leave this home and start their own families.
"Let's talk about that later," Zhao Chunmiao said. "Right now, let's focus on Weiguang and Xiaoshu's affairs."
“Yes!” Zhou Ruilan turned to Qin Hanshu and asked, “Sister-in-law, you have to tell me properly, when exactly did you and my third brother get together? When he came home to visit his family for the New Year, he didn’t notice anything wrong between you two!”
Zhao Chunmiao was also very curious about this. She pulled Qin Hanshu into the house and sat her down on the kang (a heated brick bed). She brewed a pot of Gao Mo (a type of tea) and placed it on the kang table. Together with Zhou Ruilan, they both looked at her with identical big eyes.
Qin Han paused for a moment, then slowly said, "Actually, it was already like that back then..."
***
As evening approached, Zhao Chunmiao, unusually, went to the place where the women were collectively cooling off.
While she was at the drying ground, Zhao Chunmiao's unusual behavior was the subject of much discussion, and now that she had appeared, people were asking her questions again.
"Hey, what are you laughing at today, Secretary's son?"
“You grabbed Xiao Qin and ran away, and I called you several times after you but you didn’t respond!”
Zhao Chunmiao sat down in the middle seat that everyone had given up, with a smug smile on her face.
"It's nothing, it's just that my Weiguang's marriage has been arranged."
One stone stirs up a thousand waves.
Although Zhou Weiguang doesn't live in the village, he's a perennial favorite in the matchmaking market.
When he returned years later, many people came to Zhao Chunmiao, wanting to introduce him to potential partners, but because they hadn't been able to persuade Zhou Weiguang, Zhao Chunmiao didn't agree on his own.
How... how long has it been? How did it suddenly become a decision?
"Chunmiao, is your third son getting married? Whose wife is he marrying?"
"Haha, whose else could it be? It's from our village." Zhao Chunmiao said casually.
"Our village? You think you'd be interested in women around your age from our village?"
The group of girls currently of marriageable age in Haowan Village are mostly uneducated and not particularly outstanding. Given Zhao Chunmiao's standards, would she even consider them?
Zhao Chunmiao reminded them, "The educated youth are also people from our village."
"Sent-down youth??" They exchanged glances, then said incredulously, "You're not talking about Little Qin, the sent-down youth, are you?"
Judging from Zhao Chunmiao's expression, you can tell she's very proud of her daughter-in-law.
There were only a few female educated youths. Apart from the two who got married, the remaining two, Da Zhang and Xiao Zhang, were both introverted and stubborn, respectively. Neither of them seemed like the type Zhao Chunmiao would be interested in.
That leaves Qin, the educated youth. She's good-looking, has a dignified and polite personality, and seems like the kind of girl Zhao Chunmiao would like.
"My goodness, wasn't Little Qin, the educated youth, your adopted daughter? How come she's your daughter-in-law now?!"
Zhao Chunmiao said unhappily, "A female disciple isn't a biological daughter, so why can't she be my daughter-in-law? My son likes her, and Xiao Shu is willing too!"
"That's true... You're lucky, both of your daughters-in-law are wealthy people from the city."
"Yes, when Xiao Qin was first sent to the countryside, he built his own cave dwelling, bought a bicycle, and dressed very smartly. You could tell his family was rich."
"Tsk tsk tsk, the Zhou family really knows how to pick a daughter-in-law."
Everyone looked at Zhao Chunmiao with undisguised envy.
Zhao Chunmiao did come to show off, but she didn't expect that what everyone envied was her daughter-in-law's wealth! She clearly wanted to hear people praise her daughter-in-law's beauty!
In all the surrounding villages, who else could find such a beautiful daughter-in-law?!
Forget it, she'd just say she couldn't get along with this group. Zhao Chunmiao was quite disappointed, made a few perfunctory remarks, and then left under an excuse.
The news that Qin Hanshu was going to marry into the Zhou family spread like wildfire.
At Niu Quangen's house, Zhao Ru stopped serving rice as soon as she heard Niu Quangen mention this.
"I never expected that Xiao Qin, a former educated youth, would be the second female educated youth to marry a commune member," Niu Quangen exclaimed.
Zhao Ru sneered, "What commune member? Zhou Weiguang is a military officer!"
Niu Quangen had his usual simple smile on his face. "Yes, you're right. Although Zhou Weiguang and I were born in the same village, we're from two different worlds now. We can't be compared."
Zhao Ru wanted to have an attack, but couldn't; she felt a tightness and pain in her chest.
Aren't she and Qin Hanshu in the same boat? They were both sent-down youth, but now... the gap between them is widening.
When Zhao Ru realized that jealousy towards Qin Hanshu was rising in her heart again, she forced herself to suppress it.
Taking your hatred out on someone you can't reach will only make you feel worse...
Zhao Ru took a few deep breaths, and her mind calmed down a bit.
The next day, after Niu Quangen left, she went to Chenjialiang.
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