Since the beginning of the first month of the lunar calendar, the weather has started to warm up.
By the time the Lantern Festival arrived on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, the sun was so warm that people had to take off their heavy cotton-padded coats.
Zhou Ruilan had invited Qin Hanshu to go to the county the day before.
In the capital, the Spring Festival is not celebrated, and all traditional activities during the Spring Festival are prohibited, such as pasting Spring Festival couplets and setting off firecrackers.
But perhaps because the county is located in a remote area, it was not so busy, and on the Lantern Festival, the county still held the temple fair that had been going on for who knows how many years.
The day before the Lantern Festival, Zhou Ruilan invited Qin Hanshu to go to the temple fair.
Qin Hanshu had planned to invite other educated youths, but Zhou Ruilan shyly tugged at her sleeve.
“Um…” Zhou Ruilan’s cheeks flushed, and she said in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz, “I’m going on a blind date and I wanted you to come along so you could help me check it out.”
Qin Hanshu opened her mouth wide in surprise, "A blind date? So sudden? I've never heard you mention it before."
Zhou Ruilan twisted her braids with a shy expression.
"It wasn't sudden. I've been at that age for a while now, and my mom has been bringing it up for a while."
Zhou Ruilan is a year older than Qin Hanshu, turning nineteen this June. Blind dates don't lead to immediate marriage; there's always a period of getting to know each other. If anything goes wrong during this time, the relationship falls through, and they have to find the next one.
If everything goes smoothly, it will take at least a year and a half before the official wedding.
This is considered a normal marriage age for a local girl.
Only some families that don't value their daughters might marry them off earlier, around fifteen or sixteen years old.
Qin Hanshu asked, "Who introduced you to this blind date? What kind of person is he? Tell me about him first."
Zhou Ruilan said, "My mother previously found a matchmaker in the east of the county to help my third brother find a wife, but my third brother absolutely refused to go on blind dates."
Upon hearing this, Qin Hanshu's eyes flickered.
Zhou Ruilan continued:
“My mom thought, since we’ve already gone to the Flower Lady, we might as well solve my problem first. The Flower Lady was efficient, and she brought my mom a stack of photos in just two days.”
"My mom and I picked one and agreed to meet tomorrow to discuss it further."
Qin Hanshu asked, "What does the other person do? What is their family situation like?"
Zhou Ruilan replied, "His family is from the county. His parents are both railway cadres, and he himself graduated from railway school and joined the railway."
The conditions are quite good.
Qin Hanshu thought for a moment and then asked, "Do you want to get married?"
Zhou Ruilan was bewildered for a moment, then said uncertainly, "You're just imagining it, aren't you? I've long fantasized about marrying a handsome man, having a beautiful baby, and living happily ever after as a family of three, but..."
Zhou Ruilan was silent for a while, "But when I think about actually getting married, leaving my parents, and living with someone else, I feel reluctant to do so, and I also feel that not getting married is fine too."
“That’s a normal mindset,” Qin Hanshu patted Zhou Ruilan on the shoulder. “We’ll see about it tomorrow.”
The next day, not only Qin Hanshu, but Zhou Weiguang also went with them.
Before leaving, Zhao Chunmiao carefully instructed the three of them on what questions to ask during the matchmaking process.
The main concern was to give instructions to Qin Hanshu and Zhou Weiguang, because they were worried that Zhou Ruilan would get shy and dizzy when she saw people.
Zhou Weiguang rode his bicycle with Zhou Ruilan on the back, while Qin Hanshu rode his own bicycle.
I arranged to meet my blind date at the entrance of the temple fair.
Temple fairs are essentially just larger markets.
There were more people at the market than at the commune, more trinkets for sale, and more entertainment activities, such as shadow puppetry and monkey shows.
When Qin Hanshu and his two companions arrived at the entrance of the temple fair and stopped their car, a middle-aged woman wearing black-rimmed glasses came to greet them.
The middle-aged woman sized Zhou Ruilan up and down, then asked with a smile, "You're Zhou Ruilan? Orchid?"
Zhou Ruilan nodded, not understanding what was going on.
The middle-aged woman smiled and then waved behind her.
A refined and handsome young man walked over shyly.
The middle-aged woman said, "I am Yang Guangyu's cousin, and I came with him."
Zhou Ruilan immediately became serious and greeted, "Hello, cousin."
Yang's cousin nodded with a smile.
Yang Guangyu was Zhou Ruilan's blind date.
When Yang's cousin saw her younger cousin approaching, he lowered his head, blushed, and remained silent, which made her a little anxious.
"Guangyu, go say hello to him."
Yang Guangyu quickly looked up, glanced at Zhou Ruilan, and whispered, "Hello, Comrade Zhou."
Zhou Ruilan was a little nervous and shy before she arrived, but after seeing Yang Guangyu like this, her shyness suddenly vanished.
"Hello, Comrade Xiao Yang."
The men hunched their heads and slumped their chests, while the women stood tall and poised.
Yang's cousin said with a smile, "My Guangyu has always been simple-minded and doesn't have any ulterior motives. He's not very good at talking to women."
Of course, you can't determine someone's personality based on just a few minutes of observation.
Qin Hanshu said, "Cousin Yang, why don't we go inside the temple fair and take a stroll?"
Seeing the blank expression on Yang's cousin's face, Qin Hanshu quickly introduced herself and Zhou Weiguang, saying that they were Zhou Ruilan's older brother and sister.
Yang's cousin immediately put on a smile and said, "Okay, let's go in and have a look around."
There was nowhere to park the bicycle, so I had to push it as I walked.
The crowd was dense, shoulder to shoulder.
Qin Hanshu would get bumped into from time to time.
Zhou Weiguang reached out from the side and grabbed the front of her car. "I'll help you push."
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