Zhaojiagou, however, was different. Nestled against the Daqing Mountains, its lush vegetation made it a natural oxygen bar. Zhou Yuanyuan, a cultivator, was much more sensitive to the purity of the air than the average person. After returning to Zhaojiagou, she felt the spiritual energy flowing through her meridians was much faster than it had been in Kyoto. Perhaps? She should retreat to some deep mountain forest to cultivate for a while, Zhou Yuanyuan wondered.
After Zhou Jiasheng returned to Zhaojiagou, he dropped off his belongings and started running around the village. He had lived there for about six months and had made a few close friends. He had brought gifts from Kyoto for them: small gadgets, including spinning tops and slingshots, that he thought everyone would enjoy.
Zhou Yuanyuan and Wen Ziqing went to Daqing Mountain for a stroll. Wen Ziqing had a mission: to check if the cave where the treasure was kept had been discovered. Zhou Yuanyuan went simply to breathe in the air of Daqing Mountain, which smelled of trees and grass. A few breaths would increase the spiritual energy in her body a little bit!
As soon as Zhao Yunxiang returned to Zhaojiagou, she immediately began to prepare for Zhao Guohui's wedding banquet.
In rural areas, getting married is very simple. Just pick a date, and the groom brings a group of people to pick up the bride and take her back to his home. If there is a dowry, they will also take it away on the same day. Few people even go to get a marriage certificate.
A wedding banquet is an essential part of any marriage. Rural residents of that era could choose not to obtain a marriage certificate, but a wedding banquet was essential. Even if a couple obtained a marriage certificate, if there was no wedding banquet, the villagers would not recognize the woman as the daughter-in-law of someone else's family. Therefore, regardless of family wealth, a feast would be prepared for the wedding of a child, and close friends and family would be invited to enjoy a feast. Only then would the marriage be considered finalized.
Throwing a grand wedding banquet for Zhao Guohui was the main reason Zhao Qingshan rushed back to Zhaojiagou. Generally speaking, the more lively the wedding banquet, the more respected the new bride is. Thinking of Yu Meiru traveling thousands of miles away from her hometown to marry in Zhaojiagou, Zhao Qingshan felt that this girl was truly rare.
During his years as Party Secretary in Zhaojiagou, Zhao Qingshan was fair and impartial. Even so, he inevitably offended some. Being too fair discourages a small number of villagers who seek to take advantage of the collective. However, being fair inevitably displeases those who seek connections and backdoors.
After Zhao Guohui and Xu Liqin divorced, some people in the village started to make strange comments, saying that Zhao Qingshan's family, despite having such good conditions, couldn't even keep a daughter-in-law. Although Zhao Qingshan and his son didn't say anything, they were deeply upset. Therefore, when Zhao Guohui remarried, Zhao Qingshan would definitely hold a banquet to show those who envied his family that even if Zhao Guohui remarried, the wife he married would be no worse than the previous one.
The routine of a rural wedding banquet is nothing more than the same steps: the engagement, the bride's reception, the wine banquet, and the wedding night. Even if Zhao Yunxiang has never eaten pork, she has seen pigs run. With the help of a few elderly women from the neighborhood, she managed to make the wedding look pretty decent.
Zhao Qingshan was not short of money. He bought two big fat pigs weighing more than 200 kilograms in the village and asked the village butcher to kill them. He prepared 20 tables of banquets, including the skin, meat, liver, kidneys, stomach and other internal organs, and each table was filled with plenty of meat and vegetables.
On the day of Zhao Guohui's wedding banquet, everyone in the village came. Even Tiezhu's mother, whose family was struggling, brought a basket of eggs as a gift. Zhao Yunxiang refused to accept them, and Tiezhu's mother refused to accept them. Tiezhu's mother remembered that the day Zhao Guohui brought her a pheasant was New Year's Eve. If Zhao Guohui's gesture hadn't warmed her heart, she and her two children would have died that day from consuming rat poison.
The basket of eggs was laid by Tiezhu's mother's two chickens. After Tiezhu was sentenced to three years for stealing trees, perhaps with a new lease on life, her mother looked better. She no longer had to lie in bed all day, and could sometimes do light chores like feeding the chickens.
Zhao Youtian also remembered Zhao Qingshan's teachings and offered his assistance to families in need like Tiezhu's mother. With the help of the villagers, Tiezhu's mother and her two children managed to get by. Tiezhu's two children, aged four and six, were able to help Tiezhu's mother with some chores.
Seeing Tie Zhu Niang's sincerity, Zhao Yunxiang had no choice but to accept the eggs and arranged for her to eat at the same table with her two children. Everyone would look up to someone as grateful as Tie Zhu Niang. Zhao Yunxiang decided that when she returned the gift, she would give Tie Zhu Niang more steamed buns, cakes, and other snacks. She wouldn't let her suffer any loss.
Xiaocao had also come with Aunt Gu. Seeing Zhou Yuanyuan, dressed in all her finery, Xiaocao felt a little nervous. More than six months had passed, and Xiaocao felt that Zhou Yuanyuan had become even more beautiful. Perhaps it was because she lived in a big city, Xiaocao felt that Zhou Yuanyuan had acquired an indescribable charm.
It's not surprising that Xiaocao would think this way. After Zhou Yuanyuan's cultivation, she indeed exuded a fresh and refined aura. According to Xiaoyu, this was because cultivators in the Qi Refining stage weren't able to properly restrain their spiritual energy. By the time Zhou Yuanyuan reached the Foundation Establishment stage, her spiritual energy would have become more restrained. At that point, unless Zhou Yuanyuan intentionally released her aura of power, ordinary people wouldn't be able to detect her as a cultivator.
When Zhou Yuanyuan saw Xiaocao, she quickly dragged her to her room to get a gift. Zhou Yuanyuan didn't have many friends, and Xiaocao was one of them. Before she went home, she bought two pink ribbons for Xiaocao to tie her hair.
Xiaocao touched the glossy pink satin ribbon in her hand and listened to Zhou Yuanyuan talk about her experiences in Kyoto, her eyes full of amazement. Xiaocao was happy for Zhou Yuanyuan. It was a great blessing for her to live in Kyoto, a city admired by everyone.
Zhou Yuanyuan also likes Xiaocao very much. In Xiaocao's eyes, there is nothing but happiness, no jealousy or other emotions. Zhou Yuanyuan likes pure friends like Xiaocao.
Because of Zhou Yuanyuan, Xiaocao developed a strong interest in Kyoto, a city far from Zhaojiagou. More than a decade later, Xiaocao, through her own efforts, established herself in Kyoto. But that's a story for later, so let's not discuss it for now.
Zhao Guohui's wedding banquet was lively, with some of Zhao Qingshan's friends also in attendance. Even Wen Yiran had taken a special leave of absence to attend.
With the presence of the two great deities, Zhou Xi and Wen Yiran, several important leaders from Qingshan City and Yuyuan County also arrived. The road from Sanhe Town to Zhaojiagou was narrow, only wide enough for two cars to pass side by side. Zhaojiagou was also narrow, and if all the leaders' cars drove in, there would be no place to park.
That day, dozens of sleek cars lined the road leading from Sanhe Town to Zhaojiagou, a sight the villagers marveled at. Upon hearing the news, the mayor and secretary of Sanhe Town arrived, only to discover that many important leaders had attended Zhao Guohui's wedding.
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