Chapter 241 Welcoming the Bride
With the three brothers-in-law who had been blocking the door gone, the wedding party had passed the first hurdle and entered the courtyard.
However, the door was still closed. Li Xue, Wang Lin, Liu Hongxia, and other female educated youths from the forest farm were guarding the second door, unwilling to let Sheng Xiping and his party into the house to welcome the bride.
"Please, everyone, have mercy." Sheng Xiping smiled wryly at the situation and could only bow to the female educated youth.
As the saying goes, "For the first three days of marriage, there are no distinctions of rank or status." A wedding is a joyous occasion, so it's best to have a lively celebration.
Such behavior as blocking the door to ask for red envelopes or posing difficult questions to the groom is already considered quite civilized. Anyway, those blocking the door are mostly female educated youth, who are thin-skinned and won't cause too much trouble.
Just go along with them. No matter how much they make a fuss, they'll eventually let you in. It's impossible for the fuss to be too much and delay the wedding procession.
"Groom, tell me first, after the wedding, who will be in charge?"
Several female educated youths asked Sheng Xiping questions with smiles, deliberately posing difficult questions.
"The wife is in charge," Sheng Xiping said without even thinking.
In Northeast China, it's perfectly normal for the wife to take charge of the household after marriage.
However, being in charge of the household only means managing things at home; when it comes to important matters outside, it's still the man who makes the decisions.
"Then who manages the money?" The crowd persisted, pressing for an answer.
"The wife manages the money," Sheng Xiping said without even considering it.
Men are the rakes for raking up money, and women are the boxes for storing it.
In Northeast China, it is taken for granted that women manage the money. As soon as Sheng Liancheng received his salary, he would hand it all over to Zhang Shuzhen when he got home.
Most of the workers at the forest farm were the same; no one thought there was a problem, and no one felt ashamed or anything like that.
Upon hearing this, Li Xue and the others chuckled. "For the last task, you stand right here and shout loudly into the house, 'Wife, I've come to pick you up!' You have to shout it three times."
Blocking the door is just a symbolic gesture; there's no reason to keep making things difficult for the groom. Enough is enough.
What's a little request? Sheng Xiping stood in the yard and called out to the house, "Wife, I've come to pick you up." He called out three times in a row.
Then, Wang Jianshe seized the opportunity to present red envelopes and candies. The female educated youths, upon seeing this, dispersed with laughter, allowing Sheng Xiping to enter.
In the old landlord's room, Zhou Qinglan, dressed in red with a red flower in her hair, sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) with a rosy cheek and a happy expression.
As soon as Sheng Xiping entered the room, his gaze was fixed on Zhou Qinglan, and he couldn't look away.
"Xiping, hurry up and say something! You were shouting so enthusiastically just now, but why aren't you saying a word now that you've seen the bride?"
Upon seeing this, Wang Jianshe and Chen Weiguo, who were standing nearby, quickly nudged Sheng Xiping twice.
Sheng Xiping snapped out of his daze, grinned, and said loudly, "Wife, I've come to pick you up. Would you like to come with me?"
It's a shame that catching a bouquet isn't fashionable at this time of year; there aren't even any plastic flowers, let alone fresh ones. Sheng Xiping had to come empty-handed to greet his wife.
Zhou Qinglan looked up at the man in front of her, smiling broadly. "I'm willing."
This answer was so straightforward that everyone inside and outside the house burst into laughter.
Zhou Minghua's wife invited Sheng Xiping to take off his shoes and get on the kang (a heated brick bed), while Li Yuqin invited the wedding party to sit at the table, where dumplings and vegetables were laid out.
The bride's family cannot go to the wedding party on an empty stomach. Regardless of whether the family is rich or poor, the bride's family must prepare a meal to entertain the guests. The wedding party members can eat a little bit as a token of appreciation.
Sheng Xiping got onto the kang (heated brick bed), and Tang Fengzhi and Sheng Yunfang, the young maids of the Tang family, stepped forward and pinned red flowers on the chests of Sheng Xiping and Zhou Qinglan respectively.
Then Wang Chunxiu and Wang Zhongjing's wife took out a six-foot-long piece of red cloth, tore it in half, wrapped a few coins inside, and handed it to the bride and groom so they could tie it around their waists.
This red sash can only be taken off when entering the bridal chamber at night. Keep the money and put the red cloth away. Later, when there are children, it can be used as diapers or clothes for them.
The two switch places, and the other person puts a belt on their waist. The belt is not knotted; it is simply wrapped around the waist twice and then the head is tucked in.
After fastening their belts, the two sat down. Someone brought over a bowl of comfort noodles, and the two of them symbolically took a bite of the poached egg on top, then ate a bite of noodles.
After finishing the comfort noodles, Sheng Xitai took the shoes that had been prepared in advance and helped Zhou Qinglan put them on.
Then Sheng Xi'an came forward and symbolically pulled Zhou Qinglan down from the kang (a heated brick bed), a gesture often associated with a younger brother-in-law helping his sister-in-law off the kang.
According to tradition, the bride's feet should not touch the soil of her maternal home; instead, her brother from her maternal home should carry her on his back when she gets married.
But Zhou Qingyang is in the army, and there are no older boys in the Tang family.
So the procedure was changed. Sheng Xiping picked up Zhou Qinglan, walked out of the house, and carried her directly to the carriage.
The Zhou family members who were accompanying the bride quickly loaded the dowry chests, the two bedding sets and two blankets, as well as the basins containing mirrors, soap boxes, face cream, combs, green onions, and other items, all wrapped in large red cloths, onto the carriage.
Sheng Xiping drove the carriage, while Sheng Xitai and Tang Fengzhi sat in the carriage with Zhou Qinglan. The other people who were picking up and sending off the bride followed behind the carriage.
Since the wedding procession doesn't retrace its steps, on the way back, Sheng Xiping drove the carriage around most of the forest farm before finally arriving at the Sheng family's new house.
On the Sheng family's side, firecrackers were also hung outside the gate. As soon as the wedding procession arrived, someone on this side immediately lit the firecrackers.
Accompanied by crackling sounds and a strong smell of gunpowder, red firecracker debris flew everywhere.
The carriage stopped in front of the Sheng family's gate. Sheng Xiping helped Zhou Qinglan out of the carriage, and the crowd surrounded Zhang Shuzhen as she came out of the house to greet her.
The washbasin with the red bundle tied to it was still in Zhou Qinglan's arms. At this moment, Zhou Qinglan handed the washbasin to Zhang Shuzhen, then pinned a red flower in Zhang Shuzhen's hair and affectionately called her "Mom".
Zhang Shuzhen was so happy she couldn't stop smiling, and quickly agreed, "Okay." Then, she hurriedly took out a red envelope from her pocket and stuffed it into her daughter-in-law's hand.
Surrounded by a crowd, the bride and groom, along with the bride's mother, entered the Sheng family home.
The west room of the Sheng family, which served as the young couple's new home, had long been cleaned and tidy. The windows, walls, and ceiling were all decorated with large red "double happiness" characters cut out by skillful girls, making it especially festive.
In front of the kang (a heated brick bed), there were two bricks wrapped in red paper. Under Zhang Shuzhen's guidance, Zhou Qinglan stepped onto the kang by stepping on the bricks.
Over there, someone spread the bedding that the Zhou family had brought as part of their dowry onto the kang (a heated brick bed).
There were originally two quilts on the kang (a heated brick bed), with an axe wrapped in red paper stuffed under the quilts, and a lot of nuts such as dates, peanuts, and chestnuts scattered in the middle of the quilts.
The newlyweds sat on the axe, a custom known as "sitting on good fortune."
Then, under the guidance of others, Zhang Shuzhen grabbed peanuts, dates, chestnuts and other things and threw them on the newlyweds while chanting auspicious words such as "may they have children soon".
A bowl of dumplings was cooked in the kitchen and brought over. Sheng Xiping picked one up and fed it to Zhou Qinglan.
When Zhou Qinglan bit into it, she discovered that the dumpling wasn't cooked through at all. "Why is it raw?"
Upon hearing this, the people around burst into laughter, "Did you hear that? The bride said she gave birth."
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