Chapter 140: A Happy Marriage and a Promise to Live Together
The crowd followed the bride and groom into the bridal chamber in a noisy and enthusiastic manner.
Matchmaker: "Perform the ritual of washing hands and washing hands."
A wedding maiden brought a golden and jade wedding basin filled with clear water, and another wedding maiden brought a red silk wedding veil.
Pei Yuning and Shang Yanci put down the red silk embroidery balls they were holding.
Song Qingyi supported Pei Yuning and walked to the two wedding ladies.
Pei Yuning and Shang Yanci put their hands into the golden jade wedding basin together. After washing their hands, they took the red silk wedding handkerchiefs from each other and wiped each other's hands.
Matchmaker: "Perform the etiquette of greeting each other at the table."
Two wedding ladies brought two red wedding mats embroidered with dragons and phoenixes in gold thread.
Song Qingyi supported Pei Yuning and knelt on the phoenix wedding mat.
Shang Yanci knelt on Tenglongxi's cushion.
Matchmaker: "Blessings, a good match is bestowed by heaven, and the dragon and phoenix bring good luck."
Pei Yuning and Shang Yanci bowed and saluted each other.
Matchmaker: "Perform the ceremony of picking up the lid, good luck will come to you, everything will go as you wish."
Shang Yanci picked up the jade ruyi scale from the wedding tray, his palms sweating. He gently lifted the red veil, slowly revealing Pei Yuning's small chin, voluptuous red lips, delicate nose, clear watery eyes, crescent-shaped eyebrows, lifelike lotus flower ornaments, and intricate and exquisite phoenix crown.
Chu Xiannan: "Wow! My aunt is so beautiful!"
The child's words were careless and caused laughter from everyone in the room.
Shang Yanci put down the jade ruyi scale, put down the lid, and stared at Pei Yuning in front of him with burning eyes.
Pei Yuning blushed in shame at his undisguised gaze, and lowered her head slightly to avoid him.
Happy matchmaker: "Perform the same prison ritual, be of one mind and one heart, and eat from the same prison."
Pei Yuning and Shang Yanci stood up and sat on the wedding stools beside the round table.
Shang Yanci picked up the bowl and used chopsticks to feed the fish meat into Pei Yuning's mouth, and then she fed him.
Matchmaker: "Performing the wedding ceremony, with pearl curtains and embroidered curtains, and auspicious smoke, the wedding ceremony will bring a hundred years of love." [Note 1]
On the round table were two halves of a gourd tied with a red string, filled with sake.
Pei Yuning and Shang Yanci each held up half of the gourd, drank half of the sake, then exchanged gourds and drank the other person's remaining half of the sake.
After finishing the sake in the gourd, Pei Yuning used a red thread to tie the two halves of the gourd together, tied them together, and put them back on the round table.
Matchmaker: "Perform the ceremony of untying the silk thread and tying the hair, become husband and wife, and love each other without doubt." [Note 2]
Shang Yanci stood up, walked to Pei Yuning, untied the red rope tied on her hair, and cut off a strand of her hair with golden scissors.
Pei Yuning was just about to stand up to cut his hair when Shang Yanci put his hand on her shoulder and handed the golden scissors to her, with the tip of the scissors facing himself. He then bent down and stood in front of her.
Fu Siqi turned his head and looked away, simply unable to bear to see his friend's behavior.
Pei Yuning then sat on the wedding stool, used the golden scissors to cut off a lock of Shang Yanci's hair, tied the two people's hair together in a knot, and put them in a brocade bag containing red silk lotus flowers.
The two walked to the wedding bed and sat down. Pei Yuning put the golden bag under the pillow, and Shang Yanci took her hand and interlocked their fingers.
Matchmaker: "Perform the ceremony of spreading the tent."
Four wedding ladies stood at the four corners of the wedding bed and scattered the cleaned red dates, peanuts, longans, lotus seeds, copper coins and lily petals from the wedding plate onto the wedding bed.
Matchmaker: "One spit, a happy marriage; two spit, a perfect match; three spit, a lifelong love; four spit, mutual support; five spit, a house full of gold and jade; six spit, a peaceful life; seven spit, a suitable family; eight spit, a harmonious relationship; nine spit, a long line of descendants; ten spit, a life together."
Matchmaker: "The ceremony is over!"
Several bridesmaids and groomsmen swung the ribbon salute together.
“Bang, bang, bang—”
Colorful ribbons fell from the sky, like a dream.
Congratulations to everyone——
“Happy wedding!”
"Love is still as strong as ever!"
"May you have a baby soon!"
"So affectionate!"
The matchmaker and the bride smiled and pushed everyone out of the bridal chamber, leaving the newlyweds alone.
Chu Weiying gave the matchmaker and the bride a thick red envelope and invited them to sit downstairs. She then went to the kitchen and served dinner that Shang Yanci had prepared himself.
In the wedding room.
Pei Yuning sat upright.
Shang Yanci raised his hand and took off the ribbon on her crown, looked at her blushing cheeks, and asked slowly: "Baby, are you not familiar with me again?"
Pei Yuning pursed her lips, raised her eyes to look at him, then lowered her eyes to look at the beads on her horse-faced skirt, and said softly, "I need to slow down a little bit."
Shang Yanci chuckled softly and said gently, "Okay, slow down a bit."
After taking off the ribbon, Shang Yanci methodically removed the phoenix crown, pearl hairpins, hair bun, and hairpins on her head, and finally combed her thick straight hair with a sandalwood comb.
Without the weight of the expensive phoenix crown, Pei Yuning felt a lot more relaxed. She lifted a strand of her straightened hair with her fingers, smiled and asked, "A Yan, how come you can do everything? It didn't hurt me at all to take off the phoenix crown. I was going to ask someone to come in and help me take it off."
Shang Yanci put down the sandalwood comb in his hand, lowered his eyes to look at her, and repeated meaningfully: "A Yan?"
Pei Yuning blinked her beautiful, affectionate eyes and changed her name to "Ci Ci."
Shang Yanci asked gently, "Baby, do you still remember what I called you on the day we got the marriage certificate?"
Pei Yuning recalled: "Husband?"
Shang Yanci's lips curled up slightly, and he chuckled, "Well, it's time to change the address. From now on, call me husband."
Pei Yuning reacted, her cheeks flushed, and she looked pretty and charming.
There was a light knock on the door.
"Wait a moment." Shang Yanci stood up, raised his hand and pinched her soft cheek, walked to the door, thanked Chu Yiying, and came in with a lunch box.
"Baby, come and have dinner." Shang Yanci walked to the round table and placed the dishes in the lunch box one by one.
Pei Yuning didn't feel hungry at first, but when she looked at the dishes on the round table, they were all her favorites: creamy lemon cod, green snail shrimp, golden pepper beef tenderloin, stir-fried cauliflower, and tomato, potato and beef brisket pot.
Shang Yanci set the table and said, "Take off your wedding clothes first, or it will be inconvenient to pick up the chopsticks."
The sleeves of the wedding dress were too wide and inconvenient. Besides, Pei Yuning didn't want to dirty the beautiful wedding dress, so she nodded and agreed: "Okay."
The wedding dress was complicated to wear, with ribbons here and there. If it weren't for Shang Yanci's help, she would have probably tangled herself up in a knot.
Pei Yuning took off her xiapei, long gown, juyi, and cross-collared robe, leaving only an undergarment on her upper body, and wore shorts and a horse-faced skirt on her lower body.
Shang Yanci hung up her wedding dress in the cloakroom, and then put away her phoenix crown and other jewelry one by one.
Pei Yuning hadn't eaten at the same table with him for three days. Now that he had relaxed, he wanted to get close to him: "Come over, let's eat together."
Shang Yanci had his back to her and when he heard the words "share the same pot and eat", the corners of his mouth curled up slightly and he pretended not to hear.
Pei Yuning thought that his voice was too soft, so he called him again: "Ci Ci!"
Shang Yanci still ignored it.
Pei Yuning put down her chopsticks, walked quickly to his side, hugged him from behind, raised her hands to pinch his waist and abdomen, but his abdominal muscles were too hard, so she couldn't pinch them, so she said angrily: "Don't pretend you can't hear me!"
Shang Yanci said softly, "Sorry, baby, I really didn't hear you. What's wrong?"
Pei Yuning: "I just asked you to come over for dinner, twice, but you ignored me!"
Shang Yanci did not turn around to hug her back. His large hands slowly grasped her slender wrists that were wrapped around his waist, and he asked in a low voice, "Baby, who am I?"