This time, Zhou Quan brought Zhou Lin along, and the marriage between Zhou Lin and Xu Yue was successfully arranged. The two families also exchanged the birth charts of the two people.
Once the three-day period has passed and the auspicious date is confirmed, the betrothal gifts can be exchanged.
Once the betrothal gifts are exchanged, it is equivalent to completing four of the six rites.
The six rites of betrothal, asking the name, accepting auspicious gifts, presenting betrothal gifts, setting the wedding date, and welcoming the bride are all part of the traditional betrothal ceremony. The betrothal and asking the name involves proposing marriage and exchanging betrothal gifts. Today, these two steps have been completed.
Naji means that both parties take each other's birth charts today, return them to the ancestral hall and offer them before the ancestral tablets. If no major events occur in the family within three days, the marriage is considered auspicious.
Three days later, the matchmaker will bring them good news and begin inquiring about the date that both families prefer for the betrothal ceremony.
The betrothal day is the day when the betrothal gifts are exchanged, also called the betrothal ceremony or the engagement ceremony.
For families that are particular about etiquette, the betrothal ceremony is also divided into large and small betrothal gifts.
The small betrothal gift is given first to indicate the wedding date. This wedding date is usually set six months or a year later. Once the wedding date is set, the large betrothal gift is given a month before the wedding.
However, in villages and towns, the betrothal ceremony is usually held in one go, unlike in places like the capital where there are many wealthy people who like to make a show of their wealth by holding two separate betrothal ceremonies.
When the Zhou family left, the Xu brothers personally saw them off. By this time, the Xu brothers had become much more friendly towards their brother-in-law, Zhou Lin. The two brothers even told Zhou Lin on either side that if anyone dared to cause trouble in his shop, he shouldn't be afraid. He could just go to the Xu family's shop and call for help, and they would protect him.
Zhou Lin was very grateful to the two brothers and politely thanked them, saying "thank you, elder brother" and "second elder brother".
The two brothers were overjoyed by Zhou Lin's words and patted him on the shoulder, saying they were family and there was no need to be so polite.
After the Zhou family left, the Xu family gathered in the hall to discuss what dowry to arrange for Xu Yue.
During the meal, Zhou Quan also mentioned that their house in the north of the town and the shop that Zhou Lin used had been transferred to Zhou Lin's name and would become the property of the young couple. The house was also closer to the Xu family's place, and Zhou Quan said that Miss Xu could live closer to her parents' home in the future.
The Xu family was very touched, knowing that the eldest son of the Zhou family was accommodating them and wanting their daughter to live closer to them. Therefore, the couple also thought about giving their daughter a larger dowry so that the young couple could have a better life.
Since his elder brother gave his younger brother a house and shop worth two or three thousand taels of silver so readily, the Xu family couldn't possibly lag behind the eldest son of the Zhou family.
The Xu family, along with their two sons, decided to give their daughter two rouge shops in Xujia Town as part of her dowry.
Although their two shops were not as valuable as the property that Zhou Laoda gave to Zhou Lin, the business inside was a source of income for the Xu family. In recent years, Xu Yue had been managing them, and they earned several hundred taels of silver in net income every month.
In addition, knowing that their future mansion would be large, but that the Zhou family had not yet arranged for servants, Madam Xu decided to give a group of loyal servants from her own mansion to her daughter as part of her dowry, so that they could take good care of the young couple.
The Zhou family wouldn't object to the gifts sent by the bride's family, but they might object to the gifts being given away. So Xu Chong decided to discuss this matter with his brother-in-law and Zhou Quan another day. If they had no objections, he would arrange that amount; if they did, he would take Zhou Lin to buy a group of people to help train them for a month.
Finally, the family also discussed giving Xu Yue a two-courtyard house in the middle of town as part of her dowry, so that if Zhou Lin's family had many relatives visiting town in the future, they would have a place to settle them.
After Xu Yue learned that her family had arranged such a large dowry for her, she asked her parents if it was too much and if it would put pressure on Zhou Lin. The Xu family said that they would see the Zhou family's betrothal gifts and then make an equal amount, and the rest would be given to her secretly, or given to the young couple after the wedding.
Seeing how much her family cared for her, Xu Yue was very touched and thanked her parents, eldest brother and sister-in-law, and second brother and sister-in-law in turn.
Her sisters-in-law laughed and teased her, saying there was no need to thank them, as they hadn't earned any of it. In fact, they were looking forward to going with her to see Li Mai in a few days. They had heard that Li Mai really liked the flowers their family had sent and was even going to personally help the three of them design new dresses!
Zhou Quan had heard most of what was going on with the Xu family when he returned to the shop.
He withdrew his attention, smiled faintly, and realized that the Xu family had treated their only daughter quite well.
It seems they'll have to put some thought into Zhou Lin's betrothal gifts. He also took the opportunity to tell Li Mai what he had overheard. After listening, Li Mai nodded, saying that the Xu family was quite good and they could protect them more in the future.
Fortunately, Zhou Lin and Xu Yue's wedding is definitely next year, so they can take their time to prepare the betrothal gifts.
This year, Xiaomai is heavily pregnant, so Zhou Quan won't let her work so hard and worry about Xiaolin's marriage. They'll wait until after she gives birth next year.
At the stroke of midnight, both Li Mai's and Zhou Lin's shops locked up on time. The family rode in a horse-drawn carriage, carrying the things they had bought for their home, and went back to the village to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with their family.
They returned home at the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), by which time it was almost dark.
Zhuzhu stood at the alley entrance, holding Xiao Piaoliang and Xique, waiting for them to return.
Seeing her second uncle driving a horse-drawn carriage on the road in the village, Zhuzhu happily called out "Second Uncle!" and ran towards the carriage.
Afraid of knocking Zhuzhu over, Zhou Lin had no choice but to stop the carriage, jump down, catch Zhuzhu who was running towards him, pick her up, put her in the carriage, and let Xique sit on the other side of the carriage shaft before the family continued on their way home.
"Xiao Lin is back?" In the alley, some aunties saw Zhou Lin driving the horse-drawn carriage and greeted him with smiles.
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