◎Fourth update◎
Chen Siming knew that today was Liang Baozhen's wedding day, and had already inquired about the place in advance. He wanted to go out and take a look, but his father Chen Yong ordered him to stay at home. He was only able to get away because Dong Jiayan asked him to accompany her to go shopping in the department store.
Dong Jiayan wanted to buy a beautiful blouse with black leather shoes, but Chen Siming was absent-minded. When he heard his wife talking about which blouse looked good, he just perfunctorily said, "It's up to you, you can see for yourself..."
When he raised his eyes, he saw Liang Baozhen standing not far away.
"Baozhen?" Chen Siming stopped immediately, his tone quite excited, causing Dong Jiayan to pinch his arm quietly, reminding him to be more restrained.
Liang Baozhen didn't expect to meet such an unlucky person here. She turned around and wanted to leave. "Let's go somewhere else."
Xu Shengjie glanced at the stunned Chen Siming and nodded to his wife, "Okay."
"Baozhen!" Seeing that the person was about to leave, Chen Siming took two or three steps forward. Since he was caught in the alley by Liang Baozhen and Song Chunhua last time, he had no chance to see Liang Baozhen again. He didn't expect that the next time he saw her was on her wedding day. "Baozhen, are you really getting married?"
Chen Siming's affectionate look made Dong Jiayan anxious. She glared at Liang Baozhen with anger in her eyes, "That's right. Didn't you see that Baozhen is standing with her man? Siming, let's not disturb them. Let's go."
"Let's go." Liang Baozhen was too lazy to bother with the two of them and prepared to leave again with Xu Shengjie.
"Hey, Baozhen, wait a minute, I want to explain to you..." Chen Siming saw Liang Baozhen, whom he had been thinking about day and night, was about to leave, and anxiously reached out to grab her arm.
This action was seen by the other two. Dong Jiayan's eyes were burning with anger but she was too late to stop it. Xu Shengjie blocked it with one arm and directly slapped Chen Siming's hand away.
His hands were so strong that he slapped the back of Chen Siming's hand until it turned red.
Hiss~
Chen Siming covered the back of his right hand with his left hand and shouted angrily, "You!"
"Don't touch my wife." Xu Shengjie's voice was deep, but threatening. His eyes were like ice chips falling, freezing Chen Siming so much that he dared not move.
"Director Chen has already committed a misconduct once, and he wants to be charged with hooliganism again?" Liang Baozhen looked down on this man, who was fickle. She felt disgusted at the sight of him, so she reached out and grabbed Xu Shengjie's arm and walked away quickly.
Xu Shengjie was dragged by Liang Baozhen all the way to the second floor. Seeing Liang Baozhen's angry face, his heart sank, "Are you very angry?"
He didn't know what Liang Baozhen was thinking, but it would be very uncomfortable for a man to be caught hugging someone a few days before the wedding, especially for a girl who was shy. If he had known that he would run into that bastard today, he would definitely not bring anyone to the department store.
"I've gotten over the bad luck. I just feel unlucky." Liang Baozhen was not in a good mood. She immediately lost her reserve with her newlywed husband and started to complain word by word. "Today is my best day. If they hadn't been so mean, if my mother were here, she might have made me jump over the fire pot before I could go home."
This was the first time Liang Baozhen spoke so easily in front of him, as if she really treated him as a family member, and she became less polite. Xu Shengjie also relaxed and coaxed her, "Yes, it's an unlucky thing, don't worry about it."
"Forget it, ignore them, let's go buy some clothes." Liang Baozhen walked in front and carefully selected clothes, muttering to herself, "Shall I buy you a shirt? What color and style do you like?"
"I don't need it." Xu Shengjie wore a green military uniform when he was in the army. After he was discharged from the army, he mainly wore the old military uniform, plus two sets of work clothes. He was a big boss and there was no need to prepare too many clothes, let alone what color and style. There was no difference. He could wear whatever he wanted.
But girls are different. He saw Liang Baozhen wearing different colors and styles twice, but she looked beautiful in different ways. It was worth it for her to buy it.
Liang Baozhen didn't force it. This guy really didn't seem to care. She turned around and looked Xu Shengjie up and down, then stared at the ground, "Then buy a pair of shoes."
The cloth shoes on his feet were quite old and it was a good time to change them.
"No..."
Before Xu Shengjie could say no, he saw Liang Baozhen glaring at him. The pretty girl was a little annoyed, "If you say no again, I won't buy anything for you anymore."
Wouldn’t that be a huge loss for me? Xu Shengjie kept silent and could only nod.
Finally, Liang Baozhen picked a goose yellow blouse, which was fitted at the waist and looked very gentle when worn on her body. She chose a pair of black cloth shoes for Xu Shengjie, the most basic style.
The two were very principled. Thinking that it was a gift for each other, they paid separately, which caused the salesperson to look at Xu Shengjie several times. After the person walked away, he did not forget to complain to his colleagues, until he said, "The man just now was handsome, but he was too stingy!"
Liang Baozhen had less than ten yuan saved by herself. Her second brother gave her eighteen yuan before she got married. She secretly put ten yuan back yesterday, but Song Chunhua gave her one hundred yuan from the betrothal gift, thinking that it was not easy to start a small family and that money was spent everywhere, so she asked her to spend it carefully and make every penny count.
Today I spent eleven yuan on a pair of cloth shoes, which is very expensive. It is equivalent to half a month's salary of a worker. It is the first time that Liang Baozhen paid such a large amount of money at one time. She still feels a little painful. She can't help feeling distressed. She feels that it is too expensive.
However, the bra that Xu Shengjie bought for her was more expensive, a full twenty yuan!
On the way home, Liang Baozhen pondered and wondered whether the two of them were a bit wasteful.
Zhou Yun looked at the young couple who had just returned from shopping for clothes and was full of praise for them. He praised Liang Baozhen for her good taste and Blagi for her beauty. He was also happy that she even bought a pair of shoes for her grandson.
"The soles of these shoes are solid, and they are light and comfortable to walk in. I can see that they can be worn for many years. It is worth buying."
Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya also commented that it was beautiful, which made Liang Baozhen very happy.
After the new clothes were dried and hung out to dry, Xu Shengjie went out to return Hong Saner's bicycle, leaving only the old man, two children and his new daughter-in-law at home.
Zhou Yun was boiling medicine for Xu Shengya. The black Chinese medicine was slowly boiling in the pot, emitting a bitter smell. Liang Baozhen stepped forward to help, picking up the clay pot and pouring it into the porcelain bowl.
A bowl of Chinese medicine was placed on the table, and Xu Shengya sat upright as if she was being tortured. Even after drinking it so many times, the little girl was still afraid.
"Xiao Ya, be good. Eat candy after taking the medicine. Your brother is getting married this time, and there are seven or eight candies left at home. I'll save them all for you."
Every person in the city was given two taels of sugar coupons every quarter, so buying sugar became a luxury. No matter how rich you were, it was useless without the coupons. This time, the Xu family received an extra two kilograms of wedding candy coupons for their wedding, which allowed them to set up shop.
Xu Shengya's cheeks puffed up, she took a deep breath, held the bowl and drank it in big gulps. After finishing the bowl of Chinese medicine, there was a trace of black medicine stains on the corners of her mouth. Liang Baozhen wiped the girl's mouth with a handkerchief and immediately handed her a piece of sweet sorghum.
"Eat this quickly, it's very sweet."
This is true, sweet sorghum is really sweet. When you take a bite and chew it, your mouth is full of sweet juice. It is more beneficial than eating sugar. The bitterness in your mouth disappears as you chew it.
"Thank you, sister-in-law."
Xu Shengya had beautiful eyebrows and eyes, and her hair was tied into two pigtail braids. Her hair was soft and loose, and it looked like it would be easy to rub. Liang Baozhen couldn't help but reached out to touch the end of her braids while watching her eat sweet sorghum.
There was a lively party at noon today, but no traces of it can be seen now, except for the red firecracker debris scattered on the ground at the gate of the courtyard. I left it there on purpose and will sweep it up tomorrow to preserve this festive atmosphere.
Liang Baozhen packed up the gifts that her relatives and friends had sent her in the morning and put them in the cupboard. Most of them were small bags of white and brown sugar noodles and a few eggs. Everyone had a wedding banquet and also gave some gifts.
After walking out of the house, Liang Baozhen took a good look at the courtyard.
The courtyard houses at that time were a little older than they would be more than ten years later. They had been renovated once in the 1990s, and then encountered property rights reform. The factory was not profitable and was leased out or sold. However, many people were reluctant to spend a lot of money to buy a house, and they regretted it many years later.
The Xu family lived in the east wing of the large courtyard. There were two families living in the east wing. Next door was a couple in their thirties and their two sons. Their house was smaller, but with only three of them, it was more comfortable to live in than the Xu family's place.
Next is the main house. Liang Baozhen couldn't help but envy the main house's grandeur and spaciousness. A family of eight lived in this house. The old man was a seventh-level worker in the machinery factory, a prominent technical worker with high salary and great authority. When the houses were divided, he was given the largest main house.
Zhou Yun was picking vegetables in the yard. Xu Shengjie had brought back quite a lot of vegetables from the Liang family a few days ago, and there was still a small amount left, which he planned to stir-fry today.
Seeing Liang Baozhen looking at the main room, he introduced her, "This is Aunt Chen and Master Wei's home. They have a large family and are usually very busy, but they are all at work now. There are two grandchildren at home, and they must be taken out to play by the second son's wife."
"Is Aunt Zhang in the west wing over there?" She met too many people in the courtyard today. Men, women, old and young surrounded her to congratulate her. She couldn't even remember how many people they were. She just had some impression of Aunt Zhang and the couple who had quarreled in front.
"Yes. Aunt Zhang's family is over there. She is kind-hearted and always willing to help with anything." Zhou Yun picked up two cucumbers and prepared to make some cold cucumber salad.
"Grandma, let me do it." Liang Baozhen took the cucumber, washed it and scraped off the thorns. She skillfully slapped it into cucumber slices, sprinkled some salt on it and marinated it for a while.
Zhou Yun was pleased to see that his granddaughter-in-law was capable, and the two of them worked together on the stove.
The Xu family's stove was built next to the house. It was a 1.5-meter-wide table with a coal stove for cooking.
When Xu Shengjie finished his work and returned to the courtyard, he saw smoke rising from the door of his house and a busy figure coming and going. He put the pig ears he brought back on the stove and asked, "Have you changed your clothes?"
Liang Baozhen was wearing an old dress, a gray jacket with sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She looked very neat. She was a little surprised to see the man bring back the pig ears. "Well, I'll lose out if the new clothes are stained by cigarettes. Where did you buy the pig ears?"
"Hong Saner's father works in a meat processing factory. They have good benefits and often buy pig offal and pig ears for free. I just bought a piece when I returned my bike. See if it's served cold or fried."
"Let's mix it. It's too hot. It's more comfortable to eat it cold."
Dinner was simply prepared and the Xu family finally welcomed a new family member.
Cold mixed pig ears, cold mixed cucumber, cornmeal steamed buns, cabbage and tofu soup were rich and delicious. Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya enjoyed the meal the most, and their two little mouths were greasy.
"Sister-in-law's cooking skills are really good! So delicious."
"Then eat more."
Xu Shengwei couldn't stop picking up the food with his chopsticks, it smelled so good. Liang Baozhen's skill in making cold dishes was indeed good, and she had been praised many times in the Liang family. The dishes she made were not only fresh and fragrant, but also had a bit of spicy taste, which could make people feel refreshed physically and mentally in the hot summer.
After dinner, Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya volunteered to wash the dishes. They had been accustomed to this since childhood and were in charge of the house. One of them washed the first dish and the other took over to rinse the second dish, and they cooperated very well.
After Zaizai rinsed and cleaned the dishes, the two held hands and reported to their brother, "Brother, we are going out to play."
"Go ahead." After wiping the table, Xu Shengjie watched his younger brother and sister leave. The child couldn't stand being at home.
After dinner, Liang Baozhen went back to the house to clean up, but she got up too early today. She was exhausted after running around all day. Her eyes could hardly close. She sat on the stool in Xu Shengjie's room, her head nodding, and she fell asleep.
When I woke up again, everything was quiet. I looked out the window and saw that it was already dusk. I estimated it was around eight or nine o'clock.
The door creaked, and someone came in with the sound of heavy footsteps.
"Are you awake?"
"Yeah." Liang Baozhen, who had just closed her eyes for a while, spoke in a hoarse voice. She rubbed her eyes and looked at Xu Shengjie a little embarrassedly, "Where's grandma? I accidentally fell asleep."
"She's asleep at this hour, and she told me not to wake you up. She got up early and was tired after a whole day, so she needed to catch up on some sleep."
Liang Baozhen felt refreshed after sleeping for more than two hours. Just as she was about to stretch and stand up, she suddenly felt that the surroundings were a little quiet. It was late at night and there were only herself and Xu Shengjie in the room.
Her head was buzzing, and she suddenly remembered the wedding night secrets that Song Chunhua taught her last night.
Song Chunhua was used to being outgoing, but it was rare for her to feel embarrassed talking about such secrets. She just clapped her hands to reassure her, saying, "Every woman has to go through this. Anyway, you just have to listen to Xiao Xu when the time comes. Don't be afraid."
Watching the tall man in front of her leading her into the house, she was indeed a little scared at this moment.
The author has something to say:
Wedding Night:
Liang Baozhen: Nervous
Xu Shengjie: I am also nervous
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
