Only after this step is completed is the ceremony truly finished.
Zhang Shouyi was very excited: "Today is my big day. Everyone is eating meat and drinking to their heart's content. And all the men in the village, including boys, will each have a pack of cigarettes. Of course, those under eighteen are not allowed to smoke."
Every woman and girl in the village received two jin of brown sugar.
In addition, each elderly person in the village over sixty years old, regardless of gender, receives two jin of brown sugar.
We'll eat lunch today, continue tonight, and have another day tomorrow.
Everyone drank heartily, and I hope everyone will approve of me in the end. Best wishes to Hongmei and me.
Xiao Li was constantly pressing the shutter button, capturing this meaningful moment of the day.
After Zhang Shouyi finished speaking, Wang Hongxi stood up again and said, "Everyone, don't leave after you finish eating. Let's ask Master Li to see if he can help us take a group photo of the whole village. Also, the brigade headquarters has prepared a room, and all the families can line up to take the photo."
Everyone was excited, of course. The kids in the family said they had taken individual photos earlier, which made the adults envious. When they learned that everyone had a chance, they were naturally thrilled.
After Wang Hongxi finished speaking, there was a burst of cheers from the audience.
"Alright, let's serve the food and eat now."
Upon hearing Wang Hongxi's words, the women in charge of cooking in the canteen got busy. The men helped serve the dishes. This time, there was no queuing; instead, enough tables were prepared, though there were no chairs. However, everyone was already quite satisfied.
The dishes were all served in large bowls, but there was very little smashed cucumber, though nobody seemed to want to eat it anyway.
Today we slaughtered a pig. The meat weighed over 200 jin (approximately 100 kg), so everyone got to eat quite a bit. It was a treat to eat meat, and we even had some fragrant rice with it.
At this time, the only sounds in the canteen courtyard were the smacking of mouths as people ate; very few spoke, everyone was focused on eating.
Li Cuihua deliberately set aside two pots for stewing potato noodles with meat, two pots for stewing pork offal with bean curd, and two large pots for stewing kelp that evening.
As newcomers, Zhang Hongmei and Zhang Shouyi ate at the table with the older villagers.
Liu Maocai placed a bottle of liquor and a pack of cigarettes on each table. If someone needed more liquor, they could come and ask him for more.
While eating, Zhang Hongmei felt like she had forgotten something, but she couldn't remember it for a moment, so she became a little absent-minded.
Zhang Shouyi picked up a piece of meat and put it in his own bowl, then twisted off the lean meat and put it in Zhang Hongmei's bowl. This girl doesn't eat a single piece of fatty meat when eating stewed meat.
The elderly people at the table nodded in approval; it was quite good that he took such good care of his wife.
Not many people in the village knew Zhang Shouyi's true identity, so they didn't have any concerns.
After eating a bowl of rice, Zhang Shouyi saw that Zhang Hongmei had also eaten a bowl, so he pulled her to stand up, picked up the wine bottle, and wanted to go around toasting each table.
Xiao Li was responsible for taking photos from behind, while Wang Ying was responsible for carrying the wine bottles and following behind the leader.
At each table, he received congratulations and blessings from everyone. Of course, there were also some irreverent people, but before he could say anything bad, he would be interrupted by the person next to him.
Zhang Hongmei didn't care about any of that. Liu Maocai stayed by Zhang Shouyi's side, introducing him to the village elders. Zhang Hongmei just greeted them and smiled throughout; she didn't get a chance to do anything else.
It took a long time to finish serving all twenty tables. Zhang Hongmei felt her face was stiff from smiling so much. Looking at the smug Zhang Shouyi beside her, she felt utterly inadequate; compared to him, she was worlds apart.
Xiao Li waited until all twenty tables of leaders had left, and by then both types of questionnaires had been used up.
Wang Ying looked at Xiao Li with admiration for the first time. She never expected that this quiet guy would be so perceptive.
The two returned to the old woman's table. Zhang Hongmei sat down next to her and said, "Grandma, this must have been so tiring."
"Tired? You must have it easy."
"How could that be? Even just looking at the food makes my mouth dry, and I'm also hungry."
Wang Yingsheng brought over a bowl of rice and handed it to Zhang Hongmei.
"Grandma, let's take pictures of the older kids first. I reckon no matter how crowded it is, we definitely won't be able to finish today, and we'll have to continue tomorrow morning."
"Anything is fine, just make sure you take all the photos you need before you leave."
"Hehe, definitely. And we'll start developing the photos as soon as we get back. This time, we'll develop them by the number of people in each photo. I'll also have them bring the negatives back with us."
"I asked my uncle to go to the city post office to find Huang Ying. Her brother drives there. We have too many photos this time, so we're taking them privately. Otherwise, I'd be heartbroken if they got damaged or lost."
"Yes, as long as you've arranged it, that's fine." The old lady truly trusted Zhang Hongmei; she was sure the girl would handle everything perfectly.
The women in the canteen ate their meal the fastest. They wanted to go home and change their clothes. After all, it wasn't easy to take a picture, so they should at least change into new clothes.
So after they finished eating, none of them bothered to clean up, and they told their husbands to help. They ran back to change their clothes.
Apart from the leftovers, we ate all the food today.
Since everyone brings their own bowls and chopsticks, the only thing to clean up is the basin.
Moreover, everyone was very conscientious, pouring the leftover soup into their own bowls, as if they would rather be stuffed than leave any food in the bowl.
Zhang Hongmei collected the bowls from each table, while Wang Ying followed behind her, wiping the tables with a rag. The two worked together very well.
Those who went back to change clothes gradually returned, and by then the canteen courtyard had been cleaned up.
Everyone listened to Xiao Li. Outside, all the older people sat down. In front of them, the children over fifteen years old sat on small stools, and those around ten years old squatted on the ground. The remaining children sat at the very front. This was even easier to manage; they were allowed to sit at the very front.
Then all the women stood behind the old man, and finally the men of the village.
Xiao Li told everyone to hold on for a while, as he needed to choose a spot that wasn't too bright.
Xiao Li tried several positions before finally settling on one. Once the positions were chosen, everyone followed Xiao Li's instructions and found their own spots.
Xiao Li took four or five photos in a row before stopping.
As everyone knows, this time we started taking family photos. The children all gathered around their parents to save time from having to look for each other later.
When Zhang Hongmei saw the old principal, she finally realized what she had forgotten and that she had promised to go find him when she returned from the countryside.
"Principal, I'm sorry, I was so busy I forgot, I only remembered when I saw you."
"It's okay, we can talk again tonight when we have time. You go ahead and get busy."
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