Chapter 284 I have never seen such a bride!
The Gu family at the head of the village is having a great time, but the Gu family at the end of the village is in a gloomy mood and the atmosphere is not very good.
After Qian was sent to Gu's house, she was arranged to temporarily live in the west wing.
Facing so many strangers, Qian was not at all timid. She got off the ox cart and stood under the west wing corridor. With the help of the light from the lantern beside her, she untied the fur blanket on her body, revealing a beautiful face that startled everyone.
How could this Qian be so beautiful?
How come I haven’t heard anyone mention it before?
As the saying goes, beauty is best seen under the lamp, and flowers are best seen under the moon. Under the candlelight, a beauty that is five points can be increased to seven or eight points!
Qian's beauty, even with her hair disheveled, could still be rated a seven out of ten. Now, under the candlelight, she had become a seductive beauty, with every frown and smile full of charm.
The men and women who came to the Gu family to help were all working in the fields. They were all tanned and rarely saw such a delicate woman, so they were stunned.
In fact, not only the people in the hospital were stunned, but even Gu Liansheng himself was stunned.
He cleared his throat and spoke in a tender and sweet tone, asking Qian to go into the house and rest.
"Let's go back to the house. It's cold outside. Be careful not to catch a cold."
Qian smiled at him and said, "It's okay."
She shook the fur blanket in her hand twice, patted the snow on the blanket, looked at the people in the yard, and actually opened her mouth to order them to move all the boxes and packages with the word "囍" on them from the ox cart into the west wing.
"The things on this cart are all my dowry. Tomorrow is the wedding day, so we'll put them in the west wing today. We can move them into the east wing after the ceremony tomorrow."
Everyone was stunned for a moment and no one reacted for a while.
In their impression, the bride, no matter if she is a virgin or a widow marrying for the second time, would blush and dare not speak when she first arrived at the man's house.
Those with a gentle temperament will still blush a few months after marriage, and even those with a straightforward temperament will need more than a month to relax.
It was the first time that anyone had seen someone like Qian, who was about to go to a man's house without any fear in her words or actions, and even ordered people around on her own.
A few honest people actually came forward to help move things.
Qian was afraid that they would stumble due to rough handling, so she kept following them in and out, directing everyone to move things carefully into the house one by one.
Gu Liansheng, who was standing by, looked at the ox cart being emptied of its contents, and his face froze instantly.
The things on the ox cart were not all Qian's dowry, some were also "bride gifts" sent by the Gu family.
It was agreed before that Qian didn't want the betrothal gift. It was just given to her to save her face, and it would be returned to the Gu family later.
But what does it mean now?
Qian actually had someone move the Gu family's betrothal gifts into the west wing.
Although these betrothal gifts only look good on the surface, they cost several hundred copper coins to purchase.
Gu Liansheng originally planned to bring it back and then sell it to get some copper coins. After all, he really didn't have much silver and money left.
Feng had been drowsy for the past two days, sometimes awake and sometimes asleep, and she didn't know where she had hidden the silver. Gu Liansheng endured the smell of feces and urine and searched the east room for a long time, but only found three taels of silver!
Gu Liansheng looked down upon the three taels of silver, so he thought of getting some more silver from Old Man Gu.
But Mr. Gu was very good at hiding silver. While he was asleep, Gu Liansheng searched every corner of the house but didn't find a single copper coin.
It would be fine if she couldn't find the money. It was originally agreed that all wedding expenses would be paid by Feng. But as the day was approaching, Feng refused to mention the money.
Gu Liansheng was left with no choice but to ask Feng for the money directly while she was awake.
Feng didn't know what was wrong. No matter how much Gu Liansheng talked, she just refused to take the money.
Gu Liansheng was so angry that he had a quarrel with Feng. Then he turned around and woke up Old Man Gu in front of her and asked him for money.
How could Mr. Gu dare to admit that he had hidden the silver? He simply did the same as Feng and insisted that he didn't have any!
After being rejected repeatedly, Gu Liansheng became angry. After the firewood in the stove was burned out, he deliberately did not add more firewood, leaving the old couple shivering in the house.
In addition to letting them suffer from the cold, Gu Liansheng also wanted to starve the old couple for a day. He didn't believe that they would not give in!
Unfortunately, these two methods were only tried for one night. The next morning, all the people who had been invited came to the house to help with Gu Liansheng's marriage.
Gu Liansheng was afraid that the fact that he had let the old couple suffer from cold and hunger would be exposed, so he had to go back to adding firewood and feeding them.
Without the financial support of the old couple, and without their running around to worry about him, Gu Liansheng had to take responsibility for everything when he got married this time.
I have to spend money to buy things for the wedding, and also worry about things like arranging the banquet. I am so busy and confused and overwhelmed!
Everything else is easy to deal with, you can save if you can, or use some cheap things to make up the number, but the only thing you can't save on is the banquet.
According to Gu Liansheng's idea, because of the heavy snow, relatives from other villages will not be invited, and only relatives and friends from the village will be entertained.
But in the end, since Mr. Gu and Mrs. Feng seldom attend banquets in the village, according to local customs, if you don't attend banquets at other people's homes, then when your family has a banquet, others will not attend banquets at your home.
After all this, there’s not even enough people to fill three tables!
Gu Liansheng was very concerned about his reputation, so he had agreed in advance that there would be at least six tables.
Now that there are not enough people, he can only invite more people to his house to help, and then let them make up the other three tables, so that he can at least save face.
After deciding on the number of seats, the next step is to discuss the dishes.
This was ordered by Mr. Gu in advance. There are eight people at the table, and eight dishes will be served, two meat dishes and six vegetarian dishes.
Vegetarian dishes are easy, any fried plate of tofu can count as one, but the two meat dishes are difficult.
According to Mr. Gu, the two meat dishes are steamed chicken and steamed fish.
The chickens were eight roosters ordered from the family of Gu Fengshou, a fellow clan member.
The fish were also ordered from Gu Fengshou's family. He had a broken fishing net, and with this net, he caught a lot of fish all year round.
In the evening, Gu Fengshou and his family came to deliver chickens and fish.
Thanks to the snowstorm, the prices of roosters and fish have all gone up.
The price of a rooster used to be 40 cents, but now it has risen to 60 cents.
The price of fish has increased even more. Previously, as long as the fish weighed less than two kilograms, they were all five cents each. Now the price has doubled to ten cents each!
Eight chickens and eight fish cost him five hundred and sixty copper coins!
Half a tael of silver is gone.
Adding other dishes, he gave about seven or eight hundred copper coins in total, as well as candy, fruit, cakes, etc., and one tael of silver was not enough to spend. In total, he spent almost one and a half taels of silver!
When paying, Gu Liansheng felt so distressed that he was thinking only of getting it back.
After thinking about it, he thought of the betrothal gift he had sent out.
In addition to being concerned about the betrothal gifts he had sent out, he was also concerned about Qian's dowry.
In his opinion, as a scholar, he was willing to marry a widow, which was a good thing for Qian, and she should be grateful. Qian should give the dowry to him.
Just like Wei, if he said one thing, Wei dared not say another.
But now, looking at Qian's words, behavior, and way of doing things, Gu Liansheng felt uneasy.
This person is different from Wei and cannot be fooled.
He frowned and felt dissatisfied.
But as soon as his eyes fell on Qian's face, his dissatisfaction instantly disappeared.
After staring at Qian coming in and out for a while, Gu Liansheng finally didn't say anything.
Forget it, there are so many people here now, and some things are not convenient to say in front of everyone.
After the ceremony tomorrow, I will slowly teach Qian.
After the things were moved, the dishes that had been hot in the pot were served on the table one by one.
Two tables were set up for men and women, one in the main hall and the other in the west wing.
The men sat at the table in the main hall, and no one disturbed them as they played rock-paper-scissors and drank.
The women sat at the table in the west wing and were given a pot of hot wine. Each of them drank two cups to warm themselves up.
Before the meal started, the woman, according to custom, called Qian and asked her to come to the table to eat.
According to custom, the bride should politely refuse.
But Qian was different. When she heard the word "dinner is ready", she came over by herself without any invitation and sat in the chief seat without any hesitation.
The people in the house stood there in a daze. It was the first time they had seen such a situation. Everyone looked at Qian, not knowing what to do next.
Qian seemed unaware of how shocking her actions were. She smiled and asked everyone to sit down: "What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and sit down to eat. After you're full, you still have to go back in the wind and snow. It's really hard work!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the room became even quieter.
It's really the opposite of Tiangang!
The woman with a bad temper wanted to say something, but was secretly stopped by the good-tempered woman next to her. She then tried to smooth things over and asked the woman to sit down and eat.
They are here to help, and they have no control over how the Qian family acts.
If they spoke too much at this moment, Qian would definitely be unhappy and might even hate them.
So, there is no need, really no need!
Let's just turn a blind eye to this matter.
Everyone laughed and sat down around the table.
Seeing that everyone was seated, Qian stopped talking and just picked up her chopsticks to eat.
In addition to the dishes on the table, there was also a basket of pancakes.
Qian didn't eat pancakes and only ate vegetables throughout the meal.
You said she would eat vegetables, but she only eats meat!
There is no formal dinner tonight, and there are only four dishes on the table. Although there are few dishes, the portions are sufficient. Add a basket of pancakes, and it is more than enough to eat, except that there is less meat.
Among the four dishes, only the stir-fried meat with pickled vegetables had meat.
It is called meat, but in fact it is just a few slices of meat with fat and lean meat, fried in a pan to extract oil, then stir-fried with pickled vegetables, and the final dish tastes like meat.
Faced with these pieces of meat, normal people would be humble, especially Qian, as a bride who is about to get married, she should be even more humble.
But what no one expected was that Qian picked up all the pieces of meat and put them into the bowl in front of her, and ate them all in one breath, without leaving a single piece.
The atmosphere in the room changed instantly.
Everyone stopped picking up food and looked at Qian.
Qian was completely unaware of this and continued to pick up the dishes she liked and put them all into the bowl in front of her, with no intention of leaving any for others.
The food was eaten and the wine was also drunk.
Gu Liansheng was stingy and only prepared one pot of wine for the ladies' table, thinking that one pot would be enough for six women, and he didn't even think about Qian.
After finishing the meat, Qian took the pot of wine to herself, poured herself a cup, and drank it in one gulp.
Afterwards, she smacked her lips and said, "This wine is watered down. It tastes too bland!"
She looked at the others sitting at the table and said, "Try to drink this wine. This wine doesn't taste good. Are you going to drink this wine tomorrow on our special day?"
Everyone: ...How can they tell whether there is water in the wine or not?
These women can only drink a few times in their lifetime!
Qian didn't care that no one responded. She poured herself a few more cups and drank them all in one breath!
In just a short while, half a pot of wine was gone.
Everyone watched eagerly.
You agreed to let them eat too, why don’t you put down the wine jug!
You hold the wine jug with one hand, and they are too embarrassed to pry your hand away even if they want to eat!
After drinking half a pot of wine, Qian's face looked normal and her eyes were clear. It was obvious that she was not drunk. She had a good alcohol tolerance and probably drank frequently.
An angry woman wanted to reach out and grab the wine jug, but saw Qian picked up the jug again and poured herself wine again.
The woman extended her hand, then withdrew it awkwardly.
Everyone: ...This is the first time I've seen a bride like this. She and that unlucky Gu Liansheng are a perfect match.
Without meat, and now without wine, the women could only eat vegetables and bread in silence, without saying a word, with gloomy faces, and full of resentment.
Qian didn't care about all this. She enjoyed her food and wine comfortably while pointing to the east and asking everyone.
"On the way here just now, I met a girl and two boys in the east. The girl was extremely beautiful, about thirteen or fourteen years old. The two boys were each more handsome than the other! One was about twenty years old, the other about eleven or twelve..."
When everyone heard this, they had a guess in their minds that Qian was most likely talking about Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an, a brother and sister.
But who is that guy in his twenties?
Could he be a relative of the Lianshan family?
Qian continued, "Brother Shunzi insisted that the girl call me auntie, but she was so persistent that she first called out her father and then said that she should call me cousin auntie, which left Brother Shunzi speechless.
Please tell me quickly, what is the relationship between this family and this place? I just asked Brother Shunzi what was going on, but he refused to tell me.
Everyone looked at each other, wondering what to say.
Seeing their troubled faces, Qian's heart sank. "You are so embarrassed. Are you and them enemies?"
Enemy?
Several women were stunned, but after thinking about it carefully, it was almost the same. The two families did have some grudges against each other, and if things continued like this, they would become enemies sooner or later.
An older woman hesitated for a moment and then told Qian the truth: "The girl you saw and the boy of eleven or twelve years old must be the daughter and boy of the Lianshan family.
You should be able to tell from the names alone: Lianshan and Liansheng, they are brothers from the same parents. Liansheng is the elder brother, Lianshan is the younger brother, one has been favored since childhood, the other has been tortured since childhood..."
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