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She earned a good amount through mushroom farming, and even after maintaining her own expenses, she had managed to save quite a bit over the years.

She dreamed of buying a house for herself and her mother in the city, but she was worried that her father and stepmother would disapprove, so she didn’t buy one.

“Alright, alright, go see if your brother-in-law’s bridal sedan chair has arrived yet,” Chunniang said, shooing them out as their conversation took a nonsensical turn.

Daybreak had just broken, and the kitchen of Uncle Jiang’s house was already bustling with activity.

Relatives who had come to congratulate them yesterday were rising and starting to wash up, preparing to have a meal.

For this occasion, Brother Jiang had paid for two cooks, each with two assistants, so Aunt Zhou didn’t have to worry.

All the ingredients were provided by the Jiang Family. Items like lamb, pork, chicken, duck, fish, and so on were prepared and delivered the day before. The cooks were already busy before dawn; those cutting meat were chopping, those mixing fillings were mixing, all were occupied.

Feasts for joyous occasions such as these tend to be lavish, consisting mainly of meat dishes. For example, red and white meats, steamed chicken and fish, four joy meatballs, fishballs, clear water meatballs, steamed meat with rice flour, as well as two stir-fried dishes and two cold dishes to accompany the wine.

During the meal, they also served a bowl of gleditsia rice and fungus sweet soup, and a bowl of three delicacies tofu soup, completing the banquet.

Yingbao and Erni climbed onto the wall, set up a stool and looked toward the village entrance.

From afar, musicians approached followed by a bridal sedan chair carried by four men.

Leading them was the groom, Zhang Shaodong, and two matchmakers, a man and a woman.

Following the bridal sedan was the dowry, carried by individuals on poles – more than a dozen poles in all.

“It’s coming, it’s coming! The bridal sedan is coming!” Erni shouted toward Uncle Jiang’s house.

Hearing this, Uncle Jiang immediately sent his two sons out to greet them.

A lot of village children followed the groom procession, curiously watching.

Some shameless women stopped the groom’s horse to ask for sweets.

Zhang Shaodong smiled warmly and motioned for the matchmakers to distribute the sweets.

The matchmakers, with a small bamboo basket in hand, lifted its red cloth cover and grabbed a handful of sweets and copper coins which they then scattered to the crowd.

Amid the excited scramble of the crowd, Zhang Shaodong quickly led the bridal sedan forward.

When they reached the entrance of the Jiang’s house, a matchmaker lit the firecrackers.

Within the crackling of burning firecrackers, Zhang Shaodong dismounted from his horse and greeted the two brothers-in-law waiting at the entrance.

Jiang Cheng led his brother-in-law inside the house, seated him at the banquet, and introduced him to the family members.

Jiang Quan directed the dowry bearers into a room, where the matchmakers began to check the wedding presents against the list.

In the courtyard, an attendant arranged seats for those who carried the bridal sedan and the dowry. A few village children were asked to stand guard at the grand entrance by the sedan and horses.

In the meantime, Uncle Jiang’s courtyard was filled with voices and laughter. Guests who couldn’t find a seat waited for the next serving.

Li Dao and Li He, and a few other boys were in charge of serving the dishes. Every time they brought out a dish, they would shout: “Hot oil coming through!” to warn everyone to be careful not to get scalded.

In the room, Dani had finished putting on her makeup and was sitting neatly on a bed covered with new bedding.

Her mother, Zhou, sat with her, advising her on how to handle matters after moving into her husband’s house.

She told her to respect her husband’s parents and the elders, to be kind to her uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Also, she should love her husband dearly and should never throw tantrums.

Dani nodded.

Zhou turned her head, discreetly wiped away her tears, and pretended to be examining the jewelry and garments sent by the Zhang Family.

On her wedding day, Dani was not allowed to wear anything from her original home. What she wore was all new clothing sent by the Zhang Family.

Her mother helped her put on two silver hairpins and slipped on a pair of gold bracelets on her; a silver necklace was put on around her neck too.

Looking at her daughter’s reflection in the mirror, Zhou couldn’t help but shed tears.

From then on, the daughter became a member of another family. When she returned, she would only be a guest.

Seeing her mother weep, Dani could not help but cry too.

Upon seeing this, Auntie Jiang Yunniang and Chunniang quickly tried to console them and fixed Dani’s makeup.

Outside, the groom’s party had finished their meal, an intermediary went to set off a string of firecrackers to urge the newlyweds to boarding the bridal sedan chair.

Upon hearing this, the people in the bride’s room hurried to add more dowry for Dani.

Chunniang gave a pair of heavy silver bracelets and so did Yanru.

The sisters-in-law and daughters-in-law from the Zhou family also each gave a silver hairpin and a bracelet.

Grandma, Jiang Liu, gave her granddaughter a red envelope filled with twenty silver ingots.

The other female relatives also gifted their homemade cotton fabrics and so on. The An family, Madam Wen and Madam Wang also all brought silver as gifts.

At that time, the firecrackers urging them to hurry up were set off again.

Dani held onto her mother and that both started crying bitterly. Depressed, the people within the Zhou family had no choice but to cry along.

Watching this, Chunniang and Yanru, thought of their own daughters and cried even harder.

The wedding chaperon, seeing this, irritably ordered to have the two of them pulled out of Dani’s room.

When the third string of firecrackers went off, Jiang Cheng entered the room.

The wedding chaperon gave Dani a quick touch-up before asking her to stand up and lean onto her brother’s back.

Jiang Cheng carried his sister and the wedding chaperon put the red bridal veil over Dani’s head.

Watching her daughter being carried away, Mrs. Zhou wailed heartbrokenly.

Everyone tried to console her.

Jiang Cheng carried his sister to the bridal sedan chair. The sedan bearers got ready, and with the help of the wedding chaperon, Dani was helped down from her brother’s back, stepped on the red carpet, and entered the bridal sedan chair.

“Lift the palanquin!” With this shout from the intermediary, the curtain of the palanquin was let down and it was lifted up.

The groom deeply bowed to his father-in-law before turning around to mount his horse.

Jiang Cheng and two of his cousins from his mother’s family followed suit.

This time, the dowry boxes were in the front, followed by the bridal sedan chair.

Yingbao and Erni stood on the wall and counted the dowry items. They amounted to thirty-six loads, carried by eighteen people.

Actually, one load was one item. For instance, a pair of chamber pots was considered one load and so was a make-up box with a mirror. As for what was inside the make-up box, it was left to one’s imagination.

For the wealthy, the make-up box was filled with gold and silver jewelry. For the less fortunate, it might be several pairs of silk flowers.

In any case, the dowry from the bride’s family had to be ostentatious with things such as fabrics, valuable utensils, all sorts of washbasins, spittoons, incense burners, canopy curtains, etc.

There were also quilts. Mrs. Zhou had prepared four cotton quilts for her daughter, each weighing eight catties.

The bride’s family didn’t provide mattresses, those had to be prepared by the groom’s family instead.

Of course, Yingbao and Erni also gave Dani gifts. Yingbao gave her four rolls of silk and satin. Erni gave her elder sister a pair of mandarin duck silver combs, wishing her a harmonious marital life.

As the welcoming party moved further away, Yingbao and Erni also climbed down from the wall.

Erni, feeling a sense of loss, said, “Yingbao, I really don’t want to get married. Look, Sister Dani can’t come home regularly anymore, and we won’t get to play with her often.”

Yingbao also felt the same way, which made her feel melancholic.

“But if we don’t get married, people will gossip about it,” Erni responded unhappily. “They will point fingers at our parents and accuse them of not teaching us properly.”

This was something their mother, Mrs. Leng, had said.

Because her daughter had yet to say anything about getting a husband, Mrs. Leng was somewhat worried. She didn’t dare to criticize Jiang Erlang and Yanru directly in front of Erni, so she had to subtly caution her instead.

Yingbao frowned.

Indeed, if a girl doesn’t marry, not only will outsiders gossip about her, but they would also criticize her parents – making it a tricky situation.