Sakura's face is smooth.
That Chu Man is the same age as my eldest cousin Jiang Cheng. She must be eighteen this year, and will be nineteen after the Chinese New Year. She is still not married.
Chen Changping is about thirty-two or thirty-three years old, thirteen or fourteen years older than Chu Man. If he had been born two years earlier, he would probably have been her father.
"Grandma didn't agree, and grandpa didn't agree either, but the matchmaker kept lobbying."
The marriage between Chu Man from Chujia Village and Jiang Cheng was well-known throughout the entire Chuanhe Town.
Which family would dare to marry a woman like that
Of course, those who are poor or old widowers may not mind, but how could Chucunzheng's family let their precious daughter marry into that kind of family
Chen Zhao was worried and chatted with Yingbao for a while, then took his brother home.
After the last flood, Chen Laoshuan also built a house on the south slope, but he only built three tiled houses and didn't even have a yard.
The third son, Chen Changhai, also built three tiled houses next to it, also without a yard, because most of them still lived in the old house, and this one was just in case.
The eldest son Chen Changrong did not build a house on the south slope because he felt it was unnecessary.
There is more rain in spring and summer every year, and it is much more convenient to live in the old house at other times.
Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, and in order to move into a new house, Chen Laoshuan and his family came to Nanpo to celebrate the festival.
When Chen Zhao returned home with his younger brother, he saw his eldest sister helping his third aunt to light the fire and cook at his third uncle's house.
Grandma Chen Feng was also sitting on a bench picking vegetables, while grandpa was drinking tea from a teapot.
The old lady glanced at her granddaughter and instructed, "Let Xubao play by himself. Come and help with the dishes. Your uncle and aunt's family will be here soon."
Chen Zhao responded and squatted on the ground to help pick the leeks.
I heard Grandpa talking to Grandma: "After the festival, Erlang will go to the county school to study. We need to prepare some money for him to take with him."
Chen Fengshi said without even raising her head: "Of course, I still have twenty taels of silver on hand, I will give it to him when the time comes."
Chen Laoshuan sipped his tea and shook his head, "What if I give it this time? What will I do next time? I heard that the county students often hold poetry and painting gatherings together, and they have to contribute money every time. Erlang is naturally no exception. Alas, add the annual tuition and food expenses, twenty taels, I'm afraid it will only be enough for half a year."
Chen Fengshi didn't take it seriously: "Erlang can make money on his own, and if things don't work out, he still has his elder brother and third brother to help him."
Chen Laoshuan rolled his eyes at his wife and said, "How much can I expect from you? Qi'er and Song'er are both studying, and they spend a lot on tuition, writing brushes, ink, and paper every year. And next year Qi'er will be preparing for his next exam, and he'll have to spend a lot of money then."
Before each exam, the first thing to do is to prepare a gift for the instructor, who will then act as a matchmaker and find five candidates to act as guarantors.
After that, you have to spend a large sum of money to hire someone for help and contact a student on government stipend to act as a guarantor. After the exam, whether you pass or not, you have to reward this student.
As a result, most families simply cannot afford it.
Therefore, if Chen Changping wants to study safely in the county school, he must have a financially strong family to support him.
Chen Laoshuan had little money left, and most of the family's land had been divided among his sons. Now he was unable to support his second son to continue his studies.
The land originally allocated to Chen Changping had all been sold by the spendthrift Han, leaving only a few dozen acres of mountain land and those inferior fields on the south slope.
Those fields were not enough to support my son's education, let alone to provide him with enough food.
Chen Feng frowned: "This won't work, that won't work, what do you say we should do?"
The last time they went to the provincial capital, although the Wei family gave them a sum of money, how many times could that money be enough to support the family
Chen Laoshuan narrowed his eyes and took a sip of tea, saying, "I think the Chu family is pretty good. They said they can fully support Erlang's study."
Chen Fengshi was not happy when she heard this and glared at her husband: "What do you mean by good? How can that girl from the Chu family be worthy of my Erlang!"
Although she had never seen the girl from the Chu family, everyone in the village would sneer at the mention of her.
It was said that the girl was fierce and ignorant of etiquette. When she first married into the Jiang family, before their wedding night, she had already beaten the young master of the Jiang family until his head was broken and bleeding. In the end, he was sent back to her parents' home.
Just for this reason, her Chen family cannot allow such a woman to enter the family.
After all, his son is a scholar, and there are many good marriage partners for him, not to mention the Chu family. Besides, the Chu family is not a good marriage partner at all.
Seeing his wife getting angry, Chen Laoshuan said, "I just said that, but it doesn't have to be the Chu family."
But finding a good in-law family for Erlang is the most urgent task.
It had been more than a hundred days since Mrs. Han passed away, and no one would say anything if her son remarried.
Besides, there is a one-year-old baby at home who needs to be taken care of, so it is understandable even if he gets married after the festival.
That night, a full moon rose in the sky.
Various lanterns are hung in front of every household.
Now that the people of Dongchen Village are richer, they celebrate the festival in a more lively manner.
Lanterns were also hung in Xicun, but they were scattered and not as grand as those in Dongchen Village.
A tall bamboo tower was erected in front of the Jiang family’s gate, with more than twenty lanterns of various kinds hung on the tower.
There is also an offering table on the south side of the bamboo tower, which is filled with offerings of fruits and vegetables.
The children bowed to the moon one by one, lit sandalwood incense, cheered and ran to the feast.
Tonight, Jiang Dalang's family set up a total of four tables for dinner. Three tables were occupied by his family, and the remaining table was occupied by the Xiao family guards and the Wei family servants.
Xiao Chengyu was so happy that he went crazy.
It was the first time for him to celebrate such a lively festival and he was accompanied by so many friends. He was extremely excited.
Cui Zhaochen was afraid that he would eat too much and get indigestion, so he kept telling him to eat less. But Xiao Chengyu refused to listen and ate every dish on the table. Soon his belly was bloated.
Yingbao brought two jars of fruit juice from home. She had cooked it in the cave using the pupil spring water and added honey and a little bit of ginseng to it.
"This is peach juice. It's delicious and helps with digestion. I'll give it to you guys to try."
She poured a bowl for each child and left the rest for A-niang's table.
Wei Zhan and Xiao Chengyu couldn't stop drinking the peach juice and asked for more again and again.
After the banquet, the second aunt still took the children to release river lanterns and make wishes.
After setting off the river lanterns, Wei Zhan and Xiao Chengyu refused to go back to sleep. They wandered around the village with lanterns in their hands, together with Jiang Jie, Jiang Wu, Yuan Bao and Hu Zi, to see the colorful lanterns at other people's doorsteps and to steal the offerings on their altars.
Children from other families were not to be outdone, and they went to each other's altars to grab fruits and eat them.
The Jiang family had the most numerous and most exquisite fruits and hibiscus cakes on their altar, and many children came to patronize them.
Jiang Liu and her husband happily watched the children come to grab the offerings, and when they saw that the offerings on the table were almost gone, they went home to get more.
Until the moon sets in the west, the children go home one after another.
Those who refused to leave were also dragged back by their ears by their parents.
Wei Zhan and Xiao Chengyu were also dragged by Yingbao to Huzi's house, which stunned the guards of the Xiao mansion and the servants of the Wei family.
This young lady is so aggressive that she even dares to twist their young master's ears.
You know, even their own mother has never twisted the little prince's ears.
What was even more surprising was that the young master did not get angry, but instead cooperated and went back to sleep obediently.
Several guards looked at each other, wondering whether they should report the truth when they returned.