Siheyuan: All the incense in the family is counting on you

I saw the matchmaker bringing Li Bowen and his grandson to the door.

Chen Changshui's mouth was almost stretched to the back of his head. "Her aunt is here, come in and sit down quickly. Grandma Li, please take a seat. This must be Bowen, the young man looks really energetic."

Everyone in the room stared at the three people who came in. Chen Changshui and his eldest son stared at the things Li Bowen brought in. The daughter-in-law's eyes stayed more on Li Bowen's face. The youngest boy in the family snuggled up to Chen Qiao, watching curiously.

Chen Qiao lowered her head, she was very happy in her heart. They had just agreed on it yesterday and he came to propose marriage today, the speed was amazing.

Li Bowen just greeted her and stood aside without saying anything. It was not his role to speak at this time. He just looked at Chen Qiao from time to time. When their eyes met, Chen Qiao hurriedly avoided him, which Li Bowen found very interesting. He started to glance at her non-stop, making Chen Qiao not know where to put her hands.

After the old lady sat down, Chen Wang's wife began to say, "Brother Changshui, we are from the same family, so I won't beat around the bush and say those polite words. The old lady has chosen Chen Qiao as her grandson's wife, and the two children also like each other. I think this is a good thing and I also want to promote this marriage. What do you think!"

"It's good, I like Bowen too, but it's not easy to raise a girl these years, and I can earn a few more work points at home!"

This is nothing more than talking about the issue of bride price, but it is not easy to mention it openly.

After he finished speaking, Chen Wang's wife continued, "The Li family has thought of all this. The Li family is willing to pay ten yuan plus fifty kilograms of grain as a betrothal gift. This is the first time in our village.

Anyway, we are from the same village, so there is no need to hide it. Your eldest daughter is a widow, and the three brothers in the Li family only have Bowen as their only son, so they can't let the three families lose their family line. So when Chen Qiao gets married, she will be married to the second son in his family, that is, the one from Bowen's father's family. The wedding banquet and other things are all treated as those for a married girl, but they can't get a marriage certificate.

Brother Changshui, do you agree?"

"I agree. I have no objection as long as the children are happy!" Such a large amount of betrothal gifts has exceeded Chen Changshui's expectations.

He didn't expect that his cheap daughter could get such a high bride price on her second marriage. As for whether he would be laughed at by the villagers, he had already forgotten about it. The joke was not enough. Besides, such a situation had happened in the village before. It was just the first case in his family in recent years.

"Okay, since you are all willing, I won't waste any more words. Old lady, you can give the gift money to Brother Changshui first, and then ask Bowen to send the food over, and then we can choose a day to hold the wedding banquet!" Chen Wang's wife nodded and said to the old lady.

"Oh, okay, I like this girl Chen Qiao. I've admired her since she was young!" The old lady took out a neatly folded handkerchief from her inner pocket, opened it layer by layer, took out two large fire pokers and handed them to Chen Wang's wife.

Chen Wang's wife handed it to Chen Changshui, then stood up and patted her butt: "Okay, it's done. The old lady told me the date for the wedding banquet. Is it okay to hold it next Sunday? If they get married, I will have a perfect marriage.

"No problem. I still have about ten days, so I'll prepare a dowry for Chen Qiao!" In fact, there was no dowry at all. It was just a matter of putting Chen Qiao's clothes and belongings in order.

"Okay, that's it. I have something to do at home so I'll leave first!"

Chen Changshui happily put the money into his pocket, then stood up and said politely, "No, my family has prepared dinner, so you have to eat here before you leave!"

"No, no, our family is not well off now, and I'm the head of the family, so there's no need to do these things! They just need to live a good life in the future!"

Chen Wang's wife and Li Bowen walked out together. After they came out, Chen Wang's wife said to the old lady, "Auntie, I've done the job for you. Please hurry up and ask Bowen to deliver the remaining food. Chen Qiao is a filial child. You can wait and enjoy the good life in the future!"

"Hahaha, thank you for your hard work, Chen Wang. I'll have to treat you well when we hold the banquet!"

After returning home, Li Bowen still couldn't believe that he was married: "Grandma, is it so fast to talk about marriage?"

"So what do you want? Delay it for a year or two? When your grandfather and I got married, we didn't even meet. It was only when he was carried into the house that I saw what he looked like!"

"Then aren't you afraid of marrying an ugly guy?" Li Bowen asked with a smile.

"Of course I'm not afraid, but what's the point of being afraid? It's all decided by our parents. Even a blind or lame person has to accept his fate. Marry a chicken and follow the chicken, marry a dog and follow the dog!"

Marriage in that era really had its pros and cons. The advantage was that you didn't have to invest so much time and energy. You could get married first and then fall in love, or even not even have a love relationship. And unless in extremely special circumstances, you generally wouldn't get divorced and just live like that for the rest of your life.

The disadvantage is that it is a blind marriage, just like opening a blind box, you don’t know whether it will be a swan or a toad.

In general, Li Bowen feels that this marriage is much better than the marriages of later generations, where countless time and money are invested, and the wallets of two generations are emptied, but in the end, it is very likely that one person will be unhappy and divorced within two years of marriage, resulting in the loss of both money and life.

After confirming the date, the Li family began to prepare the things needed for the banquet.

Li Bowen happened to have a tricycle, and he bought cigarettes, alcohol, candy and other things from the county town in one trip. He would buy the remaining fish, meat and other things the day before. The weather was hot now, and if he bought them now, they would have gone bad by then.

Taking advantage of these few days, Li Bowen was able to deliver supplies to the factory. Although he had been busy with blind dates and going to the county town to purchase things needed for the wedding, he did not neglect the task of collecting things.

My third uncle Li Dahe would take some young men from the village to the reservoir every day to cast a few nets. Although they caught some fish, the small ones were shared out among the villagers, and the big ones were now kept in a large vat in the yard and could be caught directly.

My third aunt and three younger sisters were busy going from house to house collecting eggs and other things. They were five cents each, and there was no need to go to the supply and marketing office, just cash transactions. The four of us collected more than three hundred eggs in a few days, and got a big basket, stacking them one layer at a time with straw.

After loading everything onto the tricycle, Li Bowen pushed the tricycle out of the village with great effort. He got on the tricycle and started pedaling when he saw that there was no one around. He parked the tricycle under a tree on the side of the road, reached out and touched the large basket of eggs, "Collect!"

A basket of eggs disappeared and then appeared in the space.

He did the same thing again to collect the fish, then rode towards the city on his empty bike, humming a little tune.

When I returned to the city, it was almost time to get off work. I found a place to take out all the things. I got soybean oil, salted duck eggs and various dried goods from my stall. Anyway, the tricycle was full, so I hurried to the factory.