Chronicle of Farming in Muxianfu

Chapter 284
And Shuan Shuan completely hid in the room and couldn't come out, and Xiao Miao even brought her three meals a day into the room.The winter solstice and Wenjuan, Kong Xi’s daughter-in-law who has just entered the mansion for a few days, and the three embroiderers transferred by Liniang from the embroidery shop to help her embroider the wedding dress, hijab and the clothes, shoes and socks needed by the man day and night , I was too busy for a while.

After the children knew that their aunt was going to get married, Cheng'er and Simba liked to have fun, dancing and laughing. From time to time, they would sneak into the Dongkua courtyard and shout a few songs that they didn't know where they learned, "Bride The child wears a wedding dress, gets on a sedan chair, and cries."Shuan Shuan was so ashamed that he wanted to bury his head in the pile of fabrics. It was not until Mu Ai gave the two naughty boys extra homework and asked Dayu and Tao'er to take care of them more that he finally rescued Shuan Shuan, who was about to have a blood vessel burst due to shyness. .

Xinger, a little girl, usually follows her aunt, her feelings are naturally behind her. At the beginning, she didn't understand what marriage is, and she smiled and followed everyone behind to help. Later, she gradually realized that my aunt is married. In the future, she could not continue to teach her female reds, nor could she stay at home, so she began to cry.

It made Shuan Shuan hug her and cry a lot. She had no parents since she was a child, and lived with her grandma. When her father and stepmother came back, it would still hurt her. She hated it too, but it was still her home after all, and now Both her father and grandmother passed away, and she became a real orphan girl. Although her elder sister treated her as well as her own younger sister, she still couldn't help feeling flustered. She wanted to have her own yard, her own home, and a husband Rely on her, there will be lovely and lively children playing around her in the future.Therefore, when her sister asked her whether she would get married in three years or now, she was silent. She knew that this would hurt her sister's heart, but she couldn't bear the thought of having a family in her heart.

Now that the marriage is settled, and the whole house is busy with her dowry, she is suddenly at a loss again, is she really going to get married? She will not see her sister or her cute little niece for a few months, so she has to leave In this village where I have lived for more than ten years, I left the familiar people and the familiar life, and went to a completely strange place...

Mu Ai and Chun Equinox are busy with each other. Yesterday, Liniang brought a dowry list from Miss Su's family, a well-known scholarly family in the city. She will be a petty official's wife, and if the dowry is too thin, she will be praised or criticized by others, but if there are too many gold and silver things, it will appear too vulgar.Moreover, although Wei Xiucai is an orphan, his ancestors have studied for three generations. He is considered a small scholarly family, so he has to take care of it.When all these conditions are gathered together, it becomes a big problem, and it is very troublesome to increase or decrease.

When Mu Ai heard that the winter solstice was coming, Shuan Shuan and Xing'er hugged each other and wept into a ball. He dropped the pen in his hand and rubbed his throbbing aching temple vigorously. He followed her into the Dongkua courtyard and sent the busy people to rest for a while. Then he stretched out his hand to hug two cats, one big and one small, and coaxed them again and again, finally letting them stop their tears. Seeing that her sister's face was a little sad, Shuan Shuan knew that it must be because she was too tired to arrange her marriage, so she pressed tight He hugged her waist tightly, wanting to apologize but couldn't open his mouth.Mu Ai patted her on the back knowingly, hugged them, lay on the bed and talked about some interesting things from the past, and finally the three of them fell asleep together, Chun Equinox and the others quietly came in, took the cloth embroidery thread and went out, continuing to work without mentioning .

On the morning of the fifth day, old Mr. Zhao and Wei Xiucai, who was holding a live goose in his hands, came to the door, followed by a matchmaker who was not so exaggeratedly dressed and two servants carrying gift boxes.

Grandpa Li and Grandma Li, who were invited early as the elders of the woman, received the geese and four boxes of gifts with their own hands. Everyone sat down and had a lively feast, and announced the agreed wedding date. This first step is considered complete. .

After Mr. Zhao and Wei Xiucai were sent away, the villagers came to the door.You must know that most of the married girls and the married daughter-in-laws in Lijia Village are peasant girls, and those who are a little better are just those who have a small shop like Qiao Niang.Like Shuan Shuan, if you marry into a scholarly family, you will definitely be an official wife in the future, and that is the only one.

Therefore, no matter how envious and jealous the villagers are behind their backs, and feel sore in their hearts, they will always come to congratulate them on the surface.On the contrary, several clan elders were extremely happy, even saying that the ancestors of the Li family would bless them, and even made an exception to offer sacrifices to the ancestral hall.

Except for Mu Ai, the clan elders and other elders who came to receive them personally, the rest of the people were thrown to Aunt Guo to entertain.

Wei Xiucai quickly delivered the size of the small courtyard in the south of the city that will be used as a new house in the future.Mu Wu was immediately sent to Zhou's mansion, so the boxwood bed, the fir table, the mahogany wardrobe, and the square cabinet were all started.

On the first day of August, Mu Ai's 28th birthday, I took a few children to eat a bowl of longevity noodles with poached eggs in the morning. I was thinking about taking a good rest and arranging a romantic candlelight dinner to celebrate my birthday with Ouyang in the evening.Mu Wu came to report that Xiao Zhuang'er, who had been inquiring for the past few days, had news.The owner of the house is going to Qiushi City tomorrow, if he doesn't come to negotiate the price today, it will probably be delayed until two months later.

Mu Ai had no choice but to change into a man's attire, and rode over with Ouyang and Mu Wu on horseback.That small village is only twenty li away from the south of Huawang City. The [-] mu of land is high-quality fertile land, full of corn, and the growth is very good. It will definitely be a bumper harvest in January.And there is a small river passing by the edge of the field, even if there is a drought in the future, it will not have much impact on the harvest.There are a total of twenty households in the village, Mu Ai and others went in to beg for a bowl of water to drink, gossiped a few times, and found that the small village is full of people with the surname Zhao, and their character is very simple, but they were squeezed too much by the owner , life was a bit too difficult.However, this is also good, if you buy it, Shuan Shuan only needs to show some kindness to win the hearts of these people.

After taking a good look at the place, a few people went to visit the owner of the small farmer, and exchanged some polite greetings. The owner's family didn't know why they needed money in a hurry, and they also heard that muai can be traded in cash, so they didn't make too much fuss. I paid a very fair price, 200 taels of silver, and because the corn in the field was about to mature, I asked for an extra 300 taels of grain money.This is in line with what Mu Wu inquired about, and the harvest of 300 mu of grain is definitely more than [-] taels, so Mu Ai wrote a note and stamped a private seal, asking Mu Wu to go to Shiweitian to take the silver that has not been handed in this month. Send it in enough.The master's family was very happy, and immediately followed Mu Wu to the yamen to change their name and get on the stall.

A few people visited the Zhou Mansion again, and sent some snacks and various ingredients to the masters who were rushing to work for their own family. After chatting with Mr. Zhou, they rushed back to Lijia Village.

Mu Ai was too tired to eat, and fell asleep after only talking to the child a few words.Both Dayu and Tao'er love their mother very much, but they can't help them. They can only take good care of their younger siblings, supervise them to do their homework, and take them to play, so as not to let their mother worry about them.

On the third day of August, half a month before the wedding day, Mr. Zhao, as the man's elder, brought the dowry gift, betrothal hairpin and marriage letter.

The dowry gift is four boxes of snacks, four boxes of brocade, four small jade ornaments, and four sets of red gold jewelry.

The engagement hairpin is a hairpin carved from high-quality rouge jade into the shape of a blooming lotus, lying in a boxwood box covered with flannelette.

The letter of appointment is divided into three parts, the first and second wedding invitations are purely greetings, and the third wedding invitation is the letter of engagement to formally notify the woman.In case of any changes in the marriage in the future, this ritual book is a woman's amulet. For example, for those who stop their wives and remarry, the original wife can get the protection of the law by showing the ritual book.There is also a gift list at the back of the ceremony book, on which the quality and origin of all the betrothal gifts are marked out in detail.Written in this way, one is that once a dispute occurs in the marriage family, it is easy to deal with the ownership of the hired money.Second, it also means showing off wealth to the woman, which means that the husband's family is well-off, and the married daughter-in-law will not suffer hardships.

Aunt Guo and Chun Equinox worked day and night to sew four sets of brocade clothes, four pairs of shoes, four belts, and four pairs of socks for Wei Xiucai, and packed them together with two boxes of snacks. As a return gift, Mr. Zhao took them back.

The rest of the betrothal gifts were placed in the yard, and they were generously displayed to the folks in the village who came to see the excitement, which of course attracted everyone's admiration.The richer the dowry gift from the in-law's family, it means that the in-law's family attaches more importance to the daughter-in-law, and the higher the status after entering the door.

Mu Ai took Xiao An and made a little calculation.The four boxes of snacks are the top-quality snacks in the home, which should cost 80 taels of silver, the four boxes of brocades are estimated to cost 400 taels at the lowest price, the four pieces of jade ornaments are also worth 400 taels, and the four sets of red gold jewelry are also worth 500 taels , plus the suet jade hairpin, the whole set of dowry would cost 500 taels of silver, which was enough for a middle-class family to buy a whole set of dowry for their daughter.

Mu Ai was annoyed and funny looking at it, she looked so stingy, someone who refused to buy a dowry for her younger sister, and he needed to be so scheming.However, she finally let go of a big stone in her heart, because of Wei Xiucai's carefulness, Shuan Shuan will definitely not suffer any grievances when she marries...

On the tenth day of August, at noon, the weather was fine, the sky was blue and cloudless.Although the temperature near the end of summer is not as hot as midsummer, the sweltering heat that is slowly turning into it is still unbearable. Someone's yellow dog on the side of the road sticks out its long tongue, eyes half-opened weakly, looking at a A carriage with light gauze covering the windows passed by, raising a cloud of smoke and choking the yellow dog to cough twice, but he didn't bother to get up, and could only bark twice as if venting his anger.

The spring equinox raised the curtains, hoping to take a breath, but was almost overwhelmed by the sudden influx of air waves outside, and quickly lowered the curtains, and rarely complained, "This year's weather is much hotter than previous years, In half a month, it will be almost autumn, and it will still be so sweltering.”

　Thank you for your support, many friends have comforted me, I am really happy, I still have to work hard, work hard! !

　　Try to stick to it until the end, absolutely not too much! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)