Chapter 270 Welcoming the Bride
The next morning is usually a day when guests come.
Most of the neighbors or relatives in the village who are not very far away will come to visit on this day. Only some distant relatives who are far away will come on the third day.
Of course, most of the people with good connections in the village or relatives of the host family will come to help when they start busy preparations on the first day.
Zhou Yang’s family does not have many relatives, because their family moved in from other provinces decades ago, so there are not many relatives in the local area.
But after decades of getting along, everyone in Changqing or nearby villages has gotten married to each other, so there are many relatives.
And there are not many guests at Zhou Yang's house today. Although there are not many Zhou family members, there are many people from relatives of Zhou Yang's mother's mother's family.
The remaining guests are basically neighbors from the village or nearby villages.
In the past, Zhou Yang's house would never have had so many guests.
Because in the previous life, when Zhou Yang got married, Zhang An was there, and the number of people who came at that time was not even one-third of the number now.
But now that I see so many people, no one is actually surprised, and they understand why.
On the one hand, it is because the conditions of Zhou Yang’s family have become better and better in the past two years. It can be said that they are among the better ones in the village.
On the other hand, it is because of Zhou Yang himself, because he is now a cook.
There are not many cooks in the village who can handle big pots. Zhang Jianzhong is one of them and Zhou Yang is one.
In the past, Zhou Yang was not at home, so he could not help others. Now that Zhou Yang is back, young people like Zhou Yang, Zhang An and others like to come to help if there is any big or small problem for any family in the village.
Even in several nearby villages, when someone was having a banquet, they would come to ask Zhou Yang for help.
It is not that there are no cooks in the village, but most cooks make big pot dishes by adding seasonings and stir-frying until cooked.
All the dishes have the same taste in your mouth, that is the taste of the seasonings.
There are not many truly skilled cooks. Among the several nearby villages, Zhang Jianzhong is one of them.
Now that Zhou Yang is back, after all, he has studied systematically in school. Zhou Yang himself also works hard and has real skills in his hands.
When he first came back, everyone felt that Zhou Yang was young and that even if he knew a few tricks, he probably wouldn't have many.
But when it comes to cooking, it’s the most straightforward to detect.
After several incidents, everyone knows that although this young man Zhou Yang is young, his skills are real.
So later on, more and more people came to ask him to be the chef.
Zhou Yang is also a straightforward young man. When someone in the village has trouble, they don't need others to come to their door to call him, they just go to the door themselves.
In the nearby village, when others came to the door, even if Zhou Yang had something to do, he would turn it down and go to help first.
So in the past two years, their family has helped people everywhere, and all they have left behind are great favors.
Now that Zhou Yang is getting married, everyone knows about this, and everyone rushes to help.
So there were so many guests at Zhou Yang's house that no one was surprised.
One more thing, in this era, whether it is relatives or neighbors in the village, there is a strong sense of human touch.
Unlike later generations, the human touch has become weaker and weaker.
Zhang An saw it with his own eyes. At that time, decades later, some people were doing business, the table was laid out, and the food was served, but no one came to the door.
The family that left the deepest impression on Zhang An was from Changqing Village. Because the eldest son could study well, he was admitted to university and ended up working outside.
Since they have not returned to the village for a long time, they have never come to help any family in the village.
In the end, their old man passed away, and no one came to help.
At that time, the two sons who were working outside were panicked. If it continued like this, I am afraid that no one would help send their old father to the mountain on the day of the spirit.
At that time, the two brothers went door to door with cigarettes and alcohol all night to invite people, and they went to apologize one by one.
Even so, not many people came to help the next day.
From that incident on, the two brothers, no matter who in the village or nearby had something to do, they would always come to help when they asked for leave.
This is definitely not an exception for this kind of thing, it must happen no matter where it is.
Therefore, in the village, the word "human relations" is good, that is, there must be exchanges.
Everyone’s family will have trouble. If you don’t help others, when you have trouble, others will watch.
At noon, when the banquet was about to start, Huang Ming, who was responsible for pouring wine for everyone, came to Zhang An with a bitter look on his face.
"Brother Anzi, the wine in the barrel has been poured out, and there are still a few tables where the wine has not been poured. What should I do?"
The job of pouring wine is not troublesome, on the contrary, it is a bit easy. .
All you need to do is carry the wine bucket and go to the table to pour wine for everyone.
But now, Huang Ming feels that this job is not easy to handle.
Because the host gave him all the wine, there are still many guests who have not poured it yet.
If this matter affects others' impression of Zhou Yang's family, then it means that he did not handle the matter well.
Zhang An was a little confused when he heard that Zhou Yang's family had prepared more than 100 kilograms of liquor yesterday.
Even though some were poured out yesterday, not much was poured out. Why was this meal just at noon today not enough?
The last time he married Su Ying, he consumed about a hundred kilograms of liquor in one meal.
“Have you finished pouring all three barrels of wine?”
Zhang An thought Huang Ming had not found the barrel for the wine, so he asked.
“Not just three barrels, but three and a half barrels have been emptied.”
After hearing Huang Ming’s explanation, Zhang An probably knew what was going on.
It turns out that the last time a banquet was held at Zhang An’s house, because it was the busy farming season, everyone stopped after tasting a little and did not start drinking.
But now, in the twelfth lunar month of winter, there is not much work to do in the fields, and everyone is sitting at home.
In addition, it is a bit cold in winter, so drinking some at this time can keep you warm.
And in the Changqing area, men, women, old and young can drink it.
So when Huang Ming went to pour wine, everyone, whether they were men, women, old or young, set out bowls to pour some.
Some people who drank a lot had nothing to do now, so they drank freely.
And now there is only loose wine on the wine table, not beer, so the consumption of this wine has increased.
So basically when Huang Ming walked to that table, he poured out a lot of wine.
Before he finished walking around, Huang Ming discovered that the wine barrels were all empty, so he hurried over to find Zhang An to find a solution.
Actually, it’s not Huang Ming’s fault. After all, everyone on the table has put their bowls out, so he can’t just pour a little or say no to others.
This matter can be regarded as a mistake. Zhou Yang’s family prepared it based on the wine Zhang An used during his last wedding.
This time I prepared a little more, but I didn’t expect that there would be more people drinking.
In fact, before this, no matter who was setting up the banquet, there would be two pounds of loose wine on the table, and then you would divide it up on the table, and if it was gone, it would be gone.
But when Zhang An got married last time, he opened it for everyone to drink. However, it was busy at that time and everyone did not let it go.
This time, Zhou Yang and his son calculated that Zhang An's family didn't use much wine, and it was not that the family couldn't afford it.
So just like Zhang An’s family, they left it open for people to drink. At this time, Zhou Shuanglin happened to come out of the room, and Zhang An stepped forward to give a brief talk.
When Zhou Shuanglin heard so much wine, he didn’t even drink it down, and he was also a little confused.
But I quickly realized that the most critical thing now is to find some more Sanbai.
After all, the food is about to be served. You can’t pour part of the wine and withhold the rest. In this case, some people will feel that the host is looking down on you.
Soon, Zhou Shuanglin found Wang Xinhua, who was roasting wine in the village.
If you want to buy wine now, it is the most time-saving way to get it from their house.
Wang Xinhua was preparing to fistfight with someone at the table. When he heard that there was not enough wine, he got up and took Huang Ming and Zhang An home to get wine.
But there is not much wine left in their house to drink, because in the twelfth lunar month of winter, everyone likes to visit relatives in their free time.
Nowadays, the two most popular gifts for visiting relatives are pork and liquor.
Because there are so many people buying, Zhou Yang’s wine was also picked up from their home yesterday, so they don’t have much inventory at home now.
Although the rice wine or corn wine they have just baked in the past two days is drinkable, it is very easy to get intoxicated.
And because it has not been blended, the taste will be particularly bad, so that kind of wine cannot be used to entertain guests.
However, Zhou Shuanglin and Zhang An didn't think too much about it. The remaining loose wine at Wang Xinhua's house was enough to deal with emergencies.
If you need wine in the evening or tomorrow, at worst, you can wait until the afternoon and ask Zhang An to go to town to get it directly.
But according to the rhythm at noon today, it may take five to six hundred kilograms of powder to lay out the banquet for two days.
After all, it is open for others to drink at noon. You can't give people a table and a small wine pot at night or tomorrow. This doesn't make sense.
However, Zhou Yang's family's conditions are much better now. This small amount of money for wine is a big burden to other families, but it is nothing to Zhou Yang's family.
Actually, this is now, everyone can drink it. Twenty or thirty years from now, if you have an event at home for a few days, you may not even be able to use 200 kilograms of powder.
But for now, no matter whose family is hosting the banquet, no one will say anything if the meat and dishes can be slightly less. After all, everyone has similar conditions.
But if the wine arrangement is not in place, many people will tell others behind their backs that the host's affairs are not good.
But Zhang An can figure it out after a little change in his mind.
Nowadays, when holding a banquet, what everyone likes is wine. Many people like wine, especially in this area of the village. There are many people who know how to drink and can drink, so wine has become a must-have at the banquet. things.
But twenty or thirty years later, although the wine will not be used much, cigarettes will also be a big burden at that time.
At that time, a normal banquet would last for three days, no matter how long, and the money for cigarettes alone would cost several thousand or even tens of thousands.
After lunch, everyone took a short rest, and several maids from the village and Sister-in-law Zhou began to search for the person.
At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the wedding team was about to start heading to the woman's home.
Today’s dinner will also be eaten there, so it needs to be prepared in advance.
There is no need to prepare anything. After all, most of the things have been sent when the horoscopes were distributed.
This time I am going to bring a table and a pig's leg, as well as some cigarettes, wine and candies.
When going to the Miao family to pick up a new daughter-in-law, two types of people are generally needed in the wedding team.
One type specializes in singing folk songs, usually the sisters-in-law who are very good at singing folk songs in the village.
There is another person who specializes in dealing with blocking wine. The Miao family blocking wine is not just talk.
Although they serve flower wine brewed by themselves, the alcohol content is not very high.
But this thing is something that gets better the more you drink it, and the amount is very large.
Generally, if the woman’s family is smaller, the wine may not be placed too far away.
If the woman’s family has a big family, it’s not easy to deal with the problem.
Everything was ready, and after the elder gave a shout, the wedding team started to set off.
Because it was not far this time, Zhou Yang found the village elder's uncle's carriage, and specially hung red cloth on the horse's forehead and the carriage.
As for Zhang Ping, he will act as Zhou Yang's driver this time.
Along the way, Zhang Ping tightened the reins and asked the horse to walk as slowly as possible.
Because everyone behind is walking, we definitely can’t leave the carriage and run forward.
An hour later, the large army arrived at the entrance to Chen Wenwen’s home village.
Sure enough, as soon as we entered the village, the entire road was blocked by a long pillar.
This is the barrier, and what we have to pass now is the barrage song in the woman’s home.
On the other side of the pillar, I saw many aunts wearing "vomiting clothes" already starting to block the road.
Seeing this, several maids in the village straightened their clothes and then stepped forward.
At this time, the relatives on the woman’s side began to sing.
After Qin Fang finished singing, I came on stage. When they finished, the aunts Zhou Yang’s family had found did not show any fear. Instead, they started to sing folk songs to each other with excited faces.
For them, this is one of the few hobbies they have. They usually yell twice when they are idle or working.
Now that I have an opponent and it is a joyous day, I naturally sing freely.
Just like this, you and I kept singing duet for about twenty minutes. The aunts on the woman's side left the scene with happy smiles.
This means that the man has made the other person happy by singing the song, and has passed the stage of blocking the door.
If you meet people from certain places, this level alone will take hours. After the female sings and the male sings, you will not be allowed to pick up the Miao daughter easily.
Several young men from Maomaoqing Village immediately came over, lifted the pillars blocking the road, and let the wedding procession enter the village.
On the way to the door of the woman’s house, you can see two rows of benches placed from the road to the door of the house.
The benches are all filled with porcelain bowls filled with wine, which is called blocking wine.
As for the local barbarian wine, Zhang An felt that this was simply a custom of injuring the enemy by one thousand and damaging oneself by eight hundred.
Because when the man drinks, someone from the woman’s house needs to accompany him.
When someone drinks a drink, one should also drink with them.
This is also the reason why there are two rows of stools for the banquet.
After the host drank, the villagers had already invited the people who had stopped to drink and began to step forward.
In the past, whether it was uncles, uncles, older brothers or younger brothers, everyone drank wine.
But now, the people who drink banquet are basically the younger generation.
Zhang An was not in a hurry to go up and let other people in the village enjoy themselves first.
No matter how much is left in the end, Zhang An will take care of it.
Now Zhang An drinks more and more, and he can drink three or four kilograms of powder.
For these flower wines that are not very high in alcohol content, that is not a problem. The only thing I worry about is not being able to hold it in my stomach.
But Zhang An is not afraid at all. If there is space, he can drink several buckets by himself like a normal person, but there is no need to be in the limelight.
(End of this chapter)