"Gao Haining, come out quickly and see what we have brought you?"
Wang Jianshe and several others, carrying two large basins, shouted loudly as soon as they arrived outside the gate of Gao's house.
The Gao family is having a wedding tomorrow, and the family is busy with a lot of things today. Many neighbors, relatives and friends are coming to help.
Hearing someone shouting loudly, Gao Haining ran out immediately and then froze.
"What are you doing?"
"What else can you do? You're getting married tomorrow and have a banquet. Why don't we give you a few hard dishes?
Why are you in a daze? Come here and help me carry the big basin into the house."
When the young men saw Gao Haining's stunned look, they all laughed.
"Ah? Oh." Gao Haining came back to his senses and hurried forward to help carry the big basin into the yard.
It didn't matter that a few people entered the yard. The people who were helping in the yard immediately surrounded them.
Looking at the contents of those two big basins, these people were extremely envious.
"Hey, look at it, it has to be Haining. Look at how decent these guys are, bringing such old meat.
How much does this cost? The meat alone costs fifty or sixty pounds, right?
Oh, everyone is in for a treat at the banquet tomorrow."
Gao Haining's parents also heard the noise and came out of the house. When they saw this situation, the couple were also stunned for a moment.
There were two large basins on the ground, one of which contained pig heads and hooves, and the other contained wild boar and bear meat.
Not to mention that the hooves filled a large basin, but the shaved meat must have weighed at least fifty kilograms.
"Xiping, what are you doing?" Gao Haining's father, Gao Daqiang, saw this and asked hurriedly.
"Uncle, today we went into the mountains and encountered three wild boars and a black blind man. We killed one pig and one bear.
Didn't this just get cleaned up?
These meats, as well as the offal and so on, are just a few favors for us brothers to add to tomorrow's banquet."
Sheng Xiping explained with a smile.
"Hey, that's alright, just wait. I'll go into the house and get you some money."
Gao Daqiang looked at the two big basins of meat on the ground and was very happy.
Don't be afraid of spending money when hosting a wedding banquet, but be afraid of not having anything available.
People have given so much meat with good intentions, so the Gao family has to show something, and it cannot be used in vain.
"Haining mother, hurry up, bring fifty yuan and give it to Xiping and the others."
Gao Daqiang turned his head and asked his wife to get the money quickly.
"Uncle, aunt, you all gave me money yesterday. If you give me more money today, there will be nothing we can do with Haining in the future.
You said that our brothers all grew up as children and have not broken up the gang in recent years.
Now that Haining is getting married, we can't help with anything else, just some meat.
My uncle is always thinking about giving money. Isn’t this unfair?
If my aunt takes out this money today, we will turn around and leave, and Haining will not have anything to do with us in the future."
Seeing this, Sheng Xiping hurriedly stopped Gao Daqiang, and others also followed suit.
Having said that, if the Gao family and his wife still insist on giving money, they are not giving Sheng Xiping some face.
Having no choice, the couple sighed, "Okay, that uncle will listen to you today and won't give me any money."
Xiping, Jianshe, I have to thank you.
In order to get married in Haining, you said that you two have been running up and down the mountain for the past few days, which is really tiring.
Not to mention anything else, at the wedding tomorrow, we must let them toast a few more glasses of wine."
Gao Daqiang is also a very cheerful person. Now that our friendship has reached this point, any unnecessary words will seem awkward.
Therefore, Gao Daqiang gratefully raised his hand and patted Sheng Xiping on the shoulders and said thank you.
"Uncle, we all work in the same forestry farm, why are you so polite?
Is there any work that you haven’t done in the afternoon? Just tell us and we will do it.”
Sheng Xiping and others all laughed, rolled up their arms and sleeves, and hurriedly packed up their work.
In this day and age, the conditions of every household are not very good, and weddings are not too extravagant.
Some old rules are omitted, that is, simply prepare a few banquet tables and invite relatives and friends.
Of course, that's what I said, but the wedding banquet has to be busy.
Haining is the eldest son of the Gao family, and it is a big deal for the eldest son to get married and take a wife.
So Gao Daqiang and his wife specially invited the master chef from the forest farm canteen to help with the cooking.
This master chef usually has little room for display in the cafeteria.
When I arrived at the Gao family today, I was very happy to see so many ingredients. I immediately ordered a banquet menu with the Gao family.
Tomorrow is the official day, so I have to prepare some semi-finished dishes in advance this afternoon.
Tomorrow I'll probably just heat it up again, add sauce to thicken it, and serve it.
When hosting a wedding banquet, there must be a few over-oiled dishes, especially Sixi meatballs, which are an essential dish at wedding banquets in Northeast China.
So Master Li in the cafeteria directed young people Sheng Xiping and others to build a shed in the yard, set up two pots and stoves, and set up a chimney.
On the other side, the women who helped the workers helped clean the unloaded goods and process the pig heads and trotters.
Some people follow the instructions of the master chef and either slice or chop the meat into minced meat and keep it for later use.
For a while, the small courtyard of the Gao family was very busy, and the Tang family next door was not idle at the moment either.
Tomorrow Tang Fengying will go out, and all her relatives and friends who can come will come to get married, so the Tang family's end is also very lively with people coming and going.
"Qinglan, when will my cousin and aunt arrive? It's almost three o'clock, why aren't they here yet?"
Tang Fengying found Zhou Qinglan who was busy and asked her.
"My mother called me that day and told them that they took a taxi from the bureau leader to Shuguang Forest Farm and then walked over.
I guess it’s almost there, right?”
Zhou Qinglan was picking vegetables when she heard Tang Fengying ask her. She raised her hand and looked at her watch. It was indeed getting late and her parents hadn't arrived yet.
"Okay, stop picking vegetables. Hurry up and go next door to find Xiping. You two can go to the other side of Shuguang Forest Farm to greet him.
My uncle and the others have only been here a few times, so don’t get sidetracked."
Upon hearing this, Tang Fengying hurriedly urged Zhou Qinglan to pick it up quickly to avoid anything going wrong.
Zhou Qinglan was right when she thought about it. Her parents were not very familiar with this place. It was seventeen or eight miles from Shuguang Forest Farm to Qianchuan.
Although I walked straight along the railway and came here, I was afraid of any forks on the road.
"Oh, okay, I'll go right then."
After saying that, Zhou Qinglan put down what she was doing, washed her hands and changed into thick clothes, and went to Gao's house next door to find Sheng Xiping who was borrowing dishes, tables and chairs from various places.
"Xiping, come with me to pick up my parents. They said they came from Shuguang. It's been so long and there's still no sign of them."
"Oh, okay, wait a minute, I'll put the table in the yard."
When Sheng Xiping heard this, he nodded and agreed.
Then he put the table in the courtyard, dusted himself off, and followed Zhou Qinglan out.
The two left the forest farm and walked west along the railway, passing through the village of Dajichang and heading towards Shuguang.
After walking about four or five miles, I saw two figures walking this way in the distance.
Zhou Qinglan saw it and hurried forward, "Dad, Mom, why are you here?"