When the Li family arrived, everyone in the Su family warmly welcomed them. The in-laws met, exchanged greetings, and then sat down.
As a matchmaker, Li Yuexiu naturally had to speak first.
"My eldest brother, my sister-in-law, and I have been entrusted by Lao Li and his wife to act as a matchmaker and arrange the marriage for the two children."
"Today these two children are engaged, we don't need to talk about those vain people.
This is the engagement ceremony being prepared by the Li family, take a look, if you think there is anything missing, just ask and mention it, we can all tell you."
Li Yuexiu was an open-minded person, she went straight to the point and put everything prepared by the Li family on the table.
Four bottles of wine, four ribs of loin, four handfuls of vermicelli tied with red rope, and four boxes of snacks.
This is a recently popular engagement ceremony in Songjianghe. Just these four gifts will cost a lot of money.
After the engagement is completed, the woman keeps half of the four gifts and the other half has to be brought back to the man.
Some people are reluctant to spend so much money, so they simply prepare half of it so that they don’t have to bring it back when the time comes.
The Li family is not short of money, but just for the sake of good looks, they collect double portions and wait to take one back home.
In addition to the four necessary gifts for an engagement, the Li family also prepared a set of clothes, a pair of leather shoes, a watch, two pounds of wool for Su Anfang, and also gave Su Anfang a bride price of 160 yuan.
In this day and age, it was definitely of a high standard. For ordinary people, it would be nice if they could make a suit of clothes and buy a pair of shoes.
If the conditions are better, adding a watch would be enough.
Have you ever heard of a bride price? Anyway, there has never been one here in Daying Village.
When Su Anying and Su Anzhen got engaged, there was no mention of betrothal gifts.
When these things and the betrothal gifts were placed on the table, everyone inside and outside the Su family, even those who were lying outside the windows and looking in at the door, were dumbfounded.
Oh my god, with so many things and money, how much do you get in total? No more than three or four hundred?
"No wonder people say it's good to be a worker, and they say the workers in the field are rich, which is really amazing.
Just say, there is a family in our village. Whose young man is engaged and can come up with these things?
No wonder the old Su family wants to send their daughter to Donggang. If they don’t look for her in our village, you can see if someone can catch her, right?"
Some people were so envious that they whispered at the door of Su's house.
"That's right, who is as smart as the old Su couple?
At that time, the second daughter's marriage was quite good. Look at it now, are you all taking advantage of it?
Hey, you think we don’t have such a good uncle in our family.”
This statement is even more sour. I can’t help it. It’s so greedy. Who wouldn’t be jealous after seeing it?
Whatever is said outside can actually be heard inside the house.
Su Weizhong was happy in his heart and did not want to argue with those outside. He could just say whatever he wanted.
In the past, these people secretly laughed at him for not having a son. In the future, he would have no one to support him until his death, but now they are all envious of him?
Su Weizhong didn't care, but Su Weicheng was not happy about it. What was he doing? It's not embarrassing enough to deal with these things one by one.
Let the Li family see it, and they won't say that the people in the small village just don't know anything. They make a fuss about everything. It's so embarrassing.
"Well, there is a happy event in our family today, so we won't keep the big guys here.
Another day, when Lao Wu goes out, he must prepare a banquet and invite everyone to come and have a wedding banquet.
Don't get into trouble with the freezing weather outside in this cold weather. Let's all go home. Go home." Su Weicheng made a cold face and went out to chase those people away.
We are all neighbors. We don't look down but we don't look up when we see each other. No matter what we do, we can't be too shameless.
The Su family all came out to chase them away, and they couldn't stay here any longer, so they all smiled and said a few words to Su Weicheng, turned around and left.
Su Weicheng watched those people leave, and then he snorted and ordered his third son to keep an eye outside and not let those irrelevant people come over.
Su Weicheng chased away those who were watching the excitement and turned back to the house.
The room was very lively at the moment. Su Weizhong and Li Zheng, the eldest brother Li, were chatting animatedly.
The Han family and the Feng family became closer and closer to Zhao Meijuan and Li Yuexiu as they chatted.
The engagement is always done at the woman's home, and the woman's side must prepare a sumptuous banquet to entertain the man's family.
It happened to be the first month of the year, and every household had delicious food. Su Weizhong knew that he would be getting engaged to his daughter after the new year, so he specially saved a lot of meat.
At this moment, Qin Meiling and others were busy in the kitchen, frying and frying, making several tables of delicious dishes.
So there were tables set up in the east room and the west room, and Su Anhua and Su Anyu led the little kids to dinner at Su Weicheng's house next door.
At the beginning of the banquet, Li Zongliang and Su Anfang had to toast to the matchmaker first, and then to their parents to change their tune.
Mr. and Mrs. Su Weizhong and Mr. and Mrs. Li Zheng also took out the red envelopes they had prepared in advance and gave them money to change their words.
At this point, the engagement ceremony is considered over, and then there is nothing more to do but eat and drink.
The Su family entertained them warmly and constantly encouraged the Li family to drink and eat. Su Weizhong and Su Weicheng drank with Li Zheng.
Xu Shiyan and other brothers-in-law, as well as Su Anbang and Su Anmin, accompanied Li Zongliang.
Everyone exchanged glasses, drank and chatted, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
There are several trains to Songjiang River passing by Xianren Bridge, and there are also slow trains in the afternoon, so the Li family is not in a hurry to leave.
The meal started at twelve o'clock and lasted until after two o'clock. The men mainly drank, while the women actually ate quickly.
The men drank so much that they were all a bit lost in the end.
Li Zongliang looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late and they had to go to the station quickly.
"Eldest brother-in-law, second brother-in-law, I really can't drink anymore. We asked when we came here that there is a slow train at three o'clock in the afternoon.
"The Great Luo of All Worlds"
It's getting late, we have to go back quickly, otherwise we won't be able to catch the train."
"Ahem, if you can't catch up, then you can't catch up. If you can't catch up, just stay here and live here. What are you afraid of?" Sui Hongzhi's tongue became a little stiff after drinking.
"No, no, we only have two sisters looking after the house at home. If we don't go back at night, will they be so frightened that they cry?"
Li Zongliang hurriedly waved his hand. How could anyone stay at his father-in-law's house on the day of engagement? There is no such rule.
Over there, the elder Li also told Su Weizhong and Su Weicheng about the situation at home, and they had to catch the train back.
Su Weizhong had no choice but to try to persuade him to stay. Finally, he had no choice but to ask Han to separate the four gifts and take half of them back to the Li family.
Su Anmin was young and hadn't had a few drinks, so he was sent to drive.
Sui Hongzhi and Xu Shiyan followed and took the Li family to Xianrenqiao Station in a carriage.
Xu Shiyan drank better and was quite sober. He went directly to the ticket window, bought four tickets and gave them to Big Old Li.
"Uncle Li, I have to stay here for a few more days, so I can't go back with you. Be careful on the way back.
When I get back, I'll find time to invite Uncle Li to my house for a drink."
"Oh, look at you, how can I ask you to buy a ticket for me? No, no, no." Old Li quickly refused.
"Look, I've bought the tickets, so why don't you ask me to refund them? It's not much money in total, but Uncle Li is still polite to me?"
Xu Shiyan smiled, gave the ticket to Big Lao Li, and stayed with them for a while. He didn't watch the four of them check in until they were called to check in.