Reborn back to 1984

Chapter 90

Around eight o'clock, relatives came one after another. Some helped to borrow round tables, tables, benches, bowls and chopsticks and other items from the neighbor's house, and placed them in the yard; vegetable……

More than a dozen children with patched trousers crawled around under the table, barking, making noise, chasing, and playing hide-and-seek, chattering everywhere, making people dizzy.Zhang Xiuqing's uncle drove them out of the yard, and they squatted at the door to play marbles. Not long after, they heard the roar of motorcycles, and immediately stood up, swarming into the yard, shouting loudly: " A new guest has arrived..."

The person in charge of setting off firecrackers rushed out, and after a while, the sound of firecrackers rang out one after another.

Zhang Lingen and his wife, uncles, aunts, aunts, uncles and others all went to the door to greet them.Zhang Xiuqing stood at the edge of the porch, wringing her hands, feeling a little joyful, a little shy, a little apprehensive, and a little scared... She was really afraid that this was a dream, and she woke up to nothing, but when she saw Shao Han's With scorching eyes, all the insecurity disappeared.

The four eyes met, he raised the corners of his mouth, and his smile was extraordinarily bright and dazzling.She lowered her head slightly, smiling shyly and happily.This look of affectionate husband and concubine fell into the eyes of the onlookers, and there were tacit smiles on all their faces.

There is a brand-new Eight Immortals table and four brand-new benches in the living room.There are six brand new glasses on the table, and there are white sugar in the glasses.In the center of the table is a nine-sub plate, which contains snacks such as melon seeds, peanuts, candied dates, and walnuts.

Zhang Xiuqing's aunt walked into the living room first, picked up the hot water bottle in the corner, poured boiling water into the glass, and stirred it with chopsticks.

Zhang Xiuqing's uncle invited the male guest into the living room.

As the saying goes, "It doesn't rain when there is no cloud in the sky, and there is no marriage when there is no matchmaker on the ground!" Even if Shao Han and Zhang Xiuqing are in love, they directly skip the two steps of proclaiming and seeing each other and enter the stage of engagement, but who do they skip? It's all right, but you can't skip the matchmaker, and if you don't have one, you have to find a refill.And according to local customs, there are two matchmakers for each marriage, one is a matchmaker and the other is a seat matchmaker.

Being a media is a technical job, or a physical job.The media must participate in every link of talking about marriage, watching relatives, getting engaged, and getting married. The media must come forward to communicate with the man’s family about what they think and what the woman’s family wants. Conflicts need to be mediated by the media... There is always a reward for giving. The off-the-shelf benefits are that you can eat big hoofs, receive big red envelopes, and accumulate blessings. There is a local saying "Achieving a marriage is better than repairing Seven temples", many old people believe that helping people achieve a marriage in this life will bring good rewards in the next life.

Compared with the hard-working media, being a media is much happier, he doesn't have to do anything, just give a smile; he doesn't care about anything, just eat, drink and get red envelopes.

The big uncle is the biggest, so this role that has only advantages and no disadvantages is naturally taken by the uncle.If there are several uncles, then whoever is older will benefit, that is to say, unless the eldest uncle takes the initiative to let go, other uncles will never have the opportunity to be a matchmaker, and can only stand on the sidelines and envy.

As a great hero who made a marriage, the position of the mediator faces south from the north; while Zhang Xiuqing's eldest uncle is the mediator, and sits from the west to the east.

Shao Han, as the son-in-law of the east bed, sits east and west; Ma Tao, who is a coward, has been instructed by his parents at home to sit next to Shao Han, leaving the seat facing south and north vacant.

In the next room, there is also an Eight Immortals table with glasses and a nine-piece plate. Jiang Caiyun is also sitting facing south. The movement of the water paused, and that face immediately darkened.

Although the custom stipulates that all the mediators are all the elder uncles, when there are several nieces, many elder brothers will take the initiative to step aside and let his younger brother also be the mediator, so as not to get a bad reputation.Zhang Xiuqing's two cousins ​​were engaged to be engaged by the elder uncle as a matchmaker. The younger aunt thought that when Zhang Xiuqing got engaged, the elder uncle would put away her greedy face and ask her man to take back the red envelope. Without mentioning this matter, she couldn't run to Shen Heying and recommend herself, she could only watch the red envelopes fly into the uncle's pocket, her eyes were red with anger.

Zhang Xiuqing and Zhang Xiuhong sat facing east and west, saw the face of the little aunt clearly, knew what was going on in their hearts, but they couldn't say it in front of everyone, so they had to bow their heads in a shy manner, Pretend not to see.

At this moment, Zhang Xiuqing's grandma dragged her cousin Zhang Xiuyu over, sat on the stool to the north, and started eating as if no one else was around.

Zhang Xiuqing and Zhang Xiuqing didn't want Jiang Caiyun to see the joke, so they yelled "Grandma!" The old lady pretended not to hear it and ignored it.

Zhang Xiuyu, on the other hand, was thin-skinned, and blushed and called out "Sister!" The old lady's face immediately became serious, and she reprimanded: "You are such an old person, and you don't know any rules...I haven't taught you before. Don't talk while eating..."

Zhang Xiuyu didn't dare to speak back, and lowered her head timidly.

Zhang Xiuqing had suffered from Zhang Xiuyu's secret loss in her previous life, and she was not confused by her timid appearance. She had been secretly paying attention to the expression of her little cousin, and she saw that when she bowed her head, the corners of her mouth were slightly curled up——Past life, present life It's all the same, harmless on the surface, but utterly bad inside.

Zhang Xiuhong's face was flushed with anger, and she bit her lips tightly. If it weren't for the good day for Sister-in-law's engagement, she would never let it go.

Jiang Caiyun looked at Zhang Xiuqing out of the corner of her eye, and was taken aback when she found that the little girl's face was calm.Although I admire Zhang Xiuqing's way of dealing with people, I still can't change my prejudice against country people.

The eldest aunt held back the disgust in her heart, laughed twice, grabbed some plum and cloud cakes from the Jiuzi plate, and took a large handful of melon seeds with both hands, and put them on the table in front of Jiang Caiyun: "You eat Ah, don't be shy..."

The old lady scolded loudly, and everyone sitting in the living room could hear it clearly. The uncle showed an embarrassed smile on his face, quickly picked up a pack of cigarettes, tore open the package, and offered a cigarette to Ma Yuming.

A dozen or so people held cups to drink sugar soup, but they slandered the children who watched the fun, and ran out one after another, one looking for grandpa, the other looking for grandma. Order a drink, be careful it's hot... hold the bowl with both hands, don't break it..." the caring voice.

Zhang Xiuqing's relatives were not surprised, but Ma Tao had never seen such a lively scene. He was dumbfounded and took a long time to recover. He picked up the cup, took a sip, and smacked his lips—sugar soup The taste of the food is nothing more than that, why these children seem to have never eaten it in eight lifetimes, and they can't wait to lick the bottom of the bowl...

Shao Han didn't like sweet things, so he put down his cup after taking a few symbolic sips.From time to time, someone would come into the living room, pointing and commenting on him. Shao Han knew that those relatives had no malicious intentions, but just liked to make trouble, so he tried his best to put on a mature and stable appearance, which made the old men and women keep talking. Praise Zhang Xiuqing for "good vision, blessed..."

Under the eaves of the corridor, a few married women with children gathered together, while peeling quail egg shells, they talked about a certain man and a certain woman in the next village who were having sex with each other. However, the man's wife noticed that and many people caught him on the spot. One of them, a woman in her forties, spit all over the place, uttering a sentence to the left and a sentence to the right, and vividly described the plot of the man and woman sleeping together, which is good enough to serve as a third-grade film commentator.

Shao Han and Ma Tao have opened restaurants in recent years, and they have met many people of all kinds in the society, but they have never seen such a tough woman, nor have they heard such explicit gossip, Jun's face slowly turned red , was discovered by a sharp-eyed woman, and she said it loudly, causing everyone to drop what they were doing and flock to the entrance of the living room to watch, watching and laughing, making the two teenagers more at a loss and blushing.

Zhang Xiuqing's uncle laughed and scolded: "You girls are so thick-skinned, you can say anything without being shy..."

Zhang Lingen and Shen Heying heard the roar of laughter, and hurried over to make a rescue. One smoked, the other sugar, and coaxed away the relatives gathered around the entrance of the living room to watch the excitement.

Jiang Caiyun looked at those rude country aunts, then at her innocent son, and secretly made up her mind: never find a country girl as a daughter-in-law!

Zhang Xiuqing's aunt stood behind Shao Han with a smile, and waited until everyone put down the cups before walking forward, carefully brought the cups to the well platform, cleaned them with well water, and brought them up again. Let them drink sugar soup again, but drink tea.

Rural people are hospitable and generally entertain relatives for two meals.At noon, all relatives and friends sat down at the invitation of Zhang and his wife, ready to eat.

Children under the age of eight generally don’t have a seat. They carry their rice bowls and run to this table for a while: “Mom, help me order!” Then they run to that table: “Dad, I want to eat braised pork ribs…” Extra lively.

In order to give face to his good brother, Ma Tao sent Wu Xiaofei, a chef from Jiangnan water town, over here. Most of Zhang Xiuqing's relatives had never been to a restaurant, and they all ate with praise, and they were very addicted, especially the red dates, oranges, and white fungus soup. As soon as the table was served, it was snatched up by these tough relatives.

In today's prosperous era, many people eat all kinds of delicacies all over the world and disdain white fungus, but in the 80s when the material conditions were difficult, this sweet and sour white fungus soup can be used as the finale, and you can definitely earn money if you eat it. Several women who hadn't eaten enough rushed to the stove and asked the chef if there was any white fungus soup, and they all looked forward to it when they learned that it would be cooked in the evening.

After drinking and eating, the others pushed the bowl away, patted their ass and left, but Shao Han couldn't do this. Zhang Xiuqing's aunt stood behind him and instructed him to "keep the rice bowl"—first fill half a bowl in the stove Afterwards, I went back to the living room, put a piece of hoof meat and a piece of whole chicken in the bowl, and then put the chopsticks on the bowl, and then Zhang Xiuqing's aunt brought the rice bowl left by the new son-in-law to the long platform to offer, the whole procedure It's over.

In the afternoon, relatives who are close will go home in twos and threes, and relatives who are far away will get together, and some will play off cards - four people draw cards, usually one penny per card, but if the dealer's cards are particularly good, If the gambler doesn't play a single card, he has to pay double the money, while the onlookers can bet.

Some play eighty points—four people draw cards, and generally no money is involved, just to pass the time.

Others were watching the fun while knocking on melon seeds——Wu Xiaofei used his real skills to stir up the most popular multi-flavored melon seeds in this era. He can speak well, and he looks good, making several girls who have not yet dated fall in love. Yang Yang, one after another went to Zhang Xiuqing to inquire about his situation.

Throughout the afternoon, Zhang Xiuqing was surrounded by cousins ​​and cousins, and Shao Han was also surrounded by cousins ​​and cousins. Neither of them found a chance to be alone, so they had to sneak eye contact while no one was looking.

(End of this chapter)