According to the folk marriage custom of the Dali Dynasty, the bride returns to the groom’s home three days after the wedding. The wedding day is not counted. After the bride enters the groom’s home, she offers tea to the parents-in-law and daughter-in-law on the first morning after the bridal chamber. The third day is counted from this day.

　　It happens to be today.

　　”Zhou Zhou, you haven’t finished washing yet.”

　　Xing Ge’er was puzzled as to why he called for someone to stop and ran back halfway through washing. Li Zhouzhou held the wooden basin and said without turning back, “I’ll come back after noon.” He walked quickly with his long legs.

　　”Why are you in such a hurry? It’s still early…” Seeing that everyone had run away, Xing Ge’er had to shut up and remembered what Zhou Zhou had mentioned when he came.

　　It can’t be because of this, right?

　　He thought Zhou Zhou didn’t take it to heart. After he finished speaking, Zhou Zhou was still washing clothes, but he ran away halfway through.

　　Li Zhouzhou carried the laundry basin back to the house. He walked and ran back. When he reached the door of his house, he slowed down, pushed the door open quietly and went into the yard. He first put the laundry basin on the steps, went into the kitchen, took out a jar from the cupboard, spread out oil paper, put some fried melon seeds and preserved fruits in it, wrapped them up, and then wrapped the jar and put it back.

　　This is what is left over from the wedding.

　　Li Zhouzhou was holding the dry goods. Knowing that his husband was reading in the house, he said nothing, walked out of the yard and went to Aunt Wang’s house next door.

　　Among the hundreds of households in Xiping Village, the three most common surnames are Li, Wang, and Zhang. Aunt Wang is a nice person. When Li Zhouzhou was young and weak, she helped him with some laborious tasks and taught him how to sew quilts and make shoes.

　　At that time, Li Zhouzhou and his dad Li Da lived in a thatched house with a broken roof. There was no kitchen, so they cooked on a stove in the yard. Later, Li Da replaced the thatched house with two mud houses, which in turn became the three blue brick and tile houses we have now.

　　I don’t know when it started, but Aunt Wang started to distance herself from the Li family.

　　Wang’s family had no courtyard wall, except for the wall built by Li’s family. Naturally, there was no courtyard gate in other places. At a glance, there were vegetables planted in the courtyard. The three main rooms at the back were made of rammed yellow mud, with tiles and hay covering the roof. The kitchen next to it was a thatched house.

　　Aunt Wang has three children. The eldest son got married two years ago, the second son is twelve years old, and there is a daughter who is four years old. The whole family squeezes into three main rooms to sleep. Aunt Wang is very stingy on weekdays, but there is no other way. The children grow up quickly. In two or three years, she will have to marry the second child. There is not enough space for them to live in, and she will have to build a house, which costs money.

　　”Mother, Brother Zhou Zhou is here.”

　　Aunt Wang came out of the kitchen and said to her daughter, “Lingling should call him uncle now.”

　　Now that my brother is married, the younger children should call him uncle.

　　Li Zhouzhou greeted Aunt Wang, handed over the oil-paper bag in her hand, and asked, “Aunt Wang, I came here to ask what I should bring back next time I visit my parents?”

　　”Returning to your parents’ home?” Aunt Wang was confused by the question, then she remembered. She didn’t take the food, and slapped her forehead and said, “Oh, look at my brain. Your family is looking for a son-in-law. Today is the third day after the marriage. Returning to your parents’ home.”

　　Li Zhouzhou stuffed the oil-paper bag into Lingling’s hands and said, without waiting for Aunt Wang to refuse, “These are the melon seeds and peanuts from the wedding. They are not worth much.”

　　”Just some words and some gifts.” Aunt Wang said this, but she smiled and didn’t refuse. She asked her daughter to take it back and put it in the house. She said, “When my eldest son got married, he brought meat, sugar and wine. These three things are indispensable.”

　　”But it’s too late for you to go now. You have to go back early in the morning.” Aunt Wang saw that Li Zhouzhou’s expression was not very good. She had just collected his things and couldn’t help but comfort him. “You don’t understand. The family should also worry about it. It’s already like this. Get everything ready and go in the morning, not after noon.”

　　Li Zhouzhou returned from Wang’s house with a lot of regret. In the kitchen of Wang’s house, the eldest daughter-in-law just heard what happened, and now she heard her mother-in-law sighing, “You said that even if the family is divided, they really don’t care about it. The eldest son and the younger brother are looking for son-in-law, and the old couple of the Li family didn’t even come back to have a drink. It’s really a complete break.”

　　”The second daughter-in-law of the second house, Li, didn’t even say a word. She’s also the second aunt. Look at her attitude that day. She came to the table to eat, wiped her mouth after eating, and didn’t help. She saw that the Li family had no future, so she wanted to get close to the man in the prefecture and county.”

　　The eldest daughter-in-law had just married and didn’t know the inside story, so she asked, “Mom, how come you broke up so cleanly?”