Chapter 74: Getting Married 

After Li Qingzhi and the others left, Zhu Qian instructed a maid to escort Fang Jinniang back to her room.

Today, after chatting with Jin Xiaoshu, Fang Jinniang’s heart completely settled down, and her mood was exceptionally good.

She felt like the world in front of her became clearer.

At first, when she dragged Jin Xiaoshu to meet her mother, she didn’t know who Jin Xiaoshu was and felt a bit anxious, fearing she might be deceived.

But now she wasn’t afraid anymore.

Shopkeeper Jin was a good person, and Jin Xiaoshu was also a good person. She would definitely be fine in the future.

Returning to her residence, Fang Jinniang opened the purse Jin Xiaoshu gave her.

This was Jin Xiaoshu’s betrothal gift to her. She declined it, but Jin Xiaoshu insisted, saying everyone else had one, so he had to give her one too.

Ten taels of silver might be considered meager in the county town, but she knew it wasn’t insignificant in the countryside. Furthermore, Jin Xiaoshu intended to buy her dowry.

Fang Jinniang carefully examined the contents of the purse and was stunned.

There were several silver ingots inside, totaling ten taels, just as Jin Xiaoshu had said. In addition to that, there was also a gold ring!

The ring’s design was ordinary, but it was dazzlingly bright and certainly of good quality… This ring was probably worth more than ten taels of silver!

Tears suddenly welled up in Fang Jinniang’s eyes.

Not because she was sad, but because she was happy.

On the other side, after leaving the county office, Li Qingzhi found Jin Xiaoshu near the riverbank.

He originally wanted to take Jin Xiaoshu to the county office, but Jin Xiaoshu dared not go and insisted on waiting here.

“Brother-in-law, what are we going to do next?” Jin Xiaoshu asked.

“Aren’t you going to buy dowry for Miss Fang? Let’s go.” Li Qingzhi said.

Upon hearing the words “dowry,” Jin Xiaoshu became excited and immediately took Li Qingzhi to the place in Chongcheng County where dowries were sold.

Having been running a boat in the county for several months, Jin Xiaoshu was familiar with the situation in the county.

The things sold here were for ordinary people, and the prices were very cheap, but for the people of Miaoqian Village, they were considered good things.

In Miaoqian Village, many girls got married with only a few changes of clothes. Firstly, their parents didn’t want to divide the family’s property, and secondly, everyone was poor.

There weren’t many households in the village with a toilet.

Jin Xiaoshu bought quite a few things in one go. Since it wasn’t convenient to take them home, they went to Zhu’s house again and had Zhu’s servants move the items to Fang Jinniang’s place.

On the way, they passed by the dock, and Li Qingzhi saw some large ships moored by the dock. People on the ships were lowering baskets tied with ropes and buying food from the people in the small boats nearby.

The fleet was quite large, and Li Qingzhi was slightly surprised before he remembered that today was the day Wu Baichuan followed the fleet north to do business.

This should be the fleet that Wu Baichuan would join.

In the days that followed, the Jin family busily prepared for Jin Xiaoshu’s wedding.

The Day of Jin Xiaoshu’s Wedding

Scheduled for twelve days later, and during these days, Jin Xiaoshu had been busy. 

He asked for help from the villagers and built two separate rooms next to the Jin family house.

Grandma Jin had some objections to this. She felt that building one room next to the existing Jin family house was enough, and there was no need to build two.

Especially… Jin Xiaoshu even built a stove in one of the rooms!

Grandma Jin, who had always managed all matters, big and small, in the Jin family, was very angry and scolded Jin Xiaoshu, but he ignored her.

He built two rooms for a reason. Fang Jinniang mentioned that she wanted to bring her sister out. In this case, the extra room could be for Fang Xiuniang to live in.

As for why he didn’t build more rooms… he didn’t have that much money.

And by dividing the house in the middle, it could be split into two rooms, before his sister got married, he and his sister had always lived with their parents in the two divided rooms. It was common in the village for one family to live in one room.

Building two rooms in twelve days was a bit tight, but because Jin Xiaoshu hired more people and even gave them meat, they managed to finish it in the end.

In addition to building the house, Jin Xiaoshu also made a list of wedding guests during these days, arranged with some families in the village to borrow tables and chairs, bought vegetables, and arranged for people to accompany him to the county town to welcome the bride…

These were originally things his parents should have done, but Jin Xiaoshu did everything himself.

Li Qingzhi didn’t help at all, and Jin Xiaoye wanted to help but was stopped by Li Qingzhi.

Li Qingzhi felt that letting Jin Xiaoshu do more things was a good thing.

Men, when they do more of these things, they become more mature. Only then can they support a family in the future.

Otherwise, if they encounter problems, all they know is to find their mother… What’s the use of such a person?

The original owner fled southward all the way, such a person who can’t even make a decision won’t go far.

When the house was built, it was the day of Jin Xiaoshu’s wedding.

The people of Miaoqian Village organized the banquet. Basically, Jin Dajiang was in charge of cooking. Jin Xiaoshu wanted to cook by himself for the wedding to save some money.

But Jin Xiaoshu didn’t agree. He specially invited someone from the neighboring village who was good at cooking banquets to come over and let his father rest.

According to the customs of Miaoqian Village, when someone gets married, relatives and neighbors should help. Since the Jin family had many relatives, there were also many people coming to help.

They had slaughtered a pig last night, and today they chopped the pork and cooked it. They also carried the tables, chairs, and bowls and chopsticks borrowed by Jin Xiaoshu to the Jin family…

Around nine o’clock in the morning, Jin Xiaoshu, wearing a big red flower, set off from Miaoqian Village with ten people, rocking two boats decorated with red paper, to the county town to welcome the bride.

In addition to Jin Xiaoshu’s boat,Mr. Yao’s boat was also borrowed. At this moment, Jin Xiaoshu’s boat was being rocked by Jin Mulangshu, while Mr. Yao rocked his own boat.

Jin Mulangshu was a family member, so he didn’t charge for help. Mr. Yao borrowed his boat and helped rock the boat, so Jin Xiaoshu gave him a red envelope with a silver coin.

Li Qingzhi was also on the boat to welcome the bride, while Jin Xiaoye didn’t go and stayed with the Jin family to help.

On the way, the people going to welcome the bride occasionally said, “The Jin family is really doing this wedding in a decent manner!”

“Jin Xiaoshu is really lucky to marry a girl from the county.”

“Why are they rocking two boats to welcome the bride? Isn’t one enough?”

“Maybe the dowry is a bit hefty?”

…

Jin Xiaoshu’s wedding seemed a bit rushed. In fact, there were rumors in the village that this was because Jin Xiaoshu and the girl had something going on before the wedding.

But they certainly wouldn’t mention this on the way to welcome the bride.

Even if they said it privately… most of the men were actually envious.

As for Fang Jinniang’s marriage, there was no notification to the Fang family at all. Zhu Qian had tidied up a small house he bought in Chongcheng County before he became so wealthy and let Fang Jinniang get married in it. He even had servants from the Zhu family to help, making the wedding lively and decent.

The people who went to welcome the bride in Miaoqian Village were completely unaware that something was amiss.

Over here in Miaoqian Village, they usually set off in the morning to welcome the bride. The welcoming party would have lunch at the bride’s family, then set off back in the afternoon.

Li Qingzhi and the others had lunch in Zhu Qian’s old house, enjoying a feast prepared by Zhu’s kitchen maid.

The people who came to welcome the bride kept praising the food: “This feast is really grand.”

“So much meat!”

“The Fang family is really wealthy!”

“So many things I’ve never eaten before, the dishes are rich!”

“Miss Fang’s mother hasn’t shown up. Maybe she’s not too happy…”

…

They had heard rumors about Fang Jinniang having a falling out with her own mother, but seeing this situation now, they assumed the mother was still not very happy.

But even if she wasn’t happy, her daughter was married, so it didn’t matter much. At most, in the future, Jin Xiaoshu might face some difficulties when he went back to his wife’s family.

The customs of marriage were basically the richer, the more complicated it got. For common folks, it was much simpler. After the meal, Fang Jinniang, dressed in her bridal attire and covered with a red veil, was led out of the house by Jin Xiaoshu, and the people who came to welcome the bride carried the dowry Jin Xiaoshu bought for Fang Jinniang onto the boats one by one.

“No wonder they need two boats, so much dowry!”

“The bride’s family is really generous.”

“The bride herself must have earned quite a bit!”

…

After loading the dowry onto the boats, everyone noticed two more boats coming from behind.

“What are those two boats for?” someone asked Jin Xiaoshu in confusion.

Jin Xiaoshu cleared his throat lightly. “That’s also part of the dowry.” Just a while ago, Li Qingzhi told him that Zhu Qian had prepared some dowry for Fang Jinniang, and those dowries were loaded onto the two boats, which would follow them back to Miaoqian Village.

Upon hearing this, Jin Xiaoshu was dumbfounded. He still hadn’t recovered from the shock, but his expression remained unchanged, so no one around him noticed anything.

The people who came to welcome the bride were also dumbfounded.

Jin Zaoshu’s eyes were red with emotion.

Considering that the Jin family was an ordinary family, the dowry Zhu Qian prepared for Fang Jinniang was all ordinary items, not valuable, but there were many and comprehensive.

There was an Eight Immortals table, four stools, a wardrobe, a chest, a cupboard, and some bowls and basins tied up with straw ropes on the two boats.

All sorts of things were there, plus the dowry Jin Xiaoshu had bought for Fang Jinniang before… Jin Xiaoshu and Fang Jinniang could now live on their own without lacking anything!

“Xiaoshu, no wonder you had to build two rooms!” someone couldn’t help but say. “Without two rooms, you couldn’t fit so much stuff!”

Actually, all the dowry Zhu Qian gave amounted to only about twenty taels of silver, but in the countryside, who would spend so much money on dowry?

When the four boats stopped in Miaoqian Village and the people welcoming the bride couldn’t carry the stuff back, the whole village was stirred up. Villagers came out of their homes to see the dowry brought by Jin Xiaoshu’s bride from the city.

“Jin Xiaoshu married a golden doll!”

“In my whole life, I’ve never seen anyone’s dowry so abundant!”

“Did you see? The bride was wearing gold rings!”

“The bride is really wealthy.”

“Those cabinets are made really well.”

“So many bowls and chopsticks, all brand new.”

“So many quilts, enough for the couple to use until they’re old.”

…

For a moment, the villagers were envious. Jin Xiaoshu’s new house was packed with people inside and out.

And then, something even more enviable happened in the village.

After the ceremony, when the red veil was lifted, the bride’s appearance was revealed to everyone.

Fang Jinniang had always been very pretty, her skin shining white, but that was because she rarely saw sunlight.

Her previous appearance might not have seemed as healthy to others.

But today was different. Today, the servants from the Zhu family applied makeup to Fang Jinniang, shaping her eyebrows and putting on rouge. Since Fang Jinniang’s skin was already fair, they didn’t use powder on her, but precisely because of this, she appeared even more stunning.

Coupled with the bright red bridal attire… when Fang Jinniang lifted her head, everyone who saw her couldn’t help but gasp in awe.

Jin Xiaoshu had actually married a fairy!

He was really so lucky!