Chapter 236: Chapter 235 Sending Off the Bride
Ye Shuying came to visit, and Ye Shuzhen smiled happily. Usually, the sisters could not say their feelings for each other were very good, but at her wedding, having her elder sister come to see her made her feel warm inside.
“Elder sister, you’ve come…”
Ye Shuying smiled and nodded, saying, “Little sister, you look so beautiful today.”
While the sisters were chatting, they heard an even louder noise outside. Ye Shuying couldn’t help but go out to see what was happening, while the bride-to-be could only stay in the room.
It turned out that the groom had come to fetch the bride. The wedding sedan had arrived at the Ye family’s doorstep. Since it was somewhat far to the county town, the groom’s family did not use people to carry the wedding sedan but rather used a horse-drawn carriage to pick up the bride. Besides some musicians, the others were all on horseback.
There was more than one carriage, and to arrive so quickly to pick up the bride, it was possible that those playing the instruments had started to disembark at the village entrance.
The groom did not sit in the horse-drawn carriage but came on horseback. Today, the groom wore a red cap and his clothes were also red, adorned with a large red flower, making it easy for anyone to guess he was the groom, his face beaming with joy.
A matchmaker descended from the bride’s carriage, and people from another carriage began unloading gifts.
Upon the groom’s arrival, someone was specifically there to greet him; he first went to pay respects to his father-in-law, mother-in-law, elder brother, and sister-in-law, and then ate the food traditionally offered by the bride’s family to the groom.
Ye family’s sisters stood to one side and watched, with many more relatives and friends observing. Ye Shiqi, amidst the bustling scene, remembered that her second aunt’s wedding was also lively, but perhaps not as grand. The gifts and dowry that were given were not as plentiful. Moreover, it was due to the closer proximity that they had carried the wedding sedan to pick up the bride.
The younger brother-in-law in front of her was handsomer and more valiant than her second uncle, not a free merchant but owning much more than her second uncle’s husband, and he was also much more generous.
This could also be the work of the Tang Family. It looked as though Ye Shuzhen was marrying merely an employee of the Tang Family. Compared to the elder uncle from her own village and the second uncle who ran a business store in town, he appeared younger and more handsome, and his attitude was better than both uncles.
Seeing his joyful face, there was no sign of disdain for the bride’s laziness; he truly liked her.
The bride-to-be finding such a husband could also be destiny, perhaps also fortune.
Among her many suitors, the fact that she chose her brother-in-law indicated her affection for him and she saw potential in his future.
Since their family became wealthy, the bride-to-be, previously unasked for in ten miles and eight villages, had many young men, through matchmakers, inquire about her.
Ye Shuzhen was famously lazy, but how could people mind her laziness, thinking her family was wealthy and she did not need to work, a support that not many diligent girls had.
As relatives watched, excitement was uncontrollable on their faces, and the groom, upon his arrival, handed out wedding candies to some of the children.
The kids playing in the Ye family’s courtyard, seeing the wedding candies and some dried fruits, were very happy, giggling and laughing; they felt even happier than at New Year’s celebration.
Ye Shuzhen, in the room, waited tirelessly, feeling very nervous. At that moment, a matchmaker came in, accompanying her.
Just before leaving, the bride’s relatives loaded dowries into another horse-drawn carriage. One carriage was not enough for the gifts and dowries, requiring two carriages. Another carriage, probably intended for the musicians, stood empty, intended to make the bride’s carriage stand out a bit more.
Someone informed the matchmaker that she could bring the bride out to the bridal sedan. At that moment, a scarf covered Ye Shuzhen’s head, and with the support of the matchmaker, she got into the carriage.
The musicians began playing their instruments, and the carriage picking up the bride started moving. Just as they left the Ye family’s main entrance, the groom rode his horse up beside the bride’s carriage.
With such a large bridal procession, whether the Ye family’s relatives and friends or people from the village, everyone came to see the excitement and send off the bride and groom.
The relatives of the Ye family walked behind them, escorting the groom’s party to the edge of the village.
Ye Shiqi, led by her parents, also walked with them to the village edge, a not-so-short distance.
Only her grandparents stayed at home and did not see them off. One reason was that they were the parents, and another reason was Mrs. Lai’s obese body, as she seldom went out for walks, and the long distance to the village edge was too much for her to bother with.
They could have used their family’s ox cart, but today their ox cart was not available, as several important relatives had taken it to follow the bride and groom’s procession to the groom’s home, a custom of sending off the bride.
To get to know the groom’s family and later maintain ties with them.
The relatives who did not ride in the cart and escort the procession might not maintain close ties with the bride’s family in the future.
One could say they were the more distant relatives, with no need to socialize much with the daughter who married out.
Mrs. Lai stood at the door, watching as the procession moved off into the distance. Her eyes were moist and a bit red, a mother’s reluctance to part with her daughter.
Hongji’s father’s gaze was filled with reluctance and his eyes were red. Having raised a daughter who was now getting married, every father hopes his daughter will marry well but also feels the pain of letting go.
The couple felt as if it was only yesterday their child was small, and at this moment as their child was getting married, they too had aged.
When Ye Shiqi was being sent off, she walked out with several elder sisters, Mrs. Li carrying a baby just a few months old.
When Hongji was initially sending off at the edge of the village, he was busy with his hands, not lifting them until after the people had been sent off, on his return home he picked up his youngest daughter.
At this moment, the gaze of the Ye family’s relatives turned towards the five Ye sisters, twinkling and possibly destined to marry well.
No one dared to look down upon Hongji or his daughters, as it could be said that the Ye family was rising, their ancestors were finally smiling down not just at Hongji’s generation.
Hongji’s generation had not much education, though they had some skills, they were just businessmen; although better than farmers, people still hoped their descendants would be scholars.
Their gaze moved from the faces of the Ye family’s five sisters to the baby on Mrs. Li’s back, hoping the cleverness and quick-wittedness of the sisters would also manifest in this baby boy.
As the only boy in the Ye family, the baby on Mrs. Li’s back could be the hope of the Ye family’s scholars.
Many people had previously looked at Mrs. Li with sympathy, as her in-laws had not treated her well when she had given birth to several daughters.
After dinner, everyone talked about her, yet now, carrying the baby, she looked nothing like a peasant woman, but rather a woman who brought prosperity to her husband.
Although she had delivered five daughters, this marked an unending blessing as she was still able to have a son.
Hongji became the wealthiest rich man in Bushen Village, and everyone believed this was undoubtedly linked to Mrs. Li, the prosperity-bringing wife who supported him silently.
Before Mrs. Li had her last daughter, the Ye family was still the same as before, but it was only after she became a wet nurse that the Ye family started to prosper and grow rich, a fact everyone believed, recognizing Mrs. Li as a woman who brought prosperity to her husband.
Not only had she given birth to five daughters, clever, lively, and very virtuous herself.