Chapter 8 Four fathers and sons worked hard for half a year to earn a daughter-in-law

On the sixth day of the first month of the lunar calendar in 1999 AD, that is, the first day just after the "Broken Five" of the Spring Festival, Zhang Baobao, the owner of Dongfeng Coal Mine under Yaojiazhuang, was planning to celebrate his father's 77th birthday. The theater troupe was invited from the city, and the coal miners continued their three-day holiday. And on the trail leading to the coal mine, Liu Laoqi, an old digger, was on his way with a heavy heart. After breakfast, he hurriedly arranged for his wife to feed the pigs out of the pen at home, while he himself carried a coal pick and shovel, gnawed on the buns and rushed to work in the coal mine behind the village.

This year, his mind is very heavy, no matter how hard and tired, the father and son must spend half a year to earn money for the third son Sanzhuzi who is over 30 years old to marry his wife. In the past few days, he has been thinking about it: He heard from the matchmaker that the bride price this time is very heavy. Liu Laoqi knows that in this world, the woman sees that his family is poor and has many sons, and the future "in-laws" want to let their daughter have a good life after "passing the door", so before "passing the door", they simply turned to him once. The man "asked for the bride price to be in place".

Besides, people guessed that Sanzhuzi of his family was old, and in Yaojiazhuang, some "boys" of this age would become "grandpas" in another seven or eight years. "At thirty, half a lifetime is empty." This is the ancestor's motto. Liu Laoqi understands this truth. It is really his father's sin to not "confess" his son at such an age. Liu Laoqi is so anxious! Sanzhuniang even spent all her time making clothes for her son, making him "shake" and discussing with the old man. She gritted her teeth and spent 3,300 yuan to buy back a big color TV that was not commensurate with his family's situation.

In his mother's words, I don't want to watch it, and I will "watch" when the matchmaker and the woman come to his house in the future. In fact, Sanzhuzi has mentioned a few times over the years, but they failed to negotiate. It can't be all his fault. For example, this woman has been divorced three times recently, but when she saw the conditions of his family, she hung her face like a "Changbai Mountain". , I will pity him for once, let's talk about it!" "I'll fuck your ancestors of eight generations! You fucking 'pity' me, you don't pity your previous 'three'!" After hearing this sentence, San Zhuzi yelled angrily in front of his companions.

"On the day I went to my house to 'jump the door', the stench on her body was unbearable. On the day we met, that idiot sprayed about two catties of perfume on her body. When you talked to her, it smelled like she was drinking secretly. It's like two catties of sheep urine." "That look, if anyone has seen her and doesn't say she is ugly, no one has ever eaten pork! She is tall, with a big face, heavy eyebrows, and big black eyes. If she has a beard, she will be like Zhang Fei. Like!" The companions laughed after hearing this. After this time, Sanzhuzi became numb to his marital problems, and even gave up on himself and resigned himself to fate.

At the end of the year, a matchmaker came to his father to discuss his marriage. The old man was naturally happy, but Sanzhuzi was very calm.According to San Zhuzi, the two sides had a heated dispute over the number of bride price.In the end, 10,000 yuan was given away, and the matchmaker took away their big gray donkey to "deal". Now that the world has changed, Mr. Liu clearly remembers that when the eldest brother proposed marriage, what the woman wanted was "two turns and one sound", that is, a car (bicycle), a watch, and a sewing machine.When it comes to the second child, the woman's conditions are even higher-"three golds, four silvers and one smoke".Local people know that the "three golds" refer to gold rings, gold necklaces and gold earrings. The "four silvers" are silver rings, silver necklaces, silver earrings, and silver bracelets. "As soon as it smokes" is a motorcycle.When it came to the third child, the conditions the matchmaker put forward for the man were even more outrageous: everything was settled in RMB, and he couldn’t make enough money, so he had to ask the matchmaker to take away the big gray donkey that he had been plowing with him for many years to pay for the money.Just like the land, livestock are the lifeblood of farmers. Now people want to take away the big gray donkey. Isn't this "North Korean Chinese New Year-killing my dog!"

On the night when the couple got married, old man Liu didn't say a word. He knew that this was the last happy event in the old Liu's family, and it must be a little bit more spectacular and extravagant. Therefore, the old man Liu and his wife discussed and arranged for the elder brother and the second brother to collect some money for the wedding "bedding" first, and later they could collect the "wedding gift" money for the third brother's wedding. In the local area, weddings and ceremonies need to be ostentatious, that is, to be "moving". In addition to relatives and friends, tell the villagers to invite everyone to come. ", the current standard is 30 to 50, and aunts, uncles and other relatives of the same generation pay more.

If it is not "touching", it means that the family only "plays small things" in the circle of close friends, that is, holds a ceremony in a small area, so that the "wedding gifts" received are not many. I still remember that it was more than 20 years ago, when Sanzhuzi was young, the villagers in the countryside were very poor at that time, and sometimes they couldn't even afford the money for the "wedding gift", and some had to send food to pay for the "wedding gift".Sanzhuzi's father himself once gave six catties of corn to other people's weddings at neighbors' weddings.

Counting carefully now, in the nearly twenty years since the second son of the Liu family got married, in his impression, old man Liu has given quite a few "funeral gifts" at other people's funerals. This time, it's time to "close it" at the wedding of the third child, he thought. The wedding day is scheduled to be on the sixth day of the next month, and Sanzhuzi revealed a secret to his friends: it’s not that he is in a hurry to organize the wedding, but that the pig his mother has worked so hard to feed for two years is too fat, and it’s impossible not to kill it.

On the day of Sanzhuzi's marriage, two tweeters were installed on the roof of his house in order to make it lively. Besides popular songs, the content played was Puju, which was popular in southern Shanxi. After hearing the story of Sanzhuzi, several junior high school classmates and best men who participated in the wedding discussed in private, saying that they must tease the bride who loves money and vent their anger on Sanzhuzi if they make trouble in the bridal chamber at night, otherwise the big bride price will be made of meat buns Dog, what's even more annoying is that his father gave someone a donkey, and at least he will get back the donkey's money at night!

The bridal chamber custom in the local countryside has always been known for its barbarism. On the night of the bridal chamber, the bride is often teased to the point of crying, and the ashamed and angry natal family and her husband's family fight over this. The men's partners discussed that in order to control the etiquette and "dao" that the woman asks for money, they should simply come hard, and they don't believe that a few young men can't beat a weak woman. That night, before a big red happy letter, the wedding master of ceremonies leaned on a greasy table and sang loudly: "The bride and groom are seated, and the wedding ceremony begins!" People clapped and cheered. "Bow to heaven and earth!" The couple of Sanzhuzi bowed to Hongxizi together. "Second obeisance to the high hall!" The two knelt down and kowtowed together. "The third item, the husband and wife pay their respects!" The two faced each other and deliberately did not move. At this time, the groom and the bride were pressed down several times by the best man beside them. "The fourth item, enter the bridal chamber!" The bride and groom entered the new house surrounded by everyone. In the local area, most of the people who make trouble in the bridal chamber are classmates or close friends of the groom. Before holding the bridal chamber ceremony, the "chief commander" of the bridal chamber, the "general consultant of the folk ceremony" and the "law enforcement team" to supervise the bride and groom must be selected.The first is to select the "commander in chief" of the bridal chamber.The second is the "General Counselor of Ceremonies", responsible for the guidance of various bridal chamber ceremonies.The third is the "law enforcement team", under the guidance of the commander-in-chief and the general counsel, to supervise the bride and groom to complete the ceremony.The fourth is the "supervision team", which is to supervise the quality of the actions completed by the bride and groom. After the division of labor is completed, the ceremony begins: The first item is "felting": let the woman lie flat, spread the small handkerchief on her body, and let the man bend down and rub the handkerchief on the woman's body, and keep rolling the handkerchief. The second item, "weighing" means that the woman lies down, and the man presses on her, and the commander-in-chief asks the woman: "How many catties?" The woman said a number casually, such as 5 catties, 10,000 catties... which made everyone laugh. The third item is to take out the "sparrow": insert the handkerchief from the woman's left leg trousers, and take it out from the right leg trousers through the abdomen. Generally speaking, the trouble in the bridal chamber was relatively civilized this time. The woman only cried twice, and everyone still gave Sanzhu face.