Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

Chapter 104 The Bride

"Xiao Laizi, do you want to go see the bride? She'll be right there." Xiaohu ran over and asked.

"Okay, okay, Yu Shui, let's go and see the bride." When He Lai heard this, he immediately pulled Yu Shui and ran out.

Several people came to the small courtyard of the groom's house. There were many children waiting there.

He Lai guessed that they were waiting to show their affection.

There were a few old men sitting on one side playing the suona. He Lai said he couldn't appreciate it, but it was quite lively.

Xiaohu and He Lai came to a good position. It was higher up and the view was clear.

After a while, the bridal sedan appeared, and the suona became even louder, creating a lively atmosphere.

The groom began to bow and express his gratitude, then asked the bride to step out of the sedan chair.

He Lai looked at the bride, who was wearing simple clothes, with big red flowers on her chest and head, and her little face was also red.

When the groom saw so many children, he quickly scattered a handful of fruit candies.

Seeing all the children gathered around him, the groom felt embarrassed as he didn't have much candy to begin with.

Seeing this, Yu Shui immediately took out a handful of White Rabbit candies from his pocket and threw them down.

The children immediately scrambled for the food.

The groom quickly took the bride into the house.

He Lai looked at Yu Shui speechlessly, while Yu Shui clapped his hands in joy.

When the groom's mother saw Xiao Laizi and Yu Shui throwing out handfuls of candies for their family's wedding, she also invited He Lai and Yu Shui to go in and see the bride.

After all, He Lai is quite famous in the village. He is one of the few children who moved to the city.

He Lai, Yu Shui and Xiao Hu went into the inner room and saw the bride sitting there with her head bowed. The groom was nowhere to be found. Several women were surrounding her, all with smiles on their faces. It was a beautiful scene.

Is this how rural weddings are done? There is no wedding banquet as in the legend, just simple suona music, candy throwing, a sedan chair ride, and the atmosphere is all about the children and the villagers watching.

There was no such thing as worshipping heaven and earth or sending the bride to the bridal chamber, and the two families didn’t even have a meal together. It was really simple.

From listening to the women's conversation, I learned that the bride and groom had only met once, and their families had discussed the gift and then let the groom take the bridegroom home to get married.

He Lai felt a little bit reluctant, so he took out a handful of sugar from the space and put it into the basket next to the bride, then ran out of the hut in the rain.

He Lai walked back to the countryside, dragging the rain down with him.

"Rainwater, does the bride look pretty?"

"nice."

"Would you like to take a ride in the sedan chair?"

"May I?"

"No, I heard from the elders that a person can only ride in a sedan once in his life, and once you ride it, you can't ride it again."

"why?"

"Maybe it's because a woman can only marry once."

"Then I'll sit there when I grow up."

Yu Shui said happily, thinking about the scene of marrying He Lai in a sedan chair in the future.

……

"Does the bride look good?" Wu Juan asked with a smile when she saw He Lai and the others coming back.

Yu Shui rushed into Wu Juan's arms and began to talk about the bride's look.

"Mom, what was it like when you were a bride?" He Lai asked.

"Mom, your dad and I have known each other since we were young. At that time, our two families discussed it together, had a meal together, and got married." Wu Juan was also recalling the scene at that time and was sad for a moment.

"Mom, Dad will be back soon. It's okay." He Lai saw his mother's look and knew that she was thinking about her father again.

"Yes, yes, mother is waiting." Wu Juan touched the two little ones' heads and said.

The He elders said nothing.

……

In the next few days, He Lai took Yu Shui and the children in the village to play together, and they had a lot of fun playing various games.

We played blind man's trick, hide-and-seek, skipping rope, hopscotch, handkerchief dropping, etc. We played all the games we could think of.

Wu Juan also seemed to have returned to her previous days in the countryside, washing and scrubbing every day, mending clothes with rainwater, or bringing He Lai's rainwater to stay with her parents.

Life is so pleasant.

On this day, I heard that a rally had started somewhere in the town.

The old couple of the He family suggested that everyone go to the market, so the whole family set off in a mighty procession.

Wu Juan held Yu Shui's hand tightly. After all, there were a lot of people. He Lai walked with Da Hu and the others.

As He Lai walked, he found that the crowds of people attending the fair on the road were getting denser and denser, with all kinds of people.

Some were riding donkeys, some were walking in sedan chairs; some were pushing carts, some were carrying loads; some were helping the elderly, some were carrying children; some were carrying baskets, some were carrying baskets on their backs... everyone was walking in a hurry, all wanting to get to the meeting as soon as possible.

Young girls and wives, with their hair combed neatly and their faces painted white, gathered in groups of three or five, laughing and giggling, spreading laughter all the way.

Young men full of vigor and vitality wear New Year's clothes to see if they can attract the attention of girls.

There were more children, shouting, calling out, running aimlessly, then stopping and sitting by the roadside waiting for someone, their little faces all red.

When there was still more than half a mile away from the meeting, you could hear a buzzing sound coming from the air in the direction of the meeting. The sound was sometimes loud, sometimes soft, sometimes absent. When it was loud, it sounded like thunder in the distance.

Hearing this sound, He Lai's heart became even more agitated and his pace naturally quickened.

Seeing the rally and the huge crowd of people made He Lai retreat a little. The terrible claustrophobia came back again.

He Lai still chose to return to Wu Juan.

There was no space in the crowd, only heads moving around. What came to my ears was the constant noise and bustle.

At this time, you can't walk faster because the road is so crowded that people are packed tightly together.

As we walked further, it became even more crowded, with people jostling each other shoulder to shoulder. In some places, the crowds were so crowded that people were pounding the ground, and one could walk a long way without touching the ground. If someone's shoes were squeezed off, there was no way to find them. If someone's hat was squeezed off, there was no way to pick it up. People were shouting, yelling, and cursing, and the place was in chaos.

He Lai had no choice but to wipe the sweat from his head and hold Wu Juan's hand tightly, for fear of losing her.

"Now you're scared, right?" Wu Juan said with a smile, holding one in each hand.

This is totally different from the gatherings in the city. I haven't even seen the thing yet, so why is it full of people?

He Lai had no choice but to follow slowly, and finally something appeared.

There were a bunch of stalls selling toys, and the ground on both sides of the street was full of toys.

The wooden Guan Gong sword, the bamboo red tassel spear, and the fat clay dolls are really cute; the colored glaze hanging high up is transparent and shiny, and makes crisp sounds when the wind blows. There are also flower-drawn mallets, leather mice, steel-frame slingshots, turtles playing drums, phoenixes beating gongs, etc., which are really dazzling.

He came for a long time and bought a doll for Yu Shui and a slingshot for himself, which he used to play with often.

After buying, I walked with the crowd.

There is a ring-throwing game further ahead, and the boss is shouting: "Ring-throwing, ring-throwing, it doesn't cost much, just have fun"

He Lai immediately became interested and spent 4000 yuan to buy twenty of them, giving ten to Yu Shui.

The stalls were filled with small items - combs, brushes, hair bands, toothpaste, tooth powder, toothbrushes, spoons, shovels, garlic mortars... In the last few rows there were a few thermos bottles. There was a line of words underneath: Put it on and take it away, you won't regret it.

He Lai first took the front one to try out his aim. After all, he had played with it before in his later life, but this one was made of bamboo, while the ones in later life were made of plastic.