HLnovel Chapter 308: A grand banquet
Chapter 308: A grand banquet
On the third day after Bai Jingzhou and his companions returned to the village, a banquet was set up in the area where the school and the ancestral hall were located.
The three chefs were specially invited by Bai Lizheng. They were master chefs who specialized in preparing banquets for weddings and funerals in various villages. The other helpers were all young and strong men and capable women from the village.
This group of people, led by Bai Rong, was specifically responsible for following the orders of the three chefs. Whether it was purchasing ingredients, preparing utensils, or picking, washing, and cutting vegetables, they did everything perfectly.
The elders of the other three scholars who passed the county examination were also enthusiastically helping out, but Bai Jingzhou's family and Gu Wenhai's family had no time to care about these things.
They have been busy with the wedding of Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan. March 8th is the wedding day. Before that, both the Bai family and the Gu family are very busy.
However, they did not just give up. The Gu family sent Gu Tong, his son Gu Yongkang, and daughter-in-law Xiao Wang, while Bai Jingzhou's family sent his uncle Bai Jun and his second and third cousins.
Their two families contributed the most money, and they had also been taking care of students from the same village who went to the county town to take exams. Everyone was grateful to them, so even though they contributed less, the other three families did not feel dissatisfied.
The banquet was lively and lively all afternoon. The people responsible for cooking, serving, clearing the table and washing dishes were busy from noon until the sun set. Finally, the guests who came to the banquet had a complete meal.
After seeing off the last table of guests, the chef and his helpers, who had only eaten a simple bite before noon, could no longer hold on and took the remaining steamed buns and rice to eat.
Forget about the dishes, as there was none left. All the prepared dishes were eaten up by the villagers who came to the banquet. They could only eat the staple food with soybean paste or pickles.
However, just when they had taken out the steamed buns or rice and were about to eat some pickles or soybean paste, the Gu and Bai families had people send food over.
The meal was not very sumptuous. In addition to the plenty of white rice, big steamed buns, and pork bone and soybean soup, the Gu and Bai families also had people send two barrels of pork belly stewed with sauerkraut, two barrels of pork belly stewed with dried eggplant, two barrels of minced meat and tofu, and two barrels of fried eggs with dried radish. They were all home-cooked dishes, but they were also salty, fragrant, hot, and good with rice.
The chefs were used to eating good food and didn't feel anything, but the villagers who were helping them were drooling at the delicious smell of the dishes.
Although Baijia Village is a well-known wealthy village in the surrounding area, the villagers still rarely eat eggs and meat, let alone delicious dishes like the ones sent by Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, which have very little vegetables but abundant meat and eggs.
Each person took a large plate originally used for serving dishes, and used a long-handled wooden spoon to scoop two spoonfuls of rice from the large wooden barrel, and then scooped a spoonful of pork belly stewed with sauerkraut, a spoonful of pork belly braised with dried eggplant, a spoonful of minced meat and tofu, and a spoonful of scrambled eggs with dried radish. If it was still not enough, they would order two more large steamed buns.
After eating, have a bowl of pork bone and soybean soup to relax, and most of the fatigue of the day will be dissipated.
Everyone was very satisfied with the meal. When they finished cleaning up and were about to leave, Bai Rong distributed the remaining meat and vegetables in the kitchen to the chef and the helpers as Bai Lizheng had instructed. This busy and lively scene was finally over.
Time flies and it is the eighth day of March, the wedding day of Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan.
Although members of the Lin family, Mu Hanzhi, Mu Jingzhi, and Mu Jinyang could not come, they sent generous gifts from Haizhou, Beijing, and Zhoucheng respectively. Peng Xuan'an rushed over from Zhoucheng in advance, on the one hand to congratulate Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan, on the other hand to help Bai Jingzhou go to Gu's house to welcome the bride.
Together with Peng Xuan'an were Bai Jingshan, Ning Qirui, Han Yong and other young people. Those blocking the door of Gu's house were a group of young people led by Gu Wenhai, Gu Wenche and Jia Yuelan.
Bai Jingzhou had been looking forward to this day for several years. Not only did he prepare a lot of wedding money, candies, and wedding cakes, but he also prepared several red envelopes to bribe the relatives of the Gu family who blocked the door.
The Gu family distributed some of the betrothal gifts, wedding cakes and candies given by the Bai family to relatives, friends and neighbors to share in the good fortune. They also took out some wine and some tea yesterday to entertain the people who came to add to the dowry.
The remaining 600 taels of betrothal money and two sets of the latest gold jewelry were given to Gu Wenxuan as a dowry by the Gu family.
Ten rolls of fine silk and ten rolls of fine cotton cloth had already been made into dowry clothes, shoes, socks, pillows, bedding, etc. by the women of the Gu family, and not a single bit of it was wasted.
In addition, the Gu family also gave Gu Wenxuan another 16 taels of silver as a dowry, ten rolls of fine silk that Gu Wenxuan and her family brought back from Haizhou, ten rolls of fine gauze that Li personally selected at the cloth shop in the city, ten rolls of fine cotton cloth produced by a textile workshop, a pair of white jade bracelets that the women of the Gu family personally bought in the city, two sets of gold jewelry with pieces each, and a full set of mahogany furniture (including beds, couches, cabinets, tables and chairs, desks, basins and buckets, etc.) that Gu Yongming asked a master craftsman to make for Gu Wenxuan.
Redwood, which is called big red sandalwood in the south and old redwood in the north of the Yangtze River, belongs to the genus Dalbergia in the subfamily Fabaceae of the same family as huanghuali. Its wood and color are similar to those of rosewood, with straight annual rings, larger pores than rosewood, and a color similar to jujube red, but with a darker luster, lighter color, loose texture, and fragrance.
In wealthy families, mahogany furniture is nothing special, but in a small place like Qingshan County, mahogany furniture is already very high-end.
Add to that the silver that Gu Wenxuan brought to the Bai family, the total amount was as much as 1,200 taels, which was truly enviable.
The villagers of Baijia Village who were watching the excitement were as envious of the Gu family for getting a good son-in-law as they were of the Bai family for marrying a golden child.
They privately discussed that Gu Wenxuan was a "golden baby" not only because the Gu family gave her a large amount of silver and items as a dowry, but also because Gu Wenxuan herself was very good at making money.
What these people didn't know was that Gu Wenxuan actually took away her own private property. However, because those were Gu Wenxuan's own things, the Gu family didn't ask any questions, nor did they write a dowry list. They simply assumed that she could deal with everything on her own.
They were not afraid that Gu Wenxuan's private money would be defrauded by the Bai family in the future. Firstly, the Bai family were all honest people and would not do such a thing. Secondly, their precious daughter was not a dodder, but a real queen of flowers.
It's fine if others are nice to her, but if they are not, she has many ways to deal with them.
The two families held the wedding with great enthusiasm.
The women in the village would go to the Gu family to add dowry the day before. No matter what they brought, even if it was just some dried vegetables or a few eggs, as long as their attitude was okay and they were not deliberately looking for trouble, being sarcastic, or acting crazy under the influence of alcohol, they would be warmly received by the Gu family.