The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 211 - 200: The New Bride

Chapter 211: Chapter 200: The New Bride

Due to the Qian Family inviting Bai Shanbao to play the role of the bed-tumbling child, the two families became even closer. This time, when they came for the wedding banquet, Ms.Zheng also brought a sizeable monetary gift. Although it seemed light to her, she had already adjusted it considering the financial situations of both families.

The Zhou Family were quite shocked by the generosity.

After dinner and the wedding room festivities, when they were about to leave, Ms.Qian gave Bai Shanbao a red envelope as a parting gift, effectively returning the monetary gift they had brought.

Ms.Zheng initially hesitated to accept it, but Ms.Qian smiled and said, "This is the custom here. The red envelope given to the bed-tumbling child should be in pairs."

Upon hearing this, Ms.Zheng let her son accept it, and then she held his hand to walk home.

This was Bai Shanbao’s first time attending such a wedding. He had fun the whole day and hopped and skipped while holding his mother’s hand.

Ms.Zheng asked him with a smile, "Which is more fun, the wedding banquet back home in Longzhou, or the one here?"

"This one’s more fun," Bai Shanbao replied without hesitation. "In Longzhou, they don’t play with me and wouldn’t let me enter the bridal room."

Upon hearing this, Ms.Zheng’s heart ached, and she tightened her grip on her son’s hand, feeling once again that her mother-in-law’s decision to leave Longzhou was the right one.

Even though only Bai Li’s family was their clan here and all other relatives and friends were far away, making the days somewhat boring, life was much more peaceful. Compared to the hard work and troubles back in Longzhou, the living and learning environment here was clearly better for her son.

Manbao stood at the door, watching her good friend disappear into the night, then turned around and reached out her hand to her mother, eagerly saying, "Mom, I was a bed-tumbling child too."

Ms.Qian paused for a moment, looking at Junior Ms.Qian.

Junior Ms.Qian quickly found a small red envelope.

Ms.Qian handed the red envelope to her, and Manbao, gleeful, didn’t realize her own envelope was much smaller than Bai Shanbao’s.

She clutched both red envelopes to her chest and waved goodbye to her mother. "I’m going back to my room to sleep."

"Go ahead, go ahead," they said.

By this time, it was already dark. Most of the guests had left, and only a few were still drinking and playing games. Ms.Qian didn’t rush the remaining guests, letting her sons keep them company while she helped Junior Ms.Qian back to their room to rest.

She had been quite busy for the past two days.

Ms.Qian could rest now, but Junior Ms.Qian couldn’t. She led her sisters-in-law and her eldest sister-in-law to tidy up the tables and chairs, and they still had to clean the dishes and sweep the courtyard.

Of course, since it was dark, they only did a rough cleanup before everyone returned to their rooms to rest.

Just a few red lanterns remained lit in the courtyard, illuminating the space as Zhou Dalang and his brothers kept the remaining guests company with drinks and games of finger-guessing.

With the spring hustle over and alcohol in rural areas being expensive, opportunities to drink freely were rare. Not only the remaining guests, but also Zhou Dalang’s brothers didn’t want to go to sleep right away.

Old Zhou himself was still seated at the drinking table.

Zhou Wulang also wanted to join the fun with Sixth, but Zhou Dalang shooed him away, saying he was too young to drink because his hair hadn’t even grown in fully yet.

The next day, Manbao was awakened by the noise outside. She pushed open the window to look out and saw Sixth Brother yawning as he swept the ground.

The small courtyard over here was fine, but next door, in the larger courtyard where the kitchen was, Junior Ms.Qian and others were already tidying up the leftover food from the previous day.

Because of the heat, the food couldn’t be kept for long and needed to be consumed within three days at most.

So they kept enough for the family to eat, and the rest was distributed to neighbors and close relatives.

For example, to their three uncles from their father’s side.

While returning borrowed tables and chairs, they also took some of the remaining food over, along with the bowls and dishes...

They had to be careful not to give too little to one family and too much to another...

Although it was leftover food, it was still very popular as it was from a wedding banquet with plenty of oil and meat.

Manbao was quite reluctant to give it away.

She had just finished washing up and rushed into the kitchen, wanting to keep this dish for herself and that one too.

There wasn’t an abundance of leftovers, barely enough to distribute to some close families.

Junior Ms.Qian was already a bit overwhelmed with work, and with Manbao constantly underfoot, she couldn’t help but push her out, "This is the kitchen, hurry up and go outside."

Manbao eyed a bowl of leftovers. "This has a pork knuckle, I want to eat it... This is a fish head, I also want to eat it..."

Ms.Feng couldn’t help but laugh, telling her, "You can eat it all, go on out now."

But as she turned, she put the items into a basket that was meant to be given away.

Seeing Manbao pout, Ms.Feng chuckled, "We have saved some for you. After we return things to people, your fourth sister-in-law will wake up and warm up the food for you. If you keep running around the kitchen, if your eldest sister-in-law gets angry, she won’t give you any food to eat."

In the household, Manbao was scared of only two people, one was her mom, Ms.Qian, and the other was her eldest sister-in-law, Junior Ms.Qian.

Hearing this, she immediately ran outside.

While Junior Ms.Qian was distributing the leftovers, she said, "It’s so annoying, the bigger she gets, the less she listens."

Even Ms.He could tell that her tone was filled with affection. She laughed and said, "That’s because you spoil her."

As Junior Ms.Qian was putting good meat and fish into a bowl for Manbao, her hand froze for a moment, then she casually replied, "I didn’t spoil her at all, she’s just naturally clever."

Despite her words, she still glanced outside, noticing that the new bride hadn’t come yet, and figuring she was still asleep. Thinking of Manbao’s habit of eating earlier than everyone else, she set aside the good meat she had picked out, deciding to cook something for her first.

Of course, eating something too oily early in the morning wasn’t good, so she added water and a couple handfuls of rice to the pot. When the rice started to cook, she added the fish and finely chopped lean meat, and threw in some chopped green onion and salt.

Ms.Feng and Ms.He watched from the side: ...

The two inhaled the delicious aroma and Ms.Feng couldn’t help but say, "Eldest sister-in-law, how do you cook your food? Even though we use the same methods as you, we can’t achieve this flavor."

Ms.He nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, every time the eldest sister-in-law cooks, the food is the cleanest in the house, especially Manbao. When we cook, she only eats about half a bowl, but when it’s the eldest sister-in-law..."

Whenever they saw Manbao with her belly slightly swollen, Ms.He couldn’t help but mumble, even though they all used roughly the same amount of oil and salt.

Ms.Qian smiled and replied, "Practice makes perfect, I guess. Maybe Manbao is right, I was just born to cook, just like our third sister-in-law, who naturally has better skills in needlework."

Ms.Feng sighed, "Then I’m doomed. I can’t cook as well as you, and my needlework isn’t as good as our third sister-in-law’s."

Junior Ms.Qian said with a laugh, "Being able to talk and communicate well is enough."

While they were talking, a voice chimed in, "Is there anything I can help with?"

The three sisters-in-law turned to see Lady Fang standing at the doorway, her face red with embarrassment. "I, I woke up late..."

Ms.Feng and Ms.He were momentarily silent. Junior Ms.Qian washed her hands, smiling as she went forward to take her hand, "It’s not late, not late at all, it’s not time for breakfast yet, new brides are like this, come in..."