The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 515 - 504: Newcomer

Chapter 515: Chapter 504: Newcomer

Ms.Qian treated all her children equally, always striving to be fair and just.

So even though their family life had improved, Zhou Wulang’s betrothal gifts and the wedding feast matched the standard of his elder brothers’, all mostly the same.

Fortunately, marriage customs in the neighboring villages were simple, given the rural setting, and there were fewer rules compared to those in town or the city. The parameters for betrothal gifts and dowries were well defined so that, although Ms.He’s family was well-off, they never demanded an excessive bride price.

Ms.Qian prepared the betrothal gifts with great care, but to her surprise, Zhou Wulang secretly went to the city and returned with a pair of silver earrings and a silver bracelet to add to them.

Old Zhou looked at his son with a mixture of annoyance and exasperation, thinking that he was already biased towards his future daughter-in-law before even getting married.

Ms.Qian just smiled, added the items to the dowry, and had her sons carry everything to the Eldest’s house to formally propose.

Everything went extremely smoothly. The grown-up Manbao and Bai Shanbao obviously couldn’t roll on the bed for Wulang anymore, so this task fell to Zhou Wu and the three-year-old daughter of Zhou Dazhu.

The two children, with their shoes removed, were placed on the nuptial bed but just sat there blankly. The experienced Manbao and Bai Shanbao promptly pushed them over, rolling them from the head to the foot of the bed.

Thinking it was a game, the children shrieked with laughter, rolling back and forth several times, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Ms.He, seeing the wedding quilt crumpled in no time, said promptly, "Alright, that’s enough. Come down now; I need to tidy up the bed."

Ms.Feng gave each child a red envelope and shooed out the rambunctious Manbao and the others.

The two children designated for the marriage ceremony remained sitting on the bed.

Manbao and Bai Shanbao burst out of the house, whooping and rushing outdoors. Over the years, they had often been called upon to roll on beds for village weddings, a task they found delightfully novel.

This time, being able to stand at the village entrance to watch the bride’s arrival was also a unique experience for them.

When the auspicious time approached, the bridal ox-cart entered the village. Manbao and a mob of children rushed up to it, shouting around the cart in excitement.

They didn’t even know why they were yelling, but because everyone else was doing it and having fun, they joined in as well.

Zhou Wulang, sitting atop the ox-cart, grinned and handed out wedding candy, which immediately prompted a flood of compliments from the children.

Praise was heaped on Zhou Wulang and Lu Zhi as if it cost them nothing.

With her cheeks blushing, Lu Zhi bowed her head shyly, allowing the red bridal veil to obscure her final view.

This time, even Old Master Bai attended the wedding, along with Mr. Zhuang who came to join the festivities. Old Zhou was over the moon with joy, unable to hide his elation.

Some elders whispered to their younger family members, "This is what prosperity looks like. It seems Zhou Jin’s family has turned its luck around."

Thinking back to five or even more years ago, the juniors nodded in agreement, "Yes, it seems to have started around the time Silang gambled. It’s quite strange."

The elder replied, "Fool, why don’t you think about the year Manbao started school? Haven’t you heard the Taoist priests from the mountain say that Manbao is the reincarnation of a fairy? I think the fortunes of Zhou Jin’s family have risen along with Manbao."

This sentiment was shared by many, and now the people of Qili Village firmly believed that Manbao was indeed the reincarnation of a fairy.

Only Old Master Bai and Ms.Liu would laugh off such talk when they heard it.

The Zhou Family had welcomed a new member. Ah, there was one more mouth to feed, but also one more pair of hands to help with work.

After getting settled and adjusting for a few days, Lu Zhi quickly adapted to her new surroundings, timidly but carefully integrating into the large family.

Thankfully, her sisters-in-law were all very kind, and her eldest sister-in-law cherished her quite a bit. For the first few days, her oldest sister-in-law and the eldest brother’s wife would take her to do household chores, and with her husband frequently tagging along, blending in wasn’t difficult.

However, she felt somewhat embarrassed by Zhou Wulang’s constant presence at her side, helping her wash dishes, chop vegetables, and cook.

Zhou Xi didn’t think much of it, saying to her, "Let him do it. In the dead of winter, they have nothing else to do. It is better to do some work than to go out and play."

Lu Zhi shyly smiled, asking in a soft voice, "Big Sister, the New Year is coming soon. Is there anything special the family needs to prepare?"

"Of course. We need to make sesame candy, rice cakes, and the children also want tofu stuffed with filling this year, so we’ll probably need quite a bit of that. But mostly, the eldest brother’s wife will be making those. We’ll just have to lend a hand."

At this, Zhou Xi smiled and, taking her hand, said, "I think the dishes you cook are pretty tasty. Can you make any desserts?"

With a flushed face, Lu Zhi replied, "I’ve only learned to make tangyuan, nothing else."

"No worries. Even if we could make them, they wouldn’t appreciate ours as much. Honestly, I don’t know what it is, but whatever the eldest brother’s wife makes just tastes better than ours."

Having tasted Ms.Qian’s cooking for a few days, Lu Zhi nodded in complete agreement.

Though it was said that cooking should be done by each person in turn for a day, when it wasn’t busy, Ms.Qian was usually the one in the kitchen, and the other tasks fell to whoever was responsible for cooking that day.

Since Lu Zhi had only just joined the family, Zhou Xi confided in her, conveying Ms.Qian’s wishes, "Mother said that we’ve been learning from the eldest brother’s wife for many years and still haven’t gotten the hang of it, but you are clever and might be able to learn. This way, when you have your own little family, you’ll be able to manage the kitchen. So, you should learn more from her, and if you can’t learn it then, we’ll see."

Occasionally when the eldest brother’s wife was too busy making tofu and couldn’t cook, she had the chance to try meals made by her other sisters-in-law. In fact, their cooking wasn’t too different from what she was used to at home or in other households, with the exception that she hadn’t yet tasted the eldest brother’s wife’s cooking.

This year, Ms.Qian wanted to make more than just rice cakes and sesame candy because Manbao and the others planned to go to the county town for some delicious food.

She thought it was too expensive, so she decided to learn some dessert recipes from the Bai Family’s cook.

In the words of Ms.Qian and the cook, "The stuff made outside can never match what’s made at home. It’s also a waste of money to go to the county town, and it takes effort. What’s available in the city we can make ourselves and serve it to them, so they don’t have to run back and forth."

The cook wholeheartedly agreed, saying, "But Master is tired of the desserts I know how to make, and he may not like them."

"Oh, there’s no such thing as getting tired of desserts. Just keep changing them up for him. Today make little buns, tomorrow make rice cakes, the day after make osmanthus cakes... By the time it comes back to the little buns, several days have passed."

"That won’t do. I’ve tried that before, but he still craves the tasty food from the city. By the way, do you have any new recipes?"

The cook had discovered Ms.Qian’s natural gift for cooking during their occasional exchanges of fresh ingredients and sharing of recipes.

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