Chapter 99 – Wedding Ceremony
After the educated youths saw the new house, they left with envy.
Meanwhile, before moving into the new house, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo were busy preparing things to furnish their home.
They finally started buying the pots, bowls, ladles, and other necessary items for their new home.
They needed quite a few things this time, but luckily, when Lu Xia suggested buying a large pot while they were cooking together, Jiang Junmo asked his family for some industrial tickets, and they had already arrived a few days ago.
With the tickets and money on hand, they quickly purchased everything they needed for their home.
Not only that, but Jiang Junmo also went to the village carpenter to buy some furniture – a wardrobe, a dressing table, and even some tables and chairs. Along with the boxes that Lu Xia had previously prepared, their home no longer felt empty.
They even prepared two large barrels for the small room at the back, intending to use them for fermenting pickles and salted vegetables later.
They hadn’t known about these things before, but they recently heard about it from other educated youths in the village. During winter, fresh vegetables were scarce, so pickles and salted vegetables were essential.
As for their lack of cabbage at the moment, they didn’t have to worry. When the village’s vegetable plot harvested the cabbage, they would get their share, and for those who didn’t have enough work points, they could buy some from the village.
After hearing about this, Jiang Junmo prepared the large barrels in advance, fearing that it might be too late when the time came.
They thought of everything they could.
Once everything was prepared, the house had finally completely dried, and they were ready to move in.
Before moving in, they decided to invite the educated youths for a meal, as they had helped a lot during the house construction. Unlike the villagers, the educated youths volunteered to help, so they insisted on hosting the meal.
One evening, when all the educated youths were present, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo mentioned this to them.
Upon hearing about the meal at their new home, everyone said they didn’t need to spend money, but seeing that Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo insisted, they happily accepted the invitation.
The female educated youths then suggested that they could also hold a wedding ceremony.
Lu Xia was surprised to hear this and instinctively felt it was unnecessary. After all, they had already registered their marriage for a long time, so having a wedding ceremony seemed redundant.
However, Sun Shengnan’s words changed her mind.
“Rural people attach great importance to ceremonies, especially wedding banquets. In many villagers’ minds, a couple is only considered married if they have a wedding banquet. This has led to many people not bothering to register their marriages or care much about the legal aspect. So, by having a wedding ceremony, others will recognize your relationship.”
After listening to Sun Shengnan, Lu Xia understood. Although she and Jiang Junmo didn’t care much about this, since they were going to live in the village, they should follow the villagers’ customs. Moreover, it wasn’t troublesome at all.
So Lu Xia thought about it and agreed.
Alright, let’s have a simple one then, just to avoid gossip in the village.
So on the day they moved in, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo decided to invite not only the educated youths but also the local cadres.
In this hasty and rudimentary setting, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo didn’t have much concept of a wedding. They just cleaned themselves up a bit and wore clean clothes.
The only thing that made them feel a little like a wedding was that the female educated youths each prepared a large red flower for them.
Since before the wedding, Lu Xia had previously suggested that they didn’t need to prepare gifts for her. So, they prepared these red flowers instead, which was still nice because red paper was hard to come by in this era.
That day, they set up three tables for the meal. The ceremony was presided over by the village chief, but it was simple. They both wore the large red flowers and read a few lines from the wedding book together. The village chief then made a few concluding remarks, and after accepting everyone’s blessings, the wedding ceremony was completed.
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Chapter 100 – Moving into the New Home
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After the meal, the village cadres left, and the educated youths helped tidy up before leaving as well.
Left alone, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.
In the afternoon, they moved all their belongings into the house, but they hadn’t arranged everything carefully yet.
So, in the afternoon, they started organizing their things inside the house.
Since they were moving away from the educated youth residence, it meant they wouldn’t be cooking with them anymore. So, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo also brought their food supplies with them.
In fact, they didn’t have much left. The fifty kilograms of grain they borrowed from the village when they first arrived were almost gone. Later, when the village received their grain allocation, they didn’t have many work points left after repaying the initial loan.
So, the new educated youths bought some grain from the village.
Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo also followed the trend and bought some, but the village only sold coarse grains. They didn’t buy much and planned to use food stamps to buy fine grains at the grain and oil station later.
Lu Xia also intended to find an opportunity to take out the food from her space to eat.
As for vegetables, the educated youths suggested they go to the educated youths’ vegetable plot to pick some. However, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo felt that since they weren’t the ones cultivating it and were no longer living there, it wouldn’t be appropriate to eat from it anymore. So, they decided to give a few catties of grain to the educated youths in exchange for some vegetables.
However, the vegetables wouldn’t last long, and with the weather turning colder, the crops in the field would soon wither. Therefore, in a few days, they would have to prepare some vegetables for the winter.
By evening, they weren’t very hungry due to the hearty lunch, so Lu Xia simply cooked porridge and stir-fried some potatoes left from lunch.
Jiang Junmo didn’t let her do all the work alone and joined in to help with the cooking. He even seemed eager to try his hand at cooking.
However, Lu Xia directly rejected him, saying, “I remember you don’t know how to cook, right?”
Back when they were at the educated youth spot, Jiang Junmo and Gu Xiangnan were in charge of cooking, but they used their work points to have Sun Shengnan and the others help.
Embarrassed, Jiang Junmo explained, “That was because I didn’t want to cook. Cooking for over a dozen people was too much, and Gu Xiangnan didn’t want to cook either. We thought it was better to have someone else do it.”
Lu Xia was speechless after hearing his reason; she didn’t expect that to be the case.
“So, you can actually cook?” she asked with doubt.
Jiang Junmo quickly nodded, “Yes, I can. My sister taught me when I was younger.”
Lu Xia looked at him skeptically but didn’t say anything. “Alright, then we’ll take turns cooking from now on.”
“Okay,” Jiang Junmo agreed directly, seeming quite happy.
Lu Xia smiled and shook her head.
After dinner, she boiled some hot water in the pot. Since it wasn’t convenient to bathe at the educated youth spot, Lu Xia had finally fulfilled her wish by purchasing a large bath bucket. So, she planned to take a good bath now.
There was a large water tank in the kitchen for storing water.
Seeing that Lu Xia might use quite a bit of water, Jiang Junmo carried a water bucket outside to fetch water.
After Lu Xia had boiled the water in the pot and filled the water tank, she carried the bath bucket inside the room. She intended to bathe there since the small room at the back, though also available, was small and had food stored in it, making it inconvenient for bathing.
After filling the bath bucket with water, when it was almost enough, Lu Xia closed the door, ready to take a bath.
But before bathing, she told Jiang Junmo, “If you want to bathe too, you can heat some water later.”
Jiang Junmo nodded, “Okay.”
Thanks for the chapters!!!!
Thank you for the chapter ♡(∩o∩)♡
I’m enjoying this simple slice of life story. Lu Xia’s very practical and has thought of things for day to day needs.