Adults wanted to do farming, kids wanted to celebrate the Spring Festival. Farming was the only way for the villagers to live on, otherwise what would they eat? Land didn’t allow cheating. As the old saying went, no pains, no gains, you got what you sowed. The villagers took farming as their main business. If they wandered here and there every day, they would be regarded as “a loafer”. People looked down upon loafers.

    The villagers didn’t have much schooling, couldn’t read and write much, but sometimes, they were bookish, expressing something with words of implication. For example, “Eating signs” was very difficult for the non-natives to understand. In fact, “signs” here meant shadows, seemed nothing to do with eating. But if you thought deeply, it meant no practical things, nothing. So “l(fā)oafers” meant people with nothing to eat, meaning “being lazy but fond of good food.” “Loafers” didn’t refer to a certain person, but to a similar kinds of people. So to speak, there were sure a few loafers in each village in the areas of the River of Lixiahe in North Jiangsu Province.

    People were compelled do do farming. It was really happy to celebrate the Spring Festival. As soon as the new year came, the kids became happy. Adults used to make new clothes for them, to give them lucky money. The village was full of new year’s greetings, having peanuts and melon seeds full of their pockets. The regular thin porridge had disappeared. At the Spring Festival, they ate sweet balls.

    The main ingredients of sweet balls were glutinous rice flour. This was manually ground in a stone grinder, thin and sticky.

    On the new year’s eve, adults would stir and mix the flour, make them sticky, not too hard or soft, put them into a big porcelain basin, pinched into small pieces one by one. Then made them into round and concave shape with half a spoon of sugar, white or red, in it, slowly gathered up, pinched up, rubbed them round. Afterwards, placed them into a small basin one by one, covered with wet towel. In the morning of the first day of the new year, boiled water, then put the balls in. In a little while, the whole family would sit around the table, drinking tea, eating sweet balls, sticky and sweet. The stuffing was mostly sugar, but it could be sesame with sugar. Smashed sesame mixed with sugar made the balls more tasty, smell good.

    Eating sweet balls at the Spring Festival symbolized unity, happiness and good luck.

    On the second day of the new year, the villagers began to call on relatives and friends with new year’s greetings. Weddings were usually held after or on the third day.

    Every year some families had weddings. This year in Xianghe Village there were a few weddings including Chunyu, Black Vegetable Melon and Genshui.

    In the east of the village, within the east half of Dragon Lane, under the old  Elm tree, there were three straw rooms, that was Genshui’s house. You could see the  some newly patched straw on the roof, looking bright and shiny. The son was going  to get married, Lai Tizi couldn’t afford to build a new house, but found a few men  to help renovate the roof, painting the walls with river mud, especially the internal  walls with white lime, the old house looked much brighter. As they were in the same  village, after the renovation, Lai Tizi invited Qin Yatou’s two brothers to the house  for a meal and a drink. At the meal, she asked, “Is this ok for the bridal chamber?” “Aunt Lai, it is not easy for you to have it renovated. This is nice. Qin Yatou should  be satisfied.” Hearing what the two brothers said, the mother and son felt relieved.  “After they get married, I will make every effort to build a brickhouse for Qin  Yatou. I am not a stupid guy, I will work hard, think out some idea, we are sure to  live a better life than it is now. Let’s see in a year or two.” Genshui became excited,  drinking up the rest of alcohol in a mouthful. “Drink slowly, don’t get choked.” Lai  Tizi looked worried, the whole family would rely on him later on.

    Now it was lunch time, people came and went, very lively. Someone was arranging seats for the guest. In this area, at big events, when there were many people, according to the old customs, there were some particulars about who should sit on what seat, if they didn’t obey the rules, there would be gossip, making guests feel restless at the meal. For more serious people, they would quarrel with the master family, ending up with an argument, it was embarrassing. So the master family had to ask a man of courtesy, specialized in his duties to have guests seated at their special seats.

    The hall-room was not very big, so they placed three tables there. In the front yard at the gate, an open top was set up with oilcloth. They placed another four tables there. A temporary cooking stove was built at the gate. Usually it was not big enough for the event, most of the families would build an earth stove in the front yard. Not only the stove, but also there were not enough pans, plates, bowls, chairs, tables and chopsticks. All those had to be borrowed from the neighbors. Sometimes, not only from one neighbor, but also from a few neighbors. So there might be trouble in separating all of them after the event ended. Someone was assigned to take care of this. He either put special marks on them or arranged to put them separately after they were washed clean. Usually. Agen Huo was the right person to do this job, but today he was not here because he was busy at home for his sister Qin Yatou to get married this afternoon.

    The dinner was the main meal as the bride came in the afternoon. Thus, the lunch was relatively simple. Early in the afternoon, there would be a ceremony to welcome the bride in the house. A whole set of things would be done. Lai Tizi was busy back and forth, saying hello to the guests with smile on her face. “Now you have a daughter-in-law.” Lai Tizi was very happy. But where was Genshui? At this moment he was at Er Kuazi’s house, being joked at by a group of Qin Yatou’s cousins.

    “Bridegroom, if you don’t treat me with this kind of cigarette today, the dowries  wouldn’t betaken away.” Someone waved the cigarette of “Economy” in his hand.  “Give us some wedding candies first, otherwise we would not comb the bride’s hair.” The women who didn’t smoke said. “Toast first, toast.” Genshui could only defend  himself but unable to hit back. So he kept apologizing and greeting them. The bride  was still in her mother’s house. His purpose was to take her home, it didn’t matter  what happened to him. The two families were not far away in the same village, so  they used a sedan instead of sedan boat.

    It was said that using a sedan to welcome the bride to the bridegroom’s house was not inherited from the ancestors, but was acquired by bride’s fighting. At first, it was not fair for the bride with parents’ order and matchmaker’s words. If there wasn’t any ceremony at the wedding, later when the couple had a quarrel, the husband would argue, “You bitch, I didn’t bring you with a sedan, you ran hereby yourself.” Thus, it seemed to be the bride’s sin when she wasn’t fussy about it. Under the circumstances, the bride wouldn’t be willing to accept such treatment of being bullied. They insisted on a sedan welcome. So later on the husband couldn’t make any excuses to bully his wife.

    Those were old stories, but nowadays people were not so fussy about it. Most of the sedans were made by the villagers. For example, Genshui’s sedan was made of a big table, upside down, with top covered by a piece of red cloth and antithetical couplets, looking nice. It was said that there was a business of renting out sedans, very beautiful and elegant, but it cost money and no sedan renting in Xianghe Village.

    The bridegroom went to the bride’s house to escort the bride to the wedding with a sedan chair and a group of people. Today, Genshui was wearing a dark blue khaki cloth Zhongshan suit, stiff. He came to Qin Yatou’s house to welcome her to the wedding. All the necessary wedding gifts were prepared as usual, such as fish, meat, candies and buns, etc, with a certain number, not at random. But there were two more necessities: a jar of liquor, and three liters of rice as a symbol to return the rice she had eaten at her parents’ house. Was it ridiculous? Were three liters of rice enough to raise a daughter until she got married?

    It was different in Er Kuazi’s house from Genshui’s. The main meal was lunch, after that, Qin Yatou was going to Genshui’s house as the bride. The house would become a little bit quieter as one person was missing suddenly. At this moment, Er Kuazi was acting as the master of the family since their parents had both passed away. Running back and forth, he was taking care of the guests. He placed the main table in the hall-room of the store, the rest of the guests were arranged in the Brigade Department. That was a good place, big and wide, right next to his store.

    No matter how busy and lively it was outside, it didn’t seem to have anything to do with Qin Yatou. The bride was sitting quietly in her own room, not knowing what it was like at heart. Although she was going to sit in Genshui’s sedan chair soon, become his wife, she was still thinking of Chunyu. She knew that Chunyu was getting married with Xuehua today. Thinking that she couldn’t be with Chunyu any more from today on, she was going to live with the man she didn’t love, leaving her mother’s house, thinking of her mother died before her wedding, Qin Yatou burst into tears. According to the local customs, the bride couldn’t cry with her eyes open, saying her tears were bitterness, they would go wherever she could see. But Qin Yatou didn’t care about these. She was really bitter in heart, Where could she tell about them?

    From Qin Yatou’s house eastwards along the Dragon Lane, not too far away,it was the place to drop the sedan chair, Genshui’s house. Lai Tizi had everything ready for the formal wedding ceremony(*) as soon as the sedan chair arrived.

    With the loud shouting, “The ceremony begins, ——” The fireworks and firecrackers outside the door started to crackle, noisy and lively. Out of the noisy shouting, the host was heard, “First, bow to heaven and earth; Second, bow to the parents; Lastly, the couple bow to each other, ……” According to common practice, the next step should be leading the couple into the bridal chamber. But locally after the ceremony, the new couple began to bow to the guests. They were pleased to bow because they would benefit from it. According to the local custom, the guests had to give a red envelope in return with money in it. Remember the bridegroom gave out a lot of red envelopes in the bride’s mother’s house. It’s time to get some of them back. This process was done in order of age or seniority, one by one. The amount of money in the envelope could be read out aloud by the host. In order not to lose capacity, the guests tried to give as much as they could. The amount of money given was written down in a special notebook because these were called “human relationship”, soon or later you had to give them back.

    Today, after the formal ceremony, Genshui and Qin Yatou began to bow to the guests. This time. Lai Tizitold the host not to read out the amount of money given from the guests in order to save face for them. She herself was made embarrassed by this at other wedding occasions. She didn’t want this to happen at her own place.

    Genshui didn’t have a big family, with few uncles, aunts and cousins. So the process was very short. After that, Genshui and Qin Yatou carried the gift boxes and envelopes into the chamber. Now an important program was waiting for Qin Yatou, ——”O(jiān)pen the face”(*),i.e. clear off the fine hair on her face and neck, meaning the bride was going to turn on a new leaf, with a new beginning of clean life.

    There were two other weddingsheld on the same day of the third of the new year. Chunyu and Black Vegetable Melon. But either one was as easy as Genshui’s. It was on the same lane in the same village, no boat or oars, only one group of people with one sedan chair, the bride came to the house. After the ceremony, the new couple were in the chamber. But the sedan boats of Chunyu and Black Vegetable Melon were still on the way, not sure when to arrive.

    Because both of them went from the same village to the same village to welcome their bride, the two families had to secretly compete with each other about their sedan boats.

    Both of them wanted to make their sedan boats better than the others’, which would make them look good. Anran himself was a man of fame and vanity, never inferior to others. He wanted to make the sedan boats for his son’s wedding better than the others’. After all, he was a teacher, educated and reasonable. According to the old custom, he arranged three boats to Yang’s Village to welcome the bride. The first one was a “music boat”, with six paid flute players and drummers, noisy and lively. This was much superior to Black Vegetable Melon whose mother was only a housewife, who didn’t know a thing about it. The next one was a “Sedan boat”, with a beautiful sedan chair in the cabinet, with a fire basin, a torch in front of it, on top of the chair was a “evil-exposing looking glass” and some leathers, very beautiful. There were two small benches in front of it for the bridegroom and groomsman to sit. Originally, Anran didn’t arrange Chunyu to go himself, but heard of Black Vegetable Melon going, so he decided to ask his son to go, too. But the villagers didn’t know that Chunyu was in the boat. Behind the chair, there was a cotton quilt, a mat and two pillars. The last boat was empty, prepared to bring dowries, so called “Dowry boat.”. Black Vegetable Melon’s boats were regular, only two, one for sedan, the other for dowry. Obviously, he lost to Chunyu. The two teams were both ready at the west and east side of the pier, going to Yang’s Village. It was too late for Black Vegetable Melon to change even if he wanted to add a boat.

    One more thing was about the departure time, either wanted to leave earlier for the first goodluck. But it was not the earlier the better. You couldn’t leave when it was still dark in the morning because it made people not feel safe. As a result, when the firecrackers went off, the two families started out almost at the same time. Because the villagers didn’t like to backtrack. Chunyu went out from east to west, would come back from west to east. While Black Vegetable Melon went from west to east, would come back from east to west. That would not contradict each other. But Chunyu first had to be out of way for a little bit, so will be later to leave Xianghe. Black Vegetable Melon left earlier for Yang’s Village, looking happy on his face, thinking that why you should have had three boats, so not as fast as I was.

    But that was not all. When the boats arrived at Yang’s Village, some stupid mistakes were made. As the boats from both families arrived at the same time, according to the rules, before the boats went ashore, three fireworks were played. The two girls’ families came out when they heard it. Then they made a mistake. Xuehua’s relatives went on the boats of Black Vegetable Melon, while Agui’s relatives went on the other boats, making both parties embarrassed. It was not their fault because all the boats came from Xianghe, the girls’ relatives didn’t know very clearly about them.

    The relatives of Xuehua had to do it again, led Chunyu to the bank, then took the torch, the fire basin, …… Then the musicians began to play music, much noisier and more lively than the other.

    Now, more and more people came out to see what was going on. From the river gate to both sides along the lane, people were crowded, old and young, men and women. Among them, the most active were those young boys, running around the sedan chair while those girls were shy and hiding in the corner or inconspicuous places, peeping how Xuehua’s bridegroom looked. Chunyu behaved gracefully, was nicely dressed. It was true that a man depended on his clothes and a horse on its saddle. Today Chunyu looked elegant. Some gossiping girls said quietly, “No wonder Xuehua was so fascinated with him. He was really good, a man of striking appearance.” “Yes, I have seen many bridegrooms, few of them are as good as this one.”

    While others were watching for fun, people in the boats were busy, moving things like gifts to the girl’s house. But not that easy. Look, The main door of Xuehua’s house was open just now, but now closed. The helpers weren’t worried. The local customs were similar. The girl’s families were asking for a red envelope to open the door. The bridegroom knew about this, well prepared. Chunyu gave a red envelope to the wedding woman, the door was opened. In fact, Chunyu knew how many other red envelopes he had to give at other occasions. Anyway, he knew what to do because he had already prepared for it before coming. Those red envelopes were kept in his pockets, just gave out when time came.

    Although difficult in the beginning, after giving the red envelope, the girl’s relatives received Chunyu with due respect. After the main door, the first program was to warm hands and heart with “tea” for the people coming to greet the bride. Here “tea” didn’t have anything with the real tea leaves, they were actually the sugar balls. Just to show courtesy from the girl’s family by saying “tea”. In the Xianghe area, there were some rules about presenting sugar balls. Either four in one bowl to symbolize everything went well, or six in one bowl to symbolize goodluck, or eight in one bowl to symbolize health and peace. Xuehua’s families were very polite, giving each of the boat men eight in a bowl. Don’t worry they were as small as dragon eye fruit, one for one mouthful, easy to finish eating all of them. This was for the boat men, but different for the bridegroom., looking most favorable. The bowl for sugar balls was much bigger, the balls were more delicate, as small as soy beans. Obviously they were trying to make it more difficult for the bridegroom. If he ate one by one with chopsticks, it would take too much time to finish eating them; If he ate too fast with big mouthful, it wouldn’t be elegant as the bridegroom. So this was a really difficult job for Chunyu. He thought for a minute, then had an idea. He took an excuse that he was very thirsty and only drank the soup, leaving all the balls. The man managing the tea was Xuehua’s uncle, knew lots of rules and etiquette with a nickname of “know-all person”. He was very satisfied with Chunyu’s act, explaining that Chunyu had left “More than enough/ surplus” to the girl’s family with good luck. Then he was very delighted himself with it.

    Before the bride got on the sedan chair, Chunyu just followed the wedding women to give out red envelopes. For every suitcase with a lock, he had to give a red envelope, just count the numbers of locks he would knowhow many red envelopes to give out. So they were called “opening locks envelopes”. Not all the suitcases were locked, one must be left open. Before the bride went on the sedan chair, this suitcase was used for “Growing high”. This was also called by some people as “Pressing the case.” Actually it was used for both the girl’s family and the boy’s family to put money in by one person after another for a competition. In fact, the villagers didn’t have much money to play this game, it was only a symbol, both sides threw a few bank notes into it for the courtesy. As it was agreed beforehand, there was no trouble of it.

    However it was different with Black Vegetable Melon. Agui’s families made this more challenging to get more self-respect by motivation. When the sedan boats went ashore, Agui’s families thought the music boat was from Black Vegetable Melon, but it wasn’t, which made them think they had lost face. Now at the program “growing high”, her relatives had all sorts of gossip, meant to compete, saying that, as a teacher, it wouldn’t dofor him to do a few more times for Agui. He thought that the “growing high” suitcase would finally go back to his house with the boats. Then why not do it? So one after another he put more money into the case, at last both parties wouldn’t give in to each other. Until Xuehua’s dowries were put on the boat, sedan boats left the wharf with the noisy and lively music, returning to Xianghe Village. Black Vegetable Melon thought that was too bad, he couldn’t let Chunyu arrive home before he did. Then he asked a respectable senior to do the peacemaking, both parties stopped.

    As a matter of fact, Black Vegetable Melon was stupid. The presentable looks of the program “growing high” were too big. Because the key to the suitcase was controlled by the wedding lady, passed to the bride. When at the first visit of the bride to her parents three days after the wedding, she would have to return all the money separately to all her families. This was really a presentable thing, he shouldn’t have taken it so seriously.

    Although it was later for Black Vegetable Melon boats to leave the wharf than Chunyu’s, all the rules and etiquette before leaving had to be obeyed. The boats had to turn round three times in the river water close to the girl’s house, meaning to make the girl lost in directions to come back home, to live wholeheartedly with children in the husband’s family.

    All knew that on the way back, the sedan boats couldn’t take the same route. Therefore, the boatmen had planned the correct routes before leaving the boy’s house. Moreover, on the way when the boat met with a bridge or a temple to change the direction, a firecracker must be played in order to pray for the god’s blessings and protection. In the early days, that was not enough, both the bridegroom and groomsman had to rise up to bow to the bridge and the temple. But nowadays, etiquette was reduced because people were getting tired of them.

    On the way back from Yang’s Village,the boats had to pass through a branch called “Baidu river” of a few miles long. Something that Chunyu didn’t want to happen. Originally he thought Black Vegetable Melon would be entangled by the program “growing high” and would not catch up with them so quickly. But actually now he could see their boats. A big competition of “Jockey for position” was inevitable.

    Black Vegetable Melon had planned this earlier, running for the advantageous position with Chunyu. He was vindictive. He still remembered how he lost the bet with Chunyu for a box of cigarette. Besides, the kids in the school complained that his teaching was not as good as Chunyu’s, which he suspected of Chunyu himself spreading the rumour. Today it was a good chance for him to win Chunyu by rowing the boats faster than Chunyu. If he couldn’t win this time, he would admit defeat and give up.

    “My brothers, Chunyu’s boats were just a few poles faster than us. I want to catch up and over pass them. Please work harder, Ok?”

    As Chunyu had three boats, Black Vegetable Melon had only two boats. With his encouragement, his boats soon caught up with Chunyu’s. In a little while, Chunyu’s boats were left behind.

    Chunyu saw this, thought of a great idea. He asked his boatmen to untie the music boat and dowry boat, only rowed the sedan boat straightforward, much faster. So in a little while his boat was rowing faster, leaving Black Vegetable Melon’s boats behind.

    After Black Vegetable Melon’s boats arrived at the pier in Xianghe Village, they didn’t immediately stop, let the bride Agui go ashore. This was arranged by her mother-in-law Xiangyu, to control her temper, which was the first welcome gift from the mother-in-law to her daughter-in-law. Actually this was an old rule in the countryside, that no matter how good characters the bride had, the mother-in-law must test and have her controlled. So originally the boat could go ashore earlier, but some tricks had to be played before the bride left the boat, turning around three times in the river close to the husband’s house. Someone might ask,” Did they do this before the boat left her mother’s house?” “Yes, she has to do it again.” The sedan boat turned around three times in the river with big waves. The bride was almost made fainted, missing her directions.

    The sedan boat was going ashore, it should be the time for the bride to “get untied”, got off the boat. But no, she still couldn’t. The dowry boat was supposed to go ashore first, moving all the dowries to the house. Look, this was obviously against Agui. Xiangyu was trying to control her new daughter-in -law’s character. So she had to wait, what else could she do? Now the boatmen were working hard to remove thing dowries one by one to the bride’s chamber. They were told to do this very carefully and slowly. Any careless act might cause damages to the dowries. That would make both the boatmen and the master family feel very embarrassed, even sorry for each other. So Xiangyu came to the boat, told the boatmen again and again to keep en eye on the dowries, gently, slowly and carefully.

    After the dowries were put in place in the bride’s chamber, we thought it was time to carry the sedan chair to the shore, let the bride out to stretch her arms and legs? No, still it wouldn’t do. There was one thing left in the dowry boat, that was the last thing to take into the chamber, called “chamber pot for the newlyweds”, which was actually a night stool. It was not known who gave it such a gracious name. Carrying this to the chamber was mostly done by the wedding lady, but someone came up with a new wrinkle that it should be done by the son-in-law in the family. Some might be easy going and carried right into the chamber quickly, but others might be difficult to deal with, they would hide or find any excuses to delay, possibly nobbled by the mother-in-law to control the bride’s character. It was hard to say.

    Xiangyu didn’t have a daughter, only one son. So she didn’t have a son-in-law. She asked Secretary Tan’s son-in-law to do it. He was nice and carried the “chamber pot for the newlyweds” into the chamber quickly.

    While Black Vegetable Melon was still playing the tricks of “controlling the bride’s character”, Chunyu had already had his bride into the chamber by the Happy Grandma. Xuehua didn’t have to do it because Anran was not the mother-in-law. The Happy Grandma in the Xianghe area was also called supporting grandma, meaning supporting someone with her hand. Now, Xuehua closed her eyes, listening to what the Happy Grandma said. She couldn’t move her hands, feet and mouth leisurely, until she entered the bridal chamber. Even in the bridal chamber, there were many more prescribed ceremonies waiting for her. The first one was to straddle a stool. The stool was short and small, tied with an axe and a green onion, meaning to remove the bride’s dirty, evil and waste on the way. Once the bride straddled over the stool, all the dirty, evil and waste things were cut off by the axe, washed away by the onion, indicating always bright and healthy. The next one was to “drink sugar tea”. The bride Xuehua was led to the bed, sitting to the south. She still kept her eyes closed, waiting for the bridegroom Chunyu to takeoff the cranidium. After that, the Happy Grandma brought her a cup of sugar tea. She could open her eyes only after drinking the tea. This was also particular because the bride sat all the way in the chair, suffering and crying, so her eyes must be bitter, so when she looked anywhere, she would see bitterness. Only by drinking something sweet could she open her eyes and see happiness and goodluck wherever she looked.

    “Looking at the window” was the third program Xuehua did after entering the chamber. The first thingshe must do after opening her eyes was to look at the window. The window was covered with red paper, but when Xuehua looked at it, someone broke a hole with chopsticks. Now Xuehua saw the face of a young boy through the hole, smiling at her. This was also particular because they used chopstick which meant to have a baby soon in Chinese pronunciation. Someone might ask why the boy outside knew when the bride would look at the window. Don’t forget the Happy Grandma, she was working at that. She would sure tell the boy, working in collusion, it was not strange for the coincidence.

    The programs in the chamber were going on one after another while the guests were having “Warming up wine” in the hall-room. Relatives and friends were toasting to each other with smiles on face. Anran was sitting comfortably in the front yard, smoking for a break. People passed by him, smiling, “Now you have got a daughter-in-law, happy?” “Yes. Thanks for your coming to help. Drink more in the next meal.” “Sure. We are happy, even if we get drunk.”

    The most interesting part of the marriage ceremony was disturbing the nuptial chamber, the newlyweds on wedding night. Many cousins and friends came into the chamber, all looking at the bride, some spoke dirty words, some tried to touch the bride, others played games with the new couple.

    At this moment, Chunyu had to be generous and patient, he could do nothing but pretend to be pleased even at some jokes. This was a local custom, handed down for many years. The target was the bride, that was, Xuehua. She was sitting at the bed, being teased,without any chance of speaking or acting. Chunyu stood aside, holding red candles in hand, smiling, saying hello, giving out cigarettes once in a while, hoping that every one show mercy, don’t go too far.

    It seemed that Chunyu had done something beforehand. Those cousins and friends were teasing the bride, making jokes appropriately. The atmosphere in the chamber was lively and nice, but not making Chunyu embarrassed, neither making the bride unable to escape.

    Groups of boys and girls went in and out of the chamber,  everyone was laughing, eating “spoils of wars” such as sweets, cookies and red dates, etc. They were very happy. It was rare for the villagers to have such real happy days all the year round. But there must be an end to this. The supporting grandma came in, shouted, “Well, it’s too late, time to end.” The boys and girls with lingering interest had to leave reluctantly, talking with each other, immersed in the happy memories and went home.

    The candles were shining with flames of joy. The newlyweds Chunyu and Xuehua would turn on a new leaf in their lives.

    To mention three details:

    First, who took off shoes first? In the old days, this was very particular. Usually,the bride took off first, put her shoes on the bridegroom’s shoes, saying men’ shoes were the sky while women’ shoes were the earth, in another words, men were up and women were down. Women were always inferior.

    Secondly, who unbuttoned first? This was necessary if the couple wanted to make love. According to the old customs, the bride would never unbutton herself first, nor unbutton for the bridegroom, otherwise she would be regarded as unruly or bad, even when she was in her mother’s house. So the bride had to wait for the bridegroom to unbutton for her.

    NO.3, Who slept in the east end or west end? The gentle and reasonable bride usually politely offer the east end to the bridegroom, but the bridegroom felt sorry to leave her alone on the west. At last they agreed to sleep on the same end in the east and began to merge into one, making love.

    But now, it was different with Chunyu and Xuehua, they didn’t pay attention to the details. Sleeping under the warm quilt, Chunyu wanted to make love. His hands reached for her nipples involuntarily, rubbing them, making her groan and moan, murmuring, “Chunyu, am I dreaming?” “Silly girl, I will let you know whether this is a dream.” Chunyu put his dick into her vagina while speaking to her. He felt clearly that her vagina was warm and wet, which made him excited, anxious to fuck. So his body kept twisting. “Chunyu, don’t call me Yatou. I am now your wife, call me wife. Ok?” “Ok. Wife, wife——” “Don’t say so loudly. Be careful, there might be someone bugging outside.” “Yup, I forgot all of them. Hush, hush.” Although speaking so, the action was very fierce. It was normal that young people did sex vigorously.

    However, it was redundant for Chunyu and Xuehue to worry. Although after the teasing and jokes in the bridal chamber, a few of them didn’t want to give up, they returned after walking around the house, hid outside the corner of the chamber, eavesdropping on their whispers, to see if they would have sex immediately. But after they lay down, Chunyu and Xuehua had their own separate thoughts, no talking. Chunyu didn’t know why the shadow of Qin Yatou always come before his eyes, thinking how Genshui and she were doing at the ceremony, whether she was lying in bed like Xuehua. While Xuehua felt all this was not true, as if she was in a dream. Was the man sleeping beside her husband? Will she live with him for the whole life from now on?

    One sentence was reasonable, when one was fed and warmed up, one’s sexual desires would come up. Two young bodies slept together, the temperature under the quilt started to rise quickly. The unique feminine touch from Xuehua started to give out, which made Chunyu drive away Qin Yatou from his head, realizing what he had before him, showing a kind of male commotion. His body desire defeated his thoughts. So like a well prepared solider, he was active to launch an attack.

    In the rural areas, it took a whole night for the people to eavesdrop squatting at the corner of the wall outside the chamber. The next day, when relatives and friends gathered again, they would listen to what those young people talking about nonsense, revealing the ins and outs of the bride and bridegroom, making them burst into laughter. But those who stayed to eavesdrop outside Chunyu’s chamber were unlucky and sad, Chunyu and Xuehua didn’t say anything at the beginning, they couldn’t hear anything exciting, so they left with disappointment. But right after they left,something exciting happened. Didn’t they regret?

    Happy events came one after another in Anran’s house. Right after the wedding ceremony, that man from the army came to “have a look at” Cuiyun.

    In the Dragon Lane, a soldier in green uniforms was surrounded by a group of kids, walking towards the east end. “Look, look, A PLA soldier is here.” The kids jumped with joy, walking ahead, giving the message to Liu’s family. Duck Li was trotting behind the soldier, trying to catch up with him. “My dear nephew, don’t be so anxious to walk too fast. I can hardly follow you.”

    What Duck Li said was true, but there was one more reason: she was pregnant, so she couldn’t walk too fast. Strange to say, Er Kuazi had tried so hard to make her pregnant, but in vain. Then only one time she had sex with his brother Agen Huo, she got pregnant. Her menstruation stopped, she often felt like vomiting. One night she told Er Kuazi “I have got it.” “What have you got?” “Don’t you understand me? Stupid.” “Oh, really?” Er Kuazi finally realized it. Duck Li looked at him, very pleased. She was thinking, he was really a stupid guy, his wife got pregnant with another man, but he didn’t mind, on the contrary, he was pleased with it. She wanted to tell him it was not from other family, but from his own family, but he didn’t ask, she was shy to tell him directly. When she thought about it the other way, better not to, suppose he was not happy to hear it?

    “My dear nephew, Cuiyun is a nice girl, beautiful, not many of the girls like her in the Xianghe area. I assure you at the first sight you will be pleased, at the second sight you will be excited, at the third sight, you will marry her.” The PLA man didn’t slowdown his steps. Duck Li had to trot after him, went on introducing for him. “I have heard of these many times, I want to see her in person, no more empty talk, please.” He seemed a little bit annoyed. It seemed that she had told him about Cuiyun quite a few times.

    All Anran’s families were waiting for the guests. The atmosphere of having the new daughter-in-law was still there. On the table in the main hall-room were peanuts, sweets, cigarettes, sunflower seeds. Tea cups and the thermos bottle were beside them on the table, there was red sugar in the cups, ready to make tea with hot water when guests arrived. Anran was sitting there. Chunyu and the bride, too. But Cuiyun wasn’t. Since it was agreed to have a look, she would not be out. She was in her small room, waiting. As an unmarried girl, she wouldn’t come out before the guests arrived. It was not appropriate for her to offer herself for a look.

    “Mr. Liu, our honored guest is here.” Duck Li’s voice was heard before she entered the door. These years, the villagers showed a special kind of respect to Anran, calling him “Mr. Liu” .

    Hearing this, Chunyu rose up, went out to the front yard to welcome, shaking hands with each other. This was the etiquette of young people, old people seldom shook hands with a stranger, only nodding to each other as a greeting. Today it was different, one was a serviceman, the other was an educated young man who returned to the countryside, shaking hands was natural. “My name is Zhijun Wang, from the same village as the film projectionist of the commune, Guibao Wang. I am serving as a PLA man in the North.” “You are welcome. My name is Chunyu, the second brother of Cuiyun.” After a self-introduction, all the people entered the hall-room. Zhijun was introduced to Anran and the bride. He said congratulations to the family, on Anran getting a nice daughter-in-law, on Chunyu marrying such a beautiful wife, on Xuehua marrying to such a wonderful family. Anran became comfortable with these words. After all, he was different to have experienced life as a PLA man.

    “Have a cup of tea.” Anran made the tea himself, passing it to Zhijun. He stood up as he saw this, “Thanks. It is kind of you, Uncle.” Hearing someone call him as Uncle, different from “Mr. Liu”, Anran felt comfortable, thinking highly of the young man secretly. Before Zhijun asked about Cuiyun, Anran said to the new daughter-in-law, “Go and see what Cuiyun is busy with. Stop it and come out to meet the guest. It’s not polite to keep the guest waiting. He came all the way.” “Don’t say that, Uncle. This is what I should do. Please let Cuiyun know I am here.” Zhijun was going to ask when Anran mentioned it. He took the easy option.

    Duck Li walked too fast just now, she felt very tired. Sitting beside Chunyu, she was busy drinking sugar tea, eating peanuts. But she was smart, she could see that Mr. Liu was satisfied with the young man, so she didn’t have to take the trouble to say more. As soon as Cuiyun came out, Zhijun would sure be pleased to see her. As to what had happened to her before, nothing would be serious as long as the young man didn’t know about. When the two had good feelings about each other, there would be nothing even if he knew about it. The most important thing between a man and woman was the right chemistry, anything else didn’t matter.

    Cuiyun entered the room with her long braid in hand, lowering her head, “Did you ask me to come out, Dad?” “Come to meet Mr. Zhijun Wang.” The old father seldom introduced people so formally. “Hello, Mr. Zhijun Wang” Cuiyun greeted him as she was told. “Well, don’t be so courteous at home. Everyone calls me Zhijun Wang. Since you are four years younger than me, then call me Brother Zhijun. As for Chunyu and the bride, I want to call them Brother and Sister-in-law. What do you think of it, Uncle?”

    “Zhijun is right. This is not in public, unnecessary to be so formal. I think Zhijun’s idea is great. I agree.” The old gentleman liked the young man before him, with big eyes, looking heroic.

    On hearing what Zhijun said, Cuiyun’s face went red. This man was anxious, calling brother and sister-in-law after me, but he didn’t even ask me if I agreed or not. Well, really, you thought soldiers were great, but I might not marry you. It seemed that Zhijun Wang was quick-witted, he had known about my age, something more about me. Did he know about that incident? What if he cared about it? Cuiyun was contradictory. She cast a wry glance at this good young man, feeling secretly happy at heart, meeting such a good person. But when she thought of that incident, it was like a fishbone stuck in her throat, difficult to get in or out, she got uncomfortable, didn’t know what to do.

    Zhijun was satisfied as soon as he saw Cuiyun entered the room. He thought that most matchmakers were fond of eating, used to lying, but that was not always true. Duck Li described Cuiyun like a flower, she was really beautiful as I saw her today. She had a beautiful sister-in-law at home, but compared with each other, Cuiyun was superior, could be a bride without any makeups.

    “Just now, I was too busy to bring up my gifts. This is Ginseng from Northeast China for the Uncle. That is a silk scarf for Cuiyun. I am sorry, I haven’t got any gifts for the brother and sister-in-law, as I left in a hurry. I will sure make up for them next time.” Zhijun took out two gifts from the yellow cloth bag beside him. The ginseng was put in a box, could be seen from outside what it is. The old gentleman accepted it, kept saying, “This is too precious.” It’s true that few of the villagers in Xianghe had ever seen ginseng.

    Cuiyun took over the silk scarf from Zhujun, both of their fingers accidentally touched each other, a feeling of hemp came up to her, as if a small current spreading from her finger through her body. That’s strange, she never had this before. Thinking of this, her face went redder than before.

    On hearing what Zhijun said to him, Chunyu felt sorry for himself, instead, as if he himself owed Zhijun a human feeling, so quickly stood up, added tea, grabbed some peanuts for Zhijun. “It’s nice of you to say so, but unnecessary. Stay here for a couple days since you are on vacation. Get to know more to have better understanding and trust between you two.” He had meant to show his politeness but unconsciously turned to the subject of Zhijun and his sister, showing a tone of a brother naturally. “What are you saying, bother? My sister-in-law should remind him of not talking nonsense under any circumstance. This is the first time he came to our house.” There was a slight change in Cuiyun’s heart, she couldn’t say his name directly as Zhijun Wang.

    “You are right, Brother. I should take advantage of the vacation to get to know her. Mutual communications are very important between the young people, otherwise we would not have common language. But since I said I would make up for the gifts to you, I will keep my promise, The soldiers mean what they say. Otherwise we can’t be servicemen.” What Zhijun Wang said made them feel new and strange, in the meantime, they could get a superior feeling from Zhijun to be a serviceman.

    Not long after the first visit of Qin Yatou and Genshui to her parents, it was the Day of “Returning the Bowl” on the sixteenth night of the New Year. That was another local custom. On that night, in the Xianghe area, almost all the household, old and young, came out of the house, to an open place not far from home, most of them on the earth field, roadside, or end of the lane, lighting a fire on a pile of straw. While the fire was burning vigorously, people would jump over the fire. With this jumping over, all of the dirty things and bad luck would be burned off, a new beginning with the new year. The burning fire under the crotch symbolized the beginning of goodluck of the year. This was called “Jumping over a torch” by the villagers. Maybe in the beginning, it was a real torch, but later on it might not be a torch. It would do to jump over only a fire. The villagers used a pile of hay instead of a torch to save trouble. This was similar in meaning to the bride’s jumping over the fire basin and climbing over a bench. In the Xianghe area, after the sixteenth night, the Spring Festival was almost over. There would be no more visits to relatives and friends, nor happy events.

    On that night, the master family of the weddings would be busy and lively again. Look, the table was full of people eating in Genshui’s house. All of them were boatmen who helped bringing the bride here. This was an old rule to give thanks to those who worked very hard helping bring the bride here. To find an excuse, “Returning the bowl” in the marriage custom came into being.

    The bowls to return were secretly taken away by the boatmen from the meals in the bride’s parents’ house. To say secretly, but actually, the master family knew it very well. The boatmen would take the excuse returning the bowls to tease the bride one more time. In the eyes of the boatmen, this was only an extension of disturbing the nuptial chamber.

    The time to return the bowls was mostly in the evening. The group of the boatmen, led by the leader, lifted up a tray with a pair of red chopsticks and bowls with red dates, covered by red paper. There were other people following them beating drums and playing firecrackers, marching happily forward to the bridegroom’s house.

    When they arrived, the ceremony began. Those people holding the trays would beat the bottom of the bowl with chopsticks, they shouted as they beat the bowls, others would echo beside:

    Chopsticks, chopsticks, quickly have a baby.

    Ok.

    Small chopsticks are long, raising up a son to be No. One Scholar.

    OK.

    Small chopsticks are round and square,

    Raising up a son better than Chunfang Li.

    Ok.

    Chunfang Li was chancellor of the County of Chu in Ming Dynasty. Wouldn’t the master family be happy if you said the bride’s son would be better than Chunfang Li? Although happy, the bride had an idea in her mind. These boatmen would be troublesome, why not make them feel difficult at first? What would she do? It turned out that the bride had to prepare the meal herself. So some dishes were too salty, others too light; some were too big to eat, some too small to pick with chopsticks. …… Obviously she did this on purpose to make the boatmen feel awkward, then she pretended to keep apologizing. So the boatmen also planned secretly to tease the bride after the meal. They finished the meal quickly, spilling the leftovers of oil and soup all over the table, putting all the bowls upside down on the table. Then they would ask the bride to clean up herself, no one else would be allowed to do it for her. The bride had to turn over the bowls one by one carefully, otherwise it would be unlucky to break one out of carelessness. But this was not all. On the same night, there was another custom of “spreading the bed”. Now the boatmen were not convenient, so used the kid to do it. They held a kid in their arms, letting him to piss into the bride’s bed. Seeing the mischief, the bride couldn’t get angry, but pretended to be smiling. It was really like the dumb man eating the bitter herb, he had to suffer in silence.

    These were customs in the old days. Tonight, the sedan men came to return the bowls, Qin Yatou would try her best to show her great cooking skills, making a few dishes for them to eat so as to leave a good impression upon them. Honestly speaking, it didn’t take much trouble for the sedan men to finish the job from Er Kuazi’s house to Lai Tizi’s because it was so close in the same lane. However, the boatmen for the two houses of Black Vegetable Melon and Chunyu worked very hard all the way from Xianghe Village to Yang’s Village, to and fro. But rules were rules, Qin Yatou couldn’t skip it. Those sedan men didn’t care about the meal. Lai Tizi prepared the meal seriously, invited the sedan men according to the rules.

    After the meal,the sedan men put one or two bowls upside down symbolically as that was something special for Qin Yatou to do. The kid who went with the sedan man did “spread the bed.

    But this time, they had the kid to piss only a little bit, not really to the bride’s bed, just symbolically to make the master family happy. Otherwise, it would make Genshui and Qin Yatou embarrassed.