After a long while, Yao Sizhu said: "Mom, ask me to think about it again."

What else is there to think about? Mrs. Tao wished she could go up and slap her son twice.

However, the fourth child has had a bad temper since he was a child, and something like that happened to him before, so Mrs. Tao was reluctant to say anything harsh to her son.

After Mrs. Tao and her sister-in-law left, Yao Sizhu worked silently and stopped saying anything. Maisui tried to persuade her but couldn't say much. The fourth brother had to figure it out on his own.

Early the next morning, Mr. Tao, accompanied by Mr. He, arrived at the old house again.

"Mom, I won't move. If the Bai family is willing, the marriage will be concluded. If not, then we will pull her down."

Before Tao could speak, Yao Sizhu made the decision he had been thinking about all night.

What? Tao, He and Maisui were all stunned.

After Yao Sizhu finished speaking, he opened the fence of the duck house and drove the ducks out the back door.

Mrs. Tao looked at her son's back and almost cried. Why was this fourth child so screwed up?

When Mrs. Bai got the news, she bravely went to her parents' house again. This time Mrs. Tao ordered her two daughters-in-law to follow her with gifts.

As a result, when she came back, Mrs. He was at a loss and explained: The attitude over there is firm, the girl must live in a new house when she gets married, and the bride price must not be less than one hundred taels!

When Mrs. Tao heard this, she was immediately furious. She jumped up and shouted: "A hundred taels? Why didn't she go and grab it? She really thought that our family was a big landowner, and how could it be so easy to take out a hundred taels? Don't think about it! Step back!"

In the new year, our family doesn’t even have enough food to eat.”

Today's Yao family is not unable to come up with a hundred taels of silver as a bride price, but they are unwilling to accept the Bai family's request. Which of the three daughters-in-law of the Tao family has more than one tael of silver in bride price?

This matter went back and forth for more than half a month. On the Bai family side, even Yao Futian came to ask for peace, and no one on either side was willing to back down. Of course, on the Yao family side, it was mainly Yao Sizhu who said that he did not want to die from his old age.

No one can persuade me to move out of my house.

After several twists and turns, Yao Sizhu's heart was completely cold.

The new house was built by Guo'er's niece and her family. Naturally, it contained the fruits of the whole family's hard work, but he always felt that he was not included in it. He was the one who caused the most trouble and contributed the most to the family in recent years.

least.

Now he has started to raise ducks wholeheartedly, just because he wants to work hard with his own hands, earn a family fortune, and no longer be criticized when he goes out.

The Bai family insisted on getting married in their new house and asked for a large sum of money as a bride price. Was it because of him as a person or because of his family's money?

If it wasn't because of him as a person in the first place, then it would be fine not to get married.

Feeling heartbroken, Yao Sizhu simply said no more, forget about this marriage.

Mrs. Tao sadly sat in her new house decorated with glazed windows and cried several times. She cried about the misfortune of her fourth child, and even more about how such a troublesome thing could be screwed up like that. How could she live in an old house? What could an old house do?

Live in a flower?

Yao Sizhu never said a word about her marriage from beginning to end, and of course, no one asked her for her opinion. But in her opinion, when things ended up like this, there was nothing wrong with both parties, but they just had different ideas about life.

In modern times, if a girl's family wants better living conditions, is it wrong for the mother's family to strive for greater interests for their daughter before marriage?

As for Yao Sizhu, he doesn't want to be dependent on his family and wants to change the future through his own labor. There is nothing wrong with that.

It's a pity that this concept is only suitable for modern people, and Yao Sizhu is now in his twenties. In this era, he can be called an old bachelor. Seeing that his marriage has been ruined, the most uncomfortable thing is of course that Father Yao and his wife

Dow.

Yao Sizhu himself was not much better. Since the marriage fell through, Yao Sizhu became even more taciturn than before. He only worked all day long and carefully served his ducks. He didn't go anywhere for leisure, let alone talk to people.

Maisui would sometimes prepare meals for three people, and it would take a long time to call him back.

Mrs. Tao was sad for a while, so she had to cheer up and continue to ask the matchmaker to help her son.

Of course, some people were happy because of this incident. After hearing the news, many aunts and ladies in the village immediately became excited again. They lined up and rushed to the Yao family's new house to find Tao or He and sell them straight to the point.

The unmarried daughters of the seventh aunt and the eighth aunt. Even fifteen-year-old Dalin and thirteen-year-old Zaoer were talked about as matchmakers in front of Mr. He.

But the marriage of the elders has not been settled yet, so how can it be the turn of the younger generation? Mr. He very wisely refused them all.

The Dragon Boat Festival has arrived, and the weather is getting a little hot. Merchants selling rice dumplings and mung bean cakes have begun to appear on the market in Shibalipu. Some handy peasant women have also set up a row of small stalls, which are covered with various styles of bread.

Sachets filled with spices and flowers are sold.

Wearing sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival is a custom spread in many places. It is said to have the effect of warding off evil spirits and eliminating filth.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, relatives and friends have to come to each other's homes to give gifts. In rural areas, rice dumplings and jujube cakes are two essential gifts. Those from better families will give four kinds of gifts, including rice dumplings, mung bean cake, realgar wine, and another piece.

Pork or a slaughtered chicken is a most decent gift.

Not every household here can make rice dumplings, so at this time they will buy some from the town of Shibalipu. The two-cent rice dumplings made of small yellow rice are the most popular, cheap and affordable, big guy

They are all affordable, and most of the people visiting relatives from all over the place buy these rice dumplings.

If I don’t have extra money to buy mung bean cakes, I steam some jujube cakes instead.

The Yao family originally prepared the Dragon Boat Festival in this way. They would count and buy a few small yellow rice dumplings, enough to visit relatives. If the grandson wanted to eat, they would wait until relatives came to deliver them (such as Mai Sui’s husband’s family).

), you can eat it.

This year is different. In addition to the four-year-old gifts prepared by the Yao family for several of their daughter-in-law’s parents-in-law, almost all of whom are close friends in the village, as well as Aunt Mu from the city, and Shopkeeper Zhang have to prepare a gift each, and they also have to prepare a gift for them.

Only if it's good.

The rice dumplings are prepared to be bought at the best snack shop in the city, Wangji Dessert Shop. Their rice dumplings are prepared in a wide variety of flavors every year, including brown sugar, red bean, red dates and fresh meat in at least a dozen flavors.

This year my family is financially better off, so I can buy more of each item so that it is convenient for my family to eat when they want.

As for the mung bean cake, Guoer decided to make it herself.

In her previous life, she loved mung bean cakes. When she was a child, she made them with her grandma every year. One year, she specially made some and sold them in the town.

The making of mung bean cake is very simple. First, boil the selected mung beans, peel them and dry them in the sun. Then grind them into powder on your own stone mill, add a little sugar and a little lard, knead them into a ball, and cut them into small pieces with a knife.

Make small pieces, press them into the wooden mold used to make bean cakes, pour them out to shape, and finally steam them in a pot.

Guoer proposed the idea of ​​making mung bean cake at home, and everyone in the family disagreed. Their family had never made such a good thing.

He and Liu are both skilled in the kitchen. Even if they have never made it before, once they know how to make mung bean cake, they have the urge to try it.

So I called Maisui's mother and daughter back from the old house, and everyone gathered together to make mung bean cake.

Mrs. Tao sat cross-legged on the kang, sewing sachets facing the window. The basket next to her was filled with colorful silk threads, small rags of various colors, and several paper bags, which contained flowers and plants for the sachets.

spices.

In previous years, she sewed the sachets that her grandchildren brought during the Dragon Boat Festival. Of course, only her sons and grandchildren had them, and others were not eligible to get them.

This year she quietly prepared a lot of things for making sachets, planning to make one for everyone in the family.

The glazed window next to her was open, and she could hear the lively sounds coming from the kitchen. It was her daughter, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren making mung bean cakes.

Mrs. Tao lowered her head and sewed her sachets stitch by stitch. Taking advantage of the good light during the day, she wanted to make a few more to save her eyesight from lighting a lamp and boiling oil at night.

On the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival, grandpa Yao Chengyi personally came to our door with his son and daughter-in-law, carrying a basket of festive gifts. This made the Yao family extremely flattered.

Nowadays, their family's status in the village is rising steadily, but they cannot compare with Yao Chengyi's family in terms of seniority and seniority. In previous years, their family came first to give Yao Chengyi gifts, not only because Yao Chengyi is older than Yao's father, but most importantly

The family has two sons who are the village chief and the county police chief respectively.

This time, Yao Chengyi, his son, and his daughter-in-law went to the house early to give Father Yao a gift. In fact, he meant to apologize.

It was his son Yao Futian who first proposed Yao Sizhu's marriage, and his daughter-in-law Bai was the matchmaker. However, it ended up being like this. The family felt very embarrassed, so they took advantage of the Dragon Boat Festival to come early to send boxing gifts to ease the embarrassment between the two families.

.

The Yao family was indeed hit hard by Yao Sizhu's marriage, but Father Yao was a sensible person and knew that the village chief's family was not to blame for this matter. After all, they were also kind-hearted, so they were very happy about Yao Chengyi's visit.

The two brothers sat together and talked for a long time.

The next day, Yao's father took the elder couple and Yao Sizhu to Yao Chengyi's house, carrying a heavier gift. The relationship between the two families was closer than before.

The festival gifts between the village and relatives are easy to give. Each family has twenty rice dumplings of different flavors, a pack of home-steamed mung bean cakes, a bottle of realgar wine, and five kilograms of pork, which is a sumptuous meal.

The same is true for the daughters-in-law's parents' families. Of course, the daughters-in-law now have their own private money, and if they want to supplement their parents' families with other things, the old couple will not interfere.

The most troublesome thing is the boxing gifts given to Aunt Mu and Shopkeeper Zhang in the city. However, these two places should be called return gifts, because those two places have already sent people to deliver the boxing gifts to them in advance.

The holiday gifts given by the two families this time were as generous as ever, so in addition to the gifts they prepared for seniors like other families, they had to add two more gifts in return. This made Guo'er think a lot.
Chapter completed!