Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 173
Mo Ling’s Marriage
The people present had just sat down for a short while when Zhong Cheng’s cousin started to wheedle him to collect his bride and return home.
According to tradition, there was a ceremony in which the groom was supposed to propose to the bride, known as ‘repeated requests’. Similar to in modern weddings, the bride’s family members and friends could trouble and embarrass him to their heart’s content. [1]
Zhong Cheng called from right outside Mo Ling’s room, “Ling’er, I’m here to marry you! Come back home with me!”
After saying that, he wanted to open the curtain, but Mrs. Li, who was inside, pushed him back out, “Hey! How can you just walk into her room so brazenly! We haven’t let you in yet!”
Zhong Cheng took out a red envelope, but it was rejected by her. “Who wants your red envelopes at this moment? Make up a poem for us instead!”
She had heard Mrs. Chao say that when scholars married, their ‘repeated requests’ ceremony had to involve making up a poem, so chose that as a task for Zhong Cheng. However, he could barely recognise a few words, so how would he be able to write a poem?
Zhong Cheng was scratching his head in anxiety and frustration, “But I don’t know how!”
Suddenly, the curtain to Mo Ling’s room swung open, and Mo Yan stood in front of him. Zhong Cheng looked like he had just seen his saviour, and immediately went to beg her, “Yan’er, please, help me.”
Mo Yan curtsied and said, “Brother-in-law, if you don’t know how to write a poem, we’ll drop it. However, we want you to have some sincerity in your proposal.”
“I have sincerity! My entire body is filled with sincerity, what do you want me to do?”
“Brother-in-law, I want to ask you something. You previously agreed to make a divider courtyard wall and build a new gate for your and Mo Ling’s courtyard. Have you done that yet?”
Zhong Cheng shook his head, “We’ve already built a new courtyard gate, but the divider courtyard wall hasn’t been built yet.”
“Why?”
He turned to look at the people sitting at the table with the celebratory feast. Zhong Cheng’s second brother Zhong Yi had sat down firmly, and his eyes turned into crescents, “We brothers can look after each other if we live in the same courtyard. Adding a divider wall is just alienating ourselves unnecessarily!”
Zhong Cheng’s cousin and uncle echoed Zhong Yi’s statement. “That’s right! We’re all part of the same family, why should we alienate ourselves from each other?”
Mo Feng had turned to look at this situation, seeming to not care about the outcome due to it not concerning him and simply wanting to watch the drama. Mo Yan didn’t even want to look at him. They had let him send the dowry, because they wanted him to see whether or not the Zhong family had fulfilled the promises they had made, but he was actually acting like he had nothing to do with any of this at all.
Zhong Yi’s eye twitched a little as he pretended to be resigned, “It’s not like we can fix the divider wall right now! Stop arguing about this, we don’t want to miss the auspicious time.”
He wanted to muddle through this situation to try and gain some leverage. If they left this be, then Mo Ling would have no say in the Zhong family in the future.
Mo Yan held a brush in one hand and the letter of guarantee she had written in the other, “Brother-in-law, today’s a festive day, so I won’t trouble you, just ask you to agree to do this one thing. It’s too late to build a courtyard wall right now, but it’s currently spring, which is suitable for labour. I believe building that wall wouldn’t be too hard for you, and a month will be sufficient time to complete it.”
She spread the letter of guarantee open, and told Zhong Cheng to sign his name on it. Zhong Yi and his cousin heckled him, “Cheng’er, with how ferocious your sister-in-law is, your wife won’t be the nice kind either. You’ll have to suffer a lot from now on!”
Mo Yan refuted their words calmly, without a hint of annoyance, “In your eyes, what constitutes being nice? Letting someone bully and do whatever they want to you is cowardice, not being nice. We believed that my brother-in-law is nice and hard-working, which is why we allowed him to marry sis.”
Zhong Cheng accepted the brush, “Alright, after the wedding, I’ll go and build the divider courtyard wall. Even including making the mortar to build the wall, one month should be sufficient time to do this, and I’ll try to finish it before the start of the harvest.”
“Alright, if you’re afraid there might be any issues, feel free to ask us for assistance.”
“There’s no need, I can do this much on my own. I won’t need your help.”
After saying that, Zhong Cheng signed his name on the letter of guarantee, and gave it to Mo Yan, who pocketed it and then poured wine for all of the people present at the table, “All of you are members of the Zhong family. In the future, after my sister joins your family, please be accommodating and take care of her.”
Zhong Yi raised his winecup, and after giving Mo Yan a side-eye, tilted his neck and drank the entire thing in a single sitting. “Then, are we allowed to set off with the bride now?”
The matchmaker said, “It’s about time, we wouldn’t want to miss the auspicious time.”
After saying that, she went to fetch the bride, and Mrs. Li readied the red wedding veil for Mo Ling to wear. [2]
When a bride gets married, her older brother was supposed to carry her in a piggyback onto the sedan chair. However, Mo Ling didn’t have any older brothers, and although Mo Feng wasn’t a child anymore, he was too lazy to do such a thing.
Everyone else went to the courtyard, while Mrs. Li helped Ms. Liang sit on the large chair in the main hall of the house. Mo Ling bade farewell to her mother, and Zhong Cheng officially greeted his mother-in-law.
The matchmaker assisted Mo Ling out of the courtyard and onto the sedan chair. A celebratory tune began to play, the sedan chair was lifted off the ground, and slowly set off in the dim light of the early hours in the morning.
After watching the sedan chair leave the alleyway, Ms. Liang and Mrs. Li returned to the courtyard, while Mo Feng didn’t even step outside.
Lu Junming came over to stand next to Mo Yan, but didn’t know what to say to try and comfort her.
“Lu Junming, let’s go and send sis off!”
“Alright!”
He dragged her over to the well, where his horse had been leashed to. The two got on the horse, and followed the sedan chair from a distance until they reached Xiahe Village when the sky had turned white.
At the entrance of the village were people asking for red envelopes. Zhong Cheng had to give all of them one before the sedan chair was allowed to enter the village.
Lu Junming asked, “Do we still follow them? Their family members will recognise us, so it doesn’t seem like a good idea to follow after them, especially since the people sending Mo Ling off will probably be here a bit later.”
“Let’s go to the outside of their courtyard and take a look from afar.”
The sedan chair went to the south of the village, where Zhong Cheng’s new house was, and stopped at the newly-built courtyard gate. They could see that lanterns had been lit inside the house, and it was very raucous inside. They were definitely organising the wedding banquet.
The matchmaker helped Mo Ling out of the sedan chair, Zhong Cheng dismounted from his horse, and the two entered the courtyard together.
Mo Ling had finally left Chenzhong Village, left the Mo family, left Ms. Liang, and she’ll be spending the rest of her life in this courtyard.
Mo Yan raised her head to look at the clouds, which had dyed the courtyard, as well as the fields beside it, red.
“Lu Junming, let’s go back!”
When they got back home, the people who were sending Mo Ling off from her natal family were just preparing to set off. Of course, this included Mo Feng, Mrs. Li, and governing official Wu.
Mo Yan said to Lu Junming, “You should go as well! Help me see whether sis is faring well over there.”
They hadn’t arranged for him to send Mo Ling off initially, so if they included him, there would be an odd number of people. They’d have to find an extra person, but where could they find someone at such short notice? [3]
Fortunately, it just so happened that Dagan passed by to go to work at the workshop. Mo Yan went to stop him, “Brother Dagan, don’t go to the workshop today. Help send my sister off, and I’ll pay you triple your normal wages.”
Dagan replied, “It’s my honour to be able to help, you don’t have to talk about repaying me! I’ll go back and change into something better.”
Dagan was the one who went back home to change, but the person who came out was his mother Mrs. Liu. She came out wearing the clothes she had gotten for the New Year and said, “He’s just a foolish boy, what can he contribute to sending Mo Ling off? I’ll go instead, I’ll ensure that they won’t bully our Ling’er.”
Ms. Liang rolled her eyes at her, “This is a festive event, not a fight!”
However, Mo Yan said, “Alright, then you go instead. If anyone from the Zhong family tries to embarrass sis, be sure to retaliate!”
“Don’t worry about it!”
In ancient times, weddings took the entire day. After collecting the bride in the morning, she could only stay in the bridal chamber. The actual ceremony happened at sunset, and she could only remove her wedding veil after returning to the bridal chamber after the ceremony.
Even though members of her family and friends attended the banquet, the bride still couldn’t leave her bridal chamber, and could only take a break after the banquet ended.
On the wedding day, the bride rarely got a bite to eat, and there would periodically be members of the village who come in to take a look. The bride would have to greet them with a smile on her face.
Thankfully, Zhong Cheng was attentive and gave Mo Ling food and drink when he was free.
P.S. I assume this means Mo Ling will have a minor role in the story from now on. Of course, thank you for reading!
[1] I don’t have first-hand experience with traditional Chinese weddings, but from what I’ve garnered from the internet and TV shows that analogy seems to be correct.
[2] Basically a bridal veil, but less transparent. It’s red because that’s the colour of good fortune in China.
[3] It’s considered lucky to have things go in pairs in China. For example, I’ve always received a pair of red envelopes during the New Year if I get them from my relatives.