Chapter 20.1

Translated by Aviana

These days Lin Qingwan was also quite busy. Not only does she have to deal with a few envious young misses who came to visit every day, but she also had to find time to make her bridal dress.

Yang-shi and Yang Tiezhu also discussed what to buy as a dowry and other stuff for her.

Initially, Lin Qingwan refused, but she too didn’t refuse anymore when she recalled Yang-shi saying about the Yang family’s affairs.

After all, it wouldn’t look good for a woman to marry without a dowry. Moreover, she would be married soon, then Yang Tiezhu’s money could also be considered her money. She would take all the things she buys as a dowry, which is better than buying the stuff when she needs under Yang Tiezhu’s mother’s eye.

Both Lin Qingwan and Yang-shi thereupon went to the town several times, buying various assortments. Outside it was said that Yang-shi loved her dearly and bought dowry for her, and it was her present for her nephew’s and wife’s wedding gift.

Days in Yang-shi’s life were quite well-off. Also, her son worked as a shop manager in a store in the county. Thus there wasn’t anyone who doubted where the money came from to buy all these things.

They bought four cotton bed coverlets, along with a few bed quilts. A washbasin to wash face, a washbasin stand, a chest and wardrobe for storing clothes, a comb and a copper mirror for dressing, a bath barrel, and fabrics for clothes… To take all these bought stuff, they had to hire a big cart…

No wonder those books said that in ancient times the woman’s dowry was complicated. A few rich families even start buying the dowry from the moment the girl was born and continue to buy till the daughter is married, and only then was it regarded as finished. There are few families who even carefully choose a coffin, practically taking care of everything from food to clothing for their daughters after marriage. In general, the women’s maiden family’s idea is precisely that their daughter can eat and use from her own belongings and need not suffer at the husband’s family.

Of course, Lin Qingwan couldn’t be compared with the other young misses from rich families. However, she also bought a lot of things, and upon calculation, she nearly spent more than ten taels of silver.

Don’t look at how these ten taels of silver aren’t much. In the countryside, ten taels of silver are enough to feed the entire family of 5 people for a few years.

Lin Qingwan was planning to make the clothing for all the seasons by herself using the fabrics from Yang Tiezhu’s betrothal gift. She had also bought a few bolts of the fabrics of the colors she was fond of, and in passing, she also bought a few bolts of fabrics with colors that suited Yang Tiezhu.

However, there was also no need for her to think about the clothes for four seasons for now, as it was certainly impossible for her to make the clothes in a short while, after all there weren’t many days left for her wedding day. Lin Qingwan only had time to make two dresses for herself for this season, as well as two dresses for Yang Tiezhu, and two pairs of shoes.

Soon it would be the day of the wedding.

…… …… ……

The day before their wedding, Lin Qingwan’s dowry was carried to the Yang family’s house.

Good fortune madam also followed along, who was invited by Yang-shi to make a bed.

A good fortune madam must be a married woman, who have both her parents and in-laws alive, husband and wife in harmony, and with a pair of children. For any married woman to be able to act as a good fortune madam for others wedding is said to be an extremely honorable affair.

Originally, along with a good fortune madam, a relative from a bride’s side need to prepare the bed. But Lin Qingwan didn’t have any relatives here. Yang-shi was the only one who could go, but after falling out with He-shi, she had never stepped on the Yang family’s doorstep. Thus the matter regarding preparing the bed can only be handed over to the good fortune madam completely.

Yang-shi led good fortune madam and dowry to the Yang family’s gates, and after handing dowry and good fortune madam to Yang Tiezhu, she turned around and left.

The Yang family’s house had five and a half roof tiled big rooms altogether. The main building had three rooms. He-shi and Old father Yang lived in the main room. In the east room, the eldest son, Yang Tieshuan lived along with his whole family, and in the west room, Yang Xuezhang lived. In the main building, there was a door, which opened to a half roof-tiled room, where He-shi’s unmarried daughter, Yang Ermei lived.

To the side of the main building, there were two roof-tiled rooms. The third son, Yang Tiegen, and his family lived in one room and Yang Tiezhu in another.

The room where Yang Tiezhu lived looked just like a brand-new room, with happy characters in bright red pasted on the doors and windows, looking very festive.

In Luoxia Village, everyone sleeps on the k’ang. When not sleeping, they would put away the quits and put a k’ang table for people to sit on it. When sleeping, they would put away the table and put on quilts to make it a bed.

炕 (kàng): a heatable brick bed. I have included picture below for reference.

Thus, the matrimonial bed was set on Yang Tiezhu’s k’ang.

The fortune madam made the bed nicely and sprinkled a handful of peanuts and jujubes under the crimson-coloured pillows and quilts. With this, it was successfully completed.

Yang Tiezhu quickly took out a red envelope and spoke a few words expressing his gratitude.

After seeing the fortune madam off, Yang Tiezhu turned around and went back into the room to place the dowry brought by Lin Qingwan, arranging them one by one in their respective places.

A few days ago, as he would soon be married, Yang Tiezhu considered Lin Qingwan’s habit of loving cleanliness and was also aware that there was a bath barrel in Lin Qingwan’s dowry. Thus he had specially invited a mason to renovate his room. Not only did he have a partition the room to have a small cubicle for the bath, but he also had the entire room whitewashed.

Looking at the tidy, bright red and festive new room, and thinking of a figure of a person, who he hadn’t seen for a while, and was about to get married tomorrow, Yang Tiezhu couldn’t help but smile merrily…

Since the moment Yang Tiezhu came in with the dowry and Fortune madam, both He-shi and Wang Shi stood at the door of the main house, watching.

Looking at those things that were being carried over, Wang-shi and He-shi, both of their eyes became red.

Young girls from rural families also usually had dowry when getting married. However, it wasn’t this much, just a few beddings, a few pieces of small furniture and so on. How would it be like Lin Qingwan, also having a cask in their dowry for taking a bath?

However, Wang-shi and Yang-shi also could not flare up, as it was said that all of these things in dowry were given by Yang-shi…

He-shi’s teeth were itchy by the hatred in her heart, feeling Yang-shi was deliberately showing off her dirty money in front of her…

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