Years: Salted fish life since going to the countryside.

Chapter 986: Bathing and hearing old stories (a story about customs in the old times, plot experts can skip it)

The Han sisters, He Mi, Hou Yuhua, as well as Ding Yulan, Hou Xiujuan, Wang Chunhua, Zhang Chaomei, and Yin Lanfen who came from afar came to Houhaizi because there was no room in Mianhua Hutong.

The room occupied by Han's father and mother today was occupied by Liu Cuihua, Aunt Liu, and Han's elder sister with Zhuangzhuang. Han Li's room was occupied by Niu Dahai and Hou Xiujuan. The tent outside the street gate was booked by Han Li and his group of men.

Besides, they have to get up early tomorrow morning to work, and there is only more than four hours in between. It is not worthwhile to give money to the hotel with this time, so they decided to spend the evening playing cards and chatting.

Therefore, the only choice for Han Erjie, He Mi and their group was the east wing of the courtyard house near Houhaizi.

What about the main room in the north house? That place will be reserved for Han's father to rest tonight.

This is related to the custom in Sijiucheng or Han's father's hometown, that is, on the first night of the wedding, the "father-in-law" has to sleep on the bed.

This saying is popularly known as "father-in-law pressing down on the bed, children and grandchildren filling the house."

No matter how this custom changes in later generations, many families in Beijing still maintain this custom.
-
Han Li brought more than a dozen people to the bathhouse. After taking a bath and scrubbing their backs, everyone lay on the bed, drinking tea and chatting, waiting for the pedicure master to free his hands.

At this time, an old man nearby saw Han Li and his group, and asked with a smile.

"You young people are all so happy and are going to the bathhouse in groups. Who is getting married tomorrow?"

Everyone pointed at Han Li with a smile. This old man was an experienced and talkative man.

He looked at Han Li and his group of people chatting and laughing, took a sip of tea, and his face was full of nostalgia.

Then, following Han Li and others' topic about tomorrow's wedding, he sighed and talked about the weddings he had seen when he was a child. Everyone found what he said interesting and listened attentively.

The old man first talked about marriages during the Republic of China period. At that time, there were several types of marriages in the city.

In fact, it is the treatment that the family can enjoy according to how much money they are willing to spend.

At that time, the weddings of wealthy families were quite grand. At the front of the wedding procession were two gongs to clear the way, and behind them were various deacons such as golden lanterns, golden spears, eight golden treasures, flags, gongs, umbrellas, fans, etc., which reminded people of the scene when the eight prefectures' inspectors went out for inspection during the previous pseudo-dynasty period.

Behind the various deacons are the trumpeters, holding a variety of percussion instruments, including suona, sea flute, sheng, pipe, cloud gong, big drum, etc.

This bell is available in various sizes, including 24 bells, 32 bells, and 48 bells. Employers can choose which service to use based on their financial strength.

Further back is the wedding sedan, which comes in two types: red and green. The red sedan is for the bride, and the green sedan is for the bride-to-be and the bride-sitter.

The red sedan that the bride rides in must be carried by eight bearers, and this is the so-called eight-man sedan.

The green sedan chairs used by the bride's bridegroom and the bride's escort are usually carried by four people.

But if the bride is of high status, the host will spend a little more money to choose a sedan chair with eight people to show respect.

What are the bride-marrying wives and the bride-sending wives? Why can they ride in sedan chairs?

At that time, when the man went to the woman's house to pick up the bride, the groom's parents were not allowed to go. Instead, a more respectable woman had to be arranged to represent the husband's family to pick up the bride. This was called marrying a wife.

This person can be the man’s relative, or a friend or neighbor, but this person must have seen the world, understand the rules, have good eloquence, be well-dressed, and preferably have a certain status.

Because the custom of making things difficult for the groom when picking up the bride has existed for a long time, some women will even ask for money for getting on the sedan chair, money for getting off the sedan chair, money for farewell, money for the box, and money for more firecrackers. In short, they use various excuses to make things difficult or ask for money.

This is the time when the bridegroom's ability is tested. She has to deal with various situations to bring the bride back, and at the same time, she cannot lose face for the man's family. Therefore, she cannot be a bridegroom's wife without some ability and status.

The bride must be someone who has been carefully selected by the man’s family and is entrusted with an important task.

The bride-sending lady is an important person who represents the bride's family and escorts the bride to her husband's family.

The main task of the bride-sending lady is not only to smoothly send the bride to her husband's house, but also to protect her from the moment she gets off the sedan chair, to entering the house to wash her face, change clothes, worship in the hall, and take her seat.

During this period, the bride must not be made too difficult by the groom's side, and etiquette must be maintained so that the groom's family cannot find fault with her, thus avoiding the bride from being bullied as soon as she gets married.

Therefore, the requirements for the bride's wife are very high, and she must also be someone selected by the bride's family to be entrusted with this important task.

Even if they are not of high status, those who can serve as the bride's wife and the bride's escorting wife are people who are useful to many neighbors because they have seen the world, know the rules, and are good at speaking. Because of this, both men and women will treat them as honored guests. If they are used to complain about poor hospitality, the reputation of their family will be affected.

Therefore, regardless of the tasks undertaken by the bride-marrying wife and the bride-sending wife, or for the sake of their own family's reputation, most families would arrange a sedan chair for them.

The difference is that the rich and powerful families would start with at least four or five wedding sedan chairs, with gongs leading the way, various flags, gongs, umbrellas, fans, and large-scale percussion instruments. They would be surrounded by various slaves and tenants, and followed by carriages and carts for moving things. This scene was even more majestic than the tours of the Eight Prefectural Inspectors during the previous pseudo-dynasty period.

Most families hire three wedding sedan chairs, and the flags, gongs, umbrellas, fans, and percussion instruments depend on their own situation.

Families with poorer conditions only had a red sedan, which was enough to bring back the bride.

If the family is poorer, no one should look down on anyone else. It would be good enough to have a donkey cart to pull the child back, and there are also many people who walk home.

Especially for those actors who have been around for many years but have not yet become famous, the owner of the troupe cannot keep them forever, so after a certain age, those who still have no prospects and cannot bring income to themselves will be released by the owner of the troupe, and those with indentures will be sold.

Most of these people wore a piece of red cloth on their heads given by the troupe's owner, and walked home with their heads down following the men after they came out of the troupe. There were no sedan chairs, donkey carts, or brides to escort or welcome the bride. At most, a few colleagues who missed their old times would give them a ride.

Why was this so? Mainly because the reputation of ordinary actors was too bad among the people at that time.

Those troupes led by "bosses" or "famous actors" are very formal. Not only can they receive invitations with lucrative salaries, but they are also sought after by others. Therefore, these people have a better life, and even if they get married in the future, they will not end up walking home with someone else.

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

But it is not the case for these wild and unknown small troupes. They simply cannot receive any decent invitations. Their main source of income is to set up a stall somewhere to perform, and their income depends entirely on tips from passers-by.

Being invited to perform at the village temple fair is already a very generous resource for them.

The unstable income led to the men and women in these opera troupes living and eating together. In that era, how could their reputation be good when a group of unrelated people lived together like this?
Among them, the two most widely circulated rumors and the most accepted by the people are about those insignificant wild opera troupes.

First, because most of the time, men and women slept on a large kang with a curtain or straw mat in the middle.

During this period, those who have ideas or already have a relationship will choose to sit next to each other before going to bed.

In the middle of the night, just reach out and tap gently, and the other party will remove the obstacle and turn it over.

It was pitch dark and I couldn't see anyone through the curtain, and I didn't dare to make a sound.

This situation also leads to some people with ulterior motives making mistakes deliberately, and by the time the other party realizes something is wrong, both parties have already gotten back on track.

In this situation, even if their reputation is not very good already, who doesn't want to get worse? Otherwise, they might lose their jobs. In that era, losing a job could mean death.

Therefore, that person can only pretend that he did not notice it and wait for the person behind him to finish and leave.

Secondly, there are also those small opera troupes whose actors are used by ruffians, village tyrants, and warlords in exchange for their protection, thus being exempted from protection fees. This is also a statement recognized by the common people.

As for when these rumors started and whether the people in those wild opera troupes are all like this, the common people don’t care, but these two rumors are accepted and recognized by everyone.

The old man felt like he had gone off topic here, so he took a sip of tea, praised Han Li's girlfriend's family for being reasonable and open-minded, and then talked about two things that happened recently in the suburbs because of his marriage.

The first incident was caused by the Voldemort of this era. When Aunt Jin's eldest son in Tongzhou got married, the eldest daughter-in-law asked for a watch as a betrothal gift.

When Aunt Jin's youngest son got engaged, she wanted to borrow a watch from her eldest daughter-in-law to help her youngest son look good.

But Aunt Jin never expected that her eldest daughter-in-law would not agree, even if it was just for one day.

This made Aunt Jin very upset, so she told her eldest son about it, hoping that he could ask his wife to lend the watch to his younger brother for a day.

No one knows how the couple communicated with each other, but the eldest daughter-in-law actually threatened to jump into the well and commit suicide.

Finally, after stopping the person, everyone found out that the watch that was given as a betrothal gift was given to her younger brother for his wedding without even being worn by the eldest daughter-in-law.

Now her mother-in-law wants to borrow the watch. In her opinion, she wants her to go to her parents' home to get the things back. It's okay to help her parents' home, but wanting her to take things back from her parents' home means she wants to die.

Han Li hadn't finished complaining in his heart, but he didn't expect that the old man would say something even more interesting next.
(End of this chapter)