2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 71 The Wedding Procession (Please continue reading)

February 12, 2005, Saturday; the fourth day of the first lunar month of the year of Yi You, an auspicious day according to the Chinese calendar.

It is auspicious for weddings, travel, cleaning, and groundbreaking.

In my hometown, wedding banquets are held by the groom's family in two sessions: lunch and dinner. The lunch banquet is the main event, while the dinner banquet is for immediate family members and friends and relatives who didn't have time to attend the lunch banquet.

As for the woman's side, it was scheduled for the morning.

Picking up the bride requires getting up very early. Originally, Tan Jincheng didn't have anything to do; he just needed to arrive before the lunch banquet with his parents. But this time, he was assigned the job of a driver, so Tan Jincheng had no choice but to get up early.

Celebrating the Lunar New Year is actually quite tiring. People who usually sleep until eight o'clock every day are forced to get up at six or seven o'clock every day.

There's no other way. We have a lot of relatives, and according to custom, we're not allowed to visit them in the afternoon. We have to schedule visits in the morning and at noon, and that's assuming we have a car. Otherwise, we can't visit more than two places in a day.

These days, people still pay a lot of attention to etiquette.

"Drive slowly and be careful," Mom carefully instructed as they set off.

My son hasn't been sleeping well these past few days. Sometimes when he gets up in the middle of the night to feed Xiao Jinyue, I can hear him talking on the phone in fluent English. He also gets up very early every morning. I'm really worried that he won't be able to keep going.

"Yeah, don't worry, it'll be fine."

That's what he said, but after the car drove out of the courtyard, Tan Jincheng still complained to his fourth uncle, "It's a good thing it wasn't the lead car; we had to get up even earlier to pick up the bride."

Several uncles are in charge of receiving guests today. Along the way, there will be some people who block the road asking for wedding cigarettes. They are responsible for dealing with these people.

“If you buy an Audi, the lead car is yours,” Zhang Qingliang joked.

In 05, when I had a rural wedding, I had never heard of any wedding planning companies. The cars for picking up guests were basically borrowed from relatives through social connections. If there were no cars available, I would just hire a minibus to bring all the guests over at once.

The same thing happened at my uncle's wedding; the lead car was Tan Jincheng's cousin's Audi, which Tan Lihua helped borrow.

After discussing it with his wife, Zhang Qingliang decided to help his nephew take on two renovation projects. They plan to start work after the Lantern Festival. Today is also his younger brother's wedding, so Zhang Qingliang seems to be in a very good mood.

"When Wenyou gets married, I'll buy him a Rolls-Royce as his lead car." Wenyou is Zhang Qingliang's son and Tan Jincheng's cousin.

"You're already bragging before you've even made a little money. Wait until you're richer than your uncle before you start talking."

"Don't underestimate your nephew. Our company was established last October, and our turnover in 2004 was 1.5 million. It's a piece of cake for him to surpass my uncle's wealth."

"50 yuan in monthly revenue? Didn't you say you sell clothes? You can make that much money selling clothes in a month?" Zhang Qingliang asked, somewhat astonished.

This nephew is either bragging or he's really something else. In just a few months, he bought two houses and got a company car. Oh, right, he also spent a year at sea. Did he make a fortune at sea?
"I sell clothes, but I didn't say how I would sell them. I'm not a retailer; I export clothes overseas and make money from foreigners."

"Oh, you're into exports? I've heard of that. There are some businesses in Northeast China that do business with the Russians. It seems to be quite profitable."

"Yes, but my main business partners are Americans and Europeans. Uncle, you should just keep this to yourself and not tell anyone else."

"I understand the principle of not flaunting wealth; but since you know all this, why are you telling me? I don't believe you're just bragging."

"Isn't this because your uncle is working for me? I'm giving you some confidence; letting you know the employer's strength, so you don't have to worry about me defaulting on the remaining 30,000 yuan." This nephew is really cunning. How come I never noticed before? Zhang Qingliang didn't know what to say for a moment.

"What are you talking about? I'm your uncle. Now that I've taken the job, I'll do my job well for you even if you don't pay me the rest of the money."

"However, don't get too cocky. Doing business is very risky. If you really become successful, Wenyou might be able to benefit from it in the future."

"Don't worry, Wenyou will definitely get into university. I don't need to help him."

"They just fudge their homework, how can they possibly get into any university? They might even have to buy their way into high school."

"Boys mature later. My grades in elementary school weren't good either, and I didn't do well in college."

"Stop talking nonsense. If you weren't too young in elementary school, your teacher would have let you skip a grade. I wouldn't need your comforting words to comfort your uncle."

Before experiencing the upheaval and undergoing a drastic personality change, Zhang Wenyou's character was similar to Tan Jin'en's; he was also mischievous and had mediocre academic performance, which worried Zhang Qingliang quite a bit.

If his uncle could change his fate, this kid probably wouldn't have changed so drastically and studied so hard; whether he could have gotten into university is really uncertain.

However, there is no doubt about the trade-offs involved; if you can't pass the exam, you can't pass it.

The younger sister-in-law was also from the countryside. Her village was about six or seven kilometers away from the maternal grandmother's house. When Tan Jincheng arrived, there were already quite a few people in the courtyard.

Zhang Qingliang quickly got out of the car, offered cigarettes to the people in the yard, and said some words of congratulations.

Tan Jincheng had nothing to do with it; he was just a driver today. Zhang Qingliang told him where to go and he went wherever he wanted. After getting out of the car, he was invited into the house for tea and snacks.

"Wow, you're so young and you can already drive! That's impressive. What's your relationship with the groom?"

"Uncle, you're too kind. I'm the groom's nephew," Tan Jincheng said politely as he accepted the disposable water cup.

"The young man is quite polite; alright, sit here for a while, have some tea and snacks, and someone will come to arrange your meal when it's time to eat."

In rural areas, for weddings and funerals, a person is usually assigned to greet guests. This person is often a member of the clan who is eloquent and has a good ability to get along with others. The middle-aged man in front of me should be that kind of person.

After offering cigarettes, pouring tea, and exchanging a few pleasantries, the middle-aged man went on to entertain the new guests. Tan Jincheng sat alone on a long bench, leisurely munching on sunflower seeds. He didn't recognize almost anyone in the room.

People came and went, and it was quite lively. The last time Tan Jincheng attended such a wedding was when he took his ex-wife back to his hometown to meet relatives, which caused quite a bit of a misunderstanding.

His ex-wife wanted the plush toys that were thrown at the wedding, but those were things that little kids would fight over, and the adults felt embarrassed to do so. Tan Jincheng was also embarrassed to fight with a bunch of four- or five-year-old kids for those toys.

So he tried to sneakily steal one, but got caught red-handed and had no choice but to shamelessly take one and run away.

"Why are you here?"

Just as Tan Jincheng was engrossed in watching the excitement, a crisp voice suddenly came from behind him, and at the same time, someone patted his shoulder.

(End of this chapter)