I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 38 Uncle Zhang's Wedding Feast
I don't know how many days other companies are closed for the National Day holiday, but Zhang'an Education was closed for ten days.

The boss's uncle is getting married, so why is he taking a long holiday?
The lecturers who take turns resting feel a bit cheated, as they lose a lot of teaching fees. Although their basic salary is not small, it is more interesting to work and produce output than to take a holiday.

Zhang Da'an took his employees to Wuxing Village, where the wedding banquet was held in the countryside, and the scale of the event was quite grand.

In addition, a new "Scholar's Road" has been built in the village, with two lanes in both directions, which can easily accommodate hundreds of cars.

"Oh my, Zhang An's outfit is really nice."

"Like his old...great-grandfather."

An old woman almost misspoke, saying "like his father." There's no need for that on such a joyous occasion.

Zhang Da'an was wearing a silk suit today; custom-made clothes are meant to fit perfectly.

The red carpet stretched for a hundred or so meters. Zhang Zhengdong, a forty-year-old man, was dressed in a groom's suit today, draped in red and adorned with flowers. He had specially made a "scholar's hat" with red flowers stuck in it. He was practicing his square steps with the old master from the Grand Theater, and now he looked just like Tang Sanzang's father from "Journey to the West".

Uncle Zhang's features are softer than his nephew's, but he's not really Uncle Zhang. The old man's branch is more handsome, which is slightly different from Zhang Da'an's branch.

Today, not only city officials came to show their support, but also many of Zhang Zhengdong's old comrades-in-arms and former superiors.

There were also many representatives from the county armed forces departments of Lingxi Province. They brought a lot of gifts, such as brown sugar, dried longan, dried cuttlefish, and so on. They brought all the local specialties they could from their hometowns.

There were more than 200 baskets of local specialties on display, and a temporary tent was set up to store them.

The old man's neighbor was Zhang Da'an's house, and the place was also filled with tables for a feast. Since the traditional farmhouse stoves couldn't handle a large-scale event, they connected high-voltage electricity and set up more than twenty stoves outside.

Throughout the entire history of Wuxing Village, even when the ancestors were acquiring land, there could never have been a banquet of this scale.

After all, since the time of our ancestors, it has always been the father who holds the banquet for the son and the elders who organize the banquet for the younger generation. Only Zhang Zhengdong is unique in that his nephew takes care of everything for him.

Theoretically, even his wife was arranged by his nephew.

Anyway, when Uncle Zhang and Teacher Li Jiawen secretly checked the accounts at night, they found out that the women's director of Gujiawei had already betrayed them.

"Brother Da'an!"

"Brother Da'an!"

"Alright, the gift money doesn't need to be much, just a token will do. Consider it a meal ticket. Go find a table on the east side. The people from the local armed forces department are coming over. Say hello and be polite."

"Thank you very much, Brother Da'an."

"Pineapple Boy" nodded repeatedly, grinning foolishly, and then he and his fellow workers each led their hometown companions to find representatives from their respective county's armed forces departments.

The dialects in Lingxi Province are also very diverse. Zhuang language alone has more than a dozen or twenty different varieties, not to mention the Minnan and Li dialects along the coast. These children usually communicate in Mandarin when they get together. Being able to hear their native accent in this situation is actually a small kind of happiness.

The representatives from the armed forces departments of various counties in Lingxi Province were actually quite reserved. Mainly, they could tell from the scene that the groom's family was not ordinary, and the luxury cars and official vehicles outside could not be faked.

I felt a little uneasy and inferior, worried that the local specialties I brought wouldn't be presentable. I wanted to scrape together some money as a gift, but I couldn't find much cash in my pocket.

The anxiety only dissipated when the teenagers took their seats and excitedly asked their fellow villagers about their families.

When the boys told them that they didn't need to give any money as a gift, since "Big Brother" had already given it, they were even more grateful. The armed forces departments of each county mainly wanted to know about the children's current situation. After hearing that most of them had picked up their books again and that most of them had study plans for this year, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Are you getting used to living here?

"The dormitories arranged by Brother Da'an all have air conditioning, and we eat in the canteen every day. The food is very good."

"That's fine, that's fine..."

"Everyone will be taking driving tests next year. Brother Da'an said if there are too many people, he'll open his own driving school. Several of his uncles in the village were driving instructors..."

They were rambling on about trivial matters, but none of them were unimportant; on the contrary, they were all closely related.

Even though they only listened to the children talking about random, unrelated things, the representatives from the armed forces departments of each county didn't notice anything amiss. They all keenly sensed that someone was taking good care of them.

His spirit and temperament have undergone significant changes.

"Brother Da'an said that if we're going to build a house back home, we should focus on saving money for that house and not think about anything else. We should do one thing well first. I told my mom we were going to build a house, and she already..."

Without realizing it, the local accent I used to speak gradually turned into Mandarin.

Building a house is not a matter for one person, but a common topic for many rural families in the mountains.

Even if they don't say the same things, they share a common goal to express.

As a result, the representatives from the armed forces departments of various counties gradually started speaking Mandarin. The two tables that were originally a little empty were directly combined into one table, and everyone squeezed in, making the conversation even more lively.

There were bursts of laughter from time to time, and the happy smiles on their faces were no less than those of the groom's family and friends.

An older representative from the armed forces, missing three fingers on his left hand, grinned and lit a cigarette handed to him by a young man. He then whispered to the person next to him, "Da'an is a nice guy, he takes good care of these youngsters."

"This family is nice."

"Ah."

Although they couldn't understand each other's dialects, it didn't hinder communication. Speaking broken Mandarin and using gestures, the local women still managed to keep the large group of out-of-town guests entertained and happy.

Cigarettes were placed on the table early on, along with a variety of fruits and snacks. The floor was already covered with various nut crumbs, and the dogs were sniffing around, picking out whole nuts to eat.

Every now and then a string of firecrackers would be set off, and the dogs would just tuck their tails between their legs in fright, but they would never scatter from under the large round table.

When the auspicious hour arrived, the celebration was incredibly intense, like a barrage of firecrackers. The groom, amidst a shower of fireworks, came out with a beaming smile to greet the bride.

Zhang Da'an's uncles and aunts used their strength to carry the sedan chair. It was a real eight-person sedan chair. Without some ancestral skills and strength, it would be impossible to carry it steadily.

The bride was accompanied by a beautiful maiden inside the bridal sedan chair, while the golden boy following Zhang Zhengdong was Zhang Da'an himself. Standing there, he looked more like a bodyguard, a far cry from the image of a golden boy.

Once Zhang Zhengdong's brothers started making a fuss, the bride got out of the sedan chair and was greeted by the groom himself through the gate.

From then on, this country courtyard finally officially welcomed its mistress.

(End of this chapter)