Back To The 80s-Chapter 482 - 493: New Year’s Day_1

Ou Ruoshui lamented that she had been too careless before. If she had been as meticulous as Gu Xiaobei, her business would not have failed.

Gu Xiaobei chatted with Ou Ruoshui for a while longer and invited her to stay for dinner.

Ou Ruoshui politely declined with a smile, "I’m going to pick up Jiujiu from school now and we’ll have dinner at home."

Understanding her situation, Gu Xiaobei did not further insist. He packed some canned food and instant noodles into a net bag for Ou Ruoshui to take home for Chen Gang and Jiujiu.

On the eve of the New Year, Li Fengmei came specifically to ask Gu Xiaobei if he would attend Xiangyang’s wedding.

"No, Old Lu has a comrade getting married, and I’m supposed to be the sister-in-law picking up the bride." Gu Xiaobei said it as a matter of fact. It was indeed a comrade of Lu Zhanguo who was getting married, marrying a girl from the provincial city. They requested that the people picking up the bride must be a family of complete good fortune. With everyone else restricted to one child due to the family planning policy, only Gu Xiaobei’s family was just right with two children, one of each gender. So he agreed to help out.

Li Fengmei expressed her displeasure, "I said I won’t go. Zhang Lijun suggested we should, since we’ve never had a falling out with Guo Huaqiang. Besides, we’ve been through things together with Xiangyang. Now that the wedding invitation has been sent to our home, it would look bad if we didn’t go."

Gu Xiaobei nodded. She did have a reason not to go. Even if she didn’t, she had considered it and wouldn’t go. She wouldn’t feel comfortable at the wedding banquet.

"If you’re not going, I’ll plan to go with Li Juan. Consider it spending five dollars for a meal," said Li Fengmei somewhat reluctantly.

"Exactly, consider it a trip to a restaurant for a meal. You two could just go there right before the banquet starts, eat, and then leave. Isn’t that perfect?" Gu Xiaobei laughed and consoled.

Li Fengmei pursed her lips, "I heard from Xiangmin that Xiangyang’s fiancee comes from a well-off family. they own two properties, and her elder brother is a high-ranking official at the provincial city’s publishing house."

Gu Xiaobei chuckled privately. Luckily she knew some inside information, otherwise, she would also have thought that Xiangyang had struck gold. "Didn’t she mention what the girl does for a living?" she asked.

"They said that the girl used to work at some district’s office. But her family felt it was too hard for her, so she quit her job and stays at home now. They also said that girl is very pretty, even more so than Qu Yan, and very virtuous." Li Fengmei said somewhat unbelievingly.

Gu Xiaobei couldn’t help laughing. This Jiang Jiayan probably surpasses Qu Yan in all ways possible.

On New Year’s Day, it started snowing heavily. Early in the morning, Gu Xiaobei and Lu Zhanguo sent their two children to the courtyard and then left to attend the wedding.

It was only after the wedding banquet that Gu Xiaobei finally got a breather.

In the afternoon, the comrades were clamoring to make some noise in the bridal chamber.

Fearing that his presence would make the young men feel restrained, Lu Zhanguo left directly with Gu Xiaobei and they went home.

Wind-drove snowflakes burrowed into their necks. Gu Xiaobei wrapped the scarf so tightly about her face that only her eyes were showing. As the snow flurries hit her, she could barely keep her eyes open.

At this point, Lu Zhanguo didn’t shy away anymore. He stretched his arm around Gu Xiaobei’s shoulder and hugged her as they walked home. Since their home was closer, they decided to go home first. If the snow kept falling like this, they would not go to the courtyard anymore.

Upon entering the house, Gu Xiaobei took her coat and scarf to the bathroom to shake off the snowflakes. As she tidied up, she chatted with Lu Zhanguo, "Can you believe this weather? It really isn’t cooperating. Still, it could have made the festivities a bit merrier. Speaking of which, Xiaosong’s bride is really pretty. I wonder how she fell for Xiaosong?"

Lu Zhanguo was taken aback—Xiaosong wasn’t that bad-looking. Sure, he was a bit dark, but which soldier wasn’t?

Despite that, Gu Xiaobei kept talking, "Xiaosong’s bride seems to have a pretty good temper too. She doesn’t laugh or talk much. Such a good girl, how did he win her over?"

Lu Zhanguo followed her into the bathroom, brushing the snow off his clothes. Suddenly, he said, "I’m pretty dark too."

It took Gu Xiaobei a moment to catch on. Bursting out laughing, she held her stomach. "When did you become so self-conscious?"

Lu Zhanguo glanced at her sideways. Even after becoming a mother, she was still cheeky.

After hanging up the quilted jacket and scarf, Gu Xiaobei threw herself at Lu Zhanguo, hugging his waist. "I heard that it’s fashionable to take wedding photos now. Let’s go take some too."

"What kind of pictures are wedding photos?" Lu Zhanguo asked, puzzled.

Gu Xiaobei looked up at him excitedly, "Don’t you remember? I showed you a pictorial yesterday. The one with the woman wearing a white dress."

Lu Zhanguo frowned, "That one where she’s dressed like a snowman? What’s so good about that? It’s too white and not festive at all."

Gu Xiaobei was stunned. This was the first time she heard someone describe a wedding dress as looking like a snowman. What kind of weird analogy was that? But it seemed quite accurate. With those wide skirts spread out by a large hoop, it did look like a snowman. Bigger at the bottom, smaller on top.

"Haha, it does look like a snowman. You really have a way with words." Gu Xiaobei giggled when she got it.

All Lu Zhanguo could do was half-carry, half-drag Gu Xiaobei to the sofa, "Did you eat enough at lunch? Do you want something else to eat?"

It didn’t really feel like a proper meal at the wedding reception, and Gu Xiaobei nodded. "I’m a bit hungry, but I can hold out a little longer. We can have dinner together later. You make the sour soup noodles. I want that."

"Alright. How about I wash an apple for you to eat first?" Lu Zhanguo suggested, looking at the woman sticking to him.

Gu Xiaobei shook her head, "I don’t want it. I want to take a quick nap first. I woke up too early this morning." Saying that, she lay down on the couch using Lu Zhanguo’s leg as a pillow, and closed her eyes.

"You better go to bed. Beware of catching a cold," Lu Zhanguo said, and directly carried Gu Xiaobei to the bedroom.

Originally Gu Xiaobei wanted to sleep for just five minutes, but as soon as her head hit the pillow and she was covered with the soft quilt, she fell deep into a sleep.

When she woke up, it was already dark outside. Gu Xiaobei woke up, stretched out her neck, yawned, and stared at the dark window, feeling refreshed.

Lu Zhanguo came in, saying softly, "Awake? Get up and wash your face. I’ll go make the noodles." He didn’t turn on the light, fearing it might hurt her eyes.

"Hmm," Gu Xiaobei responded, stretched out her arm, playfully demanding that Lu Zhanguo carry her.

Lu Zhanguo had no choice but to bend down. Through the quilt, he held Gu Xiaobei like he would hold Xiaopang, lifting her up, "Get up quickly and eat. It’s already past six."

"Aww, this reminds me of our time in T City when we were renting a house," said Gu Xiaobei nostalgically. Time passed so quickly, she thought. Now she’s already a mother of two children.

While eating, Gu Xiaobei suddenly said, "Today’s New Year’s Day, and we didn’t even go home?"

"While you were sleeping, I went and spoke with mom. The vegetables and meat, everything here was brought from our courtyard home. They also had noodles for dinner. Mom said with the snow falling so heavily, there was no need to go back and forth," he told her.

Only then did Gu Xiaobei realize that there wasn’t even a single vegetable in their house.

Because she had slept too much in the afternoon, she couldn’t sleep at night. Gu Xiaobei cleaned the whole house inside and out. She was busy until midnight, and after taking a bath, she climbed into bed but still couldn’t fall asleep.

With her leg draped over Lu Zhanguo’s body, she said, "I can’t sleep. Can we chat for a bit?"

"I have a way to make you fall asleep." Saying that, he pulled her into the sheets.