Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 397 - 372: The Wedding Ceremony

The road was already paved last year, very smooth and even. A few small stools were placed in the back of the truck, with everyone sitting on them, leaning against the sides of the vehicle. At first, everyone was a bit reserved due to Qin Xi’s arrival, but Qin Xi started chatting amiably with everyone, which made everyone relax.

After more than half an hour, the truck arrived in the town. Since they didn’t know where the Wang Yanan family lived, they stopped to ask for directions for a while, then continued on.

Ten minutes later, at a crossroads, they encountered a boy, who seemed a little excited to see the big truck. Upon inquiry, they found out he was Wang Yanan’s younger brother, sent especially to guide the guests.

Gao Kang let the boy get on the truck and squeeze in next to Chou Xue, pointing them the way, and soon they arrived at a house with red bricks and white walls.

Standing on the truck, one could clearly see the red "happiness" characters pasted on all the gates and doors. In the westernmost part of the courtyard, there were several trunks, a sewing machine, a TV, a washing machine, and an electric fan all adorned with red silk—a display of a rural bridal dowry.

It must be said, the Wang Yanan family’s situation is quite good, their dowry is not lacking at all.

At the entrance, a table had already been set up for collecting the wedding gift money, and at this moment, some of the family’s relatives were already lining up to contribute.

After the truck came to a stop, Li Xianglu and the others got off one by one. When Qin Xi jumped down, he helped Li Xianglu down too and tidied her windblown hair.

Li Xianglu felt someone watching her, but didn’t turn around, just smiling and talking with Qin Xi.

Wang Yanan’s family had known that her colleagues and leaders from the county would come to her wedding, so they had arranged for the youngest son to meet them. Upon seeing the big car, they were so overjoyed that they couldn’t close their mouths, inviting everyone to come inside. The bride was already having her makeup done and couldn’t come out.

However, Li Xianglu smiled and said, "Let’s all give our gifts first, then we’ll go see Yanan."

Han Xuemei came with her daughter, along with Chou Xue, Gao Kang, Chairman Xu and his spouse, Li Xianglu and Qin Xi—a total of eight people. Li Xianglu walked up to Chairman Xu with a smile and said, "Leader, how much do you think we should give? It would be appropriate?"

Chairman Xu smiled: "Among the county’s close relationships, five yuan is usually given. For me, I’ll give eight yuan. My daughter is also about to get married, so I’d like to give a little more. For the rest of you, if there’s nothing much going on at home, five yuan each should be fine, it’s considered a generous gift."

Li Xianglu nodded, then let Chairman Xu go ahead.

Everyone gave their gifts one after another. Li Xianglu sneakily observed that almost everyone gave five yuan. However, Chou Xue actually gave ten yuan. Li Xianglu raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Actually, giving more gift money than the leader is quite taboo, but maybe Chou Xue thought her relationship with Wang Yanan was good enough to warrant it.

After giving their gifts, the men were invited to a table in the courtyard to sit, chat, and eat sunflower seeds, while the women went to Wang Yanan’s bridal chamber.

Wang Yanan’s room, where she was staying, was the western room holding her dowry. Inside, apart from one woman doing makeup, the other four or five people were all family relatives, chattering away about God knows what. When Wang Yanan saw Li Xianglu and the rest coming in, she hurriedly stood up.

In 1985, wearing a wedding dress was not fashionable yet; donning a red outfit was already considered decent. Some just wore a new set of brightly colored clothes. Wang Yanan, however, was dressed in a red satin blouse with a front opening and a slightly longer hem, with matching trousers of the same color, and black leather shoes on her feet. Her hair was done up in a round bun, and her face was already covered in powder, pale as snow, looking somewhat eerie.

Wang Yanan was very happy about the arrival of her colleagues, greeting everyone to sit down, then asking her cousin to help serve candy, peanuts, and sunflower seeds.

The young boy who had been receiving guests at the intersection also walked in. Seeing everyone, he was a bit shy at first, but when he saw his sister with a ghostly pale face, he was startled and said, "Sis, what happened to your face? Did you fall into a flour bin?"

Embarrassed, Wang Yanan immediately got up to chase her brother to hit him but was stopped by the makeup artist standing beside, who scolded, "Stop fooling around. Today’s your sister’s big happy day."

Both calmed down. Li Xianglu looked at Wang Yanan’s face and said, "Yanan, I have some makeup products. Let me do your makeup for you, see how it is. The traditional method you have on now is too scary."

Wang Yanan was a bit embarrassed herself, feeling that it looked frightening indeed. In the countryside, it was customary for brides to whiten their faces and then paint big red lips, which looked a bit intense. However, the makeup artist beside her was a bit displeased.

But Li Xianglu didn’t care. After getting Wang Yanan’s nod of approval, she quickly took out a set of unused makeup from Su Yan and some leftover products from her previous life, though the branding had already been scraped off by Qin Xi.

Chou Xue, who had been sitting on the bed eating snacks, saw Li Xianglu take out things to do makeup and walked over curiously, examining what Li Xianglu had taken out, asking eagerly about how to use them and where to buy them.

Actually, items like foundation did exist at that time, but BB cream absolutely did not. Li Xianglu squeezed the half bottle she had from her previous life into a jar meant for snow cream. At that moment, Wang Yanan, who had finished applying the cream, looked much better. One had to admit, BB cream was a miraculous makeup product. Its color matched the skin tone perfectly, not only concealing blemishes but also giving her complexion a natural, radiant look. This application made everyone look over in surprise.

Next came drawing the eyebrows. Li Xianglu observed that Wang Yanan had too many stray brows, so after discussing, she started shaping them neatly and filled them in perfectly with an eyebrow pencil.

In fact, Li Xianglu’s makeup skills were quite ordinary, but to the people at that time, they seemed almost unrivalled.

In the end, after applying lipstick and a touch of blush, Li Xianglu took out a small spray bottle and set the makeup.

Everyone was almost frozen in place. So beautiful!

Wang Yanan herself was pleasantly surprised as she looked in the mirror, feeling much prettier than usual.

It was already ten o’clock by then, and Zhang Dahu was about to come over for the bridal pickup. The feast had already begun on this side as well. Li Xianglu and her companions were there to see off the bride, so they were in the first group to eat. Wang Yanan also came out to join everyone at the table for the meal.

Wang Yanan’s parents were extremely surprised when they came over to greet and couldn’t recognize their beautiful daughter. Upon hearing that Li Xianglu had helped with the makeup, they were endlessly grateful. After all, which woman wouldn’t want to be the most beautiful on the day of her wedding?

The spread at the Wang family’s was quite good, with eight plates and eight bowls, a mixture of hot and cold dishes, consisting mostly of meat, which could be a bit greasy, but the taste was still not bad. There was also steamed sweet glutinous rice. Li Xianglu seemed to enjoy the meal quite a bit, and just as everyone had finished eating, a loud ruckus erupted outside. The groom had arrived to pick up the bride and was already stopped at the entrance of the alley.