Big Red Lanterns Hanging High, Joyfully Welcoming the New Marriage

At Old Zhu's family home, Big Red Lanterns Hanging High, Joyfully Welcoming the New Marriage.

The newly posted Red Couplets at the entrance to Old Zhu's family home offered the simplest of blessings.

The bottom character on the right couplet had been blacked out with ink, and a neat Marriage Character had been written beside it.

Even Uncle Cai, who always claimed to be uneducated, muttered under his breath.

"Change one character and call it new. They're stingy to the bitter end."

Zheng Wuyou, however, felt that no one in this village seemed capable of writing such neat Regular Script.

So, besides them, were there outsiders attending this wedding?

The middle-aged man from yesterday seemed to hear the disorderly footsteps outside. Before the group could knock, he opened the wooden door.

"C-coming. What did you bring?"

The middle-aged man, standing in the sunlight, shifted his gaze to the group's hands. Some people had come empty-handed, while others carried wild boars, withered sweet potatoes... and even a piece of a broken wine jar.

"Haha, you've certainly put a lot of thought into your offerings. Sorry for the trouble, but come with me and put them in the Backyard." The middle-aged man let out two unexpectedly awkward laughs, not caring at all about the gaze of the brown ear-length short-haired girl beside him.

And for the first time, Zheng Wuyou got a clear look at the middle-aged man's face. It was pitted and uneven, but it didn't look like acne or a skin condition.

He looked... more like a toad.

The middle-aged man turned around, his gaze nervously sweeping over his Main Hall.

He seemed afraid that the old woman from yesterday would discover their presence.

Hu Yu, disgusted by the middle-aged man's face, gripped a withered sweet potato vine and stood at the back of the group.

She didn't dare imagine how much the bride would have to love the groom if the middle-aged man was him.

Zheng Wuyou had just led the group two steps after the middle-aged man when she suddenly sensed something was wrong. She stopped in time and held everyone back.

"Hold on, sir. We'd better not go to the Backyard. The bride is there, and we can't break the rules."

If Zheng Wuyou hadn't seen him glancing fearfully at the Main Hall, she wouldn't have remembered the old woman they'd encountered there yesterday.

The old woman had told them herself that they weren't allowed to go to the Backyard.

They would be responsible for any consequences of going there.

And today, this middle-aged man was leading them inside. How interesting.

"Oh, right, right. Look at me, I completely forgot in all the hustle and bustle." The middle-aged man seemed not to have expected them to be the first to suggest following the customs. He gave an awkward smile, then led them in another direction. "Then... then put it in the Woodshed."

Miao Laisheng, dressed in silk pajamas, dragged the wild boar as if it weighed nothing. His eyes, however, lingered on the brown-haired figure just ahead of him.

"This place is so poor, but it still has a Woodshed?" Hu Yu, hiding at the back, spoke to someone, though her voice was noticeably raised.

Zheng Wuyou noticed the middle-aged man at the front pause for a moment before continuing in the opposite direction as if nothing had happened.

To prepare for this wedding, Old Zhu's family had gone all out and spared no effort.

Zheng Wuyou and the others slowly made their way along a battered red carpet that looked as if it had been reused countless times.

They crossed the Joyful Courtyard, filled with rows of simple wine tables.

Tomorrow, all kinds of dishes would be laid out on those tables, filling the air with tempting aromas.

They followed the middle-aged man to a Side Courtyard with several rooms that looked like Side Rooms.

Though these rooms were less than half the size of the main house, they had still been given a special touch.

Bright red Happiness Characters had been pasted onto the doors of the Side Rooms, gleaming in the sunlight.

The bright red Happiness Characters stood in stark contrast to the houses built from mounds of Black Soil around them.

One was a passionate, vibrant red; the other, plain and unadorned Black Soil.

To Zheng Wuyou, this place was like towering walls, trapping them for life.

She had wanted to visit Old Zhu's family first and get some help interpreting the List, but it looked like that would be difficult.

"This sentence looks a lot like the format of the first task. Does 'Midday worship' refer to a time again?" Hu Yu asked. The middle-aged man had been called away by someone in the distance, so she casually tossed the withered sweet potato vine into the Woodshed and dusted her hands.

She also glanced at Wen Dian and Guo Mu, who had carried half a wine jar inside from outside.

He had already figured out what Sun about to feed meant. Maybe he knew what this meant too.

Zheng Wuyou worked with Miao Laisheng to drag the wild boar into the Woodshed. She knew Hu Yu was actually asking someone else.

So she didn't answer.

But the task couldn't be as simple as having them help carry things around.

Wen Dian set down the wine jar full of yellow soil, panting. He couldn't understand why Zheng Wuyou, the brown-haired woman, had asked him and Guo Mu to carry it inside.

It was already broken. What was the point of carrying it in?

"You're right. It's not 'Midday worship.' It's 'Midday.' Those two characters sound like they refer to daytime... but in the old calendar, they mean noon, which ends at 13:00." Wen Dian braced one hand against the wall, still trying to catch his breath.

That jar of yellow soil, nearly as tall as a person, must have weighed a hundred or two hundred pounds...

"It's just that I don't know what they want us to worship before 13:00."

Who were they supposed to worship at noon?

What did clan customs, hairpins, and all this have to do with each other?

"So they lock the bride in the Backyard when they get married here." Uncle Cai stood by the Woodshed door, looking toward the Backyard. There seemed to be a nearly withered tree hidden behind the wall.

A cluster of White Cherry Blossoms seemed to grow on it.

"Let's not meddle in other people's customs. All that matters is staying alive." Guo Mu didn't care about these irrelevant things. He rarely did physical labor, and all he cared about now was when they could go back.

Zheng Wuyou followed Uncle Cai's gaze, but behind the wall she spotted a white-haired person looking their way.

Half of her head peeked out, her grizzled hair bright in the sunlight.

"Isn't that the old woman from yesterday?" Zheng Wuyou wanted a better look at her face, but her eyesight wasn't good enough.

At that height, was she standing on a chair?

Miao Laisheng replied coolly, "No."

He had also noticed how strange the figure on the wall was. How could an old woman poke half her head over a wall nearly two meters tall?

"An old woman? Oh, I thought it was the cherry blossoms." Uncle Cai, standing next door, heard the two of them and quickly clapped his hands as he spoke.

"Uncle Cai ought to get glasses when we get back." Sun Wu set the doll in his hand beside Uncle Cai's firecrackers. It was rare to hear him tease anyone.

It was time to go.

Zheng Wuyou noticed that the old woman's eyes hadn't moved once. She had watched them coming and going from the Woodshed the whole time.

She just didn't know what work the middle-aged man was going to assign them.

Perhaps their individual tasks would be revealed once they'd been assigned their work.

"Why hasn't that person come yet? Should we go to the Main Hall and ask Old Zhu to assign us work?"

Hu Yu glanced at the short woman who had been following silently behind her and offered her opinion.

She sighed helplessly.

Last night, after returning to West Third House, she'd tried asking the short woman about herself, but the woman wouldn't say a word.

Then, in the middle of the night, she'd stood outside Hu Yu's room holding a hoe, scaring her half to death.

Who could she complain to about being stuck with a teammate like this?