It was deep into the night, when ordinary folk would normally have put out their lamps and gone to bed. Yet this magnificent wedding had drawn the residents of Jade City into the streets as though for the Lantern Festival. The whole city seemed to have turned out, the spectators thronging like a bustling market, and the torches lighting the way had even scorched the roadside trees.
For the groom's family, the hardest part of the wedding-Wedding-Car Blocking-had only just begun.
Wedding-Car Blocking meant obstructing the bridal carriage in the street. Bands of wedding hooligans came out to demand food, drink, and money, amusing themselves by tormenting the newlyweds. The Pang Family was the wealthiest household in the area, with riches beyond counting, so this wedding attracted ten times as many troublemakers as other weddings. Some even brought instruments, singing and dancing in a spectacle without precedent.
Pang Liangji had not exaggerated in the slightest when he spoke of drinking a cup with every step. The blockers gathered before the bridal carriage and demanded free food and drink from the groom's family under the pretext of offering toasts. Unless they received it, they refused to let the carriage pass. Fortunately, Wei Xun and Huo Qi both had astonishing capacities for liquor. They ordinarily lacked the money to drink freely, but today, thanks to Pang Liangji's wedding, they could indulge to their hearts' content in his family's aged Huadiao Wine. They turned no one away, emptying jars and draining cups, thoroughly satisfying their thirst.
To the onlookers, these two young wedding attendants seemed to possess unfathomable capacities for drink. No matter how much they swallowed, neither showed any sign of drunkenness. Their manner only grew more bold and dashing, drawing murmurs of wonder from everyone.
With the two of them drinking