Chapter 986: Taking a Bath and Hearing Old Stories (Old-Time Customs and Stories, Plot Experts Can Skip This)

The Han sisters, He Mi, Hou Yuhua, and Ding Yulan, Hou Xiujuan, Wang Chunhua, Zhang Chaomei, Yin Lanfen, who came from afar, came to Houhaizi because there was no room in Mianhua Hutong.

The room of Han's father and mother was arranged by Liu Cuihua, Aunt Liu, Han's elder sister and Zhuangzhuang today, and Han Li's room was reserved by Niu Dahai and Hou Xiujuan. The tent outside the street gate was reserved by Han Li and his men.

In addition, they had to get up early tomorrow morning to work, and there was only more than four hours in between. It was not worthwhile to give money to the hotel in this time. They decided to spend the night playing cards and chatting.

So the only choice for Han's second sister, He Mi and their group was the east wing of the courtyard next to Houhaizi.

What about the main room in the north house? That place will be reserved for Han's father to rest tonight.

This is related to the custom in Sijiu City or Han's father's hometown, that is, on the first night of the newlyweds' wedding, the bed must be slept on by the "father-in-law".

This saying is called "father-in-law presses the bed, and the house is full of children and grandchildren."

No matter how this custom changes in later generations, many families in Sijiu City still maintain this custom.

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Han Li brought more than ten people to the bathhouse. After taking a bath and rubbing their backs, everyone lay on the bed, drinking tea and chatting, waiting for the pedicure master to free his hands.

At this time, an old man next to him saw Han Li and his people and asked with a smile.

"You young people are happy and take a bath in groups in the bathhouse. Who is going to get married tomorrow?"

Everyone pointed at Han Li with a smile. This old man is an experienced and talkative person.

He looked at Han Li and his group of people talking and laughing, took a sip of tea, and his face was full of memories.

Then, following Han Li and others' topic about the wedding tomorrow, he sighed and talked about the weddings he had seen when he was a child. Everyone listened attentively because he was interesting.

The old man first talked about the marriages in the Republic of China. At that time, there were several types of marriages in the city.

Several types? In fact, it was the treatment that the family enjoyed based on how much money they had and how much money they were willing to spend.

At that time, the weddings of wealthy families were quite grand. At the front of the wedding procession were two gongs to open the way, followed by golden lanterns, golden guns, golden eight treasures, flags, gongs, umbrellas, fans and other deacons, which reminded me of the scene of the eight prefectures' patrols during the previous pseudo-dynasty period.

Behind the various deacons were the drummers, who held the instrument-like sounding instruments in their hands, including suona, sea flute, sheng, pipe, cloud gong, drum, etc.

This sounding instrument is divided into 24 sounding instruments, 32 sounding instruments, 48 ​​sounding instruments and other different sizes. Employers can choose which service according to their own economic strength.

Next is the wedding sedan, which is divided into red and green. The red sedan is for the bride, and the green sedan is for the bride's wife and the bride's escort.

The red sedan for the bride must be carried by eight sedan bearers, which is the so-called eight-carrying sedan.

The green sedan for the bride's wife and the bride's escort is usually carried by four people.

But if the bride's wife or the bride's escort is of high status, the host will spend more money to choose eight people to carry the sedan to show respect.

What are the bride's wife and the bride's escort? Why can they sit in the sedan?

At that time, when the man went to the woman's house to pick up the bride, the groom's parents could not go. A more respectable woman had to be arranged to represent the husband's family to pick up the bride. This is the bride's wife.

This person can be a relative of the man, or a friend or a neighbor, but this person must have seen the world, understand the rules, have good eloquence, dress appropriately, and preferably have a certain status.

Because the custom of making things difficult for the groom when picking up the bride has existed for a long time, some brides even ask for money for getting on the sedan chair, getting off the sedan chair, parting money, box money, and firecracker money. In short, they make things difficult or ask for money under various names.

This is the time to test the ability of the bride-to-be's wife. She has to deal with various situations to bring the bride back, and at the same time, she must not lose face for the man's family. Therefore, she cannot be a bride-to-be's wife without some ability and status.

This bride-to-be's wife must be a person who is carefully selected by the man's family and entrusted with important tasks.

The bride-to-be's wife is an important person who represents the woman's family and sends the bride to her husband's family.

The main task of the bride-to-be's wife is not only to send the bride to her husband's family smoothly, but also to protect her from getting off the sedan chair, entering the house to clean her face, changing clothes, worshiping in the hall, and sitting down.

During this period, the bride must not be made too difficult by the man, and she must maintain etiquette and not let the man's family find fault, so as to avoid the bride from being bullied as soon as she gets married.

Therefore, the requirements for the bride escorting wives are very high, and they are also selected by the bride's family to be entrusted with important tasks.

Even if they are not of high status, those who can serve as the bride's bride and the bride escorting wives are people who are used by many neighbors because they have seen the world, understand the rules, and have good eloquence.

It is precisely because of this that both men and women will treat them as guests of honor. If they are used to complain about the poor hospitality, the reputation of their family will be affected.

Therefore, regardless of the tasks of the bride's bride and the bride escorting wives, or for the sake of their own reputation, most people will arrange a sedan chair for them.

The difference is that the rich and powerful families start with at least four or five wedding sedan chairs, with gongs to clear the way, various flags, gongs, umbrellas and fans, large-scale percussion instruments, and various slaves and tenants around them, followed by the carriages and carts carrying things. This scene is more majestic than the tour of the Eight Prefectures during the previous pseudo-dynasty period.

Ordinary families hire three wedding sedan chairs, and the flags, gongs, umbrellas and fans, and percussion instruments depend on their own situation.

The worse families only have one red sedan chair, which is enough to bring the bride back.

If it is a poorer family, then no one should despise anyone. It is good enough to have a donkey cart to pull back, and there are also many people who walk home.

Especially for those actors who have been in the industry for many years but have not become a star, the owner of the troupe cannot keep these people, so after a certain age, those who still have no prospects and cannot bring themselves income will be released by the owner of the troupe, and those with indentures will be sold.

Most of these people came out of the troupe with a piece of red cloth on their heads, and followed the men home on foot with their heads down. There were no sedan chairs, donkey carts, brides or bride-welcoming ladies. At most, a few nostalgic colleagues would send them off.

Why is this so? It was mainly because the reputation of ordinary actors was too bad among the people at that time.

Those troupes led by "bosses" and "famous actors" were very formal. Not only could they receive invitations with generous prices, but they would also be sought after by others, so these people had a better life. Even if they got married in the future, they would not end up walking home with others.

But these wild troupes and unknown small troupes were not so good. They could not receive any decent invitations at all. The main source of income was to find a place to set up a stall and sing, and the income was all from tips from passers-by.

Being invited to sing at the temple fair in the village was already a very rich resource for them.

The unstable income led to the men and women in these troupes living and eating together. In that era, a group of people who were not related lived together like this, so how could their reputation be good?

Among them, the two most widely circulated rumors about those unpopular wild opera troupes were the most accepted by the people.

First, because most of the time, men and women slept on a big kang, with a curtain or straw mat in the middle.

During this period, those who had ideas and had relationships would choose to sleep next to each other.

In the middle of the night, they reached out and patted lightly, and the other party would remove the obstacle and bend over.

It was dark and they couldn't see anyone through the curtain, and they didn't dare to make a sound.

This situation also led to some people with ulterior motives deliberately making mistakes, and when the other party found something wrong, both parties had already been on the right track.

In this case, even if their reputation was not very good, who would not want to get worse, otherwise they might lose their jobs. In that era, not having a job would kill people.

So, that person could only pretend that he didn't notice it and wait for the people behind him to finish and quit.

Second, there are also those small opera troupes who are used by ruffians, village bullies, and warlords to exchange for protection from the other party, thereby exempting protection fees. This is also a statement recognized by the people.

As for when these rumors started, whether the people in those wild opera troupes are all like this, the people don’t care, but these two rumors are accepted and recognized by everyone.

The old man felt that he seemed to have gone off topic when he said this, so he took a sip of tea, praised Han Li’s girlfriend’s family for being reasonable and open-minded, and then talked about two things that happened recently in the suburbs because of marriage.

The first thing was caused by Voldemort of this era. When Aunt Jin’s eldest son in Tongzhou got married, the eldest daughter-in-law asked for a watch as a gift.

When Aunt Jin’s youngest son got engaged, she wanted to borrow a watch from the eldest daughter-in-law to support her youngest son.

But Aunt Jin never expected that the eldest daughter-in-law would not agree, even if it was just for one day.

This made Aunt Jin very upset, so she told her eldest son about it, hoping that he would let his wife lend the watch to his younger brother for one day.

No one knew how the couple communicated, but the eldest daughter-in-law actually threatened to jump into the well and commit suicide.

Finally, after stopping the people, everyone knew that the watch that was used as a betrothal gift was given to her younger brother for marriage without even taking it with her.

Now her mother-in-law wanted to borrow the watch. In her opinion, she wanted her to go to her parents' home to get something back. It was okay to help her parents' home, but if she wanted her to take something back from her parents' home, she wanted her to die.

Han Li hadn't finished complaining in his heart, but he didn't expect that what the old man said next was even more interesting.