Chapter 439: “Nah. She is doing fine. I don’t want to show up and disrupt her life.” (2)
Editor: RuxyZzz
“Getting married?” Lin Zixiang snapped as soon as she heard it. “Feng Zeyu’s parents didn’t even have a matchmaker over to ask for her hand! There were no betrothal gifts or bride price. What kind of a wedding is that??”
Even though this was her second wedding, she should still have talked about it with her parents first. Anyway they looked at it, Shu Yan was the one who was at fault.
“Second Aunty, what kind of betrothal gifts or bride price are you talking about? Do you plan on shelling out dowries?” Shu Jianyang just snapped right back at her.
“Nobody gets dowries when a daughter marries off here. At most she can get two sets of blankets. Sure, I can have those ready for her.” Lin Zixiang’s eyes rolled. She heard that Feng Zeyu had his own business. Asking for 60,000 yuan shouldn’t be unreasonable.
“Per the custom here, the highest of all wedding will receive refrigerator, color television and 6,600 yuan for betrothal gifts but you will need to provide 8 sets of sheets, 36 legs*, and household appliances. That’s marrying your daughter out. Daughters who are married out do not send money home. Shu Yan will have no obligation to pay you what she is paying you every year. Are you sure you want to go down the custom path?”
If they want to talk about customs, they can talk about customs.
Lin Zixiang went silent immediately. She had wanted to ask Feng Zeyu in private for the betrothal gifts.
For certain she would not ask for 60,000 yuan openly. Otherwise, any family with a son within a 10-mile radius would cuss her out.
“Do not embarrass us.” Old Mr. Shu gave his second daughter-in-law a stare. “Shu Yan gives you a lot every year already. Don’t be so greedy.”
Old Mr. Shu opened up the invitation and frowned. “Why is it held in Province Hai? There are so many of us here and it’s inconvenient to go there. And where will we be staying and what will we be eating once we get there?”
“That you won’t need to worry about. Feng Zeyu and Shu Yan had that all taken care of. All you need to do is to decide on who will be going. They will be responsible for transportation and room and board.”
“They will be covering all those? How much would that cost? Even if they are rich, they shouldn’t throw away money like that.” Lin Zixiang shrieked. Couldn’t they have just given them the money to spend instead?
“Shut up.” Old Mrs. Shu gave her a stare. “Shu Yan is the one who wants to have her wedding at such a remote location. Of course she should be the one responsible for the cost.”
It was rare that women from here would marry off to somewhere far away. And when they do, normally they would have a banquet at both locations. If they were only going to have it at one location, it is customary that the couple would be responsible for the cost of the travel.
Hearing that all expenses would be paid, including room and board, all families who received the invitation planned to have more members attending. It was an all-expense-covered trip. What could be better than that?
“You go ask Third Brother and see if we can bring our entire family with us. Look at that Shu Yan. You are her real brother and she didn’t even ask you for help with something this important but asked your cousin instead.” Li Feng, wife of Shu Jianxiang, couldn’t help but gripe.
Many had the same idea and, one by one, they came to ask Shu Jianyang about it. Shu Jianyang asked them directly, “How much do you intend to give Shu Yan for the red pocket?”
The standard over in City XI was somewhere between 10 ~ 20 yuan. He figured that none of these relatives would give much more than that. 50 at the very maximum. And they wanted to bring their entire family? That was just immoral.
Not getting the answer that they want from Shu Jianyang, the crowd headed over to Old Mr. Shu’s place. By now, the cousins [from the mother side] who had caught wind of this also came over.
“Whatever did Shu Yan mean by that? Does she now want to have us as family anymore by not inviting us?” It was her first [female] cousin who spoke.
Shu Jianyang glanced over at her. “Didn’t she give an invitation to Big Aunty?”
“I got married a long time ago, so I should be considered a separate family. Shouldn’t she have given me a separate one?” said the cousin unhappily.
“Didn’t you always say that you are one family with Big Aunty when visiting relatives over the New Year?” Shu Jianmei couldn’t help but interject.
Shu Jianmei was the daughter of their First Uncle. One could tell from her name alone that she was one that was well-loved. Her name would not otherwise have been in the same format as the boys.
“……” First Cousin was speechless for a second before she recovered immediately. “You give Shu Yan a call right now and ask her what her intention is. Does she no longer want us as family?”
“Well, obviously you don’t matter to her. If you want to go so badly, why don’t you pay for your own trip? I am sure Shu Yan would not ignore you once you show up in Province Hai.” Shu Jianmei continued to stir the pot.
She never liked their first cousin so, it didn’t matter what it was about, aggravating her was always the way to go.
__________
Translator’s notes:
*36 legs – in the old days, a set of furniture made up 36 legs.
*The boys for that specific generation all went with Shu JianX
__________
Translator’s rambling:
MC’s parents are like flies… doesn’t do much damages but definitely disgusting and very annoying!
*The boys for that specific generation all have names with Shu JianX