Chapter 90: Wedding
Regarding the wedding arrangements, Chen Yunniang shyly said that everything would be decided by the Prince and Cheng Yu.
Cheng Yu took it very seriously, completing all the traditional betrothal rites. He personally went to catch a wild goose and led people to renovate his residence. Finding a matchmaker was difficult, as there were none in the border city.
Jinsui asked Yan Shiyi to help find an official matchmaker, but it turned out Yan Shiyi personally brought one over.
The young lady was genuinely happy for Chen Yunniang and even added a generous dowry for her.
Seeing such a grand undertaking, Chen Yunniang privately said to Cheng Yu:
“Elder Brother Cheng, given Yunniang’s current status, the wedding doesn’t need to be so elaborate. Let’s keep it simple.”
Cheng Yu knew what she was concerned about and said softly, “Yunniang, there are some things I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time. When we got engaged, you became my wife-to-be.”
“The hardships you’ve endured are also my responsibility. I failed to protect my fiancée.”
“The world’s principles are always harsher towards women. You must not blame yourself for everything. I don’t ask you to forget the past, only that you don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“Our eyes are in front of us; we must look forward. From now on, as husband and wife, we will be of one heart and follow the Prince to settle and build a life in this border city.”
Yunniang was moved to tears. She had another concern: “Elder Brother Cheng, your lack of contact with the Cheng family is also because of Yunniang’s matter, isn’t it?”
Cheng Yu did not answer. When the Chen family fell into misfortune, if his parents had insisted, they could have saved Chen Yunniang with the marriage certificate.
But they did not want their son, who had a bright future, to marry a criminal’s daughter, and they stood by and watched Chen Yunniang be sold.
Later, he did achieve high honors, and his parents wanted to arrange another marriage for him. He firmly refused, even declining an official post in Chang’an and coming to Yandi to serve as a minor official.
For the first two years, the Cheng family often sent people to persuade him. However, when the envoys saw him frequently drunk and behaving recklessly, like a broken pot beyond repair, the Cheng family gave up.
Cheng Yu estimated that even if the Cheng family knew he was marrying Chen Yunniang, they wouldn’t be happy for them. He didn’t want to tell Chen Yunniang about these matters.
He shook his head and said, “The Cheng family’s affairs have nothing to do with Yunniang. Consider it a clean break; Yunniang doesn’t need to worry about it.”
Meanwhile, Yan Shiyi was initially unsure how to face Jinsui.
But seeing that Jinsui held no grudges and was chatting and laughing with her, Yan Shiyi relaxed and returned to her lively old self.
In short, the wedding preparations were completed quickly, taking only five days from Jinsui’s mention to the actual ceremony.
During this time, Wei Assistant Secretary returned with a large quantity of sea salt from the East Sea. The salt bags were wrapped in straw and covered with kelp, so no one could tell they contained salt.
At the same time, the temporary trading post at the foot of the mountain for collecting coal became lively. With one person leading the way, and witnessing the exchange of rice, flour, and salt, the refugees in the mountains no longer doubted and rushed out to carry coal in exchange for supplies.
Previously, only the young and strong came out. Now, the elderly and women also came out to carry, and even half-grown children carried half a basket.
Even if they could only exchange for half a work point at a time, earning ten or so work points a day could get them a full meal and two catties of millet flour.
They could even exchange for a little salt or sugar, but they were reluctant to eat the meat in their meals.
They wrapped it in lotus leaves and tucked it into their clothes, intending to bring it home for their younger brothers and sisters to have a taste.
Wei Assistant Secretary was stunned when he returned. How long had he been gone? How had so many refugees come to the border city?
Looking at the refugees coming and going, there were at least several thousand people.
When herdsmen arrived with furs or drove live sheep, they were also welcomed by the Black Feather Camp soldiers.
Unlike the refugees, the herdsmen were more willing to exchange for sugar, salt, and tea, and were unwilling to exchange for grain.
Jinsui took the opportunity to issue a list of items that could be exchanged: furs, medicinal materials, pig iron, horses, and cattle and sheep.
On the day of Cheng Yu’s wedding, a tribal leader arrived with several carts full of furs, dozens of sheep, and three fine horses, wanting to exchange them for linen, sugar, and tea.
Jinsui had Han Xing receive them. To win over the first group of people, a generous reward was necessary to attract more herdsmen.
The wedding was held grandly. All three thousand soldiers of the border city attended the wedding banquet, which turned into a continuous feast.
Chen Yunniang was sent off from the Tuntian Camp. She had recognized the Liu Captain and his wife as her adoptive parents and was married from the Liu family.
Cheng Yu led the wedding procession from the Black Feather Camp to pick up the bride, with music and fanfare. They also distributed candy and dim sum to the women and children watching.
When had the border city ever seen such a lively event? Everyone treated this wedding as a city-wide celebration. Even the trees ten miles outside the border city had red wedding papers pasted on them.
Chen Yunniang’s bridal gown was a gift from Yan Shiyi, extremely luxurious, but Chen Yunniang did not wear any gold or jade jewelry.
She simply wore a silver hairpin and the jade pendant they had exchanged when they were young, which she wore around her neck.
Yan Shiyi also offered to invite an opera troupe from the city, but Jinsui, considering the Zheng family’s unknown intentions, felt it was not appropriate to have too many outsiders in the border city at this time, so she declined.
She asked the border soldiers to perform a few acts themselves. Some from the Tuntian Camp who could sing folk songs performed two.
Among them was our Dave, who, despite his slurred speech, sang surprisingly well.
A young soldier from the Black Feather Camp, having heard Cheng Yu sing while drunk, learned it and took the stage to sing a fitting song, ‘Peach Blossom’, receiving thunderous applause.
Hei Hu led a dozen soldiers in a martial arts display, and other soldiers performed sword dances.
In short, although no opera troupe was invited, our wedding was a thousand times more lively than a wedding in the city.
This was because everyone present genuinely congratulated Cheng Yu and Chen Yunniang.
After enduring many hardships, the two finally became husband and wife.
During the wedding ceremony, after the three bows, Cheng Yu led Chen Yunniang to bow to Jinsui.
He sincerely said that their ability to become husband and wife was thanks to Heaven and Earth, the border soldiers, and most importantly, the Prince.
Without the Prince, they would not only have failed to become husband and wife but would likely have been separated forever.
Jinsui’s eyes welled up at his words. After accepting their bows, she once again reflected that regardless of whether her actions during her time as Li King were right or wrong.
Based on this wedding alone, she felt her contributions outweighed her mistakes.
Jinsui specifically had the blacksmith forge dozens of iron pots for the wedding banquet and taught them how to stir-fry with hot oil.
The enticing aroma after the ginger and garlic were stir-fried made the Zheng family members, who were still digging the river pond, drool.
They never imagined that in the border city, which the people of Yanzhou considered dilapidated, the food of these border soldiers, who were only fit to eat coarse grains, could be so delicious!
Even the stew served to them, the captives, was better than what they ate at the Zheng family’s.
The only guests from outside were the Yan siblings. They brought many gifts and added many items to Cheng Yu’s house.
Yan Shiyi also specifically brought several hundred catties of salt for the Forceful Restaurant to use, demonstrating his role as a salt carrier.
Jinsui did not tell him that the border city was no longer short of salt. After all, the sun-drying salt method had to be kept secret. If Li Heng found out, he would definitely report it to the Imperial Court.
Moreover, the sun-drying salt method was not technically complex and could easily be learned by others.
