Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

Chapter 156 Preparing for the Wedding

Song Laoer's family went to notify the villagers one by one in order. When they arrived at the clan leader's house, they told him that they wanted to ask the old couple to open the gate.

The clan leader agreed without hesitation. After Song Laoer and the other two left, he started talking to Mrs. Liu about what clothes he should wear that day to look good.

Then Song Lao Er went to Song Zhengan's house. Song Zhengan and his wife were at home. Seeing Song Lao Er and his two companions coming, they thought they must have invited him for a banquet.

He warmly went forward to invite the three people into the house. Song Zhengan was already an older generation in the village, about fifty years old, and had been a chef for most of his life, so he was unusually broad and fat.

"Are you here to invite me to a banquet?" he asked directly.

Song Lao Er smiled and replied, "In Songjia Village, besides you, who else has this ability?"

Song Zhengan laughed loudly, "Great! He used to be silent, but now he is flattering me. He is indeed someone who can make a lot of money.

Tell me, how many people do you plan to invite, how many tables do you plan to set up, and how much do you plan to spend? What dishes do you want?"

Song Lao Er silently calculated in his mind that there were 32 people working on the house, and 30 of them were from the clan leader's family alone.

There are also these people in his own store, and other people in the village. If there are twelve people sitting at a table, then more than twenty tables will be needed. Then Song Lao Er reported an approximate number to him.

Song Zhengan nodded, and then Song Laoer said, "I have never held a banquet myself, and I don't know how much it will cost. Tell me about it.

As for dishes, please tell me some of the ones you usually cook and I will pick some.

If I were to say, I don’t understand, but I’d try to make the meal as rich as possible, with at least one dish of chicken, duck, or fish.”

After hearing what he said, Song Zhengan knew what he was going to do. He wanted to be more respectable and not shabby. So he told Song Laoer about some of his specialty dishes.

There are twelve people at the table. The two people discussed and came up with ten dishes plus a soup and a dessert. The ten dishes are eight meat dishes and two vegetable dishes.

The eight meat dishes and two vegetable dishes are two cold dishes: crispy roast pork, boiled chicken,

The six hot dishes are preserved vegetables with pork, taro spareribs, lucky pig's knuckle, braised carp, minced meat stuffed tofu, braised duck with ginger,

The two vegetarian dishes were stir-fried lettuce and blanched choy sum, there was a chicken soup with grass tortoise, and the dessert was water chestnut cake.

After deciding on the dishes, it was time to start ordering the ingredients. Song Lao Er handed these over to Song Zhengan.

He was not worried at all that Song Zhengan would do anything, because this was a banquet held in the village, and the villagers would discuss how everyone ate.

Nowadays, the reputation of a chef is spread by word of mouth among the neighbors. If Song Zhengan doesn't want to ruin his reputation, he will definitely not do anything rash.

Song Lao Er asked Song Zhengan if he needed someone to help him with the banquet.

Because when the host family holds a banquet in the village, they always invite some villagers to help. Otherwise, with so many dishes to cook, just washing, cutting and preparing the vegetables would be enough work for the people in the kitchen. Of course, these are not the chef's jobs, but the kitchen chores.

And you have to build a stove, prepare firewood, steamer, knives, and many other miscellaneous things. You have to prepare them in advance, don't wait until you need them to find them temporarily. That's why Song Lao Er asked Song Zhengan like this.

Song Zhengan smiled and said, "Don't worry about these. I have prepared the food. As for manpower, I don't lack it. Our family is enough.

I have prepared banquets with hundreds of tables before, and yours is only about 20 tables. It's an easy job and you don't need that many people, so don't worry."

Song Zhengan was telling the truth. He had been a chef for most of his life. His children, from his son to his grandson, and their wives,

Everyone follows him to host banquets. Their family is like a team, so generally a smaller banquet can be handled by their whole family.

So Song Laoer gave Song Zhengan enough money to buy food before saying goodbye and going to other people's homes to inform them.

When they went to inform Song Datou's mother, the old lady was beaming with joy, and immediately went to her old sisters' house to discuss how to make this wedding of Song Laoer's family a perfect one.

Song Lao Er also gave her a big red envelope. The old lady was so happy holding the red envelope that she couldn't stop smiling.

Song Laoer's family must prepare so many tables and chairs to set up so many tables, but he is not worried because there is an ancestral hall in the village.

Generally, when there is a sacrifice or a big event in the village, a banquet will be held for the whole village. Therefore, since the time of our ancestors, the whole village has jointly purchased dozens of tables and chairs specifically for the banquet, as well as pots, pans, bowls, chopsticks, etc.

These are stored in the village's ancestral hall, passed down from generation to generation, and villagers can borrow them for use in weddings.

When Song Lao Er went to inform the village chief, he also told him that he wanted to borrow the village's tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks to hold the banquet. This was a common practice, so the village chief agreed immediately.

After asking about the time, it seemed that there were only a few days left, so he volunteered to ask his wife to take the wives of the people invited by Song Laoer in the village to clean the tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks and put them in place. Song Laoer was naturally very grateful.

Then almost everyone who needed to be notified in the village had been notified, leaving only the head of the village and his family. However, his family had a house in the county town, and he usually did not live in the village, so they had to go to the county town to notify him.

Then Song Lao Er went to borrow a ladder, and Song Er's wife went home to get an old dress. Song Lao Er hung the old dress on the beam of the new house.

After finishing this, the three returned home. Song Ersao brought incense, candles, and paper money, and the three of them lit incense and worshipped in front of the ancestral tablets.

Song Laoer inserted the incense into the incense burner and burned paper money into the pottery basin on the ground while talking to the ancestors, "Dad, grandpa, grandma, all the ancestors of the Song family, I, Song Bai, will move to a new house in a few days.

Our new home is at the foot of Lotus Mountain, in the third two-story house. Please bless us with a happy housewarming, a prosperous family, good health, and a smooth and peaceful life. "

After Song Lao Er finished speaking, Song Ersao also followed suit and talked to the ancestors for a few words. After she finished speaking, she asked Song Sanniang to come up and burn paper money for the ancestors and talk to them.

Although Song Sanniang was not superstitious, she still did as she was told.

After they had finally finished all this, the three of them asked Song Dazhi to take them to the county town. When they arrived at the county town, the three of them split into two groups to buy what they needed.

In fact, Song Sanniang hesitated whether to invite people she knew from the county and the prefecture to the wedding, but after thinking it over, she decided not to.

Because she is so far away, it's okay for people from the county town, but it's too boring for people from the prefecture town to just come and have a wedding banquet.

There was nothing interesting to do in the village, and the scenery was not unique, so she thought it was better not to trouble others. At most, she could just give everyone some wedding candies.

Song Dazhi and Song Laoer first informed the head of the village, and then went to buy large items, such as bathtubs, wooden barrels, rice barrels, etc.

Song Sanniang and Song Ersao went shopping for incense, candles, gold ingots, grains, wedding candies and cakes. After buying everything, they went to the place selling quilts and bedding, as they also needed to buy these for their new home.