Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 293 - 292: Bridal Dress

Chapter 293: Chapter 292: Bridal Dress

After the meal, Shan Zi led Chen Daya and Wu Xiaoqing to Lu Garden. Chu Hanyan took a nap, Chen Afu sat by the window, embroidering her wedding gown and Xia Yue was busy knitting socks as assistance.

Chen Afu had made four sets of wedding outfits. Most of the wedding dress to be worn during the ceremony was done, only some embroidery was left to do. The overcoat, red veil, and embroidered shoes were designed traditionally as was popular in that era. The red satin jacket with golden flower embroidery and the red satin floral pleated skirt were regular except for twelve pairs of oversized yuang yang disk buttons that were somewhat unique and overstated.

Chen Afu cut and sewed the clothes herself, but Wang helped with the embroidery, which was not yet finished. On the one hand, Chen Afu’s embroidery skills left much to be desired, and on the other hand, Mrs. Wang was passionate about embroidery and hoped for her daughter to be the most beautiful bride.

The red belly band had been made, which Mrs. Wang shyly withdrew from helping with. So Chen Afu cut, sewed, and embroidered it herself. She only embroidered a pair of lotus flowers on it, rather than a more practical pattern of mandarin ducks playing in water because it was too hard for her to embroider the ducks wearing floral dresses. And when compared to Mrs. Wang’s embroidery, she felt embarrassed by her own work. Still, she added a lace trim around the belly band as decoration rather than using a simple hem which was common at the time.

The underclothes designed like sleepwear, which were cut according to the sleepwear from her previous life, were made of scarlet soft satin tailored to her figure, only a few small flowers were embroidered on the collar and sleeve openings.

The other three wedding dresses for the bride are also being made. Some changes were made to the patterns to make them look trendy and stylish. The clothes were cut by her and then sewn and embroidered by the professional embroiderers in the Lu Garden, whom she paid.

She was currently embroidering small flowers on the collar of the sleepwear.

Not until midday did Lu Garden return to peace, with all guests except Mrs. Chen and Dabao leaving.

Dabao’s excited voice was heard, "Mother, come quickly, this is too heavy, Grandpa gave us so much meat."

Chen Afu looked out the window and saw Dabao running into the yard carrying a piece of pork and a few ribs. He lifted the meat high in fear of dragging it on the ground to get dirty. He dodged Mr. Zeng, who reached out to take the meat from him, and headed straight for the main room.

Chen Afu quickly put down her clothes, came out of her room, and took the meat from Dabao’s hands.

Dabao excitedly narrated, "Grandpa sold a big fat pig for 2.5 taels of silver, and kept another one for consumption at our home ..."

At that moment, Chu Lingzhi also ran into the yard holding a piece of pork, saying, "This meat was given to us by Uncle Chen. My grandpa said we were all having meals in Fu Garden, so he asked me to bring some meat to Sister Chen."

Smiling, Chen Afu accepted the meat and told them to rub the salt onto the meat and air it under the eaves so that it would last longer.

Dabao immediately pulled on Chen Afu, saying, "Mother, my little sister hasn’t seen our pig yet, please let her have a look before applying the salt." He added, "Great-grandma wants to see you in Lu Garden, she said she had something to discuss with you."

Feeling puzzled, as she had recently had little to do with the senior house, Chen Afu was unsure what they wanted with her. She left the meat in the basin and headed towards Lu Garden.

Upon arrival at the senior house in Lu Garden, Mrs. Chen and the senior house members were present. Chen Afu greeted them with a smile, and Chen Aju handed her a handful of peanuts, laughing, "Sister Afu, have some peanuts. These are small red peanuts grown in our yard, they’re fragrant."

She felt a little puzzled, why had Chen Aju suddenly become so friendly and congenial?

After some casual conversation, Mrs. Chen dismissed Mrs. Hu, Chen Aju, and Chen Agu to go home. Despite Mrs. Hu’s reluctance, she had to leave under Chen Ye’s stern look.

The three members left in the room were Chen Ming, Mrs. Wang, Mrs. Chen, and Chen Ye.

Mrs. Chen said with a smile, "Our Aju will turn fifteen early next year, but we haven’t found a suitable family for her yet. My son is worried about it too."

Chen Ming reassured her, "Now Dabao’s family is living a much better life, Aju doesn’t have to worry about her marriage."

Chen Ye muttered helplessly, "The wench insists on marrying into the Hu family." Turning to Chen Afu, he added, "We know it would be inappropriate for Uncle to mediate, so we thought about asking Manager Luo for help. Hu Laowu flatters Manager Luo all the time. If Manager Luo talks to him, he will definitely agree."

Having finished speaking, he intently watched for Chen Afu’s response.

Chen Afu was in a dilemma. The last time she promised to ask Manager Luo to mediate for Chen Aman, it was based on both sides having a good impression of each other. But this time, Hu Laowu had already shown clearly that he did not want Chen Aju as a daughter-in-law. She didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask Manager Luo to pressure him again.

If it were her own son, she wouldn’t want Chen Aju as her daughter-in-law either. There was a saying in her previous life, if a woman marries the wrong man, her life is ruined; if a man marries the wrong woman, it would ruin the next three generations.

Chen Aju was lazy, headstrong, and not smart. Despite her improvements, her character was innately flawed.

Hu Laowu had seen Chen Aju at her worst, and certainly wouldn’t want her to marry his only son. Although Chen Ye’s family was getting better off, Hu Laowu had also managed to suck up to the county magistrate through Manager Luo and even got his son a clerk’s job at the County Government. He definitely wanted to find a decent girl for his son’s marriage to further enhance their social standing.

Chen Afu smiled and said, "I heard that Hu Laowu rejected Aju. If she is forced to marry into the Hus, it would only make her suffer."

Mrs. Chen immediately backed her up, "See, even Afu says so. Chen Agu and I have been telling her that the Hus are not that good. They are all sharper than mice. Only the foolish one ended up marrying you. If the foolish Aju is really married into the Hu family, she will definitely be bullied. Besides, apart from his dashing appearance, the boy Hu Wei is worthless. After so many years of schooling, he didn’t even pass the examination to become a child student. What’s good about him?"

Chen Ye took a puff of his tobacco pipe and said angrily, "That stubborn girl is determined to marry into the Hus, and her mother is just spoiling her... I thought, with Afu’s support, the Hus wouldn’t dare to disrespect Aju."

Mrs. Chen remarked again, "There are so many ways to torment people without them even knowing. Hu Laowu is experienced in scheming, he knows even more tricks. Aju is so naive that once she is sold, she would even help count the silver coins. Even Afu can’t help her then."

Listening to Mrs. Chen who already voiced out everything she wanted to say, Chen Afu laughed. Nodding her head, she said, "Grandma is right. The Hus is not a good place for Aju to go. A forced union won’t be blessed and if there are problems, Uncle will get worried about it as well."

Upon hearing what Chen Afu said, Chen Ye knew she wouldn’t help. He had to give up on that thought. Without Chen Afu’s support, his family would amount to nothing. He said, "Alright, I will go home and let them drop the idea."

After chatting for a while longer, Chen Afu said goodbye and returned to Fu Garden.

As she walked into the yard, Chu Hanyan and Dabao were squatting down looking at the pork in the basin.

Seeing Chen Afu returning, Chu Hanyan looked up at her, smiling, "Auntie, only now do I realise why the meat was so delicious at midday. It turns out the pigs were raised by Brother."