Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 315 The Eve of Marriage

Song Chunsheng shook his head frantically, indicating that it was not necessary and he could not afford such sour fruit.

Zhou Ning felt quite regretful that they didn't like such delicious fruit.

Knowing that he would become an uncle next year, Song Chunlin was extremely excited that night. He kept rummaging through the pile of express deliveries, hoping to find something useful as a gift for his eldest nephew.

Dabao sat aside chewing a candied haws, somewhat confused by his master's behavior.

"It's still one, two, three... seven, eight, um, more than eight months before the baby is born. Master, you are so excited now. You will faint with joy when the baby is really born. And, if I remember correctly, this seems to be your brother's child. Why do you seem more excited than your brother?"

Song Chunlin rolled his eyes at him and told him, "You don't understand. This is the youngest child in our family. How can I not be excited? Besides, do you really think my brother isn't excited? He must have been secretly excited in his room, otherwise he wouldn't be so calm."

Dabao was speechless. Dabao didn't want to pay attention to his silly master anymore, so he ran away.

Song Chunlin ignored him and continued to happily hum the nursery rhyme he had heard before, picking and choosing from a pile of things. This one looks good, so he gave it to his nephew; this one is fun, so he gave it to his nephew; this one tastes good, so he also gave it to his nephew.

The new year's battle suits for infants, the big white goose that can sing by itself, and the teething sticks for babies, all of these were selected by Song Chunlin. In addition, there were some monk's clothes, small quilts, and diapers for babies. There were not many diapers, and some were given to Chen Yuer at the beginning. It was very convenient for the children to wear them to sleep at night. They still used ordinary diapers during the day.

Speaking of diapers, Song Chunlin did not forget to prepare some soft and comfortable fabrics to use as diapers for his eldest nephew, but it was too early now, so he picked them out and put them aside.

Since they are family members, naturally they need milk bottles. He knew nothing about milk bottles, so he gave Song Yuanyuan and Song Manman a large set of bottles. Naturally, the one he gave to his nephew this time was also a set of bottles.

After finishing all this, Song Chunlin happily left the space and couldn't wait to go to the military camp to share the good news with Gu Fengyue.

Gu Fengyue was very happy when she knew this, but when she saw Song Chunlin with a happy face, she felt a little strange in her heart.

Chunlin likes children so much, so will you be willing to have children with him in the future?

Gu Fengyue vaguely knew that Song Chunlin would not be able to accept her being pregnant. Gu Fengyue did not want to force Song Chunlin, but in fact, she really wanted to have a child who was related to Song Chunlin by blood.

Now it seems that he has to urge his brother. In case Chunlin doesn't want to have children in the future, he will have to rely on his brother to adopt one. Well, let his sister-in-law have more children if he is willing.

Su Fuqing didn't know that her brother-in-law was already thinking about her child before she got married. He was preparing everything for the wedding in an orderly manner at home with Su's mother.

After Gu Fengyun and Su Fuqing exchanged engagement letters, both parties chose a nearby date. As both of them were older, Gu Fengyun and Su's mother wanted to get the marriage done as soon as possible. Originally, they thought it would be best to get married before the New Year, but time was too tight and they didn't have enough time, so they chose the fourth day of the second lunar month after the New Year as the appropriate day to get married.

After the time was set, the two families started to get busy. Just to order wedding cakes, they had to hurry up. The period before and after the New Year is the peak period for marriages. If they didn't order early, they would be out of stock when the time came.

The Su family was not afraid, as Shengji made pastries and the host had already ordered their own wedding cakes long ago. The Gu family was a little rushed and had to look for several shops before they found one that was available.

Gu Fengyun almost never has a free time in the Ministry of Justice where he works. At the end of the year, he is so busy that he can't even go home. The housekeeper has to go to the Ministry of Justice to find him if he has something to do.

Although the Su family is not as busy as Gu Fengyun, they do not have free time every day. As the year draws to a close, everyone is more willing to buy cakes during this period of time. In addition, Shengji's jam cakes have become well-known in recent years and have occupied a place on the gift list in Beijing. Therefore, Su Fuqing, as the boss and pastry chef, does not have much free time.

Su's mother didn't care whether her son was tired or not. The first priority now was to prepare his dowry.

If it were their previous family situation, the youngest son would have had a grand wedding with a dowry that would stretch ten miles long. However, now the family situation is not as good as before, so Su's mother does her best to buy the best things for her youngest son.

In addition to bedding and clothes for all seasons, there are also head ornaments and jewelry. Su's mother took out all her treasures from the past and gave them to Su Fuqing to keep in the bottom of the box. Su Fuqing didn't want them at first, as these jewelry were the last bit of dignity his mother had left. Now that they were all given to him, what would she do in the future?

But Su's mother insisted, saying that the Marquis's family was wealthy and powerful, so they naturally looked down on her things, but this was already the best gift a mother could give to her child.

Su Fuqing couldn't persuade his mother and had to accept it. However, he secretly swore in his heart that he must come back more often to spend time with his mother and not let her, an old woman, stay alone in the empty house all day.

After preparing the dowry and the wedding dress, it was obviously impossible for Su Fuqing to embroider the wedding dress by himself. He had been taught as a boy since childhood and knew nothing about needlework. Su's mother did not expect him to embroider by himself, so she could only spend money to hire an embroiderer from outside to make one for Su Fuqing, and then let Su Fuqing embroider a few times by himself to show his appreciation.

The twelfth lunar month has arrived in the blink of an eye. This year, Grandpa Song and Grandma Song are very happy. They say that they want to celebrate the New Year in a lively manner. As soon as the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month arrives, they start preparing the dishes for the New Year.

The two old people tried their best to prepare the meal on New Year's Eve, and when the food was served, everyone was stunned.

"My dear father, did you really make this?" Song Daha looked at the bowl of dumplings on the table in disbelief. Not to mention, the dumplings looked pretty good.

But isn’t it midnight yet? Why are the dumplings already served?

Grandpa Song put the dumplings in front of Zhou Ning with a smile and told him that these were vegetarian dumplings.

"Ning'er, you can't stand the smell of meat now. These are vegetarian dumplings that Grandpa made especially for you. They are full of vegetables, no meat. Try one."

Zhou Ning was somewhat moved when he heard this. Under the old man's earnest gaze, he picked up a dumpling and put it into his mouth. It did not have the greasy and disgusting feeling of the past, but rather felt very refreshing. It was indeed as Grandpa Song said, full of vegetarian dishes without any meat at all, but it was very much to his taste.

After Zhou Ning finished eating one, he smiled sweetly at Grandpa Song: "Thank you, Grandpa, it's really delicious."

"Hey, as long as it tastes good, it's fine. If you can eat it, eat more."

Grandpa Song gestured to Zhou Ning to eat quickly. Zhou Ning was also quite hungry. Today was New Year's Day and there were lots of fish and meat on the table. He originally wanted to be patient and just eat a few bites of vegetables, but he didn't expect that Grandpa Song and the others actually made dumplings with pure stuffing for him. This moved Zhou Ning, who had not been eating well recently, so much that he burst into tears and ate twenty vegetarian dumplings in one go.

Song Chunsheng sat aside and watched with his eyes wide open. You know, ever since Zhou Ning became pregnant, her appetite has not been very good. After entering the twelfth lunar month, she vomited everything she ate. Not to mention meat, she couldn't even eat ordinary rice. He said that he felt nauseous when he smelled the rice.

Zhou Ning couldn't even eat, and had lost a lot of weight visibly. Song Chunsheng was anxious and angry every day, and would cry with excitement when he saw his wife stretching out her chopsticks for a certain dish a few more times. Now, Zhou Ning ate twenty dumplings at once, and was so full that he burped.

Song Chunsheng thanked God, but he was most grateful to his grandfather.

"Grandpa, you must have a solution. These days, Brother Ning throws up everything he eats. Today is the first time he can eat so much."

Grandpa Song puffed out his chest and said proudly, "Huh, you just know it. Back then, your little grandfather suffered a lot when he was pregnant with your second uncle. Our family was not well off at that time. Your little grandfather wanted to eat dumplings, but I bought flour but had no money to buy meat. I could only make vegetarian dumplings for your little grandfather. Hey, I didn't expect that your little grandfather really liked this. Just like Brother Ning, he ate more than 20 dumplings in one go."

Song Chunsheng didn't expect this to happen, but no matter what, as long as Zhou Ning could eat it, it was fine.

Song Qin also smiled and poured Zhou Ning a small cup of yogurt to help him digest it.

"Ning is now a great contributor to our family. I never thought that we would have the chance to see our grandson. When we fled from our hometown, I had planned to stay on the way. Unexpectedly, God took pity on us and allowed us to reach the capital smoothly. Chunsheng was able to marry such a good wife. Now we are about to have a grandson. Thinking about the life we have had these years, isn't it the good life that only gods can live?"

Song Chunxiao hugged Song Qin's arm with a jealous look on her face, and said coquettishly, "Mom, mom, you won't love Xiaobao and Yuanyuan less just because you have a grandson, right?"

Song Chunming looked at his younger brother with a frown on his face. He always felt that this boy was becoming more and more fond of acting like a spoiled child, and he didn't know where he learned this bad habit.

Song Qinshi also had a dark face. She stretched out her hand to push the boy's head away and said with some disdain: "You, you are like a monkey. You are so naughty that you want me to love you. Humph, if you do your homework on time every day, I will reluctantly love you."

"Ah, mother, it turns out that your love for me is not as great as my homework."

This brat was really good at telling lies. Song Dazhuang couldn't stand it anymore and hit him on the head with a chestnut, telling him to focus on eating.

This year, the Gu family did not come to the Song family to have the New Year's Eve dinner, but they did send New Year gifts. Gu Fengyue sent them personally. It was a full carriage filled with precious ingredients, medicinal herbs, silks and satins, as well as the palace lanterns that were indispensable every year.

It seemed that since the first year they moved here, Gu Fengyue would send palace lanterns every year, specifically for the children of the Song family to enjoy the lanterns, and she did it every year, and this year would be no exception.

The Gu family had a very lively New Year's celebration this year, with people coming to the door one after another to give New Year gifts. However, they had no idea what these people were thinking. No matter how favored the Gu family was by the emperor in previous years, it seemed that they had never had such a bustling crowd.

Gu Fengyun ignored them and turned around to send the Su family an equally generous New Year gift. When Su's mother brought Su Fuqing out, she almost dropped her jaw in shock.

"My Lord, are all these for us?"

Gu Fengyun nodded as a matter of course. He looked at Su Xiaoge, whose cheeks seemed a little thin. He wondered if it was because he was tired during the period before the New Year.

He waved to Su Fuqing, who walked over hesitantly. Gu Fengyun then took out a brocade box from his sleeve.

"This is what my mother left for my daughter-in-law. Our wedding date has been set, and I just remembered that I haven't given you any decent gift. I'll give you this as a token of my appreciation."

After saying this, Gu Fengyun left in a leisurely manner, leaving the mother and son in disarray.

In the evening, Su Fuqing opened the brocade box, and inside was a jade hairpin that was completely green. The head of the hairpin was carved into the shape of a peony, which made the hairpin look even more luxurious.

Su Fuqing played with the jade hairpin in his hand for a while before carefully putting it back into the brocade box. At night, he rested his head on the brocade box and even his dreams were sweet.

After the Chinese New Year, time passed even faster, and in the blink of an eye it was February. As the wedding date approached, Su's mother was obviously more nervous than her son. In contrast, Su Fuqing appeared to be very calm, but the calmer he was, the more nervous his mother became.

"I wonder why you still have the energy to make cakes? Your wedding day is in three days. You should be more careful and stop making cakes. Stay at home and rest. You will have plenty of time to work after you get married."

Su Fuqing smiled and showed no intention of taking a rest.

"I'm just sitting around doing nothing, and it's easier to have random thoughts when I'm idle. I'm just making cakes for the two of us now, which isn't too tiring, and it also allows me to calm down, which is much better than being alone."

Seeing that he was determined to do so, Su's mother stopped trying to persuade him and simply moved a chair over and sat next to him, watching him work.

Su Fuqing was still making the pastries meticulously. All the ingredients were exactly the same, and the final product was also extremely perfect. Su's mother knew that the pastries tasted excellent without having to taste them.

Su Fuqing broke off a small piece and sat in the yard with his mother, enjoying the last quiet time before their marriage.

While eating, Su's mother did not forget to ask Su Fuqing again and again: "Is the quilt ready? I should ask someone to come over tomorrow to paste the wedding characters for you. And those cloths also need to be arranged so that they can be put directly into the box. I don't know if there are enough red paper with wedding characters. If not, mother will buy some more..."

Su Fuqing listened quietly to his mother's mumbling. His ears were almost callused from the past few days, but his mother kept talking non-stop, which showed that she was much more nervous than he was.