At nine o'clock in the morning, Zhang Feng drove his light truck, with two pieces of red silk tied to the front of the car and a section of lotus root wrapped in red cloth, symbolizing a happy marriage. The matchmaker and Wang Shan's father were sitting in the front passenger seat and the middle seat, and two close relatives from the village were also sitting in the car.
As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the village, the two tribesmen who were sitting in the carriage got out of the car, carrying bamboo baskets containing flower films and melon seeds wedding candies. . Everyone in the village received a bunch of congratulations. Children and onlookers followed behind the truck. More and more people gathered, and they rushed towards the village chief's house in a lively and vigorous manner.
The four got out of the car, and the two matchmakers bowed with their hands clasped in front of the village chief's house. Wang Shan shook hands with Yinhua's father. The Yinhua family members stepped forward to take the bamboo baskets carried by the Wangshan family members, and then took out the wedding candies and melon seeds and threw them to the spectators. Everyone was rushing to grab them, which was really festive. The two tribesmen opened the car door, and after getting on the car, they took out two bottles of Xifeng liquor tied together with red silk, and two bottles of Xizhou cigarettes tied together with red silk. The Yinhua family members took them in turn and returned them to the cave dwelling. , came out again and continued to receive gifts.
What was unloaded this time was what the locals called "Fangzi", a large piece of pork with six ribs. The two tribesmen took it and brought it to the kitchen, asking Yinhua's mother and a person from the village to help. Closely related female tribesmen, cook them in the Yinhua family’s cauldron. Next came six pieces of "lidang" fabric, which was a new patterned fabric from Suzhou and Hangzhou that Li Tongfu helped them pick up at the wholesale market. Then I presented them with pairs of clothes bought at Xizhou Supply and Marketing Cooperative under the leadership of my classmate Wang Yanhua, which means good things come in pairs.
The final highlight was a watch wrapped in red silk cloth and a brand new Phoenix bicycle tied with red silk cloth. These were valuable items in those days and were enough to testify to the importance the Wang family attached to this marriage.
After all the engagement gifts were unloaded, Zhang Feng drove back to Yangliufang's carpentry yard, and the guests were welcomed into the yard of Zhao Yinhua's house. Entering the cave dwelling, guests and hosts were seated. Village Chief Zhao Jinchuan personally untied the two bottles of wine, opened one of them, and evenly poured it into eight wine glasses placed on a prepared red tray. The eight wine glasses could just empty one bottle of wine. The eight guests and host each took a glass and drank the wine together. Then the woman's matchmaker, the old horse dealer, fills the empty wine bottle with the corn, wheat, rice, millet and sorghum prepared in advance, which means that the two families will have a good harvest after getting married in the future.
At this time, two members of the Yinhua family went to the kitchen to bring the "recipe" in, divided it into two parts, and then were invited out again. After they finished eating the long noodles (a kind of very long noodles) Later, the groom's family brings back the other half, which means "raw rice has become mature rice". Village Chief Zhao opened the Eight Immortals table, and the Yinhua family members went to the kitchen to bring out the dishes and long noodles that had been carefully prepared since the morning. The eight of them sat around and made fists, drank wine, and ate noodles. This was the completion of the ceremony. During the banquet, the guests and hosts also agreed on a day for drinking wine (bringing betrothal gifts).
Yang Liufang, Zhang Feng and the village chief Shitou were busy in the carpentry yard until noon. They called it a day and were about to start cooking when they heard a knock on the door. Village Chief Shitou went to open the door. It turned out that Yinhua's mother was bringing someone with a food box. Village Chief Shitou recognized him because of his work. Yang Liufang also had Wang Shan because he and Wang Shan had eaten the large plate chicken she cooked at Village Chief Zhao's house. Recognize. Rush to greet him.
"Auntie, congratulations! The family is so busy, why are you here?"
"Oh, Xiao Zhang and you are working so hard. Your uncle is worried that you won't be able to eat well, so he asked me to send you some vegetables and Yinghua's happy noodles for everyone to try together."
"Oh, thank you, uncle, aunt. Please come in and take a look at our furniture?"
"Oh, I'm busy at home, so I won't go in. I heard your old uncle and Buddha (said), okay nun (he's here)."
The three of them sent away Yinhua's mother and the tribesmen who brought the food, and gathered together to share Wang Shan and Yinhua's wedding dishes and noodles.
After lunch, the three of them rested for a while. The Yinhua family members came and asked Zhang Feng to drive over. They returned to the Yinhua family yard and received gifts in return. As the host, Village Chief Zhao gave Zhang Feng two packs of cigarettes to express his gratitude. Zhang Feng congratulated and thanked Village Chief Zhao, and then drove Wang Shan's drunken father, matchmaker and two tribesmen back to Wangshawan.
Li Tongfu and Wang Shan went to the countryside to sell goods for another day, and they came back in the evening and gained a lot. With the help of Brother Shitou, Yang Liufang only had a dressing table left in the furniture production. The other furniture such as desks, Taishi chairs, benches, round stools, big beds, etc. were basically completed, filling two rooms, so that they went in To sleep in a room with a kang, you have to go in sideways.
He arranged for the village chief Shitou to start polishing the furniture the next day and paint the furniture as soon as possible. After completing one piece, he would send one to Yinhua's house. This would free up space, otherwise there would be no room to put the second set of furniture when it was made.
Next, in addition to helping Yang Liufang lift the heavy boards and use the table saw to cut out the materials, Village Chief Shitou spent most of his time polishing the furniture. After each piece was polished, Yang Liufang inspected and accepted one piece until the surface was as smooth as a mirror. Use a clean towel to wipe off the scum, apply putty, and continue to polish it smooth.
When it came time to paint, Yang Liufang did it himself.
He mixed cinnabar and varnish in proportion and stirred them evenly. After many tests until the color of mahogany appeared, he used a wool brush to paint on the furniture. When the Eight Immortals Table was painted out of the tabletop, Yang Liufang discovered a problem, that is, after the paint was finished The back surface will leave traces of the brush. In addition, due to the production process of the wool brush, the bristles will fall off from time to time and stick to the paint on the table. It cannot be removed by hand. Even if you pick it out with a needle, it will still appear. Leave a trace.
This was a common problem with furniture of that era, so everyone can accept the finished product. The picky Yang Liufang refused to give up. He carefully flipped through the pages of "Chinese Furniture", "Appreciation of Ming Style Furniture" and "Research on Ming Style Furniture" to find a solution, but found nothing for two consecutive days. Serious Yangliu Fang doesn’t think about tea or rice, and even dreams about finding a solution. This state of affairs was discovered by Li Tongfu who came back from selling goods.
"Brother, what's wrong with you? You sigh every day, and you haven't painted in the past two days."
"Brother, I'm thinking about how to solve the problem of brush marks on the paint surface."
“What are the brush marks?”
"Come, let me show you." Yang Liufang turned the lantern brighter and took Li Tongfu to see. Sure enough, he could vaguely see the brush marks. He looked closer and saw that there were needle and nail marks in some places.
"Oh, brother, I thought this was a huge problem. This is easy to solve. Can't you just spray it and it's over?"
"Squirt? How to squirt?"
"The year before last, when my shoe-selling business was not doing well in Hangzhou, I went to several garment factories in Haining and wanted to buy some clothes to sell, but they wanted to buy in large quantities. I had no capital at the time, so I didn't do it. But during the inspection , I saw a leather garment factory. When they made leather garments, they didn’t oil the leather garments, but sprayed them with oil. After spraying, it was very even.”
"Don't go too far, brother, why are they spraying!"
"I see you are in a hurry. I saw them connecting a pipe with a nozzle and a spray can to a can filled with steam. Then when the valve was opened, the oil mist sprayed out, and it was lightly swept on the leather surface. , the leather jacket is so shiny."
"Oh, that's it. Brother, why don't we go into the city together and see if Xizhou has this equipment? If so, buy it back. Anyway, it will be needed sooner or later."
"Um, let Yinhua Da call the car for us tomorrow." Wang Shan also answered the call.
"Thank you, third brother!"
"Oh, you're so polite, you're just doing something for me. Go to sleep, I haven't had a good night's sleep in a few days."
Yang Liufang really didn't eat or sleep well for several days because of this matter. Now he had a solution. Although he didn't know whether he could buy such a device, he finally had hope. So I washed my feet with the hot water Brother Shitou had heated, then lay down on the warm kang to sleep.
After sleeping on the kang for half a month, Yang Liufang had become accustomed to the burning feeling on his back, especially after a day of heavy labor. In the past, Yang Liufang used to sleep on his stomach to relieve fatigue, but now he prefers to lie flat on his back, letting the kang activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis to relieve his fatigue. After a night of ironing on the kang, like cupping, and because I am young and energetic, when I wake up the next day, my fatigue is always gone, and my whole body is like a perpetual motion machine that is indestructible.
