Chapter 149: The Wedding Feast
When Wang Jiandong said that, the gloomy, self-pitying Xia Zhipeng had no choice but to stop sulking — yet he also couldn’t force a happy smile. His face stiffened awkwardly, stuck somewhere between a frown and a grin, and he ended up wearing a painfully fake smile as he stared ahead.
Ning Xiyue quietly gave Wang Jiandong a thumbs-up. When it comes to putting someone in their place, Comrade Jiandong, you’re the best.
The humble and low-key Wang Jiandong simply responded with a slight smile, slowly shifting his gaze toward the bride and groom up front.
Once today’s main characters appeared, everyone at the table turned their attention forward.
The team leader went on stage to host a simple ceremony. A red cloth was hung up in front, with a portrait of Chairman Mao pinned in the middle with bamboo clips, serving as the ceremonial backdrop.
“Let the ceremony begin!” the team leader shouted, and everyone quieted down to watch.
“Fire the salute!”
The person waiting by the gate lit the firecrackers. The pop pop pop of exploding firecrackers filled the air, making everyone instinctively cover their ears as they smiled and watched.
When the firecracker noise ended, the team leader moved on to the second part of the ceremony, shouting, “Newlyweds, take your places!”
Wang Fenglan and Li Jiandang, each with a big red flower pinned to their chest, walked toward the ceremonial space beneath the portrait.
“Poor my child — can’t even see it with her own eyes! Oh heavens~!”
Suddenly, a loud wailing voice echoed through the courtyard.
“Oh heavens, why—!”
Following the sound, Ning Xiyue saw Li Cuihua from next door. At some point, she had climbed up and was now sitting on the wall between the two courtyards.
Her hair was disheveled, and her cries were full of grief, beating her thighs as if singing a tragic folk song. Her howling rose and fell dramatically, with changes in pitch and rhythm.
The courtyard, which had quieted down for the ceremony, was now completely disrupted by her performance.
Her deliberately drawn-out wails echoed across the yard, and because she was perched high up, everyone’s eyes were drawn toward her.
Guests began whispering among themselves.
Wang Big Mouth’s face darkened. Hands on her hips, she yelled curses while looking for a bamboo pole. “Li Cuihua! If you dare ruin my son’s wedding feast, I’ll beat you to death!”
She swung the pole, but Li Cuihua was surprisingly nimble, dodging every blow.
The team leader, as the host, was furious that the ceremony had been interrupted so early. His authority was being openly challenged — and by a recently released habitual troublemaker, no less. His face turned livid as he roared, “Li Cuihua! Shut up!”
Startled by the shout, Li Cuihua’s wailing faltered and then stopped. But she remained seated on the wall, unmoving.
She was choking on bitterness — her daughter Xiuli had been sentenced to a lifetime of farm labor, while Li Jiandang was happily marrying someone new. The unfairness burned inside her.
“Li Cuihua! Get down, damn you!” Wu Laogen shouted furiously from the edge of the feast. He and his son, Wu Dazhuang, hurried toward their house to drag her down.
They had actually come to the wedding with the hope of easing relations with their neighbors. They’d even locked Li Cuihua up to prevent her from causing trouble — but somehow, she’d escaped.
Now Wu Laogen’s face was completely lost. The whole team already shunned their family, and after this, they’d be disliked even more.
Everyone stared up at Li Cuihua.
Standing next to Ning Xiyue, Liu Yao glanced at the woman on the wall, then at Wang Fenglan’s unhappy expression, and sighed.
“Poor Sister Fenglan. Just trying to get married, and she has to deal with this mess. If Li Cuihua keeps causing trouble, what will they do?”
“She won’t,” Ning Xiyue shook her head, eyes fixed on the ladder that had just appeared beside the wall. “Wu Laogen and his son are there now. Besides, she only wanted to disgust them. Her goal’s already achieved.”
Sure enough, Wu Laogen climbed up the ladder Li Cuihua had used, while Wu Dazhuang climbed up another. Together, they dragged her down.
Li Cuihua didn’t resist and obediently followed their pull.
Under the watchful eyes of their relatives, they locked her back inside. The father and son promised to stand guard at the door to prevent further incidents, and only then did things settle down.
After that humiliating scene, the father and son were too ashamed to return and join the feast.
“When today’s over, I’ll deal with you,” the team leader muttered before returning to host the wedding.
Li Cuihua’s antics had truly disgusted Li Jiandang’s family — the smiles on their faces were nowhere near as genuine as before.
When the commotion ended, Wang Big Mouth forced a smile and addressed the guests. “Let’s continue, continue. No one will interrupt now.”
“The bride and groom will now make their appearance. Let’s welcome them!” The guests clapped and cheered loudly for the newlyweds, doing their best to ignore the unpleasantness earlier.
As the ceremony resumed, Ning Xiyue noticed Wang Fenglan’s smile looked stiff and forced — smiling with her mouth but not her eyes. She was clearly upset.
Li Jiandang didn’t look much happier, either. He was clearly angry, but still had to comfort his bride.
This was a day the newlyweds would likely remember for the rest of their lives — their most important moment ruined by someone’s spite, leaving behind a scar that might never fade.
By choosing Li Jiandang, Wang Fenglan should have expected something like this.
Today was already a small disruption. If Wu Xiuli hadn’t been arrested, the wedding might have been completely ruined — perhaps even canceled. Thankfully, she was gone, saving them from an even bigger disaster.
As the saying goes: Good or bad, you must walk the road you chose — even if you’re crying.
All Ning Xiyue could do was wish Wang Fenglan happiness.
The rest of the ceremony went quickly. After bowing to Chairman Mao’s portrait, the team leader read a few lines from the Little Red Book and declared the ceremony over.
Applause broke out all around.
Liu Yao: “I hope Sister Fenglan will be happy.”
“Mm. I hope she will,” Ning Xiyue nodded, clapping.
“Everyone, the feast is now open! Eat and drink your fill!” Wang Big Mouth and her husband shouted.
“Alright!”
That shout was the loudest yet — this was the moment everyone had been waiting for and looking forward to.
It was time to eat.
The dishes were brought out one by one, and every table picked up their chopsticks, ready to dig in.
At Ning Xiyue’s table — full of educated youths — the atmosphere was relatively civilized, much like the banquets she’d seen in the modern world. People ate politely and in order.
But the table next to them left Ning Xiyue dumbfounded. As soon as a dish was placed down, it was empty within seconds — especially the meat dishes, with chopsticks flying everywhere.
There were only a few slices of meat per plate, and people nearly started fighting to get them.
Two people grabbed the same piece of meat at once and refused to let go.
“This is my piece!”
“My chopsticks got there first — it’s mine!”
“Hey, stop fighting — look, the dumplings are here!”
Both turned their heads for just a second.
In that split moment, a particularly formidable aunt snatched the piece of meat using a classic diversion tactic. She smiled triumphantly, then split the meat in half — one half for herself, one for her husband.
Wang Mengmeng, sitting to Ning Xiyue’s right, nudged her and whispered, “Xiyue, hurry up and eat. Look to your right.”
Ning Xiyue followed her gaze.
The people at the next table were already eyeing their dishes hungrily, sneaking glances over. One even had a plastic bag ready, clearly intending to swoop over and eat and pack up leftovers if no new dishes arrived.
Seeing this, Ning Xiyue’s chopsticks started moving faster. She had to “earn back” the gift money they’d given.
The other educated youths also lowered their heads and focused on eating with all their might.
Opportunities like this — a banquet with so many dishes — were rare. They had to make the most of it.
To be fair, the Li family had put together a pretty good spread, with several meat dishes — they’d clearly spent a lot.
But their table’s “fighting power” simply couldn’t match the others. After everyone was full and stopped eating, there was still a fair bit of food left on the plates.
Liu Yao held her belly and shook her head. “I can’t anymore. I ate too much — my stomach’s about to burst.”
“If you’re full, don’t force yourself. Here, eat some hawthorn.” Wang Mengmeng complained but reached into her pocket, pulling out a handful of dried hawthorn slices. “Here, two slices each — they’ll help with digestion.”
The moment Ning Xiyue saw the hawthorn, a traumatic memory flashed in her mind — the time Wang Mengmeng’s sour hawthorn had practically made her teeth fall out. The memory was so vivid her teeth ached just thinking about it. She shifted slightly to the left and politely declined.
“Thanks, but my stomach’s fine.”
