Chapter 1448: Wedding Banquet

But there’s never really any free time for farmers, there’s still plenty of work to do.

Liu Tongtong’s health is actually quite good now, things have stabilized. The Tao Family already knows she’s pregnant, and Mr. Tao excitedly sent another two thousand yuan, telling her not to scrimp, to eat whatever she wants.

On May 1st, that morning, the Tao Family was especially busy. Qu Xiaoli again called a few women over to help.

Last night Yang Zhongyi had already come over, and today the groom was also so busy his feet barely touched the ground.

Yang Zhongyi had no objection at all to holding the banquet at the Tao Family’s place. He didn’t feel there was anything bad about the bride’s side putting on the banquet.

Wei Kaiyun and Old Yang also came early to help out.

Tao Chunhe’s intention originally was not to invite the educated youths, but since they’d all already come over with gift money, there was no way around it, they had to add one more table.

Now it wasn’t just an extra table, the Lv Family had also sent gift money.

Tao Chunhe felt quite helpless. He’d wanted to avoid the Lv Family. But they were relatives with his cousin now, and it was also giving his cousin some face.

Luckily they weren’t short on anything at all. Otherwise they’d really have been scrambling.

Jin Erlin’s whole family arrived at eight o’clock. They also helped with the work.

Today Tao YanZhen just sat in the house. She actually felt quite unaccustomed to it. She didn’t have the mindset of a bride at all.

Guodong was outside helping paste up the "double happiness" characters. When he pasted one on her room, he looked through the glass at that man etched in his heart, and knew that from now on they really would only be strangers passing by.

Li Manjiang took over the work from Yang Zhongyi’s hands, telling him to go change clothes. It was already after ten, everything was ready, just waiting for the guests to arrive.

But what guests could there really be? The few families were all here busy working. It was just that the children hadn’t come over yet, that was all.

Although the wedding was simple, there was still a simple ceremony.

Yang Zhongyi, straight and neat in a military uniform, looked every bit an outstanding man.

By eleven o’clock, the educated youths had all come over too. All the guests had arrived. Everyone gathered outside, watching Li Yungui preside over this simple ceremony.

The two of them took their vows in front of the leaders’ portraits, which could be counted as truly becoming husband and wife.

Cries of congratulations rose one after another, everyone sincerely wishing the couple well.

Seeing the ceremony end, Qu Xiaoli hurried to take charge of serving the dishes.

This time there were only seven tables, so they didn’t use the children; the few women were enough.

The dishes were arranged very lavishly. Although the banquet was held at the Tao Family’s place, all the money was paid by him. Tao Chunhe didn’t argue with him over it; after all, he was taking a wife, not marrying into her family.

In Li Family Village now, eating meat and drinking liquor is very straightforward, so every table had a big jar of baijiu.

Everyone chatted and joked as they ate and drank. Anyway, they were truly happy for the young couple.

Today Pan Xiaoying finally saw Lv Beiguang. She hadn’t really suspected that the child in Yang Xiuqin’s belly was Lv Beiguang’s; she just knew Yang Xiuqin had always been at the distillery, and she’d asked around obliquely among those working there. She’d found out that most of the time Yang Xiuqin worked alone, so ever since she came back she’d wanted to find Lv Beiguang and ask.

But she kept not running into him, and the distillery wasn’t somewhere she could just walk into whenever she felt like it. Besides, she wasn’t yet an educated youth of Li Family Village. If it hadn’t been for Tao YanZhen’s wedding this time, and her getting wind of it, she wouldn’t have had the chance to come over.

Today she finally bumped into him. The two tables were close to each other. Seeing they were still drinking, Pan Xiaoying wolfed down her food, then squeezed over to their table.

"Mr. Lv, I have something I’d like to ask you."

Lv Beiguang froze for a moment. He had basically no contact with the educated youths here, especially as she was from another village.

"Comrade educated youth, what is it?" Lv Beiguang wondered what she could want with him.

Pan Xiaoying had originally just wanted to ruin Yang Xiuqin’s reputation, but it turned out that although Yang Xiuqin hadn’t been in Li Family Village long, her reputation was quite good. Of course that made Pan Xiaoying unhappy.

"Lv Zhiqing, I just want to ask about Yang Xiuqin."

"Xiao Yang? What about Xiao Yang?"

"Mr. Lv, you don’t know? After Yang Xiuqin left here and went back to her hometown, she gave birth to a pair of twins. And she told people back home that she got married here, but they couldn’t get along so they divorced and she came back."

This was a bombshell; Lv Beiguang was stunned.

Inside, Pan Xiaoying laughed wildly. From Lv Beiguang’s expression she could tell Yang Xiuqin must have been lying. She’d never married at all; the children in her belly weren’t necessarily anyone’s in particular, they must be bastards.

So she went on, "Yang Xiuqin’s reputation back home isn’t very good, because she got divorced. But I never heard of her getting married, so I wanted to ask Mr. Lv."

Pan Xiaoying was speaking in quite a loud voice, and they were in this small courtyard, so everyone present heard the news.

In his heart, Lv Beiguang immediately thought of that spring dream he’d had. He didn’t even know why his mind went there, but he just had that feeling.

Looking at Lv Beiguang’s expression, if this female educated youth wasn’t lying, then the children had to be Lv Beiguang’s. But it seemed he didn’t know.

But why wouldn’t he know? Back then Yang the educated youth suddenly leaving had already puzzled everyone; it had to be that she’d found out she was pregnant and left to avoid things.

Why did she have to avoid him? It meant that the two of them had had something happen between them, maybe unintentionally.

Right now Lv Beiguang’s mind was in chaos, and he kept reminding himself he had to stay calm.

"Comrade educated youth, this is Xiao Yang’s own business. You really don’t need to be so curious." How could he not see that she was clearly trying to drag Xiao Yang’s reputation through the mud?

Pan Xiaoying hadn’t expected to be snapped back at like that. She froze for a moment. "Mr. Lv, I only care about Xiuqin. I don’t mean anything else."

"Whether you mean anything else is already obvious from how you’re acting."

Pan Xiaoying ended up thoroughly embarrassed, and slunk back to her seat.

The educated youths were quite curious. But this occasion wasn’t suitable for asking anything.

Seeing that Lv Beiguang was a bit agitated, Wei Kaiyun asked, "Beiguang, you still drinking?"

Lv Beiguang knew he’d lost his composure a bit, so he quickly adjusted his expression, picked up his glass. "I can only handle an average amount, so this one’ll be my last."

Actually his heart was churning like the sea right now. Yang Xiuqin had never had the time or opportunity to get close to anyone else, she’d always been working with him.

And he often had those kinds of dreams. If what that female educated youth had just said was true, then those children were his. But when could it have happened?

He ate absentmindedly, his mind dwelling on this matter the whole time.

Guodong and Jing Chu, the brother and sister, had roughly figured it out too.

It wasn’t that they wanted to throw mud at their own dad, it was mainly that Dad’s reaction now was pretty much giving it away.

The two of them weren’t really angry. Mainly they figured Dad probably didn’t know what had happened either.

Jiang Xinyu ate with her head down, also thinking: that educated youth Yang leaving so suddenly, it should be connected to Lv Beiguang. Man, who’d have thought it could turn out like this?