EBE Chapter 252: Their family’s beam-raising banquet today was a huge loss!
Chapter 252: Their family’s beam-raising banquet today was a huge loss!
On December 12, Yang Kaiyun's family held a beam-raising banquet.
Yang Kaiyun's original plan was to entertain several important figures in the village, such as the village chief, the clan leader and a few villagers who were relatively well-off, and to prepare six dishes as a token of his appreciation.
After receiving the invitation to the banquet, Lin Dahe found out Yang Kaiyun's intention and immediately said that his behavior was too petty. He didn't act like a master who came back from the city at all. Instead, he looked like someone who couldn't make it in the city and returned to his hometown to seek refuge.
Building a new house and holding a beam-raising banquet are happy events. The more people there are, the more lively it is, and the family will be prosperous in the future.
Lin Dahe suggested to Yang Kaiyun that he should first publicize the time of the banquet and see what the villagers think. Those who are willing to give gifts can have a wedding banquet together to have a festive occasion and also to establish good relationships with everyone so that when the family encounters trouble in the future, there will be no one left without help.
As for the dishes, there should be at least ten of them, with more meat than vegetables, to prove that their family is indeed living a good life and it is not just bragging.
Yang Kaiyun was left speechless by Lin Dahe's words.
All the boasting had been done, and the house was almost finished. Yang Kaiyun didn't want to be laughed at at this critical moment, so he could only tell the villagers the time of his own beam banquet and reluctantly increased the number of dishes to ten...
After Yang Kaiyun and his companions returned to Yanglinpo, they kept acting like city people and did not work in the fields to earn work points. Lin Dahe said nothing and asked them if they wanted to buy grain. The rice in the village was 5 cents a pound, and they could just carry the rice back and grind it themselves.
Yang Kaiyun thought that this price was better than buying rice in the village, so he bought 1000 kilograms of rice and ground it into rice, which was about 500 kilograms, enough for his family to survive the winter and hold a Liang banquet.
Lin Dahe would come with his hands behind his back every day to check on the progress of Yang Kaiyun's house construction. If he found any "cutting corners", he would stop it immediately and enthusiastically tell Yang Kaiyun that the inferior materials were not worthy of his status and would ruin a good house. People who didn't know the truth would think that his family had run out of money.
Yang Kaiyun had no choice but to replace all the materials for building the house with better ones.
Yang Kaiyun has spent nearly 500 yuan on food, drink and house for his family.
Seeing that the money in his hands was getting less and less, Yang Kaiyun asked Yang Jinsen to write a letter to Yang Jinlin and Feng Qiaolan respectively, urging them to send the money back.
He hasn’t received a reply yet and thinks the postman was delayed on the way. He thinks that if he waits a few more days, he won’t have to worry about money.
Fortunately, Yao Di asked for a large amount of dowry when she got married, and she also saved some money on weekdays, otherwise she wouldn't be able to hold the beam-raising banquet...
On the day of raising the beam, big red couplets were pasted all over Yang Kaiyun's new house. Fragrant wood was tied to the main beam of the roof, and a pair of copper plates, a pair of new red chopsticks, and colorful new cloth strips were tied to the fragrant wood.
Jin Mei and Da Ni and Er Ni made a basket full of big steamed buns in advance. There were big red wedding characters on the top of the buns. Anyone who came to give a gift could take a steamed bun.
Almost all the villagers in Yanglinpo came to Yang Kaiyun's house to congratulate him.
Some brought ten eggs, some brought two feet of cloth, and some brought 5 cents or 8 cents.
The one who gave the biggest gift was Lin Dahe. He gave one dollar, but he brought his entire family with him, and there was not enough room for them to sit at the table.
Almost all the villagers who gave gifts came with their entire families.
The ten tables that Yang Kaiyun originally planned for the banquet were simply unable to accommodate everyone. People had arrived and could not be sent away, so he had to add more tables temporarily.
Mrs. Fang's heart was bleeding as she counted the gift money.
With just the small amount of money everyone gave, their family’s beam-raising banquet today would be a huge loss!
Yang Kaiyun looked at the gifts everyone had given him and the packed "guests" and felt angry. Was he being taken advantage of?!
Seeing that Yang Kaiyun and Fang Pozi looked unhappy, Lin Dahe was afraid that the two would become stingy and drive everyone away without caring about anything, so he spoke first: "Kaiyun, today is a good day for your new house to be built, don't be so cold.
We are in the countryside, we don't have much harvest, so we can't compare with you rich people in the city. The little things we sent are all from our frugal life. Don't think it's too little, just blame us for being too poor.
Since you are rich, please be considerate of us. It is a token of your appreciation. If you really mind, we can skip the meal."
As soon as these words were spoken, people immediately started to make a fuss.
"What? The Kaiyun family thinks our gift is too little? I saved those two feet of cloth from last year until this year. I didn't even want to give it as a dowry when I got married. I thought it was rare for the Kaiyun family to have a wedding, so I gave it to them. How could he not like it?!"
"My family only received about ten yuan this year. My child's father fell ill a few days ago. In order to save money, we didn't dare to see a doctor. The fifty cents was enough for our family to use for several months. If I had known that they would think it was too little, I would not have come here to be despised."
"You said you have plenty of food and drink in the city and have endless money to spend. In my opinion, you are just bragging!"
Seeing that what people said was getting more and more unpleasant, Yang Kaiyun quickly came out to express his opinion: "Fellow villagers have misunderstood, we didn't complain that the gifts you sent were too little, we were just thinking about the issue of food.
We didn't expect that everyone thought so highly of us and came to give us gifts. The dishes we prepared were a little limited. Please sit down for a while. We will immediately send someone to the village to buy food."
Lin Dahe: "It seems that we are mistaken. Jin Lin from the Kaiyun family is a high-ranking official in the city, how could he be short of money?
Let's not speculate about them with petty minds. Please sit down. We are from the same village. Don't let trivial matters hurt the harmony. Today is a big day for his family. I believe that good luck will make us eat well. "
Yang Kaiyun: “!!!…”
Things had developed to this point, and Yang Kaiyun was in a dilemma. In order to save face, he had to give money and let Yang Jinsen take a few villagers to buy vegetables...
Yang Kaida's son Yang Jinhong saw that Yang Kaiyun's house was bustling with activity, so he asked his father if he wanted to go and send some gifts, and then have the whole family go to the banquet.
Yang Kaida was chopping wood, and said without even looking up: "No! If we take advantage of them today, they will come after us tomorrow."
Yang Jinhong: "My uncle's family seems to be quite wealthy. Not only did they build five rooms, but they also bought the best bricks and tiles. I heard that today's banquet will have ten bowls and plates. If you don't have some money, you can't make that."
Yang Kaida: "It's just a shame to save face! Have you ever seen rich people like them? They wish the whole world knew they were rich!
It is said that even if one harvests ten thousand shi of grain, one still needs to eat simple meals.
In the past, the big landlords in the village would hide the good things they had at home, for fear that others would know they were living a good life and would have to pay rent on credit, or that they would be targeted by those with guns and have their homes raided.
Your uncle's family must have been unable to make it in the city and were worried that everyone would laugh at them, so they put on a brave face and pretended to be rich.
Not only do they not work in the fields to earn work points to exchange for food, they also show off everywhere, causing the whole village to take advantage of them. They deserve to suffer and be poor!
They show off when they have money and starve when they have no money. Just wait, their true colors will be revealed soon!
As for the others, I have no relationship with them and they can take advantage of me without admitting it. But I am his brother. If I eat a cheap meal today, with his temper, he will shamelessly come to us to ask for food when his family runs out of food.
If we don't give it to them, they will definitely refuse to leave and even throw tantrums and try to blackmail us.
We have food at home, so why would we get into such a big trouble just for a little gain?"
Yang Jinhong thought back to what his uncle had done and felt that his father's words made sense, so he gave up the idea of going to Yang Kaiyun's house for a free meal...