Traveling through ancient times, I led my family to prosperity

In this day and age, women who can earn money as matchmakers also do so to support their families. Cui treated her politely, and Chunhua served her tea and a plate of cakes.

The matchmaker's surname was Wang, and she was a widow. Being a matchmaker was a hard job, and no one in the family who had a man working would be willing to do this job. In order to feed her children, she had no choice but to go from street to street to earn money as a matchmaker. It was not easy to be a matchmaker in this famine year, after all, marrying a woman meant having one more mouth to feed.

"Oh my, how did you bring up such precious cakes?" Matchmaker Wang was shocked when she saw the cakes being served. This was not the good years before. Not many farmers could afford to serve cakes in this year. She turned around and looked at Chunhua, and immediately smiled and said, "This is Chunhua, she is very pretty."

"This is my daughter. I'll entrust her to you in the future." Cui said with a smile.

"This is incredible! Such a beautiful girl hasn't been picked out yet?" Matchmaker Wang said hurriedly.

"Not yet. I'll have to ask you to help me find it later." Cui said with a smile, "Eat some cakes and we'll talk in detail."

Matchmaker Wang picked up a piece of cake, took a bite and said, "This cake is very expensive. Only families like yours can use it to entertain guests."

Cui was very polite to the matchmaker. After all, Chunhua's marriage would depend on her. "This year is really bad. If it was a good year, there would be no shortage of food and drink."

When the matchmaker left, she was smiling and promised that she would pay attention to Chunhua's matter.

In a blink of an eye, it was the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month. There was only one day left before Sheng Yuan's wedding. The Sheng family went to the town to buy pork early in the morning. It was the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, and the shops and stalls in the town were open. No matter how difficult the family was, the New Year had to be celebrated.

When the country folks prepare a banquet, they have to prepare many things one day in advance. Now the year is not good, so there are only three tables for the banquet. The banquet is organized by the family members, and no chef is hired, so the family has to prepare one day in advance to avoid being in a hurry on the day of the banquet.

In the afternoon, Sheng Xuan and Zhang brought 20 kilograms of tofu and 20 kilograms of bean sprouts to help at old Sheng's house. The men were responsible for the tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks, while the women were responsible for picking and cutting vegetables, frying meatballs and meat. The meat would be steamed in a pot before the banquet the next day and could be served on the table.

In the evening, everyone had finished their work. "Third brother, come back after dinner." Grandpa Sheng asked him to stay.

"Dad, no need. Let's go back and eat. Life is not easy these days. You can eat more of the food you save. We live close, so we won't take up the food." Sheng Xuan said and went back with Zhang.

The fried meatballs and meat were placed in a large basin outside the yard, waiting to be used to entertain guests the next day. In this era, fried meatballs were only made during the Chinese New Year or when something big happened.

This year's disaster was severe, and the family was even more hungry. Xiao Liang took advantage of the dark when everyone was eating to sneak into the yard, open the big basin, grab the meatballs and meat and stuff them into his mouth.

"What are you doing! Put your things down." Chunhua caught Xiaoliang red-handed and started yelling.

Xiaoliang was caught before he had eaten much. He grabbed a handful of meatballs and meat and ran home.

Chunhua ran out from the upper room, stopped him, pointed at his nose and cursed, "You greedy devil, these are for tomorrow's banquet. If there are not enough dishes for tomorrow's banquet, I will chop you into pieces to make up for it."

Xiao Liang was like Shen, a shameless man. He completely ignored Chunhua's curses and just stuffed food into his mouth frantically, trying hard to swallow it.

When Cui heard Chunhua's curse, she hurried out of the upper room. She first glanced at Xiaoliang and cursed him. Then she opened the big basin to see how much meatballs and meat had been eaten. "You bastard, you are so greedy. You ate so much. Aren't you afraid of being stuffed to death?"

Cui was really angry and slapped Xiaoliang on the face. Xiaoliang had obvious marks of the hand on his face and cried loudly in pain.

There was a lot of noise outside, which alarmed Mr. Sheng and his group. Sheng Kai and Shen followed out. When Cui saw Shen, she immediately scolded her, "What kind of mother raises what kind of child, Xiaoliang has learned all the cheating skills from you."

Shen's face turned red, she picked up the broom and threw it at Xiao Liang, "I told you to eat it secretly, I told you to eat it secretly."

Xiaoliang was beaten so hard that he screamed and shrieked. Grandpa Sheng felt sorry for the child and told Sheng Kai and his wife to take Xiaoliang back home, while Zhou and Chunhua went to clean up the mess.

The next day, everyone got up very early. A banquet was set up at the Sheng family's house. Amid the sound of firecrackers, Sheng Yuan, wearing a bright red wedding dress, welcomed the bride into the bridal chamber.

There was another burst of firecrackers, and the feast began. There were two tables for male guests and one for female guests. The Sheng family prepared two extra tables, just in case too many people came and there was no place to eat.

The Sheng family has a lot of rules. During a meal, family members are not allowed to sit at the table. They can only eat after the guests are full. Xiao Lan thought to herself, now that every household is not full, it would be strange if there is any food left on the table.

It is worth mentioning Pang Xiu'e's family. When Xiu'e got married, her family came to see her off. Generally speaking, there are at most two or three people coming to see her off, but there were six people from Pang's family. These people directly opened a table and ate as if they had not eaten for several lifetimes, without even raising their eyelids.

Among these people, Cui only recognized Xiu'e's eldest sister-in-law, and she didn't know any of the others. When she found out that the other two daughters-in-law were Xiu'e's sisters-in-law, and the children were brought by these two daughters-in-law, Cui was completely furious, and really treated her family as a fool.

It was in accordance with the rules for Xiu'e's sister-in-law to come and see her off, but what was wrong with her sister-in-law bringing her brothers, wives and children from her natal family to eat and drink for free? Cui was so angry that she felt sorry for the table of food. Cui thought to herself that this family was too unrefined. How could three adults and a few children have a meal together? In this situation, most people would squeeze into other tables, and would not open a new table. In this era, children were not counted as part of the population. They sat with their parents.

Cui didn't want to make Sheng Yuan's wedding banquet too embarrassing. Although she was angry, she still took the overall situation into consideration. "Chunhua, come here. I want to tell you something."

Cui called Chunhua over and gave her a few instructions, and then Chunhua left.

Chunhua was originally angry about Xiu'e's sister-in-law's new banquet, but after hearing Zhou's words, she immediately became happy and hurried out to find Xiaoliang.

Xiaoliang and his two half-grown children hurriedly ran in from outside, found Xiu'e's sister-in-law's table, ran over, sat down and started to eat voraciously. At that time, every household in the village was not full, and the food on the table was greasy and delicious. The three of them felt that chopsticks were not easy to use, so they threw down their chopsticks and started eating directly with their hands, and they specially picked vegetables and meat dishes to start with.