pdf-ebookys Chapter 361 Sending Invitations
Chapter 361 Sending Invitations
The next morning, the sun was shining brightly. Lin Chuyi got up early and came out of his room. After washing and eating, he took the generous New Year gifts prepared by his family and the packaged seafood, and drove a carriage alone, rushing towards Qingshan Village.
After arriving at Qingshan Village, Lin Chuyi drove the carriage directly to the headman's house.
Lin Chuyi came to visit the head of the village this time for two main purposes. The first was to present the carefully prepared New Year gift and wish the head of the village a happy new year in advance. The second was to sincerely invite the head of the village and his family to the county town to attend Lin Jinxiu's upcoming coming-of-age ceremony.
This is also an important thing that Lin Chuyi wants to accomplish when he returns home this time.
Lin Jinxiu was born on the 18th day of the twelfth lunar month, and she will be 15 years old after her birthday this year. According to current customs, girls who are 15 years old need to hold a Jiji ceremony in the same year, which means they have reached adulthood.
After the coming-of-age ceremony, the adults in the family can help the girl find a husband and arrange a marriage.
The parents of Lin Chuyi and her four siblings had passed away long ago, and they had cut off all contact with their relatives. Therefore, the task of preparing for the coming-of-age ceremony naturally fell on Lin Chuyi, the pillar of the family.
When Lin Chuyi carried the things to the village head's house, he found that the village head was not at home. After some inquiries, he found out that the village head had gone to Li Shitou's house at the west end of the village to be a witness to their family division.
Qingshan Village has undergone tremendous changes over the past year. Due to the bumper harvest of peppers, most villagers in the village have earned considerable income by growing peppers.
With money in hand, people's minds began to become active. In the past, due to poverty, dozens of people in a family could only squeeze into a small old house to make a living, but now that they have more money in hand, people naturally start to think about improving their living conditions.
Everyone wants to use the money to build a spacious and bright new house for their family. With a new house, it will be easier for their younger generations to get married.
Building a new house is not a difficult task for the villagers of Qingshan Village now, after all, everyone has a certain economic strength. However, the biggest problem they are facing now is not the funds, but the limited area of the homestead.
Although the distribution of houses in rural areas is not as dense as that in county towns, and the housing area of each household is usually much more spacious than that in county towns, those areas with superior geographical locations have long been occupied by local villagers.
If someone wants to build a more spacious and comfortable house by purchasing a homestead, there are currently two options.
One is to build houses on the edge of the village like Lin Chuyi and his friends did, and the second is to split up the family directly and then use the money they get to build their own houses.
The former can directly meet the demand for building a large house, mainly because they can afford to buy land and build a house, and they can build any size they want.
Although the latter cannot change the specific building area, because after the division of the family, there are fewer people living on their own, and the size of the homestead remains unchanged, the average housing area per person is larger, which can be regarded as an indirect realization of the idea of living in a spacious house.
Generally speaking, villagers are unwilling to build houses in the outer areas of the village unless they have no other choice. There are two main reasons for this situation.
On the one hand, since the outskirts of the village are far away from the village center, living there can easily have a negative impact on one's social relationships, which in turn damages one's family's reputation in the village.
On the other hand, the world today is not peaceful, and wild beasts in the mountains often sneak down the mountain to cause trouble under the cover of night. The closer you live to the outskirts of the village, the higher the possibility of suffering disasters.
Moreover, once an accident really happens, even if other villagers hear the news and rush to support, precious rescue time will be delayed due to the long distance.
No one can accurately predict when a disaster will strike. All the villagers can do is to try their best to avoid the possibility of a disaster. Therefore, they generally prefer the second option.
However, most people at that time still held the idea of "staying with the family while the parents are still alive". Even if the younger generation of the family had the idea of splitting up and living on their own in their hearts, they would never dare to express it rashly, otherwise they would be labeled as "unfilial" by people in the same village.
It was not until the old man of the Liu family in the village resolutely decided to split the family and ordered his son to find the head of the village to approve the homestead for building a house that the trend of splitting the family within Qingshan Village was truly ignited.
The villagers who had originally intended to split up the family suddenly became eager to act, fearing that if they acted too slowly, they would miss the opportunity and cause all the good land for building houses in the village to fall into the pockets of others. So everyone began to discuss their own plans for splitting up the family.
The formal family division ceremony is actually very particular. Before the division, the head of the family will usually invite the clan leader who is highly respected in the clan and the local headman in charge of management to serve as witnesses of the division and participate in and supervise the entire division process.
Doing so will not only ensure a fair and equitable division of property, but will also avoid unnecessary disputes or entanglements over property distribution in the future.
After the division is completed, several division documents need to be drafted and the contents of the division recorded on them. The witnesses will personally review them and confirm that they are correct. The written division documents will be kept by both parties and the witnesses respectively for emergency use. Only in this way can the division process be completed.
Because of this, at the end of this year, the village head became the busiest person in the village. After all, this period is the peak period for each household to hold the separation ceremony.
The village head's grandson, entrusted by his grandmother, trotted all the way to Li Shitou's house, came to the village head's side, leaned close to his ear, and whispered to him that Lin Chuyi was waiting for him at home.
After learning the news, the village head first let his grandson go home first and told Lin Chuyi to wait for a while, and then continued to stay in Li Shitou's house to fulfill his duties as a witness.
Li Shitou has reached the age of knowing the destiny. Although he dare not claim that he has seen countless people, he still has the ability to observe people's words and expressions.
Although he didn't know what the headman's grandson said to the headman, judging from the child's hurried come to report the news, what he said must be very important.
However, after hearing the news, the village head still chose to stay here and witness the process of his family's division, which undoubtedly gave Li Shitou enough face. Li Shitou was quite moved by the village head's move and did not want to delay the village head's important matter because of his own family's affairs.
Therefore, Li Shitou began to speed up the distribution of the family property without making a fuss. Fortunately, the division plan had been discussed privately with the younger generations in the family, and now it was just a formality. Therefore, the whole division process went very smoothly.
After receiving the division document handed over to the village, the head of the village rejected Li Shitou's invitation to dinner and quickened his pace to rush home.
When the two met again after not seeing each other for a long time, they naturally exchanged warm and cordial greetings. After exchanging polite words and New Year's greetings, Lin Chuyi got straight to the point and got straight to the point.
Lin Chuyi looked at the head of the village seriously and said, "Grandpa Head of the Village, I came to visit you this time not only to wish you a happy new year in advance, but also because I have another important matter that I would like you to help me with."
After hearing this, the village head straightened up slightly and responded in a firm tone: "If you have anything to say, just ask. As long as it is within my ability, I will definitely not refuse."
Lin Chuyi raised the corner of his mouth slightly, revealing a faint smile, and explained softly: "Grandpa Lizheng, you misunderstood what I meant."
Before the head of the village could react, Lin Chuyi quickly took out an exquisite invitation from his sleeve and handed it to the head of the village personally.
"Take a look at this first."
The village head took the invitation with a little doubt, and then opened it carefully. When he saw the contents of the invitation, he opened his eyes wide in surprise, but after thinking about it carefully, he put away his surprise and showed approval.
"Well, according to the calculation of time, Jinxiu girl has indeed reached the age for the ceremony of coming of age. Once she completes this ceremony, she can be considered a grown-up girl in the true sense of the word." The head of the village said with emotion.
"Yes, coming of age is a big event and we can't be careless. But we don't have any elders in our families, so we have to do it by ourselves. I hope that the village head and your family can take time out to go to the county to support us on the 18th day."
Li Zheng immediately gave Lin Chuyi a firm word: "I have watched you guys grow up, and I know best how difficult it is for you. I accept this invitation and will definitely be there when the time comes."
"Then I will wait for the arrival of the village chief at home."
The village head waved his hand and said, "What do you mean by honorable visit? I am an old man and I have not seen Jinxiu for a long time. I heard that her shop is doing very well. It is obvious that this girl has the potential to become a big business. I just don't know which stinky boy will get her in the future."
Hearing the headman's tone that sounded like emotion and inquiry, Lin Chuyi remained calm. He acknowledged Lin Jinxiu's business ability in a roundabout way and then changed the subject.
When the village head saw Lin Chuyi's attitude, he knew what was going on. He stopped dwelling on the topic and started to care about Lin Cheng and Lin Wuyou's study problems.
Lin Chuyi accepted all questions of this kind and answered them all. He chatted with the head of the village for half an hour and said goodbye and left the head of the village before dinner time.
He took the remaining invitations and gifts to the few families in the village who were closest to his family. By the time he had distributed all the invitations and gifts, it was already afternoon. Lin Chuyi did not stay in the village for long and drove the empty carriage directly back to the county.