Chapter 237.2: Wedding 3
The qinw.a.n.g manor’s wedding banquet, unless having relation or carrying friends.h.i.+p, else with their status, a great majority all don’t have the qualifications to enter and attend.
Speaking of which, despite stopping over for this long, Jing Wan’s palanquin was never once placed down. Fortunately, the people lifting the palanquin were all muscular and strong, and holding the palanquin while standing in place, not even moving once, to the extent that when moving once again, there wasn’t this ‘lift up’ process. Jing Wan finally realized in hindsight this bit. Presumably, these people all practiced martial arts, their body strong and st.u.r.dy.
With such an incident, there naturally won’t be anymore excessive troubles afterwards.
However, Jin Qinw.a.n.g ‘going one against a hundred’, carefreely writing out over a hundred second verses, this will certainly, in an extremely short period of time, spread all over. And quite a few people ‘saw the hunt and became delighted[1]‘, knowing these calligraphies’ worth, secretly storing away. These were all Jin Qinw.a.n.g’s first set of ink treasures.
Nearing Jin Qinw.a.n.g Manor, hearing the festive clamor, the qinw.a.n.g manor also seemingly sounded the drums and gongs, firecrackers unrestrainedly popping.
After stopping the palanquin, tilting the palanquin door, a five six year old gorgeously dressed ‘palanquin exiting’ little miss welcomed the bride out of the palanquin. Lifting the palanquin curtain, using her tender little hands, she slightly tugged on Jing Wan’s sleeve three times, and Jing Wan finally exited the palanquin, stepping onto the red felt. With the matron of honor’s support, she stood to the right of the qinw.a.n.g manor’s entrance gate. Reasonably speaking, during the process of Jing Wan exiting the palanquin, Li Hong Yuan should’ve entered the gates to ‘hide away’, and then have a little boy invite him out. However, a certain someone didn’t follow the rules again, directly standing to the left of Jing Wan.
The master of ceremonies signaled Li Hong Yuan with his eyes with all his might, but unfortunately, his eyes were already about to cramp, yet Jin Qinw.a.n.g still ‘didn’t understand’ his meaning. The others also were also helplessly anxious, but in the end, the living Enma express his annoyance.
The matron of honor felt numb in the head from Li Hong Yuan’s stare, but suddenly came to an understanding, hurriedly having the red flower silk ball brought forward.
Li Hong Yuan took a step ahead, but as he moved, he paid attention to Jing Wan’s movements at all times.
Jing Wan’s line of sight was blocked, so at this time, can only slightly lower her eyes, slowly heading forwards. However, fortunately, the matron of honor followed by Jing Wan’s side, aptly warning her in time, for instance going up the steps, then prior to entering the gates, step over a vermillion saddle with an apple placed on top. These things, without needing to understand, one would still know, the implied meaning for ‘safe and well’[2].
Inside the gate, the two sides of the red felt naturally were filled with guests.
Speaking of which, the matter of the palanquin getting blocked already spread back ahead of them. And seeing Jin Qinw.a.n.g’s clothes quite wet, they were already certain that this matter was definitely true. Just, Jin Qinw.a.n.g ‘greatly showing off his heavenly might’, this was still pending discussion.
However, majority harbored suspicion, and there were also those whose expression became increasingly dark when looking to Li Hong Yuan, for instance those brothers of his. Their thoughts were just one, concealing that deeply, what exactly are you up to?
Since there were people paying attention to Li Hong Yuan, then naturally there were also people paying attention to Jing Wan. That incomparably luxurious wedding dress, with a three feet train dragging behind, and as she slowly walked, the scattered fragrant red flower petals on the red felt quietly danced, secretly scattering into her wide sleeves. The sleeves and the dress lightly fluttered along the gentle breeze, as if surging forth in an endless sea of flowers, yet also like the flame burning in the horizon, rolling forth from that lofty tall sky, seemingly as if about to burn up this flouris.h.i.+ng abyss. There were further those that want to lift open the gorgeous veil, taking glimpse of the bride’s stunning beauty.
Of course, there were naturally those that were jealous, for instance those w.a.n.gfeis that will soon become Jing Wan’s zhoulis. One has to know, when they got married, their clothes also weren’t embroidered by them. The more highly regarded, naturally the better the material used and the craftsmans.h.i.+p. Among them, the one with the most honorable status was naturally Kang w.a.n.gfei. However, Kang w.a.n.gfei has already pa.s.sed away, so this number one naturally just landed on Rui w.a.n.gfei. At the time, the things the imperial family gave her were a little less compared to Kang w.a.n.gfei’s, but in terms of good and bad, hers were actually superior. For instance, just comparing the wedding gown, hers was better. Including the later zhoulis, not a single one could surpa.s.s her. Although she knew, in this matter, there was the result of the various imperial concubines and the various princes’ contending, she still had a bit of sense of superiority inside. But in this moment, that sense of superiority obliterated completely. This kind of wedding gown, they’ve never once thought about before, but in reality, no matter how rare or uncommon of a thing, as long as the people of the imperial family wanted, then naturally they would be able to bring out, just crimson moonlight silk after all. It was just that they didn’t think of it. ————-But Jin Qinw.a.n.g thought of it.
(T/N: Kang w.a.n.gfei is highest in status because Kang Qinw.a.n.g is the eldest di son, and Rui w.a.n.gfei is next because Rui Qinw.a.n.g is actually the second oldest among the princes. Although he’s the third prince, the second prince died as an infant, so above him in age is only Kang Qinw.a.n.g.)
Rui w.a.n.gfei suppressed the sour feeling in the bottom of her heart. Some things, no matter how much one envied, it was all useless. Moreover, these honors and glories, in the end, were all given by one’s man. When fourth younger sister-in-law (Gong w.a.n.gfei) tried to make trouble for Luo third miss at the time, how come she just didn’t think of the root cause.
Rui w.a.n.gfei had her gaze turned to Li Hong Yuan. This man perhaps deceived everyone. Perhaps his good towards Luo third miss was just due to his care and fondness towards her, and didn’t really include those messy guesses of outsiders’, what not having the other brothers taken seriously, making them lose face; what finally having taken a wife, so naturally need to be better; what he has plenty of good things, so just showing off……….
Fortunately, there was still some time from the auspicious hour. Jing Wan temporarily stop to rest under cloth canopy set up in front of the main hall’s corridor, while Li Hong Yuan quickly went to change his clothes.
“The auspicious hour has come————” The master of ceremonies’s high-pitch voice sounded.
Under Li Hong Yuan’s lead, they stepped into the wedding hall. Just, because his old man was the Emperor, and can’t possibly appear, the seat for the parents was empty.
The bride and groom faced towards the outside door, “Kneel…….”
Turning around, “Kneel, one kowtow, two kowtow, three kowtow, rise………..”
They stood face to face. In Qi Yuan, when bowing to each other, there was a ‘whoever kneels first, whoever will be in charge in the future’ kind of implied meaning. As such, scenarios where the bride would use her feet to kick the groom’s kneeling cus.h.i.+on just appeared, and occasionally would cause the groom the go on strike.
(T/N: The kowtow rites in the wedding ceremony is three kowtows each, doing a total of three sets, one set to the heaven and earth, one set to the parents, and one set to each other. The cus.h.i.+on kicking is pretty hilarious, I do like that the author occasionally adds more unique customs to the world setting that don’t actually exist in actual history.)
Facing the people of the imperial family, probably no one would stupidly compete to kneel down first, especially as the imperial family’s daughter-in-law. Jing Wan naturally won’t do this kind of senseless thing either. As such, she did the same as the other imperial family daughter-in-laws, slightly standing still for a moment, and after feeling it was more or less okay, finally knelt down. However, what she didn’t know was that in reality, Li Hong Yuan only knelt down after she’d knelt down. Although the time difference wasn’t much, the others nevertheless had that brief moment he waited taken in clearly. The meaning couldn’t be more obvious, tsk…………..
“………..One kowtow, two kowtow, three kowtow, rise. Send into the bridal chamber.”
[1] 见猎心喜 – The full translations of this idiom is ‘seeing others go hunting, one is excited by the memories of the thrill of the hunt’; figurative meaning is ‘seeing others do what one loves to do, one is inspired to try it again’.
[2] 平平安安 – ‘ping ping an an’, meaning safe and well or being at peace; in chinese, the word for apple is 苹果(ping guo) and the word for horse saddle is 马鞍 (ma an)