Top Scholar

Chapter 383 Grand Ceremony

When Su Lu woke up the next day, her head was still spinning. She walked on clouds to the main room to pay her respects to her grandparents.

Upon entering the main room, good heavens, there were huge trunks all over the floor; there wasn't even room to step...

"What's going on? Are we moving?" His mind was still a bit foggy, and he couldn't quite process what was happening.

"It's time for the grand betrothal ceremony for the three brothers," the eldest aunt's booming voice rang out. "What's wrong? Has the top scholar gotten drunk? Have you forgotten your wedding is in half a month?"

"Oh..." Su Lu slapped his forehead and laughed, "So that's why I didn't see Xiu Mei."

He's getting married to Huang E at the end of this month...

Normally, after high school, one should return to their hometown to pay respects to their ancestors, but Huang, the provincial governor, was still waiting for the wedding to take up his post. So the families had already discussed it and decided to hurry up with the weddings first, and then have the three couples return to Erlangtan to pay respects to their ancestors after the weddings.

~~
According to the "Book of Rites: Marriage", the marriage of children, from the discussion of marriage to the completion of the marriage, must go through six rites: betrothal, asking the name, accepting auspicious gifts, presenting betrothal gifts, announcing the date, and welcoming the bride.

For the next two thousand years, people followed Confucian rules and established marriage contracts through the Six Rites. However, people later felt that the Six Rites were too cumbersome, so they merged the asking of the name and the betrothal, and the setting of the wedding date into the betrothal ceremony, reducing it to four rites.

When Zhu Xi finalized the "Family Rituals of Zhu Xi," he further incorporated the auspicious date selection into the betrothal ceremony, simplifying the six rites into three. Thus, the three rites of "betrothal, gift presentation, and wedding ceremony" became the established system of the dynasty.

Therefore, the betrothal ceremony in this dynasty was far more elaborate than in ancient times. It required a matchmaker to first arrange the marriage, with the groom's family meeting the bride's family and vice versa. If both sides agreed, they would then ask for the names and compatibility of the birth dates and times. If the birth dates and times were compatible, a betrothal gift of colored silk would be exchanged, and the marriage contract would be formally established.

The same applies to betrothal, which mainly consists of two parts. The first is setting a date, commonly known as choosing a date. After the engagement, the groom's family selects an auspicious day for the wedding and seeks the bride's family's consent.

Secondly, there is the "grand betrothal ceremony"... Half a month before the wedding, the groom's family will invite two to four "blessed aunts" to accompany the matchmaker to deliver the betrothal letter and betrothal gifts to the bride's family.

The betrothal letter is the document of engagement, the betrothal gift list is the list of betrothal gifts, and together with the marriage certificate that is presented to the bride on the wedding day, these constitute the three documents in the "Three Documents and Six Rites," which are the proof of the marriage between the two parties.

The betrothal gifts listed in the betrothal book will be delivered to the bride's home on the day of the betrothal ceremony.

While the three brothers were in Chengdu, their family was also busy preparing for the wedding. They had chosen an auspicious date last month and set the wedding for September 28th.

Yes, the three brothers' weddings will be held on the same day! This way, they can have a grand celebration while saving time, effort, and money.

Otherwise, holding three weddings in a row would be exhausting.

When Su Lu and his two brothers returned to Luzhou, it was already September 12th. Today, with half a month to go before the wedding, it happens to be the day of the betrothal ceremony.

The eldest aunt and the youngest aunt, both considered "blessed women," were naturally the main force in preparing the betrothal gifts for the three brothers. They had been busy in Luzhou for almost half a month and had finally gathered the betrothal gifts for the three brothers.

"Ernier, open the box and show it to the Third Young Master," the eldest aunt instructed, as if presenting a treasure.

“No problem.” Erni’er quickly opened the rows of gift boxes with copper corners and vermilion lacquer and gold trim. The various betrothal gifts glittered in the morning light, almost blinding Xie Yuanlang.

"Each of the three families will receive two thousand taels of silver as betrothal gifts!" As his aunt explained, Su Lu saw three large wooden chests filled with neatly stacked silver ingots, each worth fifty taels.

"Two hundred taels of gold each!"

It was also crafted into ten gold ingots with the design of "Five Sons Passing the Imperial Examination" and ten gold bars with the design of "Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Auspiciousness," wrapped in double layers of cloud brocade and red silk, and placed in two engraved and gilded bronze boxes.

"Two hundred catties of top-grade refined salt!"

The finest well salt is as white as snow and is stored in large blue-and-white porcelain jars from Jingdezhen, decorated with large red velvet balls.

"Two sets of pure gold headdresses each!"

Two filigree phoenix hairpins inlaid with rubies, two kingfisher feather phoenix hairpins inlaid with pearls; two gilded kingfisher feather hairpins, two filigree hairpins inlaid with pearls; a pair of double dragon playing with a pearl bracelets, a pair of gold-inlaid jade bracelets; a pair of gold-inlaid jadeite earrings, a pair of gold-inlaid cat's eye earrings, all housed in a filigree silver box.

"A set of silver wine vessels and a set of silver tableware!"

Each set of silver wine utensils includes eight wine cups, one wine pot, and one wine vessel; each set of silver tableware includes twelve bowls and plates, and a matching set of soup spoons and silver chopsticks.

In addition to gold, silver and jewelry, each household also had six bolts of Shu brocade, six bolts of Hangzhou satin, six bolts of silk gauze, and eight pieces of fur.

As for wedding cakes, tea, wine, pastries, seafood, and delicacies, they are all readily available and need no further explanation.

"Good heavens, is Auntie not doing well?" Su Lu hadn't paid much attention to the family's finances in the past two years, but he hadn't expected them to have become so wealthy.

“This child, what do you mean by ‘not enough’? How can a scholar speak so rudely? This is like building a new house while eating cornbread—spend money and celebrate as you please!” Auntie said with a pained expression, “Who told you to find wives who are all so wealthy? We can’t lose face.” “What if our betrothal gifts are less than their dowries? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?” Auntie lowered her voice and said, “Besides, we sent our betrothal gifts first, and they sent their daughters later. They’re keeping track.”

"That's true." Su Lu couldn't help but chuckle. It seems that no matter what, a harmonious relationship between in-laws should always be one of equal exchange, with neither side taking advantage of the other.

The eldest aunt laughed as she spoke, "Of course, it's mainly because the family is rich now, otherwise I couldn't pretend to be rich even if I slapped myself in the face."

~~
In this day and age, wealth and status are always intertwined; if you don't have enough status, you can't hold onto your wealth, but if you do, wealth will naturally flow in.

As the Su family's status in Luzhou rose steadily, their business naturally flourished as well.

Even the sweet drink business is booming. Sweet Drink Shop has opened ten branches in Luzhou (one prefecture and three counties) and Lincheng and Taiping towns, and the annual profit from these areas alone is nearly two thousand taels!
This is only a small part of the Su family's current income; the bulk of it still comes from Erlang Wine.

Erlang liquor continues to sell well throughout Luzhou and Lincheng. The only limitation on sales now is production capacity. After the merger of Su and Cheng, the annual production capacity has reached 300,000 jin, but it is still in short supply.

My uncle even boasted that if Erlangtan's production capacity could keep up, he could sell Erlang liquor to Chongqing and Chengdu!
The Su family can get two parts from the liquor business: one is the sales commission, and the other is the income from the shares in Erlang Liquor Industry. Last year, these two parts combined amounted to as much as 6,000 taels!

"By the end of the third quarter this year, the net profit has already approached six thousand taels... and the upcoming fourth quarter is the peak season!" The uncle stood beside Su Lu, watching with him as the procession delivering the grand gifts left the house amidst music and fanfare.

He lowered his voice excitedly and said, "If my dear nephew is willing to help, I'm confident that our family's income will exceed ten thousand this year!"

"What do you need me to do?" Although Su Lu's mind was still a little foggy, he still narrowed his eyes warily.

"Relax, would your uncle ever cheat you? I'm your stepfather," Su Youma said with a smile.

"You'd swindle even your own father, let alone your stepfather." Su Lu sneered, "So, what are you up to?"

“That’s right…” Su Youma then revealed, “Although our business is booming, we also have our problems – the mid-range Erlang wine is selling too well, which is affecting the reputation of the high-end wine.”

He explained, “When customers hear that a wine has the name ‘Erlang’ in it, whether it’s Erlang’s Fine Wine or Erlang’s Aged Wine, they think it should cost 100 coins. But when we sell it for 200 or 300 coins, they simply don’t buy it.”

"Hmm." Su Lu nodded. This was also the problem with domestic mobile phones in later generations; they couldn't break through the 2999 ceiling for many years.

“But our high-end liquor uses the Kunsha process, blended from ten or twenty years of aging. If we were to price it similarly to Erlang liquor made with crushed grains, we'd go bankrupt,” my uncle sighed.

"So now both tribes are saying that they should just stop selling Kunsha wine and sell Erlang wine instead."

“That won’t do.” Su Lu shook his head decisively. “The liquor business is ultimately about branding. Only high-end liquor can shoulder the responsibility of building a brand. If we want to make the liquor business bigger, stronger, and more sustainable, we absolutely cannot give up on this aspect!”

"Yes, that's absolutely right!" Uncle gave a thumbs-up with both hands and said, "A top scholar is indeed a top scholar!"

"Alright, stop flattering me. Are you trying to use my name to sell wine?" Su Lu sneered.

"..." The uncle stared in disbelief for a while before chuckling awkwardly, "As expected of my worthy nephew, you guessed it right away—I'm thinking of renaming Erlang's Fine Wine to 'Jieyuan Langjiu'. With your current immense popularity, it'll definitely sell well at two hundred coins!"

Su Lu remained silent for a long time, seemingly weighing the pros and cons. His uncle, fearing he might disagree, quickly interjected:
"My dear nephew, think about it. Just by changing the name of the wine, we can open up sales channels for our high-end wine and earn several thousand taels more a year. Only a fool wouldn't do something so beneficial and effortless, right?"

"It's true that I'm the top scholar in the provincial examination, but that title isn't just mine. There are so many top scholars across the country, and Sichuan only produces one every three years." Su Lu sighed and said, "Isn't it a bit shameless to have such a name?"

"Then we can't do it?" Su Youma said disappointedly.

"No, what I mean is, since you're already going to be shameless, why don't you change the name of the aged wine to this?" Su Lu said leisurely, "Three hundred coins a jar, that'll make more money."

“Hey, my dear nephew, you need to think long-term. What if you become the top scholar again next year?” Su Youma said earnestly, “So let’s save Erlang Chenniang for next year and change its name.”

"Become the top scholar? Dream on!" Su Lu laughed. "We've never produced a top scholar in Sichuan."

"Luzhou has never produced a top scholar before!" the uncle muttered, then said to Su Lu with great confidence, "Anyway, I have a strong feeling that no one can beat you in any exam."

“You’re too reliant on past experience,” Su Lu shook his head. Of course, he couldn’t tell his uncle that he had offended Eunuch Liu and it was hard to say whether he could pass the imperial examination, let alone become the top scholar.

He said softly, "Everyone is a victor before the first defeat."

Yang Shen, far away in Xindu, sneezed loudly...

P.S. I'll really read the next chapter tomorrow morning.

(End of this chapter)