Chapter 923

Having lived a second life, Li Long had followed wedding processions, but driving a jeep to pick up the bride was a first.

Gu Xiaoxia's leader, Director Wang, treated her very well, and after she was transferred over, he helped her get a permanent position, which could be considered Gu Xiaoxia's guide.

So, both emotionally and rationally, Li Long was willing to drive over to help.

There was still some time before New Year's Day. After Gu Xiaoxia received Li Long's positive reply, she notified Director Wang the next day.

Director Wang was very happy and considered himself to have completed the task—his nephew was getting married, not to mention he gave a gift, he even found a 212 jeep to pick up the bride; this face was enough.

Since he had to pick up the bride for someone else, Li Long had to tidy up the car properly. After breakfast the next day, he first drove the car to the county transportation company for maintenance, which took half a day.

After maintenance, Li Long drove the car back to the big courtyard and began to tidy up. The car had carried hides and such before, and there was still some smell in the corners occasionally. He scrubbed the car thoroughly, and after an afternoon, this jeep, if not brand new, at least looked much more impressive than before.

Although in Li Long's view, it was just like that, at least now that this car was driven out, it was not inferior to the two in the county committee courtyard.

After tidying up the car, Li Long was quite careful when using the car in the next few days. Fortunately, there was nothing major, and the car remained in a very new state.

On December 31st, Director Wang's nephew, Wang Qiyuan, invited Li Long and the others who were helping to eat at Tuanfeng Building to discuss the matter of picking up the bride tomorrow.

Being able to entertain these helpers in a place like Tuanfeng Building already showed that the Wang family's strength was solid.

The matter of inviting guests had been mentioned before. If it were in the countryside, it was usually to let the master chef cook a table of dishes in the courtyard in advance, invite the people who needed to help, and arrange the matter.

In the city, the people invited to weddings were often fewer than in the countryside, so the matter would be more streamlined. Inviting guests was usually at home, or inviting a table at a restaurant, and explaining the matter while eating.

Being able to place the matter of inviting guests at Tuanfeng Building made Li Long a bit surprised. After all, at present, the county government hotel was not open to the public, and Tuanfeng Building was already the highest-grade place to invite guests in the whole county.

Li Long thought that this family might still want to see the car, so he drove the jeep to Tuanfeng Building.

The place to invite guests was in a large private room on the second floor, which could hold two tables.

The Wang family invited two tables, it seemed that there were quite a lot of people helping.

When Li Long entered, some people were already sitting around the table in the private room, chatting while smoking, and melon seeds, peanuts, cigarettes, and candies were placed on the table.

"Hello, you are..." someone asked Li Long. This was a man in his thirties wearing a suit.

"I am the driver of the jeep," Li Long said. "Is it the Wang family picking up the bride?"

"Yes, yes, yes, come, come, come, Master, sit inside, smoke, what is your surname?" The middle-aged man was very enthusiastic. Those who could drive a jeep were not ordinary people, so he naturally greeted him with a smile.

"I don't smoke." Li Long waved his hand, sat in the corner inside, grabbed a handful of melon seeds and started cracking them, saying while cracking, "My surname is Li."

Seeing Li Long sit down, that person smiled and said: "Master Li, you sit first, there are still a few people, after they come, we will start the banquet."

Li Long nodded, didn't speak again, just listened to these people gossip while cracking melon seeds.

Most of the people present were young people, and two were master chefs. What surprised Li Long was that the banquet tomorrow would be in the courtyard, just like in the countryside, and these two master chefs were the ones cooking. Actually, Wang Qiyuan intended to open the banquet at Tuanfeng Building, but firstly, Tuanfeng Building didn't have enough tables, and secondly, some distinguished guests were coming tomorrow, and someone had already booked tables at Tuanfeng Building, so they couldn't clear the venue, so they simply did it in the courtyard.

The bride was a math teacher at the town primary school. Li Long guessed it should have been introduced by Director Wang. Although the bride was teaching in the county, her parents were in the township and were not farmers, but in the mouths of these people present, the bride was considered to be climbing high.

Because this Wang Qiyuan worked at the County Light Industry Bureau, which was a good unit.

Of course, Li Long didn't think so, but since others saw it that way, he naturally wouldn't say anything.

Tomorrow, they would set off from the county, go to the bride's parents' place in the township to pick her up, and then return to the county to hold the banquet. The process was almost the same as what Li Long had seen in the countryside before. Wang Qiyuan's leader, the director of the Industry Bureau, would be present to give a speech, etc. Today, the main arrangement here was the procedure and the work to be done by division of labor.

After more than ten minutes, people arrived one after another. Two young people, a man and a woman, were sitting next to Li Long. They were the groom's classmates, chatting in a low voice about the interesting things about how the groom and bride met.

Li Long hadn't listened much, when the middle-aged man who welcomed the guests earlier clapped his hands and said:

"Okay, everyone is here, let's serve the dishes first, the groom will come over in a while, let's discuss our own business first. When the dishes come, let's chat while eating, I will straighten out this procedure, and everyone can help see if there are any problems."

Li Long evaluated that this person was quite capable.

The dishes for the two tables were served quickly. It wasn't a particularly good banquet. There were two hard dishes, one braised pork knuckle and one spicy chicken, and the rest were basically vegetarian cold dishes.

For Li Long, this was a very ordinary banquet, but for most people, this was already very good to eat. They were a bit impatient, but before the middle-aged man said to start the banquet, they basically remained restrained.

"Eat, because there will be important things tomorrow, so we won't drink alcohol first," the middle-aged man also understood the mood of these people, waved his hand and let them eat, "Next, I will go through the procedure, Master Li... tomorrow you have to drive the car to the gate of the Industry Bureau family courtyard at ten o'clock, no problem, right?"

"No problem." Li Long said, he raised his chopsticks, just picking up a piece of century egg—everyone's target was mostly the pork knuckle and chicken on the table, he didn't have much interest.

The pork knuckle was too greasy, and the spicy chicken was not as good as the big plate chicken. He had just eaten big plate chicken at home yesterday, and currently didn't have any thoughts about chicken.

"Good, good," the middle-aged man said with a smile, "That's fine, Master Cao, tomorrow you are the same, the tractor has to follow and be in place. Master Li, drive the jeep slowly tomorrow, the tractor's speed is not as good as yours, we have to form a motorcade, the lead car can't be too fast."

It turned out there was a tractor, so Li Long smiled and said no problem.

Master Cao was about forty years old, didn't speak, just raised his left hand to signal no problem, and was now burying his head in eating the pork knuckle.

"Well, that's good. For those moving things onto the car, Little Wang, Little Qin, you two have to arrive at the family courtyard at nine-thirty, prepare things with Qiyuan, and move them up as soon as the car arrives, understand?"

"Understood." Little Wang and Little Qin were the two young people next to Li Long, who were to move the things the groom's family gave to the bride's family onto the car and send them over.

The middle-aged man was about to continue speaking, when the private room door was pushed open, and then a young man walked in. Li Long intuitively felt that this should be the groom—the spirited look, it should be.

"The groom has arrived," the middle-aged man said with a smile, "Come, come, come, let the groom speak first."

Wang Qiyuan had a new haircut, commonly known as the traitor's head in later generations, which was quite popular at this time. He was also wearing a suit, with a woolen coat hanging on his arm, and the red scarf on his neck was quite eye-catching. Li Long looked at it with the eyes of later generations and thought it was a bit tacky, but it was quite fashionable at this time.

To be honest, his appearance was average. Li Long felt that this groom was certainly not as handsome as himself, and only slightly better than Tao Daqiang, but maybe because happy events make people feel refreshed, plus he worked in an agency, he had a bit of an intellectual temperament, so he looked not bad.

The table near the door left a seat for Wang Qiyuan, but Wang Qiyuan didn't sit down. He waved at these people with a smile and said:

"Because there are still things to do, I won't sit down. Everyone eat well and drink well. If the dishes are not enough, order more. I have only one sentence, tomorrow's matter is entrusted to everyone. You eat slowly, I'm leaving!"

After finishing, he said to the middle-aged man: "Brother Liu, I entrust you to take care of this side."

"No problem, you go do your work." The middle-aged man was a bit surprised, but then reacted quickly and said with a smile, "After all, it's the groom, it's normal to be busy on the first day."

Following Wang Qiyuan in was also a man in his forties. He sat in Wang Qiyuan's original seat and picked up his chopsticks with a smile.

After Wang Qiyuan left, that Brother Liu introduced to everyone: "This is the groom's second uncle, Wang Chunsheng, from our county food company. Today he represents the host here."

The meaning was very clear: the one who was in charge was still this Brother Liu, similar to the manager of a banquet in the countryside, while this Wang Chunsheng was the representative of the host family. Of course, he shouldn't speak, just sit here as a facade.

Wang Chunsheng smiled at the others and then started eating—Li Long discovered that this person really didn't avoid people when eating, raised his chopsticks straight at the pork knuckle, and picked up half of it at once—the pork knuckle was stewed extremely rotten. This Wang Chunsheng was originally aiming for the whole pork knuckle, but because it was stewed rotten, he only picked up half.

When others saw his action, they were a bit surprised. That Master Cao felt that this matter was a bit wrong. He didn't wait for Brother Liu to speak, immediately stretched out his chopsticks, picked up half of the remaining half, and then the two master chefs also joined in, one picking up meat and one picking up bones, and this pork knuckle was gone.

Wang Chunsheng ate the picked-up pork knuckle in two or three bites, and when he raised his chopsticks again, he found that it was gone from the plate, and he was a bit displeased.

Brother Liu was also a bit helpless, but he couldn't say anything, and continued to talk about the procedure.

Li Long only remembered his own business. Wait for people at ten o'clock, load things after people get on the car, and then go to the bride's house. As the lead car, his car had to pick up the bride and the people from the bride's family who were pressing the car, and it would be finished after picking up the bride from her maiden home to the family courtyard. Next was to go in and eat the banquet.

After picking up the bride tomorrow, there would be a banquet the day after tomorrow, and he would also be invited over then—Li Long thought about looking at the situation then, if he had time he would come, if not he wouldn't.

Anyway, it was just a pack of cigarettes, a towel, and a bar of soap, and he wasn't short of it.

It was just that this banquet looked a bit interesting. That Wang Chunsheng looked like he hadn't eaten meat for many days. After failing to eat the second chopstick of pork knuckle, he started to rummage through the plate of spicy chicken.

With him rummaging like this, others who were dissatisfied couldn't say anything, and some joined in.

Li Long just watched it like a joke. Most of these people were from the county and had some relatives with the Wang family. When talking about the bride, they all said she was lucky and climbed high to the groom's family, but their behavior at this moment was so vulgar, no different from those rough men at the big banquet in the countryside.

The room was filled with smoke. Although Li Long didn't smoke, he inevitably got some smoke smell on him, and he was a bit unhappy. After all, there were two sons at home, and he didn't want the children to smell this kind of secondhand smoke.

So seeing Brother Liu talking about things, and basically having nothing to do with himself later, he stood up, walked over, and said to that Brother Liu: "I have something to do at home, I will arrive on time before ten o'clock tomorrow, I'll leave first."

Brother Liu was a bit surprised, looked at the banquet table and saw there were still many dishes, thinking that even if you were driving for the leader, it was impossible to eat this banquet usually, and you are leaving now?

But since Li Long wanted to leave, he didn't think about keeping him, just urged Li Long to remember the time tomorrow.

After Li Long went down, he didn't drive immediately, but walked back and forth in the snow to disperse the smell on his body before driving back.

Just like this, he returned to the courtyard. After Mingming and Haohao greeted him, they smelled him and said "Daddy stinks," and then avoided him.

Li Long smiled bitterly, it really was as he said.

He went to change his clothes and threw today's clothes into the washing machine.

In the evening, he told Gu Xiaoxia about what he encountered today. Gu Xiaoxia was also a bit surprised, but then took it as a joke.

After all, there are people with high quality everywhere, and there are also people with no quality everywhere. On average, people in the city are better educated, and relatively speaking, there may be more people with high quality, but it's really hard to say how much higher.

Because Li Long helped with the car, plus the relationship with Director Wang, Director Wang's meaning was that Gu Xiaoxia must take the children to attend the wedding tomorrow, so Gu Xiaoxia agreed.

Fortunately, Mingming and Haohao were obedient at this time, and Li Long had nothing to do after returning from picking up the bride, so there was certainly no problem for the two of them to take care of the two children.

"Don't rush to go tomorrow, after I pick up the bride, I will come to pick you up together." Li Long said, "To avoid freezing if you go early."

According to Brother Liu's statement today, although the banquet was in the courtyard in winter, a plastic shed was set up in the courtyard, and a stove was burned in the shed, so it was quite warm and wouldn't freeze people, but Li Long felt it was better for the two children to go later.

"Okay." Gu Xiaoxia nodded, "We will wait until twelve-thirty, if you haven't come by then, we will go by ourselves."

The matter was settled like this.

The next day, Li Long got up after eight o'clock, and it was still dark. He first added hot water to the jeep, spent some effort to start the car. On this side, Sister Yang had already boiled porridge, stir-fried side dishes, and steamed buns in the kitchen. After Li Long finished eating, he drove the jeep to the family courtyard of the Industry Bureau.

It was only past nine-forty when he arrived, and the courtyard gate was a bit small and couldn't be entered, so Li Long waited outside for a while, and then heard the tut-tut-tut sound, and the tractor also arrived.

At this time, the lights in the courtyard turned on, and although it wasn't completely bright, some people had already come out.

Li Long knew that his task had begun. (End of chapter)