The oldest old man laughed upon hearing it and said, "I've seen that girl. She's indeed beautiful! A graduate of East Sea University, from Lu City, right? Only a girl as stunning as her would match Ah Feng."
The youngest of the old n teased the one who suggested matchmaking earlier, "Weren't you the one who saw that girl back then and praised her beauty? And now you're thinking of cutting in. I've seen your niece, how does she compare to the city girl Ah Lan talked about?"
The matchmaking old man could only awkwardly remain silent.
"Alright, alright, my son and I have things to attend to, so we won't chat with you guys any longer."
After basking in their praises for a while, Zhao Xiaolan rembered the task at hand and quickly urged Chen Feng to get in the car.
Considering his mother's face, Chen Feng gave a rather cordial smile to the three old n, nodded, then opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat, with Zhao Xiaolan quickly joining him.
The car started and gradually drove away under the envious eyes of the n.
"Ah Feng, I think you shouldn't park this car in front of our house tonight. Our place is a bit far from the surveillance caras; if you park it, park it near the intersection where it's closer. Otherwise, I worry that this new car of yours might get scratched or even stolen."
Although Zhao Xiaolan enjoyed the complints from the neighbors and local folks, she was still very clear-headed.
Even though their family had been getting along well with others over these years, basically without any grudges, there are envious people everywhere.
Now seeing Chen Feng drive ho in a brand new luxury car, soone envious might secretly scratch it, or worse yet, smash the car or break the glass. Although the likelihood isn't high, it's still possible.
The main problem is that the surveillance is so distance away, especially at night. If soone really sneaks over to scratch your car, you might not really find out.
"Okay, I got it."
Chen Feng readily agreed. Their ho isn't very far from the intersection, probably about fifty or sixty ters, so Chen Feng could just walk a bit further.
After a while, Zhao Xiaolan suggested again, "Parking at the intersection doesn't seem very safe either. What if so mischievous kid scratches the car? For safety's sake, why don't you park this car at the car wash place first? There's soone watching it during the day, and it has surveillance at night; normally, people won't go there."
Chen Feng found it slightly amusing and said, "Isn't that too troubleso? The car wash is quite a distance from ho, and it'll take ten minutes to walk back."
"Don't we have bicycles at ho? Your brother and sister-in-law both ride them. You can just ride a bicycle back and forth. This car cost over a million, and you're going to use it as the wedding car the day after tomorrow, so nothing must go wrong with it."
Chen Feng was still sowhat unwilling; it felt too troubleso, so he said, "If soone really targets my car, then even if there's surveillance at the car wash, without anyone around at night, they might still succeed."
Zhao Xiaolan laughed, "Don't you know there's a garage at the car wash? It's where they wash cars, with roll-up doors for theft prevention. You just park the car inside and pull down the door. There are surveillance caras outside. It's very safe. Listen to mom, such an expensive car shouldn't be scratched."
Perhaps it really was true. Chen Feng could only agree a bit helplessly.
The car quickly drove his mom to the auxiliary goods wholesale market in the old county. This market has a history of several decades; the surrounding environnt and buildings appear sowhat rundown, yet it's bustling with parked vehicles of all sizes and brisk business.
His mother, Zhao Xiaolan, made a call to the agreed-upon eting with Aunt Zhao Xiaoi, as the sisters had set this up beforehand.
Aunt ca alone, and upon seeing Chen Feng, she couldn't resist a bout of warm queries and chattering, including his lifelong affairs, with Mother Zhao Xiaolan echoing teaching from the sidelines. It was unavoidable, and Chen Feng could only obediently endure it.
Luckily, the pair of sisters didn't forget the real task. After entering a shop selling festive supplies, they finally stopped scolding Chen Feng and started inquiring about prices, followed by rounds of haggling.
After so bargaining, they weren't in a hurry to buy. Instead, they went to browse the next store, repeating the bargaining process in five different stores.
So, after comparing several shops, they chose the one offering the best value to make their purchase.
The first purchase was for wedding candies and gift boxes, each bundling worth about one hundred yuan, ordered based on the number of guests attending the engagent. When the engagent feast ends, each invited guest would take a bundle ho.
Previously counted, there aren't many guests invited from Zhao Guozhong's side; besides his sworn brothers, only relatives from the two elder sisters' side, totaling less than fifty bundles, although they were set for fifty.
These fifty bundles, to be expedited, could be picked up in two hours.
From then on, little trinkets like red envelopes and double happiness stickers were ready-made and directly purchased.
In fact, Zhao Guozhong and Mao Xiaoling could have handled these themselves, but given the ti constraints, these other things besides the crucial gold jewelry for the engagent ceremony had to be handled by the two sisters.
Once they completed the wedding candies and such, there was more to do. Then, Chen Feng drove them to the farr's market to buy the "six items," including two rice or crucian carp (one male and one female), rice fish being more visually appealing due to its higher price; two pieces of pork belly, each about ten pounds; a pair of roosters and hens; duck tongues (two large bags); ten pieces of stead sponge cakes; dried wood fish (one pair).
This is an old-fashioned custom passed down, now evolved into other substitute items, like two Chinese cigarettes, a pair of Moutai and Wuliangye, a package each of longans and lychees.
Of course, Zhao Xiaolan and her sister adhered to tradition.
In addition, they need to purchase a watch for the bride, but they needn't worry about that since Zhao Guozhong took Mao Xiaoling to buy it himself.
After buying these items, the sisters went to purchase festive attire. As parents of the groom's family, they ought to wear brand new festive clothes on the day of the engagent.
When they finished purchasing the attire, two hours had easily passed, just in ti to pick up the wedding candies from the auxiliary goods wholesale market.
The shopkeeper was true to his word, and when they arrived, the fifty bundles of wedding candies were all ready. Just after a quick check, the shopkeeper helped them load the goods onto a handcart to pull out of the market, while everyone helped to load them into Chen Feng's car.
Chen Feng's luxury car trunk was spacious enough, accommodating all those items with room to spare.
However, Chen Feng found it a bit unpleasant as inside there was a chicken cage holding a pair of roosters and hens, who had left droppings. Once the car door shut, the cabin filled with the sll of chicken poop, sowhat unpleasant.
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