Before dawn, Lin Family's house was already bustling with many people.
Lin Jiugen and Wu Pan'ni had arrived early, as had Lin Hongjun and his wife Lin Aimin.
After everyone arrived, they started to help out.
It was the dead of winter, and it was extremely cold before the sun rose, forming ice from dripping water, but these people seemed unbothered by the cold and took off their coats to get busy.
The entire family was busy with various tasks, except for Lin Anjie, who had a good sleep.
When she woke up, everything was already prepared.
Lin Anjie got out of bed in a particularly delicate manner, changed into a bright red outfit, and filled a hot water bottle to hold close.
Wang Cuihua was still angry with Lin Anjie but still lit the fire to boil two eggs for her.
Lin Anjie looked at the plain boiled eggs, found them tasteless, frowned, pushed them aside, and stubbornly refused to eat.
Wang Cuihua, having no choice, gave the eggs to Anning and Lin Anran from Lin Aimin's house.
After Anning ate the eggs, she heard firecracker sounds not far away.
Then someone shouted: "They are here, the Su family members have arrived."
Wang Cuihua hurried into the house to remind An Jie briefly, and after a moment, Su Zhiqiang entered the Lin Family's gate with others.
It wasn't time to tease the bride and groom yet; Su Zhiqiang easily entered Lin Anjie's room, saw her in red sitting on the bed, and without a hint of a smile, nodded at Lin Anjie saying, "Let's go."
Lin Anjie jumped off the bed and followed behind Su Zhiqiang.
Anning watched, frowning.
She really didn't understand why Lin Anjie was so fixated on Su Zhiqiang.
The Su family was poor, and by the looks of it, Su Zhiqiang didn't hold much affection for Lin Anjie, and all three Su brothers were not exactly honest. Lin Anjie marrying into the Su family would definitely face hardships.
In Anning's opinion, the Su family was truly not a good match.
But since Lin Anjie was willing, Anning wouldn't say much.
When Lin Anjie came out of the house, Anning quickly grabbed a large red satin parcel and followed out.
Su Zhiqiang had come on a bicycle to fetch the bride, left Lin Family's house by bike with Lin Anjie. Those from Lin Family sending off the bride were on foot.
Fortunately, the two families weren't too far apart, so walking wasn't too tiring.
By the time Anning and the relatives who were sending off the bride reached Su family's doorstep, they saw Su Zhijian and Su Zhikang, the brothers, also returning with the brides.
Outside the Su family's gate, three brides stood in line.
Two clusters of firecrackers were hung at the main entrance, with sorghum stalks placed underneath, waiting for the appointed time to light up.
Anning remembered Wang Cuixhua's instructions and whispered closely to Lin Anjie, "Sister, I'll block those two later; remember to run inside quickly."
Lin Anjie didn't pay heed to Anning's words at all, hanging her head down, seemingly lost in thought.
Soon, the appointed time came, and someone went to ignite the fire.
Anning, very agile, quickly grabbed the other two brides.
"Sister, run."
Anning signaled Lin Anjie with her eyes.
Lin Anping also pushed her from behind.
Lin Anjie wasn't in a hurry either; he was about to enter the house when two relatives from the bride's side suddenly grabbed hold of him.
One woman, in her thirties, shrieked, "What's this about? Why should she be the first to go in?"
"Exactly, why are you stopping people?"
Another woman standing nearby also started shouting.
Hearing this, Anning slightly narrowed her eyes, then she chuckled and said, "Zhiqiang is the Su family's eldest, and my sister is his wife, the eldest sister-in-law. It has always been the custom for the elder to go first; it's unheard of to let the younger brother's wife enter before the elder. Where does such reasoning come from?"
The people from Lin Family's side all shouted, "Exactly, there's a sequence to these things, size does matter!"
Originally, Lin Anjie would not have conceded, but hearing Anning's reasoning, he felt there was some sense to it.
He wasn't doing it for any other reason; he just wanted to occupy the moral high ground to overpower the two sisters-in-law once inside.
He looked at Su Zhiqiang: "Zhiqiang, what my sister said makes sense. I should be the one to enter first."
Su Zhiqiang nodded, "Alright, I'll lead you in."
He went forward to push aside the people blocking Lin Anjie, but just as he made a move, Su Zhikang's wife refused to accept this.
She didn't care how many people were standing outside or how it looked, she screamed and berated Su Zhikang, "You spineless wimp, just going to let me be bullied, huh? Su Zhikang, are you even a man? If you are, carry me inside right now."
Scolded by his wife, Su Zhikang didn't dare get angry but instead tried to placate her with a smile, "Alright, I'll carry you in, I will."
Seeing things were getting out of hand, Anning quickly said to Su Zhiqiang, "Zhiqiang, hurry and take my sister inside."
Su Zhiqiang looked very displeased; he moved forward to carry Lin Anjie, but then Su Zhijian came over, grabbing Su Zhiqiang, "Brother, you are the eldest, you should give way. Look, just let my wife enter first or else Li Mei will cause a huge uproar."
Seeing Su Zhijian's unreasonable attitude, Lin Anjie got angry and cursed, "Nonsense, what do you mean give way? Which family has the elder brother step aside for the younger to get married first? If you go in first, that would mean the elder brother is getting married after the younger. If that's the case, then call off this wedding."
Su Zhijian's wife, Li Mei, upon hearing Lin Anjie talk about canceling the wedding, immediately started causing a scene, "Cancel it then! If I can't enter first, then just cancel it. Su Zhijian, take me back right now!"
Su Zhikang's wife slapped him across the face, "You useless thing, what good are you? I might as well not get married and just go home."
What had been a joyous occasion turned into a fight between three new brides at the doorstep early in the morning, which was quite inappropriate.
Many onlookers began to gossip.
Seeing how unsightly the spat had become, Anning loudly exclaimed, "Where are the Su family's stewards? Isn't there a manager here? Come sort this out quickly!"
In a short while, a plump middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit appeared.
Anning did recognize him; his surname was Xue, a clan uncle of Xue Feng, named Xue Jinhe, well-known in Xiaogou Village for managing both joyous and solemn family events.
"Uncle Xue."
Seeing Xue Jinhe emerge, Anning quickly approached him with a smile, "Look at this mess. Usually, when someone's marrying, it's one bride at a time. But Uncle Su and his wife were too eager and wanted all three brides at once. Even then, there should be an order, right?"
Anning spoke sensibly, and combined with Xue Jinhe's connections with the Lin Family and being a local from Xiaogou Village, he naturally sided with her.
He kept nodding, "You're right, quite articulate for a high schooler; you speak differently from others."
He then looked at the Su brothers and coughed, "From ancient times, there's never been a precedent where the elder brother's wife waits outside while the younger brother's wife enters first. I think we should go in one by one according to seniority."
The Su brothers had no objections, and neither did Lin Anjie, but Li Mei and Su Lao San's wife, Wang Min, were not pleased.
Their faces were filled with dissatisfaction.
Li Mei said, "When discussing the marriage, the Su family didn't mention this. It's such a good day, at such an auspicious time; letting her go first just delays everything. If something goes wrong in my future, who will take responsibility?"
Wang Min also said, "If that's the case, then I might indeed not get married."
Xue Jinhe had never seen such unreasonable women; frustrated, he shouted, "Fine then, marry or not, if not just leave; no one is begging you. If you're really not getting married, return the Su family's betrothal gifts and find someone better. I'd really like to see which young woman makes it to her in-law's doorstep and still demands to go back to her family over such a trivial matter, and who would dare to marry her after this."