By October in the North, it was already winter, and the outside was blanketed with snow. Ordinary families ate just two meals a day. Toward the end of Chen hour, after the Xu family had their breakfast, people started trickling in to add to the bride's trousseau. Jingya, still clad in red, sat on the bed in the front yard's Grandmother's room. The crimson fabric made her skin look whiter than snow, her beauty captivating.
Xu Chengkuan's cousins and their sons and daughters-in-law all came. The Xu family didn't have many relatives in this area, and Mrs. Xue didn't have any family from her natal side either, so there weren't many adding to the trousseau. However, a few from the village who got along well with Mrs. Xue also came to contribute. For ordinary families, it was usually no more than a piece of cloth or a few handkerchiefs, sometimes a purse. Xu Chengkuan's cousin's wife gave a silver hairpin, and her two daughters-in-law together presented a pair of silver bracelets.
