Chapter 393 - 341: The Wedding
Chapter 393: Chapter 341: The Wedding
The siblings walked over and opened the suitcases. Each lifted a lid to find two chests filled to the brim with rocks. The stones were of varying sizes, and the colors of their rinds differed—blackish-yellow, light green, deep purple, grayish-blue, dark brown. They looked no different from the ordinary rocks one might find in the mountains.
Tang Haocheng grabbed one the size of a soccer ball and tossed it in his hand. "What kind of rocks are these? Are they really good enough as an apology gift?"
Xiao Man picked one up as well and couldn’t help but smile. "These are great stones! Hao Hao, don’t toss it. Concentrate and try to sense it."
Tang Haocheng did as he was told, cupping the stone in his hands. He closed his eyes and focused his mind, then quickly opened them again, exclaiming in surprise, "Sis, this... it has Spiritual Energy!"
Xiao Man smiled and nodded. In this life, Tang Haocheng was still passionate about scientific research, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a Cultivator. With a fixed four-hour Cultivation session every day, supplemented by elixirs, he had now reached the Qi Refining Second Level. As a result, he could sense the Spiritual Energy inside the stones just by concentrating.
"These should be Jade Raw Stones. The denser the Spiritual Energy, the larger the piece of Jade inside. These two full chests will be enough to last us for quite some time."
Xiao Man wondered aloud, "How does the Jun Family have so many of these raw stones? Where did they find them? If we could figure out their source, we could go look for our own in the future!"
Grandpa Tang watched his grandchildren affectionately as they tossed the stones to each other. He smiled and said, "Elder Jun is a jade fanatic. He was an appraisal expert back in his youth and loved to search for raw stones himself. He has an excellent eye for it; it’s said that eight or nine out of every ten raw stones he picks yield jade! He collected these many years ago but never got around to cutting them, so he kept them in deep storage. I only found out about them by chance when I overheard him mention it during a game of chess. This time, since he had to apologize on his granddaughter’s behalf and I remembered you two needed jade, I just went ahead and took them off his hands—Elder Jun was very reluctant to part with them, you know!"
Xiao Man couldn’t help but laugh. "Well, he’s had them for so many years and never cut them open anyway, so he might as well just give them to us. Every one of these raw stones is rich with Spiritual Energy. Regardless of the quality of the jade inside, just using them for Cultivation will be enough to last us a year."
Grandpa Tang’s eyes widened. "These two big chests have nearly a hundred raw stones, and that’s only enough for one year?"
"What else, Grandpa? As the old saying goes, it’s the warrior, not the scholar, who needs wealth. Cultivation is incredibly resource-intensive from the start. The Spiritual Energy on Earth is already too thin, and it’s especially hard to find any in densely populated cities. If we want to advance faster, we have to rely on other methods. Jade usually contains Spiritual Energy, and just relying on buying it would cost a fortune."
Grandpa Tang grew thoughtful. "Your Grandpa Gu has already sent Shaozheng down south to do some prospecting. If all goes well, they’ll open a mine there. Now, even though Grandpa Gu would surely give us a share if they do find a mineral vein, we’re a large family. It wouldn’t feel right to just sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor. I think..."
"Grandpa’s right. We can’t rely on others," Xiao Man said. "Winter break is short this year, and with the happy event at home, we shouldn’t be traveling. Let’s wait until next summer break. I’ll take a trip south then—partly as a vacation, and partly to do some prospecting of our own!"
Tang Haocheng’s face lit up. "I’m going too!"
Xiao Man looked at him. "Do you have time for that?"
"How could I not? If I know the travel plans ahead of time, I can arrange my schedule to free up the time. Besides, summer break is two months long. We can fly there, finish our business, and fly back. Are you planning to wander around the south for the full sixty days?"
"You never know. It’s a vacation, which means wandering around and looking at things."
"A month at most, then. That’s more than enough."
"..."
Grandpa Tang said, "We’ll talk about this again after I’ve discussed it with your father."
A few days after accepting the Jun Family’s "emotional compensation," it was New Year’s Day, and Dad Tang and Ai Wenli held a grand wedding. "Grand," in this case, simply meant that it was crowded and lively, not that it was a luxurious spectacle. The wedding style of the early 1980s still followed the trends of the 1970s. White wedding dresses had not yet become popular, so the bride and groom usually just wore a new set of clothes with a red flower pinned to the chest to identify them. The Tang family’s wedding banquet, however, was a cut above the rest. They had specially hired a chef from a large hotel, and the resulting feast was so delicious that many guests would likely remember it for a long time.
Grandma Tang was really something else. She hadn’t sent an invitation to the Wu Family and hadn’t even notified Wu Xiaowen. Nevertheless, Wu Yu Xuan, Lin Aizhen, and Wu Xiaowen showed up anyway after hearing the news. Once a guest arrives at your door, you can’t exactly push them out, but it still made Xiao Man cringe. She was busy helping out and wasn’t paying attention when Lin Aizhen suddenly grabbed her and began introducing her to others: "Look, look! This is my eldest granddaughter. What do you think? A pretty little thing, isn’t she!"
’With everyone watching, I can’t be too rude. Today is Dad Tang’s big day, and I can’t let these people ruin it.’
Wu Xiaowen seemed a bit down, and her complexion wasn’t good. After looking for Tang Haocheng twice without finding him, she stayed quietly by her parents’ side, not her usual active self. It was probably because Tang Qingyun hadn’t returned for the wedding.
Tang Qingyun had to miss his older brother and new sister-in-law’s wedding for work, but from how often he called home, it was clear he was genuinely happy for his brother.
The entire Gu family, from the elders to the children, arrived early to help greet guests—everyone except for the second branch of the family. Gu Qiyuan had called Tang Qingshan the day before to offer his congratulations, and Granny Gu had arranged for a single wedding gift on behalf of the whole family.
The Jun Family also came, with the exception of Jun Ran. Elder Jun and Mr. Jun were seated with the men, while Xiao Man and Mrs. Jun seemed to be mutually avoiding each other. Jun Rui, however, found an opening and intercepted Xiao Man, and the two of them stood talking in a corner for a moment.
Jun Rui said apologetically, "My sister can be a bit... extreme. I don’t know what to say about this mess she’s caused, other than I’m sorry. But her actions are her own. If I had realized what she was planning, I would have absolutely stopped her! I hope you won’t hold it against me, Manman. We’ve always been good friends, right?"
Xiao Man: "..."
’I can let it go, I guess. But since when were we ’good friends’? We’re not nearly that close, are we?’
’Then again, considering I got all that jade from his family, I should at least be polite. It wouldn’t be right to say something nasty. I’ll just give a noncommittal nod and let it go.’
’Sigh! Who asked me to be so kind and soft-hearted? It’s really not a good quality. Both Grandma and Grandma Tang always say I’m too easy to fool, and I guess they’re right.’
After parting ways with Jun Rui, Xiao Man was stopped again in the hallway. This time, it was someone from the Bai family—Bai Qingyue.
Bai Qingyue had originally arrived with her two nieces, but they were old enough to wander off on their own to chat with friends. In a foul mood and not wanting to mingle with the other female guests, Bai Qingyue had been silently trailing the bride and groom, secretly watching the bride. Anyone paying close attention would have noticed her eyes were slightly red. The look she gave Tang Qingshan was filled with mournful resentment, but when her eyes turned to the bride, her glare was sharp enough to be a volley of daggers.
She couldn’t accept this. She, an elegant and reserved woman, had been willing to cast aside her pride and confess her feelings to Tang Qingshan. She had done so three times over the past decade, and he had rejected her every single time. The first two times, his excuse was that he couldn’t forget Gu Qi Yue. The last time, he had claimed he was used to being alone and would never marry in this lifetime!