Chapter 366: Waterway Wedding
The biggest feature of royal weddings is that they are solemn, grand and full of ritual, but at the same time they lose a lot of the fun of folk weddings.

Hundreds of eunuchs cleaned and watered the road from Cui Mansion to Xiaohe Wharf before dawn, and laid a red carpet a hundred steps long. Dozens of palace maids who were there to welcome the bride also came to Cui Mansion in advance to make arrangements and hang up lights and decorations. The Cui Mansion was filled with festive red lanterns inside and out.

The grand move of the Cui Mansion caused a sensation in Lanlingfang. The people in the square were discussing the Cui family’s daughter’s marriage. It turned out that she was marrying into the imperial palace. However, the rumor was soon dispelled. It was not marrying into the imperial palace, but marrying to His Royal Highness the King of Chu and becoming the Princess of Chu.

The Cui family of Boling was undoubtedly the big winner. Two of the emperor’s three sons married daughters of the Cui family as concubines. In the future, they would definitely become the first foreign relatives.

The bride Cui Yu had already finished her makeup and was dressed neatly, wearing a phoenix crown on her head, a bright red wedding dress, and a gorgeous shawl covering her shoulders, with a gold pendant with a phoenix pattern.

Today’s bridesmaid is her sister Cui Mei, and there is also a bridesmaid, A Chu. The bridesmaid is usually a slightly older woman from the groom’s side. Her main job is to calm the bride’s nervousness and tell her some wedding rules.

But Ah Chu was young and didn’t know the wedding rules. She came purely to accompany Cui Yu and calm her nervousness, and also to replace the dowry maid.

“I heard from the young master that he will only stay in the palace for one night and will return home tomorrow morning.”

“Isn’t the mansion being rebuilt?” Cui Mei asked from the side.

“We went to Taipingfang, the old residence of the prince. Didn’t the prince move to the East Palace? The old residence was vacant, and the emperor gave it to my son, so it is also our residence. Let me tell you, the garden over there is very beautiful, unlike our old residence, which has nothing. There are many pavilions and towers over there, and the red carp in the water are one foot long. We go there to feed the fish when we have nothing to do. It’s very interesting.”

Cui Mei’s eyes lit up when she heard this, “Sister, let’s go feed the fish too!”

Cui Yu rolled his eyes when he heard this. He insisted on looking at those picture albums last night, and left angrily when he was not allowed to. Now he wants to feed the fishes again in the blink of an eye. He is really a child.

However, Cui Yu thought about the picture albums she had secretly read last night. She felt shy when she thought about it, but her heart was also filled with a hint of anticipation.

At this time, the sound of drums and music came from afar. It meant the wedding procession was coming. Cui Yu suddenly became nervous.

Ah Chu stood up and said with a smile: “Sister Yu, I’ll go take a look and find out some information.”

Cui Yu nodded slightly, A Chu walked out quickly, and Cui Mei stood up and said, “I want to go too!”

Cui Yu grabbed her and said, “You are not allowed to go. Stay here with me!”

Cui Mei muttered to herself and had to lean on the window to look out. “Sister, it seems that I have entered the mansion. Oh! How boring! It’s so easy to enter the mansion, but I didn’t even get the red envelope!”

Cui Mei mainly wanted to get the red envelope, but she felt that she couldn’t get it, so she lost interest.

When ordinary families welcome a bride, the door is closed. If they want to open the door, they have to sing songs or recite poems, or use red envelopes to pave the way. Usually, they are small red cloth bags, each of which contains dozens of coins. Rich families will put one or two taels of silver and scatter dozens of red envelopes, and the door will naturally open.

But when the royal family welcomed the bride, none of these were present. Hundreds of eunuchs lined up in front of the gate, each holding a plate with all kinds of gifts on the plates, including food, drinks, and clothes, all tied with red silk.

The bride’s father stood in front of the gate, and the master of ceremonies Yang Gongren shouted, “The King of Chu is here to welcome the bride. May you have a happy marriage and a long and happy marriage!”

The two men bowed and Cui Hongzhou stepped aside. The master of ceremonies led the eunuchs into the palace. Two of them lined up in front to lead the way. More than a dozen eunuchs held up red silk umbrellas and escorted the groom into the palace.

The wedding procession does not leave right away. The procession has to have a snack, usually red dates, longan and lotus seed porridge, with two eggs. But this is not enough to fill them up, so the bride’s family has to cook a bowl of noodles, but cooking noodles is a bit troublesome. Recently, steamed buns have suddenly become popular. The round and plump shape of steamed buns represents a happy reunion, so eating steamed buns at the wedding procession became popular all of a sudden and became a new custom in Chang’an.

Therefore, when Chang’an held a wedding reception, they no longer cooked noodles. Each person was given two large steamed buns with green onions and mutton, a bowl of red date, longan and lotus seed porridge and two eggs, and a small red envelope with a few hundred coins in it. This way, their stomachs were full and their pockets were full.

Ah Chu came in with two maids, each carrying a bowl of red date, longan and lotus seed porridge. She said with a smile: “Hurry up and eat something to fill your stomach. The palace doesn’t provide meals at night.”

Cui Mei was very hungry, so she quickly took the bowl and started eating. However, Cui Yu had no appetite and put the bowl aside.

Mother Zheng also came in and asked with a smile, “Why doesn’t Yu’er eat?”

“Mom, I’m not hungry!”

“Hey! This is the porridge specially made for you. It has red dates, longans, and lotus seeds. This is called early birth of a son. It should be the porridge your husband drinks when he enters the house. But the palace doesn’t have such rules, so I had to make it at your parents’ house. Drink it quickly!”

Cui Yu had no choice but to pick up the bowl and drink in small sips with a spoon, but she really couldn’t eat the egg.

“Well! I guess the time is almost up.”

Just as Zheng finished speaking, she heard the blast of drums and music outside, the sound of explosions, and someone shouting, “The auspicious day has arrived, and the bride is leaving!”

Cui Yu suddenly threw herself into her mother’s arms and started crying. Zheng’s nose felt sore. She forced a smile and patted her head and said, “You are going to return home in three days. We will be together again. Besides, mother will also go to the palace later! We will not be separated. Let’s go quickly! Don’t keep me waiting for too long.”

Cui Yu wiped away her tears and nodded gently, “Mom, I’m leaving!”

“Mother will give you a ride. You two, hurry up and hold the bride!”

Cui Mei and A Chu hurriedly supported the bride on the left and right and slowly began to go downstairs, with Zheng following behind.

When they reached the central courtyard, dozens of palace maids stepped forward quickly and surrounded the three people with long-handled round fans. A drum and music band led the way in front, and the women of the Cui family followed behind with large and small bags. Most families would use basins to splash water behind them, to represent that a daughter who is married is like water spilled. However, many wealthy families thought that doing so would hurt the bride’s heart, so they cancelled this custom. The Cui family also cancelled it and instead held a farewell ceremony.

Both sides were filled with common people who had come to watch the excitement. This was a royal wedding, and many people were seeing it for the first time, so it was extremely novel.

Eunuchs stood on both sides of the long red carpet, and hundreds of palace maids followed the bride to the dock. There were also two thousand cavalrymen guarding along the river bank, which was a spectacular sight.

Xiaoqing was already standing at the dock waiting. She helped the bride carefully walk onto the deck. The bride slowly walked onto the deck. Xiaoxia took the bride’s hand at the other end, took her onto the pleasure boat, and helped her directly into the cabin.

Only after entering the cabin and sitting down did Cui Yu breathe a sigh of relief. Three young ladies were sitting in the front cabin, chattering non-stop.

The two bridesmaids were supposed to sit together, but seeing that the boat was full of women, they wisely went to a boat at the back.

“The auspicious time has arrived, let’s go!”

Following the master of ceremonies’ loud shout, the boat slowly started and moved steadily along the Caohe River. Cui Yu rested his head on his lover’s shoulder and said, “Xia Lang, we’re going to meet the emperor and the queen soon. I’m so nervous!”

Xiao Xia held her hand and said with a smile: “Your aunt will accompany you later, so you don’t have to be nervous. Your status is determined by my status. Even the royal family will not dare to be disrespectful to you.”

“If you say that, I’ll be at ease.”

To the sound of drums and music, the boat sped up and headed towards the palace.

(End of this chapter)