The third uncle of Murakami's red and white ceremonies has always been uncourteous, and when his cousin got married, he was dumbfounded!
I'm Zhang Shuo, a small trader born and raised in the countryside, and I currently open a small convenience store in the village, struggling to run my own business.
Because we are all villagers and neighbors, I often give some small discounts, which also makes me always popular in the village, and when I encounter problems, I can always feel the enthusiastic help of the villagers.
Whenever I get help, I can't help but recall an incident that happened some time ago, that is, an experience of my third uncle when he was in trouble, and I still remember it vividly.
My dear third uncle's name was Zhang Kaiming, and according to my father, he was the smartest one in the family, and in that poor era, because of his intelligence, he became the only one in the family who did not drop out of school.
The third uncle did not live up to his family's expectations, his grades have always been among the best, and he was successfully admitted to the key high school in the county, and then he was admitted to the university, becoming the pride of the village and the first college student.
At that time, the whole village was excited by the news, and the old people came to their homes to congratulate this "Wenqu star" and sent various congratulatory gifts. The villagers in the village even pooled money to prepare tuition fees for the third uncle, hoping that he could study hard.
However, what no one could have predicted was that the third uncle almost disappeared as soon as he left, and it was rare to come back several times a year, and he did not return to his hometown for several years after graduation.
Even the grandfather personally asked him to go home to see, but the third uncle only agreed on the surface, but afterwards he put it behind him and prevaricated under the pretext of being busy with work.
This made the grandfather angry, and even almost broke off the father-son relationship with the third uncle. This experience is embarrassing, and it also makes me deeply feel the complexity of family and the twists and turns of life.
Because the relationship between my father and my third uncle was the closest among brothers, my father knew why my third uncle never came home:
The third uncle once went to the big city, but he lost interest in the dilapidated small village in his hometown, and looked down on the villagers there.
He was already a cultured man, and he thought that he had gone beyond the necessity of dealing with the vulgar people of the village, especially after he had earned money, and was even more reluctant to let these poor relatives trouble him.
After getting married, in order to protect his face, the third uncle never returned home, at most he only contacted his family through **.
After almost falling out with my grandfather, the third uncle simply cut off contact with his family and only communicated privately with my father to avoid making mistakes in major matters.
This incident dealt a heavy blow to the grandfather, who became unwell due to excessive anger for a while, and has been in poor health ever since.
Even the people in the village gradually forgot about the third uncle, and only occasionally talked about our family in private, talking about the conflicts between brothers and the unfilial piety of our son.
Father was very helpless and hoped that the third uncle would come back to see more. Whenever there was a family event, my father often took this opportunity to persuade the third uncle to go home.
However, the third uncle's reaction was very strong, he thought that such exchanges were meaningless, and the only role was just to let the people in the village take the opportunity to "reap" some benefits, and he was not willing to be "pitted" by them for a penny.
It may be reluctantly acceptable if the red and white event does not come, but it is a great offense if the white event does not come, and every time the third uncle is absent, it causes a lot of discussion among the villagers.
Especially when Mr. Li, a neighbor, passed away, he provided a lot of support when my third uncle was in junior high school. When my grandmother fell ill in high school, my grandfather could not support him alone, and the family was under a lot of financial pressure, and it was the generosity of this grandfather that enabled my third uncle to continue his education.
However, what was unexpected was that when the third uncle's benefactor died, he was reluctant to come back, and he didn't even want to call a ** to care about it.
This attitude made my third uncle's reputation in the village decline rapidly. Although the villagers did not transfer their resentment to our family, my grandfather was always in a heavy mood because of the third uncle's behavior and felt shameless.
The brothers were supposed to support each other, and the father couldn't bear to see the third uncle's reputation in the village ruined, so he kept persuading him. However, the third uncle became more and more impatient, accusing his father of delaying his time, and insisting that his reputation in the village meant nothing to him. As a literate city man, he didn't bother to dwell on these trivial matters at all.
In the end, the third uncle even made a bet with his father, thinking that when I got married, the people in the village would inevitably come to congratulate him when they saw his scenery, and the people who scolded him would also take the initiative to show favor to him.
The father was speechless at the third uncle's self-confidence, but he didn't know what to say, so he could only hang up helplessly. Since then, my father has rarely contacted the third uncle, and the third uncle seems to be happy to accept the idle life, and even changed *** at a certain point in time so that my father can no longer contact him.
Even on the day of his grandfather's death, the third uncle still did not return home.
There was a day that I remember vividly. The grandfather, who had a short temperament but was full of tenderness to me, suddenly disappeared. The room was filled with the sound of arguments between several uncles and my father, and the focus of the dispute turned out to be my third uncle.
The second uncle inherited his grandfather's irritable temper, angrily reprimanded the third uncle for his unfilial piety, and even intended to go to the city to find him a theory. In the end, under the persuasion of everyone, the second uncle reluctantly agreed to deal with his grandfather's aftermath first.
Although the second uncle still went to the city angrily later, I don't know what happened. But then, the third uncle accompanied the second uncle back to his hometown, but left in a hurry, leaving a lot of trouble.
Since then, the second uncle has hardly appeared with the third uncle. Time passed, and I entered the palace of marriage. The third uncle naturally failed to come back to participate, but out of the face of family affection, he sent a red envelope of blessings.
As for my cousin, he has been pursuing his studies according to the requirements of the third uncle. So, when my child was born, he had just been married, and his spouse was a girl from out of town.
Considering the third uncle's character, I originally thought that he would not agree to hold his cousin's wedding in his hometown. After all, for him, his hometown was dilapidated and impoverished, and it was full of a group of villagers who coveted his property and wanted to have a relationship with him. But out of some kind of ridicule or in response to the previous contempt for him, the third uncle finally returned to his hometown.
Although the relationship has been a little tense over the years, they are connected by blood, except for the second uncle, everyone else decided to organize a grand wedding for the younger brother.
Unexpectedly, the third uncle did not hesitate to say that we don't need to do it, and directly entrust a professional company to manage the whole process.
It seems that the only task of our relatives is to give out wedding cards for the third uncle.
Soon, the feast of the first day began. Perhaps in order to prevent the embarrassment of having too many guests and not enough tables, the third uncle set up more than 30 banquets in one go, which looked very bold.
However, what is embarrassing is that from morning to afternoon, only our relatives came, and not all of them arrived, not even the second uncle's family.
Seeing that the chefs were hesitating to continue preparing the food, the master of ceremonies was a little idle, and the third uncle only felt so embarrassed that he wanted to find a hole in the ground to get into. The cousin's girlfriend also felt overwhelmed, and the woman's relatives began to whisper, as if sensing that the third uncle was not welcome in the village.
In order to save some face, the third uncle could only make up the excuse that the villagers had mistaken the time to deal with the past.
However, in private, the third uncle hurriedly asked his father and others to help convey the news: this wedding does not accept gift money, and you can eat as much as you like. Maybe he wanted to save some face in front of his father, but the third uncle finally scolded him:
What a bunch of poor bastards, miser, what's so great about this gift money, I can't even pay the room fee. "
This made everyone present feel a little embarrassed when they heard it, but because of the scene, everyone chose to remain silent, so they had to step forward to help deal with it.
The next day, the day of the wedding, the cousin finally took the bride to his home and prepared for the official wedding ceremony in the afternoon.
However, when all the woman's relatives arrived, the man's side was still empty, no different from the day before, except for us, relatives, and no one else.
Seeing the increasingly dissatisfied expressions of the woman's parents, the third uncle, who had always wanted face, could no longer sit still, so he could only quietly ask the villagers in the village group to give some face and let the wedding continue. Of course, he used my father's mobile phone, and the third uncle had been reluctant to join the group before.
Naturally, they won't come, and I have a hunch about that. When I informed them yesterday, I could see this in the faces of the villagers.
As time passed, the bride's parents began to feel a little dissatisfied. They had always thought that the cousin was older and not a good match for their daughter, even though she was married far away. They only agreed to the marriage based on their daughter's wishes.
However, today's situation has made them hesitate. The third uncle is obviously not popular in the village, and the person who can make the villagers so faceless is naturally self-evident. In such a situation, how can they entrust their daughter to him with peace of mind?
In the end, the bride's parents left directly with their daughter, leaving only the embarrassed third uncle and cousin.
After this incident, the third uncle completely became the laughing stock of the village. He felt a lot of remorse for himself, but it was too late. His cousin's life's events were ruined by his mistakes.
During the casual conversation, I heard my father say that my cousin had a falling out with my third uncle because of this incident. Originally, he didn't want to stay in the village, but only came back to attend the wedding at the request of the third uncle. However, as a result, nothing was left but this farce.
The cousin blamed all the faults on the third uncle, and finally chose to leave and go to the south to work, and like the third uncle at the beginning, he was no longer willing to go home.
Therefore, human sophistication is still crucial to a person's life. Although these things may sometimes seem complicated and unhelpful, they are an integral part of life.