novel bin Chapter 1453 - 1300: Ancient Beast World 58
Chapter 1453 - 1300: Ancient Beast World 58
For this whole business of organizing a collective wedding, there was simply no one Shuangshuang could rely on, because in this world no one had the concept of a wedding—not quite no one, there was still Su Jinghao, who knew what a wedding was.However, Shuangshuang had long since forgotten Su Jinghao to the ends of the earth; not only could she not recall her, even if she did, she was planning to conveniently take revenge and give Su Jinghao a proper tormenting.
Unfortunately Shuangshuang hadn’t remembered Su Jinghao, so Su Jinghao was still wandering all over Hope City with her three men, hoping to "accidentally" run into that Fourth Elder Yan Ming, who had stunned her like an Immortal descended to the mortal world.
Ever since she met Yan Ming that one time, Su Jinghao had been unable to get him out of her mind, practically to the point of obsession. It’s not like there were no good-looking Beastmen in this primitive society, but theirs was that kind of extremely robust, masculine handsomeness.
Whereas a beautiful man like Yan Ming, who seemed to float about like an Immortal, was one of a kind; even back when Su Jinghao was in the modern era, there were very few men with that kind of aura, let alone in this world.
Unfortunately, during this period Yan Ming had been drafted by Shuangshuang as free labor. Shuangshuang was busy with the collective wedding and dumped more than half of her work on him, with the rest pushed onto Li Yi.
Now Yan Ming was so busy he was spinning in circles; even when he occasionally went out, he was surrounded by a large group, coming and going in a rush. Su Jinghao either couldn’t see him at all, or only caught a glimpse of his figure from afar, with no way to get close.
Unwilling to give up, Su Jinghao spent all day loitering around the Elder Mansion where Yan Ming lived. With this circling, she happened to bump into a major event being joyously celebrated by the entire Hope City: a total of two hundred couples were going to hold a collective wedding together.
The main officiant of the wedding was Great Elder Shuangshuang; the witnesses were Supreme Elder Chang Kong, Second Elder Wu Yan, Third Elder Wu Hai, and Fourth Elder Yan Ming.
In short, for this collective wedding, all the elders were mobilized, the City Lord and Deputy City Lord personally sat in town to oversee security; the whole city celebrated together—this level of ceremony was truly grand.
To show how seriously she took this matter, Shuangshuang had people prepare a lot of things in advance; even the clothes and accessories of the newlyweds were personally designed by Shuangshuang, and every pair’s outfits were different.
Shuangshuang designed two sets of wedding attire for the newlyweds. One set was bright red; Shuangshuang had always believed that red was the most festive color and the proper color for marriage.
The other set was where Shuangshuang let her imagination run wild: the Hundred Flowers Immortal Robe, meant for the brides to wear while receiving guests.
Shuangshuang poured endless thought into the brides’ clothing, but spent far less effort on the grooms’ clothes, mainly because men’s garments were relatively simple—so long as they were fitted and looked good, there was no need for too many flourishes.
Before the wedding began, the entire Hope City had been decorated anew. Originally, Hope City was already planted with flowers everywhere, with blossoms in bloom all year round.
And for the sake of holding this collective wedding, Shuangshuang had people go out and gather many in-season flowers, just so that when the wedding was held, Hope City would be full of blooming flowers.
Sure enough, on the day of the collective wedding, the entire Hope City turned into a Flower City; blossoms were everywhere, the whole city was fragrant, as beautiful as a fairyland.
Besides flowers, Shuangshuang also ordered red silk to be hung everywhere and the character for "double happiness" to be pasted up, filling Hope City with festive cheer.
Because this was a collective wedding, Shuangshuang directly invited all Beastmen who had entered Hope City to join the wedding feast and to revel together for a whole day.
The Beastmen who came to Hope City were all hearing about "getting married," "weddings," and "collective weddings" for the first time. Since this event was being personally organized by their admired Great Elder Shuangshuang, they were all extremely eager and curious.
Regardless of whether they had business or were planning to leave Hope City soon, after hearing about the collective wedding, all the Beastmen decided they absolutely had to stay and join in the fun.
It was rare for Beastmen to have any lively, joyful events; now that they’d heard Hope City was going to hold a collective wedding where everyone could celebrate for a day, with food and drink provided, the Beastmen who had come to Hope City naturally had no desire to leave.
Su Jinghao, who had refused to leave because she wanted to "accidentally" run into Yan Ming, also heard about the collective wedding. She was somewhat intrigued and wanted to see what a wedding in this primitive society would look like.
Of course, Su Jinghao mainly wanted to see something novel. Back in the modern era, she had seen all kinds of grand weddings; as for this ancient-style wedding—especially a collective one—she didn’t think it could be any great deal.
The date of the wedding had been specially divined by Yan Ming. The day before, there had been a light rain; though not heavy, it had cooled the sweltering air of the past few days to a pleasant crispness.
On the day the wedding began, the sky was a clear wash of blue; a few white clouds drifted lazily overhead, with waves of flower fragrance in the air.
The large central square in Hope City was the venue for the wedding. On ordinary days, this was where Shuangshuang gathered the citizens of Hope City for discussions, and where Wu Yan and Wu Hai trained the Mammoth and Silver Tiger Clan Beastmen.
At this moment, countless tables and chairs had been set out here. The Beastmen who had come to watch the wedding surrounded the place layer upon layer, all of them staring toward the entrance of the square.
A long red carpet had been laid down in the middle of the square, stretching all the way to the entrance; this was the path the newlyweds were about to walk.
With the protection and clearing of the way by her three men, Su Jinghao managed to squeeze into a good spot. Looking at that red carpet, she clicked her tongue inwardly—this wedding, this Great Elder Shuangshuang was really willing to spend.
How much must such a long red carpet cost! As far as she knew, red carpets in Hope City were rare and expensive; few people were willing to buy them. Yet here they were, laid out like this, and in such quantity—truly the extravagance of the rich.
Just as Su Jinghao was inwardly feeling heartache over the red carpet, the two hundred couples who were to be wed began to enter.
The brides and grooms held hands, shoulders touching, dressed in bright red wedding robes. One pair after another marched in with matching steps, faces full of solemn excitement, walking along the red carpet.
In the wedding Shuangshuang designed, the brides naturally had no veils over their heads, nor did they need to cover their faces with fans.
Shuangshuang had always believed that whether it was covering the face or wearing a veil, those customs were essentially manifestations of discrimination and oppression against women in a patriarchal society.
Because a woman’s face was not allowed to be seen by anyone but her husband, even at an event as major as her own wedding, her face had to be covered.
The bride would spend the entire ceremony in darkness, completing the bows to heaven and earth; after being sent into the bridal chamber, the man would go off to make merry, to celebrate his wedding and enjoy the bustle and joy.
The bride, however, had to sit alone in the quiet bridal room, sometimes even still veiled, waiting in a strange environment where she could see nothing, for a stranger—perhaps a man she had never even seen before—to return.
For the groom, a wedding was lively; for the bride, it was nothing more than walking a stretch of road. All the excitement had nothing to do with her; she wasn’t even qualified to receive guests—how unjust was that.
Shuangshuang naturally would not allow such a thing. She couldn’t control other places, but in Hope City and Wanghai City, she guaranteed that the Female Orcs had the same status as men.
Although they had paid the same, or even more, hardship as the male Beastmen, they were independent; they could live well even without men, and they were unbreakable.