The groom, He Jianmin, was from a fishing village that would become a resort in later years. The village wasn't large at present; it took only a few dozen minutes to walk from one end to the other, and it was home to about a hundred or so households.
As the saying goes, different places have different customs.
Apparently, the wedding ceremony had to be held at an auspicious time before noon, so the groom had arrived with his procession to welcome the bride bright and early, before nine in the morning.
Then, in what seemed like a break with tradition, the bride's escort party suddenly turned into a full-scale mobilization. A single truck was packed with everyone, even neighbors who had just come to watch the ceremony.
Upon their arrival, it seemed as if nearly every household in the small village was involved in the wedding. Firecrackers crackled at the entrance, and the welcoming tune of suonas played all the way to the village's end.
