Chapter 630 The Early Death of the Scholar's Daughter (5)

"Happy Chinese New Year, Grandpa and Grandma!" ×6.

"Dad! Mom! Happy New Year!"

Everyone gathered at the grandparents' door. After entering, they all knelt down and kowtowed to the two elders, offering New Year's greetings as if they had rehearsed. Jiang Yue also followed local customs, trying not to appear too out of place. Wasn't this how it was in feudal society?

"Happy New Year! Happy New Year, good child, hurry up, let the ground cool down."

The elderly couple couldn't stop smiling. These days, isn't the pursuit of having many children and grandchildren? After the children got up, they handed out lucky money to each of them. The older brothers were very happy to receive the lucky money, but little did they know that their aunts had already been eyeing them.

Jiang Yue took her New Year's money to visit her uncles and then received two red envelopes. The Jiang family wasn't a wealthy family, so her grandparents and uncles gave her copper coins, which were auspicious numbers. She put the red envelopes into her little pocket, so she could use the money to buy things when traveling merchants came to the village.

After paying New Year's respects, it was time to eat. Today's meal was dumplings. It's worth mentioning that these dumplings are indeed called dumplings. Many things are different from the ancient world that Jiang Yue had experienced before. For example, there are stir-fried dishes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, lettuce, etc., and many of the speaking habits are very similar to those of later generations.

Today's dumplings have fillings of minced pork and cabbage, chives and egg, as well as pork and scallion and lamb and scallion. Everyone has their favorite filling. Actually, at this point, I don't really have any particular favorite; I like basically anything with meat.

Just as Jiang Yue was cooking dumplings, she threw in the pills, and her grandmother came over and took her away. What if she hurt someone? Taking advantage of the good food she had been eating these past few days, Jiang Yue put a few pills in her cooking. Her grandparents felt that they had a lot more energy because they had been eating well these past few days. But how could eating a few good meals have such a big effect? ​​Of course, Jiang Yue's father hadn't forgotten about her either; he secretly put the puppet in the tea he was drinking.

After the dumplings were cooked, they were first scooped into a large basin and placed there. Then, Auntie brought it to the kang (a heated brick bed), and then heated up the leftover food from yesterday. The first meal of the first day of the Lunar New Year began. The dumplings tasted very good, but Jiang Yueren could only eat a few before she went to watch over her younger brother.

"elder sister!"

"Sigh~"

After Jiang Yue's guidance, mainly because the child has reached the age of speaking, he can say common words such as father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, and brother. After the adults finished eating, the child planned to go out to play. Unexpectedly, it started snowing less than ten minutes after they went out. They could only hurry to pay their respects to the ancestors and then go back inside. It was quite cold during the Spring Festival.

After returning to the house, everyone sat around the kang (a heated brick bed). The adults started chatting about everyday things. Jiang Yue looked at the heavy snow falling outside the window and thought to herself that if the snow continued to fall, the traveling merchants probably wouldn't be able to come to the village. The children wouldn't be able to spend their money for a while, and maybe their parents would take it all away when the snow stopped.

Just then, I heard my second uncle say, "This snow is good this year. A good snow promises a good harvest. Maybe our family will have a good harvest this year."

My second aunt chimed in, "Yes, yes, it's just that with this snow, it's not convenient to go out. I was thinking of going back to my parents' house tomorrow."

"Let's see if it snows tomorrow. If the snow is too heavy, we'll go back in a few days, otherwise the roads will be slippery and difficult to travel."

"Well, that's the only way."

The snow didn't stop on the second day, nor on the third day. It looked like it was about to turn into a blizzard. Grandpa asked my eldest and second uncles to go to the county to buy grain. He led the family to sweep the snow off the roof, as well as the snow in the pigsty and chicken coop. He also threw some dry grass into the chicken coop and pigsty to prevent them from freezing to death.

On snowy days, oxcarts travel very slowly, and since there are some clever people in the village, it was almost evening when they got home. The villagers' families were worried that something had happened to them, and if they didn't return soon, they would all join together to look for them.

After unloading the grain and sending the oxcart away, my eldest and second uncles climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed) inside the house to warm up. My grandmother quickly handed them hot water, and only after they had warmed up did she bring up the matter of buying grain.

When they arrived in the county, there were already long queues at the grain stores. The price of rice had increased by one coin per dou (a unit of dry measure). Once there was any sign of trouble, people would rush to buy, and the price of these essential goods would start to rise. It was still uncertain whether it would continue to snow. The uncle said that some grain stores had already put up signs saying they had stopped selling, just waiting for the price to rise later.

Fortunately, the snow stopped on the fourth day, and the family members breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't want to experience another snow disaster, as several families in the village had suffered in the past few days.

Jiang Yue went with her grandfather to help. When they arrived, two of the family's chickens had frozen to death, and the pigsty had collapsed. Fortunately, they found a pig that was still alive but injured in the ruins. The pig was shivering in the corner from the cold. After rescuing it, they would see if it could survive the next few days. If it couldn't, they would have to kill it as soon as possible, otherwise it wouldn't fetch a good price.

After walking around with her grandfather to make sure no one had been affected by the disaster, they went home. The adults walked fast while Jiang Yue walked slowly, and her rabbit fur hat fell off. When she picked up the hat, her uncle picked her up and carried her home.

Along the way, my uncle kept nagging, saying that I shouldn't come along next time. What if I catch a cold in this cold weather? My grandma would be heartbroken.

A few days later, the snow melted, and the traveling merchant finally arrived. As soon as he arrived at the intelligence center, he was surrounded by people. Unfortunately, the first village the traveling merchant came to was not their village. Many things had already been sold out, especially the things that children liked to eat. The remaining items were bought up by the children in the village.

After the traveling merchant left, the children were reluctant to part with him, asking him to bring more things next time he came. A few days later, officials came to check if there was any large-scale disaster. They were too lazy to count the one or two families in their village that were affected, and they were simply ignored.

The days after the New Year passed quickly. After my uncle left, we waited for a while. The family started to get busy with things in the fields, and we were also worried about my father's exam. During this time, Jiang Yue made the puppet a good friend of my father. Based on my father's level, he was probably only at the top three. He still had to perform well, because there was no way to overcome the gap in hard skills.

Jiang Yue had no intention of helping someone cheat. She might have helped someone if they were just unlucky, but pushing them into this situation was a risky proposition. The starting point of the top three was a bit low, but for a family like Jiang Yue's, it was already a great leap forward. If it weren't for the special imperial examination, she would probably have to rely on luck to become a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examination).

When the results came out, it was pretty much as Jiang Yue had guessed. When the imperial court was assigning officials, because he had no connections, Jiang's father was assigned to a remote small county in the south as a county magistrate. This was already quite good, as he was able to govern a region and realize his ambitions. As for why it was in the south, it was because Jiang's father was from the north.