Chapter 44 Paying Respects to Jiang's Father and Mother: You Should Learn to Read!
The fragrant stewed chicken was so delicious that Jiangmai and Jiangya couldn't stop eating.
But they both have small appetites and were full quickly.
Jiang Ji told them to go wash up.
Jiang Ya raised her greasy little paws and asked loudly, "Big brother, I want to sleep with you and Brother Li again tonight."
Jiang Ji smiled upon hearing this and said, "Okay."
Having gotten the answer she wanted, Jiang Ya cheered, slapped the table with her little hand, and quickly got up to brush her teeth.
Jiang Mai also put down her chopsticks and ran out after her.
Jiang Ji looked at Ye Li sitting opposite him: "Let's eat quickly, and then we can check the accounts."
"I came back in a hurry today, and I didn't have time to look at it."
Ye Li nodded: "Bao Beiyuan is quite meticulous; he actually kept accounts."
He's been doing business for so many days, but he hasn't kept any accounts.
Since it was a small business and he had to pay for the family's food, drink, and daily necessities, he pooled all his money together.
But Jiang Ji highly praised it: "Even close brothers should keep clear accounts; this is good for everyone."
"When you took Xiaomai and Yage'er out, didn't you also specifically seek out Brother Datong?"
"Let's not do anything that might arouse suspicion, like being in a melon patch or under suspicious circumstances."
"..."
Ye Li swallowed the winter melon in her mouth.
You still can't get over this word, right?
He turned his head and looked at the basket Jiang Ji had brought back on the stove: "So how much money will I actually get?"
"A total of one tael and four mace."
Jiang Ji reported the numbers.
"It's alright." Ye Li smiled.
With 1,400 coins, his monthly wages and Jiang Ji's education expenses were now covered.
Moreover, this is the profit from less than a month's work!
Bao Beiyuan set up his stall during the last time Jiang Ji took a holiday, which was during the wheat harvest.
In the first few days, I didn't dare to be too hasty and made very few drinks.
After that, the number of drinks made each day became fixed, and the income became stable.
Next month, his share will definitely be more than two ounces.
You can sit at home and make money coming from the county town – awesome!
“I think it’s alright. He makes eighty grape, soy milk, rice, and mochi a day now, and they sell out very early every day. There’s a shortage.”
Jiang Ji's dark eyes were fixed on Ye Li, with a hint of inquiry in them.
If you sell eighty grapes and a pottery jar of jasmine honey tea a day, your monthly income will be as high as six taels!
This is still only because Bao Beiyuan's energy is limited.
If you hire a helper, the income can double!
Where did Ye Li learn such a money-making method from?
Ye Li pretended not to understand Jiang Ji's confusion.
Unless Jiang Ji asks him directly, he will never offer an explanation.
He said, "He's working too hard. It's okay if he does less."
For example, Mixue Ice Cream, during the off-season, some stores in ordinary locations only sell a few hundred cups a day.
Bao Beiyuan has to prepare the raw materials and ingredients, and buy this and that. He sells eighty grapes a day, so he must be busy as a spinning top.
“I tried to persuade him, but he couldn’t stop. He said that if he doesn’t work, he’ll start having wild thoughts.”
Jiang Ji's brow furrowed with worry.
Upon hearing this, Ye Li immediately said, "Then after school in the evening, go and see him more often and help him out."
“Okay.” Jiang Ji also had this plan.
As they spoke, the two of them stopped eating.
Ye Li asked Jiang Ji to look at the account books, while he would clean the kitchen.
Jiang Ji took out the account book from his basket and sat down in front of the oil lamp to start flipping through it.
This was not a professional ledger. Bao Beiyuan had never studied accounting, and the Bao family noodle shop did not have a dedicated accountant. Just like his father, Bao Beiyuan recorded all the expenses and earnings he made each day.
One entry per day.
So far, more than twenty days have been recorded.
Today, Bao Beiyuan was going to send money to Ye Li, so he counted the total amount in the money box, set aside enough for two days' worth of raw materials, and then calculated Ye Li's share according to the 30/70 split.
As for Bao Beiyuan's daily rent, food, drink, and other necessities, they were all paid for with his own savings and did not involve this ledger.
Therefore, the ledger in front of them was simple and easy to understand. By the time Ye Li finished tidying up the kitchen, Jiang Ji had also finished flipping through it.
Jiang Ji put the account book back into the basket and took out the copper coins inside.
The usual amount is one thousand coins.
The remaining four hundred coins were strung together with hemp rope.
These coins were quite heavy; a single string of coins weighed eight jin, and together they weighed almost twelve jin.
Jiang Ji shook the bag in his hand and said to Ye Li, "Take it back to the west room."
"It's so heavy, you can carry it over and put it on the bottom shelf of the chest of drawers."
Ye Li pointed to the small shed and said, "I'm going to take a shower."
Jiang Ji agreed and carried the two strings of coins into the main room.
After he put the copper coins away and came out of the west room, Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya, the two little ones, who had just taken a bath, also came into the main room.
Upon seeing him, Jiang Ya immediately exclaimed, "Big brother! Look at the wind chimes!"
He proudly pointed with his forearm to the upper doorframes of the east and west rooms, where a wind chime hung.
Before Jiang Ji could react, he jumped up to Jiang Ji, grabbed Jiang Ji's sleeve, and led him to the east room: "Big brother, there's another one on the east room window, it's a crescent moon, it's so pretty. It makes a sound when the wind blows, my second brother and I really like it!"
For him at such a young age, the wind chime was an extremely exquisite and interesting object.
He was willing to play with the rough samples Ye Li made with wooden sticks, so he naturally loved the finished product made by Jiang Tong.
In the first two days after it was put up, he would go in and out hundreds of times a day, finding it incredibly novel.
Even today, his happiness hasn't diminished whenever he sees the two wind chimes when he enters or leaves the house.
Therefore, he couldn't wait to share it with Jiang Ji, so that Jiang Ji would be happy too.
Jiang Ji was indeed quite curious about the wind chimes.
There was no oil lamp in the main room, so it was dark. He went into the west room, picked up the oil lamp, and tilted his head slightly to examine the wind chimes hanging on the upper door frame.
When he left last time, Ye Li didn't mention a word about it.
This time when I returned, the wind chimes were finally able to be sold.
His husband has so many ideas.
The wind chime hanging in the west room is made of pure wood.
He nudged it with his hand, and the wooden stick above rattled as it shook.
"How much is this?" he asked, looking at Jiang Ya beside him.
"Twelve coins each!" Jiang Ya answered crisply.
"Twelve coins?" Jiang Ji was somewhat surprised.
This string of wood, selling for twelve coins?
"Yes, it's very expensive."
Jiang Mai didn't really understand why anyone would spend so much money to buy a string of wooden sticks.
He seemed to enjoy carrying it around for free.
But if you ask him to spend money, he feels it's not worth a single penny.
But Ya Ge'er really likes it.
Perhaps this is the difference between a man and a child.
He added, "They sold out really fast. When the two brothers were hawking their wares, they said that hanging them at home would not only improve your mood but also bring good luck, and they sold out in no time."
Welcome good luck?
Jiang Ji understood somewhat and walked towards the east room: "How much are these two in the east room?"
"They're all twenty coins each, and they have a bell on them!"
Jiang Ya answered quickly.
Twenty coins.
Jiang Ji looked at the four characters "May you have abundance every year" again and again, feeling a pang of sadness in his heart.
He copied books for others, copying thousands of words, and only earned a little over ten coins.
These four characters, with a small bell attached, sell for twenty coins?
Fortunately, this is Ye Li and Jiang Tong's business, and they are all family members.
The sour feeling in his heart quickly faded.
Jiang Tong doesn't know many characters, so before he returns to the private school tomorrow, write down a few more idioms with auspicious meanings so that Jiang Tong can have some variety.
After examining the wind chimes, Jiang Ya pulled him into the east room to look at the crescent-shaped wind chimes.
The window was open, and the courtyard was bathed in moonlight. Looking out from inside the house, the silhouette of the crescent-shaped wind chimes could be clearly seen.
It's like hanging the moon on your own window.
I must say, it's quite interesting.
At that moment, he understood the value of twenty coins.
For families with decent means, spending twenty coins to buy lasting happiness is worthwhile!
After visiting the wind chimes, he let the two little ones go to bed on the kang (a heated brick bed).
He was preparing to wash up.
I need to go to the ancestral temple tomorrow, so I should go to bed early tonight.
After he finished brushing his teeth, Ye Li came out of the small shed, so it was his turn to go in and take a shower.
After rinsing, he didn't rush back to the house, but stood in the yard drying his hair. At this moment, there was a noise coming from the west room. Jiang Ya laughed and shouted, "Brother Li, it itches!"
He couldn't help but laugh too.
Actually, he was very glad that Jiang Ya was like that. He had heard his second uncle call her a "money-loser" countless times before, but he never took it to heart.
When Jiang Ya gets older and understands what it means to die in childbirth, she shouldn't be like Bao Beiyuan, unable to get out of the pain.
He looked up at the moon overhead.
The moonlight was soft and benevolent, and two familiar faces flashed before his eyes.
These are his closest relatives.
But he wasn't there for them before they passed away, and he didn't get to see them one last time.
twice.
Twice within three months.
He rushed back from the private school twice, only to be able to handle their funeral arrangements.
How cruel.
How cruel God was to him!
In previous years, on this day, he would stand in the courtyard and weep quietly when he thought of this regret.
It would be a lie to say I'm not sad today.
But Jiang Ya's laughter was right next to her ear, along with Ye Li's voice.
These two voices slowly suppressed the sadness in his heart.
He's still alive; he should look forward.
He stared at the moon overhead for a moment, then raised his hand to wipe the corner of his eye. Once the tears in his eyes had cleared, he waved at the moon, then turned and went inside.
Nothing was said that night.
The next morning, Jiang Dahe brought Jiang Liu over to work again.
He also brought over the new robe that Liang Erxiang had made.
He handed the new robe to Jiang Ji, let Jiang Ji try it on, and confirmed that it didn't need any alterations. He was relieved, picked up the education expenses for the past eleven days that Ye Li had handed him, talked with Jiang Ji for a while, and left just before dawn.
In previous years, it was always his second uncle who accompanied Jiang Ji to pay respects on this day.
We won't need him this year.
While he was pleased, he also felt somewhat disappointed.
Jiang Ji understood Jiang Dahe's delicate and sensitive thoughts, but he really didn't need Jiang Dahe's company today. He was getting married and was going to take his new husband to meet his parents.
According to custom, worship should be done as early as possible.
He told Jiang Liu to continue grinding the millstone, and he and Ye Li carried the offerings and went out with Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya.
The ancestral graves of the Jiang family in Yezaopo are located behind the village, near the corner of the mountain, about a quarter of an hour's walk away.
When the four arrived, the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Daylight broke.
In summer, the wild grass grows lush and tall, and this place is usually deserted.
Jiang Ji led the way, circling the small cemetery twice before finally arriving at his mother's grave.
He took a small shovel from his basket and handed it to Ye Li: "Clear the weeds."
Ye Li took the shovel.
The two little guys, Jiangmai and Jiangya, took matters into their own hands and started picking.
After a flurry of activity, once the weeds on the grave mound were cleared away, Jiang Ji and Ye Li placed the offerings in front of the wooden tombstone.
One pound of fresh peaches.
One pound of cloud cake.
There's also the roast chicken that Ye Li braised yesterday.
After arranging the offerings, Jiang Ji lit three incense sticks and then began burning paper money and paper ingots.
The smoke from the cigarette curled upwards.
The gold ingots and paper money quickly turned to ashes in the open flame.
Ye Li prepared two baskets of paper money and ingots, so he squatted down and burned some as well.
After burning all the paper money and ingots in a basket and completing this most important procedure, Jiang Ji pulled Ye Li down to kneel.
Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya also hurriedly knelt down.
Jiang Ji stared at the wooden tablet for a moment, then grasped Ye Li's hand and said softly, "Mother, this is Ye Li."
“You are in heaven, you should have seen how well he treated me and Brother Wheat Sprout.”
"I don't know how to thank him."
As soon as he said that, he quickly added a sentence in his mind:
I don't know how to cherish and love him.
Sigh, in broad daylight, in front of Xiaomai and Yage'er, he really couldn't say that, so he could only keep it to himself.
"Mother, please bless me to pass the provincial examination this time. First, so that I may not let down the years of hard study and the family who have worked so hard for my education. Second, so that he may earn the title of a scholar."
"He really wanted to be a scholar's husband."
After saying this, he looked at Ye Li, signaling her to say a few words as well.
Ye Li had already prepared his plan.
If Jiang's mother were still alive, he might be nervous meeting his parents for the first time.
But at this moment, he had nothing to worry about.
He respectfully kowtowed three times to the wooden tablet and said calmly, "Mother, I am Ye Li."
“When you left, you must have been worried about Jiang Ji. These past few years, you have been watching over him from heaven, and you must have been heartbroken. But since I changed my ways, you have seen everything I have done.”
"You should know my sincerity and true feelings. Rest assured, Jiang Ji and I will live a good life and raise wheat and ya ge er well."
"From now on, every day will be a good day for our family."
He was not the real Ye Li.
But his heart was genuine and sincere.
If Jiang's mother truly has a spirit in heaven, she must love him.
His words, though simple, blurred Jiang Ji's vision for a moment.
However, more than sadness, Jiang Ji felt hope.
It is the hope for each day to come.
He gently shook their clasped hands and whispered, "Mother heard it, she will be at ease."
Ye Li turned her head and met his smiling eyes, and then smiled as well.
Then the two moved aside, letting Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya kneel in front of the wooden monument so that the two little ones could say a few words.
Jiang Mai stared at the wooden tablet and rambled on about everything that was going on at home. He and Ya Ge'er were now able to earn wages, and their combined wages had now exceeded one hundred coins.
He has so much money that he doesn't know what to do with it.
After all, he and Ya Ge'er no longer need to save travel expenses for his older brother.
In addition, the food at home has improved, and the pigs are eating more, but he and Ya Ge'er will never slack off.
Finally, she asked Jiang's mother to bless her eldest brother so that he might pass the imperial examination with flying colors.
When it was Jiang Ya's turn, the little guy counted on his fingers how many times his family had eaten meat, talked about his new toys, the windmill and the wind chimes, and said that he had gained weight.
He had no memory of Jiang's mother, but Jiang Ji had instilled in him countless words that Jiang's mother loved him very much, so he firmly believed that Jiang's mother liked him very much.
He was happy to share these things with Jiang's mother.
However, as he spoke, he secretly glanced at Ye Li and said, "Mom, I miss you so much. If you were here, you would probably treat me the same way you treat Li-ge?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ji immediately rubbed his little head and said, "Yes, if your mother were here, she would definitely treat you as well as your brother Li."
Upon receiving Jiang Ji's affirmation, the little guy grinned from ear to ear, threw himself into Ye Li's arms, tilted his head back, and shouted, "Brother Li!"
Ye Li hugged him and pinched his little face with a smile: "My brother-in-law is also a mother, Ya Ya is good."
The word "Ya Ya" made him even happier, and he almost twisted into a pretzel in Ye Li's arms.
Jiang Ji and Jiang Mai, who were standing nearby, laughed. Then the two brothers said a few more words to their mother, got up, packed up the offerings, and prepared to pay respects to their father.
Jiang's father's offerings included an extra earthenware jar of yellow wine.
Jiang Ji sprinkled the yellow wine in front of the grave, then knelt down and repeated the procedures and words he had just spoken.
The same applies to Yeli, Jiangmai, and Jiangya.
Ye Li, in particular, sincerely apologized to Jiang's father and expressed his gratitude for the help Jiang's father extended to Ye Daji.
As Jiang Ji listened to his words, his expression softened even more.
After the worship ceremony ended, the sun had already turned the four people's faces bright red. After confirming that there were no sparks in front of the two graves, they picked up their baskets and went home.
When they got home, Jiang Liu had already prepared breakfast.
Seeing them return, Jiang Liu didn't linger and hurried home.
The four of them ate first, and the roast chicken they had braised yesterday ended up in their stomachs.
After the meal, they filtered out the soybean pulp.
After filtering, Jiang Ji led the two little ones out to cut grass.
He ate lunch before returning to the private school; it was still early.
Ye Li pressed the tofu down, and without taking a break, he rolled up his sleeves and started stir-frying walnuts, black sesame seeds, and rice.
Soon, Jiang Ji returned with Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya.
Ye Li has also cooked the three dishes.
The next step is to grind the three foods into powder.
This is a heavy job, so Jiang Ji will do it.
The stone mill has now been moved to a shed next to the well, but there was no wind today, and Jiang Ji broke out in a sweat after only pushing it a few times.
Jiang Mai was a filial son. He was picking chives with Ye Li and Jiang Ya when he saw this, so he dropped the chives and grabbed a large palm-leaf fan to fan his older brother.
Jiang Ji was very satisfied and praised him a few times with a smile.
Just then, a breeze blew by, instantly carrying away much of the heat.
The wind chimes hanging on the east window also made a crisp sound.
Jiang Ji looked over and, thinking of the idiom wind chimes hanging at the door of the east room, said to Ye Li, "I'll write down a few idioms later, and you can give them to Brother Datong so he can change the design of the wind chimes."
"Okay." Ye Li replied without looking up as she busied herself picking chives.
He was just about to talk to Jiang Ji about this.
"By the way, why don't you know a few words too?" Jiang Ji added.
Ye Li was taken aback and looked up at him: "Are you talking about me?"
"Of course it's you, Xiaomai and Yage'er can read."
Although I don't know many.
But it's definitely better than Ye Li, who can't even read a single word.
However, seeing Ye Li's surprise and worried that she would be angry, he quickly explained, "I'm not complaining about you. I just think that as you earn more and more money in the future, what if you need to keep accounts?"
"Furthermore, if Bao Beiyuan brings the account books when I go to the prefectural city for the imperial examination, and you are in a hurry to see them, what should I do?"
"A skill is never a burden; once you learn it, you'll always find a use for it."
He didn't mind that Ye Li was illiterate!
So what if you can't read?
It means nothing!
He just wanted Ye Li to have more skills.
"……OK."
Ye Li nodded.
Pretending to be blind must be quite tiring for him.
Now that Jiang Ji wants to teach, he will "learn" so he won't have to pretend to be illiterate for the rest of his life.
“I have to leave after lunch, so let Xiaomai teach you first. He knows more than thirty characters,” Jiang Ji added.
Ye Li: "?"
His eyes widened slightly as he looked at Jiang Mai.
Jiang Mai was a little shy.
But he didn't forget to emphasize: "It's thirty-two. I know thirty-two characters."
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