Time flies in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow is little An Rui's full moon banquet. Early this morning, An Ning and An Dashan went to get the things needed for the full moon banquet.
For this banquet, An Dashan found a chef who specialized in banquets, but the ingredients had to be prepared by themselves, so An Ning and An Dashan came to the town to buy the ingredients.
There was no need to buy vegetables in this season, so An Dashan and An Ning went directly to the pork shop. The butcher and An Dashan and his daughter were old acquaintances, and when he saw the father and daughter coming, he greeted them warmly.
An Dashan said with a smile: "My son will hold a full-moon banquet tomorrow. Come and buy a whole pig today. It will be slaughtered tomorrow morning and sent to my house."
The butcher agreed while saying congratulations.
After ordering pork, the father and daughter went to the market again. While An Dashan was buying seasonings, An Ning took out two large baskets of eggs from her space, planning to boil red eggs tomorrow. Because there was a pond at home, there was no need to buy fish. After buying seasonings, the father and daughter went to the jewelry store again.
An Ning wanted to buy a pair of silver bracelets for her brother. When they entered the shop, the owner of the jewelry shop was wiping the counter. Seeing the two of them coming in, he hurriedly greeted them warmly. An Ning didn't hesitate and picked a pair of silver bracelets engraved with "Longevity, Wealth, and Peace Every Year". After paying the money, the father and daughter went home.
Since there were two servants at home, Wang didn't have to cook anymore. She just looked after the child with Gao every day. When An Ning and An Dashan came back, they were playing with the child in the house. An Ning came in, took out the pair of silver bracelets, and said, "Mom, I went to town to buy a pair of silver bracelets today. Let Ruier try them on."
Gao reached out and took the silver bracelet from An Ning's hand, put it on An Rui's wrist, then adjusted the size and sighed, "Rui'er was really born in a blessed family." Wang also nodded in agreement.
As the three of them were talking, Xinghua came in with food and said, "Miss, Madam, the food is ready outside. You can eat now."
Wang had been hearing the name "Old Madam" for several days but was still not used to it. She told Xinghua several times that she could just call her "Auntie", but Xinghua did not listen to Wang and still called her "Old Madam".
After hearing what Xinghua said, An Ning and Wang got up and went to the main room. An Dashan was already sitting at the table waiting. An Ning and Wang washed their hands and started to eat.
The next day was little Anrui's full-moon banquet. Early in the morning, Gao dressed little Anrui in the new clothes made by Wang, and put a silver bracelet on his wrist and a silver longevity lock bought by An Yong around his neck.
Villagers came one after another, some brought eggs, some brought two feet of cloth, although they didn't bring much, but they were all gifts from the villagers. An Dashan stood at the door to greet them, and An Ning wore apricot flowers to entertain the guests.
Around 9:00 p.m., Uncle Gao's family and Uncle Gao's family arrived together.
Uncle Gao and his aunt Cui presented a crib made by Uncle Gao himself, which was polished very smoothly without any burrs. Uncle Gao and his aunt presented two sets of small clothes made by Li and a pair of tiger-head shoes. An Ning's cousin Cuicui also presented a tiger-head hat made by herself. The other cousins did not have so much thought and came empty-handed.
When Gao saw her family members coming, she was very happy and kept talking to Cui and Li.
Gao’s house was not small, but it seemed very crowded with so many people standing there, so after Uncle Gao and Uncle Gao looked at the children, they took the boys out of the house.
But Xiao Shitou was an exception. He hadn't seen his grandmother and aunt for a long time, so he stayed in the house and refused to go out. Wang also missed her little grandson, so she held Xiao Shitou in her arms and talked to him.
Seeing this, An Ning said, "My two aunts, I'm going to go out and entertain the guests first. You can stay in this room and talk to my mother first."
Cui said with a smile: "Okay, go and get busy!" Li also nodded.
An Ning turned around and left Gao's room, and came to the main hall to greet the aunts and wives in the village. Because they hired a cook, and the cook brought several helpers with him, the aunts and wives in the village had no place to use their skills, and were now chatting in the main hall.
Just after noon, An Dashan called out, "Everyone, please find a seat. The meal will start soon."
When everyone heard this, they all found someone they had a good relationship with and sat at the same table. As soon as everyone sat down, the helpers brought by the chef began to serve the dishes. First, four plates of cold dishes were served, namely, cold shredded ear mushrooms, cold shredded black fungus, peanuts, and cold shredded kelp. After the cold dishes were served, four more hard dishes were served, namely, braised pork, roast chicken, braised fish, and four-joy meatballs. Finally, four stir-fried dishes were served, namely, stir-fried cabbage with meat, stir-fried celery with meat, scrambled eggs, and stir-fried tofu.
There were twelve dishes in total, with a combination of meat and vegetables, and they were delicious. With the addition of the fine sake on the table, the villagers were full of praise for the banquet. The women and children were responsible for eating, while the men drank and played finger-guessing games while eating. The meal was very lively with people toasting each other.
An Ning, her grandmother Wang, her two aunts, her cousin Cuicui, Gao, An Dashan's aunt, An Dalin's wife and several others sat at the same table. An Dashan's aunt was a talkative person, and the laughter at the table never stopped.
The banquet ended at noon, when Uncle Gao and his group of people went home, and Grandma Wang followed them. After seeing everyone off, Gao took little An Rui back to his room to rest. An Dashan also went back to his room to sleep because he had drunk a few more glasses. An Ning took Xinghua to clean up the house.
Not long after the full moon banquet, it was the harvest season. As usual, An Dashan hired villagers to help harvest wheat. It took nearly ten days to harvest the wheat. From the more than 200 mu of land, each mu yielded more than 800 kilograms of grain, and a total of nearly 200,000 kilograms of wheat was harvested. This number once again shocked everyone.
The village chief was so happy that tears streamed down his face as he looked at the full and heavy grains of wheat. Although An Dashan had been mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the number.
An Ning said, "Dad, this yield is not the highest. Once the fertilizer I made is spread on the land this year, the yield should be able to increase by another 100 kilograms."
Before An Dashan could say anything, the village chief next to him got excited and said, "Girl, are you serious? What is compost? Can you teach us?"
An Ning looked at the people around him who were looking at him expectantly, so he nodded and said, "Of course, this method is very simple. I will teach you later. Now let's store the wheat."
In order to store grain, the An Ning family demolished the old courtyard and rebuilt a warehouse when they finished building the back house a few days ago. An Dashan directed everyone to put the last of the dried wheat into the warehouse.
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