Errui was, after all, a farmer's child. When he was doing farm work, he quickly put his sadness aside or suppressed it in his heart.
After harvesting the wheat, we need to quickly plow the fields and transplant the rice seedlings.
The calf had been tamed by ropes and sticks, and Errui had also learned how to communicate with the calf. The wooden plow moved back and forth in the paddy field, splashing mud and water everywhere. Both the people and the calf were soaked through with sweat and mud.
As dusk fell and smoke rose from the chimneys of every household in the village, the farmers finally brought in their plows and went home.
These days, Errui works in the village, and he goes to Xu Genyou's house for meals and stays at Li Laoshi's place at night.
Despite it being the busy farming season, Xia Xiucai's night school still held classes, and today's topic was "Dragon Boat Festival".
However, Xia Xiucai did not mention Qu Yuan, but instead talked about the Dragon Boat Festival customs in various places: eating zongzi, dragon boat racing, tying five-colored threads and hanging sachets, pasting five poisonous creatures, painting on the forehead, drinking realgar wine, collecting herbs, hanging mugwort tigers, avoiding the midday sun, and eating duck eggs.
A scholar can know everything without leaving home, and Xia Xiucai was already very knowledgeable, so he was very knowledgeable about local customs and traditions.
At that time, people had no other way to learn, so it was a rare treat to hear about these new things.
The children listened with great interest, their eyes filled with wonder and a thirst for knowledge.
Adults who have been busy all day also gather here, listening to interesting stories while keeping their hands busy, twisting ropes, making straw sandals, and weaving bamboo baskets.
Xiaoman doesn't do farm work now. He makes medicine in the pharmacy during the day and comes to the village to listen to lectures in the evening.
Upon hearing about the Dragon Boat Festival, he found Errui and asked him about the festival.
In Bajun, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duan Yang Festival", and it is divided into Lesser Duan Yang and Greater Duan Yang.
The Lesser Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, while the Greater Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the fifth lunar month. The Greater Dragon Boat Festival is the one that is truly celebrated.
Moreover, they eat steamed buns instead of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).
Legend has it that Zhuge Liang offered steamed buns as a sacrifice to the Hu River, but in reality, it was the newly harvested wheat that was ground into flour to taste the new harvest.
Moreover, the new son-in-law needs to take his wife back to her parents' home and bring his mother-in-law steamed buns made from the new wheat of the year.
The mother-in-law's family will reciprocate with an umbrella and a pair of shoes, signifying that the son-in-law should visit often, rain or shine.
An umbrella also symbolizes protection, hoping that the husband's family will take good care of the new bride.
In addition, there are customs such as eating salted duck eggs and preserved eggs, dragon boat racing, and wearing sachets.
"Brother Errui, are you going to send a festival gift to Sister-in-law Qiaoyun's family?" Xiaoman asked.
He already knew about Xiaotian and Aunt Xiaolan's affair, and he was furious. Unable to contain his anger, he decided to go to the city to find his son-in-law, surnamed Du.
Jiang Zhidao said that the Du family's house in the county town is currently rented, and the son-in-law is not here. This matter can be discussed later when there is an opportunity.
Xiao Tian's background is unknown, but it is certain that he is not his aunt's child.
Xiaoman also felt indignant on behalf of Da Rui and Er Rui, and said she would definitely make things clear when Xiaotian returned.
Knowing that Errui was in a bad mood, Xiaoman has been coming to talk to him every evening for the past few days to cheer him up.
Today, Xia Xiucai talked about the Dragon Boat Festival, and Xiaoman naturally brought up "sending festival gifts".
Errui sighed, "I still don't know where your sister-in-law Qiaoyun's family is, and her father has never been here!"
Qiaoyun's marriage to him was a little special, but not really.
Before the marriage, Xu Errui only met his father-in-law.
When they met again, the father-in-law was carrying a package on his back, followed by a girl, Qiaoyun.
Qiaoyun and her father got married after only three days in Xujia Village. Once her father-in-law left, he never came back.
The reason is simple: Qiaoyun's family is located in the mountains. To get out, they have to cross mountains and rivers, so they usually don't leave the mountains.
My marriage to Qiaoyun began many years ago when I was forced to serve in a labor service.
Because of the large-scale conscription of laborers for the construction of the official road, Qiaoyun's father was forcibly conscripted out of the mountains, but he was injured while performing corvée labor.
Xu Errui's father, Xu Maowan, was also working on the road. He was in poor health, so Qiaoyun's father had to take extra care of him while he worked.
When Qiaoyun's father was injured, Xu Maowan took him back to Xujia Village without saying a word, and he stayed there for half a month to recover.
After Qiaoyun's injury healed, her father felt that this family was good, with good conditions, owning a house and land, and being adjacent to the official road. They were many times better off than his own family in the mountains, so he immediately decided to arrange the marriage.
When Qiaoyun turned sixteen, he brought his daughter to the wedding ceremony.
These days, let alone sending holiday gifts, I don't even know where my home is.
Errui was talking about giving gifts for the Dragon Boat Festival, and Jiangzhi, Xiaoman's grandmother, Qiaoyun, and Chunfeng were also talking about it.
Jiang Zhi said, "Qiaoyun, if you miss home, go back for the Dragon Boat Festival! Go with Errui, and I'll take care of Xiao Caixia."
Qiaoyun shook her head: "I'm not going back, I don't know the way!"
She misses home, but can't go back. It's not an excuse; she genuinely can't find her home.
When I first came down from the mountain with my father, we spent several nights in the mountains and almost encountered a tiger. Fortunately, my father was familiar with the forest and we escaped.
My father told me when I got married that I should live a good life and never go back to my parents' home, because my parents' home was too miserable.
Girls in the mountains desperately want to marry out of the mountains, while girls in the villages marry into the town.
Parents all hope their daughter can marry into a good family, and they often say, "If you marry into a family in town, we can put down our baskets and have a drink of water before we go to the market!"
Qiaoyun's father thought so too; Xujia Village had fields and official roads, which was better than the mountains.
Back then, he brought his daughter several sets of coarse cloth dresses spun by his own family, took five taels of silver back with him, and never came back.
Jiang Zhi was used to this kind of thing. She already knew from Xu Errui that the original owner's family was also in the mountains, and they had long lost contact with them.
This is not an isolated case; there are always two or three such wives in every village, and Qin Shi is no exception.
When Grandma Xiaoman heard that Qiaoyun was not going back to her parents' home, she looked at Chunfeng beside her and sighed, "A girl's fate is like a rapeseed; wherever she is sown, she will take root and blossom. If she falls in a fertile place, she will grow tall in the wind; if she falls in a barren place, she will suffer a lifetime of hardship."
Chunfeng naturally did not return to her parents' home.
Since the chaos of war began, she has been back in Xujia Village for two years, and neither her family nor the man she was with has come looking for her.
In their hearts, Chunfeng was already dead.
In Chunfeng's heart, she considered herself dead!
Every family has a different way of celebrating holidays.
When you're poor, no one cares if you live in the bustling city; when you're rich, even distant relatives come to visit if you live deep in the mountains.
The outsiders naturally had no way to return to their hometowns, but things were bustling on the Xu family's side.
Since the house was repaired and the corvée labor was performed on the official road before the Lunar New Year, the surrounding villages and towns have known that Xujia Village has become more popular. In the past six months, relatives have come to inquire about the situation on and off.
The old village chief and his group stayed in Yuzhou Prefecture, while some of those who returned began to contact their relatives and friends.
At Xu Genqing's house, Qin was chopping chicken grass with a "thump thump" while glancing at Lianhua, who was scrubbing the pot with her pregnant belly, and said, "Lianhua, what do your parents mean? It's almost a festival and they haven't even sent a message. Do they want Genqing to send them festival gifts? Are they ignoring us because we're poor? The sooner we say it, the sooner we can break it off and let's all walk our own paths!"
Lianhua gave a helpless, bitter smile: "Mother, I haven't seen my family for over a year!"
The mother-in-law had been saying this for months. In fact, what she really meant was that she wanted Genqing to send gifts, but Lianhua's family had to apologize first.
Lianhua really didn't know how to answer this question. The two in-laws had already fallen out long ago when they went out to escape famine and came together, leaving her and Xu Genqing caught in the middle.
In front of her mother-in-law, she was a daughter of the Ding family, and she could vent her complaints to her.
Previously, because she couldn't conceive, she would blame the Ding family for being immoral, which caused the Xu family to be childless.
In front of her own family, she was the daughter-in-law of the Xu family, and she would start by saying things like, "You Xu family members are like this and that."
Completely forgetting where they grew up for the first ten years or so, they casually declared themselves outsiders.
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