Offerings for praying for rain include pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and other such tributes. All the villages under the jurisdiction of Baima Town are required to contribute five cents per family, which is then collected and counted by the village chief and handed over to the headman's mansion.
The head of the pavilion used the crowd-raised money to prepare sacrifices, including pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, and many other sacrifices. Three days later, a rain-praying ceremony would be held at the town gate. At that time, all snack businesses on the street would have to close for a day.
By then, there will be a huge crowd of people coming to watch and pray for rain.
Since I can't open for business, I'll just take a good rest at home for a day.
It has been two months since the business was started. Xiao's mother calculated the money she earned in these two months. In the first month, she earned nearly ten taels, and in the second month, she earned almost eight taels, which added up to seventeen taels.
After deducting the cost of setting up the stall, he made a net profit of twelve taels of silver, which made Xiao's mother so happy that she couldn't stop smiling.
She called everyone together and started to pay their wages as agreed at the beginning.
Give Jiang Sui and Xiao Yi one tael of silver each, and give Zhou and Lan Lan eight hundred coins each.
Since Xiao Yi and Jiang Sui were at the stall almost every day and they were more tired, they were given more. On the other hand, Zhou and Xiao Lanlan were at home and had a relatively easy time, so they were given less. No one had any objection to this.
Everyone felt very happy when they received the wages for their labor.
Especially Zhou, she was extremely proud that as a woman, she could earn money by doing some housework every day. The sense of satisfaction was indescribable.
Xiao Yi took the silver and satisfied himself, then returned it to Xiao's mother, saying:
"I am alone now and I don't need to support a wife. What do I need the money for? Mother, please keep it for me. I don't need it. Keep it to support the family. There will be many more times when the family needs money in the future."
Xiao's mother was very pleased that he thought so. As the family was not well off, she took the initiative to accept the money.
…
On the day of praying for rain, people from every household in the village would go to join in the fun, but some people refused to go because the weather was too hot and the journey was too long.
Xiao Lanlan had never seen rain-making before and was very curious, so she called Jiang Sui to go with her to see it. At this time, Xiao Hechuan was also acting coquettishly with Jiang Sui, saying that he wanted to join in the fun.
"Wife, please, just take me there, okay? You are the best."
At this time, Xiao Hechuan liked to join in the fun. The day before yesterday, he heard Xiao's mother talk about the scene of praying for rain, and then he wanted to go there very much.
But Jiang Sui finally got a day off, and all she wanted to do was give up.
Now with the addition of Xiao Lanlan, Jiang Sui really couldn't stand being attacked from both sides, so he coaxed and persuaded them, and finally agreed to the requests of the two siblings.
Everyone got tanned after setting up the stall for the past two months. Jiang Sui at least knew to wear a hat, so he didn't get much tanned. But the brothers Xiao Hechuan and Xiao Yi faced the sun directly. Xiao Hechuan's originally fair skin has now turned wheat-colored, but it doesn't affect his appearance at all. Maybe it will turn white again in autumn.
When Xiao's mother heard that they were going to pray for rain, she asked them to take the dried mushrooms and dried black fungus to the dry goods store to sell them.
They were all picked from the mountains before, and had been dried in the sun for several months.
There are three bags of mushrooms and one bag of wood ears. With these wood ears, I estimate that they can be sold for more than one or two taels of silver.
They are lucky this year and have dried much more dry goods than other families, so it is time to take action.
After being dried, the mushrooms and wood ears are not heavy and there is no burden.
However, when they were going out, they met Chen Jinhua on the road. When Chen Jinhua saw Jiang Sui and the others, she was originally planning to go to the town to join in the fun, but suddenly changed her mind and changed direction.
When Jiang Sui saw her, he pretended not to see her and didn't want to pay any attention to her.
Jiang Sui and Xiao Lanlan were wearing straw hats. When the three of them arrived at the town, there were already many people gathered at the town gate. The altar had been set up, and all the pigs, cattle, sheep and chickens had been slaughtered and placed on the altar. Two big drums were also brought in, one on each side.
The ceremony has not officially started yet, and the three of them are preparing to sell the dry goods first.
Jiang Sui's forehead and back were all covered in sweat. The weather was really hot. Xiao Lanlan and Xiao Hechuan were not much better than her.
Except for snack stalls that were not allowed to be set up for fear of affecting the heavenly sacrifices, all the grocery stores were still open.
The boss was very satisfied when he saw that their dried goods were of good quality. His eyes lit up especially when he found out that they also had dried black fungus.
There is no shortage of dried mushrooms in Baima Town, but there are not many wood ears. They are expensive and taste good, but only a few kilograms can be harvested in a year.
They can resell it to the county and make a profit from the difference.
This year, the price of dried mushrooms is ten wen per catty, which is fifty catties in total, or five hundred wen. The dried wood ear fungus is twice as expensive as mushrooms, at twenty wen per catty, which is twenty-five catties in total, also exactly five hundred wen, which is exactly one tael of silver.
In previous years, Xiao Lanlan would be very happy if she could sell mushrooms for a few hundred coins. But this year was different. She directly sold them for one or two taels of silver. But all this was thanks to Jiang Sui.
The three of them completed the task assigned by Xiao's mother and went to pray for rain with peace of mind.
The ceremony just started. The pavilion chief and several old men were standing on the altar. One of the old men was holding a book and reading something. The sentences were obscure classical Chinese, and they should be words for praying for rain.
There are several large incense sticks inserted in the incense burner. Judging from their size, they can probably burn for a whole day.
There was fire burning in the brazier in front of the pavilion chief, and he kept burning paper in it.
The old man muttered for a long time before he finished reading the classical Chinese text, and then several people each took three incense sticks and began to kneel down and worship the offering.
One of the oldest elders shouted:
"Today, I have specially set up the altar and offered sacrifices to ask for the gods' help. I pray that the gods will have mercy on me and send down a sweet rain!"
After he finished shouting, someone began to beat drums rhythmically. The sound of the drums was so deafening that it felt like the yellow earth beneath their feet was shaking. Then, the people around him all knelt down one after another and began to follow his lead in worship, chanting:
"Please God have mercy on us and send some rain to save the crops."
Jiang Sui didn't believe this at first, but Xiao Lanlan had already pulled her to kneel down, and Xiao Hechuan didn't understand why, so he knelt down too.
Everyone was kneeling, and if she didn't, she would probably become the target of public criticism.
She was just pretending to follow suit, but the scene was indeed grand. There were at least eight hundred people who came to watch today, if not a thousand. Baima Town was so small that the altar was surrounded by people.
It took at least a quarter of an hour before everyone got up, but the sound of drumming continued as the young men took turns.
After this part, there was no point in offering sacrifice to heaven. Xiao Lanlan felt it was boring after satisfying her desire and shouted that she wanted to go back.
On the way, she asked Jiang Sui:
"Fourth sister-in-law, do you think this prayer for rain will work? Will it really rain?"
In fact, whether it rains or not is related to the atmosphere, and it is not something that can be controlled by these supernatural things. It is just deceiving yourself.
But Jiang Sui couldn't say this in front of Xiao Lanlan, as praying for rain was a tradition in Baima Town.
"I don't know, maybe." That was all she could say.
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