Chapter 228 Moving to a New Home
The Lin family's new house was completely built a month after the New Year.
Although we took a month off for the Lunar New Year, we finally finished the work before the spring plowing season. Plus the labor costs for the masons, carpenters, and other helpers like Lin Fuqiang.
The whole yard was much cheaper than they expected. At this moment, Sun Defa was helping to deliver furniture to Lin Guoqing's new home.
Sun Defa, Wang Jingui's husband, is a middle-aged carpenter in Sihe Village. When he was still in the production brigade, he had already earned a lot of work points by carpentry.
The new home needed a room for each child, which meant a lot of furniture. Chen Chunhua and her husband placed an order for their furniture directly with him.
At this moment, all the new and old furniture were moved into the newly built two-story courtyard, but the old ones were not as many as the new ones.
Generally speaking, when a girl gets married here, her parents will bring her a wardrobe. Those with the means will get a larger wardrobe, complete with pots, pans, and other household items. Those without the means will get a smaller wardrobe, but they'll still have at least one. Even if the family has cut down trees in the mountains, they'll still have a wardrobe.
Unfortunately, the two generations of daughters-in-law in the Lin family, one fled from famine, and the other sold herself, so they had nothing and the cabinets in the Lin family were extinct.
When Liang Shengdi first got married, her mother-in-law donated her dowry cabinet and placed it in her son and daughter-in-law's room, while she herself used the wardrobe left by Lin Wenxuan's grandmother.
Later, when Mrs. Lin passed away, the cabinet was left behind for the brother and sister to use to store things.
When Lin Yulan got married, a new cabinet was made for her to take away, but when Lin Guoqing and Shen Chunhua got married, he owed money and was reluctant to make a new one for the couple.
Chen Chunhua didn't care, so she continued to use her mother-in-law's mother-in-law's mother-in-law's dowry. Including the children's things, she stuffed them in wherever possible, and if she couldn't, she put them at the bedside, on top of the cabinet, on the stool, in the corner...
It wasn't until today, when I was about to move to a new house and took out all my things, that I discovered that the partitions inside the cabinet were cracked. It was only because there were too many things underneath that the upper part was holding it up that it didn't collapse.
Including the outside of the cabinet, it was all so dilapidated that it was supported only by the corners of the wall. It was estimated that the cost of repairing it would be less than buying a new one. Of course, when Chen Chunhua ordered the cabinet, she did not forget the one for their own room.
"Can this... be thrown away?" Lin Guoqing turned to ask his mother. After all, it was his grandmother's dowry, and he didn't know whether he could deal with it casually.
But asking Liang Shengdi was pointless; she knew nothing. Old Madam Liang looked bewildered and exclaimed, "Can't we just throw it away?"
Lin Guoqing: ...
Chen Chunhua sighed and stood up on her knees, "I'll go ask next door."
She went to ask Youqing's mother. Basically, if there was anything they didn't understand about traditional customs in their family, they would go to the neighbors to ask. There was no other way, as the two daughters-in-law didn't understand anything, so they had to ask.
Youqing's mother knows everything and tells everything she wants.
"You should first visit the old lady's grave and tell her that she left something there, her dowry, and you should deliver it to her. When you come back, you can burn the chest.
When burning it, remember to keep thinking of your great-grandmother, saying it's for her, so she'll remember to pick it up. Then, burn incense for her at the Kitchen God Bodhisattva for three days, and don't stop..."
It's so complicated. They will move into their new house after putting up the beams tomorrow. The Kitchen God will have to move in with them. Can the incense be moved there too?
Youqing's mother didn't know how to answer this question. After all, it wasn't common for people to move to a new location and rebuild their house while burning their deceased ancestors' belongings at the same time.
"Forget it, let's leave it there for now. We'll move the Kitchen God over there first, and then go burn it at the grave once we're settled there."
"The cabinet is here, and your Kitchen God is over there. Why can you burn incense here and light it over there?" Youqing's mother glared at Chunhua in disapproval. Young people just have no taboos.
"If the Kitchen God moves out, there's no one here anymore. You've left Grandma Guoqing's dowry wardrobe in an unattended place, which is the same as abandoning her here. Be careful that she's going to be mad at you for being unfilial!"
Chen Chunhua:...Okay, let’s pull it over there.
For a moment, Chen Chunhua even thought about whether this thing could be kept as an antique and sold for a good price later.
But, let’s not talk about the ancestral taboos.
Take the cabinets themselves for example. Even the cabinets of poor families are considered large items. It is good enough if they can be made, not to mention choosing the wood and the workmanship.
The cabinet is placed horizontally on the tricycle, and as the tricycle vibrates, large pieces of wood chips will fall off. If you say you want to sell it as an antique, the buyer may call the police and accuse you of fraud.
Forget it, I'll put it in the utility room on the left side of the yard.
Then there was Liang Shengdi's cabinet, her mother-in-law's. Liang Shengdi had Lin Guoqing move it to the utility room as well.
"It's not easy to go to the grave. Since I have to burn incense and pass on the message to your great-grandmother, I might as well report it to your grandmother as well."
In order to prevent their graves from being leveled, many families here secretly moved their ancestral graves deep into the mountains. Now that they have moved their graves, they have to climb the mountain for more than an hour to worship their ancestors every year, which is absolutely a troublesome thing.
Liang Shengdi reached out and touched the cabinet that had been with her for more than forty years. There was gratitude in her eyes, but there was not much nostalgia in the words she spoke.
"Tell your grandma that I'm grateful to her for my whole life. When I'm gone, if I still remember, I'll go and serve her. Just return this cabinet to her. I have a new cabinet for you."
When she said the last word about the new cabinet, Chen Chunhua clearly felt the old lady's uncontrollable excitement.
Lin Guoqing covered his face. If he really told his grandmother everything his mother said word for word, he was afraid that his grandmother would jump out of her grave and curse him.
Except for the cabinets, clothes, shoes and other scattered luggage, all were moved to the new house today. In fact, there were not many things, but the four children still ran in and out excitedly.
Chen Chunhua specifically chose Friday. Even though Lin Shuying had just returned last week, Liang Shengdi still rowed the boat to pick her up today.
How can we move into our new home without our eldest daughter?
Lin Shuying folded the clothes in her closet, put them in and took them out, then folded them again and put them in and took them out again. This compartment didn't work, so should she put them in that compartment?
No, no, the closet is so big. If you put everything together, the rest of the room will be empty. Pants and clothes can be separated. Spring, summer, autumn and winter items should also be separated. And underwear should have a special drawer...
The three-door wardrobe forced her to put one or two pieces of clothing in each compartment, making it look even emptier.
However, Shuying still looked at the empty wardrobe with a silly smile. What did it matter if it was empty? When she went to college and made money, she could always fill it up!
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