Chapter 120 The Fairy's Country Life (Part 2) You really have golden hoes...
Huang Guihua was followed by several rough-working women who came out of the kitchen, each carrying a tray.
Inside sat a woman who looked like a fairy, Lin Daiyu. From Mu Dazhuang to Mu Chuan's nephew who was not yet five years old, everyone held their breath, lowered their heads, and spoke in a soft voice.
Shan Liniang is slightly better, but not by much.
“We eat more refined food now; the meat sauce and side dishes are served separately. Before, it was just one big bowl—”
She also swept Mu Chuan's clothes, something her eldest nephew used to do, cleaning up the whole pot and pan. Now she dared not say anything.
But then she thought about it again and realized that life was better now. Looking at the diced meat in the sauce, she actually found it a bit greasy.
Mu Chuan poured some of the oil from the meat sauce into his own bowl before going to serve Lin Daiyu.
That makes sense; she must have always eaten food that was pre-mixed by others before.
Mu Chuan brought over a small bowl of meat sauce, first pouring in the oil, and then explained to her, "Mix it with oil first, so the noodles won't stick, then add the sauce, and once the noodles are coated with the meat sauce, add the vegetables last. But you can add whatever you want first, it'll all taste the same anyway."
They were all at the same table, and Lin Daiyu could see clearly what was in everyone's bowl. She then asked Mu Chuan, "Why are your noodles so thick? Mine are so thin?"
"I'm afraid you won't like it, and I'm also afraid you won't be able to digest it. Look, it's raw, just like you." Mu Chuan is strong and a master at mixing noodles. While they were still adding toppings over there, the noodles were already mixed.
Lin Daiyu glared at him. How did she end up sitting at the same table as the children?
"And this too." Mu Chuan pushed a plate of finely chopped garlic sprouts. "I was worried you wouldn't like garlic, so this is milder."
As Huang Guihua watched her son attending to his wife without stopping, she said, "I also made you a bowl of chicken noodle soup. There's always broth available. If you don't like it, give it to your husband; he can eat as much as he wants."
The term "your man" was something Lin Daiyu had never heard before. It was indeed rough, but it also had an extreme sense of intimacy.
She subconsciously glanced to the side and saw that Mu Chuan was already eating noodles with gusto.
"Third brother, give me a thick one to try."
Little did they know that You Sheng, who was sitting diagonally opposite them, also whispered to Mu Chuntao, "Mother, I'm all grown up now, I want to eat coarse noodles too."
Mu Chuntao rubbed her daughter's head, while Lin Daiyu, with her instep pointed, gently kicked Mu Chuan.
Although Mu Chuan didn't put much sauce in Lin Daiyu's bowl, it was still a bit salty for her. She ate half a bowl and then switched to chicken soup noodles, giving the rest to Mu Chuan.
Although the large bowls at Mu Chuan's house were huge, Mu Chuan still ate three bowls.
After eating their second bowl, the others went out to talk, leaving only Lin Daiyu and Huang Guihua to keep them company.
Huang Guihua smiled and said, "Although I haven't done any work for a long time, my dough-kneading skills haven't deteriorated."
Mu Chuan praised it as delicious, then noticed the little dough pig that Lin Daiyu was hiding behind the teacup, and said, "Your mother is quite biased. When I was young, you would hit me for just giving my sister a small dough ball to play with, but you give her such a big piece of dough."
Lin Daiyu curled the corners of her mouth and glanced at Mu Chuan with a hint of smugness.
Huang Guihua's eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at her tall, imposing son. She then turned sharply to Lin Daiyu and said, "Don't listen to his nonsense. What do you mean, 'for your sister to play with'? He was just playing with your sister. He lied to Chuntao that it was a steamed bun. When I found out, Chuntao had already eaten almost half of it and had diarrhea for three days. Don't you think I should hit him?"
Lin Daiyu laughed so hard her eyes were almost closed: "Serves him right! Third Brother has never been well-behaved since he was a child."
Mu Chuan gasped, "No way. I don't remember that."
Huang Guihua chuckled twice: "What do you mean you can't? If you don't beat someone for three days, they'll be climbing on the roof and tearing off the tiles. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Others remember the food but not the beating, but you only remember being beaten."
Lin Daiyu laughed even more happily.
After dinner, Lin Daiyu took the small dough pig that Mu Chuan had made for her back home. However, the place near the mountain was a bit cold and dry, and the pig cracked before nightfall.
"Shall I make you another one?"
Lin Daiyu chuckled twice: "Let's make some pottery later. When I was little, whatever kind of clay doll I liked, my father would have someone make a batch for me. It was fun, but if you made too many, you'd get tired of it quickly. Let's make only a few."
Mu Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll have it cast in gold. Even if you get tired of it, you won't let me down because of its value."
As darkness fell, the mountainside was cold, and after washing up, Lin Daiyu naturally snuggled into Mu Chuan's arms.
Mu Chuan said, "The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. I was thinking that since I've married a wife who is from the South, how about giving her four kinds of savory mooncakes and four kinds of sweet mooncakes as gifts this year, along with mung bean cakes and salted duck eggs?"
There's nothing to say about that; everyone celebrates the festival this way. Lin Daiyu said, "And we still need Yunnan ham. What did you give us last year?"
"Last year I was still on the road eating dust with the chieftain," Mu Chuan said pitifully. "I didn't even get to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Lin Daiyu chuckled a few times, leaned over and kissed him: "Good Third Brother, I will spend Mid-Autumn Festival with you from now on, every Mid-Autumn Festival."
Mu Chuan was satisfied: "It's cold by the mountain, come and warm up my good wife."
Lin Daiyu pressed herself even closer and asked, "Is there enough time? When I was at the Rongguo Mansion, they were eager to start preparing in July, but it's already August."
“How can it be too late?” Mu Chuan said, “I’m not sending them to that many people. If everyone in the capital could receive mooncakes from the Marquis of Zhongyong, what would I become? I’m not running a mooncake shop.”
Lin Daiyu chuckled twice: "Has the Xue family sent an invitation yet?"
"I don't know, just ask someone when you get back." Mu Chuan held out his hand. "Let me see if you've gained any weight. Before you got married, you were so delicate and frail, but now that you're married, if you're still so delicate and frail, what am I supposed to do?"
Lin Daiyu was tickled twice by him, and while dodging, she laughed: "All the heat has run away."
But she always felt as if she had forgotten something.
But who cares? Things I can't remember don't matter.
"How should we celebrate the old lady's birthday on the third day of the eighth lunar month? And what about the gifts for the Mid-Autumn Festival?"
Madam Wang arrived at Wang Xifeng's room late at night, asking questions while also scolding her: "I know you haven't been feeling well lately, but it's your duty to be filial to your elders and manage the household chores. How can you be so lazy?"
Wang Xifeng sneered inwardly, but her face showed panic: "How did it get to this point? I've been in a daze these past few days, and a whole day just slips by in my sleep."
She instinctively grabbed Madam Wang's hand: "Aunt, what day is it today?"
Madam Wang frowned deeply. Was she confused? Could she be dying?
Thinking about it, Madam Wang shuddered, and the wrist that was being held felt cold and uncomfortable.
“Go—tell Ping’er to go find Yuanyang and ask her privately. We’ll come up with a plan.”
How could Wang Xifeng bear to let Ping'er get involved in these sordid matters again?
She just needed to think of a way... Just as Wang Xifeng was about to speak, there was another commotion in the courtyard; Jia Lian had returned.
This was a perfect excuse. Wang Xifeng's eyes reddened, and she held onto Madam Wang's hand tightly.
“Aunt, please help me persuade Master Lian. I have given birth to children and managed the household affairs. How have I wronged him? Now he won’t even come into my room. Even Sister You doesn’t show me any respect. She just stands at the door to greet me and says a few words without even a proper greeting.”
Speaking of this, Wang Xifeng was furious. Although she pretended at first, she was genuinely upset after saying a few words.
Madam Wang wouldn't care about such things. She grabbed Wang Xifeng's hand tightly and said, "Who didn't go through this? You are a lawfully wedded wife. Why are you arguing with a woman brought back from outside? The old lady's birthday banquet is the important thing."
"Auntie, you have to help me!"
Madam Wang grew increasingly anxious, and hearing the joking noises outside, she felt that the Rongguo Mansion was in complete chaos and had lost all decorum.
She stood up abruptly: "Take good care of yourself, and you'll be able to manage things again in three to five days."
Wang Xifeng pretended not to hear, and kept saying, "Please persuade Master Lian for me."
Seeing Madam Wang leave in a panic, Wang Xifeng finally felt a little better. However, things had come to this point, and the two Wang families should have been united. But her good aunt was not only not united, but she also had to dodge and weave things aside for the things her uncle had instructed her to do.
Does she really think she can manage the Rongguo Mansion because the Second Master loves and respects her?
Wang Xifeng summoned Ping'er and instructed her, "Tomorrow, have Wang Xing go back and tell my uncle that Madam didn't even hire a tutor, and instead asked Sister-in-law Zhu to teach the Third Miss her lessons with Baoyu."
Lady Wang hesitated, and Wang Xifeng claimed to be ill and stayed home, so all the work fell on her shoulders. Moreover, the old lady was a generation apart from Wang Xifeng, so she still had some leeway when she spoke to her, but with her... she had even laid hands on her before.
Besides, where would the Rongguo Mansion have any money left?
She slowly made her way into Grandmother Jia's room and said with a smile, "It's quite a coincidence this year. Sister Feng is too sick to get up, and Tan Chun and the other girls are always forgetful when it comes to managing the household. Grandmother's birthday banquet also coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival. I wonder how Grandmother plans to spend it?"
The ginseng tea that Grandmother Jia drank morning and evening was downgraded again.
They used to drink ginseng, then switched to red ginseng, and now they can't even afford red ginseng anymore, so they just drink codonopsis with goji berries to make do.
Looking at this ginseng tea, Grandmother Jia was far from happy.
She rolled her eyes at Madam Wang: "I've been your mother-in-law for forty years, haven't I?"
Madam Wang was never one to be quick-witted, and she was a beat slow on the uptake, wondering what this meant.
Grandmother Jia coldly replied, "What do you mean by 'coinciding with a lucky day'? When has my birthday banquet not been held in August?"
This is just nitpicking on purpose; she wasn't talking about that clever trick at all.
Madam Wang smiled apologetically and gave the reason she had prepared beforehand: "These days we're making hats at the very least, and there's no room for anything extra. Besides, the ladies in the palace have instructed us to be frugal, so I thought it would be better to keep it simple this year and not make it so big."
Of course, the main problem was the lack of money. The Grand View Garden had also been taken over, so where would they find a place to admire the moon?
"Hmm." Grandmother Jia was also irritated. She swiped the cup lid across the cup, making a harsh, irritating sound.
“Our family is doing relatively well,” Madam Wang said with a forced smile. “These past two years have been marked by either drought or floods, and we haven’t collected much rent. Not to mention other places, even in these villages on the outskirts of Beijing, we haven’t seen any meat for two years.”
Grandmother Jia sighed, "Fine, if we're not going to hold it, then we're not going to hold it. I've lived to be this old, so I know what a famine is all about. But even though we're not holding it, we can't be impolite... This year's mooncakes will be printed with gold foil and sent to all our acquaintances."
Finally, it was over. Lady Wang breathed a sigh of relief and left Grandmother Jia's room.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the villagers of Linjia Village waited outside the ancestral hall, eager to have Mu Chuan's wife, who had only been back for a day but had already become famous, recorded in the family genealogy.
Lin Daiyu was still a little nervous. She remembered that back in the Rongguo Mansion, no matter how much her maternal grandmother loved her, she hadn't invited her into the Jia family's ancestral hall. Instead, Xue Baoqin had been invited in.
No wonder there were rumors back then that the maternal grandmother wanted to marry Xue Baoqin to Jia Baoyu. How can you blame others for misunderstanding?
But when she caught a glimpse of her tall third brother beside her, Lin Daiyu felt better again.
Third Brother said that they are all our ancestors, and any time is a good time to worship them.
This time, Mu Chuan led Lin Daiyu in first to offer incense to the ancestors, and then wrote their names on the family genealogy.
After the incense was offered, the village chief brought out two family genealogies, one for Linjia Village and the other for Mu Chuan.
The one from Linjia Village was written by the village chief himself. Although Mu Chuan's genealogy is also quite thick, it only has four pages with text.
The first page describes the origins of Linjia Village, the next two pages detail Mu Chuan's achievements, and the next page contains the actual family genealogy, which currently only lists Mu Chuan.
Mu Chuan took the pen and handed it to Lin Daiyu, not bothering to hide his feelings: "My handwriting isn't very good, you do it."
Third Brother didn't hide it, and Lin Daiyu didn't refuse either. She picked up a pen and wrote her own name and background under Mu Chuan's name.
After finishing writing, I suddenly felt a little dazed.
While she was in a daze, the village chief was not. He looked at the handwriting of the wife of the Earl of Zhongyong, then at the family genealogy in his hand, and suddenly felt it was no longer appealing.
We need to think of a way to get Auntie to copy the family genealogy. We're all from the same clan; a well-presented genealogy would make her look good.
Once the family name is recorded in the genealogy, the next step is a sacrificial ceremony involving all members of the family.
The heat of summer has passed and the white dew has not yet arrived; it is the time to prepare for planting winter wheat. The village chief led people to burn incense and kowtow, and also took down the golden hoe that was offered on the altar.
This was Lin Daiyu's first time participating in such an activity, and she simply followed Mu Chuan's lead. In addition, the room was filled with burning incense, which made it somewhat stuffy.
After she finished and left the ancestral hall, she suddenly realized what had happened and mocked, "Third Brother, you actually prepared a golden hoe for the village? You're too much of a nouveau riche."
Looking at Lin Daiyu's smiling face, Mu Chuan sighed helplessly: "This was a gift from the Emperor Emeritus. The palace uses this hoe every year during the spring plowing and sacrificial ceremonies."
Lin Daiyu was stunned. She remembered what she had said when she last went to the palace to teach the two princesses.
...Everyone thought His Majesty used a golden hoe.
No wonder the empress and princess had such strange expressions.
Lin Daiyu covered her face and said, "Third Brother, I'm too ashamed to face anyone."
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