Chapter 223: Why are these words so unpleasant to the ear?!
This arrangement is actually inappropriate.
But since the old man had spoken, the others looked at each other and said nothing.
The filial sons and grandsons, led by Uncle Xu, knelt in front of the door to welcome the guests. They stood up after kneeling for half a day.
The village is not big, and people who got the news came quickly. The inside and outside of the Xu family's old house were immediately filled with people coming and going to offer condolences.
The Xu family is an outsider household. They may have ancestral tombs to bury in the place where they came from. In Luobei Village, they have thousands of hectares of wasteland and hundreds of acres of fertile fields, but they have no source of income.
Uncle Xu was quite sorry about this, but the old man didn't seem to care much.
The old man said slowly, "When a person dies, he becomes nothing more than a handful of ashes. Why bother worrying about where to bury him?"
"Didn't the fortune teller we invited say that the land at the foot of East Mountain is good? It would be nice to be buried there."
At this point, the old lady's burial place was decided, and the three-day funeral was successfully completed with the help of the villagers.
During the three days, the old man claimed to be tired and rarely appeared in public. Uncle Xu San and Xu Yu and others were busy entertaining guests and had no free time. Only Uncle Xu Er was kneeling in front of the coffin.
Uncle Xu knelt for three days and three nights before the coffin was closed.
No one cares.
Three days later, Uncle Xu brought all the family members, big and small, to kneel in front of the door and send away the villagers who came to help spontaneously.
After leaving the Xu family's house, someone sighed, "What a wonderful family! The old lady who passed away wasn't destined to enjoy such a good life."
"Who says it isn't?"
Someone nearby said, "The Xu family's new house, with its black tiles and blue bricks, is so imposing, bright and tidy inside and out. They were just waiting for an auspicious day to move in. But the old lady died before they could move in. There are so many nice houses over there, but she couldn't even get through the front door."
"I'm just unlucky. I wasn't born to enjoy a peaceful life. The old lady has been ill for such a long time. The Xu family has been worried about her so much. In the end, because of her eccentric personality, they even spent a lot of money to hire someone to take care of her. If they hadn't been so dedicated, she might have died long ago."
"That's true..."
…
The story about the old lady passed through the villagers' mouths like a gust of wind, and the next thing they talked about more was the Xu family's new house.
That is a unique style in the village!
On the day of moving, it was not appropriate to have a big celebration as the old lady had just passed away.
But in order to bring good luck, Uncle Xu still got a string of firecrackers with 3,000 bangs and set them off in front of the door. The ground was covered with red fireworks, which made people feel happy when they saw them.
After moving into the new house, Sang Zhixia rolled up her sleeves and went to the kitchen to cook a good meal to celebrate.
The whole chicken was put into the pot and stewed for half a day with pork tripe, astragalus, codonopsis, etc. The top layer of fat was skimmed off and the chicken was served directly in a large bowl that looked like a basin. The soup was thick and fragrant.
The freshly harvested eggs are mixed with the cut leeks and fried until they are tender yellow and green. Eggplant, beans and pork ribs are stewed into a pot of fragrant and soft soup. The purchased river shrimp and finger-long fish are coated with batter and fried in a pan until they are golden and crispy.
The cabbage freshly picked from the field does not need much seasoning. Just add a spoonful of vinegar to the bottom of the pot and the sour smell will whet your appetite.
What the little ones loved most was the yam puree that Sang Zhixia made for the first time.
The crispy and tender yam was peeled and steamed in a pot, then placed through a small sieve with a layer of gauze, and a sturdy and durable wooden spoon was stuffed into Xu Yu's hand.
Then Xu Yu held the sieve in his left hand and the wooden spoon in his right hand, and pressed the yam repeatedly according to Sang Zhixia's instructions, until the yam paste seeped through the gauze on the sieve and became as fine as snow.
The delicate yam paste is mixed with goat milk and honey with a strong smell, then pressed into a borrowed mold and pressed down. It is snow-white and can be photographed into various flower-like shapes.
Sang Zhixia took the sweet and sour jam made from milk red fruit and poured it on the top. The red and white colors looked particularly beautiful. It was not only sour, sweet and soft in the mouth, but also had a faint milky aroma on the tip of the tongue.
The little ones held their small bowls and ate non-stop. Even the old man who didn't like sweets ate some.
The only one who always had a poor appetite was Uncle Xu.
His abnormality was so obvious that even Xu Yanran, a little girl who had just turned ten, couldn't help but look at him repeatedly with a strange expression.
Sang Zhixia patted her head and smiled, diverting her attention to herself: "I heard from Second Aunt that Yanran will be getting her hair done next month?"
Nowadays, girls start to comb their hair at the age of ten and reach the age of fifteen.
With her hair combed up, she looked like a grown-up girl in most people's eyes. If she were in many aristocratic families in Kyoto, they would have secretly arranged for an engagement at this age.
She's still a little baby.
Sang Zhixia thought about what Second Aunt Xu had mentioned and smiled at Xu Yanran: "They say it's a good day for a girl to have her hair combed for the first time. Although it's not as lively as the coming-of-age banquet, it's still a day to celebrate and give gifts."
"Yanran, tell me what rare thing you want. I'll buy it for you, okay?"
Xu Mingyang is only one year younger than Xu Yanran. Now he is still a little kid who plays and fights everywhere and has no interest in studying.
The ten-year-old Xu Yanran was the opposite. She had grown into a very calm and composed person. She had changed from the shyness and weakness of her younger years and became very graceful and elegant.
You can tell she's a beauty from a young age. What's more, after years of working in the village, she's lost her initial fragility. There's a kind of endearing tenacity between her brows, just like a new bamboo, so lush and green that it's a delight.
Xu Yanran waved her hand like a little adult, her ears reddening, and she still spoke in the manner of an older sister: "Sister-in-law, you don't have to buy me anything."
After she finished speaking, she moved the chicken soup that Sang Zhixia had deliberately forgotten to her side and urged her, "Sister-in-law just said to let it air dry before drinking. You can drink it now."
Sang Zhixia: "..."
Xu Yanran remained calm and composed: "Sister-in-law, if you don't drink the soup, you have to take the medicine."
Doctor Hu just recently gave a sigh of relief, saying that Sang Zhixia's tonic could be stopped for a while to see the effect and then make adjustments.
Sang Zhixia felt relieved, but the others were still unwilling to relax at all.
Sang Zhixia felt a little embarrassed after being stabbed in the hand in front of so many people, and picked up the bowl with a sullen look on her face.
Somehow, Xu Yanran has been giving her an increasingly strange feeling lately.
Maybe it was because he had been too involved in disciplining Xu Mingyang and Xu Mingxu, so he seemed to be worried about her.
Sang Zhixia put down the bowl and touched her belly which was round from being stuffed. Looking at Xu Yanran who was refusing nice clothes with Second Aunt Xu, this subtle feeling became stronger.
Isn't it a bit too much to worry about such a little kid?
Returning to the newly bright and spacious north courtyard, I saw a grape vine planted in the small yard outside the bedroom, which had been specially transplanted from somewhere else, and the rack was also neatly and beautifully built.
Sang Zhixia sat under the grape trellis with the account books in hand.
Chen Jing'an secretly left for Kyoto and completely handed over the affairs of the granary to Sang Zhixia to manage alone.
Sang Zhixia looked at the income and expenditure of the granary last month and couldn't help but tell Xu Yu about the thoughts that he had been thinking about for a long time.
Xu Yu was hanging out the laundry and said without turning his head, "Yanran is compatible with three people. From Xu Mingyang to Xu Jinxi, they are all hers to worry about and supervise."
Sang Zhixia nodded in understanding: "I know this, what I'm saying is..."
"She only cares about you."
Xu Yu hung up the last piece of clothing, turned to look at Sang Zhixia and said meaningfully, "She doesn't care about the others."
Sang Zhixia: "..."
How could this be so unpleasant to the ear?!
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