Chapter 33 Chapter 33 Lantern Festival Baozhu's Birthday
Even as darkness fell, the streets remained crowded, though the food on the stalls had run out. As the saying goes, "A good cook cannot cook without rice," several people packed up their stalls and prepared to go home.
Before they even crossed the bridge, they saw a long dragon and lion dance team, brought with them a crowd of onlookers, and scattered them in an instant. Baozhu had no choice but to hold Baorong's hand tightly, while Jiang Shi and A Zhong protected the cart and hid in the corner, not daring to move. If the cart turned over, all the pots and pans inside would be smashed.
Somehow, more and more people were on the road, and Baozhu felt that it was difficult to breathe. After these people moved forward, Baozhu saw that her elder brother and A Xiu had been swept away by the crowd.
The eldest brother and Ah Xiu were carrying empty soup buckets. They had just fallen behind and might have been washed across the street.
Baozhu called out a few times, and everyone dispersed, leaving only her and Baorong, still holding hands and leaning against the wall. The line was so long, Baozhu felt it was hard to breathe, so she could only continue to walk back against the flow of people, leaning against the wall.
The dancers performing Nuo opera, wearing huge masks of ghosts and gods, also followed the crowd.
There were so many people that Dalang and Ah Xiu were actually swept into the crowd. Ah Xiu was bumped by someone and the soup bucket on her shoulder was nearly knocked over. She was also nearly knocked down. If she had been knocked down by such a crowd, she would have been trampled by the crowd the next moment.
One year, during a lantern festival in Bianjing, several people were trampled to death on a bridge. People were so crowded that they fell to the ground, impossible to pull up. Those behind didn't care if anyone in front had fallen; they just swarmed forward, and some even played tricks on the crowd.
Dalang quickly grabbed the person and took the bucket from her shoulder. "Hold my clothes so that we don't get scattered. There are many people on the street today. I'm afraid there might be kidnappers."
Every year during festivals in Bianjing there are always kidnappers committing crimes.
Ah Xiu was also afraid, but she didn't dare to pull his clothes. She just followed closely behind him. The eldest son of the Zhen family was tall and was carrying a bucket, so he could give her a little space to breathe.
The two of them originally wanted to go back against the flow of people, but there were more and more people at this moment, and people wearing ghost masks also ran with the team to join in the fun.
Dalang also saw several shoes on the ground. He didn't know who dropped them. There were people in the crowd who took advantage of the chaos to steal money and other things. Fortunately, neither of them had a purse on them.
There were people everywhere, and I didn't know which street I had squeezed into, as there were fewer people.
Before Zhen Dalang could breathe a sigh of relief, a man wearing a ghost mask with a green face and fangs suddenly came in front of his face. Dalang almost stopped breathing and stopped moving for a long time.
The green-faced, fang-toothed ghost scared people and walked away with a smile.
Ah Xiu didn't know he was going to stop, and she didn't brake in time, so her face bumped into his back. Her nose was sore from the collision, and when she touched it again she realized she was bleeding from her nose.
Dalang was at a loss for what to do. Ah Xiu blocked her nose with a handkerchief and spoke in a muffled voice, "So you're afraid of ghosts!"
"There's something very scary about ghosts..."
Dalang stiffened his neck and before he could finish, a half-grown child, barely as tall as his chest and wearing a red mask, picked up the cloth covering the bucket and handed it to him.
"Uncle! You dropped something!"
When Dalang turned around, the red-faced child was frightened again.
Ah Xiu lowered her head, covered her nose tightly with a handkerchief, and a muffled laugh escaped from her throat.
Dalang only saw her shoulders shaking constantly, and he felt a little embarrassed. After she stopped laughing, he warned her, "Just laugh, don't tell anyone else."
Ah Xiu nodded, her nose still bleeding. Da Lang frowned and pointed to the pharmacy not far away, "Why is it still bleeding? Go find a doctor?"
"It's okay, let's go back first. There were so many people here just now, and I don't know if the girls have gone home yet." Ah Xiu raised her head, blocked her nose with a handkerchief, and walked in front of Dalang. "You follow me, there are so many ghosts at night."
"I'm not afraid of ghosts, I was just scared when I suddenly appeared!" Dalang's face turned red with embarrassment, and he let A Xiu walk in front of him. He was tall, and he could see the hair tied up on top of A Xiu's head when he followed behind her.
It seemed that she had never been seen wearing jewelry before, but to celebrate the New Year, she wore a pair of red silk flowers made of gauze. Baozhu said that she was very skillful, so the flowers must have been made by her.
Realizing that staring at someone wasn't appropriate, Dalang looked away. His mind drifted off to a distant place. Usually, Ah Xiu seemed quiet and rarely smiled.
We returned home along the same route we had come, and by the time we got home, the coins had just fallen. The food stalls had sold out, and we were all starving. Even after eating the coins, we still weren't satisfied, so we added water to the mutton bones, made a pot of soup, and rolled out some noodles to cook.
The dough was rolled by Dalang, with more flour and less water, so it tastes chewy. Each person had a big bowl and only stopped when they were full.
"I thought that the New Year in Gusu would be very lively, but I didn't expect that from the twelfth month to now, the city of Bianjing has not had a break and is bustling every day." Baozhu sighed, there are so many rich people, and they spend money like water.
The eldest brother prepared the offal for tomorrow's meal. Hearing Baozhu's sigh, he laughed and said, "It's a good time to make money during this busy period. Rich people don't do business at a loss. Money goes out like water, and it comes in like a flood."
The more you spend, the more you earn. You are willing to spend money during the Chinese New Year, and the business at the stall is very good. Baozhu took out the stove from home and planned to sell hot skewers at the stall again.
The eldest brother thought for a moment and said, "They are all soup dishes. Now there is vermicelli soup on the stall. This is putting the cart before the horse."
Baozhu also thought there was some truth in it and slapped her head, "Let's sell fried skewers!"
Fried skewers can be eaten with vermicelli soup without having to worry about it overshadowing the main dish.
The meat and vegetable skewers are fried and sprinkled with ground pepper and spices. We don’t mind selling them at a high price during the first month of the lunar year. As long as they taste good, people will buy them no matter how expensive they are. After all, the ingredients are expensive. Not to mention the soybean oil used to fry the skewers, the chili pepper and other condiments cost dozens of coins per two ounces at a spice shop, which is much more expensive than the price of meat.
Thinking about fried skewers, Baozhu went shopping for vegetables and meat the next day. Winter vegetables were scarce; only some cabbage, leeks, and fresh white mushrooms from the mushroom vendor were sufficient. For meat, she chose tender tenderloin and good pork belly; for now, she would stick with those two.
In addition to vegetables and meat, I also bought two pounds of water-ground rice cakes at the southern goods store. Then I came back and went to Grandma Zhao's Tofu Shop, where I picked up some dried tofu, dried bean skin, and stinky tofu.
Wanting to test whether these fried skewers were popular, Baozhu and Axiu quickly marinated the meat, put the vegetables and meat into two baskets, and then rushed to set up the stalls at noon.
Heat the oil on the stove, scoop two spoonfuls of boiling oil and stir the sauce mixed with chili spices to bring out the stimulating aroma.
Meat skewers cost five cents, and vegetarian skewers three. They were a bit more expensive than the hot and cold skewers, but at this price during the Lunar New Year, no one cared. The fried skewers weren't like the traditional red oil-fried cold skewers; the oil wasn't spicy, and the chili wasn't much, just fragrant.
Since the aroma came out, many people who ordered a bowl of vermicelli soup always wanted to order some skewers. The stove was still too low. Baozhu sat on a low stool, frying the skewers and brushing them with sauce as if she were familiar with the process, and she was so busy that she didn't even raise her head.
Business was good during the New Year, and Baozhu felt much more relaxed during the time Ah Zhong and Jiang Shi were in Bian Jing.
Jiang Shi was clever and willing to learn. Baozhu had taught him to think things over in private, and he could help more and more. Baozhu thought that if she wanted to open a shop in the future, she would definitely hire him to manage it.
The year was passing quickly, and on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, which also happened to be Baozhu's birthday, he rewarded himself with a day off. Zhen's father had been busy for half a month, and today he had told the shopkeeper that he wanted to take a break early.
Madam Xu had gone out early to get a purple jade and gold headpiece made, and she knocked on the door early in the morning, bringing it in. "Your father paid for it, I provided the jade, and I had the master craftsman at Rong Cui Fang make it in this style. The color suits you very well, and I think it looks much better than those fashionable styles. There's no need to rush into wearing such an old-fashioned headpiece."
Baozhu opened her eyes in a daze, her face dazzled, and she buried her head in her mother's arms, thanked her with a smile, and kept saying nice things to her like honey.
After A Niang left, Bao Rong came back and put his cold hands into the quilt, freezing her so much that she cried out. Then he held up the painting and showed it to her.
"This painting was instructed by Lady Jade—"
The painting slowly unfolded, and it turned out to be a portrait of her.
Baorong walked around holding the painting, as if considering where to hang it. She asked her to take down the red plum painting on the wall and was busy hanging up the new painting she had made for her sister. She kept talking.
"By the way, the neighbor is back."
Baozhu buried her head in the quilt and groaned. She had been tired for a long time and finally got a rest today. She was really sleepy.
Seeing that she was sleepy, Baorong stopped bothering her, hung the painting on the wall, closed the door quietly and went out. She now goes to Yu Niang every day. At first, Yu Niang only said a few words to her, but now they are very familiar with each other. Yesterday, she asked her eldest brother to make some cat food, which she brought to her today.
Baozhu slept lazily until noon, stretched herself, sat in front of the bronze mirror, and combed her hair in front of the mirror.
When the old lady saw her get up, she also came over with something in her arms. She didn't know what treasure it was, but it was wrapped in a piece of red silk cloth. Baozhu was curious, so when she opened it, she found a solid golden toad the size of a palm, which had been placed in the temple for worship!
Baozhu exclaimed, "Such a large golden toad, I'm afraid you, old lady, will spend all your money on it."
"I love you the most!" Grandma Zhen gently pinched her face. When she was a child, she would call her grandma for everything.
If you drop something, you should ask grandma to blow it for you. If you get something good, you should share it with grandma. When you grow up, you should be filial to grandma.
Second brother has started school, but he also has a holiday for the Lantern Festival, so he disappeared early in the morning. Baozhu is still waiting for a birthday gift from second brother.
She learned a few moves of the Five Animal Exercises with her grandmother in the yard and worked up a sweat. The sun was a little strong today, so Baozhu simply boiled some water and asked her grandmother to help her wash her hair. She mixed cypress, soapberry and dried rose flowers together to make a foam, and then applied it carefully on her hair. The grandmother had a light hand, and the sun made her feel sleepy. Baozhu felt as if she had returned to her childhood.
After all, it was winter, and her hair was half dry after being rubbed with a dry cloth. The old lady told her to sit on a chair to dry her hair, and not to go to the shade to get caught in the wind.
"Grandma, do you want to wash your hair?" Baozhu had just finished speaking when she heard someone knocking on the door. When the grandma heard that it was the little adult next door, she winked at Baozhu.
Baozhu felt embarrassed to lie on the chair to dry her hair when someone came, so she stood up and tied her half-dry hair into a bun.
As expected, it was Pei Yanqing. He greeted Grandma Zhen before speaking.
"There's not even a speck of dust in the house these past few days. I think Aunt Xu helped clean it up. She just went into town last night and couldn't come to bother me. Grandmother just finished cleaning today and she's already called me over to thank her."
He handed over the gifts in his hands and said, "They are all local products, not expensive things."
I just heard Baorong say this morning that the neighbor next door had returned. I didn't expect him to be so polite and give me gifts as soon as he returned.
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