Lin Shiyu just listened to it as a story and didn't take it to heart.
Once the heroine Lin Shijie died, the plot of the book took an entirely different turn.
Today's people and scenery are real, not fictional.
Reality is uncontrollable. There is no need to waste too much energy trying to control everyone's whereabouts. That would be too tiring.
She doesn't have this ability either.
…
This New Year, the entire Yamada Village was bustling like never before.
Last year, the weather was good and the harvest was bumper.
Last year, every household had an additional source of income.
It is a rare opportunity that everyone finally wears new clothes in the new year, instead of having to shout "new clothes for the new year" every year, but in the end there is only an extra meat dish on the table in the poor new year.
After midnight, the sound of firecrackers rang out one after another.
When the sun rises in the morning, every household brings their homemade chicken, pork and fish to the temple to worship the gods.
The Kitchen God, the family temple, the public temple, the ancestral hall and finally the household god.
Every time you go to a place, you need to burn incense, paper and set off firecrackers.
The sky is filled with fireworks and laughter.
There was no scolding, no crying, and no sad faces that day.
New year, new atmosphere, and laughter from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
"Eat a piece of candy, it will make you sweet from the beginning to the end of the year."
Liu imitated what Old Lady Lin did in previous years and stuffed a candy into the mouths of everyone in the family early in the morning.
After eating the candy, she had to start getting busy, killing chickens and fish and preparing the New Year's Eve dinner.
The men cleaned the house, posted couplets, and changed the ashes in the incense burner.
After everything was ready, Zhang took the pomelo leaves, peach leaves, mugwort... that had been prepared long ago and put them into a big pot to boil water for everyone to bathe.
After taking a bath comes one of the happiest parts for children - putting on new clothes.
By the time everyone has put on their new clothes, the procession going to worship the gods will have almost reached the public temple, where everyone will perform a unified worship.
Every household will bring small firecrackers, and there will be a special person to string all the firecrackers into long strings to burn.
This year, the sound of firecrackers in Yamada Village lasted much longer than those in several nearby villages, which surprised the people in the nearby villages.
That village with mixed surnames is so capable that it is doing better than their village with only one surname.
After the worship around the fire is completed, everyone returns home to worship their family gods, and then it is time for the New Year’s Eve dinner.
After dinner, children from each family took small cloth bags and went to the houses in the village to ask for red envelopes.
At this time, the villagers would prepare some delicious food or copper coins for these children.
In previous years, everyone was poor and the most they prepared were small snacks like beans and peanuts grown at home. This year, everyone has income, and many families have also prepared copper coins for their children.
Although it was only a penny, it was enough to make the children so happy that they lost their minds.
Lin Shiyu ran behind Lin Boyu with a small cloth bag specially made by her mother. Before she reached half of the villagers' homes, the cloth bag was already full.
When the people in the village saw her coming to ask for good fortune, they gave her extra money, which made the children around her very envious.
Lin Shiyu was extremely excited as it was her first time experiencing this traditional New Year.
I was so excited the whole day that I fell asleep before it got dark due to exhaustion. I didn't even get up to stay up all night to celebrate the New Year.
It is not appropriate to kill animals on the first day of the new year.
They have to eat vegetarian food in the morning and can only eat meat after worshiping the gods at noon. The meat they eat is the meat prepared the day before.
After lunch, relatives and friends greet each other.
The second day of the Chinese New Year is the day to go back to your parents' home.
There was no one visiting Liu's family home for a long time, so Liu took her children back to Mrs. Lin's family home, which was also Uncle Lin's home.
Lin Shiyi also went with them.
She had been adopted by Lin Anji, and logically should have followed Mrs. Sun to the Sun family, but she knew her own limitations and did not go with her. Instead, she followed Old Madam Lin to Uncle Lin's house.
Uncle Lin’s family has many people, but... it’s not lively.
Except for Uncle Lin's youngest son who looks kinder, the other sons are almost exactly like Uncle Lin.
He is the kind of person who scares people the moment they meet him, and his grandchildren look almost like Uncle Lin.
The female relatives are fine, but most of them have gone back to their parents' homes today, so there are many missing female relatives.
Originally, several of Mrs. Lin’s nephews were going to follow their daughter-in-law back to her parents’ home, but when they learned that Lin Anru was coming back home, they did not go with them.
For this reason, these people specially prepared generous gifts for their daughters-in-law to take back to their parents' home.
The adults seemed to have endless topics to talk about, and they kept chatting from the moment they entered the door until they were about to go home.
Children have it much simpler, all they do is eat and play. When they are tired and want to go home, they can even receive red envelopes.
Before they got home, the three children had opened the red envelope and put all the copper coins inside into their pockets.
Along the way, as the steps swayed, the copper coins jingled, which was very pleasant to hear.
"Pack them all up. If they fall and hit my foot, I won't give them back to you."
Seeing them laughing so hard that their teeth were showing, Lin Anru couldn't help but remind them and make a joke.
Children nowadays are so lucky. The red envelopes they receive during the Chinese New Year are more than what they received in the ten years combined when they were children.
Lin Shiyu ignored his reminder and even shook the money in her pocket even more.
She just likes to hear the sound of money colliding.
Lin Boyu and Lin Shiyi are just the opposite. This money is their rare private money, and they will cry to death if it is lost.
So the two of them kept their hands on their pockets until they got home, for fear that the coins would fall out.
The third day of the New Year.
The rich people's Spring Festival activities have just begun, while the poor families have already started working.
In Yamada Village, except for a few families with many relatives who needed to visit them, the rest of the people went out to pick herbs.
In a few days, spring plowing will begin and the days of making money will come to an end. How can the villagers, who are already tired of poverty, give up this time to make money?
As the villagers of Yamada Village were busy, the villagers from the surrounding villages who were unaware of the situation became puzzled. Why didn’t anyone from Yamada Village come to play this year?
They also wanted to make more money from the people of Yamada Village.
In the past, villagers from the surrounding areas would gather together to gamble and have fun during these days every year. This year, there were fewer people from Yamada Village, so it was hard not to attract attention.
The people in Yamada Village were unaware that they were being targeted by outsiders. They were so busy that they didn't even remember to eat. Who would think of gambling to win a few peanuts or sunflower seeds?
The villagers are busy, and Liu is even busier.
In addition to the daily work of handling herbs, she also had to take time to make clothes for Lin Anru and things he needed for the exam.
Lin Anru had obtained the qualification of a Tongsheng more than ten years ago, and he no longer needed to take the county examination in February and the prefectural examination in April.
He only needs to take part in the academy examination after the provincial examination.
The academy examination is also held in April, just a few days later than the provincial examination.
It's only the first month of the year now, and there seems to be plenty of free time to prepare before April.
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