Chapter 77 [VIP]
As the year draws to a close, there are many household chores to attend to.
New Year's gifts for relatives need to be prepared. This year, in addition to her fourth uncle and third aunt, gifts also need to be sent to her eldest uncle's side. They don't visit each other in previous years, but this is the first year. Wang Ying plans to prepare more generous gifts and have Qingyan and Qingsong personally deliver them.
As usual, my fourth uncle's side had more dried fruit and homemade wine this year, in addition to the local mountain produce.
In the autumn, Wang Ying harvested all the grapes from the experimental field and made ten jars of wine. It was a simple process: just layer sugar and grapes, cover it, and let it ferment naturally.
The brewed wine was filtered through fine linen cloth, resulting in a sweet and sour taste with only a hint of alcohol. It was delicious and didn't cause a hangover. The family gave us two jars of wine as a gift, and we'll save the remaining four jars for the New Year.
That evening, Wang Ying took Chen Qingyan to the experimental field to count the stored copper coins.
She saved up quite a bit that year. Since she got the gold ingots, Li Shi didn't have time to burn incense and pray to Buddha anymore, saving a lot of money.
He earned money from the shops for his daily food, clothing, and lodging, and saved all the rent he collected from the estate. In total, he saved more than a hundred strings of cash a year.
Including what I had saved before, the money I received as gifts when my child turned one month old, and the reward money from the imperial court, I now have about five hundred strings of cash.
As they counted the coins, they strung them back together and neatly stacked them in the box.
Chen Qingyan asked in surprise, "We have so much money on us?"
“This amount of money is not much. I heard that land in Kyoto is extremely valuable, and a two-courtyard house can cost over a thousand taels of silver.”
"We're not going to live in Kyoto, so why would we buy a house there?"
Wang Ying closed the suitcase and sat on it, saying, "How can that be? What if you pass the imperial examination with top honors and stay in the capital to take up a post? Wouldn't our whole family have to move there?"
Chen Qingyan chuckled and said, "Being the top scholar isn't that easy. You might have a good chance of becoming a xiucai (a lower-level scholar), but even a juren (a higher-level scholar) isn't confident of passing the exam on their first try."
"Don't say that in front of Old Master Liang, or he'll be so angry he'll beat you to death."
"How could I dare? I was just saying it casually. We still need to work hard on the imperial examinations and not let him down."
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just do your best. Remember, there are always people better than you and there's always something beyond your reach. Many candidates have been trained like elites since they were young, and ordinary people simply can't compare."
Chen Qingyan sat down next to him. "I've also heard that students in Suzhou start their education at the age of four and pass the preliminary examinations by the age of ten. Moreover, the number of students who pass the county-level examinations is much higher than in the north. I heard that Suzhou alone had more than twenty students pass the county-level examinations last year, while our Longquan County only had four."
Wang Ying exclaimed in surprise, "That's a huge difference?"
"That's considered a small number. In the imperial examination of the ninth year of Tianhe, a total of 467 people passed. Guess how many of them were from the north?"
One hundred and sixty?
Chen Qingyan waved his hand, "Eighty-three people."
"So little!"
"Because the differences were so great, the candidates from all over the country even made a fuss about it once. But after the fuss, there was nothing that could be done. The imperial court opened up the examination papers of candidates from the north and south. Anyone with eyes could see that the candidates from the north were indeed stronger in their studies. In the end, the matter was dropped."
"The South is rich in cultural atmosphere, with the Baima Academy which has a history of six dynasties, the Qingzhu Academy with famous teachers and scholars, and the Suzhou Duchuan Academy.
The environment there fosters a much better academic environment than in the north; I've heard that many wealthy families send their children there specifically to study.
Wang Ying exclaimed, "It's really your and Qingsong's good luck to have met Elder Liang."
"Yes." Sometimes Chen Qingyan would sigh, if he hadn't been barred from taking the exam, and had participated normally in the imperial examinations, he might have only managed to pass the lowest level of the imperial examinations, and he wouldn't have had the opportunities that followed.
It was precisely because he shared the same experience as Mr. Liang that the other party traveled a long distance to teach him to read and help him clear his name, without seeking any money or reward.
"This is what happens when things turn around."
After counting the copper coins, Wang Ying harvested a batch of ripe vegetables and fruits from the experimental field, and withered plants were cleared away with a single click before being replanted with new seeds.
The experience gained from the experimental field is still stuck at 11%. It seems that hugging and kissing the two of them won't add much experience anymore. Even if they do it once, it won't add much. Wang Ying suspects that the conditions for leveling up have changed after level 5, but she hasn't found the pattern yet.
*
With less than two weeks until the Lunar New Year, the village is filled with festive spirit.
When Dunzi went to town to deliver vegetables, Wang Ying asked him to bring back a lot of firecrackers, because the New Year should be lively and festive.
On the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, she bought two pigs and a sheep in the village. On the day of the pig slaughter, many people came to help. Wang Ying simply stewed a big pot of meat, and those who came to help stayed for lunch to have a bowl.
This year's harvest was good, and the villagers are living better lives. With surplus grain in their pockets, there's less resentment, and they didn't fight over meat. "When the granaries are full, people know etiquette"—you have to admire the wisdom of our ancestors, who summarized it a thousand years ago.
On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, Cao Kun delivered New Year's gifts.
This year's vegetable business is booming. It's the only one in the entire county that's doing this, and we're still selling at last year's prices. We've earned over 30 guan in just one month, with incredibly high profits.
Because of this, he was envied and caused trouble. Fortunately, he had made many friends in the past few years in the porter's business, including some people of high status. They spoke up for him and no one dared to mess with him anymore.
The Cao family's vegetable shop has finally gained a foothold in the county town.
Li pulled him aside and asked about Lin Qiu and the baby's condition, "I wasn't there for the full moon celebration, are Qiu'er and the baby alright?"
"Everything is fine. Xiaomai can eat and sleep well, and she gained three or four pounds in the month after her confinement period."
"That's good. Children are less likely to get sick. It's cold in winter now, so both adults and children should avoid catching a cold. When it gets warmer next year, bring Qiu'er and the children back to live with us."
"Okay, done!"
At noon, we prepared hot pot. The whole family sat around the big table with two hot pots on it: one was tomato soup, and the other was a spicy soup with added dogwood.
The dipping sauce is a thick sesame paste, sprinkled with coriander and chopped green onions, and it tastes absolutely delicious!
The children were all stuffed, and Grandpa Liang also ate quite a bit. As he gets older, he has difficulty digesting meat and is prone to indigestion, so Wang Ying specially prepared hawthorn soup for him to drink a small bowl after eating to help with digestion.
Little Yuanbao was so hungry that his mouth was watering, so Li picked out some tender fatty meat for him and gave it to him. He ate it with grease on his lips and kept asking for more.
Seeing this, Li fed him a few more bites, but he got an upset stomach that night, and his stool was oily.
He was still young and his digestive system wasn't fully developed. He couldn't digest the greasy food and it all came out in his stool, making the child cry loudly. Li held Yuanbao, feeling both heartache and self-blame, and dared not feed him anything indiscriminately again.
*
Before we knew it, it was Lunar New Year's Eve. Everyone got up early in the morning to hang up peach wood charms.
There is no tradition of pasting couplets in ordinary households, because paper is expensive, and red paper is even rarer. People only buy a few to paste at home when they are celebrating a happy occasion.
Peach charms are made by carving the images of the two immortals, Shen Tu and Yu Lei, on peach wood. Legend has it that these two brothers were very powerful and good at exorcising ghosts. Hanging their wooden images on the door can ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.
The pair of peach wood charms hanging today weren't bought; they were a gift from an old carpenter in the village, who carved them and delivered them to my door several days in advance.
The old carpenter was quite skilled; the peach charms he carved could easily be called works of art. The figures on them were lifelike, and they were very eye-catching when hung at the front door.
Old Liang didn't go to his son's place for the Spring Festival this year because the weather was cold and there were heavy snowfalls one after another. He was worried that the long journey would make him sick.
However, Old Liang had no plans to go there. He found the Spring Festival there last year to be meaningless, and he couldn't even enjoy the delicious food that Wang Ying made.
After lunch, the men would go to the ancestral graves to pay respects. The Chen family's ancestral graves were located on a hill near the village, and besides Chen's father, there were also his great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather.
Before Chen's father passed away, he would come to pay his respects every year. After his father's death, Chen Qingyan fell seriously ill, so in recent years, Uncle Chen has been the one to come and burn incense and pay his respects.
The snow on the mountain was more than a foot deep; when you stepped into it, it was above your knees. Uncle Chen led the way, with Qingyan, Qinghuai, and Qingsong following behind.
Upon finally arriving at the cemetery, Uncle Chen first cleared the snow off the graves, then cleared a space to place the offerings.
Chicken, fish, and a pork knuckle, three kinds of various snacks, a large basket of folded ingots, and a jar of wine.
Chen Bo lit incense and candles and placed them beside each grave, muttering, "Grandfather, Grandfather, come and collect your money for the New Year."
Chen Qingyan took off his cotton hat, lifted his clothes, knelt on the ground and kowtowed, "Father, your son is unfilial and has not come to see you for a long time."
Chen Qingyan told his father about all the major events that had happened in his family over the past few years. He also had a child of his own. He said that he didn't know the love of his parents until he had a child of his own. Now that he had Yuanbao, he realized how deep his father's love for him was.
"Father, rest assured, your son will take good care of your younger siblings, raise Yuanbao well, and uphold the family's honor."
Chen Qingyan kowtowed three times, and his younger brothers followed suit.
When his father passed away, Qingsong was still a child. Now, after the New Year, he is thirteen years old and gradually taking on the appearance of an adult. He silently vowed in his heart that he should also study hard and make a name for himself, so as not to bring shame to his master and family.
*
At home, Wang Ying, along with Qingyun and Dunzi's wife Zhang Cuihong, prepared the New Year's Eve dinner.
There are twelve dishes in total, four cold and eight hot. Each dish is carefully selected and aims to be a feast for the eyes, nose, and palate.
The main dish is wontons filled with cabbage and pork. After being wrapped, they are neatly arranged and ready to be cooked in the evening.
After finishing cooking, Wang Ying called Cuihong over, intending to give her something. This woman was shy and introverted, and had stopped taking food after receiving her wages.
There happened to be a piece of floral cotton fabric in the warehouse. It had gotten damp before, and the pattern had faded a bit. It was unwearable to make clothes from it, so I decided to give it to her.
"This, this is too precious, we can't accept it."
"It's not valuable at all. The fabric has faded and can't be used to make clothes. If you don't want it, you can cut it up and use it as a rag."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Cuihong took the cloth. Touching the soft fabric, she noticed a slight color bleeding, but it didn't matter; she could sew it in when making clothes for the children.
"Thank you, sir." Cuihong knelt down and kowtowed, clutching the cloth.
Wang Ying quickly pulled him up, saying, "Is it worth it? Go back and cook for the children."
Cuihong happily left with the cloth in her arms. It was getting dark outside, and occasionally one or two firecrackers could be heard, making it feel very festive.
At the end of Shenshi (3-5 PM), Chen Qingyan and the others returned from the mountain. Everyone set up a table, cooked dumplings, and the family sat together. Seven or eight candles were lit in the house, making it bright and spacious.
The dumplings in the pot were cooked, and Uncle Chen lit the firecrackers he had prepared in advance.
With the crackling sound of firecrackers, we welcome the new year!
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