The warm sun welcomed the first day of the eleventh year of the Dahui National Harvest Festival — the first day of the first lunar month.
Lin Siyao was in the kitchen cooking a pot of sesame, red bean paste, and jujube paste dumplings. Seeing that it was still early, he got up and went to the southern courtyard, preparing to pick all of the ripe vegetables in the garden.
After three days of good weather, the snow on the southern courtyard had completely melted. Apart from a few damp corners, the thin ice had not completely melted.
However, this did not hinder his work.
He folded the linoleum cloth and placed it in the corner of the small room.
Of course, the wooden frame was left in place. Who knew when the spring snow would come again and wreak havoc on the vegetables in the courtyard.
He picked the ripe cabbages, small greens, sweet potatoes, and radishes one by one. He dug them out and placed them in large bamboo baskets.
As for the rotten leaves, they were left in the soil as natural fertilizer. The yellow leaves that he tore off were thrown into the fences of the chicken coop and the sheep pen.
He collected all of the cabbages, leaving behind ten or so that were relatively tender. He placed them in the corner of the kitchen together with the small greens. These were to be eaten fresh.
As for the other cabbages, he spread them out in the sun and placed them on the riverbank to dry. He was going to use them as pickles.
As for the radishes and sweet potatoes, he left a few that were to be eaten immediately in the kitchen. The rest were stored in the newly built storage room next to the chicken coop.
The small room was made of stone. The door and roof were nailed together with wooden planks. The roof was covered with broken bricks and tiles and covered with a layer of linoleum cloth. Even if it rained or snowed, it would not get wet.
As a result, food that could be stored for a long time without spoiling was stored here.
After finishing all of this work, he saw that it was getting late. Lin Siyao went back to the kitchen to wash his hands and prepare to milk the sheep.
As for the vegetable garden that was already half empty, he would wait until he was free to make plans for it.
Now that spring was coming, the two acres of fertile land outside the residence should be put to use.
Although he had already planted one acre of winter wheat before the new year, there was still one acre of land that was only scattered with some vegetable seeds. It was basically idle.
Lin Siyao pondered as he busied himself with the work in his hands.
He was an assassin, but now he had to worry about what to plant, what to collect, and what to eat. At first, he was not used to it.
However, as the days went by and he watched his home improve day by day, this kind of distress to him was synonymous with sweetness and satisfaction.
Sometimes, he even wanted to thank Feng Qingya, who had led an army to hunt him down.
…
"The village head's house, Aunt Tian's house, Aunt Lao's house …" Su Shuiche counted all the gifts on the table that were ready to be brought along when they went to pay a New Year's visit.
There was a custom in Blossom Town that was neither too big nor too small: those with elders at home would not go out on the first day of the first lunar month.
Therefore, people like Su Shuiche and Lin Siyao, who didn't have any elders with them, could naturally go out and pay their respects.
Today, they planned to walk around Blossom Town and pay a visit to the villagers who had helped them, regardless of whether it was important or not, to pay their respects and congratulate them.
As for the gifts, look, Lin Siyao was carrying two large fruit baskets in his hands. Wasn't that what was inside the baskets?
The baskets were made of large red cotton cloth. A thin black hemp rope was threaded through the edges of the cotton baskets. With a light pull, the cotton baskets were tied up.
As for the baskets, most of them were leftover food from home, such as pheasant eggs, dried salted fish, fruit-flavored flower cakes, pastry cakes … as well as a few dozen new copper coins that were threaded into cute shapes with a thin hemp rope.
Of course, the value of each gift was about the same.
On this point, Su Shuiyue was quite considerate.
Otherwise, if people were to chat and learn that the gifts she sent for New Year's greetings had different values, wouldn't it cause a misunderstanding?
They would think that she was biased.
But then again, since they moved to Blossom Town and settled there for half a year, there were a few stingy farmers in the village who couldn't bear to see her family doing well.
For example, those who saw Lin Siyao bring wild animals home didn't dare to go into the mountain themselves, so they ran to the village chief and made irresponsible remarks. They wondered if the wild animals on Dashi Mountain would all be killed by him.
There were also some women who, after learning that Su Shuiche's embroidery skills had surpassed that of the He Family's woman, Madam Lin, and had become the best embroiderer in Blossom Town, and even the chief embroiderer of the "Yueyun Embroidery House", from time to time, they would say a few words in front of the He Family's woman. It was unknown whether they wanted to drive a wedge between her and Su Shuiche.
Fortunately, the He Family's woman could see the big picture. No matter how thorny her heart was, she still smiled modestly.
She didn't really alienate herself from Su Shuiche.
After all, in terms of embroidery skills, Su Shuiche was much better than her. She had to admit this point.
Thus, after filtering out a few farmers who had gone too far, Su Shuiche and Lin Siyao carried two large baskets full of gifts and went out to pay their New Year's greetings.
She was also very smart, wasn't she?
It was also good to save a few gifts.
"Hehe …" Su Shui Yue thought to herself, amused.
However, this was the reality of life in Blossom Town.
If you respect me, I'll return you ten feet.
If you bully me, even if I don't take revenge for the smallest grievance, I won't pay you any attention.
Otherwise, wouldn't you really think that I'm easy to bully?
… …
It wasn't until the end of the day that the two of them returned home with two large fruit baskets that were still full.
After the twenty-five gifts were delivered, they had no choice but to accept the things that the other residents had forced into the fruit baskets.
Among them were chickens and duck eggs, home-brewed shaodao, pickled vegetables, pickled cucumbers, mung bean rice cakes … There were even a few budding red plum blossoms.
Su Shuiche happily inserted the red plum branch into the wide-mouthed, round-bellied vase on the flower rack in the bedroom.
It added a hint of spring to the room.
She clapped her hands and went to the kitchen with a smile. Together with Lin Siyao, she tidied up the food that the villagers had sent.
"Master ~ Master's wife ~" From afar, she could hear Tian Dabao's noisy voice.
It was obvious that his voice had arrived before he arrived.
"Master, Master's wife, we're here to pay our New Year's greetings."
Tian Dabao grinned as he walked into the kitchen. Behind him was a string of six or seven children who were less than ten years old.
Su Shuiche only recognized three of them. One was Fang Xiaohua, who was only six years old from Fang Dasheng's family. The other was Sun Qihe, who was nine years old from Sun Youmao's family. The last was the youngest son of Shui Gen's family, the nine-year-old Shui Fu.
As she had followed their mother to her house before, Su Shuiche still remembered them.
"Master Lin, Master's wife, Happy New Year!"
The six children bowed to Lin Siyao and Su Shuiche in unison. They said the New Year greetings that Dabao had taught them beforehand.
In fact, they originally wanted to call Su Shuiche Big Sister. How could there be such a young and beautiful master's wife?
However, Tian Dabao did not want to.
In this way, he became the youngest.
Therefore, he insisted that they follow him. Otherwise, he would not let them follow.
Of course, he instructed them to add their surnames in front so that people would know the difference between them and him.
It had to be said that the blood stasis on the back of Tian Dabao's head had really dissipated.
"Master's wife, they insisted on following me to pay New Year's greetings. I had no choice."
Seeing Su Shuiche's somewhat astonished expression, Tian Dabao shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, as if he was also very helpless as he explained.
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Siyao immediately rewarded him with a big knock on the head.
He immediately sat upright and still, pretending to be an obedient child.
"Happy New Year!
Come, let's go to the central room to play. "Su Shuiche returned the greeting with a smile. She then waved at the children, indicating that they should go to the central room.
"I didn't lie to you, right?
Master's wife's house has a lot of snacks. "Tian Dabao deliberately lowered his voice as he spoke to the other children.
The other children naturally nodded their heads in envy.
Their eyes continuously wandered over the table that was packed full of snacks.
There were seven or eight plates of dried fruit snacks. Even the malt candy and sugar-coated hawthorn skewers that their families refused to buy for them were also quite a few.
It was said that in the first month of the lunar year, every family would open their large courtyard doors so that they could visit and chat with each other.
Regardless of whether or not there were neighbors coming to their door, Su Shuiche still thought that there was a possibility that there would be women and sisters-in-law bringing children to their home to chat. Thus, she had Lin Siyao buy these snacks that were quite popular with the children when they went to the market for the last time before the New Year.
"Don't be angry. Just take whatever you want to eat."
Su Shuiche brought out the candied eggs that Lin Siyao had made from the kitchen. She gave each of the seven children a bowl and gave them to eat.
"Come, be careful that it's hot. Just put it on the table and eat."
Su Shuiche carefully placed the candied eggs on the tea table next to the chairs that the children were sitting on. The two children sitting on the kang with Dabao surrounded the table and began to eat in large mouthfuls.
"I didn't lie to you, right?
Master's candied eggs are the best! "After eating the candied eggs, Tian Dabao wiped the corners of his mouth and proudly showed off to the children beside him.
"Yes!"
The other children nodded their heads in agreement. Then, with sparkling black eyes, they stared at the candies on the table, but were too embarrassed to reach out and take them.
"Dabao, quickly give the candied fruits to them."
Su Shuiche came out of the bedroom with six strings of ten copper coins. When she heard Tian Dabao's words, she found it very funny. She instructed him to distribute the candies, and at the same time, gave the copper coins as a New Year's gift to the children. "Come, take this back and buy some toys to play with."
The children looked at each other in dismay. They seemed to be shy, but they couldn't bear to miss it. Their hands were behind their backs, and their eyes were bright as they stared at the copper coins in Su Shuiche's hands.
Su Shuiche stuffed the copper coins into their hands one by one in amusement. As for Tian Dabao, when he went to his house in the morning to pay his New Year's greetings and was asked to stay for lunch by Aunt Tian, she had already prepared a Chinese zodiac rabbit skewered with 99 copper coins as a New Year's gift.
"Thank you, Mistress Lin." The youngest, Fang Xiaohua, was very sweet. The other five children also thanked her when they saw this.
"You're welcome.
What do you want to eat?
Will I get it for you? "Su Shuiche touched the six-year-old Fang Xiaohua and asked with a smile.
"I want to eat candied haws. Actually, my brothers all want to eat …"
"Who said that!"
"Who told you!"
"…"
…
After paying his New Year's greetings, eating, drinking, and taking the food, Tian Dabao led the six children younger than him and continued to move towards the other villagers' houses.
In the first month, the happiest people were the children.
She could go wherever she wanted and take whatever she wanted to eat without any scruples.
There were even copper coins as a return gift. How could they not be happy!
(To be continued.)
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