Annual Ceremony

Chapter 16 Qingming Festival (Part )

Orange, who ran to the front hall, was very eye-catching, with a grass wreath made of willow branches on her furry, round neck.

In the Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing areas, there is a custom of wearing willows during the Qingming Festival.

Wang Yuan stayed at a friend's house last night. On his way home in the morning, he felt guilty and was afraid of being scolded, so he took out three copper coins and went with the willow seller in a straw raincoat on the bridge. He brought back a large bundle of tender green and well-proportioned willow branches, which seemed to show that he was still concerned about the affairs of his family.

Wang Yuan diligently distributed the willow branches to each room and sent them to his grandmother. Wang Xirui snorted coldly and said, "You have done such a small thing, but you wish you could invite a lion dance team to celebrate it."

Wang Xirui went to the private school to teach, while Wang Yuan went back to take a nap humming a little tune.

Wang Xichen cut off a small piece of willow branch and inserted it into his wife's hair, saying with a smile: "As the saying goes, if you don't wear willow branches on Qingming Festival, your youth will turn into gray hair...If you wear willow branches, your youth will stay forever."

Yang Jinniang's cheeks flushed slightly: "How can I still be young..."

After hearing this, Zhenyi made a small willow ring for Juzi and knelt down to put it on her: "I want Juzi to never grow old."

Orange's mother has grown old. Zhenyi doesn't know how old the cat mother is, but Chun'er says she should be around ten years old.

This year, Juzi is nine years old, just like Zhenyi, and Zhenyi is very afraid that Juzi will get old.

Orange bit the willow leaf near his neck, and the taste was not very good.

But since it was Zhenyi's gift, she would just wear it for one day reluctantly.

Juzi ran to the front hall, but Zhenyi did not go there. She stayed in the small courtyard, accompanying Yang Jinniang and the eldest lady, learning how to fold paper ingots.

The paper is made of gold and silver foil, cut with scissors, and folded into ingots to worship ancestors. Today is the Cold Food Festival, and two days later is the Qingming Festival. Some more will be sent to the land temple, and then the temple will set up ceremonial guards and music, bring the talismans and offerings, and carry them to the Shangzhen Temple, and then burn the ingots to pray for the people who offer them, which is called "relief of heaven's salary."

The eldest wife and Yang Jinniang did not say it explicitly, but they both believed that the old man was dismissed and exiled because he had offended the gods by destroying temples while serving in Guangdong. Also, after returning home for several years, he did not allow them to worship the gods on a large scale, which affected the feng shui of the house.

In addition, Yang Jinniang had a difficult delivery last year, so this year she wanted to fold more paper ingots to atone for her sins and ask for forgiveness and protection from the gods.

Zhenyi, like her grandfather, did not believe in God.

But Yang Jinniang did not allow Zhenyi to say anything disrespectful. Zhenyi did not want to make her mother angry, so she kept her mouth shut.

However, Zhenyi still didn't believe it in her heart. She always preferred to believe in books.

However, Zhenyi often feels confused recently.

Zhenyi is now reading Confucian classics with her father. Like most scholars nowadays, Wang Xichen is a great believer in Confucianism. The Confucian classics' principles of relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, and the moral principles of heaven and earth have made the nine-year-old Zhenyi begin to reflect on the right and wrong of something for the first time.

In this matter, she did not seem to follow the logical order in the book, and she did not seem to be a sensible and good child.

The eldest wife's eyes fell on Zhenyi who was in a daze: "Zhenyi, why don't you go to the front hall to join in the fun?"

Yang Jinniang: "You are already nine years old, how can you act like a child?"

"I heard that the old gentleman in Sui Garden is really going to take our Zhenyi as his female disciple?" The first wife: "When do you plan to send Zhenyi to study?"

Yang Jinniang forced a smile, passed it over vaguely, and changed the subject: "I still need to discuss it with the Second Master... Sister-in-law, do you know which family is coming today?"

The first wife: "The family runs a business."

"merchant?"

The eldest wife nodded and said, "The Jiang family cloth shop in the city specializes in the business of printed cloth... They have opened three or four shops alone."

Yang Jinniang asked, "Who was the matchmaker?"

"We haven't asked for a matchmaker yet." The first wife said, "The people who came today are the wife and young master of the Jiang family... The wife of the Jiang family met my third brother and his wife when they were touring the garden, and she must have taken a liking to Shuyi a long time ago. I have also met this wife of the Jiang family, she is an extremely straightforward and smart person."

Yang Jinniang: "What about this brother from the Jiang family?"

"I've never seen that before." The eldest wife said with a smile, "But since you dare to bring it to my house, it must be pretty good."

The eldest wife talked about the Jiang family again. Mr. Jiang was in his prime, but it was said that he encountered bandits while doing business in his early years and injured his vital organs, so he could no longer have children.

Therefore, the Jiang family's brother is the only son, and the cloth business will be left to him in the future.

Therefore, Mrs. Jiang has always been picky in choosing a daughter-in-law and is determined to choose someone she likes.

"But our Shuyi was originally going to marry into a scholarly family and become an official's wife..." Yang Jinniang still sighed.

The eldest wife also sighed: "Who says it's not true? But the situation now..."

If we look closely at the matter of the old man's exile, we will find that it was related to the party struggles among some very powerful figures. There are numerous connections in the officialdom, and Wang Xipu has also encountered obstacles everywhere in recent years... Who would want to get involved in such uncertain troubles if they wanted to pursue a career in officialdom?

Scholars who are too poor may not have the time to be picky, but even if family background is not taken into consideration, which parent would want their daughter to marry and suffer?
In comparison, merchants are a very good choice.

Today, the Wang family is not as well off as before. Wang Xipu has difficulty making progress in official circles and needs more money to support himself. Later, Wang Jie will also have to pay for his studies and imperial examinations... Although they cannot entirely count on their married daughter for help, having such a relative is always an alternative.

Not to mention anything else, just the fact that their daughter doesn't have to marry far away and can live a rich life is already a comfort to parents.

"It's just that Mrs. Jiang is too shrewd, and Shuyi is too young and obedient..." The eldest wife said, "Mrs. Jiang has obviously been interested in Shuyi for a long time, but she has been waiting for more than a year. Seeing that Shuyi has a reputation for being picky, my third brother's wife is getting anxious about this... She also chose the day when my third uncle returned to Nanjing to visit. To put it bluntly, Mrs. Jiang wants to seal the deal in one fell swoop."

Yang Jinniang was surprised when she thought about it, and felt that she was stupid: "Sister-in-law is smart, I didn't even think of this."

Yang Jinniang considered herself the most clumsy and awkward of the three sisters-in-law. She was neither as calm and astute as her eldest sister-in-law, nor as well-educated and organized as her third sister-in-law. If her father, a doctor, had not met an old man who did not value family background, she would never have had the chance to marry into the Wang family. Unfortunately, she had not yet been able to give birth to a son for the Wang family, so she felt guilty and ashamed every day.

The eldest wife noticed Yang Jinniang's sensitive thoughts and said with a smile: "I am just guessing... It's useless for us to say anything. It still depends on Uncle San and his wife to make the decision."

Zhenyi thought that maybe she should listen to Orange.

Orange came back soon, holding a loose willow ring in his mouth, and went into the house to shake off the dampness on his body.

Zhenyi hurried over, squatted down, and just as she took the scattered willow ring, she heard Juzi's meowing and meowing to express her dissatisfaction. Juzi ran to the front hall in the rain, and just as she entered the hall, she heard Jiang Mao, the brother of the Jiang family, yelling, "Go away, go away, where did this beast come from!"

As he said that, he kicked towards the orange.

Of course, Orange jumped away.

Shuyi, who was behind the screen, heard the noise and stood up to look over.

Jiang Mao, who had a frightened look on his face the moment before, was stunned when he saw Shuyi.

Seeing his expression, Shuyi felt embarrassed and turned her back quickly.

Mrs. Jiang first reprimanded her son for making a fuss, then smiled and said, "He was scratched by a cat when he was a child, and he is so scared!"

Seeing that Juzi had disturbed the guests, Wang Xipu asked his servants to drive Juzi out.

Orange ran back angrily with the scattered willow wreath in his mouth.

Zhenyi re-braided the orange and put it back around her neck.

Orange licked the fur clean inside and out before he calmed down.

No fireworks were allowed on the Cold Food Festival, so Chun'er brought spring dumplings and warmed lotus roots.

When Juzi smelled the scent of grass, he jumped onto Zhenyi's legs and sniffed the green dumplings in her hand.

Zhenyi tore off a small piece and put it in the palm of her hand. She tasted the orange and found it stuck to her upper jaw. She chewed it for a while but couldn't get rid of it. She couldn't help but vomit.

Zhenyi quickly stuffed the green ball into her mouth and bit it, then helped Orange pick it out with ease. Zhenyi looked at the green sticky spot on her index finger, grinned, pretended to say "eh" in disgust, and then smeared it on Orange's nose.

Juzi also stretched out his claws in disgust and swung them away, meowing in dissatisfaction, and punched Zhenyi's arm twice as a punishment. Zhenyi bit Qingtuan, leaned back in her chair and laughed.

Yang Jinniang helplessly reminded: "You're making trouble again, be careful not to choke!"

"How many more years can this go on?" The eldest wife said with a smile, "The next person in the family to be married off might be Zhenyi."

Wang Jie is going to take the imperial examination, so he is not in a hurry to get married.

As for Wang Yuan, he had been arranged to get married last autumn, but it has now been put on hold. When this was mentioned, the eldest wife felt a little worried.

This marriage was arranged by Wang Xirui. The girl was the second daughter of Wang Xirui's good friend. The family lived outside the city of Jinling. They had been farmers and scholars for generations. They were well-off and had a good family tradition. The girl was also well-educated and well-mannered... But she fell ill shortly after the engagement, and her symptoms were a bit strange.

The other party's family took the initiative to propose to cancel the engagement, but Wang Xirui valued his dignity and did not agree. Instead, he sent silver and medicine.

Wang Yuan actually listened to his father in this regard. He was a carefree person who didn't care about anything. He was not in a hurry to get married and was happy to be alone. So the first wife didn't want to be the bad guy alone and had to wait and see for the time being.

Seeing that her sister-in-law was worried, Yang Jinniang tried to suggest that the family could go and ask at a Taoist temple which talisman water might be effective.

The eldest wife just sighed.

In the next few days, Mrs. Jiang visited the old lady twice, especially to see Mrs. Dong. She laughed heartily, showing her love for Shuyi: "We only have Mao'er in the family. If he can really marry Shuyi, it will be a blessing for our Jiang family. The whole family will cherish her! Not to mention the Jiang family, even in Jinling City, if anyone dares to let Shuyi suffer the slightest injustice, I will definitely fight him to the death!"

Old Mrs. Dong just smiled and nodded. The third child was not her biological child, so she could only discuss the matter but was not in a position to make a decision.

After Wang Xipu and his wife discussed with the old lady and sorted out the pros and cons, they were generally satisfied, so the third wife went to ask her daughter's opinion.

Shuyi nodded gently: "All right, I'll listen to my father and mother."

So, before Wang Xipu left to return to his post, the two families compared their horoscopes, submitted the engagement letters, and the marriage was settled.

As for the wedding date, it will have to be an auspicious day next year, and the two families will need to discuss it later.

Fifteen days after Qingming Festival, at night, Zhenyi took Orange and sat on the steps in front of the house to watch the stars. When she saw the Big Dipper pointing to Chen in the night sky, she knew that the Grain Rain season had arrived.

Zhenyi was looking at the stars, and Juzi, who was lying on the stone steps with his hands in his pockets, was looking at Zhenyi - he always felt that Zhenyi, this child, was always absent-minded lately, and he didn't know what she was thinking about.

Zhenyi is hesitating about one thing.

The nine-year-old Zhenyi withdrew her gaze from the night sky and looked down at her resting feet.

Zhenyi moved her toes slightly and then landed gently.

Orange looked at the pair of goose yellow embroidered shoes with jade rabbits on them and suddenly realized - oh, she was worrying about foot binding again.

The day before yesterday, Mother Lu came again. Juzi stood at Zhenyi's feet cautiously and did not let Mother Lu get close.

Orange doesn't like Lu's mother - this mother has an unreasonable strong possessiveness of other people's feet, which is really unreasonable.

As Zhenyi's guardian cat, Orange had already decided that it must ensure that the child's feet grew up safely.

Orange meowed and flicked his tail, hoping to reassure Zhenyi that he was there.

Zhenyi held her chin with one hand, her eyes still blank. The nine-year-old child's milk teeth began to fall out, and her true consciousness was gradually awakened. The environment and experiences fed this consciousness and gradually covered up her instinctive nature.

Three days later in the morning, Mother Lu came again.

After Mother Lu left, Yang Jinniang called Zhenyi to her room.

Orange followed as if facing a formidable enemy, with its tail held high, not even bending at all.

　The fifth solar term is over~
　　Progress of this book 5|24.

　　(Today is the White Dew Festival, let’s start putting on some weight for the autumn)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)