Annual Ceremony

Chapter 4: Beginning of Spring (Part )

Before Zhenyi's fifth birthday, Old Lady Dong personally took charge of the formal education.

In just two months of her enlightenment, Zhenyi could stand up straight, put her hands behind her back, hold her head high, and recite "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic" in a soft voice. She also memorized more than ten Tang poems. She had her own preferences when she started reading poetry, and she especially loved the two masters Changli and Taibai.

Wang Shuyi, the eldest daughter of the Wang family, is eleven years old and already has a scholarly air. She gently reminds Zhenyi that she should read more women's books and learn to write boudoir poetry.

Old Madam Dong said, "Don't worry, let's nurture this rare spiritual energy in her..."

Wang Shuyi smiled and said “yes”.

Zhenyi liked the older sister in the family very much. The older sister was beautiful, spoke softly, walked slowly, and always had a faint floral scent on her body.

The eldest sister often held Zhenyi in her arms and taught her to read.

Zhenyi leaned in her elder sister's arms, rubbing her clothes, feeling particularly safe and happy, and somehow she fell asleep.

Shuyi smiled: "Little lazy cat..."

Orange, who was dozing off nearby, was startled and immediately sat up straight, and meowed to defend the cat - cats are not lazy!
It was on that day that Zhenyi woke up and she didn't see Shuyi for more than ten days.

Zhenyi asked her grandmother, and her grandmother just said, "I need to rest in the house for a while..."

Zhenyi thought, is he sick?

The next day, Zhenyi put the snacks that Chun'er brought into a handkerchief, put it in her hand, and quietly ran to see her elder sister with the oranges.

When she walked to the window, Zhenyi heard a low cry, so she stood on tiptoe and looked inside the house from the half-open window.

Juzi imitated Zhenyi and stood on tiptoe, but still couldn't see anything, so she simply jumped onto the window frame.

In the room, Shuyi sat on the couch with her feet on a chair.

Shuyi's mother, the Third Lady, was also there, and a maid was removing the white cloth wrapped around Shuyi's feet. Shuyi gasped and cried in pain, clutching the bedposts with both hands and shaking slightly.

Zhenyi looked closely at her elder sister's feet and found it very strange.

The older sister's feet were almost the same size as hers, with her toes bent inward and her instep raised high. The sole and heel seemed to be folded, squeezing a deep gap in the middle.

The third wife saw the little head outside the window and called Zhenyi into the house.

Zhenyi walked in with some snacks and asked about her elder sister's foot injury.

The third wife corrected her with a smile, saying that it was not an injury.

Not injured? Then why is it so small?

Shuyi also smiled a little: "It would look better if it were smaller."

The maid, Madam Lu, was also laughing: "The eldest lady has had her feet bound since she was five years old. The bones have grown a little in the past two years, so she needs to be bound again..."

Mother Lu looked at Shuyi's feet, as if she was looking at a work of art that she was very satisfied with. She smiled and said to Zhenyi, "I also bound Third Madam's feet. When Second Miss reaches the age for foot binding, just leave it to me without worry! I will bind Second Miss a pair of lotus feet that everyone will praise! The girls in our Wang family must all be Jinling ladies!"

Facing Mother Lu's warm and kind smile, Zhenyi subconsciously took a step back.

Mother Lu asked with a smile: "By the way, the second young lady is almost five years old, right?"

Zhenyi was a little scared, but still nodded honestly.

From that day on, Zhenyi always liked to secretly stare at the feet of everyone in the family.

One day, she discovered that her grandmother's feet were not small, so she reported to her mother, "Mother, my grandmother never bound her feet!"

Yang Jinniang: "When the old lady was young, the emperor in power, for some reason, once issued a strict order to abolish foot binding for the Han people... If you miss the age, you can no longer bind your feet."

Zhenyi: "But my mother never bound her feet..."

"Your maternal family was poor, and you couldn't work after your feet were bound." Yang Jinniang looked a little ashamed, and slowly pulled her feet under her skirt: "Your third aunt came from a much better family, and her family knew how to be respectable..."

Yang Jinniang envied her younger brother and sister-in-law, and she touched her daughter's head with her hand, and then a smile appeared in her eyes: "Fortunately, our Zhenyi will also be a decent lady in the boudoir in the future."

"But..." Zhenyi added, "But my father and uncle never bound their feet!"

"Silly girl." Yang Jinniang laughed: "If men also bound their feet, how could they walk around outside?"

Zhenyi seemed to understand, but she didn't quite understand. Was that why her elder sister walked so slowly? She had never seen her elder sister run. Did she no longer be able to run after her feet were bound? In the evening, Zhenyi finished her bath, sat on the bed with her knees bent, covered with a quilt, and looked at her feet.

Thinking of her elder sister's curled and deformed toes, Zhenyi couldn't help but try to spread her ten round toes wide open, as if only in this way would she feel more comfortable.

The orange lying nearby stretched out its two front paws and stretched them forward comfortably, with the ten furry fingers of its front paws spread wide open like flowers.

Seeing this, Zhenyi laughed and also lay down like Juzi, half covering herself in the quilt. Juzi stretched out his claws to dig into the quilt. Zhenyi rolled over with shock and laughter. Juzi pounced on her through the quilt, and Zhenyi laughed even louder.

After some fun, before going to bed, Zhenyi secretly said to Juzi: "Juzi, I have decided, I don't want to celebrate my fifth birthday..."

She didn't want to have her feet bound. She wanted to be like an orange, running fast and steady, and jumping high and far.

As long as she is under five years old, she doesn't need to have her feet bound!
Orange meowed and thought it was a good idea. This way, it could save a birthday gift, as it just didn't know what to give.

In the following days, Zhenyi told everyone that she didn't celebrate her birthday and often shook her grandmother's sleeve to beg.

Adults always have a lot of things to do, and the family has been busy lately, so when faced with children's sudden requests, everyone just agreed.

Although it was not Zhenyi’s birthday, the beginning of spring still arrived on time.

Early in the morning of the Beginning of Spring, Juzi ran back from outside, jumped onto Zhenyi's bed, and bit Zhenyi's foot through the quilt.

Zhenyi woke up with a start. In her dream, she was being chased by Mother Lu with a foot binding!

Juzi urged Zhenyi to get up and take her outside to watch the fun.

Zhenyi is more spiritual than ordinary children, and Juzi is more spiritual than ordinary cats. In addition, they grew up together, so the man and the cat can always understand each other without any obstacles.

Chun'er went to get water for washing her face. There was no one else in the room. Zhenyi simply wrapped herself in a goose yellow fur-collared double-breasted jacket, put on her embroidered shoes, and ran out with Juzi.

She didn't comb her hair, and her soft, fluffy hair was scattered on her shoulders, shining softly in the morning light as she ran. Her big eyes were bright black and clear, and her long eyelashes drooped slightly at the corners of her eyes. Her fair, round cheeks were a little red from the wind, and puffs of hot air came out of her mouth.

When Orange looked back, she felt that she was like an elf of the Spring Festival. Wherever she passed, the surrounding scenery became vibrant and lively.

Zhenyi followed Juzi to the back door and saw the spring-beating team passing by.

The Beginning of Spring is also known as the Spring Morning. On this day every year, the prefect of Jinling City would lead the city’s officials in performing a ceremony to welcome the spring, walking through the long streets of the city.

The procession for beating the spring is very long. In the front, there are yamen runners with colorful ribbons tied around their waists beating gongs and drums. In the back, there is a cart pulled by an ox. On the cart is a clay spring ox with colorful ribbons wrapped around it and a spring ball hung on it. The prefect holds a spring whip in his hand and whips the clay ox again and again.

The mud on the clay cow was knocked off and splashed onto the ground, meaning it would take root.

People followed along the way, vying to throw sesame, beans and rice in their hands onto the Spring Ox, praying for a good harvest and good weather.

A soybean jumped and rolled over. Orange pounced on it, held it down with one paw, then picked it up with his mouth and threw it down. He was having a lot of fun. Every time this happened, Orange felt sorry that the cat could not play for the national football team.

When Zhenyi was about to catch up with the lively Spring Festival procession, Chun'er, who had come to visit, caught her and took her back.

The Beginning of Spring is the first solar term of the year and has always been highly valued. The Wang family was also very busy. Yang Jinniang rolled some flour balls and offered them as sacrifices to the gods.

The first and third wives made a lot of spring pancakes, which was the children's favorite part. After the spring pancakes came out of the pan, the children rushed to take a bite for good luck.

Shortly after the beginning of spring, one morning, Chun'er woke Zhenyi up early, dressed her, combed her hair, and tied red ropes on her two little buns.

Today is the day when Wang Zhefu, the master of the Wang family, returns to Jinling, and all the members of the Wang family will rush to the dock to welcome him.

Along the way, Zhenyi was very excited. For one thing, she didn't have many opportunities to go out, and seeing the bustling city, she found everything new and interesting.

Secondly, she had been looking forward to her grandfather coming home for a long time.

The Wang family rushed to the pier where the Qinhuai River and the Qingxi waterway intersected. After looking for a long time, they finally saw Wang Zhefu walking down from the boat.

Wang Zhefu, with his hair in a braid and white hair, was wearing an old royal blue robe and had a small bag tied around his body. After getting off the boat, he saw his grandchildren running towards him, and he quickly bent down and stretched out his hands, his face smiling like a chrysanthemum.

Seeing the old man's happy look, Orange, who was squatting not far away, squinted his eyes and sighed calmly - it's a pleasure to not have to go to work.

After hugging his two grandchildren, Wang Zhefu nodded lovingly to his granddaughter Shuyi, who was leaning forward gracefully, and then smiled and looked around: "Where is the youngest one?"

　Zhou Geng came to Liao~
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(End of this chapter)