Annual Ceremony

Chapter 54: Frost Descent (Part )

On this day, there was heavy snow in Tianchang County.

Zhan Mei got off the car outside the yard and originally planned to ask the servant to knock on the door and ask, "It's snowing heavily today. I wonder if my second sister needs any help." However, he heard from Old Han's grandson that the young lady was not in the yard, but was busy behind the house.

Zhan Mei went around the house with an umbrella and found out what Zhenyi was busy with.

This story started a few months ago. After Orange settled down here, he attracted many wild cats nearby. According to Orange, those wild cats came here to admire his grace. After all, at his age, he is a well-deserved centenarian and the ancestor of the cat world.

Several cats had become familiar with Orange and were always wandering around the house. One of them was pregnant with kittens. As the weather was getting colder, Zhenyi decided to build a shed behind the house for them to stay in and keep out the cold. That afternoon, Zhan Mei came to visit and helped Lao Han build the cat house.

At this moment, Zhenyi was guarding in front of the cat house - the female cat was giving birth, and there were two wild dogs walking nearby, which made the female cat panic and stressed. It was the cry of Juzi driving away the wild dogs that attracted Zhenyi over.

Old Han's granddaughter held a bamboo pole to scare away the wild dogs, and Zhan Mei held an umbrella over Zhenyi and Juzi's heads. Zhenyi looked up and met the young man's gentle eyes.

By the time the mother cat gave birth to all four kittens, it had darkened, the heavy snow had stopped, and the sky and the earth were reflected in a clear silver-blue color by the accumulated snow.

When Orange saw that one of the kittens was a calico, his eyes widened. He immediately wanted to go in and help lick the kitten's fur. The next moment, he was rejected by the mother cat with a cat punch and a few meows.

Orange, who suddenly came to his senses, felt a little embarrassed and realized his own rudeness, so he pretended to be busy licking the snow on his paws and shaking his fur. After doing a hundred unnecessary movements to get rid of the embarrassment, he sat down in front of the house again leisurely.

Looking at the kittens and cats steaming hot in the thatched wooden house, Orange suddenly felt a sense of pride and heroism, and couldn't help but want to recite a poem - I wish I had thousands of mansions to shelter all the cats in the world.

The word "Mimi" is like the initial password for every cat. Orange would visit the mother cat and its group of "initial passwords" every day. Gradually, Orange got the right to enter the cat house and finally licked the fur of the calico kitten as he wished.

Near the end of the year, Wang Jie and Wang Yuan came to Tianchang from Jinling to see Zhenyi. They brought many things to Zhenyi, including food made by their eldest sister-in-law, books that Zhenyi wanted, and some new clothes. Although they were new clothes for the New Year, they were plain inside and out.

The mourning family needs to wear plain clothes and replace the Spring Festival couplets with mourning paper. In the early morning of New Year's Eve, Zhenyi took the brush dipped in batter handed to her by Zhuo's mother and pasted the rough, straw-yellow fire paper on the door with her own hands.

After finishing everything, Zhenyi stood outside the door in a trance. A group of Wang's brothers and sisters came over, including Zhan Mei. He raised his sleeves to greet Zhenyi and said with a smile: "Second sister, have a good year!"

Zhenyi smiled and returned the greeting: "Good luck in the new year, and I hope that Brother Zhan is well too."

Zhan Mei did not return to Xuancheng to celebrate the Spring Festival. He said he had sent a message to his family and would go back during the Qingming Festival after the New Year.

On the New Year's Eve, Zhenyi had the dinner with her clansmen and Zhan Mei. The hot dumplings and fruit wine dispelled the winter chill. When it got dark and fireworks were lit everywhere, Zhenyi was dragged by her sisters to watch the iron flower making.

When the molten iron occasionally splashed, Zhenyi subconsciously turned her head to avoid it, but saw someone quickly raised his sleeves to block her.

Seeing Zhenyi looking up, Zhan Mei withdrew his arm and said with a smile: "I hope my second sister's original intention will not be lost with the passing of years."

This is a somewhat special New Year's blessing. Zhenyi smiled knowingly, revealing a little bit of her canine teeth: "May we always be like young people."

Our original intention remains unchanged with age, and we will always remain young.

Zhenyi's gaze slowly moved upwards along with the floating iron flowers. There was no moon on New Year's Eve, but the starry sky was dense and vast.

The stars moved and changed, the sun rose and the moon set, and the first month of the year passed quickly.

On the first day of February, early in the morning, Zhan Mei and two cousins ​​from the Wang family replaced a layer of new tiles on Zhenyi's roof.

On the evening of the second day of February, Zhan Mei brought a new ladder to Zhenyi.

Zhenyi climbed up the ladder and sat on the roof, and Juzi followed closely behind her and jumped onto the ladder. When they reached the last section, Juzi turned around and meowed at Zhan Mei who was holding the ladder seriously, motioning him to come up and sit too.

It is a great honor to be invited by Mr. Orange.

The view of stars on the roof is particularly broad. Zhenyi handed the telescope to Zhan Mei, taught him how to use it, and explained to him the positions of various stars.

Zhan Mei didn't have a thorough understanding of astrology, but he was very good at listening, and in the process of listening he developed many yearnings, not just for this brilliant sky.

Zhan Mei was not just listening. He was good at poetry and songs. Like Zhenyi, he had traveled all over the world. When they talked about the scenery of different places, they always had endless things to talk about. When they talked about the places they had been to together, and heard that Zhenyi had a box of manuscript paper recording the terrain and weather of various places, Zhan Mei couldn't help but say:

"Although we went to the same place, my second sister was so meticulous in her observations. I wasted my time just by rushing through it... As expected, my second sister is much more meticulous and intelligent than I can be!"

The young man's eyes were sincere and admiring, like stars falling into a quiet lake.

The sky and the earth are vast, the roof is small, and the originally long night seems to pass in a flash.

When the sky was slightly white, Zhan Mei came back to his senses, turned to Zhenyi and smiled, "This year I am lucky enough to watch the whole Dragon Rising with my second sister, which makes up for the regret of my childhood."

Zhenyi was somewhat bewildered: "What did Brother Zhan say?"

Zhan Mei then talked about the stargazing experience in the courtyard of the Wang family in Jinling when he was young: "... Liu Zhi was the first to go back. His elder brother couldn't stand it either. His second sister also fell asleep during the middle of the night. But he reluctantly agreed with Wang Gong to watch the dragon rise again next year."

Orange, lying between the two men, stretched lazily. It also remembered that it was the very young boy from the Zhan family who brought it back home that night.

Zhenyi was a little embarrassed: "I have no recollection of it at all."

Zhan Mei smiled without any concern: "How old was Second Sister at that time? And Second Sister's brain should be used to remember more important and useful things. I just remember these useless little things."

A ray of rosy clouds appeared in the east and roosters crowed loudly in the yard. The yellow pastoral dog that had been guarding the yard all night wagged its tail happily and barked twice at the roof, as if urging its owner to come down.

Zhenyi stepped down the ladder. Since that night, Zhenyi would climb the ladder to watch the stars almost every night, but Zhan Mei never accompanied her again. It was always inconvenient for men and women to get along. It was really a coincidence that they talked all night on the second night of February. Most of the time, Zhenyi sat alone on the roof. Some things are indeed more suitable for one person to do. Silence is a precious thing, and Zhenyi needs it very much.

Of course, Orange is always there. It will not disturb Zhenyi's peace. On the contrary, it is very good at bringing Zhenyi the deepest peace in her heart.

In late March, a letter from home came from Jinling. It was written by Wang Jie. As usual, it described the recent situation at home, saying that everything was fine and asking Zhenyi not to worry. He also said that his eldest brother and sister-in-law had opened a duck soup restaurant, and his eldest brother had become very busy because of it, and seemed to be more serious.

Zhenyi repeated the contents of the letter to Zhuo's mother. When Juzi heard that Wang Yuan had opened a soup restaurant, she felt relieved but then became furious. After all, it is always scary for a man to start a business - even scarier than He Shuhuan's forceful kiss on Ruping in Du Fei's eyes!
During the Dragon Boat Festival in May, I received another letter from my family in Nanjing, saying that the soup restaurant's business was gradually picking up, and the price of oranges had just been reduced from 8% to 5%.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather was unbearably hot. The rooftop was a good place to cool off at night. Mother Zhuo used a copper basin to burn mugwort in the yard to repel mosquitoes. Orange often took a group of cats to patrol the house - Dahuang always followed behind. It was raised by Orange and often mistakenly thought it was a cat, and often did many confusing things.

The cat and dog security team is responsible for patrolling, while Old Han is used to moving a stretcher bed and lying in the yard, fanning himself with a large palm-leaf fan to keep cool, watching over the young lady who is doing big things on the roof day after day - the young lady is looking at things in the sky, so how can things in the sky not be big?

In Lao Han's opinion, nothing could be more serious than this.

In Zhuo's mother's opinion, the top priority this summer is to make sure that Old Han wears shorts: "...It's just an extra piece of cloth, it won't make you that hot!"

This summer, Old Han, who had been accustomed to being shirtless in the summer all his life, was forced to observe the moral ethics of a man, and Orange was very pleased about this.

Before Lao Han put on the coarse cloth vest that Juzi saw, Juzi saw a long scar on Lao Han's chest, like a knife scar.

Zhenyi likes chatting with Lao Han very much. Lao Han is proficient in all kinds of farming and has a good grasp of the climate. He knows a lot of common sense that is not written in books, which often makes Zhenyi suddenly enlightened.

During a casual chat, Zhenyi curiously asked about Lao Han's youth, and also asked about the origin of the scar. Hearing the young lady ask this, Mother Zhuo sighed in her heart and blamed her, because Lao Han wore his clothes too late.

But I heard from Old Han that the scar was left by a burglar when he was young. He was stabbed by the thief and was unconscious for many days. When he woke up, the young scholar Wang Zhefu hugged him and cried.

Zhenyi was amazed, but she understood it. No wonder her grandfather trusted Grandpa Han so much and had handed over the old house and fields to Grandpa Han to manage for many years. It was obvious that he left them to Grandpa Han for his retirement.

It turned out that they had once had such an adventure together when they were young.

Zhenyi felt that such a courageous deed was worth recording, and she said she wanted to write a biography for Grandpa Han.

Old Han was extremely frightened and waved his hands repeatedly: "How can this be possible... I don't even have a decent name!"

Biographies are for big shots! He is just an old man who grows crops, isn't that a joke?
Zhenyi was very persistent and just asked him to explain it in more details.

Old Han scratched his head and said "Absolutely not", but he couldn't help but sit up straighter. His tone became serious and he started to act like a storyteller: "...When the night was pitch black, a man jumped down from the top of the wall. Upon closer inspection, he was a man with a green face and fangs..."

"Why are you still so fang-toothed?" Mother Zhuo, who came over with a bowl of freshly fried peanuts, was surprised when she heard this and asked, "Are you going to write 'A Funny Story About Old Han'?"

It was the afternoon of August. Zhan Mei, who was sitting in the courtyard, said with a smile, "Maybe it's The Strange Stories of Han Gong—"

Old Han's granddaughter took the basin of peanuts and peeled them for the young lady while saying, "Grandpa, please speak down to earth!"

Old Han frowned and pondered for a moment, finally thinking of the right words, and changed his words: "...but the one who jumped down was actually a wicked man who looked like a wild boar standing up!"

Zhuo's mother: "Is it a wild boar again? In any case, it must have fangs. It's fighting with fangs!"

Zhenyi, who was sitting on a small stool, was laughing so hard that she couldn't straighten her back, and Zhan Mei also laughed out loud.

After peeling the peanuts fried in a ground pot, rubbing and blowing them will reveal the oily and yellow peanut kernels. Some of them are fried to a slightly brown color, and they are particularly fragrant when eaten.

The autumn afternoon sun was warm. Orange, who was sleeping at Zhenyi's feet, was covered with peanut crumbs. He turned over, revealing his furry belly, stretched out his four paws, and yawned.

Zhenyi said she wanted to write a biography for Lao Han, so she really started writing. Three days later, when Zhan Mei came again, Zhenyi took out the manuscript paper to show him and asked for his opinion.

After reading it, Zhan Mei had nothing but praise. Zhenyi was very good at writing biographies for others, and was very persistent in writing biographies for "little people". Zhan Mei had read all her articles on biographies of women - not only biographies, but also her poems, which often expressed the grievances of ordinary people.

Zhan Mei admired him, but also felt a little worried.

In September, Zhenyi began to say goodbye to her clansmen in Tianchang and to Zhan Mei. The one-year period was over and she was going back to Nanjing.

Wang Xichen came to pick up his daughter in person. Before leaving, Zhenyi entrusted everything in the courtyard to Old Han. They had been together day and night for more than a year. When it was time to leave, Old Han knelt down and shed tears, and his grandson's eyes were also filled with tears.

Parting always hurts, and Zhenyi was not relieved at heart. She just held back her tears and said that she would come back often to visit.

Zhan Mei and the other Wang family members watched Zhenyi get on the mule cart with the oranges in her arms. Zhenyi told them and Zhan Mei that they could go to their eldest brother's soup restaurant to eat noodle soup when they went to Jinling the next day.

Wang Xichen bowed to his tribesmen, thanked them and said goodbye.

As the mule cart drove away, Juzi was still thinking about the litter of cats behind the house. Old Han had given them names, which were rustic, but cats were no longer wild cats once they had names given by people. It didn't matter that Old Han was reluctant to feed them too much, because he had taught them many hunting tricks, including the ability to break into the house and fetch their prey when necessary... So Old Han only needed to repair the cat house in winter.

Anyway, when Zhenyi returns to Tianchang, it will follow her back to take a look.

The weather was getting a little cold. In the mule cart, the worried Orange moved closer to Zhenyi.

On the second day after returning to Jinling, Zhenyi took Jingyi to visit her eldest brother's duck soup restaurant. It was the day of the Frost Descent, and it was a good time to get up early and drink a bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup, accompanied by a tray of hot dumplings, or sesame cakes just taken out of the oven.

But Orange had no appetite. It came to inspect and see with its own eyes the current status of Wang Yuan's entrepreneurship.

Late night is good~