Chapter 22 Setting the banquet
On the fourth day of the September 19th, the old man took all the men in his family to the mountain to visit the ancestors' graves and told them the good news. On the fifth day of the September 19th, the villagers held a banquet in the ancestral hall. This kind of banquet is that every family takes out some things, everyone gets together, and then makes some wine and food. Of course, there are public silver in the village, and the village chief will take out some of them and fill them in the banquet.
On this day, all the children who were originally studying in the ancestral hall had a holiday, and then some women in the village came back to help. Everyone started to celebrate the happy events in the village together. The Xu family naturally took out the most things, but this was the happy events of their Xu family. How could they not get more?
Chen asked someone to send a message to the town and the county, and Zhide came back with Han and the children. Later on Zhiming came back, he led Zhu. The two of them walked very quickly and were sweating when they arrived home. Chen felt very distressed when they saw them like that, so he quickly asked them to take a break.
"Mom, we are not tired. The village is so busy, I'll go to help with the work." Zhu's old man was still the same, and he had work in his eyes. As soon as he came, he hurried to work. When he walked to the stove that had been set up there, he happened to see Xue busy cooking. "Sister-in-law, what else can I do? I'll do it."
When Xue heard this, she knew that the third wife had arrived, and she didn't look back. "Help cut all the vegetables, and there are meat and so on. Your knife skills are good, and the slices of meat are thin and even. There are not many people in our village who can have your skills?"
Zhu's mother's family turned out to be a restaurant. Zhu's mother died early, and later her father married another wife. Zhu's stepmother was not good to Zhu and asked her to do a lot of work every day. The restaurant never hired a friend. Zhu had to be busy all of them and had to help cut vegetables. It was because of this that he had mastered a good job. The habit that Zhu developed in his mother's family was that he had a very good job and never had time to be lazy.
Zhu arrived at the chopping board, picked up the kitchen knife, and cut the vegetables. After a while, they were all cut. Then she cut the meat again, and the slices she cut were almost transparent and very even, which made people admire her craftsmanship.
"Oh, Mrs. Xu, your skills are really amazing. If there is a wedding or wedding in any company, you can help with the same materials. You can cut out half a plate of more than others, which is really saving things for the owner." A young wife next to her looked at it and admired her.
"I just point to this craft to eat. This is a skillful thing. If you also help someone, your craft will be good." Zhu smiled and continued to lower his head to cut things. She worked in a restaurant in the county town. She did this every day, so how could she not cut it well?
Many wives in the village are helping here, and everyone is doing their own things. There are three wives cooking there. There are a large stack of plates next to them. The dishes are often served on the plates after the stir-frying. Then those who specially serve the dishes to each table will serve the dishes.
There are less than a hundred families in the village, and a total of thirty tables of banquets were opened. The children were all with their mothers and they were not allowed to open them alone. Of course, the tables were borrowed from each family, and the dishes were also written in red on the other side. Then they would return them according to the names behind them. The wedding ceremony here is like this, otherwise who would have so many households? The dishes were served up were all half-aged children or young wives, coming and going, and it was very lively.
The village chief came to see that almost all the dishes were fried, and rice was stewed in the pot over there, and nodded, "My wife, Zhixin, I think life is almost done. You can lead everyone to eat, just wait for you." The village chief spoke.
Xue wiped the sweat from her head. Although it was already September, it was still hot enough to stay on the stove. "Okay, Uncle Zhou, let's go here. You can lead someone to the meal first. I'll add some heat to these pots. Otherwise, the rice won't be cooked."
After hearing this, the village chief walked to the banquet, came to the middle and looked at the villagers, "Dear fellow villagers, today is Xu Zhixiang, the fifth brother of the Xu family in our village, who was admitted to the juren, and our village specially celebrated. Our village has not passed the juren for some years. From now on, we will go out and everyone has a bright face. In addition, there is a juren in our village. Come on, everyone will eat and drink happily today and have a good time."
After the village chief finished speaking, he naturally wanted to ask Zhixiang to come over and say a few words. Zhixiang walked out of the crowd, "Dear fellows, Zhixiang is just a junior, and he didn't expect to be admitted to a juren. Thank you for your kindness. I, Xu Zhixiang, also held a celebration banquet for Zhixiang. I, Xu Zhixiang, thank you all the villagers here. I will definitely not refuse if I have the usefulness in the future." As he said that, Zhixiang bowed to everyone.
When the village chief saw it, he quickly said, "Okay, let's go. Let's eat open today. Our village has a good look this year. It's another good harvest year. Let's celebrate together."
When these villagers heard the meal, they all picked up their chopsticks and started eating. There was wine on the men's tables, and everyone was busy enough this autumn. It was rare to have such an opportunity to take a break today and eat and drink. Who didn't let go of it? For a moment, the entire ancestral hall was so lively.
Xue led the helping wives and sat down, "I have to thank you all sisters today. If you didn't help, the banquet wouldn't be able to be done." Xue is the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xu family, and she said this.
Many wives next to them smiled and said, "Why are you so polite? The Xu family is well-popular. No matter who has any problems in the village, my sister-in-law will go to help. We thank you for not having time. If you have any problems in my sister-in-law's family in the future, I will just come to us."
The meal was so lively. The old man of the Xu family also drank a lot of wine today, his face was full of red and laughed when he saw people. The Zhixin brothers also drank a lot, especially Zhixiang. Everyone came to toast him, so how could he not drink it? So he drank too much from the left and the right.
Seeing that her husband and son were drinking a little too much, Chen asked Wenhan and Wencheng to support the old man and send him all the way back. Then Chen took these wives to clean up the table, and there was nothing left on the table, and the plates were empty. Today, the dishes were all filled with meat, so where could you see oily fishy on weekdays? If you have such a good dish, you have to eat it even if you are overwhelmed. The merchants can't bear to see any waste.
He stacked all the dishes and bowls next to the well, and then many wives were washing the dishes there. While brushing, there were a few literate children next to him, so they separated the dishes according to the words below, so that they could send them back to each family later.
Wen Han and Wen Cheng helped the old man home, and led a group of young and old men to deliver things back. Lin Zixuan and Wen Han were good, so he was naturally indispensable for this work. In addition, Ergouzi, Tie Niu and other children, who were about the same age as them. Everyone got along well on weekdays, so they worked together.
After finally getting through everything, everyone left the ancestral hall and returned to their respective homes.
Jinghan also helped pick vegetables, wash dishes and other things today, which was also tiring enough for an eight-year-old girl. So when she got home, Jinghan lay on the kang and didn't want to move. "Jinghan, don't sleep, it's afternoon. If you sleep at this time, you will be able to sleep at night. Come, come over and let's chat for a while." Jingya saw Jinghan lying on the kang and was afraid that she would fall asleep, so she quickly asked Jinghan to get up.
Jingwan and Jingxian next to them came up and pulled Jinghan up, "Sister, stop sleeping. Let's go to the garden outside to see what good things have not been brought back, right?"
Jinghan had no choice but to get up from the kang, "Okay, let's go to the garden."
When I arrived at the garden, there was not much in the field now, only cabbage and radish were left. The cabbages were covered with a big heart. The rain this year was good, and the cabbage grew very well. Jinghan led his two sisters to pull out two radishes. This radish is quite special and has red inside. "Come on, let's go back to eat radish. The radish is already delicious at this time." As he said that, he carried the leaves of the radish and walked home.
Back in the house, I cut off all the leaves of the radish with a knife, then washed the radish with some water, and cut it into slices. "Come on, Jingwan, Jingxian, come and try it. This is a newly obtained seed this year, I have never seen it before." In fact, this radish is what later generations call the kind of heart-wonderfulness. It tastes very sweet, not that spicy, and tastes good.
The farmer's children don't have any snacks on weekdays, and they think it's very delicious when eating a piece of radish. Jingwan and Jingxian are in the county town, and they have never eaten such fresh radish. They are crisp and watery. The more they eat, the more they want to eat it. "Sister, let's give me another piece, it's delicious." Jingwan said.
Jinghan cut another piece and handed it to Jingwan's hand, "Eat it, we have so many things in our house, you can eat whatever you want."
Jingwan took the radish and finished it in just a few seconds. She had already had a lot of food at noon, but now she ate the radish again, and she really couldn't eat it anymore. She touched her belly, "Sister, look at my belly, it's so bulging. It's so fun."
Jinghan smiled when she saw it, and didn't say anything. She cut a lot of radishes and sent them to Chen and Xue. "Grandma, Aunt San, Aunt Fourth, Mom, let's pick the radishes. It's quite sweet. Everyone tastes it."
Chen quickly took it over, "This is the new seed this year. It is said that it is best to eat it raw. Try it all. If it is good, I will take it back for you." There are not many fruits here, and people are willing to plant a lot of radishes. In winter, they take it out and eat it raw when they have nothing to do. It is also a kind of snack. So if any radish has that kind of non-spicy one, they will leave a lot of seeds and share it with everyone.
Chapter completed!