At this time, a circle of people had already gathered in the courtyard, with both adults and children.
The children each held a small rice ball and gnawed on it while laughing and watching. They quickly made way for the best spot when they saw Jiang Clan's eldest brother carrying his younger sister out.
The steamed fragrant glutinous rice was bright yellow, with each grain clearly visible. It was poured into a special large stone mortar, and three burly men took turns pounding it with wooden mallets, turning it over while yelling rhythmically, "Hei yo, hei yo!" This task required a great deal of experience and strength.
After pounding for a while, the three burly men switched out for another group to take over hammering. Front to back, it pounded for about two ke/hours.
The fragrant rice in the stone mortar was then thoroughly pounded into a fine, sticky dough.
Then the older aunties came over with clean, oiled bamboo sieves.
They put the pounded dough into a large funnel-like device and used a trapezoidal wooden wedge to press it down.
The dough was squeezed out from the funnel's lower circular pipe, forming neat, smooth cylinders.
Then, using clean scissors wetted with water, they cut it into sections of a certain length and laid them out on special wooden boards to dry. Once dried, the rice cakes were finished.
The freshly made rice cakes were the tastiest, both fragrant and chewy with a nice bounce. But because this food was precious, even though the spectators were drooling, they didn't dare ask for any.
Old Lady Hu, however, took the initiative to have some short sticks cut to share with the watching children.
The process for making zongzi glutinous rice dumplings was similar.
The premium glutinous rice was steamed until cooked, then pounded in a stone mortar into a fine, sticky dough. Then it was pinched into fist-sized pieces and pressed into shape.
Making candied fruits was much more complex.
After the glutinous rice was soaked, it was washed clean and drained. Then it was ground into a foamy flour. One-fifth was taken out, mixed with water into a dough, pressed into cakes, and cooked in boiled red sugar syrup.
The cooked dough along with the syrup was poured into the remaining rice flour, mixing into several large 10+ jin doughs, and left to ferment for two ke.
Then it was rolled out with a rolling pin into large 1 cm thick dough sheets, and cut with a special ruler into 5-7 cm wide noodles.
Then it was cut into 1 cm wide strips with scissors or a knife, sprinkled onto a cutting board to dry out the moisture, and finally fried in hot oil.
The Jiang house was filled with alluring fragrances the entire day. The finished rice cakes, zongzi, and candied fruits filled Jiang's three wing rooms.
After dinner, Old Jiang and Old Lady Hu called the three sons and daughters-in-law to sit together and hold a family meeting to discuss sending out New Year's gifts.
Everyone chimed in, and after drinking two pots of tea, they finally came up with a reasonable plan.
First were the gifts for clan members.
There were 47 Jiang Clan households. Plus Village Chief Zhao Liuzhi, Qi Doufu, and Granny Yang, there were 51 households total.
For these families, each would get 5 rice cakes, 5 zongzi, totaling 1 dou. Additionally, each would get 1 jin of candied fruits and 2 jin of meat.
Over the years, Jiang Clan had received no small amount of help from their relatives and clan members. Now that they themselves were better off, they naturally could not forget everyone else, otherwise it would be forgetting their roots. For example, the Zhao family.
Zhao Liuzhi and Jiang Wenyuan were childhood friends, with Zhao being 2 years older than Jiang Wenyuan.
When they were children, Zhao helped Jiang Wenyuan take quite a beating when their village kids got into a fight with kids from another village. Later on, he also helped Jiang Wenyuan a lot.
His family had little land. During the farming busy seasons when he saw Jiang Clan was shorthanded, he would often come over to lend a hand.
Whenever there was something good, he wouldn't forget to save some for Jiang Wenyuan. Therefore, Jiang Wenyuan remembered his kindness deeply.
As for the Qi Doufu family.
Although the Qi were settlers, they made a good living with Qi's superior beancurd-making skills.
Over ten years ago, Old Jiang fell gravely ill and needed an extremely expensive medicinal ingredient to save his life.
Old Lady Hu took the three sons to borrow money from all the clan members, but still could not raise enough money for the medicine.
When Qi Doufu heard about it, he took the initiative to lend the Jiangs a sum of silver, which allowed them to finally purchase the lifesaving medicine.
Because of this kindness, Jiang Clan always treated the Qi family with extra courtesy.
As for Granny Yang's family, helping them was purely incidental. A lonely old widow, life was truly hard for them, so lending a hand when possible was simply the right thing to do.
Second were the three families of in-laws and Jiang Wenxi's teacher.
These four families would each get 2 dou of rice cakes, 2 boxes of zongzi, 5 jin of candied fruits, 5 jin of brown sugar, a whole bolt of fine cotton cloth, a 10 jin vat of wine, 10 jin of pork, and 2 jin of premium tea leaves.
Since Lu was both a relative by marriage and the wife of seven children, her maiden family got double the original amount on top of that. Jiang's eldest and second branches had no objections whatsoever.
As for Old Hu's maiden family, Jiang's eldest brother-in-law and sister-in-law had passed away less than two years after their only nephew also died from illness.
The nephew's wife took their only 3 year old grandson and remarried, and they never heard from them again. It was best not to bring them up.
Third were the county magistrate, the teachers at the county school, the mountain chief, academic officers, and several honored local gentry families. These families would receive even more substantial gifts.
Although Jiang Clan now had a successful imperial exam candidate, their foundation was still shallow. No matter how they scraped together gifts, they could only manage common local specialties. But Jiang Clan did not feel this was inadequate at all, and generously gave what they had.
Firstly, this suited Jiang Clan's status; secondly, it avoided any pretense of currying favor. On the contrary, this put both parties at ease.
The next day, on the 27th day of the last lunar month,
At first light, Jiang Wenkang took his eldest son Jiang Yujiang, while Jiang Wenyuan took his son Jiang Yuchuan to hitch up the large mule cart bought last month, and set off for the county seat.
Besides the New Year's gifts being delivered to each household, the mule cart also carried Jiang Clan's three daughters-in-law and little milk dumpling Jiang Yuqing.
As for Jiang Wenxi, he took the rest of the kids to deliver gifts household by household to the clan members.
The mule cart moved quickly, arriving at the county seat right at Chenshi/7-9am. Although it was still early, the county town was already very lively because of the impending New Year.
The three daughters-in-law took Jiang Yuqing and got off at the town gate to go shopping.
The two father-son pairs split up to deliver gifts.
Jiang Wenkang and his son delivered to the other local gentry households, while the county magistrate, county school teachers, and mountain chief had to be personally visited by Jiang Wenyuan. The family agreed to meet back up at this spot at an arranged time, and then went their separate ways.
Ever since coming to this world, this was Jiang Yuqing's first time going out. Naturally, she was very curious about the lively traditional era marketplace.
The streets were paved with blue stone or goose egg-sized cobblestones, just barely wide enough for two carriage to pass side by side.
The shops lining both sides of the streets were mostly 2-3 story buildings densely packed together.
Hanging over each shop's entrance was a sign made of carved wood or calligraphed, or at the minimum a banner hanging from a pole.
Coupled with the peddlers pulling carts and loudly hawking wares while walking down the streets, it was brimming with old-timey charm and the smoky flavour of human life.
Life was good for Jiang Clan, and Old Lady Hu was generous. Long ago she had purchased fabrics and cotton and replaced everyone's clothes with new ones.
Especially for the precious darling Jiang Yuqing of the household. Everything from head to toe was brand new.
A big red tiger head hat, with a small silver bell dangling from each tiger ear that jingled with the slightest movement.
A red skirt embroidered with a pattern of hundreds of butterflies dancing around flowers, layered over with a thick matching red cape trimmed with rabbit fur.
On her feet were equally cute little red tiger head cotton shoes.
Around her neck she wore a longevity lock necklace strung with beads depicting hundreds of butterflies, the chubby hands and feet sporting silver bangles and anklets, which perfectly set off the bright, glistening red lotus birthmark on her forehead, making her look just like a jade doll.
Therefore, no matter where she went, many people stared at Jiang Yuqing, praising what a good looking child she was, clearly one with great fortune.
Jiang Clan's three daughters-in-law browsed through the morning, buying no small amount of items, with the baskets on their backs filled to the brim.
Even Lu's back basket held many things. As they passed by the embroidery shop, the women couldn't help but walk inside. With the new year approaching, the store was packed with customers buying fabrics.
The moment the shopkeeper saw Lu, she delightedly welcomed her over, "Oh, sister-apprentice, it's been awhile!"
This shopkeeper's surname was Chen. She was called Aunt Chen or Shopkeeper Chen, a forthright and capable woman.
Her late husband had been taught by Lu's father for a few years, so she addressed Lu as sister-apprentice due to this connection.
Back when life was difficult, Lu would come to the shop every month to sell embroidered goods, and received a lot of care from Aunt Chen.
After Lu gave birth to a daughter, her visits became less frequent.
On one hand, she didn't have as much free time; on the other, with the family's situation improving, she no longer needed to do embroidery day and night.
"These days, there are so many things at home that I really can't get everything done. I took this chance today when I have time to come see Sister Chen," said Lu.
"It's so nice of you to come. I heard your husband passed the imperial exam and became a scholar. Now you're a scholar's wife. After so many years, you've finally succeeded," Chen said.
Lu was delighted and replied, "Thanks to Aunt Chen's blessing, I'm doing quite well now."
When Aunt Chen saw the chubby baby in Lu's arms, she happily exclaimed, "This must be my little niece! Just look at her cute face, she's as beautiful as the goddess in front of Guanyin statue. She's so adorable!"
Like all mothers, Lu was no exception in feeling happy when others complimented her daughter.
Although Aunt Chen's words were just pleasantries, she still felt extremely joyful every time someone praised her daughter.
"Come on, greet Auntie!" Lu told her to greet the guest politely.
Jiang Yuqing babbled "Ya Ya" obligingly.
"Oh my, what a good girl!"
The three sisters-in-law each picked some fabrics, getting ready to bring them as gifts when they returned to Lu's parental home on the second day of the lunar new year.
When checking out, not only did Aunt Chen give them the best discount, she also gifted Jiang Yuqing two beautiful pairs of little tiger head shoes embroidered with rice beads.
Lu tried to decline but had to accept in the end.
After bidding Aunt Chen farewell, the three left the Embroidery Shop and continued shopping.
Seeing it was past lunch time, they were all quite hungry.
Lin suggested finding a place to grab a quick bite first before filling up their stomachs, then going to wait for their donkey carts at the city gate.
Most importantly, the child was hungry.
It was inconvenient to nurse outside, and the baby hadn't eaten anything for half a day, her little tummy was growling.
Lu had already heard it rumble twice.
The child was also sensible, she must have known it was difficult for Mother and didn't cry or fuss even though she was starving, which made people's heart ache for her.
After walking for a while, the sisters-in-law saw a dumpling stall on the roadside that seemed to have good business and looked clean. They went over and sat down at a clean table and ordered three bowls of pork dumplings.
While the owner was cooking the dumplings, Eldest Sister-in-law Lin took over Jiang Yuqing and held her on her lap, playing with her.
The nine-month-old chubby baby was quite heavy after being nurtured with good nutrition. It was fine to hold her for a short while but tiring after a long time.
Holding Jiang Yuqing, Lin weighed her in her hands jokingly, "Our good girl has grown so well, she's heavy! It's a good thing you were holding her for so long."
Lu shyly said, "I only held her, didn't carry anything. You and Second Sister-in-law were the ones carrying all the stuff, you must be the most tired."
Soon, the dumplings were served. The skins were thin and the fillings were big and tasty.
Lu wanted to take her daughter back so her sisters-in-law could eat. But Lin refused happily, "You eat first, I'll feed her! Usually I can't even fight to do this job."
Zhu piped up, "I'll help you!" Then she pretended to glare fiercely at Lu, "Eat your food, this is none of your business!"
That was true.
Ever since Jiang Yuqing started eating solid food, the job of feeding her was basically monopolized by Old Lady Hu. Even Lu as the mother had to stand aside.
Jiang Yuqing was an extremely easy baby to feed, she was not picky at all and would eat anything given to her. She ate mouthfuls eagerly and with great appetite.
When happy, her chubby arms would subconsciously sway around. The silver rattles on her wrists would chime crisply with her movements.
Just then, a brash voice called out, "Nanny, I want that rattling bracelet!"
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