Having left, the Jiang women didn't know at all that in other people's mouths, their family had already become legendary.
Even if they knew, they probably wouldn't care.
They went to the agreed place, and after waiting not long, they saw a carriage rushing over, then stopping in front of them with a cry.
It was Jiang Wenyuan and his son.
Jiang Wenyuan had heard the news at the county government, saying that the women of his family had been bullied. His wife had even fought with that shrew.
He knew his wife's disposition was gentle and soft.
Usually she had never quarreled with anyone, but today she was fighting publicly on the street, so the other side must have done something particularly excessive.
The Qin county magistrate was also a sympathetic man. As soon as he heard the news, he immediately ordered a carriage to take them over.
As soon as Jiang Wenyuan got off the carriage, his gaze accurately locked onto his wife.
Seeing his usually dignified and gentle wife now with disheveled hair, tangled clothes, and even several torn places.
On her fair and beautiful face were several deep scratch marks, now oozing blood. She was completely disheveled.
And their precious daughter still had undried tears on her face, looking up at her mother's injured face, blowing at it, as if that could blow away the pain.
With just one look, Jiang Wenyuan's heart was broken. He quickly took off his cloak and covered his wife with it.
Seeing her husband, Lu went from a protective lioness to a weak little white flower in an instant, with tears flowing before she could speak.
This made Jiang Wenyuan's heart ache. He hurriedly hugged his wife into his arms, gently patting and coaxing her, just like coaxing their darling daughter.
Lu's antics really made the two sisters-in-law next to her dumbfounded.
They finally knew that this third couple had been married for many years and had two children, but were still as affectionate as newlyweds. So that was the reason!
The two sisters-in-law looked at each other with understanding. They decided to have an in-depth discussion with their third sister-in-law about "managing her husband" when they got back, regarding this academic issue.
After Lu had completely calmed down and wiped away her tears, Jiang Wenyuan thanked the coachman and sent away the carriage.
Since Dad was back, he didn't have anything else to do. Jiang Yuqing sneakily handed Dad a tube of erythromycin ointment, signaling him to apply it to Mother, saying that such a beautiful face couldn't be left with scars.
Jiang Wenyuan had long established considerable tacit understanding with his daughter. Taking advantage of his sleeve's cover, he quickly hid the ointment in his sleeve, then patted his daughter on the head.
He used a handkerchief to wipe his wife's face clean and apply the medicine.
As for what medicine it was, the couple tacitly didn't ask. It must be fine if their darling daughter gave it.
After applying the medicine, Jiang Wenkang and his son Jiang Wenyuan came back driving a mule cart. Seeing the situation of their younger siblings, they were quite shocked. They hurriedly asked Lin what had happened.
Lin simply told them what had happened.
Jiang Wenkang was so angry that the veins on his forehead popped up. He immediately picked up a rod to turn back and settle accounts with that shrew.
But Jiang Wenyuan stopped him, "Eldest brother, don't be impulsive yet.
That shrew is just a rotten pot, while we are fine porcelain. What's the point of fine porcelain bumping a rotten pot?
Anyway she didn't get the upper hand this time. If she causes trouble again in the future, we can settle it then, it won't be too late."
Jiang Wenkang thought this was reasonable. Moreover, the New Year was almost here, better to let some things go, and remember this grudge first to settle it later.
Besides, his darling daughter was a fairy who descended to earth. How could a stinky old shrew curse her?
When they got home and told the family about this, Old Jiang and the others were furious again.
On the 28th day of the 12th lunar month, they went to give New Year gifts to their in-laws.
Lin, the wife of the eldest branch, had already brought gifts to her maternal home in the county seat yesterday.
When Jiang Wenyuan and his wife of the third branch went back to her maternal home, they brought all eight of their children along. It was both to bring New Year gifts and to let the children pay New Year respects to their grandfather.
For the second branch, Jiang Wenxi and his wife personally drove an oxcart, carrying a full cart of gifts back to Zhu's maternal Uncle Zhu's home in Tongluo Ping Village.
They first went to Jiang Wenxi's master's home to deliver New Year gifts and sat for a while. Then they went to Uncle Zhu's home.
This made Uncle Zhu's family extremely happy. They didn't care about their niece's small gifts. As long as their niece remembered them in her heart and came back to see them occasionally, they were satisfied.
The couple accompanied the elders in chatting for half a day. They also ate lunch at Uncle Zhu's.
When leaving, Zhu's cousins pressed half a basket of bright orange tangerines and a bag of jujubes onto their oxcart, for them to bring back and eat.
Until they left, Zhu didn't even glance at the nearby courtyard that she had once thought was home. This showed she had truly given up.
The news that Zhu and her husband brought back a cart full of valuable New Year gifts spread throughout the village very quickly.
Everyone said Uncle Zhu's family were good people with good fortune. At the same time, they didn't forget to laugh at Zhu Dazi and Luo.
Zhu Dazi and Luo naturally also heard about it. Although they hated it through gritted teeth, they didn't dare make trouble for Uncle Zhu's family, let alone make trouble for Zhu.
They still had fresh memories of those two beatings.
Every time they recalled it, they only felt their bones still ached.
Now the Jiangs had also produced a successful imperial examination candidate, so they didn't dare provoke them even more.
Other than sulking by themselves and cursing secretly, there was nothing they could do.
Busy and bustling, it was soon the 30th day of the 12th lunar month.
Early in the morning, the Jiang elders got up and busily killed chickens, chopped meat, and sliced fish.
According to custom, in the afternoon at the hour of wei (1-3 pm), all the clan members would offer sacrifices at the ancestral hall.
Because of the imperial examination candidate from the clan this year, the offerings were several times more than previous years.
There was a whole suckling pig roasted, steamed pork with lotus leaves, a whole red braised big grass carp, roasted chicken, roasted duck, etc.
Plus other fried dishes, a whole vat of wine, cakes and pastries, dried fruits, and even a large plate of big red apples that came all the way from the north.
Including the rare suckling pig and red apples, these were all provided by the Jiang family.
Seeing such abundant tributes, the smiles made the old clan chief and elders' eyes crinkle into slits.
Not only because the ancestors could enjoy such a good offering, but also because these tributes would be divided among the families after being displayed, so they could also get a share of the light.
At the hour of wei, it was time for the Jiang clan members to make sacrifices to the ancestors. According to the rules, the clan's men, led by the clan chief and elders, would all gather in the inner hall of the ancestral temple to kowtow three times to the ancestors. The women would all kneel and bow in the outer hall of the temple.
After the clan members had finished paying respects, the newborns of the clan this year would all be carried into the inner temple by elders to kowtow to the ancestral spirit tablets and be entered into the genealogy.
There were nine newborns in the Jiang clan this year, excluding two that died young. Jiang Yuqing was one of them.
Dressed up Jiang Yuqing baby was carried into the inner temple hall by her father Jiang Wenyuan, witnessed by all the clan members. She kowtowed three times to the ancestral spirit tablets.
After the three kowtows, the white-haired old clan chief opened the thick genealogy book. Below the names of Jiang Wenyuan and Lu, next to Jiang Yuchuan's name, he solemnly wrote the three characters "Jiang Yuqing".
Next to it, he wrote in small characters: (Qingzhou County Jiang clan of Bixi Hall, first daughter since the opening of ancestral temple).
Seeing her own name written solemnly on the yellowed paper, Jiang Yuqing felt somewhat hot in the eyes.
Her heart felt full, warm, and overflowing.
If she had to find an appropriate definition for this feeling, she thought it was a sense of belonging.
Even in her previous life's modern society that touted gender equality, in many places girls still could not be entered into the ancestral tablets.
But here, in this backward feudal era, her name was solemnly recorded in the genealogy by the clan members.
It could be said that as long as her name was still in this genealogy book, no matter whether she married out in the future, as long as she wished, she could be buried back here after her centennial birthday, buried in the Jiang ancestral land.
This was the backbone the clan members gave her!
Her family loved her, and the clan members also loved her!
She was rooted.
She swore that in the future, she would also do her utmost to reciprocate the clan members for this heavy and cherished love.
After the ancestral offering ended, the tributes were divided among the clan members. The Jiang Yuqing family also got a small portion.
The Jiang family was not short of food, so Old Jiang took the initiative to give it to a family with more children.
The focus after that was the New Year's Eve dinner.
There were sixteen people and a servant boy called Aping in the Jiang family, making seventeen people in total. The adults and little Jiang Yuqing ate at one table, and the seven boys of Yuqing’s generation and servant boy Aping ate at another.
The dishes on both tables were the same, with chicken, duck, fish and meat of all kinds, extremely abundant.
It was just a pity that little Jiang Yuqing could only look at most of it. Apart from half a bowl of defatted chicken soup and shredded chicken legs, and two small meatballs, she was not allowed to eat anything else.
There was a buzz of chatter and laughter in the room, very lively.
After finishing the New Year’s Eve dinner and cleaning up, the adults prepared tea, seeds and snacks, getting ready to stay up late.
Old Jiang and Old Lady Hu took out a small basket of red envelopes and started giving out New Year's money to their grandsons. This was the happiest time for the children.
The boys each got one hundred wen. In the past this was unimaginable. So the boys were all very satisfied.
When it came to little Jiang Yuqing, Old Lady Hu directly gave her a gold necklace with a ruyi gold lock. This made the boys very envious.
However, envious as they were, none of them grew resentful. They all felt that their little sister was the family’s treasure, and it was only right that she got the best things in the family.
Jiang Yuqing felt that her brothers were all sensible. Alas, as a little baby she didn’t have any money of her own, so even if she wanted to give them New Year’s money she couldn’t. Oh well, there would be time in the future.
The children were all growing, and before midnight they were all too tired to stay up and went to sleep. As for little baby Jiang Yuqing, she had long fallen asleep in her mother's arms, not knowing whether it was tonight or tomorrow night.
Lu looked at her daughter's chubby sleeping face and felt that no amount of doting was enough...
The next day was New Year's Day.
Every family in the village started visiting each other to pay New Year's greetings. Jiang Wenyuan had become a successful imperial examination candidate, so his status in the village was unmatched.
Therefore, not long after breakfast, relatives coming to pay respects filled Jiang’s living room.
The boys of the household were busy serving tea, refreshments and fruit to the guests.
As for little baby Jiang Yuqing, her job was to sell her cuteness. Whenever someone praised her for being cute and pretty, she would give them a big smile, until she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore and fell fast asleep.
Such a quiet, well-behaved little baby charmed everyone in the village.
They all said that Lu was fortunate, with good looks, good birth, a good marriage, and even her daughter was more precious than others' sons. Ordinary people really couldn’t compare.
On the second day of the new year, married daughters returned to visit their natal families.
This was the day that daughters-in-law of the Jiang clan envied the most every year.
Because there were no married daughters in the clan, they didn’t have to worry about which daughter-in-law should stay home to receive returned daughters, or even argue over it.
Everyone could happily and freely return to their natal families.
However, people's sorrow and joy do not coincide.
Precisely because the young people had all returned to their marital homes with their children, this day was also the quietest for the Jiang clan’s elders, who felt loneliest.
For example, only Old Jiang and Old Lady Hu were left in Jiang’s family.
At lunchtime, Old Jiang looked at the full table of dishes and the empty chairs around it, and felt utterly unmotivated. He sighed, "It would be good if we also had a daughter who could return home."
Old Lady Hu glared at him and bluntly said, "It's still daytime, what are you dreaming about?"
Old Jiang glared back at his old wife, and reasoned, "Why can't I dream? I don't have a daughter, but I have a granddaughter. My granddaughter is so outstanding, she will surely find a satisfactory husband in the future. When she gets married, won't she be able to return home on the second day of New Year?"
Old Lady Hu sneered, "You really are a good grandfather. Our precious girl is so little, yet you already have plans for her. You just get more outdated as you get older."
After being ridiculed by his old wife, Old Jiang was instantly short of breath, and his voice became much softer. "I'm just thinking about it, what's wrong with thinking?"
"Fine, nothing's wrong with it. So just shut your mouth and eat more, try to live until the day our precious girl can return home."
Old Jiang: "..."
Life was unbearable.
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