At fifteen, this year could be considered over. Going further, it entered February.
When startled in early spring arrives, warm spring breezes send warmth, and spring returns to the earth. Inside and outside the village, in front of and behind houses, patches of new green, fragrant flowers everywhere.
There is a poem that says: "Unknown who cut out the delicate leaves, the spring breeze in February like scissors."
Another poem says: "Late spring mountains beautiful, spring breeze, fragrant flowers and grass..."
From ancient times to the present, whether literati or common people, they have some bias towards spring among the four seasons.
Because spring is the season of hope.
After being startled in early spring, villagers began to repair farm tools, dams and ditches, preparing for the upcoming spring plowing.
The Jiang Family people prepared farm tools while busily preparing luggage for Jiang Wenyuan who was about to go to the capital for the imperial examination.
Jiang Yuqing was already eleven months old. She could yell Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Granny, and some simple words. She was trying hard to practice walking.
Her little short legs were a bit out of control, and she wore a lot, so walking was staggering, stumbling like a clumsy penguin.
The clumsy penguin had a good temper. She didn't cry or make trouble when she fell down. Even if she fell over, she still got up and continued walking. She was an extremely easy-to-care-for good baby.
In the words of her granny, "This child came to repay kindness."
A couple of days before leaving, when there were only parents in the room, Jiang Yuqing pretended to take out a pile of boxes and bottles from her clothes pocket.
These were medicines. In addition to the cool oil from last time, there were also medicines for colds, fever, diarrhea, and even traumatic medicines like Yunnan Baiyao and gauze for first aid.
"Medicine, Dad, no, sick." Her undeveloped little body struggled to speak.
In fact, Jiang Wenyuan and his wife both knew that their daughter's clothes pocket was empty.
But seeing the "magical medicine" piled up like a hill out of thin air, although not the first time they had seen their daughter's skills, the couple still felt terrified.
Jiang Wenyuan stroked his daughter's soft little head with a complex expression and asked worriedly, "Good baby, is it hard for you to conjure up so many things? If it's difficult, don't make them.
Dad doesn't want you to hurt yourself to make things. Even without these, Dad can still take good care of himself. Don't worry, good baby, okay?"
Jiang Yuqing felt warm inside. Seeing these "treasures", her parents' first reaction was not joy, but concern that she might be hurt as a result.
She once again felt that children with parents were so fortunate. Such parents, she was willing to love them with her life.
"A lot of medicine. Dad, no, worried!" The original owner had a lot. Use it, Dad, don't worry!
She took out some food. Milk, bread, instant noodles, self-heating hot pot and self-heating rice.
There was also a variety of beef jerky, spicy sauce like Lao Gan Ma that was easy to carry.
Even peanut melon seeds cookies and other snacks were available. Eat on the way, convenient and delicious, just change the packaging and who would know.
"Eat food!" Seeing his precious daughter's innocent soft little face, Jiang Wenyuan felt both happy and worried.
He was happy that his daughter had such great abilities, and worried that he could not protect such a capable daughter.
He swore in his heart more than once that in the future he would definitely pass the imperial examination and embark on an official career. Only when he became an official and had power and influence could he better protect his daughter.
Jiang Yuqing also prepared several pouches of spiritual spring water. Although this water could not reach the point of bringing the dead back to life and rejuvenation, it could still strengthen the body.
In addition, there were several hundred-year-old ginsengs, at least five hundred years old, which could be called a natural treasure.
This stuff was hard currency. Even with money, there was nowhere to buy it.
The Jiang family had been poor farmers for generations, and had too little silver. Her taking out this stuff meant that Jiang Wenyuan could use it for connections. If it really came down to it, it could be sold for emergency funds.
In any case, there was plenty of this stuff in her spiritual world. If it was gone, she could just grow more.
In addition to the things Jiang Yuqing gave, some commonly used books and clothes also had to be brought along.
Because there were too many things to prepare, it was very inconvenient to hire horses and carriages. The Jiang family simply went and bought another carriage and hired a carriage driver.
So on the eighth day of the second month, under the eager and worried eyes of the whole family, Jiang Wenyuan set off on the road to the capital with the servant A Ping and a carriage driver.
This year's spring imperial examination would begin on March 12.
It would take Jiang Wenyuan more than 20 days to reach the capital city. After arriving in the capital, he would still need about 10 days to adapt to the local climate and environment. The time was very tight.
After sending off Jiang Wenyuan, the Jiang Family also started getting busy. After two spring rains, there was water in the fields, and the men drove oxen or pulled plows themselves to start plowing the fields.
The family had added several dozen acres of fields this year. Although they had hired people to plow the fields, they still had to supervise things, so the men were not idle.
Busy with work, it was February 24th.
February 25th, which was tomorrow. It was said to be the only good day in the first half of this year.
Suitable for worshipping, marrying, roof raising, grave moving, in short everything was suitable, with no taboos. Many families chose to celebrate on this day.
Among the Jiang family's in-laws, there were two families who wanted to celebrate. One was the nephew of Lin's maternal family marrying a daughter-in-law. This was a proper in-law.
The other family was Old Lady Hu's sister-in-law marrying off a daughter. Due to past grievances, Old Lady Hu really disliked this sister-in-law.
Originally the two families had long broken off contact, but after the third son passed the county-level imperial exam, this sister-in-law shamelessly renewed the relationship. After Jiang Wenyuan passed the provincial-level exam last year, this sister-in-law got even closer.
There was also an invitation that had just been delivered yesterday. The Jiang and Qu families from the county seat were holding funeral ceremonies.
The children of these two families had died unnatural deaths, which was quite unlucky.
But when Jiang Wenyuan passed the provincial-level exam, these two families had given heavy gifts to congratulate him. Now that they had sent invitations, not going would be not giving them face and offend them.
So after dinner in the evening, Old Lady Hu organized her sons and daughters-in-law to have a family meeting to discuss arrangements for tomorrow.
"Tomorrow is Lin's nephew's wedding. The oldest will definitely go back.
I heard a few days ago that his mother-in-law is a little sick from a cold. I still have some ginseng in my room. Take it back to supplement your mother-in-law's health."
Lin hurriedly declined, "Mother, I still have some money on me. I can buy some supplements.
There's no need for the ginseng. You and Father keep it to supplement yourselves!"
Lin knew about that ginseng root.
It was given by He the county magistrate from the west of the city when the third son passed the provincial exam last year. The elderly couple had not been willing to use it.
Although she felt distressed for her mother-in-law, she also knew that a daughter-in-law should not take her mother-in-law's things to give her own mother.
Old Lady Hu glared at her: "Your father and I are still healthy enough to eat and move around. Where do we need this stuff.
I think it looks just like a dried radish.
I don't know how to store it properly as an old lady, and just pressed it at the bottom of the clothes box. I worry every day that bugs will bore holes in it. Take it with you, it will give me some peace of mind!"
Lin had married into the Jiang family for many years and was well aware of her mother-in-law's temperament. Afraid of making her angry by refusing further, and also because her two sisters-in-law were open-minded and would not care about such things, she happily accepted it.
Old Lady Hu also said to Lu, "Tomorrow is the Jiang and Qu families' funeral ceremonies. They sent invitations so we can't not go or it would be easy to offend them.
Your third brother is not at home, and the men in our family don't have close friends there either. If we went, we might lose face. It can only be you as a successful provincial-level examinee's wife going to keep up appearances."
"But absolutely do not bring my sweetheart there. Young children have unstable souls and are prone to collisions. I will take her to the Tan Family at Lotus Pond."
Old Lady Hu only said the Tan Family, without mentioning the word "aunt" at all, showing that she had no feelings whatsoever for the sister-in-law.
"Okay, Mother, I know. I have already agreed with my sisters-in-law to go together tomorrow."
"That's good. With your sisters-in-law I'll feel at ease."
After settling the important matters, Old Lady Hu briskly sent the family members off to rest. "Eldest son's family, come with me for a moment..."
In the spring of the south, because of the affectionate rain, it is always more hazy than sunny. The drizzling rain has been falling since last night until this morning.
After breakfast, Old Man Jiang took his second son to the fields. The seven sons of the Jiang family still went out to school as usual.
The eldest Jiang Yujiang walked in front, followed by the sixth and seventh sons. The second son Jiang Yuhe brought up the rear. They wore the same azure scholar robes, headbands, and similar style school bags.
Walking with their heads held high and chests out, the vibrant young scholars were always a very bright sight, often arousing envy from passersby.
Jiang Wenkang and Lin went back to Lin's maternal home, Lu went to the county town to meet up with her sister-in-law's family, and then took her mother-in-law and little niece to the Tan family in Lianhua Village.
In fact, the Tan family was not very close with the Jiang family.
Old Lady Hu's birth mother died early. Her father later married another woman. The stepmother brought a daughter with her when she married in.
The daughter was sweet-talking and eloquent. She later coaxed her father and also took the Hu surname. She became little Mrs. Hu.
Little Mrs. Hu was very calculating and aggressive. Relying on her stepmother's support, she tried to overwhelm Old Lady Hu and her siblings in everything. Fortunately, the stepmother didn't have any children after marrying in, so the lives of the siblings weren't too miserable.
They lived bumpily for a few years. When it was time for Old Lady Hu's brother to get married, the stepmother withheld the family money and refused to provide a dowry.
At that time, Old Lady Hu's father was still alive. He cared a lot about his only son. Seeing his wife being so unreasonable, he was so angry that he threatened to divorce her. Only then did he scrape together money for Old Lady Hu's brother's wedding.
After the wedding, the stepmother still took advantage of her status as mother-in-law to torment her daughter-in-law.
It wasn't until the second year of Old Lady Hu's brother's marriage that her father passed away.
The siblings had accumulated a lot of resentment. Therefore, as soon as their father's coffin entered the ground, Old Lady Hu's brother decisively seized control of the house and improved the lives of the siblings.
The stepmother wanted to make trouble but didn't dare after thinking it through.
In the ancient society with strong clan concepts, she was just a stepmother with baggage and no children of her own. Offending her stepson could easily get her kicked out of the house with no place to go or help.
Her stepdaughter was capable. Knowing that she lost her backing, the stepbrother and stepsister didn't like her and her daughter either.
Before Old Lady Hu got married, she had tried every means to attract the son of a newly widowed small landlord surnamed Tan from the neighboring village.
With her superb skills, she married into the Tan family as a stepmother ahead of Old Lady Hu.
Although little Mrs. Hu was a stepdaughter, she still bore the Hu surname. It was unreasonable for the younger sister to marry before the elder sister.
This infuriated the Hu clan members, who scolded the mother and daughter for being shameless.
Later, after little Mrs. Hu married into the Tan family, she successively gave birth to three sons and a daughter. Old Lady Hu's life was hard after she married into the Jiang family. So she was often mocked by little Mrs. Hu when she returned to her maternal home.
It wasn't until Jiang Wenyuan passed the imperial examination and became a scholar that little Mrs. Hu stopped looking down on them. She thick-skinnedly brought gifts to visit.
They were guests when they came to visit, so Old Lady Hu didn't feel good about driving them out even if she disliked them. She just gave customary return gifts indifferently.
With such visits going back and forth every year, they could never be considered close, not even compared to ordinary members of the Jiang clan. It was just superficial formality.
This time, it was for little Mrs. Hu's daughter's wedding.
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