Chapter 96: Double Ninth Festival
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
For the last couple of days, Heng Yi had been helping the Han family harvest grain. He was young and strong and was a good worker.
The Han family had many people, so it made working a lot less tiring.
He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t allow Han Qiao to wash the vegetables and clothes. He let Aunt Zhao do all the house chores.
Han Qiao thought that if she didn’t recover soon, she would only get worse later in the future, so she took things slow and relaxed. However, she still washed her wedding dress with warm water herself, dried it, and kept it away.
On the ninth day of the ninth month, the Double Ninth Festival was held.
Early in the morning, Heng Yi and Han Qiao took the three kids to hike the mountain. When they reached the top, they looked down at the winding road at the foot of the mountain. The village looked as small as an ant from here.
The whole family suddenly looked at each other and laughed.
They didn’t return empty-handed. They even chopped a lot of firewood, dug up calamus from the mountain stream, and picked chrysanthemums by the roadside.
The chrysanthemums were in season this time around. They picked the flowers, washed them, and dried them for a few days. Then they used them in their pillows to freshen their cushion. The fragrance was quite pleasant.
They wash the rest of the flowers too, steam them, and then dry them. This time they used the dried chrysanthemum in their tea to clear their liver and to improve their eyesight. She heard it can also clear heat from the body.
“Mother, let’s come here every day to pick chrysanthemums.” Sun Ke whispered.
She walked down the mountain very quickly. This was the first time the little girl had gone up the mountain, so she was very curious about everything she saw.
There’s no need. We can let the children in the village pick them. They grew up in the village and know where the wild chrysanthemums arc much better than us.”
These flowers weren’t worth much at all. Many people picked them to feed them to their pigs.
When they got home, Aunt Zhao had already steamed a pot of sticky rice cakes.
Sticky rice cakes were also called Double Ninth Cakes.
It was made from glutinous rice flour with a layer of brown sugar in the middle. Just as the name suggested, it tasted sweet and had a sticky texture.
Han Qiao asked her to add some dried red dates, which made the sweet dish taste even better.
“Heng Yi,
Han Qiao called out.
Heng Yi was in the woodshed, piling up the firewood when he heard her voice.
The firewood they found was still too thin for his liking, and there was only a little charcoal left after the fire. By winter, they wouldn’t have enough to burn at all.
Heng Yi planned to go back into the mountains to get some more charcoal after he came back from hunting.
He would especially look for thick firewood to burn, so they could use it to keep themselves warm in winter.
“Here,” Heng Yi hurried over.
“Hurry and wash up. Send these Double Ninth Cakes to your parents. When you get to town, get some wine and buy some sugar for them as well.”
Hearing that, Heng Yi’s face darkened.
He did not want to go.
“Heng Yi, there’s nothing we can do. Unless they go too far, we can’t completely sever our ties with them.”
“The Heng family is greedy, which makes them easy to handle. When you go back, tell them about the hunting job in the mountains, but make it sound as dangerous as possible. Whether they decide to follow or not is up to them.”
“Hurry up and pack up. We’ll wait for you for lunch.”
Xishan Village was a little far from Ninghe Town, but it was reachable on foot.
And since Heng Yi rode very fast, it would only take him two hours to get there.
“Alright,” Heng Yi responded in a muffled voice.
Han Qiao followed him into the house and helped him wipe his back and find clean clothes.
“Go buy some fresh pork before you leave town. We’ll make steamed pork with vermicelli tonight.”
Heng Yi nodded.
Before he left, he kissed Han Qiao so hard that she almost couldn’t breathe.
When he let go of her, he wiped his rough fingers on her lips before he carried his things and rode out.
Han Qiao stood rooted to the ground for a while before she laughed out loud.
She had underestimated this silly man.
Aunt Zhao had steamed several Double Ninth Cakes. Grandpa liked to eat these sweet and sticky snacks, but neither Han Qiao nor Grandma allowed him to eat more.
This was to prevent him from digesting too much food at once.
Han Qiao sent one back to the Han family, and her uncles each had half. When she was repairing the house earlier, the other uncles also came to help, so Han Qiao also gave them half each.
The villagers wouldn’t cook such food.
Glutinous rice and sugar were already considered luxurious ingredients, red dates were even more so.
When Heng Yi arrived at Ninghe Town, he went to buy wine and brown sugar.
“How much per catty?” Heng Yi asked.
Fifteen coins,”
There were even better wines that cost fifty copper coins per catty, but this was cheaper, and brown sugar was less expensive than normal sugar.
Heng Yi carried two catties of wine and two catties of brown sugar to the Heng family.
Old Woman Heng didn’t think Heng Yi would come. When she saw him carrying the things for them, she was surprised and happy.
She was all smiles and giggles as she greeted him, “Did Ah-Qiao ask you to visit?”
Yes.” Heng Yi responded blandly, “Where’s big brother and the others?”
They went to help Zhen Niang do some work. Did you know that Zhen Niang is getting married?”
Heng Yi wasn’t interested.
Do you know who she is going to marry?” Old Woman Heng winked at Heng Yi, “Sun Yiming.”
Heng Yi didn’t have any thoughts on the matter.
Who cared who she married? What did it have to do with him?
Sun Yiming has been earning quite a lot from copying books recently. I heard that he managed to buy back his two mu of land.”
Heng Yi didn’t want to listen to this nonsense. “Call big brother and the others home. We’ll go hunting in the mountains in a few days. It’ll take about five to six days to go back and forth. Ten taels of silver per person.”
“What?” Old Woman Heng’s eyes widened.
“I-I-I’ll go and call them now.”
Old Woman Heng quickly walked away.
She stomped to the next room and shouted at her sons, “Go home quickly. Something big has happened. Something big!”
Sun Yiming came out of the house.
Ever since Han Qiao beat him black and blue, the bruises hadn’t gone away, even after recuperating for a few days.
Actually, he didn’t want to ask the Heng family to do the work, but Zhen Niang said they were reliable.
He had accepted the job of copying books from Shopkeeper Xie, but he had not copied many books.
To the public, it was just a cover that he had earned a lot of money.
When Brother Heng and the others came back, Heng Yi told them about hunting in the mountains.
He also explained to them how dangerous it would be.
But to the Heng brothers, silver was more important than anything else.
With ten taels of silver, the house could be repaired and they could buy an additional mu of wasteland.
“Alright, I’ll call you in a few days.”
With that, Heng Yi left.
Old Woman Heng didn’t keep him for dinner.
Even if she did, Heng Yi wouldn’t stay to eat either.
He went to the market and bought some meat and two pig heads.
When he heard Han Qiao say that the braised pork head was delicious, he was a little greedy.
Heng Yi went to buy a few catties of sugar.
Seeing the money in his purse dwindle, Heng Yi frowned.
He had never thought of asking Han Qiao for money.
He also didn’t think of looking for He Hong to settle the August earnings.
He only earned a hundred taels of silver a month, and after spending all kinds of expenses, he still had dozens of taels left.
There is not much difference between settlement and non-settlement.
With that thought in mind, Heng Yi rode his horse and galloped away.
It was still early when he arrived at Xishan Village.
Seeing that he had bought a lot of meat, Han Qiao quickly washed them and sliced them into slices to steam them in a steamer.
There were sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and meat slices mixed with flour on top.
Then, she cooked a pot of white rice porridge.
When it comes to steamed food, Grandpa couldn’t get enough of them.
Sweet potatoes and pumpkin were sweet, and the steamed meat melted in his mouth.
Grandfather looked at Han Qiao and said, “Eldest Granddaughter, let’s make this again tomorrow.”
“Alright.”
Han Qiao agreed with a smile.
After lunch, Han Qiao didn’t stay idle. She singed the two pig heads, cleaned them, and then cut them open. She took out the pig’s brain, blanched the heads, and put them into a pot. She added spices, soy sauce, and salt to stew them.
When the fragrance wafts into the air, Grandpa’s horse would stop neighing.
Even the cats meowed as they tailed Han Qiao around the kitchen.
With two pig heads, she had made quite the amount. Han Qiao’s family sent a bowl over and brought back a lot of pumpkin and sweet potatoes.
In the evening, they had braised pork heads, white rice, and braised pork brain.
Grandpa’s teeth weren’t very strong, but he could slowly chew some of the pig’s ears and tongue.
The whole family was very satisfied and full.
The three children even gave them a performance with their voices. Han Qiao was the most supportive and applauded the loudest for them.
The others followed suit.
The three children were extremely embarrassed.
Sun Ke happily sang again by herself, and Han Qiao clapped to the beat for her.
This could be considered a happy, blissful, and perfect Double Ninth Festival..
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