Jiang Yuqing's big beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons when she heard they were going to build a new house.
Afraid there might not be enough silver at home, she hurriedly pulled out a bowl-sized spiritual mushroom from the spiritual realm and gave it to Old Lady Hu. Old Lady Hu was so happy she gave Jiang Yuqing a big hug and kiss.
"Build it, build it, the bigger the better. I also want my own separate room."
With the matter settled, the Jiang Family busily looked for construction teams and bought materials and furniture. They were extremely busy making preparations.
Of course, Jiang Yuqing didn't have much to do with all of this. The little dumpling continued to eat, sleep, and play as usual. Occasionally outsiders who saw her would call out "Little Miss."
Ever since passing the county exam, whenever Jiang Wenyuan returned to the village from outside, even the village chief would respectfully address him as "Master Jiang" or "Scholar Jiang."
Even when Old Jiang and Granny Hu walked around the village, no one dared to casually call them "Old Jiang" or "Granny Hu" anymore.
More respectful villagers would address them as "Old Master" or "Old Madam." At the very least they would call them "Eldest Jiang Brother" and "Sister-in-Law Jiang."
In short, as long as they were from the Jiang Family, no one dared look down on them when they went out.
Even village girls who married out, as long as they mentioned their maternal home was west of the Xijin ferry, others would look at them with more respect.
However, Jiang Wenyuan himself did not become complacent because of this.
Through this exam, he was even more aware of the gap between him and others. He told himself he needed to work twice as hard.
Thus after staying home for two days, he bid farewell to his wife and daughter and returned to the county school, wholly focused on preparing for next year's spring exam.
The school master saw how hard he worked without arrogance or impatience, and was very gratified.
Afraid he might damage his health from working too hard, after discussing it, the Jiang Family bought a clever 17-year-old youth named A Ping to serve him as an attendant, to help look after his daily needs.
Although Jiang Wenyuan felt somewhat helpless, he also knew this was his family's good intentions.
Moreover, he soon experienced the benefits of having an attendant. At the very least he no longer needed to worry about mundane chores like washing clothes and buying food, saving a lot of time.
The weather was growing colder and colder.
In early winter, the Jiang Family's large manor was also officially completed and move-in ready.
The blue brick tiles, spacious and bright three-section manor was the first of its kind in Xijin ferry, and was quite eye-catching. However, people could only look on with envy, for who would dare to offend a family with a successful scholar?
In late winter, it finally snowed for the first time this winter, and it would likely be the only snowfall this winter. Although it was just a thin layer, it still truly delighted everyone.
The climate in the south was mild and warm. Snow was quite a rare sight in the south.
At nine months old, the jade-like dumpling Jiang Yuqing had grown even more cute and plump. Dressed in so many layers, she looked just like a chubby sticky rice ball.
This chubby ball still could not walk, but she could crawl quite nimbly. At night after taking off her thick clothes, standing while holding on to the bed railing, she could stand steadily for a while.
However, whenever she wanted to move her feet and try walking, her little short legs extremely uncooperatively made her fall on her butt.
She was not discouraged either, persisting again and again, falling again and again, becoming more determined the more setbacks she suffered.
Every time Jiang Yuqing fell butt-over-head, Lu would happily watch her daughter, then watch her climb up again, walk again, fall again, climb up again.
Occasionally, when her daughter fell over, she would lightly poke the child's soft little belly, or tickle her chubby little feet, deriving endless enjoyment from this. She even treated this as a funny anecdote to write in letters to her husband.
Fortunately, the sticky rice ball had an extremely mature and powerful soul inside. On one hand she scorned her mother's weird sense of humor, while on the other hand she continued to tirelessly work towards the grand goal of independent walking.
The Lunar New Year in the south started on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The academy closed for winter break the day before Lunar New Year's Eve. Jiang Wenyuan also returned from the county school.
On the twenty-fourth, they did the Lunar New Year's Eve house cleaning and stove worshiping.
The Jiang Family's house and furniture were brand new, so there wasn't much need for cleaning.
Even so, tasks like washing bedding, blankets, quilts, as well as New Year sacrificial items still amounted to quite a big job, keeping all the women in the family extremely busy.
Jiang Wenyuan took on the important task of looking after his precious daughter, while also gathering the group of nephews in the study for lessons and review.
Of the seven Jiang grandsons, eldest brother Jiang Yujiang was the most steady, with good grades. After honing himself for another two years, he would be able to take the county exam.
Additionally, third brother Jiang Yuhu and seventh brother Jiang Yuchuan were also quite outstanding.
Especially Jiang Yuchuan. Perhaps he had inherited his father's scholarly genes, despite his young age, he was the smartest of the seven brothers.
No matter what, he would remember lessons after the teacher explained just once, and was even able to take examples and apply them widely. He had an exceptional memory.
With such talent, he naturally was Old Scholar Lu's favorite grandchild, who often gave him extra guidance.
When Jiang Wenyuan discovered his son's talent for studying, he was also extremely happy. Whenever he returned home he would keep his son by his side and carefully teach him.
As for the rest, although their talent for studying was not as good as the first few, they were also very hardworking and decent enough.
Only second brother Jiang Yuhe was the exception. No one knew which bone he was born contrary, but he got headaches the moment he started reading, only interested in swordplay and martial arts. He often dreamed of learning from the chivalrous heroes in storybooks, roaming jianghu in the future to fulfill his ideals of justice.
As a result, after studying for so long in the academy, he could barely recite half of the Three Character Classic, often earning scoldings from the teacher for being an uncarvable rotten piece of wood.
As for the little dumpling Jiang Yuqing, when her brothers were studying, she would obediently sit in her handsome father's arms, staring with wide grape-like eyes, pricking up her little ears, quietly watching and listening without crying or fussing.
If any of the brothers slacked off during lessons, she would call out a few times to remind them to pay attention.
Her voice was soft and milky. Even if she raised her voice a little, it didn't sound unpleasant, but made others feel how cute their little sister was.
At first Jiang Wenyuan thought his daughter was just restless and making noise randomly, as lively children tended to do.
But over time, he realized she only called out when one of the young ones was distracted or recited incorrectly.
Only then did he realize his precious daughter might not only be cute, but also extremely intelligent.
At the very least, she could remember the passages her brothers had read, otherwise how could she accurately point out their mistakes whenever the brothers misspoke?
He held up his daughter to face him, smiling as he teased her, "Is my good baby aware when her brothers read incorrectly, so she reminds them?"
"Ah ya ya, it's not me, I didn't do it, don't falsely accuse me! I'm just a little baby who can't even talk, how would I know this stuff?"
The little dumpling's eyes shifted shiftily, deliberately avoiding her handsome father's eyes.
Jiang Wenyuan had no intention of letting her off easily. "Then from now on, let good baby be in charge of supervising her brothers' studying. How about that?"
"Phbbt..." No way! Dad, you're exploiting child labor! Is this a job babies should be doing?
The little dumpling was extremely angry. But looking at the dense spittle constellations she had sprayed on her handsome father's face, she strangely felt a trace of guilt.
Ahem, anyway, this baby didn't do it on purpose, it was just my tongue not listening to instructions. I'll just give you a kiss as apology.
And so the little dumpling immediately gave her father a loud smack on the face, making the saliva marks shine even brighter, dazzlingly bright.
The little dumpling felt even more guilty, and in her guilt pretended to be an ostrich. She placed her little chubby cheek against her father's shoulder and pretended to fall sleep. Pretending and pretending, she really fell asleep.
After a while, Jiang Wenyuan finally took out a handkerchief to wipe the spit stars off his face, then stroked the nearly bald little head nestled against his neck, smiling with a foolish infatuated expression.
As expected, nothing beat the sweetness of a daughter. Even her baby drool carried a milky scent.
The nephews looked at their father/uncle's infatuated expression, and unanimously scorned him in their hearts. Of course, they would never admit they were jealous of how long he got to hold their little sister.
On ordinary days, only the older ones were allowed to briefly hold their sister for a little bit. The younger ones were not even allowed to hold her, afraid their lack of strength might drop her.
Especially little seventh brother Jiang Yuchuan. He felt particularly aggrieved. As her same birth brother, yet he was not allowed to hold her, truly too excessive.
Starting from the day Jiang Wenyuan returned home, villagers would steadily come to their door, asking for couplets.
Jiang Wenyuan was easygoing, so whenever villagers came to make requests, he would write couplets for them. Each couplet cost 20-30 cents depending on the number of characters.
Back when he was still a scholar, this was his price. Now that he was a successful scholar, keeping the same price greatly gave the villagers face.
After this matter spread, the number of people coming to ask for couplets grew more and more, and even many from neighboring villages who got wind of it came.
On the 25th and 26th days, there were especially many people, and Jiang Wenyuan was simply too busy to handle them all. He had no choice but to grab several nephews to help out, and was busy until the time to light the lamps before he could barely get the couplets written that the villagers wanted.
He put out word that he would be going out the next couple of days to deliver New Year's gifts, so if people wanted couplets they would have to come a bit later in the afternoon.
While Jiang Wenyuan was busy, the rest of the Jiang Family was also busy. They had to wash utensils, buy New Year's goods, make nian gao and ci ba, as well as rice balls.
Qingzhou was known for its rice production, and amongst those was a fragrant rice, which when cooked had an exceptionally aromatic fragrance, so much so that there was a saying "One family cooking rice, ten families smell the fragrance."
The yield of this fragrant rice was extremely low, with only about a hundred catties produced per mu of land, so the price was correspondingly high.
Usually only wealthy households would buy it for New Year's, to dye it yellow with gardenia fruit and make nian gao, either for their own use or to give as gifts to relatives and friends. Then there was ci ba made by steaming glutinous rice, and rice balls.
Nowadays, even in a bumper harvest year, commoner households could barely fill their bellies, and their New Year's would be to symbolically buy a couple catties of meat, get a fish, just to feed their mouths. That would already be considered very good. Where would they have the luxury to think about these other things?
Only when a family married off a daughter, would they make a couple bowls of ci ba as part of the dowry, which was already very prestigious in the countryside.
Also for New Year's, the clan would pool funds to make a couple bowls to offer ancestors, which was meaningful in its own way. As for rice balls, those were even harder to come by, since they required a lot of sugar and oil.
For peasant households, they rarely even saw a drop of oil in their rice bowls, let alone oil-fried rice balls. They didn't even dare dream about it.
This year, the Jiang Family's fortunes had turned for the better. Old Lady Hu had generously bought 200 catties of fragrant rice and 300 catties of glutinous rice to make nian gao, ci ba, and rice balls.
This way, aside from offerings to the ancestral hall and gifts, they could keep some to eat themselves too.
Making nian gao, ci ba, and rice balls required a lot of manpower that the family itself was not enough for. So Old Lady Hu invited some relatives from the clan to come help.
On the 26th, they made nian gao.
The fragrant rice was soaked for two days, then rinsed clean and drained of water. Gardenia fruit was boiled to extract the juice to evenly dye the rice a golden yellow. Then it was steamed.
In less than half a hour, the fragrance of the rice had drifted throughout the entire village, making adults and children alike swallow their saliva. Even little Jiang Yuqing was enticed by the unique and overpowering aroma, with her little nose twitching.
Lu smiled and poked her little nose teasingly, "Does my good baby want to eat it too?"
"Ah ya!" Yes, it smelled too delicious.
"Little greedy cat! Wait for it, Mother will get you some."
Soon, Lu came back pinching an extremely small rice ball. Jiang Yuqing's eyes instantly lit up when she saw it, opening her mouth wanting to eat it.
The rice entered her mouth, and that unique, bright, fresh, elegant fragrance instantly exploded in her mouth, making one feel as if they were in the clouds. It was so delicious it made you want to cry, far better than that boastful country's fragrant rice, which couldn't even compare to the dregs.
The little baby ate up the fragrant rice, still smacking her lips wanting more.
But Lu would not give her any more: "Although it smells nice, it's not easy to digest. You're still young, eating too much will cause indigestion."
Although Jiang Yuqing felt regretful, she also knew Mother's words made sense, so she did not insist. There would be chances to eat it again later, no need to rush right now.
After eating, she pestered to go to the courtyard to watch the nian gao making.
Lu didn't have time, so she bundled Jiang Yuqing up well, and had the steady-natured Jiang Yujiang carry her to watch, repeatedly urging her nephew to stand farther from the stone mortar, in case the men making nian gao accidentally hurt her.
