Just after dawn, Jiang Fa woke up.
Occasionally, a few cock crows could be heard outside the window.
When I opened the door, I saw more than half a foot of snow in the yard.
Jiang Dashan was shoveling snow in the yard at this time, and the wooden shovel scraped through the frozen soil, making a fine rustling sound.
The aroma of rice porridge wafted from the kitchen, and Lady Chen started working in the kitchen before dawn.
"Why don't you sleep more?" Jiang Dashan Seeing him coming out, he straightened up and wiped his sweat. His breath turned into a cloud of white frost in the morning mist.
"Can't sleep."
Jiang Fa took the wooden shovel from his father's hand,
His current physical fitness is far better than that of ordinary people, and he can clear a path of snow in the courtyard with three strokes, five divisions, and two divisions.
Jiang Dashan looked on in shock and kept mumbling. "It's different after practicing martial arts..."
Jiang Fa leaned the wooden shovel against the wall and patted the snow foam on his hand.
Lady Chen poked his head out of the kitchen and called him to come in for breakfast.
Breakfast is yellow millet porridge with pickled radish shreds and two boiled eggs.
After breakfast, the front door of Jiang Lineage became lively.
First, Liu Dazhuang from the same village came to the door carrying a wax duck. He smiled broadly and said that Jiang Fa had finally come back. This was a homemade cured duck. It was not a valuable thing, so he just wanted to wish him a happy birthday.
Before Lady Chen could react, Liu Dazhuang had already stuffed the wax duck into her hand, rubbed her hands and stood in the yard chatting with Father Jiang for a while. Before leaving, she looked back at Jiang Fa and said with a smile, "Nephew Jiang will become rich in the future, so don't forget us old neighbors."
Then there was a horse butcher who lived in the south end of the town, carrying a large piece of pork belly and saying that the Chinese New Year was coming soon. He had just killed this meat this morning and picked the best parts, specially reserved for Jiang Fa.
Then there was Carpenter Zhang, carrying two newly made stools. He said that the legs of the two old stools in the Jiang family hall were loose, so he was idle and made two new ones.
Even uncle Jiang Wang came later, followed by his second aunt Lady Liu, bringing several home-raised old hens and dozens of eggs.
Lady Liu did not wear her water-red silk skirt this time. She changed into an indigo cotton-padded jacket, which looked a bit more simple.
Her expression was a little awkward, and she followed Jiang Wang with her eyes evasive, not daring to look at Jiang Fa.
By noon, Jiang Lineage's courtyard was already crowded with people.
Neighbors and aunts and uncles in the town came to Jiang Lineage one after another as if they had made an appointment.
Someone was carrying a basket of eggs, someone was carrying half a bag of white noodles, and someone was holding a jar of home-brewed rice wine.
Everyone had a smile on their face, and everyone said the same thing.
"Jiang Fa has a lot of potential" "It has long been seen that Jiang Lineage is not a creature in the pool" "We Yellow Earth Town finally have a character".
Jiang's father stood in the yard, looking at the gifts and smiling faces all over the yard. The expression on his face was both happy and awkward.
He had never been so praised by anyone in his life, and he didn't know how to greet him for a while. He just kept rubbing his hands and repeatedly said, "Everyone is so polite."
Lady Chen was even more busy. While pouring tea for the guests, he was pulled by several aunts to talk.
One praised Jiang Fa for her good looks, and the other praised her for being so lucky, which made her blush. She said "where is there" on her lips, but she couldn't hide the smile in her eyes.
Jiang Xiaohe is a brat, holding his brother's ghost head knife and standing at the door of the hall. No one is allowed to touch it, only to look at it.
Some neighbor children wanted to get closer and touch it, but they were frightened away when he glared and muttered, "This is my brother's knife, you are not allowed to touch it."
The children didn't leave, but squatted in the yard, looking eagerly at the big knife, their eyes full of envy.
In the afternoon, not only did the number of people come, but there were even more.
Some people Jiang Fa don't know each other at all. They claim to be distant relatives, and they only established the relationship after going through seven or eight twists and turns.
Jiang Fa stood at the door of the hall, looking at the bustling crowd in the yard, with a calm expression on his face.
He knew why these people came.
In the past, when most of them mentioned him, they would only say, "That poor boy can't become a useful person."
Today they came to the door with gifts, praising him for being young and promising, and praising Jiang Lineage for his glorious ancestors. Their attitude changed naturally, as if they had never looked down upon him.
This is not the warmth and coldness of human feelings, this is human nature.
Jiang Fa didn't criticize or show off, he nodded to everyone who came up to talk to him, and he didn't deliberately deal with it.
The people who came to visit gradually dispersed until dark.
Lady Chen saw off the last guest and did not bother to clean up the baskets that filled the yard. He sat down on the threshold of the main room, wiped his hands on his apron, and muttered, "This is more tiring than the autumn harvest."
Jiang Dashan squatted in the courtyard to put away gifts, hung ducks on the beams, hung pork belly on the back wall of the kitchen, and put eggs into bamboo baskets one by one. He was so tired that he was sweating profusely, but he couldn't stop smiling on his face.
Jiang Xiaohe struggled to drag the ghost head knife back and forth in the main room, but he didn't feel tired.
Jiang Fa leaned against the door frame and watched the family members at work, feeling warm in his heart.
He was about to go back to his room to practice martial arts when a refreshing female voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard door.
"Oh, did you get robbed or did you get rich? Why is the yard piled up like a warehouse?"
The person who came was a woman in her mid-thirties, wearing a crimson cotton-padded jacket, with two plain silver hairpins on her head.
She was fair-skinned, with a round face, and a smile on her brows and eyes. She held two small baskets containing items in her arms.
As soon as Lady Chen heard this voice, he quickly stood up from the threshold, went over to hold the person's hand. "Yue'e, why are you here? It's snowing, and you're not afraid of slippery roads!"
This person is Jiang Fa's aunt, Chen Yue'e.
"My nephew is back, can I, the aunt, come and see him?"
Chen Yue'e patted her sister's hand with a smile, her eyes swept around the yard, and finally landed on Jiang Fa at the door of the main room.
She looked Jiang Fa up and down several times, her eyes getting brighter and brighter. She took a few steps into the courtyard and stretched out her hand to pinch Jiang Fa's arm. "Good guy, this figure looks decent! Sister, you told me last time that Fa became a warrior. I didn't believe it. Now that I see it, it's really changed. Look at this aura, it's just different."
Jiang Fa showed a smile on his face, "Auntie."
"You even know how to call me aunt!"
Chen Yue'e feigned anger and patted him on the arm, then smiled brightly, pulling Jiang Fa to look left and right, tut-tutting. "Taller, stronger, this scar on your face... tsk, you are more manly. A few years ago, my aunt looked at you as if you were just a bean sprout. How long ago, you are almost unrecognizable!"
Lady Chen was smiling from ear to ear.
Jiang Dashan also put down his work and said hello, "His aunt, come inside and sit down. It's cold outside."
Hearing this, Chen Yue'e called Jiang Dashan brother-in-law, and then stuffed the two small baskets into Lady Chen's arms. "These are the osmanthus soft cakes and sesame cakes I bought on the way. Xiao He loves sweets, so I bought half a catty more."
Jiang Xiaohe As soon as he heard that there were sweets, his eyes immediately widened and he kept moving towards them.
As she said that, she turned to look at Jiang Fa, her smile a little more serious, "Fa, when my aunt comes back, in addition to New Year greetings, she also has something big to discuss with you."