Chapter 186 New Year’s Eve
"Well, I'm not angry. That family is not worth my energy to be angry with them."
She would have to waste her energy and energy by being angry with them, which would be a real disadvantage.
Xia Zihan's anger suddenly disappeared again.
Chu Jingqi took the opportunity to change the subject again, "Ayu, I will come over to accompany you on New Year's Eve."
"No." Xia Zihan sat up hurriedly, "You have to stay at home to watch the New Year with your uncle and aunt, how can you run around on New Year's Eve?"
"My mother is accompanied by my father." Chu Jingqi said dullly, "Anyway, I'm here to accompany you."
Xia Zihan was worried, "You always come and go on the street during curfew. What if something happens?"
During the curfew, people are strictly prohibited from wandering on the streets. Once discovered, they will be put in jail.
Chu Jingqi didn't care at all, and said with a grin, "Don't worry, I know the patrol route of the Flying Tigers, and I won't be caught by them."
The Flying Tigers are the bodyguards that protect the capital after the curfew. They are under the control of the first bodyguard commander around the emperor.
They rest during the day and are on duty at night. They are the most leisurely among the guards, but they have the heaviest burden.
Because at night, the safety of the entire capital is in their hands.
Seeing that he was very confident, Xia Zihan didn't bother to care about him, "It's up to you. If you are caught by the Flying Tigers one day, don't blame me."
"You won't be caught." Chu Jingqi laughed softly in a low voice.
Xia Zihan glared at him angrily, "It's very late, go back quickly."
"Well, on the thirtieth day, you have to wait for me." He said in a low voice, sitting stubbornly still, waiting for her to nod.
Xia Zihan was really angry with him, so she had no choice but to nod and coax him away.
After Chu Jingqi left, the room was as quiet as before he came.
Xia Zihan lay on the bed, tossing and turning, but couldn't fall asleep.
She didn't know when, but she seemed to have become accustomed to his arrival at night. If he didn't report at night after three days, she would think in anticipation that he would probably come tomorrow night.
Haha, when did she actually look forward to his arrival at night?
When did habits become so scary?
Xia Zihan was a little irritable, so she got up and lit a lamp, took a book, and leaned on the big pillow to read.
After watching for a long time, she didn't turn a page, and her eyes were empty. I didn't know what she was thinking.
When she came to her senses, she realized that it was already dark outside.
On New Year's Eve, firecrackers went off early in the morning. Xia Zihan, who had not slept all night, wanted to go back to sleep, but Chu Cong and Chu Lin came in to wait for her to get up.
"Master, did you not sleep well last night?" Chu Cong asked.
She had only been waiting for the master to get dressed for three minutes when she yawned five times.
She thought about it and said hesitantly, "How about the master sleeps for a while longer, and when it's time to eat at noon, the slave will come again to wait for the master to get up?"
"Okay, come back at noon."
Xia Zihan couldn't wait to take off the clothes she had just put on, and in the blink of an eye, she was already lying on the bed.
Chu Cong muttered helplessly, "Forget it, let the master sleep. Seeing how exhausted she is, she must not have slept last night. If she is not allowed to get enough sleep, how can she accompany the old lady to dinner at noon."
Chu Cang and Chu Lin quietly left the house and closed the door.
The two went next door to help Nuanyu and others paste couplets, hang red curtains, cut window grilles, etc. They were very busy.
Xia Zihan slept until noon, and Chu Cong came in to wake her up. When she finished washing and hurried to the restaurant, Mrs. Zeng was already sitting there waiting for her.
"Grandma, Happy New Year." Xia Zihan said sweetly with a clear voice, and then apologized, "I was too nervous last night and didn't sleep well. I got up a little late today and asked grandma to wait for me. It's really It shouldn’t be.”
Although he had slept all morning, Xia Zihan still had some dark circles around his eyes, and there was a trace of fatigue between his brows and eyes, obviously he had not slept enough.
When Mrs. Zeng saw it, she didn't want to blame her. She took her hand and sat down next to her. "You came just in time. This dish has just been put on the table."
Although it was the Chinese New Year, the Chu family was not too extravagant. There were only seven dishes and one soup on the table. Of course, they were all favorite dishes of the grandfather and grandson. The staple food was crystal gelatin, shrimp dumplings, and soup. dumpling.
Today is the Chinese New Year, and everyone in Dasheng Dynasty eats dumplings.
Mrs. Zeng said, "Mother Yu, we are the only two masters of the Chu family. We are few and cold. No matter how much we eat, the New Year's Eve dinner will not be lively. Grandma thought, why don't we just have the New Year's Eve dinner with everyone? You What do you think?”
This everyone naturally refers to the servants in the Chu residence.
The Chu house has a few masters and not many servants. There are only more than forty people, but there are still fifty guards, plus the wives and children of the deceased guards who were brought back a few days ago, as well as Old Man Bai, Master Qi and others. Doing the math and adding it all together, there are actually fifteen people at a table of eight people.
Of course Xia Zihan nodded in agreement. After lunch, Mrs. Zeng asked Manager Lu to place all the New Year's Eve dinner in the front yard. She and Xia Zihan would celebrate the New Year with everyone.
Finally, Mrs. Zeng also ordered, "I remember there are two eight-panel screens in the warehouse. You can find them and use them at night."
"Yes, I remember too. I'll go look for him right now." Manager Lu wiped the sweat from his forehead and hurried out. Because of her excitement, Mrs. Zeng did not take a nap today. She took Xia Zihan to her yard. The grandfather and grandson sat on the Kang, and she excitedly taught Xia Zihan how to cut the window grilles.
Mother Su was on the side, while Hongmei Qingya and others were busy putting up window grilles. For a while, the room was filled with laughter and harmony.
Soon, everyone ushered in the evening of New Year's Eve and a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner.
The fifteen Eight Immortals tables were separated by two eight-panel screens, with men on one side and women on the other. But even so, a thin screen could not block everyone's enthusiasm.
More than a hundred people gathered together, it was noisy and very festive.
After the dishes were served, Zeng was helped out by Xia Zihan, said a few auspicious words, and received warm applause.
After Zeng and Xia Zihan entered the table, others also entered the table one after another.
At Zeng's table, in addition to Zeng and Xia Zihan, there are also several maids and personal mothers, including Mother Su, Mother Cui, Aunt Yu, Nuanyu, and Hongmei.
A group of old men including Old Man Bai, Master Qi, Manager Lu, and Butler Cui sat at the same table.
Bai Yuexi originally wanted to sit next to Xia Zihan, but in a wealthy family, men and women were required to have separate seats. Let alone sitting next to Xia Zihan, the men and women had to be separated by a screen to have a meal. Bai Yuexi, who was at the banquet, felt awkward no matter how she looked at it.
Fortunately, Mr. Lu arranged him to sit at He Donglin's table. He and He Donglin had been together in Yi'an City for several years, and they were already very familiar people.
Moreover, the guards drank like the people in the world, they drank freely and cheerfully. After a while, everyone at the table drank a ten-pound jug of daughter's red.
"Keep drinking. The old lady said that the fine wine will be enough for tonight." He Donglin said with a smile.
The guards naturally left ten people on duty at night. Apart from these ten people, it didn't matter if the other guards were drunk.
It's the Chinese New Year. If you don't get drunk at this time, you can get drunk at any time.
Xia Zihan's table was filled with women. They drank the fruit wine sent by Gianzhuangtou. The fruit wine was sweet and not intoxicating, and Mrs. Zeng couldn't help but drink a bowl.
Xia Zihan liked the taste of fruit wine very much, and seeing Mrs. Zeng drinking it, she planned to have Gianzhuangtou brew some more fruit wine and send it to her next year.
According to the head of the farm, the skill of making fruit wine was passed down to him from his mother’s family.
Every year, there are always some unsightly fruits in the 200 acres of orchards that cannot be sold at a high price. The head of the farm asks the old people to pick out those fruits and make them into fruit wine.
The price of fruit wine is much higher than that of fruit.
"Yu Niang, you are young, drink less. Although this fruit wine will not hurt your head, it will be intoxicating if you drink too much."
Unknowingly, she had finished the bowl of fruit wine in her hand.
Xia Zihan glanced at the bowl, and then sneered at Zeng, "It tasted so good that I couldn't help it, so I drank it all. Grandma, I'll drink less."
"Be good, eat more dishes. Most of these dishes are what you like." Zeng helped her pick up the dishes attentively.
Since it was New Year's Eve dinner, the dishes were very sumptuous, with a total of seventeen dishes and one soup, including chicken, duck, fish, eggs, beef, mutton, rabbit, venison, donkey and other meats, including fried, stewed, steamed, stir-fried and stir-fried. , everything is available, and the color and fragrance are all available.
The staple food is donkey meat dumplings.
Dragon meat in the sky, donkey meat on the earth, donkey meat is the most delicious meat among meats.
It's a pity that donkeys are farm animals used by farmers, so the Dasheng Dynasty prohibited people from killing donkeys.
However, the exception is donkeys that are too old to work.
Some people will wait until the Chinese New Year to kill their old donkeys and sell them for meat. However, donkey meat at this time is often very expensive, with the price being more than ten or twenty times that of ordinary pork.
But despite this, people are still flocking to buy donkey meat. The supply of donkey meat in the market exceeds demand and there is simply not enough to sell.
The donkey meat of the Chu family was sent by Gianzhuangtou. Gianzhuangtou raised more than a dozen donkeys on the hilltop to help cultivate the fields. Every year during the Chinese New Year, Gianzhuangtou would kill one or two donkeys that were too old and could not work and sell them. Meat.
This year, he also killed a donkey and sent half of the donkey meat to Chu's house. He planned to sell the remaining half of the donkey meat to make money, and then buy some items for the New Year, which would make Zhuangzi tired for a year. The farmers are having a good year.
But when Xia Zihan found out about it, he asked him to keep the donkey meat so that the farmers could make donkey meat dumplings for the New Year. As for the New Year items, just use the profits from the village to buy them. As long as there is an account book and the accounts are clear, As long as the money is not spent carelessly.
Such a reasonable little boss has naturally received another gratitude from the head of the farm.
As for Xia Zihan, this was also his first time eating donkey meat dumplings.
Donkey meat is very expensive. When Mr. Chu Ge was alive, he was not willing to buy it, and people in the Xia family were even less willing to buy donkey meat.
I'm afraid even if she bought it, given her status in the Xia family, she might not be able to eat it.
However, eating one pound of donkey meat is equivalent to eating twenty pounds of pork. No one with a little bit of calculation would foolishly eat donkey meat.
Of course, there are also people who don’t care about money.
Some wealthy families don't care about the dozens of taels of silver.
(End of chapter)