noffsinger Chapter 170 Bai Jingzhou’s Birthday
Chapter 170 Bai Jingzhou’s Birthday
The liveliness of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is far beyond that of the fourteenth day. After dark, the most prosperous streets in the county are filled with colorful lanterns, which are dazzling and vying for splendor.
In addition, there is the high Aoshan Mountain, the bright fireworks rising into the sky, the shops and platforms for people to guess lantern riddles and win lanterns, the small stalls one after another, and the open space where dragon lanterns, stilt walking, and social performances are being performed...
It is just like the saying "Building Aoshan, burning big fires, hanging lanterns and fireworks, admiring the moon and guessing riddles, gathering with friends to play and have fun, people wearing animal masks, men wearing women's clothes, singing and dancing acrobatics, with strange and bizarre shapes". It is really lively.
The crowd who had finished dinner early and went out to see the lights didn't know where to look. They moved slowly forward with the crowd, turning their heads left and right from time to time and standing on tiptoe to see more clearly.
The three who were under the age of ten had been lifted up and carried on the shoulders of adults since they joined the crowd because they were short.
Ten-year-old Gu Wenche and twelve-year-old Gu Wenhai were in a miserable situation. They were not tall enough, but they were also past the age to be carried on the shoulders of adults. So they could only stand on tiptoe and jump high from time to time so that they could see more clearly.
Although this was very tiring, the two of them still enjoyed it and had no intention of going back home just because it was tiring to watch.
The group of people walked around, ate, drank, and played until the night grew darker. Feeling tired, Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou asked everyone to go home.
When they returned, the crowds were not as dense as before, and it took them less than half an hour to successfully return to the starting point of the Light River.
Thinking that everyone had walked such a long way, Gu Wenxuan did not immediately lead everyone into the alley next to them to take a shortcut home, but first took everyone to a small restaurant on the street.
This small restaurant has been selling small things like glutinous rice balls, wontons, fried dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and fried cakes tonight. Gu Wenxuan smelled the food and thought it must be delicious. Now that she was hungry, she brought everyone here to eat.
Ten bowls of meat wontons with soup, two large plates of oily and fragrant fried dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and fried cakes, two servings of glutinous rice balls in clear soup, two servings with red beans, and two servings of fried rice balls.
Order what you want, then ask for extra empty bowls and spoons so they can try a little bit of everything.
Everyone sat in a circle, happily finished their midnight snack, and then went back to their mansion in the county town.
The next day, everyone who went to bed late inevitably got up late.
It's not that they slept until mid-morning, but that after being awakened by their biological clock, they fell asleep again because they were really sleepy.
The servants guarding the house had already prepared hot water. While Gu Wenxuan and others were washing up, the part-time cook quickly prepared a brunch for Gu Wenxuan and others using the dishes that had been washed and prepared long ago.
The staple food is steamed white flour buns and freshly cooked millet porridge in the morning, which are still hot. The side dishes are homely but delicious sauerkraut stewed with pork belly, cabbage stewed with tofu, scrambled eggs with dried radish, and fried bacon with fungus and bean sprouts.
There weren’t many types of dishes, but the portions were large and the ingredients were solid, so everyone was very satisfied with the meal.
Considering that the couple who were guarding the house took good care of the house, cooked meals very carefully, and never ate or used the host's things secretly, Gu Wenxuan called the couple who were guarding the house when others were busy packing up and preparing to go home. After praising them verbally, she rewarded them with two strings of copper coins each and told them to continue guarding the house well.
The couple smiled happily and nodded repeatedly to Gu Wenxuan's instructions.
They used to work as servants for other families, but because they did not want to sign a death contract and sell themselves, the only masters they could find were small landlords and merchants who were not very wealthy.
Although such families are willing to spend money to hire a servant, most of them would rather hire someone who can do all the chores in their home for only ten cents.
Originally, the couple thought that Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou would be the same as those people, paying little but assigning a lot of work, and always asking for money from their masters and finding fault with them. However, they did not expect that these two people would do things completely according to the contract they signed, and did not assign them any extra work.
Not assigning them additional work, not finding ways to deduct their wages, and not cursing at them, the couple thought that Gu Wenxuan was like a god. However, they did not expect that Gu Wenxuan would actually reward them for their hard work.
The heavy four hundred coins were the first reward they had ever received from their master, which made the couple feel mixed emotions.
After sending Gu Wenxuan and the others away, the middle-aged woman who worked part-time as a cook said to her husband, "Master, we have to be more attentive in the future."
The middle-aged man nodded vigorously, "It's rare to find such a worry-free host."
***
After returning to the village, Gu Wenxuan and others resumed their regular life of practicing martial arts, reading, and working every day.
It was not until ten days later, on the 26th day of the first lunar month, Bai Jingzhou's birthday, that their extremely regular life began to change a little.
As usual, Ning Cuizhi prepared white noodles and red-skinned eggs for Bai Jingzhou for breakfast.
Bai Chong gave Bai Jingzhou a set of silver needles that he had secretly prepared, while Bai Jingxin and Bai Jingheng together gave Bai Jingzhou a set of outerwear.
The fine cloth for making clothes was bought by the two children from Ning Cuizhi with their own earnings, while the cutting and sewing were done independently by Bai Jingxin. Bai Jingheng was not good at needlework, so he was only responsible for asking about his sister's well-being and serving her tea and water.
The old couple from the Bai family also gave clothes, but it was a complete set of new clothes, including new clothes inside and out.
The first and second wives of the Bai family also sent gifts. The first wife sent pork and eggs, while the second wife sent tofu and live fish.
Of course, the 120 members of the Gu family who were satisfied with Bai Jingzhou were not left behind. The elders of the Gu family gave Bai Jingzhou a moon-white and a smoky-gray fine cloth robe, as well as two pairs of thousand-layer cloth shoes. Gu Wenxuan gave him a happy birthday song and two blue headbands embroidered with simple patterns that she made herself.
No one in Bai Jingzhou's family mindful that Gu Wenxuan only gave him two headbands.
From Bai Jingzhou's perspective, the things Gu Wenxuan made by hand and the happy birthday song she sang just for him were more precious to him than anything else.
From the perspective of Bai Chong and others, Gu Wenxuan spent eighty taels before the New Year to buy so many books for Bai Jingzhou in advance. If Bai Jingzhou had not been so anxious to see them and took the books home in advance, she could have kept the things until after the New Year and given them to him. Then she would definitely be the first among everyone.