Chapter 56

56 Birthday Celebration (1)
When Li Yu woke up, it was already a new year. She turned around and saw an orange embroidered dress on the bedside table. Li Yu took it and put it on before walking outside the house. When Li Qing saw Li Yu coming out in a new set of clothes, his eyes lit up. He smiled and praised, “Sister, you look so good in this today.”
Li Yu glanced at him and pretended to be angry. “Does your sister not look good in old clothes?”
Li Qing quickly smiled and bowed in apology. “I was wrong. My sister looks better in old clothes.”
Li Yu burst out laughing. “What do you want for breakfast?”
“I’ve heated up the cold food from last night. I was just waiting for you to get up and eat.”
After the siblings ate and fed the chickens and pigs, Xiao An also came to take the yellow cow out for a walk. The siblings went to Li Mei’s house to visit Chen Yaohui’s house for the new year. Li Yu had a rare day of leisure.
On the third day of the New Year, Li Yu discovered that the rapeseed in the ground had bloomed flowers. The wheat had also begun to turn green. The fence surrounded by those plants had also begun to pull out tender green branches. It was time for the vegetable seeds and wheat seedlings to be fertilized and nourished.
Li Yu used a hoe to clear the ditch and returned to the house to put on the ox cart. She asked Li Qing to move the buckets and wooden basins at home to the ox cart. The three of them came to the ditch. Li Yu realized that the water in the ditch was much shallower than before and decided to fill the reservoir with water after fertilizing it.
Xiao An and Li Qing pulled the cart to the edge of the ditch and filled it with water before pulling it to the field. Li Yu scooped some manure and mixed it with water to start fertilizing.
Li Yu, Xiao An, and Li Qing worked for a few days to fatten up the rapeseed and wheat.
On the eighth day of the New Year, Madam Li, Madam Qian, and more than ten other women came to work. Li Yu asked Li Mei to bring them to work while she brought Li Qing and An to continue transporting water into the reservoir.
On the afternoon of the 14th, Li Yu began to prepare for the barbecue and hotpot the next day. Li Yu first went to the bamboo forest to get a bamboo stick. After splitting it, she peeled the long bamboo stick and prepared to use it to skewer deer meat.
After peeling the bamboo sticks, she ground the small fennel, peppercorns, and large ingredients in proportion and began to stir-fry the soybeans, sesame seeds, and soybeans. After frying the soybeans, she ground them into powder for use. Then, she ground the soaked peas and let the pea powder precipitate and filter out the starch as she prepared to make meatballs.
The next morning, Li Yu took advantage of the fact that Li Qing and Xiao An had gone out to herd cows to retrieve the goats and wild deer from her space at home. She placed them on the chopping board and cut open their stomachs. She mixed the goat’s stomach and goat’s meat and washed them before cutting them into condiments and marinating them in the basin.
Zhou Jia and his old servant, Uncle Zhou, went to the Zhou family’s small ancestral hall. Zhou Jia looked at his grandfather and mother’s memorial tablets. After twisting the incense stick and lighting it up to pay respects, he knelt in front of the memorial tablet. “Grandfather, Mother, I’ve found the woman I like. I want to propose to her tomorrow. I hope the two of you can bless me and fulfill my wish.”
Uncle Zhou stood at the side and looked at Zhou Jia with teary eyes. He prayed silently in his heart, “Old Master, Madam, please bless Young Master in heaven and prevent him from suffering those unexpected disasters.”
Zhou Jia knelt in the ancestral hall for a while before getting up and walking out. Uncle Zhou walked briskly behind him and muttered, “Young Master, shouldn’t we take out the betrothal gifts Madam prepared and clean them up? We’ll send them to Young Madam when the time comes.”
Zhou Jia hesitated for a moment. “Alright, do you need anything else?”
“Sigh! I’ll go now.” Uncle Zhou jogged happily to the storeroom to clean up the betrothal gifts.
Zhou Jia looked at Uncle Zhou’s back and shook his head with a smile. As long as he agreed to get married, this old man would be energetic.
Li Yu carried the vegetable basket to the field and washed the peas, rapeseed moss, coriander, garlic seedlings, lettuce, and radish. She went home and took out some hoes to scrape clean. She also took out a few fish from her space to wash them and put them in seasonings.
Put the remaining two fish in the gauze bag with the lamb chops, hooves, and bones to make a base soup.
Li Mei, Zhaodi, and Laidi carried glutinous rice wine and glutinous rice cakes to help. When Laidi saw that Li Yu had prepared so much food, she happily washed her hands and asked Li Yu eagerly, “Cousin, what do you need my help with?”
Li Yu looked at her happy expression and pointed at the deer meat in the basin with a smile. “You and Cousin Zhaodi should skewer all those meat on bamboo sticks. Otherwise, some of them won’t be cooked.”
“Cousin, when did you go hunting in the mountains again?” Li Yu pretended not to hear her. Laidi didn’t care either. She pulled Zhaodi to sit at the small wooden table with the basin and went to skewer meat.