Lin Lan thought of how it was thanks to Master Chen and Li Hongi’s help that all their beans had been transported back to Lexing so quickly. She gathered so zongzi, salted eggs, and bean rolls and brought them to the station.
Old Chen and Li Hongi happily accepted Lin Lan’s festival gift, thinking that the Lin family had even better manners than people from the city.
When Lin Lan returned from the bus station, Yang Liying’s family had also sent over a duck, salted eggs, and half a bucket of eels.
The Old Madam was at ho, boiling a large pot of herbal dicine for Little Douzi and Dandan’s bath. She had also used specially prepared silk threads to make two small, monkey-shaped sachets for them to wear around their necks.
Once they were all cleaned up, she also boiled so garlic cloves and salted eggs, placed them in a bamboo basket, and sent them over to Lin Lan’s house for them to eat.
Little Douzi and Dandan ran into the courtyard and showed the sachets around their necks to Lin Yuezhen, who was picking vegetables in the garden. "Auntie, look what Great-Granny made!"
Lin Yuezhen smiled and nodded. Putting down the vegetables, she pulled two more small, monkey-shaped sachets from her pocket and hung one on each of them.
"Thank you, Auntie!" The two children happily ran to the kitchen to show them off to Lin Lan.
Lin Lan exclaid in admiration, "Wow! These sachets are so pretty!"
"Let’s go to Little Kai’s house and see his sachet!" With that, the two of them happily ran off to find Little Kai and the others to compare their new treasures.
Watching the jubilant children, the Old Madam smiled. "They’re the lucky ones."
Lin Lan cut off half of the at and the braised pig’s head to give to the Old Madam. "Xiangyang sent this over and told to prepare it and bring half to you. I made a cold salad with so of the pig stomach, and I also braised so stomach strips with celtuce." As she spoke, she picked up a piece of the pig’s snout with her chopsticks and offered it to the old woman. "Here, have a taste. How is it?"
The Old Madam smiled after tasting it. "Your cooking is getting better and better. Ding Bang said he’ll be back on the ninth and wants to treat Xiangyang and the others to dinner. You should co over early to do the cooking. His girlfriend is coming too."
Seeing how happy she was, Lin Lan readily agreed. "You got it! Just you wait, I’ll show off my skills and help you give your future granddaughter-in-law a proper welco."
"Whether that works out or not is still up in the air!" the Old Madam said with a laugh, picking up the bamboo basket. "I’ll take this at back and get it salted."
"Okay! Yuezhen and I will be over later to help carry the Eight Immortals table."
The Old Madam nodded and left with her basket.
Lin Lan finished preparing the cold dishes, then she and Lin Yuezhen went to the Old Madam’s house to carry the Eight Immortals table over. They set it up in the main hall, and by the ti Yang Liying’s family arrived, the food was served.
Large bowls were filled with zongzi and salted duck eggs. There was also a large platter of amaranth with minced garlic, a staple of the Dragon Boat Festival.
There was braised pig’s head, cold-tossed pig stomach, sliced pork belly with garlic sauce, pig stomach strips braised with celtuce and garlic, duck braised with taro, a basin of eels braised with garlic cloves, and several other vegetable dishes.
Yang Liying looked at the spread on the table and said with a laugh, "My goodness! I doubt even the old landlords ate this well."
The Old Madam chuckled. "That depends on the landlord. I heard that Liu Wencai would only eat the tongues out of a duck, and he still had several wet nurses even when he was decades old!"
Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "I’ve heard that story too. But let’s not worry about what Landlord Liu ate. We’ve been so busy lately; it’s ti to treat ourselves."
"You all must have been exhausted!" Yang Liying said with a smile. "Business picked up quite a bit for the holiday. We sold a lot of tofu during the Dragon Boat Festival as well."
"Good, good, good!" The Old Madam looked at them with a gratified expression. "All of your lives are improving. Just keep living well, and things will only get better from here on out!"
Zhao Dehai smiled and nodded. "We will, Grand-aunt! Let pour you so wine!"
The Old Madam smiled, picked up a small packet of realgar powder, and mixed it into a bowl of wine. She then poured a small amount for each person. "Everyone drink a little, just to observe the custom!"
"Alright!"
They all smiled, nodded, and raised their small cups for a sip.
The Old Madam beckoned to the children. "Co here, let Great-Granny put so realgar wine on you."
"Okay!" The children lined up in front of the Old Madam.
The Old Madam picked up the bowl of realgar wine and began dabbing and drawing on the children’s faces while murmuring a chant, asking the dicine King Bodhisattva to ward off poisons and illnesses and protect the children’s health.
Lastly, she used the realgar wine to draw the character for "king" on the foreheads of Little Douzi and Dandan.
The Old Madam looked happily at the children. "There now. Go sit down and have sothing good to eat."
"Thank you, Great-Granny!" the children said before returning to their seats.
The Old Madam then led Lin Lan to sprinkle the rest of the realgar wine in the corners of the house, along the courtyard walls, and in the kitchen, pigpen, and woodshed. This was to prevent snakes and bugs from daring to enter the ho.
Everyone enjoyed a happy lunch together, after which the Old Madam took Little Douzi and Dandan ho.
Lin Lan and the others didn’t have to work their stall today, so they planned to give the house a good cleaning. Yang Liying and her family also went ho to tend to their own chores.
Lin Lan boiled so water, and she and Lin Yuezhen took baths. They stripped all the sheets and blankets from the beds to wash them, then started tidying up the house.
As they were cleaning the main hall, she noticed a package in a large bamboo basket. ’Ah! I’ve been so busy I completely forgot to check who sent this.’
Lin Yuezhen fetched a pair of scissors and snipped the stitches sealing the sack. Inside, they saw the contents were wrapped in another layer of oiled paper.
They opened the oiled paper bag. A letter was resting on top. After opening and reading it, they learned it was from the Chen family.
Inside were two tins of malted milk, two bags of White Rabbit candy, two tins of milk powder, a blue woolen overcoat, two skeins of wool yarn—one dark blue, one maroon—lengths of white and blue dacron, khaki cloth, fine cotton with a small floral print, and even army-green corduroy...
Lin Lan laughed after seeing everything. ’Heavens! All I gave them was a few bowls of congee, and they sent all this.’
Lin Yuezhen looked at her curiously and gestured, ’Was this sent by Third Brother?’
"No..." Lin Lan went on to tell her the story about Old Chen.
Lin Yuezhen looked at her and gestured, ’Little Lan, you have a kind heart. Good deeds are always rewarded.’
Lin Lan smiled. "Sister, I was just worrying about not having enough cloth coupons to make new clothes. Now I don’t have to worry at all."
Lin Yuezhen knew that Lin Lan wasn’t skilled at sewing, so she smiled and patted her own chest, signaling to leave it all to her.
Lin Lan thought of the original owner’s truly atrocious needlework and shook her head with a smile. ’That’s too much trouble. Let’s just find a tailor. We can pick out a style and just go pick up the clothes in a few days.’
The two of them took the fabric inside and set it down. Lin Lan then pulled out her notebook to calculate her recent profits. In just six days, not counting anything else, she had earned nearly seven hundred yuan from the zongzi alone.
’Since I have the day off,’ she thought, ’I should pay back the money I owe.’
Lin Lan counted out the money she owed the Old Madam, as well as Yang Liqun and her sister. She wrapped the remaining cash in oiled paper, hid it under a storage chest, and made a ntal note to open a bank account soti soon.
Taking a bag of White Rabbit candy, a tin of malted milk, and a piece of fabric, she headed for the Old Madam’s house.
Da Hei, the dog, was lying behind the aspidistra plant. It glanced at her once before flopping back down.
Lin Lan smiled and entered the house, where she saw the Old Madam soaking rice. "Grand-aunt, what are you soaking rice for?"
The Old Madam smiled. "Ding Bang loves stead pork ribs with rice flour, so I’m soaking rice to make the toasted rice powder for them."
Lin Lan pulled up a stool and sat down, placing the gifts on the table. "That package from the other day was from Old Chen. These are for you."
The Old Madam glanced at the items and gave her a reproachful look. "These are all fine things. You should find ti to send them to your parents."
Lin Lan grinned at her. "I’m just passing along the generosity. Please, you have to accept it!"
The Old Madam looked at her and broke into a gratified smile. "Alright, I’ll accept. You’re getting to be quite the smooth-talker, always feeding this sweet talk!"
"I wouldn’t dare!" Lin Lan laughed, handing her the money she had prepared. "Grand-aunt, here’s the money I’m paying you back!"
"Alright. If you need anything in the future, you co to ," the Old Madam said, accepting the money with a wide smile.
"Okay!" Lin Lan nodded. "I’m going to head to Eldest Sister’s and Third Sister’s places to pay them back too."
The Old Madam smiled. "Go on, then. Little Douzi and Dandan are over playing at ihua’s house."
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