Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 609 - 313 Swallow and Gourd_2

Lady Zhou would only ever lay a hand on her sons. Ruoyan had once analyzed in detail that Lady Zhou’s ability to almost completely control everything within the Lian Family over the years was greatly related to her innate cleverness and solid grasp of authority and territory within the family.

No matter how the sons were beaten, it didn’t matter, but if a grandson or granddaughter were hit, that would be a complete invasion of her son’s territory as a man and could completely alienate him. Of course, inciting a son to hit his daughter-in-law or grandchildren was another matter. However, at least in Lian Shouxin’s case, Lady Zhou had never succeeded.

Perhaps it was precisely because of Lian Shouxin’s firm stance that Lady Zhou never dared to cross that line.

Lady Zhou lunged at Lian Shouxin, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Lian Shouxin, who was uncomfortable with Lady Zhou’s emotional coldness and violence, couldn’t wait to take the grain and leave, so as soon as Ruoyan and Old Master Lian finished speaking, he gave a shout to Lady Zhou and Old Master Lian, slung the grain on his back, and walked out.

As a result, Lady Zhou’s slap missed Lian Shouxin, hitting only the grain sack. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"What are you doing!" Old Master Lian saw this, quickly stepped forward, and pulled Lady Zhou away.

Lian Shouxin, Ruoyan, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi each dragged out large and small bags of grain one after another.

Behind them, Old Master Lian’s voice was lowered as he scolded Lady Zhou.

"Dad, let’s go quickly," Ruoyan urged softly. If Lady Zhou and Old Master Lian wanted to argue, they could do it themselves. The quicker they left, the sooner they could leave this place of dispute. After all, Lady Zhou was ultimately Old Master’s responsibility.

Lian Shouxin didn’t act foolish this time and walked out quickly.

That day, Old Master Lian and Lady Zhou ended up not quarreling after all. Ruoyan thought it was probably because they had left, and Lady Zhou, even if she made a fuss, couldn’t achieve anything.

......

The Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, and the weather was getting warmer. Children are always the happiest when festivals are near.

Lian Manman’s family sat down together in advance and came up with a long shopping list. Early in the morning, they took a small ox cart to Qingyang Town to attend the market.

They left their little ox cart at a familiar grain shop and then entered the marketplace. To make zongzi, the first thing to buy was zongzi leaves. The tenant farmers’ zongzi leaves are usually reused. That is, after using them today, they would wash and dry them for use again next year, until they could no longer be used.

However, it was the first year Manman’s Family had separated from the main household. They had been given grain for food, but Lady Zhou, who was always so stingy, would unlikely be so generous as to give them zongzi leaves as well. Therefore, they had to buy their own.

For their own twenty pounds of zongzi, plus the two hundred pounds intended to be sold in the shop, Lady Zhang calculated and bought several bundles of zongzi leaves. Following that, they also bought chicken and duck eggs. After making a full round in the market and filling several baskets, they left and returned to the grain shop.

Their familiar grain shop was Wang’s. As they needed a large amount of grain for their breakfast shop business, they chose Wang’s for its fair business practices and agreed on more favorable pricing as their designated grain shop.

Since Lian’s was a major customer, the Shopkeeper and the clerks were eager to greet them warmly, offering tea and pastries. When they heard they wanted to buy glutinous rice and yellow millet, the staff quickly urged them to inspect the grains.

"...This yellow millet is produced locally, stickier and more fragrant than others... These glutinous rice grains are freshly arrived from Jiangnan, they are this year’s new rice. Look, each grain...," the clerk pitched.

"I want one hundred and twenty jins of this fine glutinous rice and ninety jins of that yellow millet." After picking out her rice, Ruoyan said to Wang’s Shopkeeper.

The Shopkeeper nodded hurriedly.

"Right away, right away, I’ll have the workers deliver it," he exclaimed.

After leaving the grain shop, they went to a paper goods shop, bought a few sheets of colored paper, and then went to the butcher’s. After securing the meat needed for the festival, they finally headed home with the ox cart.

They had to wait for the rice to arrive before they could start soaking and preparing the zongzi, but before that, they had other things to do.

Lady Zhang, along with Ruoyan and Zhizhi, sat on the kang, spread out the big red, big yellow, big green, and other colored papers, started folding, and then cut them up swiftly with scissors.

The weather was warm, and all the windows were wide open. Looking out, there was a vista of lush greenery, and gusts of fresh breeze wafted in from outside. Dressed in light clothes and sitting on the kang, Ruoyan felt utterly comfortable.

Peace, joy, and growing prosperity. Such days, every day, every season, were the best.

"Manman, take this stack and fold some swallows." Lady Zhang handed a stack of square-cut paper to Ruoyan, saying, and then handed another pile to Zhizhi, "Fold some gourds."

"I want to fold gourds," Ruoyan said on purpose.

"Fold whatever you want," Lady Zhang laughed.

As the Dragon Boat Festival approached, the tenant farmers in Thirty Mile Camp would all fold paper swallows and gourds to hang under the beams of their homes. The swallows symbolize those that fly south for the winter and return in the spring. The gourds, on the other hand, represented medicine gourds.

In some places, it was customary to wear wormwood or drink realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival to drive away pests and prevent disease. Here in Thirty Mile Camp, hanging folded paper gourds served the same purpose.

Ruoyan sat on the kang folding for a while before saying she needed to stretch her legs and walked out of the West Wing Room.

The yard was quiet. The people of the Lian Family were either off to work or in the fields, and the few who were home were likely preparing for the Dragon Boat Festival in the Upper Room.

Ruoyan wandered around the courtyard, chased back two little hens that were about to run out of the gate, and was about to head back in when she walked to the doorstep. She looked up instinctively and couldn’t help but turn pale with shock.

***......***

Fourth update, today posted twelve thousand words, completely exhausted, seeking likes, seeking likes.

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Recommended completed farm-steading story by Ruoyan:

Title: "Rebirth: When Flowers Bloom and the Moon is Full" (complete main and extra stories) (direct access below, click to go straight there)

Description: Crossed over as a wrongly accused woman cast out, carrying a little bun, and the sweet life hand in hand with a cost-effective man. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to give recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)