usatvline Chapter 564: I was a little dissatisfied when I was caught and looked at the account books.
Chapter 564: I was a little dissatisfied when I was caught and looked at the account books.
After sending off the Kitchen God, there is another grand ceremony before New Year’s Eve, which is said to be for worshiping ancestors.
Although they have moved away from Qingliu County, they cannot forget their roots and they still have to worship their ancestors. Xiyue and Yan Yongning chose the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month.
The cooked goose should kneel with its head facing the God of Fortune to express welcome; a live carp should be hung on the "dragon gate frame" with a red rope passed through its dorsal spines, and its eyes should be covered with red paper, which means "carp jumping over the dragon gate".
The ceremony is held late at night and the atmosphere is more solemn.
Yan Yongning and Xiyue, holding Mingzhu, and Chuchu knelt together at the front. The servants in the courtyard knelt in rows behind them according to their rank.
Kowtow three times and bow nine times, all with great respect.
From that day on, the servants in the house began to get busy with the preparations for the New Year.
The first thing to do is to buy and prepare all kinds of food for the New Year.
Although Jiangnan is prosperous and there is no shortage of things to sell, merchants do not open their stalls until after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month like in the capital, but they will take a break. Most people will not knock on merchants' doors and wait to buy things during the New Year.
Therefore, you must have enough of everything to be prepared for any eventuality and also to demonstrate your own wealth.
Grind the flour to make glutinous rice balls, and knead the flour to make homemade rice cakes.
The former means "reunion", while the latter can make people "happy" and "promote year by year" after eating.
The next thing is to prepare new clothes, new hats and new shoes. However, when the capital sent the New Year gifts a few days ago, the Shunguo Mansion, the Yan Mansion, the Jue County Prince Mansion, the Grand Secretary Mansion and the Li Mansion all gave Mingzhu and Chuchu a lot. In addition, the Shangguan family specially sent them a large stack of new clothes for each of them from their own embroidery workshop in Xiangzhou County. The embroiderers brought from the capital by the mansion did not have to be masters at all. Xiyue had already instructed them to be servants.
The cabinets and boxes in Chuchu's room are all filled to the brim. If she changes three sets of clothes a day, she might not be able to wear them all by the end of the first month of the lunar year.
There's no need to mention Mingzhu. Her clothes were folded into the closet and Chuchu didn't see them, but just looking at the tiger-head shoes and hats displayed outside, there were dozens of sets, and whole baskets of small dolls, and many of them were placed on the bed where Mingzhu usually took a nap.
Mingzhu was very excited to see the red, green and colorful dolls. Sometimes she even played with shoes and hats as toys, touching and kicking them. If Xiyue hadn't asked the nanny to put them away quickly, they would have been torn to pieces by her.
The little guy drank enough milk and was growing well. He is very strong now and doesn’t like to cry. He especially likes to play with Chuchu. Every time he opens his eyes, he makes an “oh oh oh” sound and starts to make a fuss about going out to play.
She is like this only because she came to Jiangnan. Otherwise, it would be the coldest during the New Year in Beijing and she would not be able to stay in the house all day.
Compared to the noisy Xiao Baobao, Chu Chu still likes Mingzhu more. Zishu might have lost Xiao Baobao and was not used to leaving all of a sudden. Whenever the young lady went to the lady's courtyard, he would follow her, wanting to take the opportunity to take a look at her. If there was a chance, he would even want to hug her. However, he never got what he wanted and most of the time he could only watch.
Fortunately, the young lady likes to point outside, so only when the young lady and Sister Luo Mei hold the baby and walk out of the yard, Zishu can take the opportunity to touch it, which makes him happy enough.
On the morning of New Year's Eve, the maids all went to help prepare the New Year's dinner. Chuchu and Anlan sat on the couch, busy looking at the account books, which were piled thickly on the square table.
Since coming to Xiangzhou County, with Zimo's instructions, An Lan would push the account book in front of the young lady whenever she had time.
All the account books that Brother Jue had originally managed for her, as well as their properties in Qingzhou County, the accounts of Shengjing Pier No. 1, and the current pill business in Xiangzhou County, were copied and sent to her before the end of the year.
It was a thick stack, and it took a long time just to read it, let alone find the mistakes. Fortunately, all that was sent to me were the general ledgers, but it would still take several days to finish reading them.
According to Chuchu, with Anlan as her capable assistant, she just wants to be a hands-off boss.
Strangely enough, she could understand all the medical books after reading them once, and could remember about 80% of them. However, the densely packed numbers in the account book gave her a headache, and she couldn't understand it clearly unless she read it two or three times and had An Lan to guide her.
But An Lan said that it was the instruction from Master Jue, saying that the young lady could ignore the details, but at least she could not let her subordinates fool her, so in one sentence: you have to understand it.
Bayue and Zishu are smart people, and when An Lan gives instructions they listen carefully whenever they are free, and occasionally help to flip the pages, so they don't hold the young lady back.
Zimo simply asked Anlan to teach as well, saying that since the people around the young lady were helping the young lady with things, they had to be smart and learn more so that they could help in the future.
Qiuli wanted to learn, but when she saw those densely packed numbers, she was even more frightened than the young lady. The young lady had a headache, but she felt like her head was going to explode. She was so dazed that sometimes she ran out of the yard and started punching and kicking.
But even though she was hiding, Qiu Li was in a bad mood. She knew from childhood that she was not smart, otherwise she would have learned a lot if she had followed the young lady every day at Yan's Academy. She felt annoyed and thought that she was too stupid and could not help the young lady.
She behaved like that a few times more, and Chuchu noticed it. She found an opportunity to comfort her alone and said, "Ten fingers have different lengths! How can everyone be the same? Besides, our Qiuli is not stupid. The others can't understand the mysteries of medical skills, nor can they help me perform surgery as an assistant, but you are doing a good job. You should be happy that you have this skill."
Qiu Li was simple to begin with. After hearing what the young lady said and thinking that it was indeed the case, she became happy. So when she checked the accounts, she went to the pharmaceutical workshop and did not argue with them.
Since she couldn't do the accounting, she ran to the pharmaceutical workshop at the back of the house to supervise it. When she had free time, she helped to pound the medicine with her own strength. In her opinion, this was much easier than checking and doing the accounting.
The New Year's Eve dinner in the capital is usually not put on the table until after dark, and there is a pot waiting on the side for making dumplings. The meals of ordinary people are much simpler, just killing a chicken and cooking some meat for the New Year's Eve dinner, and eating dumplings while staying up all night, and that's considered the New Year.
The New Year's Eve dinner in Xiangzhou County is much more particular and is not eaten until dark, so it is usually just called New Year's Eve dinner, not New Year's Eve dinner.
Bayue and Zishu had secretly taken time out to take turns strolling around. When they came back, sometimes they had no food in their hands, but the maids would always give them some delicious food.
I reported it to the lady when I got back.
"There are at least 30 kinds of dishes on the table, a combination of meat and vegetables. The quantity of each dish is not large, but the presentation is very beautiful. The flowers, grass, and animals are lifelike. I wonder if you will be willing to pick up your chopsticks later."
"In addition to rice, there are five or six kinds of pastries, meatballs and everything else. They are colorful and come in both sweet and savory flavors. So, miss, remember to take only a small bite of each, otherwise you won't be able to fill your stomach."
They were drooling at the talk. According to August, this was a much bigger scene than the wedding banquets in the capital. Besides the purple sweet potatoes, everyone had tasted many delicacies from Xiangzhou County. None of the delicacies in Xiangzhou County were bad. Just listening to the talk made them want to chew them into pieces and swallow them.
Moreover, the masters in the house all treated their servants very well, and they would definitely give them a few bites. The more he thought about it, the hungrier he felt. He wished the sun would set faster so that they could sit down immediately.
After being harassed by them, Chuchu couldn't stand paying the bill anymore and started to cheat.
How can it be so torturous when it’s already the New Year? Anyway, Brother Jue can’t see it, so why not be lazy for a few days during the New Year?
Thinking of this, Chuchu lay down and just wanted to go to the kitchen, but the little etiquette she had learned made her a little hesitant, so she simply ran to Fourth Aunt's yard.