Today's Lidong is the ninth anniversary of her mother's death, Ran'er and Qinglian can no longer take care of the cow and ox cart, they are all thrown to Zhang Dazhu to cook, the sisters have breakfast, and they are busy giving their mother a sacrifice to the grave.

Although there were still scattered snowflakes in the sky, the weather was not cold because there was no wind. After packing up the offerings, Ran'er and Qinglian carried them to their mother's grave in a bamboo basket. After cleaning the snow on the stone table in front of the grave, placing the prepared offerings, lighting three incense sticks, and looking at the cigarettes rising in the snowflakes, Ran'er and Qinglian began to babble to their mothers about what had happened recently.

For example, the harvest of lotus roots, my grandfather went to visit Yao Shuangcheng in Cannes, bought cows and ox carts the day before yesterday, and could catch fish and sell them in two days, and so on.

According to the usual habit of the sisters, whenever the weather is bad, they usually go to the grave of their mother in the pavilion by the pond. It's just that since they went to Linkang City to see Xie Yu, Ran'er and Qinglian never wanted to see the word "Yuxie" again. If it weren't for the "Rain Pavilion Xiaozhu" written by my mother, I'm afraid the sisters would have taken off the plaque a long time ago.

Seeing that the three incense sticks behind the stone case were about to burn out, Ran'er and Qinglian began to burn paper money for their mother. This is also the moment that the sisters are most looking forward to, guessing in their hearts what this year's paper ash will look like. Due to the snow on the ground, when they came, the sisters had already prepared a few small branches, put them on the snow, and put the paper money on the branches to light it. Watching the yellow paper money turn into gray paper ash little by little, Ran Er and Qinglian were surprised to find that today's paper ash did not fly into the air like before, but spun and fell to the clean snow next to them.

The next scene made Ran'er and Qinglian even more surprised and delighted.

I saw that the paper ashes were fluttering one after another, and after falling on the snow, they turned into rows of beautiful handwriting.

"Lian'er, look, it's my mother's handwriting."

As the lines of handwriting became clear, Qinglian read word by word:

"The clouds are covered with snow like flowers,

Mei Lian and my daughter can be boasted.

bamboo forest lotus pond stream water,

The thatched house has a fence.

pickled bamboo shoots to raise chickens and ducks,

After selling lotus roots, sell fish and shrimp.

Five acres of paddy fields are diligently cultivated,

Good farmhouse with cows and carts. ”

The handwriting stopped here, and Qinglian happily said to Ran'er:

"Sister, my mother is praising us."

"Lian'er, look, there is still something to say."

Sure enough, the handwriting, which had paused for a moment just now, wrote again:

"The weak girl is now at the beginning of her growth,

But I was worried about my mother.

Since ancient times, men have been lucky,

From then on, Yuxie didn't want him. ”

Ran Er and Qinglian stared blankly at Juanxiu's handwriting on the snow, expecting their mother to continue, not wanting a whirlwind to blow, the handwriting suddenly disappeared, and the two sisters shouted together:

"Mother, mother."

After a long time, seeing that there was no more sound, Ran'er and Qinglian knew that their mother had left. So he knelt down on the snow, kowtowed to his mother's grave a few times, stood up, packed up the offerings on the stone case, and returned home.

"Sister, does my mother mean that we don't want to recognize Xie Yu anymore?"

"It should be, my mother already knows that he has lived up to my mother's friendship."

After all, Xie Yu is Ran'er's biological father, and Ran'er still doesn't want to call him by his name.

"Do you want to return the jade pendant?"

"Let's talk about it depending on the situation, if it depends on what happened to my mother, it doesn't matter if I don't pay it back."

"That's it, then just don't pay it back."

This year's death grave made the sisters happy for a long time. The last time my grandfather came, my mother spoke in person, and this time she wrote on the snow, and all kinds of signs showed that the Nine Palace Soul Locking Array laid by Yao Shuangcheng was really extraordinary. I'm afraid it won't be long before I can really communicate with my mother often.

"Sister, my mother said, 'Since ancient times, men are so lucky', does my sister still plan to get married?"

"Hehe, little Lian'er. My mother said, do you know that there is a difference between 'how good luck' and 'all are lucky'? ”

Ran'er is sincerely teasing Qinglian. Originally, Ran'er didn't think about getting married, at least not for the time being, and from her mother's experience, as well as her mother's poems, Ran'er also understood that her mother's words meant to warn herself.

"Hmph, I don't think there's much difference."

Qinglian puffed out her mouth, snorted, and turned around to go to something else.

Originally, Ran'er's family had more than 100 chickens, 20 ducks, seven pigs, plus five acres of paddy fields, and a pond to take care of. Now that he has bought cattle again, Zhang Dazhu's family alone is too busy. Therefore, Ran'er and Qinglian usually have to work together. Feeding pigs and chickens and other work, most of them are done by Ran'er Qinglian and Xiaoyu.

On the third day after the death day, it was sunny. The snow on the ground soon melted, and it was time to sell the fish at the end of the year. Over the years, the fish in the pond multiply on their own, and although they no longer have to scatter their fry, the production is getting higher and higher. Over the course of a year, the income brought by the fish in the pond to Ran'er and Qinglian was always thirty or forty taels of silver. This is the only one, in addition to going out to pay Zhang Dazhu's family's wages, the rest is enough for the sisters to spend their daily expenses.

The rest of the eggs, duck eggs, fat pigs, lotus roots, sour bamboo shoots, etc., even if they are not counted as the harvest in the ground, they can save a small two hundred taels of silver for the sisters in a year.

When the New Year came, because there were cattle to take care of, Zhang Dazhu's family did not go back to Zhangzhuang for the festival, and stayed directly in the thatched hut. The wages are all paid to Zhang Dazhu's family on a monthly basis. Zhang Dazhu is a penny a month, Aunt Zhang and Xiaoyu are a penny, and the food is provided by Ran'er, during the New Year's holiday, the sisters don't count what they give, and in a year, in addition to buying some vegetables and the like, as well as oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, etc., Zhang Dazhu's family can only have 20 taels of silver left in their salary. This kind of salary is very high in the local area, so Zhang Dazhu's family works hard.

Since the beginning of spring, Ran'er and Qinglian have been thinking about whether their grandfather and grandmother will come. I remember that my cousin passed the door on March 16, and before leaving Linkang City, she said that it was okay, because of the long distance, when my cousin got married, Ran'er and Qinglian would not go.

In February, Ran Er and Qinglian began to be busy pickling sour bamboo shoots again, and with the bamboo shoots purchased by Yao Wenlin, the family was very busy throughout February and March. In addition to pickling bamboo shoots, top dressing and watering of wheat fields should be carried out. This year, with an ox cart, it saves a lot of effort. The work of topdressing and watering can basically be done by Zhang Dazhu alone.

One day, Qinglian said to Ran'er:

"Sister, find a time to discuss with the village chief in the past two days, and buy all the vacant land next to the bamboo forest."

"It's fine. Would you like to buy some more chicks? ”

"If you want to buy it, let's buy another hundred, shall we? Another twenty ducks were bought. ”

"Okay. After a few busy days, we went to Yangzhuang to catch the market. ”

"I don't know if Brother Chunshui is at home."

"Lian'er still wants to see Chunshui's sister-in-law?"

"Sister doesn't want to?"

"Yes."

"It seems that this year's big brother Chunshui should go out to participate in the Spring Festival, right?"

"I heard Uncle Zhou say this last year."

"If you hit again, will you be a jinshi?"

"Yes, Jinshi is amazing, at least he can be crowned an official from the fifth grade."

"How big is the official from the fifth grade? Who is the eldest with the county master? ”

"The county magistrate is also a sixth-grade or fifth-grade, almost."