The taste of the ancient New Year made Xia Ji, who was accustomed to eating big meals and shopping on the streets during the New Year, feel the traditional customs of the ancient Chinese people.

After the New Year, Xia Ji didn't know what kind of customs would be next, and she was worried that she would say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing, so she had to find Chun'e to understand. Although she is studying with an open mind, she can't feel that she doesn't know anything and let her doubt something.

"Chun'e, after Chen Guo sent the stove prince to heaven after the New Year, what other special customs did he have?"

"After the small year of sending the prince of the stove to heaven, the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month is the day when the Jade Emperor personally went to the world. Legend has it that the Jade Emperor wants to inspect the good and evil in the world on this day, and determine the blessings and misfortunes of the coming year, so every family sacrifices to pray for blessings, called "receiving the Jade Emperor". On this day, we must be cautious in our daily life and speech, and strive for good performance, so as to win the favor of the Jade Emperor and bring blessings to the coming year. Chun'e said.

"Huh? It seems that today we have to say less and do more, and if we say more, we will lose. ”

"In addition, this day is also the day of burning silkworms, and the farmer will stand the long pole tied to the torch in the field, and use the flame to divinate the new year, and the flame is a good omen of the coming year."

"Oh." Xia Ji thought to herself that this roasted field silkworm must be very fun.

"After today to Chinese New Year's Eve, King Stove has not yet reached the lower realm in the sky, and the Jade Emperor has also returned to his Jinluan Palace, and the immortals have not cared about the affairs of the world these days, what to eat, what to play, and what to say, there are no taboos."

"Great, it must be a lively few days, right?"

"It's going to be very lively in Zhuye City, if Madame wants to see it, we'll go with you. On the day before Chinese New Year's Eve, it is called Little Chinese New Year's Eve, the family has a wine banquet, and people visit back and forth to call the New Year. Incense is burned outdoors, called heavenly incense, and usually takes three days. ”

"Looks like there's going to be a lot going on in the kitchen these days."

"Of course, I've been eating more than usual these days. Chinese New Year's Eve refers to the night of the last day of the lunar month every year, which is connected with the Spring Festival. ”

"I know that. On Chinese New Year's Eve, we Zhengguo will observe the New Year. ”

"Chen Guo also has to keep the New Year, but the elderly, children and pregnant women don't have to keep it. The word "Chinese New Year's Eve" means to go, which means that the month is exhausted, people have to remove the old cloth and the new, there is the old year to be removed, and the next year is replaced with a new year. ”

"I understand, in fact, it's not much different from our Zheng Guo." Xia Ji said, thinking that these customs are not much different from those more than 2,000 years later, and lamented that the traditional Chinese culture of thousands of years has a solid foundation.

When it was the time of the New Year, the number of people in the house who asked for leave to go home for the New Year gradually increased, Xia Ji simply gathered everyone, first issued a year-end reward to everyone, and then asked the head of the department to arrange the staff on duty for the New Year, and promised that the people on duty in the house for the New Year would have red envelopes after the New Year, and then gave most of them a holiday.

Everyone was very happy, and the new lady was very good to them and gave them treatment that they had never been treated before.

Uncle Da Sima Xia went to the border to inspect after he was a child. Although everyone is very relaxed at the end of the year, but Da Sima is in charge of national defense, and he is the busiest at this time, because foreign enemies like to invade when everyone is relaxed, and at this time they also want to reward the soldiers, and the soldiers who guard the customs on behalf of the monarch at the border.

Uncle Xia Yu is not in the Xia Mansion, and the affairs inside and outside the Xia Mansion are all handled by Xia Ji. Accepting some courtesy visits, Xia Ji had to record the gifts she received and the names of the people who gave them, so that they could be dealt with when Uncle Xia Yu returned.

Xia Ji also worked with Chun'e to reorganize last year's and this year's accounts. The purpose of collating last year's accounts is to compare them with this year's accounts to see which items are necessary and which are redundant. Although the accounts were chaotic, through the efforts of the two of them, they were able to roughly figure out the situation of each category of expenses.

After figuring out the accounts, Xia Ji began to compare the expenses of the three major departments of foreign affairs, internal affairs, and kitchen after she came to Xia Mansion.

She found that in the days she had been in the summer house, the expenditure on external and kitchen affairs had decreased compared to the previous year, but the expenditure of the internal office had increased, and in addition to the increase in the expenditure on salaries and incentives, there was also a significant increase in other expenditures such as procurement, some of which made her suspect that there was something hidden in them. If some of the furniture is changed, these furniture are indeed changed with the consent of Uncle Xia Yu, but the strange thing is that the process of changing furniture is very long.

It stands to reason that as long as the old one is moved out, the new one can be bought back immediately, even if it is custom-made furniture, it should be after the new furniture is done, and the old furniture will be moved out, and the interval time is up to half a day. But what Xia Ji found out was that the time when the new furniture was bought was ten days after the old furniture was moved out.

So she called Kong Du, the head of the Internal Affairs Department, and asked him what was going on. When Kong Du heard Xia Ji ask about the furniture, a trace of panic flashed in his eyes, and he immediately calmly said that it was because the merchant was dishonest and did not hand over the furniture to them on time.

In fact, this reason sounds impeccable, but the little panic in Kong Du's eyes was captured by the keen Xia Ji. She asked Kong Du to show her the new furniture, and then came back as if nothing had happened.

The new furniture does look pretty good, the paint is shiny and looks new. However, Natsuhime felt that the paint was too new, as if it had just been painted. In the afternoon, she took Chun'e to see it again, and called the servant who came to clean every day to ask him if there was any difference between the new furniture and the old one, and the answer she got was exactly what she thought: the furniture was exactly the same size and style as the previous furniture, but the appearance was new.

Natsuki suspected that the furniture had just been repaired and repainted, but she had no evidence in her hands. She told the servant that she could not tell anyone what she had asked him, and that if she did, she would be dismissed immediately.

After lunch, Xia Ji called Jiang Wei to him and asked him to investigate the source of the furniture and see if it was refurbished or remade. If it's just a renovation, ask him to set out the actual price of the refurbished furniture, preferably in writing.

It was Kong Mao who was responsible for the audit of this procurement expenditure, and with Kong Mao's many years of experience as a housekeeper, it was impossible not to see the problem with these furniture, so he did not alarm Kong Mao, but asked the outsider Jiang Wei to investigate the matter.

Jiang Wei lived up to his trust, and successfully got the delivery company's note the next day, which completely confirmed Xia Ji's inference: this batch of furniture is indeed only repaired and painted, and the price of repairing this batch of furniture is one tael of gold, and the amount of this batch of furniture is one catty and two taels of gold, that is to say, this batch of furniture has been operated by Kong Du and these people, and more than ninety percent of the oil and water have been fished.

When Xia Ji saw that the evidence was in hand, she immediately sent someone to detain Kong Du and ordered him to confess all the problems, who participated, who knew about it, how much benefit each person shared, and what same bad things he had done before.

I didn't expect this Kong Du to be a die-hard guy, although he admitted that this matter was indeed renovated with old furniture and passed off as new furniture, and he also admitted that he had benefited, but he only did it alone, and he only did it this time, and no one else knew and participated. As for the greedy ninety percent, the explanation is that all of them have eaten, drank, prostituted and gambled.

A discerning person knows at a glance that he is lying, and it is impossible for him alone to hide it from everyone. But none of the others took the initiative to say that they participated and shared the money, and Kong Mao also pretended to be stupid and said that he had made a mistake in the review, looked away, and did not admit that he knew that the furniture was refurbished rather than remade or purchased.

Xia Ji called Jiang Lu and asked him to arrange for Kong Du to be imprisoned.

Jiang Lu led the Xia Mansion guards to lock Kong Du in an idle hut in the backyard, and arranged two soldiers to guard it, waiting for Uncle Xia to return to Zhuye to deal with it.

But what he didn't expect was that the next morning after Kong Du was imprisoned, a servant came to report that Kong Du had hanged himself in the hut where he was imprisoned.