Chapter 611: The Imperial Examination Family-Building System (20)

There are only about ten days left until the joyous occasion of my son's wedding. Although the weather has grown colder day by day since the start of autumn, fresh Pork cannot be kept for that long.

Lin Shi had the head of the household cut up a whole side of pork: the ribs were to be cured into Preserved Pork Ribs, the leg meat—with more lean than fat—was suitable for making sausages, and the pork belly was to be salted and smoked.

When the time comes, she will use the Preserved Pork Ribs to stew a bamboo shoot and cured meat soup, and also make stir-fried sausage with garlic leaves and stir-fried smoked meat with cabbage.

Additionally, the head of the household has been raising the pheasants and wild rabbits caught recently, and she has been saving the pheasant eggs without eating them; she even traded with villagers for some old string beans, intending to stew pheasant with string beans, stir-fry diced rabbit, and steam a large platter of egg custard, making for a set of six auspicious dishes.

Such a banquet cannot compare to those of the wealthy families in town, but in the village, it is definitely one of a kind.

Lin Shi calculated as she worked, pickling what needed pickling, smoking what needed smoking, and trading for what needed trading, so busy she barely touched the ground. Only when the ingredients needed for the menu were mostly prepared did she heave a sigh of relief.

"Third Son's wife, what are you busy with? I've brought you a shoe pattern; see if you like it?"

Song Wu's wife, who lives at the entrance of the village and comes to the Farm to help with chores, stopped by to bring Lin Shi a new shoe pattern popular in town.

Her daughter often goes to town to pick up embroidery work and traces any novel shoe patterns she sees. Usually, only women who are on good terms with her family are lucky enough to receive a new pattern from her, which shows that Lin Shi has now been included in her circle of friends.

Lin Shi did not refuse such small items as shoe patterns; she was pondering making a few pairs of shoes for her future daughter-in-law.

Not long ago, when she accompanied her to her maiden home to see the Wild Tea Forest, she saw her wearing embroidered shoes while climbing the mountain; the soles were so thin that they were ruined after one climb. At the time, she thought she should make her a pair of thick-soled shoes that wouldn't hurt her feet when she had the time, so she wouldn't have to worry about wearing down her soles while climbing.

Thinking that a young girl would surely like a novel shoe pattern, she did not refuse Song Wu's wife's kindness. However, she did not accept the pattern for nothing and gave her a small dish of pig ears in return.

These were from when the head of the household went to town yesterday to buy seasonings for the wedding banquet and stopped by to bring the in-laws a basket of wild chestnuts gathered from the mountain; the in-laws insisted on returning a few types of braised dishes for him to bring back to eat with wine.

Besides pig ears, there were also braised pig trotters that were salty, fragrant, and chewy. They said it was what was left over from sales, but Lin Shi knew there was no such thing as "leftovers" at the Xie Tuhu braised food stall; they never had enough to sell every day. "Leftovers" was just a polite way for the in-laws to put it.

However, the pig trotters were finished by her family last night, and there was still more than half a dish of pig ears left, so she shared half with Song Wu's wife.

"Nothing much, it's just that Yanqing's wedding date is near. The carpenter just delivered the furniture for the wedding room, and I'm planning to wipe it down, tie on red strings, and paste up the double-happiness characters."

"Oh, that's right! You're holding a wedding! Why don't I see Er Lang? Is he not at home?"

"He is here. He helped arrange the furniture, and once he was free, he went back to the study to read hard."

Mentioning her son, Lin Shi looked gratified.

Song Wu's wife said enviously: "Your Er Lang is truly self-disciplined, no wonder he is so accomplished! Unlike my two brats; if I tell them to sit down and study, they squirm around as if it's more painful than anything, and they even say they'd rather go up the mountain to chop wood or down to the fields to farm—what a pair of good-for-nothings! It was a waste for me and their father to scrape together a year's tuition to send them to school..."

Who doesn't know that if you study well, you'll be successful!

Like Song Erlang, who came back as a scholar, he can not only be exempt from taxes on a hundred or eighty acres of land, but in the future, when the imperial court conscripts laborers for corvée, he and Song Laosan, father and son, can both be exempt from service and not have to suffer that hardship. He even caught the eye of the county magistrate; haven't you seen the magistrate sending yamen runners to deliver cartloads of congratulatory gifts? But when it comes down to it, the child has to be willing to study and be good at it!

Her own brats are unwilling to study; they hold the books bought with hard-earned Silver and can't sit still, looking left and right before they've read a few words. And her niece from her maiden family can't learn no matter how hard she tries; if you talk about being diligent? She's almost at the point of tying her hair to the beam and pricking her thigh with an awl, but she fails every exam, and even the teacher shakes his head.

Song Erlang, on the other hand, is not only willing to study but also studies well.

This is probably the difference between having a scholarly atmosphere and not!

Just you wait! Song Erlang will have even greater prospects in the future!

"It's a pity your Er Lang got engaged a bit too early."

Song Wu's wife said with a look of regret:

"If he hadn't been engaged, he could have married into a better family by now! I'm not the one saying this, many people in the village are talking about it... It's not that I'm saying the in-law Xie Tuhu isn't good; in the past, that was good enough, but now your family's status is different, isn't it?"

Lin Shi didn't like hearing this.

Before her son passed the Imperial Examination, especially during the time when his leg injury hadn't healed, the sentiment in the village wasn't like this at all.

It can only be said that most people only see that her son passed the Imperial Examination and can now stand tall, see officials without kneeling, be exempt from corvée, and not have to bear taxes, but they never think about how, without the Xie Family's help, where would her family's current glory come from?

During her family's most difficult and destitute times, it was her future daughter-in-law who gave her family hope and gave Yanqing the chance to stand up again and hold his head high to participate in the Imperial Examination.

No matter how glorious her family becomes in the future, she will never go back on this marriage.

"Song Wu's wife, don't say this again in the future. If you hear others saying it, please help me dissuade them. That my family can have today is all thanks to the in-laws. That Yanqing could heal his leg injury on time and catch this year's Imperial Examination is truly thanks to my daughter-in-law-to-be. If it weren't for the in-laws' family, my family of four would still be squeezed into a small Ear Room, and Yanqing and his father would probably still be lying in bed unable to move, one with a waist injury and one with a leg injury!"

Although Lin Shi said this at her own doorstep, she intended for others in the village to hear it, so she spoke very loudly. Coupled with Song Wu's wife's spreading of the word, it not only spread throughout Qinghe Village but also reached the ears of the Xie Family.

"Your mother-in-law seems to be a decent person."

Fang Shi once again checked her daughter's dowry to see if anything had been missed or forgotten, then brought her daughter to the kitchen to prepare the wedding cakes to be distributed to relatives, friends, and neighbors on the day of the wedding, and mentioned the rumors she had heard at the meat stall.

Xie Yang smiled: "My parents-in-law are both decent people."

She paused and added: "I mean the Third Branch is decent; as for those in the Old Song family, forget it."

Fang Shi glared at her: "You, if something happens in the future, it will surely be ruined by that mouth of yours. No matter how unkind the people in the Old Song family are, is that something for a granddaughter-in-law who hasn't even entered the door to gossip about?"

Xie Yang: "Isn't this just talking in front of you, Mother? If there were others around, would I be that stupid?"

Fang Shi poked at her in the air: "It better be that way."

Then she began to talk about some precautions after getting married.

Xie Yang was not very patient with listening to these and changed the subject: "Mother, after I marry over, the Farm and the hills will be set up. Remember to save some piglets for me; I'll come to get them after spring begins."

The pig and sheep pens and the chicken and duck coops at the farm had already been set up, just waiting for the poultry and livestock to move in.