The closer to the New Year’s Eve, the stronger the New Year flavor becomes in the village. These days, smoke is rising from the roofs of every house. Walking on the country roads, the scent of sticky bean buns or bacon and fish fills your nose.
Those living on a mountain depend on the mountain for a living, and those living near the sea likewise depend on the water for a living1The mountain dweller lives off the mountain, the shore dweller lives off the sea (idiom): fig. to make the best use of local resources.. As farmers, people can be self-sufficient in many New Year’s goods. But after all, it is an annual event.
No matter how frugal people are, they want to have a prosperous New Year. So starting from the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, villagers have been going to the towns and counties to buy things that they would not be able to bear to eat or use on weekdays.
The Jiang family is no exception. Before the Chinese New Year, Jiang Baozong wanted to go to the clothes shop to cut two new clothes for his daughter for the winter.
There are not many families raising cattle in the village, and there is not much work in the fields now. In order to earn a little more money, some cattle owners simply work as cart drivers.
Every day during the day, the villagers are sent to the town or county seat, and at night, they wait at the designated location to take the people back to the village. The price is not high when there are many people. One person is charged six cents for a round trip. Those who have no money can also use five eggs as fare.
It’s freezing cold now and it’s almost the Chinese New Year, so most people are willing to spend a few bucks just to save trouble.
Jiang Baozong paid eighteen cents and sat in the corner of the cart with his daughter and Mrs. Ding. It was still early and a bit cold. Mrs. Ding took out a thin quilt from the basket on her back and wrapped Jiang Wu tightly.
Because he was going to the city, Jiang Baozong specially dressed up his daughter.
Nowadays, many unmarried girls wear double buns. Girls in the countryside do not have the means to dress up, so most of them use cut rags to fix their buns. How can a girl of this age not love beauty?
If they don’t have hairpins, they can use wildflowers on the roadside as decorations. Some girls who are more skillful will use brightly colored rags to make silk flowers and pin them on their buns.
Jiang Wu is an exception. The Jiang family is well-off, and Jiang Baozong only has one daughter. He wanted to put the best things in front of her. A small box in Jiang Wu’s room was filled with hairpin accessories that the girls in the village wanted but could not get.
Today Jiang Wu doesn’t have many hair accessories on her head, but each one is more exquisite than the last.
There is a string of pearls on each bun on both sides. The pearls are not big, but each one is round and full. These are deep-water pearls produced in the Nanhai Pearl Farm. They are famous for their gentle and restrained pearlescent light.
Pearls of this quality are not worth much in the eyes of dignitaries, but in a small place like Ping Village, just a few pearls are enough for ordinary people to spend one or two months.
Jiang Wu has fair skin, with lavender blood vessels faintly visible on her forehead. The white pearls particularly set off her complexion. Her already translucent skin seems to be glowing against the backdrop of the pearls’ lustrous luster.
There is a custom in the countryside of piercing the ears of young girls, but Jiang Wu was afraid of the pain and Jiang Baozong felt sorry for his daughter. Now Jiang Wu is fourteen years old, but her ears are still not pierced, so there are no earrings in Jiang Wu’s jewelry box.
Today, in addition to the pair of pearl hairpins on her head, Jiang Wu is also wearing a gold necklace with gems.
The origin of this string of necklaces is quite significant. It was a dowry from an old grandmother of the Jiang family. At that time, the Jiang family was far more prosperous than it is now. The main body of this string of necklaces is gold and silver, inlaid with colored glaze, clams, agates, and pearls. These gems alone are worth at least fifty or sixty taels of silver.
The Jiang family is not prosperous, which is not a good thing in the clan society. The Jiang family’s decline is also inseparable from their sparse population.
But on the other hand, this is also a good thing. At least, the wealth is concentrated and not spread. Because there had been no daughters for several generations, all the dowries of the mistresses were left in the Jiang family.
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Lucien On ABRWF Chapter 43.2