The blessing ceremony began early the next morning. The worship activities at the Mazu Temple started early in the morning, and Ye Yaodong also went to burn three incense sticks.
The first day was very simple, with only offerings and gongs, drums and suonas. The villagers would then voluntarily burn incense, and Mazu would not be invited to come out until the last day.
He came back straight after burning incense. His wife said that they would move to their new home today.
Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua also planned to take advantage of the free time these few days to move everything they could to their new home. It would be great if they could move on the same day.
There was only one cart at home, so they took turns moving things, with each family pushing it once, and they were done in three trips. They didn't have many belongings to begin with, and the only big item was their wardrobe. The rest were just bedding and clothes that hadn't been worn in season.
The bed could only be moved on the day of moving. Moving the bed not only depended on the day, but also the time. Moreover, Lin Xiuqing was likely pregnant. With a pregnant woman at home, the bed could not be moved casually.
Ye Yaodong actually wanted to get a new bed. The wooden bed squeaked every time he was doing it, which affected his endurance. Although there were Simmons mattresses now, he couldn't afford it because they were too expensive. He didn't make enough money, so he could only make do with it for now.
Then they bought a small iron bed for the child, similar to the bunk beds in the staff dormitory, but with only one layer. It was enough for the time being, as the youngest son would have to sleep with them for at least two years.
After moving everything, Ye Yaodong ran back home to get a hoe. He planned to cultivate the empty land nearby. It was all empty land anyway, so the land he cultivated belonged to him. As long as he didn't use it as a homestead to build a house, there was no problem with farming.
When the time comes, just cut some bamboo, build a fence, and you’ll have a vegetable garden!
When Ye's father and mother had nothing to do, they would come to the new home and were very satisfied to see that he was cultivating the land again. It seemed that the third son had become more and more resourceful in recent times and would think about ordering more dishes instead of being lazy and shirking his work.
"Donzi, if you run out of hoes, give them to me. I'll use this free time to dig up some land and plant some radishes."
"good."
He was thinking about going to the blacksmith shop to buy a hoe. There were many things that he only remembered he didn't have when he needed them. There was only one set of farm tools at home and they couldn't share them, so they had to buy them themselves.
There was only one copy of many things in the house. Only the bowls and things from each room could be brought over. The rest had to be left to his parents. They were young and still able to work, so they couldn't share everything.
After cultivating the land for most of the day, Ye Yaodong pushed the ash truck up the mountain after lunch. He had to dig some soil and cut some bamboo to make a fence.
He was busy with these things the whole day, and Ye's father also helped him tie the fence. After all, he had never done this kind of work before. Ye's father was more experienced and knew everything.
In the evening, the men in the family go to the Mazu Temple to burn three incense sticks in the evening. During the vegetarian week, three incense sticks must be burned in the morning and evening.
Ye Yaodong is also very pious. He hopes that his whole family will be safe and healthy in this life. He also helps correct young people who are ignorant and do not know how to burn incense correctly.
In traditional culture, the left is auspicious and the right is inauspicious. When burning incense, one must cover the right hand with the left hand and kowtow, and then one must hold the incense in the left hand and insert it into the incense burner.
Some people say that the right hand kills and is unclean, while the left hand is more peaceful and suitable for burning incense in front of the Buddha. Others say that men should use the left hand and women should use the right hand.
Seeing that he was quite reliable and could teach others without anyone teaching him, Father Ye couldn't help but nod his head.
"Okay, let's go back and eat."
Dinner was the same as lunch, with a table full of vegetarian dishes. The adults didn’t mind, as they knew they had to eat vegetarian food to pray for blessings and safety. But the children didn’t understand this, and when they saw the table full of vegetarian dishes again, their faces immediately fell.
"It's all vegetables again. Do we really have to eat them for seven days?"
"Can you please not eat the vegetables?"
"I want to eat yesterday's prawns!"
"Me too, I've never eaten shrimp that big..."
Mother Ye knocked on the table. "The whole village is eating vegetarian food, not just our family. Eat quickly. We ate a lot of fish and meat yesterday. It's good to eat some vegetarian food in the next few days to cleanse our stomachs."
"But I'm not full!" Ye Chenghai touched his flat stomach, which was empty after a few pees.
"Yes, we're not full!" The children echoed in groups of three or two.
Mrs. Ye glared at her eldest son. He was the one who started everything. He was really annoying. "Why are you eating so much when you haven't worked? Eat quickly and stop nagging. If you keep nagging, you won't be able to eat."
"Alas, it feels like the good days have only lasted for one day, and I'm back to square one. No... It's worse than before. I used to have small fish, shrimps and shells to see."
"Shut your mouth and don't disturb your brothers and sisters. Just hold on for a few days and you'll be fine. If you don't want to eat, don't eat and go back to your room."
Ye's mother quickly acted as a peacemaker, "Don't scold him. The little brat is eating me out of money. They are still growing, so it's normal for them to not be able to resist hunger. What's more, they have been eating vegetarian dishes and porridge all day. Tomorrow I will cook sweet potato rice to help them resist hunger a little."
After Ye's mother spoke, no one said anything. Ye's sister-in-law didn't scold the child. She just glared at him and told him to eat quickly.
After saying this, Mother Ye looked at Father Ye again and said, "The dust at the bottom of the pot is too thick. After dinner, carry the pot to the back door and scrape the bottom of the pot with a hoe."
"knew."
There is no child who doesn't like to join in the fun. Even if they have seen it thousands of times, they are still very interested. After dinner, they will wait there and will not run out to play.
After dinner, the big iron pot on the earthen stove was carried to the back door and turned upside down on the ground. The children squatted around it, and Ye's father couldn't drive them away, so he could only ask them to step back a little.
He put one foot on the pot to prevent it from moving, and took a hoe and slowly scraped along the edge of the pot, scraping off all the black soot on it.
"Grandpa, why do you always have to lift the pot out and scrape the bottom?"
"Don't you see it's all dust? It's a thick layer. How can I cook? It will take me half a day to cook."
They nodded, not quite understanding.
Ye's mother took a jar half full of black powder, squatted down and carefully picked up the ash that had just been scraped off the bottom of the pot into the jar.
Pot bottom ash can stop bleeding and diarrhea. It is a reliable rural folk remedy with scientific basis, but their family only uses it to stop bleeding. Bumps and bruises are inevitable in daily life, so just apply a handful of pot bottom ash. Ye's mother collects it every time.
After scraping, they lifted the big pot back onto the earthen stove. Mother Ye also put away the jars and couldn't help but give some instructions.
"After you finish eating vegetarian food, go buy an iron pot each for your new home. You need to prepare everything in advance for the day of moving."
"Yes, we know that."
After watching the fun, the children ran off to play happily again.
The adults all went back to their rooms to talk.