The next morning, Ye Yaodong had slept too much at night, so when the rooster crowed, he woke up before it was fully light. However, there was a little kid who woke up earlier than him.
When he sat up, he saw a fat boy lying at the end of the bed, holding his feet and chewing them happily. With a knowing smile, he moved over quietly.
For fear of waking up Ah Qing, he did not say anything. He just smiled and held the child in his arms. Then he sat on a stool and helped her put on her clothes, pants, shoes and socks. She stood up holding on to the chair before he put on his clothes.
“Bah, bah, bah, bah…” Ye Xiaoxi shouted excitedly while holding onto the stool.
"Shh, your mother is sleeping, keep your voice down."
He quickly put on his clothes and pants and carried her out.
In the main room, the old lady was already sitting there making a fire and cooking porridge. Seeing that the father and daughter had already gotten up, she smiled and said, "You slept enough last night, but you two got up early."
"Well, I went to bed too early, so I got up early."
Through the window, I can see that the sky outside is gray and it looks like it is about to rain again.
Ye Yaodong put Ye Xiaoxi in the standing cage to play, then he went to take a look at the window and opened it, allowing thick water vapor to come in through the window.
"Is it going to rain again?"
"It's going to rain. The day after tomorrow is Qingming Festival. There will be a lot of rain in the next two days."
He stood at the door and looked at the calendar hanging on the wall. The page with number 2 had been torn off yesterday. Today was number 3. He flipped two pages down and saw three big red words, Qingming Festival, clearly printed on the calendar.
It rained a lot during the Qingming Festival, so it was rare that it was sunny yesterday.
I have been busy trawling the nets these days, and my child is turning one year old. I go out early and come back late, and fall asleep as soon as I get home. I haven't had time to look at the calendar, and I didn't expect it's already Qingming Festival.
"Then shall we go to visit the graves the day after tomorrow?"
The old lady nodded and the smile disappeared from her face.
Ye Yaodong turned around and continued to look at the calendar. He did not stop until May 1st. It started to drizzle outside the house.
Originally, Ye Yaopeng had thought of taking advantage of these few days of free time to build a wall to build a pigpen so that he could hold the piglets in a few days. But it seems that he can't do it today.
Ye Yaodong was also happy and relaxed. He leisurely dragged the rocking chair out of the house, put it on the porch at the door, lay on it, and watched the falling rain outside.
When Ye Chenghu came back in the evening, he was still mumbling, "During the Qingming Festival, the rains fell heavily, and the travelers on the road were almost dead. I asked where the tavern was, and the shepherd boy pointed to Xinghua Village in the distance."
"Oh my? You can recite it? Is my family going to have a top scholar?"
Ye Chenghu raised his neck and said proudly: "I want to get two 100 points. Of course I will memorize it. Just wait and see. If I get 100 points in the midterm exam, you will take me to the city."
"I still remember it very well. Let's talk about it after you get 100 points in the exam."
"Hehe, anyway, you are not allowed to regret it."
"You do it first."
Ye Chenghu shook his head and ran into the house proudly, "Mom, the day after tomorrow is Qingming Festival. The teacher said that there will be no school tomorrow. We will have two days off!"
"I haven't even started school for two days and it's already holiday. I'll have two more days off..."
"Because the teacher has to go home early to visit the grave, so we have a holiday."
"This is going to be a huge quarrel..." Lin Xiuqing was muttering in the room, not happy to see them quarreling at home.
But later, when she wanted to see them arguing in the house, she couldn't see it.
The day before Qingming Festival, early in the morning, all the children in the village stood on the roadside at the entrance of the village, waiting with high spirits. They would watch whoever walked by with a hoe or a broom, and then follow him.
Because they have the custom of distributing tomb cakes when visiting graves.
Tomb cakes are basically just plain cakes.
Guangbing has a very special origin in the local area. It is said that it was presented by the common people to Qi Jiguang for his fight against the Japanese pirates. There is a hole in the middle, which can be strung with a rope to facilitate marching and fighting.
On the Qingming Festival, for many local people, it is also a tomb cake used for tomb sacrifices. What's interesting is that when the Guangbing becomes a tomb cake, it must be distributed on the spot after the ancestor sacrifices.
These days materials are relatively expensive and scarce, and children have no snacks. Qingming Festival is a festival that children like very much because they can go to ask for tomb cakes.
Although it is considered a ghost festival, during the Qingming Festival, as soon as firecrackers are set off in the fields, on the roadsides or on the mountains, children will rush from all directions to the cemetery to ask for tomb cakes.
It can not only be used as a snack, but also fill the stomach, so asking for tomb cakes is not only done by children, but also by many adults working in the fields. As long as they encounter a few families visiting the tombs, they can get a day's snack for free.
The Ye family's several children, both boys and girls, have been running around outside since the day of the holiday. They have not been seen from morning to night, and none of them have come back for lunch at noon.
Ye Yaodong was stunned at first and wondered why he hadn't seen anyone for so long. He thought they had gone out to play somewhere. It was not until he heard the sound of firecrackers everywhere on the mountain that he suddenly realized that everyone had gone to the mountain to ask for grave cakes.
"I was wondering why it was so quiet this morning? I can save a meal at noon."
Lin Xiuqing also smiled and said, "I think we should be wandering around the surrounding hills now. It's drizzling from time to time, and the roads are all muddy. I don't know how dirty they will be when we get back."
"Yangyang is so small, don't lose him."
"We didn't let him go last year, and I don't know when he sneaked away this morning."
"With so many people here, they are just on the nearby hills anyway, so we shouldn't lose him. One more person can get one more cake. With so many children in the family, we can get dozens or even hundreds of cakes today. We will have a supply for tomb sweeping tomorrow, saving money!"
Lin Xiuqing smiled so hard that her teeth were not visible. "Your abacus is really loud."
It rained heavily during the Qingming Festival last year, and they did not let the children go out to ask for tomb cakes. When they visited the graves at home, not many children came to ask for them, so they only prepared a dozen or so, and then took all the leftovers home to give to their own children.
Today there was just a little drizzle of rain, and it cleared up from time to time. I think there will be quite a lot of children and adults tomorrow.
When the weather cleared up in the afternoon, Ye Yaodong was called by Ye Yaopeng to go to the old house to help build the wall and tidy up the pigpen.
But this is an old house, a bit old. Ye Yaopeng's room belongs to the old house and is connected to it, unlike the old lady's original cottage which is independent in the backyard.
When they were hitting the wall, the whole house shook and the tiles on the roof clattered. Father Ye was so scared that he quickly shouted to stop. He felt so sad that he didn't allow them to continue.
Just let both families put the animal in the old lady's little house and raise it together, and then divide the profits together when the time comes.
It's already quite a few years old and in a dilapidated state. It only appears to be more solid because it's made of stone. However, the roof leaks badly and the door panels are leaking a lot. If half of the wall is really knocked down, the whole old house will probably be ruined.
Mrs. Ye Dasao and Mrs. Ye Ersao could only accept it reluctantly. Otherwise, if they were asked to build a pigpen specifically, it would cost money. There was already a ready-made one in the old house, and no one was willing to pay to build another one.
"Haha, sister-in-law and I are raising pigs in the old lady's house, so can you give me half of the old lady's land to farm?" Sister Ye Er was calculating in her mind.
Father Ye frowned.
At that time, because the second daughter-in-law bought a pig, the old lady's small house was used for raising pigs. In order to shut the eldest daughter-in-law up, the small piece of land that the old lady had opened on the roadside was given to the eldest daughter-in-law for farming.
Now they are bringing this up again!
Father Ye looked at Ye Yaodong.
Ye Yaodong raised his eyebrows and looked over. "Don't look at me. I don't know how to farm, so I don't want to argue. Ah Qing doesn't have time to farm either, so she won't have any objections. You can do whatever you want."
The small piece of land in his yard is enough to keep them busy, and the vegetables they grow are enough for their family to eat.
"Ask your mother later. We are both alive now, what are we fighting about? Now help me fix the tiles on the roof. If you guys smack them a few times, your mother and I can lie on the bed and look at the stars at night."
Ye Yaohua glared at his wife fiercely and said quickly, "Okay, Dad, I'll go get a ladder."
Mrs. Ye pursed her lips in dissatisfaction but did not dare to say anything else.
Ye Yaohua felt that his wife had brought shame upon herself and wanted to make amends, so after bringing in the stairs, he volunteered to climb up.
Ye Yaopeng also felt embarrassed, so he climbed up to help, while Ye's father and Ye Yaodong helped hold the stairs from below and passed tiles.
The two sisters were very tactful and picked up the brooms and started sweeping and tidying up the surroundings. They didn't look like they had just been scolded by someone and seemed to be able to adjust themselves.
Father Ye looked at Ye Yaodong and said, "Tomorrow is Qingming Festival. Go to Dongqiao Village by bike and order 50 guang bing from the man who specializes in making guang bing. We will pick them up tomorrow morning."
"What are you ordering? All the kids at home are out making money today..."
"I'm afraid it won't be enough. I thought so this morning. It looked like it would be sunny this afternoon. It might be sunny tomorrow too. At most there will be some sunshine showers. Then there will probably be too many people and there won't be enough to share."
"If there's not enough to share, then just give out money. Everyone will be happier. Who knows where the pancake maker might not be able to make it. There are only one or two families in the nearby villages who can make mooncakes. It's so late today. If we go to order it, where can they make it?"
Father Ye thought about it and it made sense. No order was placed a few days ago, and no order was placed in the morning. It was so urgent that people couldn’t make it.
"Then buy other cakes..."
"Then they have even less time to make them. Shouldn't they be working overtime to make the guang bing these days?"
"As for handing out money... I haven't seen anyone handing out money..."
"People are surprised by what they see, and there's not enough to share. They'll be happier when we give out money later."
After a few years, everyone will have enough food and drink, so no one will like to give out cakes and pastries, and most people will find it troublesome, and they have to make special orders. Just giving out money directly will make people happiest.
It saves the family trouble to visit the graves, and the children who ask for tomb cakes are happy because they can use them as they please.
Father Ye hesitated, "Then let's see tomorrow if there are enough points."
"Well, I'll bring more change with me. By the way, Dad, do we need to build a tomb for my grandpa? There's only that small coffin tomb here, which is not very good."