"Anjiang Collection of Essays" is sold on the 15th of every month, which happens to be the 15th of July, the Zhongyuan Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival.
According to the customs of Chongcheng County, on this day, people have to light some candles at their doorsteps or on the roadside.
After Gou Tongzhi talked with Li Qingzhi, he wanted to invite Li Qingzhi to have dinner, but Li Qingzhi declined and went home early.
Then he saw Jin Xiaoye fiddling with a bunch of candles.
"Why did you buy so many candles?" Li Qingzhi asked.
Jin Xiaoye said: "Today is the fifteenth day of the seventh month, we need to light candles at night."
"It seems that no one lit the candles last year?" Li Qingzhi recalled. He had come to this world at this time last year and did not see Jin Xiaoye light the candles.
Jin Xiaoye said confidently: "At that time, our family didn't have much money, so why light candles?"
During the years when Li Qingzhi was away, she never bothered with these things that cost money. Last year, Li Qingzhi came back, but he looked very frail. She was unsure about him and naturally would not buy candles to light.
This year is different.
She is in charge of the accounts. Now after deducting various expenses from Jueweizhai and the wages paid to Chang Zhan and others, she can earn five or six taels of silver a day, and more than one hundred taels a month!
The money earned from Jinye Embroidery Workshop was not as much as that from Jueweizhai, but at the end of the month, she could still earn thirty or forty taels of silver.
From the two shops combined, Jin Xiaoye can now earn two hundred taels of silver a month. What’s so great about buying some candles
Li Qingzhi smiled and went to look at the candles that Jin Xiaoye bought.
For ordinary people in Da Qi, candles were not cheap.
After ordinary farmers bought a pair of candles, they would only light them on important occasions.
For example, it should be lit when offering sacrifices to ancestors during the Chinese New Year, and then blown out after a while. It should be lit when visiting graves during the Qingming Festival, and then blown out. When encountering the death anniversary of a family member, it should also be taken out and lit when paying homage.
If you are frugal, a pair of candles can last a year.
Of course, those who have more money would not do this. They would buy new candles every time and light them. Those candles that have been lit but not completely burned might be used for lighting on weekdays, or they might be lit on the roadside at the door during the Ghost Festival.
There are two kinds of candles in Chongcheng County. One has a cotton thread in the middle, and the other has a thin bamboo tube with cotton thread wrapped around it.
People usually buy the latter because the middle of the thin bamboo tube is hollow and can be inserted into a pointed candlestick. When visiting graves or something like that, the thin bamboo tube can also be inserted directly into the mud.
This is what Jin Xiaoye bought. She cut a winter melon, inserted a candle on it, and waited to light it at night.
Chang Zhan was still the one who made dinner that day. He cut the remaining winter melon into shreds and stir-fried it. It was quite delicious.
The women workers also ate winter melon today. They cooked a big pot of kelp, winter melon and pork, which tasted especially good when poured over rice.
However, Li Ermao doesn't like winter melon and won't touch it at all. He used to be not picky about food, but now, probably because his life has gotten better, he has become picky and doesn't like to eat several kinds of vegetables.
Fortunately, he did not completely refuse to eat. Li Qingzhi bought some cucumbers and soaked them in water. When he felt hot and thirsty while playing, he would pick one up and eat it.
Seeing this, Li Qingzhi no longer cared about his picky eating.