It is said that the Ghost Festival on the fifteenth of July is the day to visit the graves and pay respects to the ancestors.
Shuzhen naturally did not dare to take chances, not only persuading the restless Lianshan but also asking him two days in advance to send messages to Lian Yue, Lian Hai, and her two brothers.
She urged them to behave themselves during these challenging times, as true filial piety isn’t shown by this one-off action. Otherwise, if they insisted on defying the rules, they would risk not only harming themselves but also disturbing the ancestors’ peace.
No one was foolish; seeing how serious and earnest Lianshan’s attitude was, they gave up the idea of sneaking out early or late.
Worried, and having been repeatedly warned by her sister-in-law’s husband, Su Hongying became increasingly uneasy and simply returned to her parents’ home.
She used all her persuasive skills to advise her increasingly tradition-conscious older parents. It almost took wearing her lips out to get them to give up the idea of ordering eight sons to buy joss paper and ingots.
As a result, during the unexpected inspection on the fifteenth of July, these families expressed endless gratitude to Shuzhen.
The most exaggerated were the parents of Su Hongying, who personally brought gifts to Liu Village on that very day, insisting on thanking Shuzhen and Lianshan in person.
They said it was thanks to Shuzhen’s repeated reminders that made their daughter pay attention and come home for this visit.
Otherwise, it would be minor if they as older folks were taken for ideological education. But letting the ancestors suffer the fate of having their graves leveled because of them...
As their descendants, they would truly have no face to meet the ancestors in death.
With the demeanor of facing a benefactor, they brought two cans of fruit, a whole twenty eggs, and insisted on having the couple accept them. Not accepting would make the elderly couple uneasy, and not accepting would mean they weren’t being treated like family, leaving Shuzhen with no temper.
Thinking of preparing a little return gift besides the meal, the elderly couple gave her no such chance.
They only said that all these years, it was always their daughters returning home, and they as parents hadn’t had much opportunity to treat their daughters to meals. Without another word, they moved to the second brother Liu Shouyi’s house, leaving Shuzhen and Lianshan with no way to hold them back.
Shuzhen, helplessly, scraped together the remaining flour at home. With skillful hands, she crafted a large batch of flower buns, including dough figures wishing the elderly long life; dough fish wishing peers abundance every year; and dough sheep hoping the children would be obedient and filial.
Made with refined white flour, they were skillfully shaped and had black beans for eyes.
Once steamed, they looked lifelike, almost like crafts.
According to the number of the old couple and the Eight Great Protectors symbolizing good fortune, each person received a flower bun. Although it didn’t have the grand gesture like the two jars of fruit, it was inventive and unique.
They looked good, tasted good, and carried good meanings, bringing joy to anyone receiving such a return gift. At least the old couple from the Su family looked at Shuzhen and Lianshan with much affection.
The old lady, like a child, held that lifelike dough figure in her hand, admiring it repeatedly, continuously praising Shuzhen’s skillful hands.
Even though Shuzhen considered herself to have lived two lives and had a thick skin, she couldn’t help blushing with embarrassment under the old lady’s compliments.
She quickly gave her second sister-in-law a pleading look but didn’t expect her to be so muddleheaded and unafraid of making trouble.
The topic was shifted, but it turned to growing mushrooms and building worm beds for earthworm farming. In detail, she explained everything to the elders, broadcasting her skills and knowledge all-round. She didn’t forget even the dried flower petals set aside from the wedding car, praising them so the elders looked at Shuzhen with sparkling eyes.
They even followed her to see the tree stumps already producing many tiny mushrooms.
Seeing is believing; the two elders were all smiles, rarely showing any teeth.
They said the trip was worth it, planning to have their eight sons go to the mountains together and gather some rotten wood with fungi for experimental mushroom farming, adding some active income to the household.
They asked nephew Lianshan to lend a hand when he had time, to try building some worm beds at home to test the method of raising good chickens without using any grain.
Since the method was borrowed in the first place, Shuzhen naturally didn’t mind it being borrowed by relatives and friends. If possible, she would love to see ecological farming and planting methods spread across the land! Not only would it greatly increase the yield of vegetables, melons, fruits, chickens, fish, meat, eggs, and grains, ending the era of ration tickets early, but it would also spare future generations from the woes of feed pigs and chickens, and pesticide residue-exceeding grains and vegetables.
As soon as the old lady from the Su family spoke, Shuzhen quickly smiled and agreed. She suggested that since it was getting late and it would be dark soon after finishing the work, it was not good to travel at night on the fifteenth of July. It would be better to go in the afternoon the next day when they planned to visit the city to check the price of hazel mushrooms at the purchasing station and see if the medicinal flowers she prepared could be sold.
They would go early and return early, taking less than half a day.
As soon as they were done with this, they would accompany the second brother to set up the worm beds, assuring they would handle it properly.
Guiding hand in hand, she would tell the sisters-in-law openly how to grow mushrooms without holding back.
With that said, not only the two elders of the Su family but even Su Hongying looked at Shuzhen with complete gratitude.
After all, in those days, people were poor with few ways out, and the restrictions from above were countless.
Activities like raising earthworms to feed chickens or growing some mushrooms at home were rare moneymakers without taboos. For Shuzhen to not mind the Su family joining in, and even offering help without reservation, clearly showed her genuine respect for Su Hongying, involving her mother’s family as well through her actions.