Originally, Shen Jianshan's youngest son was getting married on November 28th, and the third day of the twelfth lunar month was He Shi's sixtieth birthday. Shen Jianshan thought that these two years were good days for both families, and they also had some spare money in hand, so he wanted to hold a grand celebration for He Shi, inviting the whole village to a one-day banquet, letting the old lady enjoy herself, and at the same time, Shen Jianren's family could stay home for a few more days.

  Shen immediately agreed, saying: "It's only right. I've been thinking about this too, and was planning to get Mother a gold headpiece. For the past two years, Mother has been working hard with me, and I feel guilty about it. Big Brother, how many households are there in Baitang Village now? Besides the six longevity peaches, do they use anything else? It's been over ten years since I've been home, so I don't know if there are any new customs nowadays."

  "This is not it, if the conditions are good, use white flour, if they are poor, mix some miscellaneous grains with white flour. There are probably about 130 households in the whole village. Also, my mother wants a brand new set of clothes, best to be festive." said Mrs. Xu.

  "I know about the clothes. Then I'll prepare 800 longevity peaches when the time comes. How many tables are you preparing, and how much should we prepare for the red envelopes?" Shen asked.

  "One family has seventeen tables, plus relatives and our own family, it's twenty-five tables. Prepare one hundred red envelopes with six copper coins in each. And for the ten kitchen helpers, sixty coins each." Shen Jianshan said.

  Zi Qing finally understood the local customs, when an elderly person celebrates their birthday, daughters give out jewelry, clothes, and embroidered pouches as rewards, as well as longevity peaches to be distributed throughout the village, which are of course made from flour. Sons only need to take care of the wine and banquet.

  The next day, Shen gave Zi Qing a task of embroidering 100 pouches, each with a "shou" character. After two years of practice, Zi Qing's needlework had made great progress, but she was still not good at embroidery and was only in the initial stage. Shen went to Anzhou Prefecture and bought a piece of purple-red satin, a bolt of jujube-red fine cotton cloth, a bundle of cotton wool, and several pieces of red satin scraps for Zi Qing to use to make pouches.

  When she had time during the day, Zi Qing accompanied Shen Shi to sit under the window flower and embroider longevity characters. Shen Shi said that she wanted to embroider a hundred "longevity" characters on her clothes, in order to save time, she cut the clothes first, divided them into pieces and pasted them on the embroidery frame, one piece at a time. Most of the evening was spent not doing embroidery but sewing, because embroidery was more tiring for the eyes.

  Shen gave He a new cotton gown and pants. On the outside, she prepared to use the same color satin to make a quilted skirt and shoes.

  "Daughter, what were you wearing that day? Why don't you also make a new dress for yourself, or else you and grandma can wear the same one. You would look good in it too." Zi Qing asked.

  "Silly girl, how can you wear the same thing? You'll be laughed at. Anyway, it's almost New Year's, let's wait for your father to come back tomorrow and we'll go to town again to buy more fabric. We'll make a new outfit for each person in our family. It's just right that we also pick out some things from the silver store, last time we didn't have time."

  This time in the city, it was a big shopping spree. In addition to various fabrics, I also bought a gold-inlaid jade hairpin for Mrs. He, with a red jade peony carved on top, a pair of gold earrings, a pair of engraved gold bangles, a gold-inlaid jade ring, and a pair of golden phoenix hairpins. Shen herself added a gold-inlaid jade pendant, a pair of high-quality white jade bangles that felt warm to the touch - was it sheep fat jade? As Shen showed off these accessories to Mrs. He, she laughed and said: "Mother, today I really splurged, happily spending a lot of silver. In thirty years, I've never spent as much in one day as I did today. Mother, quickly put them on and let your daughter take a look."

  "What a pity! These silvers can buy how many mu of paddy fields? I'm not telling you, as a farmer's family, having a silver head is good enough. Wearing this out is too eye-catching. This bangle, I only need one, I still have a jade bangle on my hand, it's the only keepsake your grandma left me, over 40 years and never taken it off. Your dad also left me some things, all silvers, today you bought these again, can I still wear them?"

  "Daughter, you just wear it alternately, your health is more important than anything else. Today we went to Anzhou and saw another house. Tomorrow, let his father handle the procedures. The water field doesn't have a suitable one for now, but we've already told the middleman that if there's a suitable one, they'll notify us. Don't worry, I have everything under control, I know how to invest in some property."

  "Good, I'm relieved. Who would have thought that at my old age, I could still enjoy the blessings of having a daughter? These past two years, I've been living comfortably, eating and dressing well, even better than when your father was alive. If there's anything lacking, it's just that your father left too early and didn't get to see his beloved youngest daughter living a good life now." He Shi became increasingly sentimental as she spoke.

  Zi Qing saw and hurriedly smiled: "Grandma, with this dress, you look ten years younger, even the landlord's wife in the village can't compare to your richness." Everyone laughed and passed by.

  Time flies, on the third day of the twelfth lunar month, Shen Wanfu came early in the morning with a single-wheeled cart to pick up several children of the Shen family. He Shao had been taken back home by Shen Jianren a few days ago to attend his nephew's wedding. This time, knowing that Zeng Rui Xiang was not at home, and the few children left beside Shen Shi were too young, he made a special trip to pick them up.

  The Shens had steamed the longevity peaches a day earlier and asked Zeng Ruiyu's wife to help. This time, they also asked Zeng Ruiyu and his two brothers to help carry them over.

  Everyone set off early, but after crossing a small river and walking on the ridge between the fields, Shen Wanfu lost his balance and threw down Zishou and Zixi from the ridge into the paddy field, covering them in mud.

  Fortunately, it was not spring, and the fields were dry, with only wet mud. Shen quickly took off their jackets and had them wear their cotton-padded clothes. Originally, they hadn't wasted much time, but Zi Xi was frightened and cried, refusing to get on the wheelbarrow no matter what. Zi Qing coaxed him for a long time, but it didn't work, so she carried Zi Yu, Shen carried Zi Xi, and Shen Wanfu pushed Zi Shou, carrying the pole with loads, and they set off first.

  A few people walked and stopped, Shen's heart was very anxious. Fortunately, Shen Wanfu and Shen Chunfu came over to find them, carrying the children, so Shen and Zi Qing's speed increased a lot.

  Arriving at Baitang Village, Shen Jianshan and Shen Jianshui's houses were all pasted with red couplets, the rooms were newly decorated, and people came and went. Shen handed over Subi to Suzhi and went to distribute longevity peaches to the villagers. Fortunately, everyone lived relatively concentrated, so not too much time was wasted. By almost noon, Zeng Ruixiang arrived with his two sons, they had taken a direct carriage from Anzhou Prefecture.

  At noon, relatives and villagers had all arrived, the ceremony began. On the square table in the hall, a pair of thick red candles were lit, with a large "shou" character on top, and a plate of high-heaped longevity peaches was placed beside it. He Shi sat upright at the front of the hall, wearing a brand new purple-red satin jacket with golden threads embroidered with various "shou" characters all over it, matching purple-red satin trousers, purple-red satin shoes, and a full set of gold decorations on her head, drawing a chorus of admiring gasps, all praising Old Lady He's good fortune. Inside the house were close relatives, while outside was surrounded by a large crowd of villagers.

  Shen Jianshan arranged twenty or so straw mats in the hall, Shen Jianshui and his eldest son carried a large bamboo basket, inside were red envelopes made by Shen's family and Zi Qing, almost all shades of red, with a "longevity" character on top. A master of ceremonies invited from the village shouted to begin, firecrackers sounded, Shen Jianshan led his nephews and nieces in kneeling down, each kowtowing three times, then walking one by one to He's side, bowing their heads, saying a congratulatory phrase, He touched each person's head, giving each an envelope.

  The younger generation finished, Shen Daifu brought his grandson's generation to come again. Shen Daifu's son, Shen Zofan, was only seven years old and brought the great-grandchildren to come again in a very mannered way. He Shi looked at the three great-grandsons and three great-granddaughters of the fourth generation, extremely happy and tearful, wiping away tears again and again.

  Next was the married-out daughter Shen and her family, followed by three married-out granddaughters and their families. After this round of kowtows, about an hour had passed. Zi Qing heard the villagers say that Old Lady was very blessed with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The married grandchildren and great-grandchildren also prepared gifts, mostly fabrics, silver accessories, shoes, socks, hats, etc., which filled a whole table.

  After the ceremony, the banquet began. The villagers had been waiting for a long time and were already hungry. The food prepared by the Shen family was very abundant, and Shen Jianshan even specially slaughtered a large fat pig, which was more luxurious than Shen Chunfu's wedding banquet.

  After dinner, Zeng Rui-xiang took Zi-fu and Zi-lu to head back directly to the county town. Shen Jian-ren asked his eldest son to drive a donkey cart to send them to Anzhou Prefecture, where it would be convenient to find a ride. On this side, Shen's wife was holding a child and couldn't help much, so He's wife told her to go back early too. It just so happened that Zeng Rui-yu and his two brothers were also about to take their leave, so they used a bamboo basket to carry several children back home.