The second day was the Dragon Boat Festival. Zisheng got up early and found that Shen had already cooked eggs, duck eggs, garlic, scallions, and sorghum. Shen took out five colorful bags and put one on each childs neck, then put a duck egg and a chicken egg in each bag. Zixi was so happy that he took his out immediately. The wooden door of the house had mugwort inserted into it.

  After breakfast, Shen let her husband go to the old house to deliver wheat, and let Zifeng take his siblings to find familiar neighbors in the old house to play. Shen also asked them to change into clean new clothes, and the four of them jumped and followed behind Zeng Rui-xiang.

  After arriving at the old street, Ziqing discovered that almost all the children had two eggs hanging from their necks. When Zifen saw Zifeng, she said they were going to "dui dan" (collide eggs). Ziqing didnt know what it meant and stood aside watching. It turned out that each of them held an egg in their hand, with one end exposed, and they would knock against each other. Whoevers egg broke first would lose. The neighbors and friends gathered around to watch, and the last unbroken egg was declared the "egg king". Although it seemed a bit childish, Ziqing saw that everyone was having so much fun, and for poor families children, at least on Dragon Boat Festival day, they had eggs to alleviate their hunger.

  Ziying went to the back house to see her aunt, and found that the whole family was sitting down to eat breakfast. Probably they had just finished selling the baked buns. Xiao Xiushui saw her quickly finishing up the rice in her bowl, and said she wanted to take her out to play. By the pond, a big group of kids were gathered, including Zifu and Ziping.

  Ziying handed the eggs in her hand to Xiushui. "Whats this for? Dont I have any? You see, I won them all," Xiushui asked.

  "This is an egg laid by the chicken you raised. Didnt I promise you that I would give it to you first? So I brought it." Zi Qing replied.

  "Its laid eggs so quickly, let me see, theyre so small. Never mind, give it to me to eat, my big one, give my egg to you. Next time I go to your house, cook some potatoes for me again. Ill give you something good in return." Zi Qing felt that Xiushuis aunt was really very kind, not stingy, generous and didnt take advantage of others.

  Its almost noon, and a few people said they would go back to say hello to the Tian family before leaving. Xiū Shuǐ took Zi Qing to her room in a mysterious manner. The room happened to be empty, and it was unknown where she had taken out a delicate small wooden box. It looked like something valuable, but Zi Qing couldnt recognize what kind of wood it was, such as huā lí or zǐ tán, so he couldnt appraise it either.

  Xiu Shui opened the box, and inside was a golden-haired, yellow-furred thing that looked like a small dog, but it was a desiccated corpse with shiny fur. Zi Qing didnt know if it was an animal or a plant. Xiu Shui plucked out several strands of the yellow hair, carefully wrapped them in a handkerchief, and handed it to Zi Qing. "This is top-grade hemostatic medicine, dug up by my father. It can save lives in critical moments. My father used this to recover from injuries sustained while fighting tigers. Ive been wanting to give some to you for a long time, but only recently did I see my older brother take it from my mother. Im secretly giving it to you, dont tell anyone, and be sure to remember."

  It turns out that the old lady had even fought tigers, no wonder a family can live so easily, not even planting vegetables or chopping firewood, all bought with money, but it seems to have heard that there is land, rented to others for farming, and collecting rent themselves, very easy.

  Ziying carefully put away the things and went to the front room to find Zifu and others. Lao Yezi, Tian Shi, Zeng Ruiqing, Zhou Shi were all there, Zeng Ruixiang was also sitting, while Zifu and the other two were standing with pursed lips, looking very unhappy, as if something unpleasant had happened.

  Zhous eyes stared at Zi Qings new clothes, "Hmph, still saying theyre not biased towards Er Ges family? Look, its been a while since the division of property, and all the kids are wearing new clothes. Now youre putting on airs, who would believe that?" It turned out that Zhou was picking a fight again, getting glared at as soon as she entered the door, and even lying down couldnt avoid being shot.

  "Is that all? If the second family has the ability to live a good life, its their capability. You have the capability, you can also make a lot of money and stop envying others. Dont always be jealous of others, just because you cant see that they have a whole yard full of chickens and vegetables. I still say the same thing, I didnt secretly help anyone. Ruiqing, speak up, dont be dissatisfied. Lets not talk about other things for now. When we divided the family property, you were the eldest son, so you got to choose first. The second family didnt say a word of complaint. You took two mu of paddy fields, which is worth 15 taels of silver per mu. Rui Xiang has two more mu of sandy land, but thats only worth 10 taels of silver. So in total, you got an advantage of five taels of silver. The second family has three mu of wheat fields, and you have one mu. You also have two mu of rape fields. Although you gave me 10 catties of oil, one mu of land can produce 60 catties of oil, right? Today Rui Xiang sent me a stone of wheat, which is the yield of one mu of land! Think about it carefully, why didnt your father rely on you first all these years. Your father doesnt want to hear such words again in the future. Your father only has two sons, and hes getting older year by year." The old mans words became more and more sorrowful.

  Zeng Ruiqing listened for half a day without making a sound, and Zeng Ruixiang didnt say anything either. He walked over, hugged Zi Shou, said hello, and left. Zi Fu led Zi Lu with one hand and held Zi Qings hand with the other as they followed him out.

  Who would have thought that as soon as they went out the door, they ran into their neighbor Auntie, who smiled and said to Zeng Rui Xiang: "Young Master has returned home for the holiday today? Your father just happened to slaughter a pig, bring the children over to join in the fun?"

  Zeng Ruixiang was stunned, he had never heard that they were slaughtering a pig at home, and could only respond vaguely. Zi Qing didnt want to be left out, taking advantage of her young age, she asked: "Dad, is Grandpas family slaughtering a pig? Why didnt they save us some meat? Didnt we send them a stone of wheat?" This time it was the turn of the older aunt to be stunned, and she hastily responded with a sentence before leaving.

  On the way home, Zeng Ruixiang told them not to mention these things to Shen Shi when they got home. When they arrived home, Shen Shi was plucking a chickens feathers. Today is a festival, and she had slaughtered a capon. Shen Shi said it weighed over three catties, and also told her husband that they would keep one rooster for breeding, and the rest had already been castrated by someone she found. Apparently, locals didnt like to eat roosters, especially women, who said it made them feel hot and dry. Generally, people would castrate the roosters male functions, just like eunuchs, which were called capons.

  Zi Qing remembered that her old home was similar in the past, it seems that this custom has been around for a long time. There were still about twenty capons and fifty hens at home. Shen Shi said that they could raise some more capons, just in time to sell them during the New Year, and asked her husband to build another chicken coop. Zeng Rui Xiang agreed, walked over, held Shen Shis hand, "Ah, I still have chicken feathers on my hands. Whats wrong? This is?" After finishing speaking, he washed his hands in water and took the chickens into the house.

  Ziying poured the bloody water from washing chicken along with feathers into the watermelon field, as there wasnt enough fertilizer. Ziying used the vegetable washing water and rice washing water to irrigate the vegetable field, while every time she washed meat and bones, the bloody water was used to irrigate the watermelon, feeling its still useful. The watermelon has grown to the size of a pigeon egg, and in another month, it should be ripe. The pumpkins and calabazas in the vegetable field are already as big as fists.

  Dinner was eaten around three or four oclock, without lunch. This meal is the most sumptuous since Ziqing arrived in this time and space. Of course, New Years Eve dinner was also sumptuous, but there were many people at that time, and what entered Ziqings mouth was not good. Unlike our family of a few people, we have braised chicken, rice noodles with meat, roasted eggplant, celery, cucumber stir-fried eggs, pepper small stir-fry pork, stir-fried beans, potato shreds, and of course, delicious bone soup. Zishou was the happiest, previously couldnt even eat enough rice, now can freely open to eat.

  After dinner, Zeng Rui-xiang suggested digesting the food and then took everyone to dig sweet potatoes. Shens wife put a small bamboo mat on the ground, spread out old clothes, and let her youngest son lie down and play on it. She herself was sewing a single garment for her husband with needle and thread. The remaining sunlight fell on Shens body, as if there was a faint golden glow all over her. This scene was so familiar that Zi-qings heart was filled with emotion.