Chapter 19: Returning to Her Mother’s Home

After eating the dumplings, the children once again kowtowed to Old Master Xia and Madam Zhou, then knelt to their parents to express gratitude for raising them. After that, they all washed up and went to bed.

Children shouldn’t stay up late. Besides, isn’t New Year’s money meant to be placed under their pillows on New Year’s Eve?

As for staying up all night to welcome the New Year, that’s something for the adults.

The next morning, Xia Youtian and Madam Jiang took their children to make New Year visits.

The first stop was the village chief’s house, then the home of their granduncle, Xia Pingkang.

Next, they went to the home of the prominent family in the village—Scholar Feng’s household.

After that, the visits continued according to the closeness of relationships—first to those with deep bonds and frequent interaction, like friendly neighbors, and finally to those with whom they had more distant ties.

The entire first day of the New Year was spent amidst a continuous chorus of “Happy New Year” ringing out from every household.

Xia Daohua followed her family around to pay New Year visits. Though her legs felt like noodles from all the walking and her cheeks were sore from smiling so much, she felt the harvest was quite good.

First, she had gathered several dozen copper coins in New Year’s money.

Second, it was a good way to reintroduce herself to the villagers.

However, what continued to baffle her was that she hadn’t come across that bearded man even once.

Was it just a coincidence—that he had gone out visiting relatives too, and their paths hadn’t crossed? Or… was he not even from Beiguan Village?

Xia Daohua decided not to bother her younger aunt Xia Yujiao with questions about it anymore and temporarily put the matter aside.

After all, it was New Year—she needed to inventory her stock in the supermarket space!

Inside the supermarket, everything seemed the same as before. Apart from herself, there wasn’t a single living person.

But that didn’t mean there was no life in the store.

On the first floor, there was a booth selling tropical fish and another selling green plants.

Even though the stall owners had vanished—and no one was feeding the fish or changing their water, nor watering or fertilizing the plants—the fish were still lively, and the plants remained lush and vibrant.

Xia Daohua checked her account balance: there were still over 100,000 yuan left. Of course, it had now been automatically converted into “supermarket coins.”

Fortunately, converting it into supermarket coins didn’t incur much loss—only a tiny fee of about one-thousandth was deducted.

Suddenly, Xia Daohua remembered that items from outside could be exchanged for supermarket coins at the service counter. She currently had a few dozen copper coins—would they be counted as antiques?

She took a few coins to the exchange counter.

The “exchange counter” looked a lot like a self-service checkout machine.

Xia Daohua placed one copper coin on the platform. A green light flashed across it, and a product name and price appeared on the screen:
“Great Chu Tongbao, face value one wen. Exchange value: 25 yuan.”

Xia Daohua counted her coins—she had 52 in total. But she only exchanged one and carefully stored the rest in a cabinet in the storage area.

Back when the family hadn’t split up, every coin Xia Youtian and Madam Jiang earned had to be handed over to the communal pot.

Now that they had separated from the main household and Xia Youtian and Madam Jiang were heads of the fourth branch, would they really resist the urge to take their children’s New Year’s money?

It was understandable for the money from Old Master Xia and Madam Zhou to be taken. But New Year’s money from other families, though nominally given to the children, was in fact part of the adult world’s social etiquette.

If others gave their children New Year’s money, Xia Youtian and Madam Jiang would also need to reciprocate by giving money to other people’s children.

So Xia Daohua had little confidence that she could keep her 52 copper coins.

Sure enough, that evening, Madam Jiang called all the children over, smiling lovingly at them as she said:

“Come here, all of you—hand over your New Year’s money to me. I’ll keep it safe for you.”

Ah yes, the classic move!

Lihua obediently brought out her bag of New Year’s money and handed it over to Madam Jiang. Wulang followed suit.

Linghua hesitated. She clearly didn’t want to give it up, but after some internal struggle, she still climbed to the back of the kang cabinet and retrieved the coins she’d stashed away.

Xia Daohua grinned and asked,
“Mom, can I keep a few copper coins for myself?”

Madam Jiang hesitated for a moment. Seeing all the kids staring at her with puppy-dog eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse. Biting her lip, she said:

“I’ll let each of you keep two copper coins.”

Xia Daohua nodded happily, then reached into her clothes and rummaged around for a bit before finally pulling out her pouch—it was a patched cotton sock. Smiling, she handed it to Madam Jiang:

“I’ve already kept two coins for myself. There are 50 coins in here.”

Madam Jiang gave Xia Daohua a surprised look. How strange—after falling and hitting her head, not only did the girl not become dumb, but she actually seemed more sensible?

She counted out six coins from the sock and gave two each to Lihua, Wulang, and Linghua.

The children cheered:
“Mom, you’re the best!”

Linghua even threw herself into her mother’s arms and planted a loud kiss on her cheek.

Madam Jiang collected all the New Year’s money, then carefully calculated the amount she had given away. No matter how she counted it, there was still a shortfall of 35 copper coins.

She sighed quietly. Thankfully, when the family split, the old couple had been relatively generous. Otherwise, how would they get through days like this?

The next day was the second day of the New Year—the day married daughters returned to their parents’ homes.

Madam Jiang planned to bring Xia Youtian and the children back to her natal village to visit relatives.

Her maiden village was called Liushutuozi, not too far from Beiguan Village—just three ridgelines apart. It would take about two to three hours on foot to get there.

Early the next morning, before the rooster even crowed, Madam Jiang got up and cooked a pot of cornmeal porridge, steamed a few cornbread buns, and sliced up a pickled napa heart and a preserved mustard root.

Then she hurriedly woke the still-groggy kids, washed them up, urged them to eat breakfast, and helped them change into their best clothes.

Xia Youtian watched her bustling around and couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for her. He said softly:

“Wife, don’t rush so much. I have something to take care of—I’ll be back soon.”

Madam Jiang looked at his retreating back, puzzled. What business could he possibly have so early in the morning?

Still, thinking about the trip to her mother’s home, she couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.

Her family—the Jiang family—were all hot-tempered. Whether it was her parents, her four brothers, or her two sisters, all of them had strong, tough personalities.

Madam Jiang, with her gentle and docile temperament, hardly seemed like she belonged to the same family.

But her family knew her soft nature and were fiercely protective of her.

Even so, Madam Jiang always felt a little apprehensive about returning home. She was terrified that if she said something wrong, her brothers and sisters would blow up and give Xia Youtian a beating.

Even though, to be fair, the Jiang family had never actually beaten Xia Youtian.

At most, they’d just force him to drink a few extra bowls of wine.

Madam Jiang got the kids ready and tidied up the house. Just as she was about to grow anxious, she saw Xia Youtian return—his clothes dusted with white frost, breathing heavily.

Grinning from ear to ear, Xia Youtian handed her two paper-wrapped bundles and a large earthen jar sealed with yellow clay.

“I had a heck of a time getting Fifth Sister-in-law to open the door!”