Chapter 80 : Praying for Rain

The offerings for praying for rain include pigs, cattle, sheep, and chickens. All the villages under the jurisdiction of Baima Town have to contribute five cents each. The village chief will collect and count the money and hand it over to the headman’s mansion.

The head of the pavilion used the crowd-raised money to prepare sacrifices. In addition to pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, and many other offerings, a rain-praying ceremony would be held at the town gate three days later. At that time, all snack businesses on the street would be closed for a day.

By then, there will be a huge crowd of people coming to watch and pray for rain.

It has been two months since the business was fully operational. Mother Xiao calculated the money they earned in the past two months. In the first month, they earned nearly ten taels, and in the second month, they earned almost eight taels, which added up to a total of seventeen taels.

After deducting the cost of setting up the stall, the net profit was twelve taels of silver, which made Mother Xiao so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling.

She called everyone together and started paying their wages as agreed at the beginning.

Give Jiang Sui and Xiao Yi one tael of silver each, and give Zhou and Lan Lan eight hundred coins each.

Because Xiao Yi and Jiang Sui were working at the stall almost every day, they were more tired, so they were given more. Zhou and Xiao Lanlan were at home, so they were relatively relaxed, so they were given less. No one had any objection to this.

Everyone was very happy to receive the wages for their labor.

Especially Zhou, she was very proud that she was a woman and could earn money just by doing some work at home every day. The sense of satisfaction was indescribable.

Xiao Yi took the silver and enjoyed it for a while, then returned it to Mother Xiao, saying. “I am alone now and I don’t need to support a wife, so why should I keep the money in my hand? Mother, please keep it for me. I don’t need it. Keep it to subsidize the family. There will be many more times when the family needs money in the future.”

Mother Xiao was very pleased that he thought so. As the family was not well off, she decided to accept the money.

—

On the day of praying for rain, people from every household in the village would go to join in the fun, but some refused to go because it was too hot and the journey was too long.

Xiao Lanlan had never seen Qiu Yu before and was very curious, so she called Jiang Sui to accompany her to see it. At this time, Xiao Hechuan was also acting coquettishly with Jiang Sui, saying that he wanted to join in the fun.

“Wife, please, take me there, okay? You are the best.”

At this time, Xiao Hechuan likes to join in the fun. The day before yesterday, he heard Mother Xiao talk about the scene of praying for rain, and then he wanted to go there.

But Jiang Sui finally got a day off, and she just wanted to see it.

Now Xiao Lanlan has come, Jiang Sui really can’t stand the two people’s attack from both sides, so she agrees to the request of the two siblings.

During the past two months of setting up stalls, everyone got tanned. Jiang Sui at least knew to wear a bamboo hat, so she didn’t get tanned much, but Xiao Hechuan and Xiao Yi brothers faced the sun directly. Xiao Hechuan’s originally fair skin has now turned wheat-colored, but it doesn’t affect his appearance at all. Maybe it will turn white again in autumn.

When Mother Xiao heard that they were going to pray for rain, she asked them to take the dried mushrooms and black fungus to the dry goods store to sell them.

They were all picked from the mountains before, and they have been dried in the sun for several months.

There are three bags of mushrooms and one bag of wood ears. With these wood ears, I estimate that they can be sold for more than one tael of silver.

This year they are lucky and have more dried goods than other families, so it is time to sell them.

After drying, the mushrooms and fungus are not heavy and there is no burden.

However, when they were leaving, they met Chen Jinhua on the road. Chen Jinhua saw Jiang Sui and the others and was about to go to the town to join in the fun, but suddenly changed her mind and went in another direction.

When Jiang Sui saw her, she pretended not to see her and didn’t want to pay any attention to her.

Jiang Sui and Xiao Lanlan wore bamboo hats. When the three of them arrived at the town, many people had gathered at the town gate. The altar had been set up. All the pigs, cattle, sheep, and chickens had been slaughtered and placed on the altar. Two big drums were also brought in, one on each side.

The ceremony had not officially started yet, and the three of them were going to sell the dry goods first.

Jiang Sui’s forehead and back were all sweaty. The weather was really hot. Xiao Lanlan and Xiao Hechuan were not much better than her.

Except for snack stands that were not allowed to be set up for fear of affecting the heavenly sacrifice, all the grocery stores were still open.

The boss was very satisfied with the quality of their dried goods, and his eyes lit up when he found out they also had dried black fungus.

There is no shortage of dried mushrooms in Baima Town, but there are not many fungus. They are expensive and taste good, but we can’t harvest many kilograms a year.

They can then sell it to the county and make a profit from the difference.

This year, dried mushrooms are ten coins per catty, a total of fifty catties, or five hundred coins. Dried wood ear mushrooms are twice as expensive as mushrooms, twenty coins per catty, a total of twenty-five catties, also exactly five hundred coins, exactly one tael of silver.

In previous years, Xiao Lanlan would have been very happy if she could sell a few hundred coins from picking mushrooms, but this year was different. She directly sold them for one or two taels of silver. But all this was thanks to Jiang Sui.

The three of them completed the task assigned by Mother Xiao, and then went to pray for rain with peace of mind.

The ceremony had just started. The pavilion chief and several old men stood on the altar. One of them was holding a book and reading something in obscure classical Chinese. It should be a phrase for praying for rain.

There are several large incense sticks in the incense burner. Judging from their size, they can burn for a whole day.

There was fire burning in the brazier in front of the pavilion chief, and he kept burning paper in it.

The old man muttered for a long time before he finished reading the classical Chinese text, and then several people each held three incense sticks and began to kneel down and worship the offering.

One of the oldest men shouted. “Today, I have set up the altar and offered sacrifices to ask the gods for mercy and to send down a rain of blessings!”

After he finished shouting, someone began to beat drums rhythmically. The sound of the drums was so deafening that it felt like the yellow earth beneath their feet was shaking. Then, the people around him all knelt down one after another and began to follow his lead, chanting:

“Please God have mercy on us and give us some rain to save the crops.”

Jiang Sui didn’t believe this, but Xiao Lanlan had already pulled her to kneel down, and Xiao Hechuan didn’t understand why, so he knelt down too.

Everyone kneeled, and if she didn’t kneel, she would become the target of public criticism.

She just pretended to follow suit, but the scene was indeed grand. There were at least 800 people who came to watch today, if not a thousand. Baima Town was so small that the altar was surrounded by people.

It took at least a quarter of an hour before everyone got up, but the sound of the drums continued, and the young men took turns.

After this part, this heaven sacrifice was meaningless. Xiao Lanlan felt bored after having her fill and shouted that she wanted to go back.

On the way, she asked Jiang Sui. “Fourth sister-in-law, do you think praying for rain will work? Will it really rain?”

In fact, whether it rains or not is related to the atmosphere, and it is not something that can be controlled by these weird things. It is just deceiving oneself.

But Jiang Sui couldn’t say this in front of Xiao Lanlan, as praying for rain was a tradition in Baima Town.

“I don’t know, maybe.” That was all she could say.