An Auspicious Day Arrives at an Auspicious Time
Lv Xiucai and his wife had purposely put on a set of clean clothes. Under Li Zheng's lead, they arrived at Li Yao's home.
Seeing that a place had been specially prepared for studying, Lv Xiucai felt he was given due respect and was very satisfied. His entire face was smiling radiantly.
Many villagers had also rushed over to watch the liveliness, surrounding the courtyard.
The ceremony took place in the yard. On the square table there was a boiled pig head, pig tail, a jar of rice wine, half a radish and a few incense sticks.
Lv Xiucai lit the incense. Together with his four children, he paid respects from afar to his former teacher, praying that Wenqu Xing would bless them. Only then did he insert the incense into the half radish and sit on the bench with his wife.
After the four children had lined up in a row and performed the grand ceremony of three kowtows, they presented the six gifts for paying respect to a teacher.
The six gifts for paying respect were:
Celery, lotus seeds, red beans, red dates, and longan. These five kinds were worthless, purely for their auspicious meanings.
The last was dried meat, which was for giving the teacher a "tooth sacrifice."
But after searching the entire marketplace, Li Yao hadn't found anyone selling dried meat. So she had prepared an entire pig hind leg, salted it for three days, and had He Xiaoya roast it over a small fire for a whole day. She reckoned the inside should be thoroughly cooked. Lv Xiucai surely wouldn't mind.
Lv Xiucai's delight was genuinely written on his face.
Previously when villagers saw him, it was as if they were watching a joke. His wife at home, although she didn't say it explicitly, her words hinted that he couldn't earn money to support the family.
He was well aware of these matters in his heart, but he really was helpless. When he went to copy books for others, they thought he was too slow; when he did letter writing for others, they still thought he wasn't a true xiucai.
Now it was good. He had studied poetry and books for decades, and could finally earn money.
What's more, Wang Er Niang had made such a big scene, giving him face.
From now on, no one would say she was vulgar, no one would say she was a shrew. Ahem.
"She was really willing to give such a big pig leg."
"I heard she even gives 2 taels of silver each month. Lv Xiucai has hit the big time."
"It looks like their family earns a lot from selling food at the market."
...
The villagers whispered, almost all sounding envious.
However, there were also some discordant voices: "A widow, letting a grown man stay at her home every day, tsk tsk... I see her getting someone to teach is fake; she must be longing for a man, that's the truth!"
Although the voice wasn't loud, Li Yao heard it very clearly. Her eyes instantly narrowed.
A few days without showing off her might, she had truly forgotten she was a shrew!
But before she could speak, Wang Xue Shi's grating voice was like thunder, seemingly wanting to shatter everyone's eardrums.
"Zhu Yougui, you useless fool!"
"Your father died early. Does your mother also think of men every day at home?"
"Ill-mannered thing, dare to gossip again, and I'll skin you!"
Although Zhu Yougui was the village rogue, no one dared to really provoke Wang Xue Shi. Without even daring to continue watching the liveliness, he fled in defeat.
After cursing at his back a few more times, Wang Xue Shi then walked over with her husband Wang Jia Gui.
The couple were both dressed in clean clothes and cloth shoes, looking as if they were celebrating a festival.
Who was it yesterday saying they wouldn't come?
Of course it was even better that they came. They could just accompany Lv Xiucai to drink and eat.
Seeing it was getting late, Li Yao then went into the kitchen and started preparing lunch for the day.
Pig ears were sliced thin and mixed with shredded bamboo shoots for a cool salad.
The pig head meat and pig tails were also braised in broth. Arranged on a platter, it became a bowl of luwei.
With sweet and sour spareribs and minced garlic pork, four cold dishes were set on the table. She let Grandpa accompany Lv Xiucai and Li Zheng to drink wine.
The wine was the best rice wine from the marketplace. Aside from having a slightly lower alcohol content, the taste was still pretty good. The pity was no peanuts, otherwise it would've been perfect.
Returning to the kitchen to continue making hot dishes:
The red braised pork was premade by He Xiaoya. Li Yao only needed to adjust the flavors a bit, reduce it down over high heat, then it could be served.
Twice cooked pork, red braised fish, fish fragrant pork slices, also didn't take much time.
The cold dishes on the other side still hadn't been touched much. The hot dishes were already all prepared.
Finally, she brought out a pot of slowly simmered chicken soup. A full table of food that dazzled Lv Xiucai and his wife, and pained Wang Xue Shi.
These dishes must have cost 1-2 taels of silver!
Even a rich family's New Year's Eve dinner might not compare!
This wasteful wretch of a woman, how could she squander things like this!
If not for Lv Xiucai and Li Zheng here, she would have scolded Li Yao fully on the spot!
Meanwhile, Lv Xiucai and his wife also hadn't expected Li Yao to have prepared so ceremoniously. They only felt honored.
Country village rules weren't many, nor were there customs of separating men and women, young and old, when eating meals.
But the square table could only seat eight. He Xiaoya had low seniority, so she and Wang Xiao Si kept food in the kitchen to eat. As soon as Wang Xue Shi saw Li Yao had nowhere to sit, she directly dragged Wang San'er up.
"Go eat aside, let your mother sit."
Wang San'er was extremely delighted. Carrying his bowl he ran to the kitchen.
Sitting together with Lv Xiucai to eat was extremely awkward. After every bite, they had to put down their chopsticks, chat a few sentences, drink some wine, before picking up their chopsticks to eat another bite.
She reckoned the food had already been digested in their stomachs. The second bite still hadn't caught up.
When Li Yao noticed this situation, it was already too late for regrets. If she had known earlier, it would have been more refreshing to just eat in the kitchen.
In the end, the wine and food were plentiful, and host and guests were joyful.
The next day, Lv Xiucai came early at dawn to urge Wang Er to study.
They read over and over in the morning. After lunch he explained the essence and cited the classics, taught calligraphy, and when Da Zhuang and the others came back from their stall, taught them basic literary studies and wrote some simple words. By evening he taught some foundational math.
This could also be considered integrating language and numbers.
Li Yao secretly observed for the entire day. She discovered that once Lv Xiucai started teaching, it was as if he had become a different person. His eyes seemed to shine when teaching, and he was very attentive and careful.
His words were well written. A flowing clerical script, writing elegantly and neatly, with an orderly method.
Moreover, Li Yao felt Lv Xiucai truly had some learning.
He explained the essentials very clearly and thoroughly, citing the classics off the top of his head.
She was a bit puzzled. How could such a person have not even tested as a xiucai? Could it be the scholarly world of this world was also too competitive?
...
After getting Wang Er's studies in order, Li Yao continued fiddling with her menthol balm.
Through this period of experiments, she had already developed a relatively mature method.
To make perfect menthol balm, aside from the herbs, two more things were indispensable.
Tea seed oil and beeswax.
The mountain had both of these things and were easy to obtain.
After roasting the collected tea seeds until dry, press them to extract tea seed oil. Mince the dried assorted herbs and put them into the tea seed oil. Heat over low temperature in a water bath for 5 hours.
This allowed the effective components of the herbs to be fully released into the oil.
Likewise, melt beeswax in a water bath. Once liquefied, mix with the oil that had absorbed the herb essence.
After cooling, it became a green paste.
Sealed in jars, the menthol balm was finished.
The entire process wasn't complicated. The keys were the herb varieties and proportions.
To test the effects, Li Yao called everyone in the family over.
"Who here has been bitten by mosquitoes?"
Although it was nearing late autumn, there were still countless mosquitoes and bugs near the mountain forests. Each child had more or less some bumps on their bodies.
Li Yao let them apply the menthol balm.
"It's so cool!" Wang Xiao Si was the first to comment.
"Mm, it's cool and really comfortable. The itch goes away immediately."
He Xiaoya used a finger to dab a bit, bringing it to her nose to smell.
"The scent is also very nice, unlike the strong smell of herb paste. After trying some on my arm, it's also very smooth, no residue at all, and doesn't leave an obvious color."
The final effect reassured Li Yao.
In over ten minutes, the bumps from mosquito bites showed signs of fading. Apply some before sleeping, and they would be completely gone after waking up the next day.
Because mosquito-repelling herbs were also added, the mosquito repellent effects weren't bad either.
Li Yao bought an exquisite green porcelain cosmetics box and put in some menthol balm. Only then did she walk into a cosmetics shop called Zou's and directly look for the owner.