On the day of putting up the main beam.
Early in the morning, almost all the villagers came to Li Yao’s new house. Thanks to the large courtyard in the middle of the new house, the hundreds of people did not feel crowded at all.
Wang Jia Gui and Wang Xueshi wore their newest clothes and shoes today, and came over early in the morning to help. Li Yao did not understand the customs of putting up the main beam, but the old couple were busy and happy, so she let them go about it.
According to local customs, ancestors had to be worshipped before putting up the beam.
A large square table was full of chicken, duck, fish, goose, tofu, eggs, liquor, an entire pig's head, and a piece of pork butt with the tail.
When the auspicious time arrived, Wang Jia Gui lit incense and spirit money, and led Li Yao's family to kneel on the ground and pay respects to their ancestors.
This time, Li Yao did not resist and could accept worshipping her ancestors.
After the ancestral worship was completed, it was the carpenter's turn to go on stage.
The one in charge of today’s entire beam-raising process was Qiu Carpenter, the most senior and respected old carpenter from the neighboring village. He was 66 years old this year, with all white beard and hair, but his body and spirit were still very good, and his voice was loud like a big horn.
Today’s Qiu Carpenter wore clean clothes with a red cloth tied around his waist, and held a bronze gong in his hand. He was just waiting for the auspicious time to come before striking it heavily.
Dong—
With a sound of the gong, Qiu Carpenter stood on the wall, happily announcing in a loud voice:
“Today we are raising the main beam, the owner is building a nice hall!”
“The hall is built under the dragon's mouth, let's all work together to raise the beam!”
Dong—
Eight young men with red cloths tied around their waists carried over a straight main beam pasted with red paper.
After tying both ends with ropes, several people climbed onto the wall and grabbed the ropes together.
“One step to gain the present prosperity!”
“Two steps to welcome the double phoenix!”
“Three steps for the three abundances!”
“Four steps to prosper in all four seasons!”
“Five steps for the five grains to be plentiful!”
“Six steps for the spring harmony!”
“Seven steps for the seven stars to shine high!”
“Eight steps for the eight immortals to sail the seas!”
“Nine steps for the nine generations to pass the imperial exam!”
Qiu Carpenter shouted a line each time, and everyone pulled the ropes up accordingly.
The ropes could not be pulled randomly. The length of each pull had to be calculated in advance.
The two sides also had to be in sync, exerting force at the same time, absolutely not allowing the main beam to be higher on one side.
Otherwise, the owner would feel it was inauspicious and would be very unhappy.
Fortunately, these young men were all trained in advance by Qiu Carpenter, and also had rich experience. So they completed it beautifully.
Dong—
With another sound of the gong, there was only one more pull before the main beam could be completely raised.
“The tenth step, it’s done!”
“Glory, wealth, and longevity for ten thousand, ten thousand, ten thousand years—”
Everything went smoothly. Qiu Carpenter gleefully said to Li Yao: “Mistress, it's your turn to go up now.”
Li Yao went up to the roof via the scaffolding, put a red envelope she had prepared earlier in the middle of the beam, and wrapped it tightly with a large piece of red cloth.
The red cloth bag contained the five grains, implying harvests of the five grains.
Qiu Carpenter put away the gong and bowed deeply to Li Yao: “Congratulations Mistress, congratulations!”
Li Yao knew the carpenter was asking for a tip, so she handed over the red envelope she had prepared earlier.
Wang Xueshi had specifically reminded her yesterday that this red envelope had to be quite big. If the carpenter thought you were stingy, he might not say as many auspicious words.
Some petty ones might even curse you secretly.
Li Yao didn't really believe in these things, but the red envelope was certainly not skimpy. She had noticed these past few days that Qiu Carpenter worked hard and did his best.
Feeling the weight of the red envelope, Qiu Carpenter's smile became even brighter. His auspicious words flowed like strings of firecrackers.
Then came the most exciting moment for the villagers—scattering the five grains.
Many people had heard in advance that the variety of five grains prepared by Li Yao was simply amazing. Not only all kinds of fried snacks, but also sugar cubes bought from the market, and even real copper coins!
Copper coins were real money. Picking up even one coin was earning one coin!
Qiu Carpenter put down the gong and had people carry up a large full basket onto the wall.
“I invite the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady, to bestow the five grains!”
Swish—
After reciting a line, Qiu Carpenter grabbed a handful from the basket and scattered it towards the crowd.
“May the descendants be blessed, gain fortune, and longevity!”
Swish—
“Scattering a handful of grains, dispels tens of thousands of disasters!”
Swish—
......
Below, the hundreds of villagers were happily picking up the grains.
Since the preparation was ample, almost everyone picked up a few copper coins and was extremely delighted.
“Li Yao is really generous!”
“She’s scattering money! Just this one basket must be at least a few taels of silver!”
In high spirits, the villagers naturally became very festive.
After scattering the five grains, everyone stayed busy by moving square tables and long benches from their homes and filling up the even courtyard.
The chefs were even busier, working at full steam.
To prepare for this banquet, the chef had come over yesterday morning to get ready.
The kitchen was too small to accommodate everything, so several mud stoves were set up on the open ground with several large pots hung over them.
Bowls, chopsticks, plates, cups were piled up like a mountain. All kinds of ingredients waiting to be cooked covered several large tables, and a dozen big steamers emitted mist.
Wang Xueshi led the second and third daughter-in-laws, as well as the Wang family’s women to arrange bowls and chopsticks on the tables.
“Let’s start the feast!”
“Everyone please sit anywhere you’d like!”
With Wang Jia Gui’s call, villagers quickly surrounded several dozen tables.
Fortunately, Li Yao’s preparation was ample, and almost everyone could have a seat without the embarrassing situation of more than ten people squeezing together.
After a few cold dishes were served, it was time for the main courses - whole stewed chicken, whole stewed old duck, braised pork elbow, braised fish. With these four extremely lavish dishes, the villagers couldn’t help but be amazed inwardly.
Li Yao was being fancy!
Even rich families hosting banquets might not be able to prepare all these dishes.
Especially the fish - they were hard to buy nowadays with rivers drying up everywhere. So many fish could only be bought from Yizhou Prefecture!
There were also braised pork belly, stuffed sand pork, fragrant soup bowls... even snow fungus soup!
Snow fungus was not hard to buy these years, but rock sugar was difficult to acquire!
It was definitely not available at Baichuan Market. To buy rock sugar one had to go to Yizhou Prefecture.
What excited the men the most was that Li Yao had bought fine liquor, with a big pot at each table. People could drink their fill and add more if it wasn’t enough!
“This is probably the best banquet I've had in my life.”
“Yes, don’t know if there will be another chance to eat like this in the future.”
“There will be plenty of chances. Li Yao still has three unmarried sons!”
......
Li Yao sat at the main table, still wearing plain clothes, but her complexion was increasingly fair, with red lips and white teeth. She sat upright, with a cup of liquor in front of her.
However, she didn't actually drink it. Whenever someone toasted her, she just tipped the cup to her lips, while others didn't care about such details and just drained their cup when toasting her.
When the banquet was nearing the end, Liu's wife threaded through the crowd and came to Li Yao’s ear.
“Your mother is here, standing at the foot of the slope.”
Li Yao frowned.
She had a premonition early in the morning that things wouldn’t go smoothly today. It seemed to be coming true now.
So she apologized and prepared to go see alone - what tricks would her old mother try to pull today.