Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Before she finished her words, she heard a "bang" and Li slammed the table in anger, saying loudly: "What's wrong with you two sisters today? You keep talking to each other, be careful that our ancestors will blame you."

As he said this, he quickly stood up, turned around and bowed to the table with scriptures and Buddhist beads, muttering: "Ancestors, these two girls didn't mean it. Children speak without restraint. Don't blame me. You still have to protect these three siblings."

Seeing that Yutao was also scolded, the three of them didn't dare to say anything and just focused on eating.

After Li finished her greetings, her complexion became better. She sat down again and pointed at Yucheng and said, "Look at you two sisters. Yucheng doesn't talk nonsense. This is a good child."

Yu Cheng was just finishing the last mouthful of soup in his bowl and was about to get some more. When he heard Li praising him, he smiled innocently and said to Li, "Mother, the soup that my elder sister cooked today is sour and spicy, and really delicious. Mother, do you think it tastes good? Do you want me to get you another bowl?"

When Li heard this, she was choked and speechless. She pointed at Yucheng and kept nodding, her face turning red again.

Shen Yu was afraid that Li was really angry, so she tried to hold back her smile and comforted her: "Mom, don't be angry. It's our fault. We are ignorant and made you angry. We will never talk nonsense again in the future. If we don't understand something, you teach us and we will remember it and do what you say."

After hearing this, Li felt that it was more decent, her complexion became better, her tone softened, and she said earnestly, "You are still young, and you don't understand some things, so you talk nonsense. Since your father fell ill, he couldn't take care of the living, let alone the ancestors. During festivals, we don't have money, so we can't buy a decent offering. We just try our best to get two things together and get by. In the past, when the family was doing well, we would worship our ancestors on the 14th day of the seventh month every year. We would have all kinds of fruits, vegetarian chicken, seeds, and milk cakes, filling the table, but you were still young at that time and don't remember much."

After hearing the reason, Yutao immediately felt that she had said something wrong to make her mother angry. She walked behind Li with a smile on her face, patted Li's shoulders, and said with a smile: "I know, mother has money in her hands this year, so you must be filial to our ancestors and let them know that our family has started to live a good life again."

Li's words seemed to touch her heart, and she smiled brightly. She patted Yu Tao's hand on her shoulder and said with a smile, "You're the only one who knows. You're so clever."

Shen Yu listened to Li's reminiscences of the glorious past and finally understood that July 15th is the Ghost Festival, while July 14th is for ancestor worship and reporting to them that the family had a good year.

Shen Yu muttered to himself, "This is not very different from the modern ghost festival where people are afraid to go out at night. I wonder if there will be any different activities tomorrow, July 15th."

Li looked out the door at the sky and urged Yucheng, "Yucheng, eat quickly. After you finish eating, we will go buy offerings for the ancestor worship. If you are late, we will not be able to buy them."

Yucheng nodded, stretched his neck to swallow the bun in his mouth, stood up, indicating that he had finished eating.

Li stood up and turned back before leaving, saying, "Yuzhi, this soup is sour and spicy, it's really good. I'll make it tomorrow. Especially the egg in it, it's so tender and smooth, it tastes better than boiled eggs."

After saying this, he went to get the silver from under his bed.

Shen Yu looked at Li and Yucheng with amusement as they hurriedly pushed the cart out the door. He shook his head helplessly, and together with Yutao, he cleaned up the dishes and prepared to make buns for lunch.

When the buns were almost steamed and the mung bean porridge was almost cooked, Li and Yucheng came back pushing the cart.

Shen Yu kept paying attention to the time while making the buns, and only felt relieved when he saw Li and the others came back.

It is almost time for lunch delivery. If Li and Yucheng don't come back, there will be no cart available.

He was anxious and blamed Li for being so focused on ancestor worship that he forgot about business.

Just as I was hesitating whether to go to Mrs. Liu's house next door to borrow a cart, the gate of the courtyard rang.

Li bought all the items he wanted and was very satisfied. When he returned home and saw the steaming steamer and the bubbling mung bean porridge, he remembered the serious matter of delivering the lunch on a cart.

Li suddenly felt that she had not done things carefully enough. She was so busy buying things at the market that she almost came back late, thus delaying the family's money-making event.

Although she felt that she had done something wrong and had a somewhat embarrassed look on her face, she still said stubbornly, "You're back just in time. Hurry up and pack up. We're going to deliver the food."

As he spoke, he didn't care about his dry throat, and hurriedly unloaded the things from the car with Yu Cheng, and helped Shen Yu carry the steamer.

Shen Yu saw that she was busy with sweat on her forehead and her throat was hoarse. The anxiety and unhappiness she had just felt while waiting for Li to come back had long gone. She hurriedly said, "Mother, you don't have to keep busy. Yutao and I can send her off. You and Yucheng can sit down and take a rest."

Li still wanted to help, but Shen Yu simply pushed her to sit on a small stool and held her down to prevent her from getting up.

Seeing that the buns had been steamed, Li saw that there was not much left to do, so she stopped working and called Yucheng to come over for some water.

Shen Yu and Yu Tao packed up the steamer and porridge pot, took the booklet folder and other things, and were about to pull the cart to set off when Yu Cheng jumped out of the house and shouted, "Sister, wait for me, I will help you push the cart."

Shen Yu was a little hesitant. Yu Cheng had been running around with Li for the whole morning, and the weather was hot.

Li came out of the house and said, "Let Yucheng go and push the cart. He has been eating good food three times a day these days, and Yucheng is much stronger than before."

After hearing this, Shen Yu nodded, and the three siblings pulled the cart out of the yard.

As soon as she walked out of the alley, she saw a half-grown boy carrying a basket and selling cockscombs on the street. Yutao pointed and said, "I've bought cockscombs before, but they were all small, not as big and pretty as this one."

Shen Yu didn't understand what he meant, but Yu Cheng said, "Oh, no wonder mother just kept saying whether she bought too little or not. Did she buy too little of these flowers?"

Yutao was a little hesitant. She couldn't remember clearly whether Li used these flowers to worship ancestors. She only vaguely remembered that Li bought them.

Shen Yu smiled and said, "That's easy. We can just ask the shop owner. If he says we need some for ancestor worship, we can just buy some and take them back."

Yutao and Yucheng both thought this was a good idea, so they pushed the cart together towards the first store.

When the shopkeeper heard about cockscombs, he smiled and said, "Why did you think of buying them only today? Cockscombs become a hot commodity in July. They are used to decorate vases during ancestor worship every year. Those who buy them now are busy on weekdays and are only buying them today. If you buy them now, you may not be able to buy good ones."