Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 415: Driven Out of Liu Yang Village (1)_1

Chapter 415: Chapter 415: Driven Out of Liu Yang Village (1)_1

The next day, the weather cleared up as predicted. Bright sunlight sprinkled over the snow-covered ground, reflecting a translucent glow. A flock of unnamed birds clustered densely on the wall tops, chirping melodiously to the morning sun, adding liveliness to the quiet winter day!

The knee-deep snow absorbed the sun’s warmth and began to melt layer by layer, turning into meltwater. The snowmelt from the rooftops flowed down like little streams along the eaves, creating various sized puddles on the ground which slowly trickled towards lower-lying areas through the drainage ditches.

Taking advantage of the good weather, Mo Yan and the others moved the sausages and cured meats they had prepared in the previous days outside to sun dry in the courtyard. They also took their bedding off the beds, boiled several large pots of hot water, and embarked on a thorough washing.

Despite the nice weather and the comforting warmth of the sun, the day was a few degrees colder than during the snowfall. After Mo Yan and the others finished scrubbing their clothes and bedding with hot water and were about to take it to the river for rinsing, Mo Qingze, not wanting his daughters to soak in the cold water, unhesitatingly picked up the large wooden tub with the bedding and headed to the river.

The Mo Yan sisters didn’t think much of it. Back in Mo Family Village, when they were too young to wash the bulky items, Mo Qingze was the one who took them to wash by the water, never minding the ridicule from the other patriarchs in the village.

Lixiu’s nephew, having stayed in the Mo Family’s home for a while, knew that Mo Qingze was not as pedantic as most scholars, so the scene didn’t surprise him. Tang Xin, however, was witnessing this for the first time and was amazed; this made her even more envious of the Mo Family siblings for having such a good father.

Now with some free time, Mo Yan started to sort out the New Year’s gifts. Given the rate at which the snow was melting today, by tomorrow the snow on the roads would have completely thawed, and they could deliver the New Year gifts before the twenty-eighth.

The list of households to which they needed to give New Year’s gifts was fairly short, so it wasn’t too troublesome to organize. Excluding the clan relatives who had moved to Liu Yang Village, Lao Mo’s House, with whom they were closely related by blood, could not be overlooked. Although relations were not particularly harmonious, they hadn’t completely severed ties, and the proper courtesy still had to be observed.

Because of Mo Wu’s relationship with Tie Tou, Mo Yan originally planned to prepare more New Year’s gifts, but considering that Mo Wu’s family still lived with Mo Hong’s family and that giving more would ultimately benefit Mrs. Hong, she dismissed the idea. Instead, she planned to give Tie Tou a thicker red envelope after the rice shop closed on the twenty-ninth.

Besides Lao Mo’s House, the Village Head’s family also deserved a gift. That was simple enough—a stretch of pork and about twenty eggs would suffice. They couldn’t give less to the Punishing Shopkeeper and Owner Mu, and they needed to carefully prepare gifts for Yan Junyu, the Liu Family, and the Han Family, as well as for the teachers at the Academy.

After tallying it all up, there were indeed no few items to be given away. A large portion of the cured meats Mo Yan had painstakingly prepared vanished in an instant, as did nearly all of the fruit wine and glutinous rice wine she had stored in the cellar.

After carefully selecting the New Year’s gifts to be given to each family, Mo Yan compiled a list and handed it over to Mo Qingze, concerned that there might be some inappropriate choices, so he could look it over first to avoid making any mistakes with the gifts.

Mo Qingze reviewed the list twice, found no issues, and said with satisfaction, "Yanyan, you have become more and more careful in your work. Just follow this list; it’s quite good."

"Hehe, thanks for the praise, Dad. You’ll have to give me a bit more for my New Year’s money this year!" Mo Yan cheekily accepted her father’s compliment, her playful demeanor amusing Mo Qingze.

The father and daughter shared a laugh, then found clean oil paper, red paper, and bamboo baskets to carefully wrap the New Year’s gifts for each family. They looked quite presentable.

On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, it was still a bright sunny day. The ground, soaked by the snow water the day before and hardened by the cold night, became very firm apart from spots shielded from the sun. The snow on the ground had mostly melted, so traveling by horse-drawn carriage posed no problem.