HLnovel Chapter 288 Mid-Autumn Festival Gift
Chapter 288 Mid-Autumn Festival Gift
Gu Wenxuan and his team did not take the three empty carriages back to the village, but left them in the state capital. They would send the other three carriages in a few days and return them to the Mu family.
They set out early the next morning and finally returned to the village when the sunset on the third day was only a last ray of light left.
When passing by Fang's and Bai Jingshan's houses, they did not get off the carriage. They just shouted to their families through the gate, and then followed them to the end of the village to unload the carriage.
Bai Jingzhou's family had moved next door to Gu Wenxuan's house after the moisture in their house had dissipated. Hearing the noise, adults and children from both families rushed out to greet them.
The children were the first to rush out, chattering around their older brothers and sisters. Then the adults walked out quickly, and Bai Jingzhou, Gu Wenxuan and others went over to call them one by one.
Mr. Gu and others carefully looked at these younger generations who had been away from home for a long time to see if they had lost weight.
With tears in her eyes, Mrs. Li was about to say the word "thin", but she found that her children seemed to have become rounder than before they went out, and she couldn't say with a clear conscience that they had become thinner.
For a moment, the adults had a complex feeling of relief yet discomfort.
Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou greeted their own families first with a smile, and then greeted each other's families respectively. Jia Yuelan, Fang Youfu and others also came forward to greet the elders.
Everyone was talking to each other, and their voices echoed throughout the small space in front of the two courtyards.
Gu Wenxuan didn't let everyone delay for too long. Seeing that everyone had greeted each other, she reminded them, "Don't chat yet. Let's unload everything from the car first."
Bai Chong was the first to respond, "Yes, yes, let's unload the car first."
With the help of Fang Youfu and others as well as relatives from the Bai and Gu families who arrived later, unloading the truck did not take the Gu and Bai families too much time.
Everyone first drove the carriage into the Gu family yard, and then unloaded the earthenware that the Lin family had given to the Gu family. The remaining items that belonged to Bai Jingzhou would be directly transported to the Bai family yard next door by carriage.
The things they bought themselves were easy to divide, since they both paid for them together, so the Gu and Bai families could just split the things equally.
The various seeds, strawberry seedlings, various saplings, and two carefully preserved boxes of silkworms that Gu Wenxuan and her friends exchanged with others were first taken care of by Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, with Bai Jingzhou mainly in charge of their care.
When everything sprouts next spring, whoever wants it can come to them and share some.
The twelve boxes of books were placed with Bai Jingzhou first. If anyone else wanted them later, they could just copy one and take it back.
All their notes on experience in farming, breeding, cocoon making and silk reeling, silk weaving, etc. were summarized by Bai Jingzhou, who sorted them out, removed the dross and retained the essence, and bound them into a book.
Everyone helped move the things from Gu Wenxuan's and Bai Jingzhou's homes to the designated location. Just as they were about to go back home, the women of the Gu family and Ning Cuizhi brought them a bowl of hot eggplant and minced pork noodles with soybean paste.
A group of people had worked hard to move things, but now they could not move at all when they saw the food. After washing their hands and faces, they lined up at the table to get chopsticks and large bowls of noodles.
After eating and drinking, the Fang brothers and Bai Jingshan followed their family back home. As their belongings were still in the carriage, Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan asked them to drive the carriage back first and return it after unloading the goods.
Jia Yuelan and Ning Qirui stayed at Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou's homes respectively, and would return to their own homes tomorrow.
It just so happened that Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan were going to start sending Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to their friends the next day, so they could just take the carriage and take them home.
This time, the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts sent by the Gu family and the Bai family included some local rituals brought back by Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou.
The Gu family mainly gave gifts to Gu Wenxuan's grandparents, Li's brothers from her mother's side, Gu Xing's family, Gu Tong's family, Bai Lizheng's family, and the families of Bai Jingshan and Ning Qirui who always followed Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou.
The Bai family mainly gave gifts to Bai Jingzhou's eldest uncle, second uncle's family, Bai Lizheng's family, Peng Xuan'an's family, and some members of the Bai clan who had a very good relationship with their family.
It is worth mentioning that Peng Xuan'an has made a lot of progress since he experienced the dangerous incident in the mountains. This year, he even passed the imperial examination and became a scholar.
His family's registered residence was not in Qingshan County, so the child went back to their hometown, Yaoshan County, to take the exam. After the results were announced in Yaoshan County, County Magistrate Peng, who received the message from his clansmen, exclaimed "May our ancestors bless you." Peng Xuan'an's two uncles immediately used their connections to send him to the Xingzhou provincial school to enroll.
It should be explained here that Peng Xuan’an’s maternal grandfather’s family originally worked under the new emperor’s rival family. The reason why the new emperor defeated the rival family but Peng Xuan’an’s two uncles were not implicated by their old master was because Mu Hanzhi acted as a middleman and persuaded Peng Xuan’an’s eldest uncle.
Peng Xuan and Mu Jingzhi have a good relationship. With them as bridges, Mu Hanzhi easily met Peng Xuan'an's uncle.
He persuaded Peng Xuan'an's uncle, and in the final battle between the two sides, Peng Xuan'an's uncle did not choose to fight to the death, but chose to open the city and surrender for the safety of the lives of the soldiers and civilians in the city.
After the emperor accepted the surrender, although he did not use him as much as he used Mu Hanzhi, he also gave him the reward he deserved.
Not only was he promoted to a higher rank and transferred to other places to continue leading troops, but his mother and wife were also given titles, and his youngest son, who was weak and unsuitable for martial arts training, was given a place to study at the Imperial Academy.
Peng Xuan'an's maternal grandfather's family became more powerful because of this, but his two uncles did not get carried away. Instead, they more strictly restrained their clansmen and relatives, guarding against anyone who violated the law and was caught by the new dynasty and implicated the entire family.
Thanks to them, even though Peng Xuan'an was only the son of a county magistrate, no one dared to bully him in the provincial school.
Bai Jingzhou and Peng Xuan'an had frequent correspondence, and he was one of the first people to be notified. This time, when sending a holiday gift to Peng County Magistrate's family, Bai Jingzhou also wrote a letter congratulating Peng Xuan'an on his success in high school and asked the steward of Peng County Magistrate's family to help pass it to Peng Xuan'an.
In the letter, he told Peng Xuan'an that he had many new books, which he would copy out and share with him and Mu Jingzhi later. He also attached a list of books and asked Peng Xuan'an which ones he wanted and which ones he didn't want.
County Magistrate Peng admired Bai Jingzhou very much. When Bai Jingzhou went to give him a holiday gift, County Magistrate Peng personally entertained Bai Jingzhou and also gave him a very generous return gift.
After returning from the county town, Bai Jingzhou took his men to the provincial capital again.
They were going to return the Mu family's carriages. Along with the carriages, sent to the Mu Mansion were the generous Mid-Autumn Festival gifts prepared by Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan, as well as a long letter written by Bai Jingzhou to the Mu brothers.