Chapter 345: Offerings to the Gods
After hearing Yan Bugui's threat and seeing that people were indeed entering the courtyard one after another, Wu Dafu and the others stopped worrying.

"Hurry up, Old Yan,

I have things to do at home, and I can't afford to stay here with you."

As more and more neighbors came to the courtyard to ask Yan Bugui to write couplets, every one of them would ask He Yuzhu about it, which made him very annoyed.
After finishing writing the couplet and the word "Fu" for He Yushui's side room,

So I packed up my things and moved to the central courtyard.

As a result, even though he moved to the Central Courtyard, he still could not escape the harassment from Jia Zhangshi and Yi Zhonghai, and even He Daqing was speaking for them.

In this regard, He Yuzhu still refused without hesitation.

"I said, Dad, what are you thinking about?

I wrote to Aunt Zhang and Uncle Daddy so as not to offend them, but I would offend Uncle Yan anyway.

You know that Uncle Yan doesn't buy melon seeds or peanuts every year, just waiting to make a little money by writing couplets and blessing characters.
This morning he was a little unhappy when I set up the table in the front yard to write.

If I try to steal his business again, what do you think he will think of me?

Not to mention that I was just helping out for free without any reward, even if Uncle Yi and Aunt Zhang gave me the same amount of peanuts and sunflower seeds, I couldn't turn against Uncle Yan for such a small amount of money.
Living next door to me, I can't see you when I look down, but I can see you when I look up. It's not worth it."

At the end, seeing that He Daqing stopped talking, He Yuzhu looked at Yi Zhonghai and the others and said,
"Uncle No. 1, Uncle No. 2, Aunt Zhang, you should go to Uncle Yan to ask about writing the couplets. I don't intend to get involved in this matter."

Seeing that He Yuzhu was unwilling to help, Yi Zhonghai and Jia Zhang looked at He Daqing again.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, I could only go to the front yard with the red paper.

After pasting the couplets and blessing characters on several houses, He Yushui and Li Qingshan took the Dingxi made by White Widow out of red paper to decorate the courtyard.

First, they put red hanging money on the doors of several rooms in their house;

Paste window decorations on glass windows;

He Yuzhu took out some short red papers and started writing spring couplets such as "Auspicious New Year", "Good fortune is around the corner", "Happy family", "Peace every year", "Attract wealth and treasure", and "Ten thousand taels of gold".

After the brothers and sisters finished posting their own homes,
Then he took spring strips with words like "The whole garden is full of brilliance", "Time is peaceful and long-lived", and "The family is blessed with happiness" and started to stick them on the wall.

After finishing the middle yard and the back yard, they went to the front yard. As soon as they walked out of the hanging flower gate, they saw that there were still quite a lot of neighbors gathered in front of the door of the Yan family opposite.

Several neighbors also saw He Yuzhu and his siblings coming out with spring strips.

Then he hurriedly greeted,

"Zhu Zi, the couplets at the gate of your courtyard are well written. Old Yan is so busy here, why don't you pick up your pen and help everyone write some!"

As soon as these words were spoken, most of the neighbors surrounding Yan Bugui turned their heads to look in the direction of the Chuihua Gate and began to make a fuss.

However, He Yuzhu still did not agree to them.
While pasting a piece of spring paper on the walls on both sides of the hanging flower door, he refused with a smile,
"Don't say that. Uncle Yan relies on the small amount of money you give him every year to give to his brother and sister as snacks. It would be inappropriate for me to interfere. If you think Uncle Yan writes too slowly,

Aren’t there people writing these things in the yards next door? Why not ask them for help? "

Seeing that He Yuzhu refused, they did not force him.

As for going to other courtyard houses, the prices there were too high, so they were naturally not happy about it.

After looking at the hanging money and paper-cuts posted by He Yushui and Li Qingshan, the neighbors smiled and changed the subject.

"Zhu Zi, you two have really invested a lot this year.

Wow, there are so many paper-cuts on the windows of my house, and so many spring strips on the walls of the courtyard, it looks so festive.
You guys put so much thought into just the scenery, I'm sure you'll have to set up nine halls when you worship the gods later!"

“I think it must be done.

Given He Daqing's temper, it would be a bit unreasonable for him not to set up nine halls to worship the gods and three animals to offer sacrifice to the ancestors when his son returned safely from the front line and was so successful.

Maybe He Daqing is preparing these things at home right now!"

The gods that the neighbors are talking about are the six gods of the house, namely the gods of heaven, land, dragon king, door gods, kitchen gods, and warehouse gods, who are responsible for protecting the safety of the house.

As for setting up nine halls, it refers to nine halls of tribute.
They are:
The first session is honey offering, which is fried small dough cakes, rolled in sugar or honey while still hot, and piled into a tower shape, 1 bowls for one session;
The second set is a set of mooncakes, which is to stack 2 mooncakes with the word "longevity" on them of different sizes, and put a longevity peach on top, also 5 bowls for one set;
The third course is Chengtang Mianxian, which is to make desserts in the shape of peaches, apples, oranges, persimmons, Buddha's hands and other fruits with flour, and each course also has 3 bowls.
The fourth class serves fruits, which are mainly citrus fruits, apples and other five kinds of fruits, and also provides 4 bowls;
The fifth section is for dried fruits, which mainly include assorted preserved fruits, coarse and fine mixed dried fruits, and 5 bowls are provided;
The sixth session is for flower cakes or eight different kinds of cakes, with five bowls of them;
Lesson 7: New Year's Eve Dinner with Rice Cakes,
One yellow and one white rice cake, two bowls, one jujube on top and one jujube on the bottom, with gold ingots of [Liu Hai Sa Qian] inserted on both sides.

Put a bowl of New Year's Eve rice in the middle, and put longan, lychee, raw chestnuts, red dates and other New Year's Eve fruits on the rice.

In the center, a large persimmon is used with a pine branch with pine beans inserted on it, and five copper coins are tied with a red rope to make a money tree.

The 8th vegetarian dumplings or steamed buns need to be decorated with red dots to indicate auspiciousness, also 5 bowls.
The 9th class is about deep-fried and vegetarian stir-fried dishes, including deep-fried pork chops, deep-fried Sanzi, deep-fried vegetarian meatballs, deep-fried Chinese toon fish, and fried monk vegetable, etc.

Although these nine tributes seem insignificant in later generations,

But in the early years, most people couldn't afford it.

That is to say, now that life is getting better and better, ordinary people are gradually having some spare money, otherwise they really would not be able to set up the nine halls of offerings.

Seeing that the neighbors were all looking at him, He Yuzhu smiled and nodded.

"Look at what you said,
This is not the time before liberation, when people were poorly clothed and hungry, and couldn't even take care of themselves.
Now, not only can we have enough food to eat, but every household also buys new clothes for the New Year.
What's the big deal about setting up nine halls of offerings when offering sacrifices to the gods?
I guess you guys still have three halls in your house like in the old days! You are not afraid of your ancestors and the gods of the house looking for bad luck with you. "

Everyone has a desire to compete, not to mention that the old Beijingers live for their reputation.
In front of ancestors and gods,
How could these neighbors admit in front of He Yuzhu that they still made three offerings to worship their ancestors and gods as they did before?

Hearing He Yuzhu teasing that they were still as stingy as before,
The neighbors followed suit and patted their chests to show off without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)