The twenty-ninth was for ancestral worship; the thirtieth was for family reunion.

With Second Master and the three elder cousins present, this New Year was especially lively.

In ancient households, whether days were prosperous or not could be seen from the number of people keeping vigil for the New Year.

The Yang family had passed several cold and cheerless New Years. Inside and outside the house, there were altogether only Great Master and Ninth Brother as male members.

No matter how many daughters there were, it didn’t feel lively.

This year was different.

Second Master led the nephews in pasting spring couplets and setting off firecrackers inside and out.

They also led the group to raid the kitchen for fried foods—fried meatballs, fried little fish…

This prompted Great Madam to scold with a laugh: “You’re master of your own household now, yet still act like you never grew up.”

The daughters were also infected with happiness. Led by Fifth Miss, the younger girls all held cotton cloth tigers and played with each other, along with various toys—sheep bone knucklebones, beanbags, backgammon…

Normally, these daughters of great families had to conduct themselves with stillness and propriety. Even someone with Fifth Miss’s temperament only dared to play backgammon.

These jumping and hopping games could only be brought out to play during the few days of New Year.

The young ladies all played until their heads were covered in sweat.

Great Madam, Second Madam, Third Miss, and Fourth Miss were much more refined.

Third Miss and Fourth Miss formed one group, playing dominoes with Great Madam and Second Madam. Later, when the two elders became engrossed, they simply gave face to the concubines and everyone sat down to form a foursome, letting Third Miss and Fourth Miss go aside to play dominoes together.

Great Master was instead at leisure, so he had the three sisters from Huansha Cove pound his back and knead his feet while he rested with closed eyes in the inner room.

Great Madam had time to instruct the younger generation: “When coming and going, move more quietly. Your father has labored all year—these few days are the only time he can rest.”

“Yes.” The young ladies’ loud responses instead disturbed Great Master in the inner room, causing his slight snoring to pause.

Great Madam couldn’t help but laugh. “Truly more hindrance than help.”

Great Master wasn’t angry though. Instead, he called Third Miss inside to chat idly with her.

Inside and out, harmony and happiness prevailed.

In the evening, banquets were opened in the western side room and western corner room. After everyone ate merrily, they divided into several groups—some played mahjong, some threw dice, all using golden melon seeds as stakes. They didn’t care about winning or losing, just seeking festive liveliness.

Seventh Miss also mixed in with her sisters, throwing dice with them to compete for red. She lost all her golden melon seeds early on, while Fifth Miss had good luck with a small pile of golden melon seeds before her.

Sixth Miss also lost quickly. As her chips gradually disappeared, she pulled Seventh Miss, and the two struck simultaneously, swift as lightning, snatching back a handful of golden melon seeds from Fifth Miss.

Third Miss was amused to great laughter, and even Fourth Miss showed a smile. Dage and Hongge laughed so hard they pounded their chests and stomped their feet. Fifth Miss angrily pinched Sixth Miss’s waist. “Spit it out, spit it out! Watch me not tear your mouth apart!”

From past to present, spanning a hundred years, everything had changed, yet this New Year atmosphere would never change.

When it was nearly midnight, the whole family gathered to wrap dumplings and yuanxiao.

The Yang family were Northwest people serving as officials in Jiangnan. Northerners ate dumplings at midnight, while southerners ate yuanxiao. The Yang family simply made both, eating some of each—adapting to local customs while not forgetting their roots.

Second Master taught Hongge in gentle tones.

“Use the tiger’s mouth to pinch the top, then press hard, both hands working together.”

While speaking, he wrapped a neat little dumpling.

“Try it?”

Hongge was after all a boy, careless and clumsy, and actually tore through the freshly rolled dumpling skin.

Even Sixth Miss, who usually threaded needles with the most skillful hands, couldn’t wrap a proper dumpling.

Great Master, Great Madam, and Second Master all produced perfect ingot-shaped dumplings with each pinch.

Watching the maids carry away the crooked dumplings the children had wrapped, Second Master was moved to reflection.

“In the past, how could the family afford such extravagance? Though we weren’t short of money, we absolutely didn’t dare waste resources… I still remember the first year Sister-in-law married in, the dumplings she wrapped fell apart as soon as they hit water, eventually becoming a pot of paste. Didn’t Elder Brother still steel himself to add vinegar and drink it all down? On New Year’s Day, he went into the outhouse and wouldn’t come out…”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Great Madam laughed so hard she couldn’t hold the dumpling in her hand. The winter mushroom and dried shrimp filling scattered across the table.

“That was over twenty years ago!”

Her gaze toward Second Master grew tender. “When I first married in, Second Uncle couldn’t even recognize a single character. All day he mixed with the lowest scoundrels in the clan, didn’t dress properly, wore a torn jacket hanging open, exposing his oily black belly!”

Looking at the impeccably dressed Second Master now, the children laughed until they couldn’t move.

Great Master also rarely had the interest to reminisce.

“How could we have imagined we’d have such good days now?” He spoke to his children about remembering past hardships. “The family altogether only had a dozen or so hectares of land, the harvests weren’t good, and every year we had to go to the clan leader’s house to fight lawsuits, demanding back the farmland the clan had embezzled.”

“Had to manage the livelihood and study at the same time… Back then your Second Uncle was just a child. Before the provincial examination I still had to arrange selling grain and fight with the tenant farmers. I entered the examination hall dizzy and disoriented. A big drop of ink fell on the rice paper. My heart turned cold right then: I’d soiled my examination paper, this time I probably couldn’t pass.”

The children all listened with great interest.

From birth they had lived in silk and jade—how could they imagine the Yang family had such a destitute past?

“So I just threw caution to the wind.” Great Master’s face gradually radiated a hidden brilliance. “Criticizing current affairs, laughing and raging… Never expected it would actually suit my examination supervisor’s taste. Though I’d soiled the paper, he stubbornly promoted me to pass the juren examination. He also recommended me to submit my papers at your maternal grandfather’s residence.”

Great Qin’s imperial examinations tested not only the eight-legged essay but also poetry and prose.

This tested not just talent but also the examinee’s connections. At that time, Imperial Tutor Qin was at the height of power. That Great Master could submit papers to the Qin family—it had to be said he’d received tremendous favor.

“Your maternal grandfather was still young and vigorous then. He read my papers and applauded enthusiastically…” Great Master smiled toward Great Madam. “He called me in to ask about my background and talked with me by candlelight until the third watch. The next day he sent people to the Shaanxi Guild Hall to propose marriage, saying it was for his legitimate Fourth Miss…”

“That was so many years ago!” Great Madam couldn’t help but feel greatly embarrassed. “Why bring it up?”

Great Master laughed as he spoke. “The legitimate Fourth Miss still had no husband’s family. He asked if I was engaged. When I was just a few years old, your grandparents both died of epidemic disease. How could anyone have come to propose marriage? Naturally I wasn’t yet married. One thing led to another—with my examination supervisor as matchmaker, your mother was carried through our doors… In the blink of an eye, over twenty years!”

Though Great Master spoke lightly, at such a young age he’d managed the household and studied diligently, and by only around twenty had moved his examination supervisor with his literary talent, been exceptionally selected, and carefully recommended to Imperial Tutor Qin. The spirited, commanding youthful grace of that time could be imagined.

Even now in old age, he was a distinguished old scholar of proper bearing. His youthful romantic charm needed no further mention.

Everyone couldn’t help but look toward Great Madam, imagining what kind of feelings she must have had when joining the Yang family and seeing her young, romantic husband.

Great Madam felt somewhat embarrassed. “Master is also too rash, in front of the children…” She covered up by urging, “These dumplings are enough. Better wrap some yuanxiao.”

Everyone brushed the flour from their knee protectors and switched to pre-rolled yuanxiao skins, filling them with lard and sesame filling.

The yuanxiao were wrapped, and the dumplings also came to the table.

They had large filling and thin skins—clearly not the children’s handiwork.

Fifth Miss felt somewhat disappointed. “We wrapped for nothing!”

Great Madam laughed and instructed Lidong, “Then boil the dumplings they wrapped too and see how many our Little Five can eat.”

Needless to say, these dumplings either had burst seams or lacked filling—lumps of dough in the mouth, how could they compare to the dumplings Auntie Cao wrapped?

Fifth Miss only ate two before sneakily reaching for the good dumplings. Ninth Brother saw her and another round of laughter ensued.

Lively and bustling, they passed midnight.

Everyone quickly rose to set off firecrackers and change into new clothes. Led by Minge, the children one by one paid respects to their elders and received red envelopes of New Year money. Even the maids and matrons serving inside and out all received reward money.

They still had to receive the gods and tread on evil spirits, drink tusu wine, hang peach charms, welcome the Kitchen God, the God of Wealth, the three stars of Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity…

The clamor continued until nearly dawn before everyone returned to their rooms to rest. At noon they rose again to eat leftover frozen dumplings boiled from the previous year.

The Yang family had no clan relatives in Suzhou. Their two married daughters were also far away.

On New Year’s Day and the second day, no one came to pay New Year calls—only various kinds of New Year cards piled up in great stacks.

“The Zhang family, Li family, Wang family… another Wang family…” Fifth Miss flipped through a few and lost interest.

Since Great Master was granted the title of Left Pillar of State, such greeting cards arrived in several stacks every holiday.

By the third day of the New Year, things became lively.

On New Year’s Day, by custom clan relatives visited each other. On the second day, married daughters returned to their natal homes.

The third day was when colleagues, old friends, relatives and friends came calling.

Jiangsu Provincial Administration Commissioner Li Wenqing was naturally first.

Early in the morning he brought Lady Li and three legitimate sons—Dalang, Sanlang, and Shier Lang—to pay New Year respects to Great Master.

“May Lady Yang have good fortune in all four seasons, everything going smoothly!”

The men naturally stayed in the outer courtyard. Lady Li went straight to the inner courtyard to pay New Year respects to Great Madam.

Great Madam’s face was wreathed in smiles as she rose to exchange bows with Lady Li.

“Health in the New Year, everything going smoothly!”

The children naturally also lined up to congratulate Lady Li on the New Year.

Lady Li was kind and pleasant, speaking auspicious words while personally distributing New Year money.

Seeing Sixth Miss and Seventh Miss, she seemed to see living treasures, unable to put them down, praising this one then that one.

“Sixth Miss is also twelve this year?” She asked Great Madam.

“Yes, she has the appearance of a young lady now!”

Great Madam also looked at Sixth Miss with appreciation.

Red was worn in the first month. Sixth Miss wore a bright red jacket sprinkled with golden butterflies, paired with a light red silver-threaded hundred-flower eight-panel Xiang skirt. Her hair was braided in two large plaits hanging behind her. Though still dressed as a child, she already had the shyness of a young maiden.

Her features resembled Seventh Aunt’s—romantic and brilliant, her almond eyes always seeming to contain a smile.

Her movements carried Great Master’s elegance.

Even Lady Li, accustomed to grand occasions, couldn’t help but feel a flash of amazement.

“Truly a porcelain doll!” She praised Great Madam with a smile.

Sixth Miss still looked completely innocent, not knowing to be shy.

“Thank you for World Uncle’s Wife’s praise.” She smiled as she accepted the New Year money, then went to whisper with Fifth Miss again.

Fifth Miss had truly blossomed into a young lady.

Though with Sixth Miss’s jade-like beauty before her, Fifth Miss’s radiance couldn’t show, the commanding noble air in her movements could not be concealed.

Though her features weren’t as delicate as Sixth Miss’s, she had the frank magnanimity of northern daughters.

Lady Li didn’t praise Fifth Miss though.

Instead she held Seventh Miss’s hand, looking again and again.

“Though her features are still small, you can tell she’s a beauty in the making!”

Great Madam found this somewhat amusing.

After placating Lady Li with a few words, they sat separately as host and guest for tea.

Lady Li only sat briefly before rising to take her leave. “There are still guests coming to pay New Year calls at home. I’ll inevitably need to coordinate.”

Generally speaking, for official New Year visits, the whole family rarely went out—male relatives paid visits while female relatives stayed home to receive guests.

With the Li family’s status and position, in all of Jiangnan only the Yang family was worth having husband and wife both go out together to pay New Year respects.

Now that the gesture was made, Lady Li naturally had to return to receive guests coming to pay New Year calls at her home.

Great Madam understood perfectly and exchanged a few more pleasantries with a smile before letting Lady Li depart.

But Minister Li and Great Master and Second Master were deep in conversation. After the time of one tea service, he sent his sons in to pay respects to Great Madam.

This was practiced routine. Great Madam had a gauze screen set up beside her, and all the daughters went behind the screen.

In the first month, male relatives frequently entered the inner courtyard for ceremonies. Going in and out of neighboring rooms to avoid them seemed affected—temporarily avoiding behind screens was acceptable.

This was all unwritten custom in great households.

Dalang and Sanlang led their little brother Shier Lang inside to properly kowtow and pay respects to Great Madam.

Though the Li and Yang families had frequent contact, Seventh Miss had never seen these two elder brothers.

They were young men in their twenties with square features, bearing seven or eight parts resemblance to their younger brother Shier Lang.

After seeing Great Madam, they rose and stood with hands clasped, eyes properly focused on the golden brick floor before them, never looking about.

Great Madam was very satisfied: Truly worthy of being Li family sons.

“Dalang and Sanlang both just married this year?” She smiled and chatted familiarly with the nephews.

Before they’d said more than a few words, Commander Zhu’s wife also arrived.

Lady Zhu also came together with her husband.

Great Madam was inevitably somewhat surprised: Though the two families had dealings, every holiday Commander Zhu usually came alone to pay respects.

The Li family’s nephews took the opportunity to greet Lady Zhu.

They were all prominent families in Jiangnan and naturally had dealings with each other.

Great Madam was about to ask the Li family sons to withdraw and let her own daughters pay respects to the elder, when Great Master sent Chief Steward Zhang personally to relay a message.

“Provincial Graduate Young Master Feng has come to pay New Year respects to Master. Master says that since we’re family relatives who have always been remiss in visiting, this year Young Master Feng should come in to pay respects to Madam.”

Provincial Graduate Young Master Feng.

These five words made the atmosphere in the room suddenly become animated.

Lady Zhu looked surprised, clearly hearing for the first time about the family relationship between the Feng and Yang families.

Li family’s Dalang and Sanlang also exchanged glances.

Seventh Miss felt gazes from all directions converge on herself.

Even those who didn’t know about the Feng and Yang families’ relationship, after Ninth Aunt was elevated and hearing the words “family relatives,” would understand.

Sixth Miss’s eyes shone brightly, full of curiosity.

Third Miss and Fourth Miss had both envy and jealousy.

Eighth Miss was confused, just following her sisters in looking at Seventh Miss without knowing why.

Only Fifth Miss—her beautiful eyes were already wreathed in indescribable thoughts, seeming annoyed yet pleased, seeming to expect yet observe… She only glanced once at Seventh Miss before craning her neck to look toward the main hall entrance.

Great Madam paused before slowly smiling. “Good, then why don’t you quickly invite him in?”