Chapter 85 Dust Settles (1)_1
On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, it was Little New Year.
That day, the Mo Family did not set up their stall and gave all the village helpers a day’s wages, letting them take turns watching over the vegetable patch to prevent theft or mischief.
After having breakfast early in the morning, the whole family got busy.
Mo Qingze used a cloth strip to tightly wrap a small broom onto a four or five-meter-long bamboo pole for cleaning cobwebs and dust from the roof and corners. Lizhong followed behind him with a broom to sweep off the dust clinging to the walls.
Mo Yan dismantled a few quilt covers from the beds to wash and air them. Liyan was also kept busy, tidying and thoroughly cleaning all the jars and bottles in the kitchen, while Xin Er was responsible for drawing water from the well, assisting.
The youngest, Zhenzhen, had it easy and just had to tend the stove to boil water. From time to time, he would throw in a couple of potatoes or sweet potatoes, roasting them before peeling and giving them to his sisters to eat.
After the two families worked together to finish all the cleaning, they had a simple lunch and then began preparing the offerings for the evening kitchen god ceremony.
The ceremony required offerings like dates, candied melon, eggs, and alcoholic beverages. The dates, eggs, and wine could be placed directly on plates, but the candied melon required some effort to make.
In Great Chu, the candied melon used for the kitchen god ceremony was made from roasted corn mixed with maltose, resulting in a crispy and sweet treat. However, the candied melon Mo Yan had in her previous life was made from glutinous millet, maltose, and sesame seeds.
After asking the children, none of them had tasted such a thing, and all were eager to try. Thus, Mo Yan decided to make both corn and glutinous millet sesame varieties, making extra as snacks for them.