Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside

Too expensive for them to afford, yet they felt that just sending fabric and live chickens was not impressive enough. They could only make do with cured meats to present a decent gift.

Gu Jinli squatted down, helping to sort festival gifts: "County Captain Jiang and his family like cured meats, sending them would be just right to their liking, they will certainly be delighted."

Ever since Gu Daya's family started to sell cured meats, they had sent some to the Shang and Jiang families several times. Each time Gu Jin'an came back, he mentioned how much Scholar Shang and County Captain Jiang enjoyed them.

The Shang Family's servant would go to the town to buy cured meats every other day. Nowadays, cured meats had become the most common dish for the Shang Family.

"Mother, these are two pieces of embroidery for Mrs. Jiang." Gu Jinxiu came into the hall holding the embroidery, gently placing it on the table.

Mrs. Cui stood up to take a look, smiled and nodded: "Well embroidered."

Gu Jinxiu, having received Mrs. Cui's approval, felt reassured.

Gu Jinli tiptoed to take a look and exclaimed in surprise: "Sister, your dragon boat embroidery looks so real."

It was not just the dragon boat, but also the people rowing it and the spectators alongside the river watching the dragon boat race, all were embroidered vividly.

And in her memory, Gu Jinxiu had never seen a dragon boat, let alone a dragon boat race. Her ability to embroider this picture of dragon boats racing was entirely based on the descriptions from Mrs. Cui.

What's even more impressive is that Mrs. Cui herself had never seen a dragon boat race—she only saw the embroidery of a dragon boat created by the elderly lady who taught her to embroider.

The other piece of embroidery depicted children fetching noon water.

Three or five children, clad in cloth garments and with their hair in Nezha buns, holding lemongrass, playfully splashed each other with water drawn at noon from a bucket—appearing quite lively and real.

"Sister, these two pieces of embroidery really give us face. Mrs. Jiang will definitely like them," said Gu Jinli.

Ms. Chu, curious upon hearing this, came over to take a look and praised: "Sister Xiu's skills are improving by the day. If these two pieces of embroidery were to be sold, they would surely fetch a good sum."

Gu Jinxiu, flushed with embarrassment from the praise, replied: "As long as Mrs. Jiang likes them, that's all that matters."

After that, she carefully put away the embroideries and squatted down to help sort festival gifts.

It took them half an hour to neatly organize the festival gifts in the room, then they borrowed an ox cart from Village Chief He, and Third Grandpa and Gu Dashan took several families' festival gifts to Scholar Shang's house.

After delivering the festival gifts, the two of them picked up Good Brother An and bought plenty of things in the town. When they returned, they brought back a full ox cart of items, including vegetables, meat, liquor, sugar, glutinous rice, as well as cotton and wheat flour.

These goods were bought jointly by a few families as festival gifts for the workers in the workshop.

Mrs. Chen, looking at so many things to give away, was distressed and complained: "Xiao Yu, the wives of Gu Dafu and others work for our workshop, so it would make sense for them to give us festival gifts. There's no need for us to give them anything."

Third Grandma, disliking Mrs. Chen's miserliness, scolded: "Have you just started celebrating festivals this year? In the past, which boss in the town didn't give out festival gifts? When others do not give, you know about it and still criticize them for being stingy, but now you, as a boss lady, begrudge your silver coins and refuse to give festival gifts. Where is the logic in that? If word gets out, it will be a laughing matter."

After being scolded, Mrs. Chen didn't dare to retort and honestly helped with the festival gifts. After a while, she asked again: "Third Aunt, what festival gifts are we giving to the village chiefs' houses? The Shang and Yuan families are village chiefs, and we can't afford to give them light festival gifts."

Especially for Yuan Laorong's family, which she estimated would be her family's future in-laws, it wouldn't look good if the holiday gifts were too light.

Third Grandma had known Mrs. Chen for so many years; she knew exactly what she was thinking. Glancing at her, she said, "Daya's family won't be setting up their stall tomorrow, and the braised dishes they make will be for the Village Chief Shang's house, Village Chief Yuan's house, Master Yuan and others, Xuanhu Fang, and Old Kong as holiday gifts."

The gifts needed to touch people's hearts. Old Kong and others loved braised dishes and roasted duck, which were best eaten fresh. So Third Grandma decided to wait until the fourth day of the holiday to deliver them, to avoid the risk of them tasting off by the fifth day and losing their savor.

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Chen felt much relieved, her eyes lit up and she quickly suggested, "There are many people to send holiday gifts to tomorrow, and Uncle Dashan certainly won't be able to cover them all. My Dagui isn't setting up his stall tomorrow either; let him go with his elder brother to Yanfu Village to deliver the holiday gifts. It's not as if he has anything else to do."

Third Grandma saw through Mrs. Chen's intentions and after some thought, she agreed, "Alright, let Dagui and his brother deliver the holiday gifts to Yanfu Village."

The Village Chief Yuan's family was indeed good. Since there was interest, it would be good to increase interactions between the two families.

Mrs. Chen was very pleased to hear this, and when she got home, she took out the Five Poison Pouch embroidered by Gu Yumei, and said with a touch of disdain, "The craftsmanship isn't as good as Sister Xiu's, but it's presentable. Remember to give your father the Five Poison Pouch you've embroidered tomorrow; it's meant to be sent to the Yuan family as a holiday gift. Mrs. Rong has to see your embroidery skills to like you."

Gu Yumei responded with lukewarm enthusiasm, "Got it."

"What do you mean you got it? Show some happiness to your mother, or if Yuan Family comes to inspect you one day and you show that ugly face, I'll tear you to pieces!" Mrs. Chen increasingly felt the need to marry off Gu Yumei quickly; seeing her sulking face any longer would shorten her life by ten years out of frustration.

Meanwhile, Gu Daya's family was busy preparing braised dishes until midnight.

The next morning, they started early to take out the various braised dishes, sorted them out one by one, and carried them to Gu Jinli's house. They combined the braised dishes with other gifts prepared the previous night, staying busy until noon before all the holiday gifts were ready.

The Shang Family had already gone to the county for the holiday. Gu Jin'an did not have to go to school today and accompanied Gu Dashan to deliver holiday gifts to Old Kong, Doctor Wu, and others.

"Dad, brother, don't forget about Elder Mi's family's holiday gifts," said Gu Jinli. Their relationship with Elder Mi's family was crucial for embracing the Hu Yun Temple master for favor, so the gift had to be delivered.

"Eh, everything is packed, can't forget," Gu Dashan replied, as he and Gu Jin'an set off with a flatbed cart to deliver the holiday gifts.

Gu Dafu and Dagui, the brothers, borrowed a bullock cart from the village chief and went to Yanfu Village to deliver holiday gifts.

In the afternoon, Gu Dashan and Gu Jin'an returned from the workshop as the workers finished for the day and they distributed the workers' holiday gifts.

He Laoguo and the others were thrilled to receive the holiday gifts; having struggled for so many years, they were used to giving gifts and not receiving them.

The workshop of the Gu Family offered generous holiday gifts: ten yards of fabric, three pounds of glutinous rice, a packet of caramel, a pot of liquor, two pounds of braised meat, and an additional three pounds of vegetarian braised dish.

Carrying such gifts home attracted quite a bit of envy from many villagers.

And at this time, the villagers who wanted to work in the workshop also started to make their moves, sending holiday gifts to the Qin, Gu, and Luo families of Luotian.

The villagers, many of whom were poor, could only afford to give a few eggs and some vegetables as holiday gifts, while those in better financial positions sent glutinous rice or meat.

Gu Daya's family, having earned money from the braised dishes, also received many holiday gifts.

He Cui'er had set her sights on Gu Daya's family early on and this day, brought her own mother to deliver holiday gifts to Gu Daya's family.