The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

The ancestral worship ceremony is still underway.

Afterwards, Zhuge Yunshu placed the prepared offerings one by one on the altar in front of the ancestral tablets.

The offerings included "eight treasures" and "three sacrificial animals".

In Linxi County, the "Eight Treasures" required for ancestral worship offerings are:

A pair of red paper bats representing happiness, pine branches or noodles representing longevity, books or picture albums representing progress, a black thread tied with a red thread representing a good marriage, silver representing wealth, peanuts representing growth and development, bamboo representing growth, and longan representing fulfillment.

Each item represents a beautiful wish, and the same is true for the 'three sacrificial animals' in the ritual.

The three sacrificial animals are the ox, representing diligence; the sheep, representing peace; and the pig, representing abundance. These three animals were considered important offerings in the Xia Dynasty.

The "small three sacrificial animals" usually refer to chickens, ducks, and fish. These poultry and fish, which are common in ordinary people's homes, are also common offerings in sacrificial rites.

Thus, for each offering, Zhuge Yunshu would lead sixty-three attendants, including Zhuge Yunchu, Zhuge Yunjin, and Zhuge Yunxi, to perform three bows and nine kowtows before the ancestral tablets in front of the ancestral hall.

In other words, in this step of offering sacrifices, Zhuge Yunshu and the other 63 younger members of the family had to repeat this action 14 times.

At this moment, Zhuge Yunshu was very grateful for her grandmother Chen Cuifang's foresight in sewing a pair of thick knee pads for everyone in the family.

Otherwise, even someone as strong as her would have had her knees rubbed raw by the hard bluestone floor of the ancestral hall.

After the chief officiant, Zhuge Yunshu, and the assistant officiants, such as Zhuge Yunchu and Zhuge Yunjin, have finished offering all the sacrificial items, the next step is for the villagers of Zhuge Village, regardless of age or gender, to step forward in an orderly manner, place their offerings on the offering table as a token gesture, and then perform a simple kowtow.

Throughout the process, solemn sacrificial music resounded in the ancestral hall of Zhuge Village. This music was specially commissioned by the clan chief, Zhuge Fengcang, from a famous opera troupe in town, who had spent some money to perform it.

It must be said that the addition of this music added a solemn atmosphere to the sacrificial ceremony.

Did you think that was the end of it?

Of course it's impossible.

This group of people also went to their ancestral graves to pay their respects.

The ancestral tombs of the Zhuge family are located on the back mountain.

The stream flows gently, and the vegetation is lush.

Such a good feng shui location must have been carefully selected.

At this time, led by clan chief Zhuge Fengcang and village chief Zhuge Fengtian, Zhuge Yunshu and his entourage arrived at the ancestral graves after a short while.

With the help of the clan elders, Zhuge Yunshu, Zhuge Yunchu, and Zhuge Yunjin, the three main people who participated in the ancestral worship, personally lit incense and candles and placed the sacrificial offerings taken from the ancestral hall's altar according to traditional rituals. After all this was done, the three of them knelt in an orderly manner in front of the tomb and took turns telling their ancestors about their joy at passing the imperial examination and praying for their blessings.

In short, all the necessary procedures must be followed.

An hour later, after all the clansmen who had come had finished their worship, there was nothing more for them to do, except for Zhuge Yunshu and the clan chief and village chief.

The rest of the people also returned to the village one after another to prepare for the upcoming banquet.

Those who remained, such as Zhuge Yunshu, were responsible for cleaning the cemetery.

Actually, it's just about clearing away the weeds growing on the graves of these ancestors.

Thanks to Zhuge Yunshu's guidance of her cousins ​​and the early cultivation by Zhuge Fengshou and Chen Cuifang, the only issue regarding weeding was whether they were used to it or not.

The cousins ​​from the clan chief's and village chief's families, especially those with high academic talent such as Zhuge Yunbo and Zhuge Yunxi, had never worked in the fields because of their affluent family background. Although they seemed quite unfamiliar with the work, they were born in Zhuge Village after all, and even without practical experience, they had seen many clansmen working in the fields on their way to and from the clan school.

However, this group of people did not include Zhuge Yun Chu and Zhuge Yun Jin. They were born in the capital and were used to being pampered since childhood. Such things as weeding and adding to graves were really far removed from them.

Zhuge Yunshu saw the two men using brute force to pull a large clump of grass out of the ground. Zhuge Yunchu even bent his legs, stuck out his buttocks, and grimaced in order to make himself stronger. In this state, there was no trace of the elegant demeanor of a scholar he usually had.

Just as Zhuge Yunshu was preparing to step forward and give the two some pointers, she saw Zhuge Yunchu and Zhuge Yunjin excitedly run up to her with a bunch of grass in their hands, proudly saying:

"Yun Shu, look, pulling weeds isn't that hard!"

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

She looked at the two unusually excited people with a complicated expression, then glanced at the half-cut grass in their hands without roots, and helplessly rubbed her forehead.

When weeding, the worst thing you can do is break the entire blade of grass in half. If you do that, the remaining half will be very difficult to pull out.

Having no other choice, Zhuge Yunshu called Zhuge Yunchu and Zhuge Yunjin to her side and personally demonstrated for them.

"Look, pulling weeds is like reading books—you can't bite off more than you can chew. There are so many weeds; don't try to pull them all at once. We need to eradicate them completely, one small handful at a time. We must be patient..."

Actually, this kind of work is very simple. Generally, after one or two demonstrations, almost everyone can learn it.

However, Zhuge Yun Chu and Zhuge Yun Jin are no ordinary people.

Whether they pulled them out in small handfuls or one by one, the two of them worked together very well, always managing to pull out only half of them, leaving the other half in the soil.

Frustrated by this, Zhuge Yunshu doubted her life and tried again several times. However, as long as she held the hands of Zhuge Yunchu and Zhuge Yunjin, she could perfectly pull out the grass. If she let the two of them do their own thing, the grass in this cemetery would be ruined by the two of them, making it several times more difficult.

Zhuge Yunshu: "......???"

Well, these two are probably just like her mother, with a constitution that makes it difficult for them to get out of bed.

There was no other way, so Zhuge Yunshu could only have the two of them do what they could, such as carrying the weeds she had pulled out, or wiping her sweat with a handkerchief, to prove to their ancestors that although they were born in the capital, they also possessed the simple, hardworking, and diligent qualities that only outstanding farmers like the Zhuge family had.

Zhuge Yunshu rolled her eyes at the two people's misunderstanding; she was quite helpless about it!

In this way, with the tireless efforts of the three families, they cleaned the ancestral graves and made them look brand new in less than two hours.

Although it's a bit of an exaggeration, at a glance, there are none of those messy weeds from before.

Furthermore, Zhuge Yunshu dug up some pine and cypress saplings from the forest behind the mountain and planted them next to the graves of the ancestors of their three families.

It was only at this point that the ancestral worship ceremony of the Zhuge Village clan came to a perfect end.