Chapter Ninety-Eight: Moving to the New Home

On the day of moving into their new home, the Ding family prepared more than twenty tables of feast. It wasn’t because Tian Dabao had many relatives or friends, but because there were fifty or sixty workers employed by the Ding family. Moreover, it was the off-season for farming, and whenever the villagers heard that someone was hosting a banquet, almost every family would come over to join the celebration.

Living in the same village, Tian Dabao was honest and had no grudges with anyone, so regardless of how distant their relationship with him was, the villagers would come to show their support. This was also a custom of the village—whether it was a joyous occasion or a funeral, the hosts always hoped for a crowd to show up. The more guests, the happier the hosts would be.

Therefore, early on the ninth day of the tenth lunar month, villagers had already started arriving to lend a hand. Their main task was to borrow tables, chairs, benches, bowls, and chopsticks around the village to prepare for the feast. After the banquet, they would help return all borrowed items. Each borrowed item was carefully marked to ensure proper return.

According to tradition, the ceremony for moving into a new home should be held in the morning or before noon. Usually, the first step was to move the household gods and ancestral tablets, but Tian Dabao’s family didn’t worship any deities, and their ancestral tablets were kept at the Tian God of Wealth’s home. So this step was skipped.

The second step was to transfer the fire and set up the stove, paying respects to the Kitchen God. This involved cooking a pot of rice at the old residence, then carrying the pot, rice, and fire starter to the new home’s stove. They would light the new stove with the carried fire, steam the rice symbolically, and share the meal together. This represented continuity, prosperity, and the hope that generations to come would lack nothing in food or drink, living ever more prosperous lives.

After lighting the stove, offerings were placed on the stove platform to honor the Kitchen God. People of this era were quite superstitious, believing the Kitchen God could “report good deeds to heaven and protect the household below.”

The third step was moving the household and setting off firecrackers. The new home’s doors were adorned with couplets, and firecrackers were set off to invite auspicious energy. The family moving in could not enter empty-handed; they had to carry valuables to symbolize wealth entering the new home.

Typically, the head of the household led the procession, carrying a ladder to symbolize ascending step by step amid the crackling firecrackers. Other family members carried rice bowls, kitchen knives, fire tongs, and so on, symbolizing blessings and prosperity. Relatives and friends followed with pots, bowls, and pans, representing the necessities of life.

Following custom, before moving, six categories of daily necessities were prepared: 1) Rice—eight-tenths full in a rice bucket, with copper coins, tea leaves, and a red envelope containing nine copper coins inside; 2) Water—seven-tenths full in a water bucket filled from the old home; 3) Bowls and chopsticks—one set for each family member, with an even number considered lucky; 4) A pair of dustpans and brooms tied with red cloth or string; 5) A new set of underwear, pillows, and bed sheets for each family member; 6) The old stove, pots, and fans.

These items were moved into the kitchen of the new home first, before any other belongings were brought in.

The final step was to host the banquet to welcome guests. Everyone drank heartily, the livelier the better. The hosts on this day did not mind if guests ate and drank a lot; in fact, they hoped they would, as it created a festive atmosphere.

Xiao Ding was clueless about these customs. He just stood there foolishly, watching Li and the others bustle about. Even Zhao Hu and the other four understood these rituals better than Xiao Ding, busying themselves alongside Zhao Laixi, almost as if they were family.

Finally, the moving ceremony came to an end, and many guests had already arrived. Village Chief He was directing villagers who came to help, arranging all the borrowed tables and chairs on the open space in front of the new house.

Tian Dabao, Madam Li, Zhao Laixi, and Zhao Hu with the other four were busily attending to the guests, helping them take seats and serving hot tea.

Fan Sanpang had become the head chef in the new kitchen, bustling over the stove with a group of village women assisting him. These women were experienced and far less reserved than city ladies; their speech was often unfiltered, and they frequently teased Fan Sanpang with bawdy jokes about men and women, leaving him embarrassed and flustered. Though annoyed, Fan Sanpang dared not respond, his face flushed as he focused on cooking.

Meanwhile, Xiao Ya, Xiao E, Er Niu, and several village women prepared meals at the old home’s stove. With so many people to feed, Fan Sanpang alone couldn’t handle it all.

Since Fan Sanpang was in the kitchen, Tian Xiaofu and Ou Muyun took the little wolf, Huihui, to the nearby hills to tend the horses, preventing the herd from being startled and causing harm.

Ou Mulin and Xiao Zhur, both younger children, ran around playing everywhere.

Xiao Ding glanced here and there; everyone was busy with their tasks, and he found himself idle.

When it came to hosting guests, he barely recognized any of them; when it came to serving tea and water, others were already on it.

Xiao Ding stood there foolishly. After a while, some guests began whispering and pointing at him.

“Look, Tian the Fool is having another episode…”

“Yeah, who would have thought—he can fight wolves and bears but still isn’t all there upstairs…”

“Hey, don’t judge him too harshly when he’s not ‘having an episode’; he’s smart then…”

“True, look at that warmbed over there—that was his idea for growing vegetables on wasteland…”

“Such a clever idea, normal folks couldn’t think of it…”

“Ah, what a pity, such a smart man plagued by that foolish affliction…”

At first, Xiao Ding paid no heed, but hearing these remarks, he felt both amused and exasperated.

Suddenly, he saw Grandpa Tian God of Wealth, Grandma Zhou, and a large group of men, women, and children seated among the guests, drinking tea and chatting.

Xiao Ding could guess these must be his relatives, but besides Grandpa and Grandma, he only recognized two uncles—Tian Erbao and Tian Sanbao—and two cousins, Tian Xiaojin and Tian Xiaoyin, whom he had once fought.

Zhao Laixi had told him that besides the second and third uncles, he also had a fourth uncle named Tian Sibao. Tian Sibao was only slightly older than him and not as strong as his three elder brothers. In his youth, he had studied and taken several imperial examinations for young scholars but had never passed. Left without a clear path, he idled about, mingling with gangsters in town, indulging in drinking, gambling, and womanizing, and engaging in scams and cons.

Tian God of Wealth had once pinned great hopes on Tian Sibao, expecting him to bring honor to the family by passing exams. But when Tian Sibao became a town hoodlum instead, the old man was so disappointed he kicked him out and forbade him from returning.

As Xiao Ding thought this through, he suddenly recalled the last time he ate at a snack stall in town when the Mei sisters scolded three thugs. Among them was a dark-skinned, thin young man who recognized him as Tian the Fool. Could that dark, skinny man be his fourth uncle, Tian Sibao?

Comparing that man’s features with Grandma Zhou’s, there was indeed some resemblance.

It must be him, Xiao Ding concluded silently.

Lost in these thoughts, he suddenly heard someone call out, “Tian the Fool, come here!”