After a simple rebirth

I thought Teacher's Day was the weekend, but before the elective class on Friday afternoon, the head teacher came to the class and announced the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. We would have Saturday and Sunday off, and the Mid-Autumn Festival fell on Monday, so we had three days off at once.

The classmates cheered, saying they could have three days off to eat and have fun at home.

Fu Ying was numb. She actually didn't know how she was getting through the days because school had just started and she was already going to have a few days off.

Normally, with consecutive holidays like this, some students would have heard about going out to play, but since the head teacher hadn't made the final announcement, no one was sure, and no one made a big fuss about it. In addition, Fu Ying's chosen seat was in a corner, so she didn't notice anyone discussing it. She was too far away, and she didn't care what others were talking about.

Mid-Autumn Festival, Fu Ying hasn't celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in her hometown in Yunnan Province for more than ten years. The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday is short, and she may not be able to go home for reunion due to work, so apart from eating mooncakes, she really can't remember what activities there will be during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival in eastern Guangdong, which takes place every two years, is more grand because they have preserved more of their traditional culture and worship gods during various festivals.

On the first day of August before the Mid-Autumn Festival, they would start visiting relatives, carrying a bottle of oil, a pomelo, and a box of moon cakes to sit and chat with their elders.

They celebrate the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is August 14. In the morning, they buy fruits and mooncakes for worshiping gods, and fold paper money in advance. After dinner, they go to the rooftop or the door to burn incense and worship their ancestors. After burning the paper money, the Mid-Autumn Festival is over. Of course, families with the means will also set off fireworks.

In fact, we don’t attach much importance to food. It’s not necessary to have a big meal or eat specific food. Some families choose not to cook and just get together to have a barbecue.

Fu Ying's own family takes advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival to get together with the family. Relatives working in Guangdong Province are invited to come over, cook more dishes, and chat together.

Fu Ying remembers that one year her home in Guangdong Province was on the third floor with a balcony. After dinner, the adults were chatting and Fu Zhe ran out to play. She did not go out and just stayed on the balcony to enjoy the breeze.

The next-door neighbor is a local Cantonese person, and she was there watching other people’s Mid-Autumn Festival gatherings.

Their dinner didn't start until eight o'clock. A large round table was set up in the yard, and stools were placed there. Everyone, big or small, gathered together. There were dishes such as white-cut chicken, served on stainless steel plates. They ate for a long time. Then someone cleaned up the table, took out the fruit, and opened a pomelo. It was a white-heart pomelo, and Fu Ying knew at a glance that it was not sweet enough, because she liked the sweet red-heart pomelo.

The adults went into the house to play mahjong and the children were making noise in the yard. When we thought it was almost over, the barbecue started around 11 o'clock. There was another round of noise and it was not over when Fu Ying went to bed.

Fu Ying's family doesn't necessarily eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, unless they happen to have mooncakes sent from their hometown, they will specially treat others to them. People in Yunnan Province are not used to eating mooncakes from Guangdong Province, and of course it depends on whether the workplace provides mooncakes as a welfare benefit.

Factories in Guangdong Province will prepare a box of mooncakes as a welfare gift for each employee during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Some will even give an extra bag of rice, a barrel of oil, etc. Factories that do not have these will be criticized for being too stingy.

Zhang Zun’s workplace didn’t give him mooncakes, but instead gave him a bag of tea, a bottle of red wine that the boss couldn’t sell, and a 1kg bag of rice.

As for where Fu Ying works, it's terrible. There's nothing there but busier work.

Mid-Autumn Festival hasn't arrived yet, so I still have to go to class.

The first elective handicraft class in the afternoon was about making lanterns, and Fu Ying felt like she was back in kindergarten.

Fu Ying did not go to kindergarten and went directly to the first grade of primary school, but she had experienced kindergarten life and worked as a kindergarten teacher. During the Mid-Autumn Festival that year, she bought lanterns in advance and led the children to draw lanterns and take videos with another teacher. The children were cute, and they were even cuter when taking pictures with the lanterns.

I never made lanterns again after that, and I didn’t really feel the atmosphere of the Mid-Autumn Festival, because I was so busy during those two days that I couldn’t even get off work, let alone celebrate the festival.

Fortunately, the handicraft class didn't involve making anything too complicated because of time constraints. In fact, they just bought a skeleton and followed the teacher's steps to paste paper on it, and then wrote some blessings with a big-tip pen. Fu Ying wrote "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival", "May all your wishes come true, and all the best".

Fu Ying returned home carrying the lantern and took special notice to find that her family had not bought any mooncakes yet. She wondered whether her mother would wait until the market to buy some, or if she planned to buy some from the store that day.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, shops will stock up on loose mooncakes for sale, so you’ll always have time to buy some.

The head teacher was not there for the evening self-study class, so the monitor was asked to watch over the class. No matter whether they were staying in school or not, everyone who could take a leave tonight had taken one since tomorrow was a holiday, and less than half of the students were left in the class. But the class was still very lively, and Wang Xueting got angry several times because of the noise, but she was quiet for a while and then continued.

Fu Ying ignored it and continued to review according to her study plan. Her deskmate had gone home and the person sitting in front of her was not there either. She didn't know if they had asked for leave or had gone to sit somewhere else. There was no one around her and it was relatively quiet.

Before the evening self-study class was over, a few brave students had already slipped out through the back door. It was not known whether Wang Xueting saw them, but Fu Ying knew.

Between being exposed and being blinded, Fu Ying looked at the time. There were still ten minutes left. Forget it, she was blind.

Indeed, she was a little distracted from studying. After finishing the last few words, she put away her notes and then read some materials to kill time. When the bell rang, she didn't rush out of the class like her anxious classmates, but she quickly packed up her things and left the classroom to meet up with Li Xingying.

Li Xingying was also talking about the holiday. She said she would sleep until she woke up naturally, play with her sister's children, and do her homework on the last day. Anyway, she would not study.

Fu Ying directly and ruthlessly exposed her, "Your grandma will not let you sleep until you wake up naturally. She will definitely wake you up early. Even if she doesn't wake you up, your sister's children will come over and wake you up."

"Oh, yes, my grandma must have woken me up at around eight o'clock. I really want to sleep until I wake up naturally! I don't know if my sister will come home to sleep tonight. If she does, I will take her daughter to sleep with her."

Fu Ying didn't know that Li Xingying's sister married near the middle school, which was very close. She really went back to her parents' home every few days. Li Xingying's family was willing to help her sister take care of the children, and she would just sit back and do nothing when she came back.

Fu Ying's elder sister Fu Yu actually married not too far away and went back to her parents' home quite often. When she was in Guangdong Province, it was even closer, and the rented houses were less than 100 meters apart. Her three children were raised by Fu's parents, and Fu's mother also took care of them during the confinement period. It seems that the three children have never seen their grandparents because they never went back to their hometown until Wang Ruizhong was about to start elementary school.

This year, Fu Ying, Fu Zhe, and Fu's mother are all in their hometown. Fu's father will definitely come back for the New Year. I wonder if Fu Yu's family will come back for the New Year. Wang Ruixuan is only half a year old. Even if Wang Changjie helps take care of the two older children, there is no high-speed rail now. It is actually hard for both adults and children to take such a long car ride with a child.