Mu Chen

19. New Years

On the 28th year, Mu Wen's family came back with big bags and small bags.Jiang Cheng originally planned to go out for a walk, so what does it matter if he is an outsider spending the New Year at someone else's house?

But Mu Wen didn't seem to notice his unease, and assigned him many tasks years ago: inquire about freshly slaughtered pork in the village, buy blood sausage filled with fresh pig blood, buy haggis, wash the haggis, fill his face and lungs, face...

In the end, he didn't go anywhere, and stood in front of the stove with Mu Wen for a whole day.Chop stuffing, make snacks, steam steamed buns, steamed buns, fried oil cakes, fried noodles, croquettes, fried hairtail, fried crispy meat...

Mu Wen kept sighing, this year is so easy, in previous years he was busy all by himself, how could he finish it in one day?

It was the first time for Jiang Cheng to know that he had to do so much work and cook so much food during the Chinese New Year.

When he was a child, his family was poor and couldn't afford much good food, and his grandma was hurt every New Year's Eve, and the family's New Years almost passed quietly.

This was the first time that he felt the joy of the year, especially since he and Mu Wen had been busy with work, and they were always together like they were when they were young, so he felt even happier.

Grandpa Mu is very respected and popular in the village. There are always people from all walks of life who come to pay New Year's greetings. The family has to drink at least one drink every day. people.

After a few days of bustle and bustle, the family did not return to the factory until the fourth day of junior high school to pay New Year greetings to the leaders and colleagues.

In the past few years, Mu Wen has never been to Shanghai again.But he mentioned to Yang Li that if she wanted to, she could go back to Shanghai to see her parents, but Yang Li said no, because she was on business trips all year round and had many opportunities, and she had gone back several times, so Mu Wen gave up.

Now at home, their wages are in charge of their own.After Yang Li returned home, Mu Wen never handed over her salary. Anyway, she was working, so she was not short of money, and he would not ask her for money to support his family.

Because Yang Li didn't spend much time at home, Mu Wen was usually responsible for the family's expenses, but Yang Li bought the color TV and washing machine, and bought two copies in total at that time.

The other one was for Grandpa Mu, and this filial piety was widely circulated in the village for a while.This was the first color TV in the village, and it made half of the village's children sit in rows at Mu's house every night.

Grandpa Mu loves children, and he never gets bored. Instead, he often buys snacks and stir-fries melon seeds for the children.There were not enough chairs and stools at home, so he specially asked an old carpenter in the village to make more than a dozen small benches.

During the Chinese New Year, Yang Li gave Grandpa Mu a thousand red envelopes.

Grandpa Mu runs a clinic and runs a pharmacy. In fact, his income is very considerable. He used to subsidize Mu Wen, and Yang Li's tuition was mostly due to this.

In the past few years, after Mu Wen's conditions improved, he resolutely refused his father's subsidy, but the old man still often gave Mu Chen money.Yang Li also understands this, and she is also very grateful to the old man. The policy was not clear enough back then, and the old man opened the clinic at a risk. Fortunately, everything is getting better.

She has a lot of year-end bonuses this year, so she is still happy to give the old man a bigger red envelope, and Mu Wen is also happy to see it succeed.

Even though Yang Li has shortcomings, Mu Wen's heart has always been broken by her magnanimity in dealing with people and her aggressiveness in her work.

In Shicheng, Chinese New Year's Eve and the first day of the new year are usually spent at the in-law's house, and daughters who get married on the second day of the new year will return to their mother's house.

In the past few years, apart from writing letters occasionally, Lin Lan only went back to her hometown with Yu Jianguo once in the year of her marriage.After I got Yu Yong, I never went back. After all, the child is young, and the Spring Festival car is not easy to ride, and it costs a lot.

On the contrary, Lin Hong went back twice.Zhang Bing's conditions are good, and Lin Hong lives with him wholeheartedly.Although he has selfish intentions, prefers his son, likes to pick up some private money, has a bad temper, and has a mediocre relationship with his parents-in-law, but he still has the final say on major family affairs.

However, even if he prefers his younger son, Zhang Jie, the son left by his ex-wife, can still live with it.Parents in any family have partiality, let alone not their own. Lin Hong can make Zhang Jie eat on time and put on clean clothes, which is not bad.

Whose children have to do housework, even if Zhang Jie does more, where can he get more?After all, Lin Hong doesn't have a job and has a lot of free time, so she still does most of the housework by herself.

In short, Zhang Bing is quite satisfied with the status quo, so he is willing to be considerate of her in these matters.But in the past two years, because the child was young, the two sisters never went back.

Every year during the Chinese New Year, the two sisters would send 100 yuan to their old father. Lin Hong had no problem with it. Last year, Zhang Bing asked him to send back [-] yuan. Lin Lan took a little effort to send this money.

She is in charge of the family's money, but there is money and expenses, and the balance is limited, not to mention that they plan to buy a house separately.

When Yu Jianguo couldn't see the increase in savings, he would nag a few words, saying that she couldn't make a living and that she sent all the money back to her natal family.

Maybe he didn't think so in his heart, he just said it casually, but the sensitive Lin Lan felt very uncomfortable.She really didn't give anything to her natal family. If she wanted to blame, she could only blame this man for not being able to earn money. What could she spend if she wanted to spend it?

Yu Jianguo said that these untasteful words were usually after drinking some wine. Most of the time, Lin Lan didn't answer and said nothing, but when he was too angry to argue a few words, the couple would quarrel, and sometimes they would fight.

In the past few months, the two have not had many conflicts, at least they haven't fought.Perhaps because Lin Lan had a job and gained confidence, Yu Jianguo's verbal attacks were less than before, and she was not as serious as before.She didn't answer, and Yu Jianguo fell asleep after saying a few boring words.

But also because she started working, there was less time for housework.Her job is okay, she doesn't have to shift shifts, she can take care of her family and children, but sometimes she will work overtime or take a shower after work, and she will be late when she comes home. It is very unpleasant to wash the pot still on the stove.

After drinking two glasses on an empty stomach, before Lin Lan came back and started cooking, he would get angry first, scolding her for being sloppy, scolding her for being lazy, scolding her for having time to comb her hair but not to wash the dishes.

And Lin Lan was also very aggrieved, she also worked for a day, and Yu Jianguo didn't know how to cook, so why can't he wash the dishes and stew the rice first?Not helping at all, waiting to eat ready-made and getting angry, she is also hungry, let alone angry, even if she doesn't reply, she will throw pots and mix bowls to express her dissatisfaction.

And this often leads to quarrels, which often don't subside until the meal is ready and full.

Every now and then, Yu Yong would stay quietly in the corner alone, and sometimes he would find the child curled up in the corner of the bed and fell asleep after the two had quarreled.

This year, Lin Lan wants to send more money to her hometown, five hundred.My elder brother in my hometown was fined tens of thousands for giving birth to a second child. I heard that all the cattle in the family were taken away.

Lin Lan calculated that she had worked for more than three months, and her salary was more than 400 yuan, but the year-end bonus was [-] yuan.She thought this was the first time in her life that she had earned money, and when something happened to her family and she needed money, she wanted to send back five hundred to her family and save herself some face.

She said it on New Year's Eve when the couple were making dumplings together.Picking this moment, she said that one was that she was still at work two days ago and had no time to send money, and the other was that the atmosphere of the evening was very good. Yu Jianguo happily talked to Yu Yong after eating dumplings and then went to set off the cannon.

What I didn't expect was that as soon as she proposed it, she was scolded bloody by the surprised Yu Jianguo: Why did his father go early, and the pity hasn't had a bite of his daughter-in-law's meal yet, why can the elderly in her family enjoy this? blessing?Why did she come here in old clothes when she got married without a dowry, why should she pay a fine to her natal brother now?

I don’t want to say how much money I sent secretly to my natal family. Now that I haven’t earned a total of 1000 yuan, I have to move back to her natal family for [-] yuan. If her natal family is shameless, she doesn’t want to live a good life with him every day. Hugging the money to her natal family...

What he said was disregarding the facts and it was very embarrassing, Lin Lan was angry, sad and unceremoniously counterattacked: Others would give a bride price when they marry a wife, but her natal family never saw her.It was Shicheng's aunt, she was so poor that she couldn't afford a new dress and was too embarrassed to visit her.Yu Jianguo didn't know whether he earned RMB or kraft paper, but the money he earned was money, and he could never spend it all.

Rent a house, pay childcare fees, buy food, oil, and vegetables, and eat meat. She has never been willing to eat it. She saves it for a man and son... and saves money. How can she secretly post to her mother's house?Still moving to her mother's house, but how much money you earn can still let me move...

The two people poked each other's painful feet, and the quarrel turned into cursing. In the end, Yu Jianguo finally overturned the curtain where the dumplings were placed, kicked down the table, jumped up and stretched out his fist...

Amidst Lin Lan's sharp cries, the neighbor Aunt Yao's family came over to pull the two of them apart, and after some persuasion, they left. After all, the whole family was reuniting.

The 31-year-old family did not eat anything.

The raw dumplings that fell on the ground were trampled to pieces, Lin Lan cried and cleaned them up, and then went to sleep crying again.Aunt Yao brought half a bowl of dumplings when it was almost twelve o'clock, but Lin Lan and Yu Yong had already gone to bed, and Yu Jianguo sat by the stove and smoked a cigarette in the middle of the night, without eating any of them.

Yu Yong had slipped to the corner of the room as early as when the two were swearing, where there was a chest of drawers for clothes and quilts.The cabinet is big, and the corner between it and the wall is his hiding place, and adults who are angry will usually not find it.

When the two fell silent under Grandma Yao's persuasion, he had slipped into the crib, covered his head and pretended to be asleep.Then he really fell asleep.

Yu Yong has no idea about this kind of New Year's Day, because this is the norm in his family.The more Chinese New Years and festivals or when other people's families are happy, the less peaceful his family is, and he is used to it.

On the first day of the first day of the new year, the low air pressure continued at home.Yu Yong is also very sensible and obedient, he doesn't argue about setting off firecrackers, going out to play, or asking for New Year's money, he eats when he is asked to eat, and does what he is asked to do, like a quiet little mouse all day long.

When Lin Hong's family came over in the second day of junior high school, the atmosphere at home finally eased.

As soon as Lin Hong met, she gave Yu Yong ten yuan in New Year's money, and then asked Zhang Jie, who also received the New Year's money from Yu Jianguo, to take his two younger brothers out to set off cannons and buy sugarcane on the street.

After sending the children away, Lin Hong shouted loudly and made some small dishes for the brother-in-law to have a drink first. She continued cooking and making dumplings in the kitchen to persuade Lin Lan who was crying again when she saw her natal family.Finally, when the children came back from playing, a table of dishes was prepared, and the family finally began to return to normal.

Finally, under Lin Hong's persuasion, Lin Lan also sent back 200 yuan to her hometown in the third day of junior high school, just like Lin Hong.Yu Jianguo didn't object. In fact, when he was sober, he knew that it was meaningless to argue about the money.That's how the year passed.

The sixth day was the last day of the holiday, and Yu Jianguo's family of three went to Mu's house with gifts.Knowing that Mu's family was going back to their hometown for the New Year, they chose this day specially.And Mu Wen didn't let Mu Chen go to play with Yu Yong before, because he didn't want the Yu family to spend money to give Mu Chen a red envelope. Now that they're here, Mu Wen hurriedly let him in.

Today, Yang Li entertained people from the department for dinner at home, Mu Wen has been busy in the kitchen, and Mu Chen also helped out after saying hello.

Seeing Yu Yong, Mu Wen asked Mu Chen to wash his hands and go out to play with Yu Yong, while he himself was going to borrow two more stools from the neighbor's house so that Yu Jianguo and his wife could eat together at the table.

Yu Jianguo and Lin Lan hurriedly said that they had just eaten dumplings at home and left, and told Mu Wen not to work too hard, they just came to pay New Year's greetings, and they didn't sit down if they had something else to do.

Mu Wen knew that the two of them would definitely be uncomfortable if they really came to the table, so he apologized repeatedly.They sent the two out, but kept Yu Yong, saying that they would let the two children play together, and they would send them back at night.

Mu Chen in the back room asked after knowing that Yu Yong had just eaten, so he didn't bring him a snack, but washed an apple.

After the stamp album was finished, the two made a big boat together, which was folded from one-cent banknotes.

Mu Wen went to the bank to exchange the banknotes. It was a big project. The two had been folding them for a long time. Now that the hull had just been made, Mu Chen put the banknotes on the dresser, and they folded them together.

While working, Mu Chen asked Yu Yong where he had been during the Chinese New Year?What did you play?As a result, I heard a story about a child fighting at home in his thirties.

At first, Yu Jianguo and his wife seemed to be doing well today, but they never expected that there would be troubles at home during the Chinese New Year.Compared with his own happy year, it is a bit uncomfortable.

On the contrary, Yu Yong said triumphantly, "I think they hid themselves when they quarreled. When Grandma Yao came over, I hid on the bed. I pretended to be asleep so they wouldn't beat me." gone."

Muchen... What should I do if my heart hurts even more?

The guests dispersed after two o'clock. Yang Li returned all the borrowed chairs and stools, put away the table, took out the garbage, and almost finished washing Mu Wen's dishes.

When Yang Li finished wiping and mopping, Mu Wen also cleaned up the kitchen. Both of them were exhausted, and after drinking a few more glasses, they couldn't bear to take a nap.

Mu Chen and Yu Yong moved to the outer room and folded the paper. Mu Chen got a little impatient with the child, and took him to a tank fight. Mu Wen and Yang Li didn't get up until almost five o'clock.

In the evening, Mu Wen only made chicken noodle soup. The chicken soup left over from the stewed local chicken today, with a little green onion, garlic sprouts and chili oil, served with strong hand-rolled noodles, the whole family was very satisfied.

Originally, there were some leftover meat dishes at noon, but Mu Wen didn't want the children to eat leftovers, so he didn't bring them out.

After dinner, Mu Wen made two servings of fried crispy meat and meatballs made at home, took ten oil pancakes, and wrapped a fifty red envelope for Yu Yong, and sent Yu Yong home with Mu Chen.