It’s not that Cui Yunxiang doesn’t feel sorry for her son, but mainly because today is the Little New Year, and Junzi is back, so she wants her family to have a reunion dinner.

Zhang Qiang was not in the house for a long time, and Cui Yunxiang was a little anxious. She had been looking at the door several times. When she turned around, she saw Zhang Bing heartlessly pinching meat to eat, she became angry and said, "Second, you go outside to welcome him. Is your dad back?"

"Mom, I'll go." Without waiting for Zhang Bing to agree, Zhang Jun stood up first.

I haven't seen my father for several years, and Zhang Jun missed him very much.

Zhang Jun walked out the alley, and after a few steps, a familiar figure appeared in the shadows. Zhang Jun felt excited, "Dad!"

While Zhang Jun recognized his father, Zhang Qiang also realized that the young man coming towards him was his son.

"Junzi!"

The two of them walked quickly towards each other at the same time. In the darkness, Zhang Qiang looked at his son carefully, "Hey, I'm grown up." Zhang Qiang patted Zhang Jun's arm and said with emotion: "Good, I'm taller than you."

Zhang Jun only smiled foolishly. To be honest, the moment he saw his father, his nose was sour and he felt like it was falling.

The father and the two walked home hand in hand. Zhang Jun had never been so close to his father since he entered high school. Zhang Jun was a little shy and tilted his head to look at his father. He happened to see the folds that were smiling all over the corners of Zhang Qiang's eyes.

Zhang Jun was stunned. He hadn't seen him for several years, so why did his father get much older?

"Dad, this should be the last time I stayed in the office before the New Year."

Zhang Qiang turned his head and looked at his son, "Well, I won't go out before the festival."

"Dad, don't work so hard in the future, you have to pay more attention to your health."

Zhang Qiang smiled heartily, "Okay, wait for you to make a fortune, Dad is waiting to enjoy your blessing."

After entering the courtyard, Zhang Jun shouted, "Mom - my dad is back."

Cui Yunxiang had been waiting anxiously and gossiping, and said with a heartache and complaining: "Why is Xiaonian still coming back so late? The family is waiting for you to have dinner? Why are you sitting there? Hurry up and make a basin of hot water for your dad to wash your hands."

Cui Yunxiang said, picked up two plates of dishes and walked towards the kitchen, "I'll go hot dishes. You wash your hands and drink a sip of hot water and wait."

Zhang Qiang smiled and said, "Look at you, eat it first when it is ready. What should I do? How can the family pay so much attention to it?"

"Look at what you said." Cui Yunxiang gave Zhang Qiang a blank look, "Today is the Little New Year, and it is a festival after all, so why don't you have a reunion dinner?"

"Then I have to drink some wine today. My son is back and I have to let him have a few drinks with me."

Cui Yunxiang smiled with a good temper and said, "Drink it."

Cui Yunxiang was quick-witted and soon, she came back with two dishes.

Zhang Qiang took a bottle of wine and looked at it over and over in the light. Cui Yunxiang recognized at a glance that it was the Shandong wine that Zhang Jun brought back to Zhang Qiang.

"This wine is not bad, look at the hops." Zhang Qiang exclaimed, "Look, the name is also good, it is called Wuyue Duzun, and it becomes domineering when you hear it."

"Can't that be fine?" Cui Yunxiang said sourly: "Your son brought it back from afar."

"What, you don't want my son to be filial to me!" Zhang Qiang said proudly: "I think you are just jealous, right, son, your mother is just jealous."

This shows that the relationship is good, and Zhang Jun just smiles and doesn’t speak.

Zhang Qiang walked to the dining table and touched Cui Yunxiang with his elbow, "What did we buy for you?"

Cui Yunxiang whispered at the table, "Well, I'm putting it on the plate."

Zhang Qiang looked closely and shouted, "Can meat! Yo, there is also fish!" Zhang Qiang pinched a piece of lunch meat with two fingers and put it in his mouth, chewing it fragrantly, "My son is just good at buying things, and knows your mother loves to eat this."

"Yes." Cui Yunxiang glanced at her son resentfully, "Your mother is old, she only knows how to eat but not how beautiful it is."

"Why is it wrong for me?" Zhang Qiang looked at his wife suspiciously, "Are you dissatisfied with your son's gift?"

"Satisfied." Cui Yunxiang picked up a piece of fish and put it in her mouth, and said, "Koke came back and bought a red scarf for her mother, which looked so beautiful. Everyone praised it when wearing it."

"Oh~ I understand." Zhang Qiang smiled and said, "What you mean is that she can't wear what you buy to show off. I want me to say, it's simple. You will eat at the door tomorrow with a plate. If someone will definitely ask you, you can show off."

"What are you talking about?" Cui Yunxiang patted Zhang Qiang's hand, "Eat quickly, we have to sacrifice to the kitchen after eating."

Although Zhang Qiang got involved in the funeral, Zhang Jun still understood what his mother meant. He did not take much attention in the gift he chose for his mother. Zhang Jun felt a little guilty and hurriedly said, "Mom, when I come back next time, I will definitely buy you the most pleasant gift."

After his son said this, Cui Yunxiang felt embarrassed, "No, no, just like this, mom likes whatever you buy."

Zhang Qiang took four small wine cups and was about to put them on Cui Yunxiang, Zhang Junman took the wine bottle and said, "Dad, I'll pour it."

"Okay, my son poured it for me."

Cui Yunxiang covered her wine glass, "I don't know how to drink, so don't pour it for me, it's a waste. I have a second child. He is still young, so don't be abusive to him drinking."

Zhang Qiang took her hand away, "Look, I just said it was Xiao New Year, and I wanted to have a reunion dinner. Why did I drink a glass of wine together? A cup of three cents is only a sip. How about you still get drunk? Don't worry, I'm not counting, and my second brother doesn't let him drink too much, just keep this cup and act like this."

"I won't drink it after saying it."

"I can't drink it, I'll do it for you."

Zhang Qiang took the first step to pick up the wine glass and said, "It's the New Year, Junzi's family is here. Let's talk together. I wish everyone in our family peace, health, cheers."

"cheers--"

Four wine glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound.

Cui Yunxiang took a small sip, which made her tongue so spicy that she stuck out her tongue. She hurriedly put a piece of meat in her mouth, "Eat vegetables, eat vegetables."

Zhang Bing was already hungry, so he put down his glass and ate it hard.

Zhang Qiang first told Zhang Jun a piece of meat, then picked up another piece of fish and put it in his mouth to chew it.

"Junzi, tell me, how are you doing in the army in the past few years?"

"It's pretty good, our leader is also nice to me."

"Your son has joined the party." Cui Yunxiang said.

The fact that Zhang Jun's joining the party was a major event in Cui Yunxiang's mind. In the past two days after Zhang Jun returned, she had already shown off to her neighbors.

Zhang Qiang was surprised, "Really?"

Zhang Jun nodded modestly, "I am still a probationary party member and I will only be a regular member next year."

"Okay, good son." Zhang Qiang picked up the wine glass, drank it clean, and raised the empty wine glass forward, "Fill it with dad. This is a big happy event for our family. Dad wants to drink a few more."

Zhang Qiang drank three drinks in a row and said, "You can join the party, which means you have not embarrassed your father in the army. Good son, work hard and strive to be able to improve."

The Zhang family frowned and felt a little embarrassed, "Dad, it's not a little difficult for me to pick up. You know, my cultural course is not good."

"If you don't listen to the old man, you will suffer a loss in front of you. No matter how your father said it, you will regret it now, right?"

"No regrets." Zhang Jun shook his head, "You just asked me to choose again, I still choose that, Dad, I'm just the life of being a big boss."

"You can't say that." Zhang Qiang said in a tone of an experienced person: "You can also make more contributions."

"Dad, I want to make more contributions, but how could I make so much contribution?"

Cui Yunxiang kept listening to the two men's words with her ears. When she talked about making meritorious service, she remembered what her son did today and said, "Will your troops know about today's affairs be considered a success?"

Zhang Qiang heard his wife's tone and something big happened today. He raised his wine glass and asked, "What's the matter?"

Cui Yunxiang said, "You don't know. Junzi went to the city to go to the market this morning, and the firecracker market exploded. Your son was saving people inside."

Zhang Jun hurriedly said: "Mom, I didn't save people for meritorious service. Our company commander said that protecting the lives and property of the people is the responsibility of our soldiers."

"Mom knows, mom knows."

Zhang Qiang put down his wine glass, "Junzi, tell me carefully about it with dad, what's going on? Why did it explode?"

To be honest, Zhang Jun really didn't want to recall the miserable scene at that time, but his father asked, and he couldn't help but say it.

"Dad, I found that there was a problem with the operation mode of the market. When there were dangerous goods everywhere, there were not only open flames but also fired fires. Dad, you know, the army has strict management of this series of dangerous goods. I thought it was wrong at the time and wanted to wake them up. But I didn't expect that it would explode after just talking to the person who managed the market."

"Is it serious?" Zhang Qiang asked.

Zhang Jun pursed his lips, "It's quite serious. There are many injured people at the scene, and two others died on the spot."

"Hiss-" Zhang Qiang took a deep breath, "It's so serious! Are you okay?"

Cui Yunxiang: "It's okay, it's just that your newly-launched cotton jacket has several holes."

"Just as long as you are fine, what should I do in the end?" Zhang Qiang asked again.

"Later, a lot of people went to the hospital, and I saw that nothing happened, so we came back."

Zhang Qiang drank a sip of wine. Since someone died on the spot, it must be very tragic at that time. He hoped that his son would make contributions, but he did not want his son to put himself in danger. He pondered for a moment and said, "You did the right thing, but my dad also has selfish intentions. In the future, he thought that he must only ensure his safety."

"Dad, don't worry about this. I'm not hurting at all. It's just that your jacket has broken."

"That's a blessing for you. Think about it, if it doesn't break down on you, will it be dangerous if it breaks somewhere else?"

"Dad." Zhang Jun said proudly: "I have seen scenes that are more powerful than this. The little firecracker is still a little bit of a thing for me."

"It depends on your pride." Zhang Qiang pointed his son.

"Then can this be considered a merit?" Cui Yunxiang asked.

Zhang Qiang stared at him, "What kind of merit? My son has done what he should do. If he uses this to seek me, what will we achieve?"

Cui Yunxiang pursed her lips, "I'll just say that."

"Son, let's ignore your mother." Zhang Qiang picked up the wine glass again, "Come on, let's go another one, tell me the matter in the army."

"Okay." Zhang Jun chatted with his father in a evasive way.

It was much easier for Zhang Qiang’s family to worship the Kitchen God, so Cui Yunxiang regarded the Kitchen God as a major event. After dinner, Cui Yunxiang packed the table and urged him, "Who of you three will invite the Kitchen God down?"
To be continued...