With the strength of many people, the work in the kitchen was finished in a short time.
Li Jianjun turned on the black and white TV in the main room, tuned it to CCTV, and waited to watch the Spring Festival Gala live broadcast.
Not many families in the village have TVs. Only three families have them. In addition to the village chief’s house, the Li family and a wealthy family in the village have TVs. Reading books is a waste of time.
The Li family's TV was second-hand. Li Dawei bought a TV in the town, and his two elders came to the city and saw it. They kept saying that it would be great if their hometown had one.
Li Dawei gritted his teeth and bought the second-hand TV set that had been replaced by his colleague's house and sent it back to his hometown, fulfilling the wish of the two elders.
Although he got a reputation of being filial, when he returned home, the couple had a big quarrel over it.
The quarrel was so fierce this time that Wang Xiaojuan went directly back to her parents' home.
It is not easy for the couple to save some money. They have three children to raise and they are all still in school. Wang Xiaojuan was determined not to come back that time.
In the end, Li Dawei personally went to his uncle's house and made a promise that he would never secretly subsidize his hometown again, so he coaxed his wife back.
Now that it has been two years since this incident, Wang Xiaojuan looked happily at the news broadcast on the TV, as if everything had faded away with time.
There were three charcoal pots burning in the room, and everyone gathered around one in twos and threes, forming a half circle and waiting for the Spring Festival Gala to start.
Li Jianjun got a few decks of cards from nowhere, and Li Manjun and his brother and sister were watching TV while fighting landlords, and drank water when they lost.
Li Jianjun kept losing and drinking, and went to the toilet several times.
Li Xiaoniu couldn't afford to lose, so he would cheat when he lost too much. The elders who were celebrating the New Year liked the excitement, so they teased him. It was rare that they were not biased, allowing the game of Landlords to continue.
Li Manjun and his wife won the most. The younger brothers and sisters argued that it was unfair for them as a couple. Li Manjun put down the cards and left Zhao Yong on his own side. She went behind the younger brothers and sisters to provide guidance.
They were laughing and joking happily, while the elders watched the Spring Festival Gala and laughed from time to time along with the sketches on TV.
At this moment, the Li family is exceptionally harmonious and beautiful.
At midnight, the New Year's bell rings, the small mountain village comes alive, and clusters of fireworks are lit, blooming brilliantly in the night sky.
"Let's go, let's set off fireworks!" Li Xiaoniu took out the small fireworks he bought, grabbed his brothers and sisters and walked out.
Li Manjun and his wife followed behind, watching them set off these strange little fireworks. The colorful fireworks were so beautiful in the night that it was unreal.
In order to protect the environment, fireworks were banned in cities in later generations. Li Manjun had not felt this kind of New Year flavor for a long time.
Winter nights are cold, but people's hearts are warm.
Zhao Yong hugged her to his chest to protect her from the wind, and her back was pressed against his hot chest. The two watched the fireworks burn out before returning to the house.
The two brothers Li Dawei insisted on keeping vigil. Wang Xiaojuan burned a prosperous brazier for them and heated up two plates of snacks, and everyone went to sleep.
There were not many rooms in the Li family, and the married son-in-law and daughter could not sleep in the same room. Zhao Yong slept in the same room with Li Jianjun and Li Xiaoniu, and the three Li Manjun sisters slept in Li Lanfang's room.
At night, the three sisters talked for a long time. Li Lanfang worked in a textile factory and had one day off a week. When she had time, she would go out to play with the workers in the same dormitory and go to the beach to watch the sea.
Li Lanfang told Li Lijun that the sea is big and blue, and the winter there is not cold at all. Just wearing a jacket is enough to survive the winter.
Li Lijun was envious and yearned for her, and Li Lanfang told her that if you can study, study hard. Working in a factory is not fun at all, it is very hard.
"Our factory works in two shifts, one day shift and one night shift. It's hard for people to work in shifts for a long time."
"The electronics factory in the next town is even more tiring. They work three shifts, day and night, and many people can't stand it."
"Some female workers found boyfriends locally and stopped working."
"Most of them are like me. They send money home every month after their salary is paid. They don't have much left in their hands. Sometimes they don't even have a cent to buy medicine when they get sick. So, it's better to study.
ah......"
Li Lanfang turned her head and looked at Li Lijun, who was sleeping on her left, with great envy, "I thought you were going to fail the exam, and I wanted to advise you to find a way to go to a junior college instead of working part-time."
"My sister encouraged me." Li Lijun's feet under the quilt reached over and hooked Li Manjun. Li Manjun shivered from the cold and said with an annoyed smile: "Li Lijun, please don't touch me!"
Li Lanfang lowered her legs across her body and stood next to the warm Li Manjun. The two of them were separated by the popsicle Li Lijun.
Li Lijun refused and insisted on being next to her two sisters. The three sisters immediately burst into laughter.
The wooden floors of the old house were not soundproof, and the three sisters were laughing and making noise upstairs. Li Jianjun and Zhao Yong downstairs heard the commotion and knocked on the bedside board to tell them to keep their voices down.
Ever since, we started chatting upstairs and downstairs, until the sky turned white, then we fell asleep.
Qian Shufen got up very early, heated up the stove, heated up the dishes that had been left cold last night, and made breakfast for the whole family.
Wang Xiaojuan and Ren Juan followed, and the three of them gently let their children sleep until noon.
Not walking around on the first day of the new year, the family just chatted at home alone, and spent the first day of the new year like this.
When I returned to my parents' home on the second day of the Lunar New Year, each family member prepared their own preparations. The car could not accommodate Li Manjun and his family, so Li Jianjun was left in his hometown to accompany his elders.
Li Xiaoniu was also disliked by Qian Shufen for being too young and unable to walk on mountain roads, so he stayed at home.
Li Manjun and Zhao Yong took their parents and younger sister back to Heather Town first, made some preparations at home, brought New Year's gifts, and headed to Xin'an Town where the Wang family is located.
The aunts and uncles have arrived a long time ago. They took their husbands back to their parents' home to celebrate the New Year with the old man this year, which was very lively.
Li Manjun's aunt was not able to make it to the wedding. This time she met Zhao Yong and gave him another red envelope, which made Zhao Yong feel embarrassed.
Fortunately, he and Li Manjun also prepared many New Year gifts, including a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of wine for each family, plus a hundred red envelopes, one for aunt, aunt, uncle, and uncle, and one for each family.
The year before, Wang Hanwen renovated his old house and built two new rooms next to the old house, which were connected to the old house to create a house similar to a courtyard house with a very spacious middle yard.
Zhao Yong's car can be driven in and parked in the yard.
The village where the Wang family lives is not as wealthy as Hongxing Village, but the Wang Hanwen brothers and sisters are promising and have built their old house better than the rest of the village.
After time travel, this was the first time that Li Manjun met his grandparents. The two elders were very strong-minded, but compared to the two elders of the Li family, they were much more open-minded in their thinking.
During the two days she stayed at her grandma's house, Li Manjun felt very comfortable. Her cousins took her and Zhao Yong to visit the nearby hillsides. They dug two sacks of winter bamboo shoots, and the family shared some and took them home.
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, everyone had breakfast together and then left. Li Manjun and his wife returned to Heather Town and stayed for another night.
On the afternoon of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, they returned to Rongcheng and opened the door to their home. The two of them collapsed on the sofa and sighed in unison: "Finally the New Year is over."
