Chapter 30 New Year’s Day (please collect and recommend)
Author: Han Ming
Chapter 30 New Year’s Day (please collect and recommend)
The first day of the new year is full of joy.
Children will come to visit their elders early in the morning to pay New Year greetings and kowtow, and the elders will also give their children red envelopes to express their happiness.
But, does the money you get have to be yours?
Zhang An has been deceived by this sentence for many years.
As soon as the red envelope Zhang An received from childhood returned home, Wang Fang said she would keep it for him, fearing that he would lose it.
As a result, after being given to Wang Fang for safekeeping, the money seemed to have grown legs and never came back.
There are quite a lot of Zhang An's family in the village. Because the surname Zhang is considered a common surname in Changqing Village, there are quite a lot of children who come to visit every year.
They are all the kind of children under ten years old. If they are as old as Zhang An, they will definitely not go to every household to pay New Year greetings and ask for red envelopes. At most, they will kowtow to a few older grandparents to say hello, and
Two uncles at home.
Children will not come to Zhang An to pay New Year greetings and kowtow, but to Zhang An's parents.
But in fact, you don’t need to give many red envelopes like this. Usually, you give a 30-50 cent red envelope as a sign of good luck, and you can get a dollar or two if you have more.
As for the children of Zhang An's two uncles, they definitely have to pay more, usually three to five yuan, which is already a lot.
You must know that someone in the village is hosting a banquet, and the gifts given by everyone are only ten yuan and twenty.
Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang must have prepared red envelopes for their children long ago. Except for the first year of marriage, when they had no experience, they prepared them every year thereafter.
After getting up early in the morning, you open the door and wait for others to come. It is commonly known as welcoming the God of Wealth on the first day of the new year.
Zhang An also brought some things to his second grandfather and fourth grandfather's house in the village before leaving.
Zhang An's grandfather had four brothers, and the only ones who are still alive are his second grandfather and fourth grandfather.
Moreover, the fourth grandmother also passed away a few years ago.
First we came to the second grandpa’s house, where the second grandma was making noodles and preparing to make glutinous rice balls.
The second grandfather’s family has five sons, but they are all at odds with each other. They always say that the two elders take better care of whose family has more advantages.
In the end, we had no choice but to separate the families, and no one would get involved or care about anyone else.
Anyway, the second grandfather and the second grandmother are now in their early sixties and in good health.
I usually grow some crops and raise some chickens, chickens, and ducks, and I don’t rely on anyone’s subsidies for my living.
But when the two elders are not in good health in the future, each family that should pay child support must pay enough, and those who should provide for the elderly must fulfill their responsibilities.
These were all witnessed in front of several village elders and chiefs in the village.
It is said that raising children will protect you from old age, but there are too many brothers in the countryside who are hiding behind a wall to protect themselves from their insults.
Zhang An's second grandfather likes drinking very much and drinks some every day, but unlike others, he only drinks a small cup every day.
Later Zhang An remembered that as he got older, other elderly people in the village grew old one after another.
During that epidemic, many elderly people failed to resist.
But Grandpa Zhang An still had a small glass of wine every day as usual, and the more he drank, the more energetic he became.
A saying that often comes to his lips is that wine is the essence of food, and the more you drink, the younger you become.
Only later did Zhang An find out that what he drank was medicinal wine made by himself, which contained Chinese herbal medicines such as Polygonatum, Gastrodia elata, and wild ginseng that he dug in the mountains.
This really corresponds to that sentence, the wealth is huge, but not as much as Huang Jing's one tael.
"Second Master and Second Mistress, I'm here to see you."
Mr. Zhang is actually very kind to Zhang An's family and will help him with anything.
Because Zhang An's grandparents left early, the remaining three brothers were not very sensible and relied entirely on the second and fourth grandfathers to take care of them.
"Come here as soon as you come. We are all a family. You should be like the outsiders. What should you bring?"
The second grandmother pretended to teach Zhang An a lesson. They felt a little pity for their eldest grandson. If he had been admitted to college last year, the old Zhang family would have had a college student.
"The second wife didn't bring anything with her. It was all brought here by friends. It's fine to leave it at home. My dad doesn't drink much now, so he might as well give it to my second grandpa to enjoy himself."
In addition to two bottles of wine, Zhang An also brought several bottles of cans. The cans were for his second mistress.
"You're such a smart little guy. Even if I try to persuade him to stop drinking, you can't even try to persuade him to stop drinking. You still take him home."
Zhang An put the things he brought on the table and kowtowed to the elders respectfully.
The second elder also took a red envelope and handed it to Zhang An, who accepted it with a smile.
Lao Zhang is very happy now. His eldest grandson brought him two bottles of good wine, which is more satisfying than giving him money.
After chatting with the second elder for a while, Zhang An left. Originally, the second elder wanted to stay with Zhang An for lunch, but Zhang An said he wanted to see the fourth grandfather, so he left.
The fourth grandfather's family in Zhang An's family is the opposite of the second grandfather's family. The fourth grandfather's family only has one uncle, but three aunts.
Now the three aunts have been married for many years, and the fourth grandma is gone, so the fourth grandpa lives with that uncle's family.
"Fourth Grandpa, I'm here to kowtow to you."
As soon as he entered the door, Zhang An put down his things and kowtowed to Grandpa Fourth, making the uncles and aunts in the room laugh.
In the past, Zhang An was very naughty when he was a child, but as he grew up, he became a little quiet and reticent. The way he is now is really unaccustomed to him.
As usual, I accepted the red envelope prepared by Fourth Grandpa. Now I didn’t have to run away. With the urging of Fourth Grandpa and my uncle and aunt, I had to stay for lunch.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year in Changqing Village, meat is prohibited and everyone becomes vegetarian.
So I make glutinous rice balls and dumplings for lunch, and I also eat stir-fried vegetables at night, but they are fried with vegetable oil.
Tangyuan is stuffed with brown sugar and yinzi, which are the seeds of perilla.
Zhang An did not give money to his brother-in-law's children because Zhang An did not have a family now.
Here, if you get married, you have to prepare lucky money for the children of relatives, or they are older, in their twenties or thirties.
The sun is shining brightly today, as if after the New Year's Eve, a blast of firecrackers has dispersed the dark clouds in the sky.
The sky was blue, with few clouds visible, but it didn't feel too hot.
As the spring breeze blows, the fields where rapeseed is not planted become a paradise for children.
Children in the village were flying kites in the fields. Some of them went to the canteen to buy them with money, while others didn't have enough money to make them at home with white paper and bamboo strips.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and I don’t have to worry about being scolded, let alone beaten, when I go home at night.
Because food is taboo on New Year's Day, adults will not scold or hit children.
However, this does not prevent some mothers from keeping it in mind and settling the matter together another day.
Most people as old as Zhang An like to go to the town to play. There are many people in the town during the Chinese New Year, so naturally there are more people selling things.
There was a time when Zhang An also liked to go, but now Zhang An is past that age.
When I got home, Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang were not at home. They must have gone out to visit.
The ducks also went to the river early in the morning. In the past, there were people who wanted to hunt the ducks on the river, but after they found out that they were raised by Zhang An's family, no one took action, at least not openly.
The three puppies have now grown into big dogs and are dozing in the yard.
Seeing Zhang An coming back, they all crawled over and surrounded Zhang An.
Zhang An took out the cherries from the space and fed them a few in turn.
Not only do they eat cherries, they also spit out pits.
In the afternoon, Zhang Tie came to see Zhang An.
"Brother An, please take us to the town to play." Zhang Tie said to Zhang An expectantly.
"Why do you have to go to the town and walk such a long way?" Zhang An actually didn't want to go out.
"Because there are a lot of fun things over there, and there are people selling food, so just take us there."
"You can go by yourself, I don't want to move."
When Zhang Tie heard that Zhang An didn't want to go, he made a sad face.
"Brother An, my mother said she won't let us go. If you take me there, we can go. You can take us there."
Seeing that Zhang Tie couldn't move Zhang An, Zhang Yan became a little anxious.
Zhang Yan is wearing new clothes today and has two long braids on her hair, which is really cute.
Zhang An would not spoil his cousin, but when it was the cute little Yan'er who asked him, he still couldn't bear to refuse.
"Oh? Our little swallow wants to play."
Zhang An pinched Zhang Yan's little face and smiled.
"Brother An, please don't pinch my face. My mother said it will make me drool after pinching it, which is not good-looking. Of course I want to go. They said there are many people playing in the street, and there are people selling toys and food."
When it comes to toys and food, Zhang Yan starts to get excited.
"But these things all cost money, do you still have money?"
"We still have it. Brother An, I don't know if my mother still has the five yuan you gave me. She still has it with her. Just take me to play."
Zhang An decided not to tease this little cutie anymore.
"Okay, I'll take you there, but you have to go back and give the money to your mother, and tell her that I want to take you to play on the street, do you hear me?"
Because I was afraid that the third aunt would not be able to find the Zhang Yan brothers and sisters later, and she would be in a hurry, I had to inform them first.
"Okay, then I'll go and tell my mother that we'll come find Brother An again." The little guy received Zhang An's reply and went home happily, swinging his pigtails.
Zhang An went into the house and changed his clothes and shoes.
Not long after the meeting, the third aunt came to Zhang An's house with two little guys.
"Xiao An, Yan'er said you took them to the town to play. I'm afraid they will run out on their own, so I'll ask."
"Yes, Third Aunt, there is a singing competition in the town. I just want to go and see it. It's so lively. It happens that the two little guys want to go too, so I'll take them to play."
There are too many people abducting children these days.
At this time, a common saying that adults use to scare children is, there is an old man carrying a baby outside, and if you cry again he will carry you away.
So the family has a tight control over their children.
Even in later generations, there are still many people who kidnap and traffick babies.
Therefore, the children at home should not let them run too far.
Especially now, the woods are so deep in the rapeseed field. Sometimes, if a child is alone on the road and is noticed, he will be blindfolded and taken away, making it difficult to find him.
"By the way, Zhang Tie, go call your second brother and the two of them."
When you go out to play, you must call the second uncle's two sons, otherwise the second aunt will know about it later and have other ideas.
After a while, Zhang Tie came with two brothers, Zhang Bin and Zhang Xing.
Zhang Bin is sixteen years old this year and will take the high school entrance examination in June or July.
Zhang Xing is much younger, only one year older than Zhang Tie.
When leaving home and walking on the mountain road, Zhang An carried Zhang Yan on his back. Zhang Tie and the others would have to walk on their own.
When they reached the asphalt road, Zhang Yan wanted to get off and leave by herself.
Along the way, Zhang An held hands obediently, unlike Zhang Tie and Zhang Xing, who would run to the front and look at the roadside, like monkeys.
Zhang Bin was older and more sensible, so he just talked to Zhang An along the way, chatting about his studies in school, and took the initiative to ask Zhang An what high school was like.
In fact, Zhang Bin's grades were not very good, and he might not have passed the high school entrance examination, but he might have gone to a vocational school.
But Zhang An did not say these words out loud, he just encouraged him to prepare well for the exam in case he performed exceptionally.
Walking too slowly with two children, it took over an hour to reach the town.
But there are really a lot of people, and there are many stalls on the street here to have fun.
The singing competition was held on a stage that was built on the dam where rice was sold. It was originally a basketball court and the outside area was very large.
There is also a banner "1996 Hongyan Town New Year Singing Contest".
Most of the people on the stage were young people in their twenties, and there were also people in their twenties and thirties.
There seemed to be prizes in this singing competition, but Zhang An didn't care.
He himself has mastered all four of the five notes, so he doesn't go up to show off his skills.
Brother and sister Zhang Tie came to the street and were quickly attracted by the stalls on the roadside.
The maids set up stalls on the roadside selling fried potatoes, fried tofu and ham sausages.
The two little guys looked at each other without blinking an eye.
Zhang An bought one person a portion of potatoes mixed with tofu and a piece of fried ham.
"Brother, fried potatoes are enough for us. Ham sausage is too expensive and we don't want to spend so much money."
Oh, Zhang Tie can still save money.
It turned out that when they went out, the third aunt did not take back the New Year's money given by Zhang An to the two of them, and left it for the brother and sister to spend by themselves.
The two brothers Zhang Bin also brought their own money. In previous years, the New Year's money would be taken back. Unexpectedly, Zhang An took them out to play this year, and their family generously gave them money.
However, how can I let my younger brothers and sisters spend money when we go out to play? This makes me, Mr. Zhang, look down on me.
"You can eat as long as I buy it for you. Your brother will ask you to pay for it." Mr. Zhang paid for today's consumption.
There were too many people, so Zhang An could only keep holding Zhang Yan up and telling Zhang Tie and his brothers to follow him.
Really, when other people see her like this, they think Zhang Yan looks like Zhang An’s daughter.
I don't usually feel that way, especially today when the little girl dressed up and washed her face, she looked like a doll.
Moreover, the faces of the three siblings are somewhat similar in outline.
Just after buying food, Xiao Yaner saw a stall selling masks again.
There are various plastic masks on it, including Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and so on.
Children love this kind of thing the most.
One person bought one he liked and hung it on the back of his head, because now he has to keep it in his mouth for eating and cannot wear a mask.
Zhang Bin didn't ask for it because it wasn't suitable for him to play with. Zhang An held Xiao Yanzi in his arms and took the initiative to look at his two younger brothers.
In the square, I heard several people come on stage to sing the songs they signed up for. Some of the girls were pretty good, but they still needed to learn how to sing the song.
After playing for almost a while, Zhang An was ready to go back.
I originally wanted to go to Li Hongbin's house, but the first year of junior high school was not very good, and I also brought several younger brothers and sisters with me, so I didn't bring anything with me, so it was difficult to go to the house.
So after Zhang An shouted, the brothers and sisters went home.
Please help me collect it and vote for it, thank you very much!!!
Thanks to H Luo Yu Wu Shang H for the two recommendation votes
Thanks to Zhuou for the nine recommendation votes
Thanks for the tip, which is the most annoying thing about naming.