"Grandma, look what I brought back today!" Jiang Ruyu took out a slaughtered goose from her cloth bag, and the three people in the room stared at her with wide eyes.

"This goose must weigh at least ten pounds, sis, you're really something!" Jiang Lin circled the goose, asking, "Grandma, should we make soup or stir-fry it?"

"Eat, eat, all you know is eating. You look like a goose, so I'll braise you." Old Mrs. Jiang took the goose and hung it in the storage room that was partitioned off between the two brothers' rooms: "We'll eat it during the New Year."

"Sigh, I knew it, it's hopeless again." Jiang Lin moved closer to his sister and asked, "Is there anything good to eat, sis? I'm craving something."

Jiang Ruyu looked at him helplessly: "You're already so old, you'll be seventeen after the New Year, you'll graduate next year, and you're still acting like a child." As she spoke, she gave him a piece of chocolate.

"Thank you, sis. You're the best."

Jiang Lin grabbed the chocolate and ran out. Jiang Ruyu gave Jiang Hui another piece: "Why are your personalities becoming more and more different? Why are you getting more and more withdrawn?"

Jiang Hui chuckled and said, "If I were like Jiang Lin, you'd be annoyed to death."

Jiang Ruyu paused for a moment upon hearing this: "That's true, Jiang Lin is too noisy."

As the Lunar New Year approaches, everyone is busy. Grandma Jiang is busy preparing for the New Year, cleaning the house, and queuing up to buy groceries for the holiday. Apart from Jiang Ruyu, who is still working, the brothers Jiang Lin and Jiang Hui have to get up at five o'clock every morning to queue up at the grain station, grocery store, and fresh meat shop to buy meat and vegetables for the New Year. The supply is only a little more during the New Year. If you are lucky, you can buy frozen seafood such as fish, shrimp, and crab that you can't buy at other times.

Jiang Ruyu went to queue up during her break and luckily came across a stall selling frozen seafood. She hadn't checked in yet, so she took the opportunity to check in at the seafood stall. This was the first time the system had checked in at a seafood stall since it came to the system. Jiang Ruyu was delighted to find that the system was really generous this time.

"Five pounds of fresh prawns, five pounds of fresh crabs, five pounds of large grouper, and ten pounds of various sea snails."

"Oh my god, you're so generous this time, thank you so much!" Jiang Ruyu was overjoyed. Instead of buying any more frozen seafood, she bought a three-pound old duck to make soup.

Before we knew it, it was the 29th. Everyone was eating lunch inside, it was freezing outside. There had been a huge snowfall a couple of days ago. She was walking to work now, afraid of falling and hurting herself. Actually, the old lady was afraid she would smash her bicycle to pieces. You know, this old lady, she doesn't know how to be considerate.

Every family was eating in their heated rooms with their kang (traditional heated brick bed) and heated walls. With the New Year approaching, everyone was eating well. Her grandmother was in a good mood today, so she made shredded pork with sweet bean sauce, rolled out some dough, chopped some scallions, cooked an eggplant, and made a seaweed and egg drop soup. The food was top-notch.

"Grandma, I wish we could eat like this every day," Jiang Lin said happily, sipping the egg drop soup with three eggs in it.

"It's not dark yet, you can dream about it tonight." That was the emotionless reply from Old Mrs. Jiang.

"Oh, what a stubborn old lady."

"I think you're itching for a beating again," the old lady said, but before she could finish speaking, their courtyard became lively again. Sun Yuan, the eldest son of the Sun family in the west wing, had returned. He had been sent to the countryside when things got chaotic in 1966, and it had been two and a half years since then. He had gone to the south and this was the first time he had returned this year, but he hadn't come back alone; he had brought his wife and children with him.

"Oh, my son, what have you done to me? This is like tearing my heart out!" As soon as Aunt Sun came out, she saw that her eldest son, who was 1.75 meters tall, had become skin and bones, and she was crying so sadly.

The pitiful cry woke up everyone who was eating. Old Mrs. Jiang quickly put on her coat, rolled up a pancake, and went out.

Not to be outdone, Jiang Ruyu followed her grandmother's example, rolled up some pancakes, put on her coat, and ran out to watch the commotion. As soon as she stepped outside, she was shivering from the cold. She saw that even people from the two courtyards behind her had come over from the covered walkway on the east side to watch the commotion. She really admired these people's enthusiasm for watching the excitement.

Then he listened intently as the eldest son of the Sun family, Sun Yuan, and his wife, with a child still in their arms, knelt in the snow and cried out in a sorrowful voice, "Mom, Dad, your unfilial son kowtows to you."

This whole affair was incredibly distressing for the Sun couple. Their eldest son had been healthy and fair-skinned when he passed away, but now he was pale and emaciated—it was truly heartbreaking.

"Get up quickly, my son!" Aunt Sun's name is Li Xiuying, and her husband's name is Sun Datou. Both of them have jobs and have three children. The eldest son, Sun Yuan, is twenty-one years old this year, and the younger son, Sun Chang, is nineteen years old. He graduated from high school and the neighborhood committee has urged him many times to go to the countryside. After the New Year, they will have to take coercive measures.

Sun Chang didn't want to go to the countryside, especially after he wrote home every month about how difficult it was there. He was even more reluctant to go and was trying to persuade his mother to give him her job so he could avoid going to the countryside.

Sun Chang has a younger sister, Sun Li, who is seventeen years old this year and will graduate next year. The Sun family was happy about Sun Yuan's return, but the siblings felt a sense of crisis.

If everything had been peaceful, the second brother, Sun Changneng, could have persuaded Li Xiuying to give him the job. That way, it would have been understandable that only Sun Li would not have to go to the countryside. However, the eldest brother returned, dragging his family back in a miserable state. Would the peaceful family still be able to remain calm?

Sun Yuan's family was helped into the house by Sun Yuan and his wife. The people who had come to watch the commotion in the courtyard also went home, trembling. At the dinner table, Jiang Ruyu gossiped with her nanny: "Grandma, I have a feeling that our courtyard will not be peaceful in the future."

"Who cares about others? Let's just live our own lives." Old Mrs. Jiang, being a shrewd old woman, could naturally see that Jiang Ruyu had sensed something was amiss, and even Jiang Hui could sense something unusual. Only Jiang Lin remained silent, saying, "Delicious, mmm, Grandma, I want to eat it again tomorrow."

Jiang Ruyu looked at her younger brother, who only knew how to eat at the table and sleep in bed, and felt truly helpless. How could she have such a silly younger brother?

When Jiang Ruyu returned home from get off work in the evening, she hadn't even entered the alley when she bumped into Zheng Yang, who was braving the snow to get home. She hadn't paid any attention to him during this time, and Zheng Yang had also wisely resumed his long-distance driving and hadn't deliberately tried to run into her again. The only exception was that he would bring Jiang Ruyu some rare things every time he came back, such as fruits from the south or mushrooms from Yunnan Province. He would leave before she could refuse, and she would accept them.

The two remained in this awkward silence. Fortunately, they didn't run into each other every day. This time, when they did meet, Jiang Ruyu didn't avoid him: "Are you guys so busy? Even in the snow, you're running around?"

A look of surprise flashed across Zheng Yang's eyes. He smiled and said, "This is an urgent order. There's nothing I can do about it. It just so happens that I came across this. Here, take this local specialty from Heilongjiang Province. I wish you a Happy New Year in advance."