Xiangyang Brigade welcomed the New Year in this joyful atmosphere. On New Year's Eve, the smell of meat wafted over every household in the village.

In the brigade headquarters, Guan Huashu, Fifth Grandpa, Shui Shui, the accountant and several old men who can write calligraphy were writing festive Spring Festival couplets together.

Several ropes were stretched outside the door, with the written Spring Festival couplets hung on them to dry. The villagers could choose the ones they liked and take them home to paste on their front doors.

The Guan family is also celebrating the New Year in a lively manner, but there are many differences from previous years.

In previous years, all the daughters-in-law worked together on the general cleaning, but Dong Xiaomai did most of the work such as washing, sweeping, and drying.

She was the one who prepared all the food in the kitchen, frying, stir-frying, and deep-frying. She was so tired that she could not even straighten her back. Then, when it was time to eat, there was no seat for her. It was because she did not give birth to a son for the Guan family. A chicken that does not lay eggs has no right to be at the table.

After dinner, the sons and grandsons stayed up in the main room to celebrate the New Year, while the women went back to their rooms. She then went to wash the dishes and clean up.

For Dong Xiaomai, the New Year is filled with bad memories. No, it could be said that all the years she lived in the Guan family were filled with bad memories. As her husband, Guan Laoer, due to his foolish filial piety and cowardice, did not give her any love or protection.

During the Spring Festival this year, the Guan family's daughters-in-law did a perfunctory job of cleaning the house.

The New Year's Eve dinner was an obvious sham. There were still two tables, one for the men and one for the women.

The meat in the pot originally came in three layers, each the size of a mahjong tile, neatly stacked one by one, filling two large bowls. But when the third son's wife took it, she realized that a layer was missing. She either ate it secretly or hid it and took it back to her mother's house on the second day of the New Year to feed her brothers.

Today's meat dishes: stewed chicken with mushrooms, shredded potatoes and pork, winter melon meatballs, etc., were all made by the eldest daughter-in-law and the fourth daughter-in-law's family. The relationship between these two has been very good since they entered the fourth daughter-in-law's family. Logically, the third and fourth daughters are twins, so the daughters-in-law of these two families should be close to each other, but they are as close to the eldest daughter-in-law as if they were one person. They tell her all their secrets, work together, and go to the market together.

After the third sister finished, she pretended to be diligent and took it to the house. After the fourth sister-in-law came in and took a look, she found that there was one layer missing after the third sister-in-law passed it over. The fourth sister-in-law quickly ran into the house to tell her mother-in-law not to find out that there was so much missing when it was time to eat, and then she and the eldest sister-in-law would be blamed for the food.

Old Lady Guan hated people stealing from her parents' home the most. The third son's family had a previous record, so when she heard what the fourth son said when he came into the house, she cursed and walked out directly, wanting to go to the kitchen to watch.

In the yard, we met the third brother coming out of his house, carrying a bowl of chicken stewed with mushrooms.

"Old Third's, when did your house become a kitchen?"

Guan Laosan's wife didn't expect her mother-in-law to come out at this time. She was holding the bowl of chicken stewed with mushrooms and saw that there was a lot of meat in it, so she went into the house and took out a few pieces. She wanted to bring them to her mother's house on the second day of the New Year to satisfy her brothers' cravings.

"Mom, I just went into the house to put something down, and I happened to be carrying some dishes. I'll carry it in first, put the things down, and then go to the main room to put the dishes down."

"What did you put in the house? It's not the meat in the bowl, is it? Lao Sanjia, don't forget that you are now the daughter-in-law of the Guan family!"

"Mom, I just put some things in my pocket when I went into the house. I felt uncomfortable walking back and forth, so I took them out and put them inside the house." The third son's wife grinned and smiled.

"Okay, bring it in quickly, it will get cold soon."

Mrs. Guan didn't want to make a big fuss during the New Year. She knew her daughters-in-law best after all these years. It was just a few pieces of meat, not a big deal.