Gu Qingqing came closer with great interest, then looked at the man behind her with an unspeakable expression, and a bit of confusion.

Chu Dai nodded, "Don't be surprised, his handwriting is just so shabby."

Gu Qingqing secretly complained in her heart, but she couldn't say anything bad, so she had to praise him.

So when Chu Yuan was looking at Chu Dai with disgust, the smile on his face was brighter than the sun: "Dad! You write very well, the silver hooks and iron paintings are very elegant. Can you write a few more and stick them on all the doors?"

"Okay, okay." Chu Yuan smiled widely, "The words spoken by the wicked people in our Chu family are not pleasant to the ears."

Chu Dai raised his eyebrows, unable to bear their compliments, and went to the door with Gu Qinglie to paste the couplets with the paste.

Gu Qinglie was standing on a chair, Chu Dai was watching him from the side: "Where's my brother?"

"I'll sleep in the room. I've brought all the big and small bags back for you. Put them in the main room. Ask Qingqing to bring them into the room later. We'll have to clear the table and eat later." Gu Qinglie gestured to the wall next to the door: "How's it going?"

"It's a little tilted, moving towards the three o'clock position below."

Gu Qinglie did as he was told. "Is it okay now?"

"Okay."

After hearing what he said, Gu Qinglie slapped the wall. He jumped down from the stool and looked at it. He said, "Don't mention it. My father's handwriting is not as good as mine."

Chu Dai held the paste pot in his left hand and the bamboo brush in his right hand: "He is used to holding a gun and rarely touches a pen."

"I understand. As the commander of a military region, there's no need for him to do it himself. The little guard next to him has a notebook and pen ready at all times." Gu Qinglie took another couplet and handed it over: "But the words on this couplet look quite murderous. It must be suitable for guarding the house."

Chu Dai smiled but said nothing.

It was bustling outside and lively in the kitchen.

The firewood in the three large iron pots never stopped burning, and the aroma wafted out in waves. Gu Cai was sweating all over, and the spatula in his hand flipped from one pot to another.

Han Lianxin was holding a small wooden basin in her hand, and she put a circle of cakes on the edge of the pot of taro stewed chicken. When she saw Gu Qingqing coming over with a bowl of meatballs, she said, "Where did you get this?"

"I went to deliver the tofu that Sister Yuanyuan gave me. It smells so good. Auntie, please try it."

As she said that, she rolled up a carrot ball and put it towards Han Lianxin's mouth.

"It smells really good. We'll do the same next time. Oh dear, have you washed your hands?"

"No." Gu Qingqing stuck out her tongue at her embarrassedly, put down the bowl and ran outside to the water well.

Han Lianxin didn't give up: "Why is our daughter so impatient? Sister-in-law, please pass me the spoon so I can scrape the edge of the bucket."

"She's still a child." Gu Cai said casually, "She's only eighteen after the Chinese New Year. It's hard to ask her to change now if she didn't behave in a restrained way when she was a child. But she's married now. Since Chu Dai hasn't said anything, we shouldn't say anything. Anyway, I think our Qingqing is very cute."

Shi Rushuang washed and wiped the spoon and handed it to her sister-in-law. "It's all your fault. This kid has been impetuous since she was little. She's not afraid of anyone and dares to poke a hornet's nest. I used to worry about her temper. Fortunately, she's married now. Otherwise, I don't know what you guys would do if she was in trouble."

"What should we do with Yang Bei?" Zhang Cuifen cooked eggs and was peeling them when Chu Dai and his friends came back with a sack of dried seafood, including cuttlefish.

Gu Cai simmered the dried cuttlefish for a while, then put it in the pot with the pork ribs to make soup. The old lady thought that adding a few eggs would make it more fragrant.

"Mom is right. If you have money, you can raise her. How can we let a little girl like her starve? She can live a comfortable life if each of our brothers feed her, not to mention that there are so many cousins ​​from other uncles' families."

"She's already married, and you're still dreaming," Gu Tiezhu sat in front of the stove, tapping his pipe, "The Chu family treats her no worse than ours. If they have a great-grandson in the future, they'll also be our Gu family's children. I just hope God blesses me with a great-granddaughter."

Gu Xiong and his brothers have already married early, and all of their children are male. Gu Tiezhu and Gu Tieshi have been waiting for a daughter-in-law for their whole lives, but they haven't gotten one, and they still have to watch Gu Tiezhu show off.

Now my grandson is married, and he is a great-grandson, but he doesn’t have a girl.

Zhang Cuifen glanced at him coldly, "The soup in the pot isn't boiling anymore. Add more firewood."

"I know, I know." Gu Tiezhu puffed on his pipe, holding the pliers in his left hand and adding hard firewood into the stove.

At 6:30 in the afternoon, the sun was setting and a cold wind was blowing.

Zhang Yuqing brought in all the clothes and bedding that were hanging out to dry in the yard and called Gu Qingqing to help make the bed.

The sun was shining today, so Zhang Cuifen pulled out all the bedding in the rooms and dried it in the sun. When Gu Canyang came back, he slept using quilts that he had never used before.

The two of them carried the quilt into the room. Zhang Yuqing stuffed the ten-pound cotton core into the quilt and asked Gu Qingqing to hold the two corners: "This cotton quilt is all grown by our production team and spun by our own cotton. It's very warm to cover it in winter."

Gu Qingqing clutched the corner of the quilt and sat on the bed: "Auntie, did every family get a share?"

"No, it's based on work points. The 500 people with the highest work points each get two beds."

The Wudi Production Team had a large number of people. There were more than 500 households in Datunzi Village and Dagouzi Village, with a total of more than 8,000 people.

By the end of this year, we had given away a thousand quilts, and the rest were sold to textile factories.

Gu Qingqing nodded, "Then we should have more than ten quilts at home?"

"Bed 18," Zhang Yuqing smiled and shook the quilt, "Your eight brothers and your uncle each took two beds."

Gu Qingqing smacked her lips and said, "My uncle is really capable now."

"Yes, he has suffered a lot from moving rocks in the mountains. Recently, many matchmakers have come to propose marriage to him. I think his heart is on the Qin family."

This time Gu Qingqing was really stunned.

"Uncle likes Sister Qin Li?"

No wonder people go to send tofu during the Mid-Autumn Festival, contrary to their usual practice.

"Of course not. You haven't seen him sneaking into the Qin family whenever he has time these past few days. You didn't see him the whole afternoon, did you?"

"Really." Gu Qingqing suddenly felt a sour taste in her mouth: "The relationship between my father and Uncle Qin has become even more complicated."

If my uncle marries Sister Qin Li, then my father will have to call Uncle Qin Uncle. She asked with a headache, "Does my father know about this?"

"I know." Zhang Yuqing took the corner of the quilt from her hand, shook it flat, and then lay down to straighten all the edges and corners: "Your father said that each has his own opinion. If they really get married, your father will still be of the same generation as your uncle Qin, and your uncle will call Qin Wu dad."

Gu Qingqing lay on the bed, turned over, propped up her head with one hand and looked at her aunt: "Does Uncle Qin know?"

"I'm not sure about that. I don't know if Qin Li is interested in A Bao. Go back and ask your uncle. If the girl is interested in him, we will prepare the betrothal gifts and ask the matchmaker to come to propose marriage."

Gu Qingqing seemed to be thinking about something: "How about I go and play with Xiaoyu and Sister Qin Li tonight and test her opinion?"

"That's fine. Your uncle loves you the most, so it's only right that you give him some snacks for his wedding." Zhang Yuqing patted her hands gently: "Get up, there are still more than a dozen rooms that haven't been covered with quilts. We have to have dinner later."

"Coming, coming." Gu Qingqing jumped up from the bed and went to the next room.

Dinner was not served until after seven in the evening. There was a large table top on a wooden table in the main room. Gu Yin had nailed a round wooden plate in the middle so that it could rotate.

It was Gu Cai who told him that some large state-owned hotels had separate private rooms with large tables that could be rotated, so that no matter how many people were there, everyone could get some food.

On New Year's Eve, he thought the whole family should prepare one table, so he made this in the afternoon.

Gu Tiezhu and Zhang Cuifen sat at the top, Chu Yuan and Gu Jin sat beside them. As Gu Cai shouted in the kitchen, "Serve the food," the young man from the Gu family rushed in with bowls of food, reading out the names of the dishes -

"The first dish is braised fish~" Gu Xiong smiled and placed two bowls of fish steadily on the table.

"The second dish is roasted chicken with taro." Gu Yuanchao was not at all inferior.

"The third dish is snails with basil and kohlrabi."

"The fourth dish is pork with preserved vegetables."

"The fifth dish, pig's trotters with fermented bean curd."

"The sixth dish is stir-fried small fish with two peppers."

"The seventh dish, spicy loach."

Gu Qingqing swallowed her saliva just by listening to the names of the dishes. She put her left hand on Chu Dai's right leg under the table and clenched his pants with her fingers: "Brother, are you hungry? Eat more tonight."

Chu Dai lowered his eyes to look at the crumpled cloth in her hands and smiled, "Okay, you should eat more too."

"The vegetables are here! Cabbage and sweet potato noodle soup. The sweet potato noodles are especially chewy. You, my dear father-in-law, must try it." Gu Qinglie served the dishes with a playful smile and said to Chu Yuan.

"Okay, I'll definitely eat it." Chu Yuan nodded at him.

"There's also soup, cuttlefish, pork ribs and egg soup. Drink the soup first and then eat." Zhang Cuifen asked Gu Qinglie to help her bring the soup to the table, and then said to the other side: "Canyang, move all the dishes and put the soup in the middle so that everyone can have more."

Gu Canyang stood up and moved the braised fish and braised pork with preserved vegetables slightly aside, leaving a space for the soup bowl.

It's called a soup bowl, but it's actually a large porcelain basin, which Zhang Yuqing brought back from the enamel factory. It's usually perfect for storing lard, but today Zhang Cuifen used it to hold soup.

All the dishes were served, and Gu Cai was the last to arrive at the table. When he came out of the kitchen, he just happened to bring over the charcoal stove and the melon wine that was warm on the stove.

The wine was placed in front of Gu Tiezhu and Chu Yuan, and the guard immediately stood up to pour wine for them.

Gu Cai stuffed the charcoal stove under the wooden table and pushed it towards his niece.

Gu Qingqing grinned at her third uncle.

The door of the main room was closed by Gu Cai from both sides, blocking out the strong wind outside.

The room was warm and joyful.

"Today is New Year's Eve. It's a rare occasion for our Gu family to sit together and have a reunion dinner. Canyang and Qinglie were in the army and couldn't come back in previous years, but they finally came back this year."

Gu Tiezhu held the wine glass and smiled with narrowed eyes: "There is another big happy event. Our precious daughter Qingqing got married and found a good boyfriend. Our aunt and in-laws are also staying here for the New Year."

"Children, you have worked hard in the team this year and brought electricity to our Datunzi Village, so that Grandpa can live without having to fumble with oil lamps in the dark. Grandpa is very happy today. We have fish and meat to eat, electricity to use, and enough food. This is a prosperous and good life."

After saying that, Gu Tiezhu raised his glass to Chu Yuan and said, "My dear nephew, this glass of wine is for you."

"I dare not," Chu Yuan quickly replied, "You are the elder, I should respect you."

As soon as they finished drinking, they saw more than a dozen pairs of eyes looking at them.

Gu Qingqing held the chopsticks and said eagerly, "Grandpa, I'm hungry!"

Gu Tiezhu laughed loudly, put down his wine glass, and picked up his chopsticks: "Come on, everyone, start eating."