The village chief's family even gave them an extra box of apples and two large durians weighing ten pounds each.

The village chief had never seen this kind of fruit before. He couldn't get enough of looking at it, like watching a spectacle. He was reluctant to eat it, saying he would save it for his grandson to come back so they could open it and eat it together.

Now that it's just the two of them at home, Chen Hong has finally achieved complete freedom in enjoying fruit. Her son, Yu Yang, was getting so much heat rash from eating durian that Chen Hong has started limiting the amount he can eat each day.

I really did fulfill my vow to "eat one bite and spit it out," but it wasn't pleasant; having blisters in my mouth was really uncomfortable.

If Yu Yang hadn't complained of pain, Chen Hong wouldn't have known that eating too much durian could cause internal heat. This really made the mother and son feel uneasy during the Chinese New Year.

The mother and daughter always have honeysuckle tea in their hands. The trouble was caused by the fruit from their spatial dimension, so they're using the spatial tea to resolve it.

Other varieties include strawberries, blueberries, tangerines, oranges, bayberries, mangosteens, avocados, rambutans, lychees, and longans—if you don't recognize any of them, then Chen Hong's space has them all.

The mother and daughter spend their days appreciating the color, size, taste, appearance, type, and origin of various fruits in the fruit platter, living a very happy life.

Now Yu Yang only goes to the old house every four or five days to see his grandfather. As the child grows up, he has developed a sense of distance from his grandfather, unlike when he was first divorced and was not used to being away from his grandfather.

On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, Yu Yang came back and told Chen Hong that he had seen his father, who was going to take his grandfather to Jinan for the New Year.

Chen Hong had already heard about this from the village, but she had forgotten about it. Yu Hai returned at the age of twenty-six.

Hearing Yang Xiaofeng gossip about her, Yu Hai heard that Chen Honghua had built a large villa for over a million yuan, but he still didn't believe it.

He secretly stood not far from Chen Hong's house, staring at the yard, lost in thought for over an hour. He didn't go home until it got dark.

He thought no one had seen him, but the villagers had been secretly waiting to see his reaction. They couldn't let the villagers be shocked while he, the ex-husband who abandoned his wife and children, remained indifferent.

This incident provided plenty of fodder for the village women's gossip, generating numerous versions of love, hate, remorse, and unrequited love.

She didn't care about the Yu family's affairs. Staying away from the gossip and troubles in the village, Chen Hong felt that her decision to build a house outside the village was a very wise one.

That day, the village chief's son, daughter-in-law, and grandson all returned. Walking around the village, you could see that there were more people; those who had gone out to work had all come back for the New Year.

Occasionally, you can hear the sound of children setting off firecrackers in the village. As soon as you enter the village, you can see people bustling about, and the village is bustling with activity.

Chen Hong's villa is more than two miles away from the village, so the mother and daughter still have a peaceful life. However, they have been busy these past few days as their business partners have come to return the favor.

Yang Wei, Yang Xiaomei, Zhang Baiqiang, Zheng Gaoxing, and Liu Quantian have all come. Even Master Fan asked Zhang Baiqiang to bring him a large bag of pre-packaged seasonings.

Chen Hong was both amused and exasperated; this was like someone had taken over her family's entire seasoning supply for the next year!

Although the gifts were all very ordinary—milk, drinks, red wine, and various snacks for the children—they weren't very valuable, but the sentiment was there.

In this day and age, the value of a gift between friends is only a few hundred yuan. Too little is embarrassing to give, and too much is too extravagant and makes it difficult to expect a return gift.

That's how it is. We give each other some everyday household items as gifts. They're not expensive, but they're a token of our appreciation.

The Spring Festival of 2006 passed uneventfully, and Chen Hong's villa was filled with the laughter of children. Xiao Hao and Wang Xin came to play with Yu Yang every day.

The temperature at home was just right. The children, along with the two dogs, ran around up and down the stairs. There was plenty of space, so they had a great time playing. It was the happiest Spring Festival they'd ever had.

The funny thing is, Chen Hong and her son exchanged red envelopes this year. Chen Hong originally gave her son a red envelope with 1,000 yuan in it, and her son took it and kept it in his pocket for an hour.

He then handed his mother a red envelope with a different wrapper, saying, "This is my New Year's money for you, Mom. I wish you peace, good health, ever-increasing beauty and youthfulness, and may you make a fortune every day, with a full catch of fish!"

When Chen Hong opened it, it was still the same 1,000 yuan. Her son was so funny; the 1,000 yuan had changed hands so many times, but the meaning of the money was different each time.

Chen Hong was deeply moved on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and her eyes welled up with tears. After the sixth day, her son gave Chen Hong another red envelope. The mother and daughter carefully opened it and calculated that her son had earned a total of 190 yuan this year.

The red envelopes among the villagers were relatively small. The village chief gave a larger amount, a 60 yuan red envelope. Uncle Erhu gave 20 yuan, Liu Laohu also gave 20 yuan, Grandpa Yu Yang gave 10 yuan, and Xiao Hao and Wang Xin's mother each gave 10 yuan.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, my son and his friends ran around the village, visiting each house to wish everyone a Happy New Year. They gave red envelopes containing as much as two yuan and as little as one yuan. In total, my son gave out 190 yuan in red envelopes in 2006.