The group parted ways and went home. Sheng Xiping's new house was close to the farm headquarters, and it only took a few minutes to get home.

"Mom, I'm back." Sheng Xiping stepped into the house and called out to her.

Zhou Qinglan had asked for leave in advance yesterday, and since there was a small train going back to Songjianghe today, she took the train home early this morning.

So none of the other educated youths living in the house were there; only Zhang Shuzhen was at home with her daughter and son.

As for Sheng Liancheng, he still has some things to do on the mountain and won't be back until evening.

Zhang Shuzhen, who was busy chopping filling to prepare for making dumplings in the afternoon, was especially happy when she looked up and saw her son come in neatly dressed.

"Oh, you're finally back. I was just telling them that you must have gone to the public bathhouse to take a shower first."

Okay, get everything ready, let's have a proper little New Year's celebration.

My son has been working on the mountain for more than three months and hasn't come home. When I suddenly looked at him, he had lost a lot of weight.

"We're having cabbage and pork dumplings for dinner. You two should eat more, look how skinny you are."

Every mother feels sorry for her son. When Zhang Shuzhen saw how much weight her son had lost, she immediately felt heartbroken.

"Mom, did Aunt Tang say which day she'd be coming down with us?"

Sheng Xiping doesn't care about losing weight at all; what he's most anxious about right now is when to get engaged.

"Look how anxious you are," Zhang Shuzhen said, rolling her eyes at her son.

"I've already discussed it with your aunt. We'll go down tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, to the Zhou family to arrange your engagement with Qinglan."

A car will be coming back the day after tomorrow; we need to prepare for the New Year too.

Even though she wasn't in a hurry, she was still looking forward to her daughter-in-law joining the family soon.

"Mom, aren't there no more buses tomorrow? How are we going to get down?"

Sheng Xiping was stunned. The little train had stopped running today, so there wouldn't be any trains tomorrow.