Chapter 303: Human Relationships

After the special day of the third day of the New Year, the next step is the festive time of visiting relatives and friends. On the fourth day of the New Year, Gao Hong will go with his parents to pay New Year's greetings, which is called New Year's greetings, but is actually a blind date.

Gao Mingcheng was not idle either. He drove a tractor and took many beautiful women and the Yu couple to visit the eldest sister's home in Shanfeng Village to wish her a happy new year.

Xuanyuemei’s eldest sister is called Xuanyuejin. She married to Shanfeng Village a few years ago. Shanfeng Village is actually quite close to Gaojia Village, but that is only the straight-line distance. If you want to walk there, you have to take a detour.

The largest reservoir in Gaojia Village is shared with Shanfeng Village. After crossing the reservoir and walking for a while, you will reach Shanfeng Village.

But Gao Mingcheng had a tractor, so he naturally didn't need to go through the reservoir. Although the reservoir had dried up this year, the bottom of the reservoir was uneven and bumpy, making it inconvenient to drive.

There were three stools on the tractor's bed. Everyone sat on them wearing cotton coats and cotton hats. The empty space was piled with some gifts.

It makes no sense to go to someone's house to wish them a happy new year empty-handed during the Chinese New Year.

Xuanyue was sitting holding her son. Her son was five months old, but rather thin and small. He was wrapped in a small quilt with only his little face showing, looking around curiously.

Xu Duomei lowered her head and teased the child, saying, "Second sister, is Shitou willing to drink the milk powder I bought for him last time? I see that he is smaller than the other children, so I want him to have some milk powder to supplement his diet."

Xu Xuanyu sighed and said with a worried look on her face, "I don't have much milk, not enough for him to eat, but he refused to eat milk powder! Later, your brother simply fed him porridge, the porridge on the top, which was very thin so that he wouldn't choke. Now I feed him two meals of porridge during the day, and he doesn't cry so often at night."

Many Americans were helpless when they heard that their nephews refused to eat milk powder.

Xuanyu's son's full name was Xu Yan, and his nickname was Shitou. He was handsome and cute, but perhaps because he was born with insufficient milk, and Xuanyu didn't have much, he grew up thin.

Gao Mingcheng was driving in the front, but he also heard the conversation behind. This little guy was lucky to have a good aunt. In his previous life, he got a lot of help from his aunt. As for this life, maybe he will get more help.

But as long as Xuanyuemei didn't do anything too excessive, Gao Mingcheng had no intention of interfering. Relatives are like this, they will always help each other, and that's the way it is.

Soon, the tractor stopped in front of the door of Manyin's house.

The notice had been delivered before, and Xuanyu Jin knew that her sisters from her natal family were coming, so they made preparations early. As soon as they saw the tractor arrive, they went to the door to greet them.

The family that Xuanyu Jin married into was not well off, but better off than Xuanyu Jin's own family. In addition, her father was seriously ill at the time and was about to die, so she hurriedly married him while her father was still alive. Now, she has given birth to two sons.

It is worth mentioning that although they have been implementing family planning in recent years, for some reasons, they have not enforced it strictly. The situation is stricter among those who have jobs in the city, where most of them have only one child, but those who do not have jobs have basically given birth to a second child. This is the case in the city, let alone in the countryside.

Since ancient times, farming has required labor, and this labor only refers to men. If a family does not give birth to a son, they will be ridiculed as a family with no descendants. In some places with bad customs, there will even be cases of the family being eaten up.

Therefore, after the implementation of the family planning policy, each place was different, because the policy was dead, but the people in power were alive. Some places were more crazy and enforced it very strictly, so many tragic things often happened. For example, a woman was forcibly taken away for an abortion even when she was eight months pregnant, which resulted in serious physical damage to the pregnant woman, or even two deaths.

But in some places, the law is not so strict. In some rural areas, it is even tacitly agreed that if the first child is a daughter, you are allowed to have a second child. If the first child is a son, you are not allowed to have a second child.

But in Gaojia Village, when the policy is implemented on everyone, it means that no matter whether the child is male or female, you are allowed to have a second child. However, after the second child, the women must be notified to get sterilized, which is considered to have completed the task assigned by the higher authorities.

Because of this, Gao Mingcheng has two sons, and Xuanyue will give birth to a daughter later. As for Xuanyuejin, she is even more amazing. She will give birth to another son next year.

It is said that the family wanted a daughter, so they hid in the mountains to give birth to one. However, after the births, they were still sons, and the three sons looked very similar. If it were not for their different ages, people who didn't know the situation would have thought they were triplets.

Gao Mingcheng was warmly welcomed into the main hall and sat down. He looked up and saw that many of the Jin family still lived in old houses, made of mud bricks, with old newspapers and some calendars pasted on the walls.

There was a wooden table in the main room, the surface of which was a little bumpy, showing that it had been used for many years. On the table were several kinds of fruits, including grapefruit, tangerines, and dried persimmons.

Pomelo and tangerine are two fruit trees that many Jins grow at home. When the fruits are ripe in autumn, they are picked and hidden in chaff so that they can be preserved until the New Year.

As for the persimmon cakes, they are also homemade. They are not big, but the craftsmanship is pretty good. They are frosted and look delicious.

This year was the first time that Gao Mingcheng came to Xuanxuanmei's eldest sister's home to pay New Year's greetings after his marriage. Naturally, he was not stingy and gave her a few pounds of apples, a few pounds of wind-blown meat, two cans of malted milk and two bottles of wine.

This was a formal gift, but in fact, many of the beauties also took two sets of children's clothing and some dried kelp, dried salted fish and other things.

This children's clothing was produced in Dong Feixia's workshop. It is made of thick cotton cloth and filled with new cotton. It is very thick and warm to wear.

"Here, these are new clothes for you, try them on quickly." Manyumei handed over the new clothes with a smile. The two children instantly showed surprise smiles on their faces. One of them was five years old, and the other was three years old, and they already understood the difference between beauty and ugliness.

"This... is too expensive." Xuanyijin said excitedly and politely, but was soon pestered by the two children to change their clothes.

Soon, both children were wearing new clothes, but when they put them on, they found that they were a little too big.

But this is intentional on many beauties’ part.

Country people are very careful about their clothes. When buying clothes for their children, they will never buy clothes that fit them tightly. They must buy one size larger. Some people even buy two sizes larger because children grow up quickly and if they buy larger clothes, they can wear them longer.

But actually, it’s okay to go one size up, but it’s not necessary to go two sizes up. Often by the time you find the right size for the clothes, they are already old and dirty.

In the end, a new piece of clothing never looks good when worn.

Therefore, when people's lives became better, young parents would no longer deliberately buy clothes that were one size larger for their children. They would just wear clothes that fit them well.

"It looks good, this dress is beautiful." Xuan Xujin was very excited. This slightly large dress was the best in her eyes.

It's already the New Year, and I can only wear them for a month or so before I change to something thinner. By the time I wear them again this winter, my child will have grown up a bit. The clothes are a bit too big now, but they will be just the right size by this winter.

Compared with the gifts given by Mr. and Mrs. Gao Mingcheng, the gifts given by Mr. and Mrs. Xuanyu were much worse. However, everyone knew each other's situation, so they would not deliberately slander others. It was just that the competitive Xuanyu was not very happy, and the smile on his face did not reach his eyes.

On the fourth day of the New Year, he went to his eldest sister's house to pay New Year's greetings. On the fifth day, he was not idle either, but went to his third sister's house to pay New Year's greetings. When he went to his third sister's house, Gao Mingcheng's tractor had the eldest sister's family on it, and this time it was full.

My third sister married far away many months ago, and it took more than two hours to walk there, so we seldom walked before.

But this year Gao Mingcheng bought a tractor. With a tractor as a means of transportation, it will be much more convenient to go out to pay New Year's greetings.

The sisters rarely get together, and now that they have the opportunity, they all cherish it.

They were in a free love relationship for many months. One time, she came here to sell straw mats, and then she met her current husband. Later, they fell in love and got together.

At that time, many of the beauties' fathers had already passed away, so they had to decide their marriages on their own. It only took one or two months from the time they met to the time they got married. In later times, this would be called a flash marriage.

Although the marriage was hasty, my third sister lived a good life for many months because her husband worked in the supply and marketing cooperative and had a salary!

In everyone's eyes, Manyue was considered to have married high.

Manyuyue was pregnant for eight months and was about to give birth. But despite this, she was still very agile and cooked a large table of food. Among the four sisters, Manyuyue, the third sister, had the best cooking skills. In a few years, Manyuyue would open a restaurant in this town and her business would be pretty good.

The sisters rarely meet, so they all get together to talk. Although the men are not very familiar with each other, they are brothers-in-law after all. After a drink, they start to talk and can talk about everything.

But in fact, what people talked about most were the things in the village and fields. Among the people present, only Gao Mingcheng had traveled far away, and he traveled far away frequently.

So, Gao Mingcheng told everyone about the outside world. The outside world and the world in the mountains seemed to be two different worlds. After listening to it, everyone was both yearning and a little skeptical.

Gao Mingcheng saw what they were thinking, but did not explain much. It was now 1988, and the entire country was changing at a rapid pace. The people would also witness this grand change with their own eyes and usher in a prosperous and powerful country.

People were out paying New Year's greetings on the fourth and fifth days of the New Year, but on the sixth day, someone came to pay New Year's greetings to Gao Mingcheng.

Gao Mingcheng was quite surprised by the visitor, as it was Su Tong, who had opened and closed a factory that year.

Su Tong came in a jeep, and the jeep looked quite familiar. Gao Mingcheng took a look at the license plate and realized that this was Xiao Jinfeng's car.

"Brother Mingcheng, long time no see, Happy New Year!" Su Tong was all smiles. Wearing a suit, he exuded the air of a successful man.

"Brother Su! Happy New Year to you too! Come in and sit down! It's so beautiful, let me make you some tea!" Although Gao Mingcheng was surprised that Su Tong would come to pay New Year's greetings, he naturally had to treat the guest well since he was the guest.

Su Tong did not rush into the house with Gao Mingcheng, but opened the back seat of the jeep and took out two things, both of which were very large.

"Brother Mingcheng, when I visited my uncle's house for the New Year, I learned that you and my uncle had met before. It shows that the world is big, but our fate is deep!" Su Tong said with a smile.

Speaking of Su Tong's uncle, Gao Mingcheng also remembered that once when he went to a pharmaceutical factory in the provincial capital to get production line equipment, the technician who accompanied him happened to be Su Tong's uncle, and they also talked about Su Tong at that time.

It was also through that person that Gao Mingcheng learned that Su Tong went to work in a factory producing rice cookers in Yangcheng.

"This is a rice cooker produced in our factory. I brought it back especially for you! You can use it to cook rice at noon. I guarantee it will be very useful!" Su Tong handed over the rice cooker in his hand, and then showed another thing, saying: "This is a specialty of Yangcheng. It is dried lychees and dried longans. I also brought a lot back for my relatives and friends to taste!"

"Brother Su, you are too polite! Come in and sit down, so that we two brothers can have a good talk." Gao Mingcheng was also somewhat happy in his heart.

He had wanted to buy an electric rice cooker for a long time. He had been to Guangzhou several times before, but he didn't have enough time each time. In addition, many people always said that the rice cooked in the big iron pot was delicious, with rice crust, so he was not in a hurry to buy an electric rice cooker.

But now that Su Tong gave him a rice cooker, he was still very happy.

He opened the box and immediately saw the brand of the rice cooker, Triangle.

Looking at the structure of the rice cooker, well, I have to say that the functions are very simple, and it does not have those fancy functions of later generations. However, it is absolutely no problem to cook rice or porridge, and this brand of rice cooker is very durable and can be used for many years. Even when you don’t want to use it anymore, it still won’t break down!

"Do you know how to cook? Do you want me to teach you?" Su Tong said enthusiastically, but there was no condescending tone in his voice.

Gao Mingcheng called Xuanyuemei over and asked her to see the rice cooker.

Xuanyue had known about the existence of electric rice cookers from Gao Mingcheng before, but this was the first time she saw one and she couldn't help but look it up and down.

She said, "Can you just plug it in? Won't it burn the rice?"

"No, no! Just try it later! Come, I'll teach you how to cook rice. With this rice cooker, cooking is easy. You wash the rice, plug in the power cord, press the cooking button, and then don't worry about it. When the cooking button trips, the rice inside will be cooked."

Su Tong spoke carefully, and finally said: "After it trips, don't unplug the wires immediately, let it sit for a while, so that the rice will be more fragrant."

"And when it's plugged in, it keeps the temperature high. When you eat in the winter, the food is always hot!"

"Really? It's so magical?" Many beauties were skeptical, but since the thing was already in their hands, they decided to give it a try.

So under the watchful eyes of Su Tong and Gao Mingcheng, Xuanyue first washed the inner pot of the rice cooker and then washed the rice.

It was the first time I used this thing to wash rice. I was not used to it and couldn’t figure out how much water there was. I could only put my hand in to test the water level.

After washing the rice, she closed the lid and plugged in the electrical cord.

With a click, the cooking button was pressed, and at the same time the cooking light turned on in red. When the circuit breaker trips to keep warm, it will turn green.

"Okay, don't worry about it. Once the rice is cooked, you can eat it directly!" Su Tong said with a smile.

After teaching how to cook, he and Gao Mingcheng started chatting about some men's topics.

Su Tong seemed a little excited. He said to Gao Mingcheng, "Brother Mingcheng, you are very insightful in persuading me to go to a big city. After I went to the big city, I realized that I was just like a frog in a well! But fortunately, I have jumped out of the well and seen the big world!"

"Before you suggested that I make a pressure cooker, I thought it was great, but I had limited funds and there was really no other way. But now that I've seen the rice cooker, I think the future belongs to the rice cooker!"

At present, pressure cookers are selling well and manufacturers of pressure cookers are making money. However, Sutong sees more possibilities and a more convenient lifestyle in rice cookers.

A pressure cooker requires manual attention to the heat, but an electric rice cooker does not. It has a set program, which makes it more convenient for people to use.

Listening to Su Tong's words, Gao Mingcheng affirmed that in the future, traditional pressure cookers will eventually be replaced by electric pressure cookers.

(End of this chapter)