At eleven o'clock, Li Qiulan boiled water and cooked dumplings. She took them out and secretly offered sacrifices to her ancestors in the inner room. Then she placed a bowl on the Kitchen God. The whole family closed the door tightly and kowtowed silently. Finally, they lit a stick of incense. They didn't dare to burn paper for fear of being discovered.

After worshiping the ancestors, Li Qiulan put the dumplings in the pot to heat them up, and the family gathered together to eat the hot dumplings.

Bai Ruozhen wasn't hungry, so she ate a few and stopped. Li Qiulan gave her a few celery-filled ones and said, "You're getting married soon, so be diligent when you get to your in-laws' house."

Bai Jiansheng was unhappy and replaced the celery with cabbage. "Let's not do that. My daughter is not marrying into the Gu family to serve others. My daughter, it's okay to be the same as before."

"Oh, you are picking on me during the New Year." Li Qiulan glared in dissatisfaction.

Bai Jiansheng said happily, "I'm on my daughter's side today." Then he picked up another one for Bai Ruozhen.

Bai Ruozhen ate dumplings with a smile, "Dad is still the best."

Bai Jiansheng gave Li Qiulan a smug look.

"I won't bother with you guys." Li Qiulan simply ignored it and ate her dumplings.

It was almost twelve o'clock when Bai Ruozhen finished eating the dumplings and went to bed without even washing his face.

When I woke up the next day, it was already bright outside. There was only the noise of children talking outside, but still no sound of firecrackers.

The Bai family has no relatives except for their aunt's family, and their aunt's family has no contact with their family, so there is no need to visit relatives on the second day of the New Year.

In reality, Bai Ruozhen knew that there were relatives on his grandmother's side, but they had all been sent down to the countryside during the crackdown on rightists a few days earlier. Not only Bai Ruozhen didn't know where they were now, but even Li Qiulan didn't know. Li Qiulan and Bai Jiansheng hadn't told the children many things, but because their family had always been fine, Bai Ruozhen sometimes suspected that his parents had drawn a line in the sand with his grandmother's family. Otherwise, the Bai family wouldn't have been able to live a peaceful and stable life.

"Zhenzhen, get up." Li Qiulan shouted into the inner room while packing her things outside.

Bai Ruozhen got up and found that she was the only one left in the room among the four people. As for Bai Ruoyun, she was a restless person. She might have dragged Bai Lishan out to play somewhere. The same was true for Bai Liqiang. It was natural that some of his friends and colleagues were nowhere to be seen.

Bai Ruozhen didn't go anywhere on the first day of the new year. On the second day, he simply slept until nine o'clock. He got up, had breakfast, and was about to tell Li Qiulan that he was bored when he heard a knock on the door. "Brother, sister-in-law, we're back."

Bai Ruozhen looked at her mother in confusion, "Mom, is that my aunt?"

Li Qiulan obviously heard it as well, and her brows immediately frowned. Why did she come?

not good!

As soon as Li Qiulan had this thought, she quickly moved the flour and other good things on the stove to the inner room, "Zhenzhen, hurry up, move all the good things to the inner room and hide them." She hadn't greeted her sister-in-law for so long that she almost forgot her character. She would take advantage of any small opportunity. Before, she was wondering who her eldest daughter looked like, but now she understood after hearing her sister-in-law's voice. She looked like her aunt.

Bai Ruozhen was surprised, "My aunt..."

"Don't worry about it for now, just pack up quickly." Li Qiulan didn't bother to explain and packed up quickly.

Bai Ruozhen said "oh" and took the two bags that Gu Changqing brought to the inner room and stuffed them into the cabinet beside her bed. After that, she saw that there was flour and other things and quickly moved them in. After filling the cabinet with things, she locked it with a click.

Li Qiulan looked around the room. Well, it was good. It had returned to its original state. There was only half a bag of cornmeal left on the stove. If Fei wanted it, she would share some with them.

"Sister-in-law, are you home?" There was another voice outside the door.

Li Qiulan pretended to have just woken up, "I'm here. Who are you so early in the morning..."

Bai Ruozhen quickly pulled her back, "Mom, there are dumplings."

Li Qiulan took a look and saw that there were still some leftover dumplings with meat filling on the table. She couldn't let them get away with it, so she quickly took them and put them in the cupboard, covered it with a lid, and locked it.

Seeing that there was nothing else, Li Qiulan slowly went to open the door and asked, "Who is it?"

"Sister-in-law, it's me, Jianhong." Bai Jianhong called out from outside the door with a smile, "Why didn't you open the door for so long? I thought you were not at home."

Li Qiulan opened the door and asked, "Why are you here?"

Bai Jianhong pushed her hand away, invited her husband and children in, and said, "Sister-in-law, what are you talking about? This is my brother's house, so why can't I come?" She looked up and saw Bai Ruozhen, "Oh, this is my niece, right? The eldest or the second? The second, right? I remember the second one was the best since she was young.

Bai Ruozhen called them aunt and uncle obediently, and Bai Jianhong clicked her tongue twice, "She's really good-looking, no wonder she chose a worker as her partner."

Li Qiulan's alarm bells immediately rang, "How do you know she's dating a worker?"

Bai Jianhong was surprised and said, "Didn't you ask Wang Sao next door to tell me? What's the matter? Sister-in-law, you wouldn't even tell me such a thing, would you? I am a member of the Bai family after all, and the second child is my niece."

Bai Ruozhen glanced at her and asked, "Aunt, do you still remember my name?"

Bai Jianhong looked at her and thought for a long time, then he got stuck and forgot to ask.