Chapter 140 New Year's Dinner
"Alas! The upper beam is crooked and the lower beam is crooked!"
Aunt Cuifen opened her jacket, rummaged through her trouser pocket for a long time and took out a rolled handkerchief. She looked outside before stuffing it into Su Tong's hand.
"Tongya! Auntie has some money here, take it first, don't... don't complain about it being too little!"
Su Tong stood up and dropped his handkerchief onto the ground, which spread out. Inside were small coins of one or two dimes, as well as one or two cents in cash...
Aunt Cuifen was a little panicked. She picked it up quickly, looked outside, and then stuffed it back into Su Tong's hand.
"He doesn't know about this Qian Erbao, so you can use it without worry!"
Su Tong immediately held Aunt Cuifen's hand, feeling sad and upset.
"Aunt! Please keep the money! My money is not lost!"
"Not lost?"
Aunt Cuifen seemed a little unconvinced. "Aren't all your important belongings stored under the firewood storage? I heard that the firewood storage has been moved away."
Su Tong carefully rolled up the handkerchief and stuffed it into Aunt Cuifen's pocket.
"I put the big stuff in the firewood storage, I didn't put the money in there at all! I came back and checked, not only the money was there, but also the rice and meat. I guess it was inconvenient for her to take them, and the money was nowhere to be found. In total, only a bag of eggs was missing. She was going to run away, and she couldn't take the heavy things."
Aunt Cuifen looked at Su Tong seriously and said:
"Don't lie to me! Don't be polite to me. You bought medicine for my illness a few days ago, and then you gave me herbs from time to time. I don't know how much money you spent!"
“You’re welcome!”
Su Tong reached out and hugged Aunt Cuifen, leaning his head against her, "If I really have no money to spend, I will definitely go to Aunt Cuifen first to eat."
Su Tong was always aloof and cold, rarely showing such intimacy. Aunt Cuifen felt warm in her heart and touched her head with her hand.
"You! You are just too sensible! You are also a child!"
With the help of Aunt Cuifen, Su Tong prepared a large table of dishes before twelve o'clock, and the table was filled with bowls and plates of all sizes.
Lao Lin not only wrote the couplets, but also wrote a lot of blessing characters. Together with Lao Qi, he pasted the characters on all the doors, big and small, leaning on his crutches.
The yard suddenly had a New Year atmosphere, and it was bustling with activity.
Su Tong had been busy in the kitchen. When she found time to come out and take a look at the couplet, she was still a little surprised.
Although she thought that the two old men must be well educated, she did not expect that Lao Lin's calligraphy was so good. His brush was full of ink, and the force penetrated the back of the paper, forming a standard running script.
This was written after he hadn't held a pen for many years.
She and the two old men would fight for each other, but they also had a tacit understanding and never asked about each other's privacy.
Su Tong didn't ask any more questions, but just remembered that the family would have to buy more ink and paper in the future.
She admired the words on the door frame again, and then shouted:
"Lao Qi, take out the two bottles of wine from the cabinet. It's time for our reunion!"
"Hey!" Lao Qi responded loudly.
It is important to set off firecrackers when having the family reunion dinner. The louder the firecrackers, the more prosperous the New Year.
Wu Erlaizi volunteered to take on the task of setting off the firecrackers, and held up a bamboo pole to hold the whip high.
Because he was too excited, his hand exploded when the whip went off, and then he saw him running away with his head in his hands amid the sound of the whip, which made everyone laugh.
Maybe they laughed a little too much, so when Su Tong suggested that everyone raise their glasses, everyone's eyes were a little red and moist.
Who says life is hard? Isn't it also a big table full of people during the Chinese New Year? Other families are reunited, and so are we!
It is important to eat New Year's Eve dinner slowly and chat while eating. Although there are not many people who can chat at the table, everyone is just listening to Wu Erlaizi's bragging, but no one is willing to put down their chopsticks.
It was a rare occasion for Wu Erlaizi to have so many listeners, so he played even more vigorously.
Not long after, Wu Qiuyu and Shitou came running over one after another and joined them.
"My family has already gathered for the New Year, so I took the time to sneak over here. It's more fun here than here."
"Me too. The New Year's Eve dinner my mom made wasn't tasty at all. I knew Sister Tongya hadn't finished eating yet..."
The room suddenly became more lively.
It's great! Chinese New Year.
Shitou ate two New Year's Eve dinners. After putting down his chopsticks, he walked into the yard, touching his round belly, and read the couplets in front of the door one by one. Lao Lin wrote in running script, and he couldn't recognize many of the characters.
He scratched his head, went back to the house and asked Su Tong:
"Sister Tongya, do you have extra red paper? Can you ask Lao Lin to write a few for my family?"
Lao Lin was very happy when he heard that Shitou asked him to write couplets.
Wu Erlaizi had not yet left the table, so the square table was occupied.
Shitou took the initiative to move two benches together, ran around to get ink and brushes, and folded and cut paper under Lao Lin's command.
When everything was ready, he said to Lao Lin with anticipation:
"Lao Lin, please write in the kind of characters I can recognize, and don't connect the strokes."
Lao Lin agreed happily and wrote each word neatly in regular script. Shi Tou held the paper in front and pulled it back after he wrote a word.
The two of them worked for a long time and wrote several pieces of writing. Shitou counted the doors of the house on his fingers. If there was not enough red paper, he would have wanted to count the toilet door as well.
After writing the couplet, Shitou was still not satisfied, so he took Lao Lin's pen and scribbled on the cut scraps. He drew a... fish.
Ugly, but still recognizable as a fish.
Maybe it’s because today is Chinese New Year and I’m so happy.
It could also be because I just drank some wine and I’m a little drunk.
When Lao Lin saw the fish painted on the stone, he suddenly smiled mysteriously and said:
"Stone! How about I perform a magic trick for you?"
Shitou raised his eyes and said blankly:
"Magic? What is magic?"
Lao Lin picked up the glass cup used to rinse brushes, poured out the water, and said to Shitou:
"Go get a bowl of clean water."
This cup was originally used by Su Tong for washing. Later, it got chipped and he kept it on the windowsill for fear of cutting his mouth. Today, it happened to be used by Lao Lin.
Shitou quickly went to the kitchen to fetch some water and handed it to Lao Lin.
Lao Lin propped up the paper with the fish drawn on it with something to make it stand upright. With his other hand, he picked up the glass and placed it in front of the fish.
From the front, the fish can be clearly seen through the glass.
"Watch carefully—"
Wu Erlaizi, who was eating nearby, was also attracted by the attention.
Lao Lin slowly poured the clean water in the bowl into the glass. As the water level in the glass rose, something magical happened.
The ugly fish's mouth was originally facing left, but now it has miraculously turned its head and its mouth is facing right.
"Wow--"
Shitou opened his mouth wide and rubbed his eyes hard, unable to believe what he saw.
Wu Erlaizi's chopsticks fell onto the table with a "click".
"This, this is hell!"
Old Lin saw their expressions and laughed.
"That's not the most amazing thing, Stone! Go get that hen in the yard!"
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