In the early morning, she received messages from Shanshan and Weiwei one after another. Yingzi even persistently sent her several videos, saying that she wanted to say Happy New Year to her through the video. Jiang Xiao, Jiang Zhan and others also sent messages to each other wishing each other Happy New Year.

Young people would start their New Year party as soon as it was midnight, and then sleep until eight or nine o'clock.

However, the Xu family still retains the custom of celebrating the New Year in the past.

After breakfast, Xu Fuqiang prepared to go to the temple with incense, candles and paper money.

The Xu family worships gods first when they wake up on New Year's Day, and after breakfast, they are the first to go to the temple to worship gods to pay New Year's greetings. This has been the tradition of the Xu family for many years.

Wang Yanmei said she would not go and wanted to stay at home to prevent anyone from coming to pay New Year's greetings early, as it would be bad if no one was at home.

Xu Fuqiang took the children to the temple.

The temple was really far away, and one had to walk all the way there. The stairs to the temple were specially built for the elderly, and each floor was very low. Xu Zijun could reach four steps in one step.

It wasn't early for the Xu family to arrive, and there were many candles burning on both sides of the temple entrance.

The temple is Ma Gong Temple, which was built with funds raised by the whole village. The main deity enshrined is Master Ma Gong, where "Master" means god.

I don’t know if every god in every place has his own story. Lord Ma Gong is the god that everyone believes in.

When Xu Qingzhi was a child, he often listened to stories about Master Ma Gong. In addition to the rumors that he was omnipotent, he could also help people realize their wishes.

Her grandfather taught her that when she worshipped the master, if she had anything she wanted to ask for, she should just recite it silently in her heart.

If you want to know whether Master Ma Gong agrees or not, you should hold the holy cup, which is two half-crescent-shaped pieces of wood, put them together in the palm of your hand and throw them to the ground. If the holy cup comes out, it means you agree. The yang cup means you are not sure and can ask again, and the yin cup means you disagree.

Xiao Qingzhi is naughty and always deliberately acts like a spoiled brat and begs Master Ma Gong to let her have lots of snacks. She deliberately throws towards the Holy Grail, and then tells her dad that Master Ma Gong agrees that she can have lots of snacks.

Grandpa would always hold her hand and say something like, "The child is playing around, please don't blame me, Master Magong, and may Master Magong bless you."

In the side hall stands a three-meter-tall statue of a god holding an axe and with round, angry eyes.

Xiao Qingzhi was most afraid of them since he was a child. Every time he bowed, he would just rush over and was afraid to even look up at them for one more second.

After burning incense and worshipping the gods devoutly, Xu Fuqiang went to ring the bell.

After saying Happy New Year to the old man guarding the temple, I went down the mountain according to the route, first visiting my aunt's house to pay New Year's greetings, then to my second uncle's house, my eldest uncle's house, and finally my grandfather's house.

Sometimes when I meet neighbors I am familiar with, I will go to visit and wish them a happy new year.

I had lunch at grandpa's house today.

As soon as they enter the door, the younger generation says auspicious words and grandpa hands each of them a red envelope.

Grandpa is old, and although they eat here, her mother is still the chef. Xu Fuqiang asked them to stay here to warm themselves by the fire while he went back to pick vegetables and drove to pick up the vegetables and her mother from home.

Although it was an old house, grandpa swept it very clean and even the windows were wiped clean.

There is an old-fashioned charcoal stove under my feet. The charcoal was bought in advance and is made from tea seed shells.

Sometimes, if the fire is not completely burned, smoke will come out.

Grandpa then took the tongs and pressed the smoking charcoal into the ashes, and it stopped smoking.

"Someone gave me some oranges a while ago. They said they were a new variety that they made. They are delicious when roasted over a fire. Do you want to eat them?"

The old man took out a bag of oranges from the house.

Xu Zijun said, "Eat."

He doesn't really like eating roasted oranges, he simply likes to roast oranges in the fire. To put it bluntly, he likes to play with fire.

Xu Qingzhi saw that the orange was quite large and had a light yellow skin, so he said, "Just put two in. Feng Yan and I can eat one each."

Three oranges, too many to roast in these two stoves.

Xu Zijun took two oranges, placed one in a pile of charcoal fire, and then used tongs to dig it out and bury it.

Soon, my aunt's family came to pay New Year's greetings.

Grandpa went to set off firecrackers, and Xu Qingzhi helped pour hot tea and invited everyone to sit down.

So instead of a few people sitting around one stove, it became two groups of people sitting around two stoves in a circle.

The old man said, "Since there will be more people this year, I prepared an extra stove."

Zhou Le said with a smile: "Grandpa, even two stoves may not be enough for so many people."

The implication was that the family was thriving, which made the old man quite happy.

Then my uncle's family came to pay New Year's greetings. They set off firecrackers and poured tea, and there were even more people in the house.

There are ten people in my aunt's family and my in-laws' family. The two children from my uncle's family are also married and have babies.

As soon as the seven or eight-year-old children entered the house, they opened their mouths to call out to people, and then shouted: "Congratulations on your prosperity, give me the red envelopes."

The eldest aunt laughed and scolded: "Hey, who taught you kids to yell like that?"

Xu Qingzhi called her aunt a few times and took out a few red envelopes from his pocket and handed them over.

The childish voice kept shouting, "Thank you, auntie."

Xu Qingzhi reached out and touched their little heads.

Although she has always been indifferent to family affection, there is no reason not to like a cute and sensible baby.

Then, a little niece shyly snuggled into her mother's arms and asked in a low voice: "Mom, who is that uncle?"

The woman smiled and said, "You should call me uncle."

The little niece took a look and shyly buried her face in her mother's arms, too embarrassed to shout.

Xu Qingzhi squatted beside her, teasing her with a red envelope and calling Huo Fengyan: Old Master.

He is hundreds of years old, so you should call him grandpa instead of uncle.

Then Xu Qingzhi was scolded by Ms. Wang who had just walked in, "It's the first day of the new year, what nonsense are you talking about? You are even older than your grandfather."

Ms. Wang teased the child: "Come here, Tiantian, let me give you a red envelope. Let me hug you."

The girl opened her arms and let him hug her.

Wang Yanmei was so happy that she stuffed the red envelope into the child's hand.

The people next to him began to say, "Yanmei likes babies so much, let Qingzhi give birth quickly."

"Yes, when are Qingzhi and Xiaohuo going to hold their wedding? Although we are working away from home, we will definitely come back for the wedding."

"Xiao Huo is so handsome and fair-skinned. The baby he will give birth to will definitely be fair-skinned too."

"I should be able to drink at the wedding banquet this year, right?"

In the past, Wang Yanmei would have been in the camp of urging the couple to have their children. However, since so many relatives were talking about it, she tried to protect her child's reputation and said something against her will: "Young people get married late nowadays. It doesn't matter to them. They can get married whenever they want. There are advantages to having a baby early and there are advantages to having a baby late."

Someone echoed: "That's right."

Only Xu Zijun was concentrating on roasting the oranges. He dug out the oranges that had been buried earlier and clamped them aside with tongs.

The brother-in-law Zhou Liang immediately said, "Oh, they also roasted oranges. These roasted oranges are delicious."

Adults are not afraid of getting burned, and the roasted orange peel is very easy to peel. It is soft and comes off in one piece.