Chapter 28 Daily Life During the Spring Festival of 1979
This year's Spring Festival was quite different from previous years.
The major policy changes at the end of last year made countless people eager to get involved, including Fu Ci.
He was not only eager to get started, but the pent-up energy he had accumulated over the past six months also fueled his determination. In the two weeks leading up to the Lunar New Year, he began working from early morning until late at night.
Naturally, on this year's Lunar New Year's Eve, the Fu family's conversation was no longer about reminiscing about the past, but rather about looking forward to the new year.
It was foreseeable that Fu Ci's good days, after being idle for most of the year, were coming to an end. But he was filled with nothing but anticipation for the busy work that was about to begin.
Tang Mingli admires people like this; perhaps this is the charm of this era.
Regardless of the current situation, it gives people the confidence that the future will be better.
Tang Mingli had actually seen people who were truly desperate.
She had personally witnessed the despair of ordinary people in her previous life who went bankrupt and used the savings of six family members to buy houses at high prices, just to have a place to call home in this wandering world.
She didn't know why the house had become that kind of thing; everyone seemed to be possessed.
Buying a house seems to have become a measure of a person's success, killing young people's love and their expectations for the future.
How much of the ugliness of human nature is revealed in the face of houses.
And this house that drove people to madness eventually turned into sand and gravel that crushed countless people.
The sands of time may never cease to grind, but the people of this era possess the courage and confidence to traverse the desert.
Perhaps it was the atmosphere that created the right moment, but the usually reserved Fu Ci unusually talked about his plans for the new year.
His family is proud of him; the future he envisions is something they never even dreamed of in their limited lives.
Or rather, something you couldn't even imagine.
Having survived countless battles, Grandpa Fu sighed for the umpteenth time, "The world belongs to you young people."
After hearing it repeatedly over and over in just one night, Old Madam Fu couldn't help but say to him, "Have you finally admitted you're getting old?"
Admitting to being old? Absolutely not!
Mr. Fu, a former soldier, feels he is still in very good health and could even go back to the battlefield if the country needs him.
These words were so exaggerated that they made Old Madam Fu laugh even harder.
Tang Mingli didn't say much, which made Fu Ci feel a little uncomfortable. He glanced at the time and realized it was indeed her usual rest time.
He asked in a low voice, "Are you sleepy?"
Tang Mingli replied softly, "No."
She didn't speak because her thoughts had drifted away, and she inadvertently thought of that despairing past life.
Although I wasn't sleepy, my precise biological clock did start to work.
The Fu family has a tradition of staying up all night on New Year's Eve. Although they don't stay up until dawn, they insist on staying until after midnight to start a new day.
There are still two hours left; she has to hold on.
To fight her biological clock, she picked up a piece of duck neck and started gnawing on it.
It has a spicy flavor, which is stimulating and refreshing.
The whispers between the two young people brought smiles of loving kindness to the faces of the elders.
Fu's mother jokingly told her daughter-in-law, "Fu Ci will be busy after the New Year and won't have much time to spend with you."
Tang Mingli, munching on a duck neck, replied with a smile, "It's alright, it's better for men not to be too idle."
She's too idle; she's tired.
She has secretly gone to the Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital for massage several times in the past six months because her lower back is so sore.
However, it can't be entirely blamed on him; she was also blaming herself for being attracted to beauty.
No, you can't blame her for being attracted to beauty.
With Fu Ci's face, physique, and ever-improving skills, who could resist him?
Why wait until you're old to enjoy life while you're young?
After her thoughts wandered for a while, she came to understand another question.
She should reflect not on her failure to resign, nor blame herself, but on not realizing sooner the need to change things at their root.
Yes, she's going to start practicing yoga at home once the weather gets warmer.
I took yoga classes for a few months in my past life, so I still remember some of the basic poses. I'm making the most of the money I saved up to attend yoga classes in my past life.
Amidst laughter, chatter, and random thoughts, the clock finally struck twelve.
After the traditional New Year's Eve celebrations ended and the elders distributed lucky money, they all went back to their rooms to rest.
Tang Mingli excitedly went upstairs.
How wonderful! Another year of happiness has passed, and I can already imagine that next year will be even happier.
The thought that tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year, when I should naturally sleep in, makes me feel even more satisfied.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, you can rest at home, play cards with your family, and eat and drink.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, her mother-in-law took her father-in-law back to her parents' home, while she took Fu Ci to the Tang family... Thinking about going to the Tang family, Tang Mingli, who was lying lazily in bed and wrapped tightly in the quilt, almost couldn't help but sigh on such a day.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Tang Mingmei and Li Dazhu, who are returning to their parents' home for the first time after their marriage, will definitely run into each other.
This brought her resistance to its highest point in years.
If only Grandpa Tang hadn't saved Old Master Fu back then, without that favor standing between them, she could have distanced herself without any scruples.
But without that kindness from back then, she would never have been able to marry Fu Ci.
There are gains and losses in everything. Try to think positively and treat the second day of the Lunar New Year as an annual trial.
Besides, that's something we'll have to face the day after tomorrow, so there's no need to think about it now.
Don't be anxious about things that haven't happened yet; enjoy each day to the fullest.
I should get some sleep first, and then wake up refreshed to eat, drink, and have fun.
Tang Mingli quickly calmed herself down, closed her beautiful eyes, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
Fu Ci washed his face and came back, intending to have a heart-to-heart talk with his wife on such a nice day.
He had already sped up, but when he got back to the room, his wife was still asleep, wrapped up tightly with only her little head sticking out, looking incredibly cute.
Because it was so cute, Fu Ci unconsciously stared at it for a long time. When he finally came to his senses and looked at the time, he realized it was almost 3 a.m.
He dared not be presumptuous any longer and quickly turned off the lights and went to sleep.
-
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Fu's mother and Fu Cheng'an were the first to go out.
Tang Mingli, who was also going back to her parents' home, dawdled and dragged her feet until the very last moment when she could no longer delay before reluctantly bidding farewell to Madam Fu and Master Fu.
Mrs. Fu was deeply moved, thinking that she was reluctant to leave the two elderly people alone at home, and she comforted them.
"Don't worry, your grandpa and I won't be bored at home. The compound has organized some activities, and we'll go out for a stroll in a bit."
Tang Mingli was even less inclined to leave.
There are activities going on in the compound, sob sob, she wants to go and see too.
But she's an adult, and adults have to do what adults should do.
Unable to let her feelings of resistance fester, Tang Mingli gritted her teeth and went out.
Fu Ci smiled as he watched his wife walk briskly forward.
If he still can't understand what's wrong with his wife this year, then he's lived with her for the past few years.
Just as they were about to leave the compound, he quickly stepped forward and grabbed his wife who was rushing ahead.
"Slow down, there are too many people outside."
Tang Mingli thought to herself, anyone who has experienced the morning and evening rush hours decades ago will not feel that there are more people on the street.
However, she still obediently slowed down her pace.
Walking slowly on the sidewalk, Tang Mingli suddenly asked her husband, "Why is there this tradition of visiting one's wife's parents' home on the second day of the Lunar New Year? Why not the third, fourth, or fifth day, or perhaps not visiting at all?"
Actually, what she really wanted to say was the last sentence.
Fu Ci suppressed a laugh and, with good temper, started chatting with her about this trivial question.
"Actually, in some places, people don't return on the second day of the junior high school. I remember when I was in school, a teacher said that people in their area didn't return on that day."
"Oh," Tang Mingli replied perfunctorily, after all, she wasn't interested in studying customs. She just felt that the old custom of returning to one's parents' home wasn't necessarily something that couldn't be broken.
However, it seems that this has indeed changed after several decades. Not only has the tradition of returning to one's parents' home been broken, but even the tradition of returning home for the Spring Festival has been broken. More and more young people prefer to travel during the Spring Festival holiday.
But decades later, she grew old and became the one who stayed at home waiting for her children to come home.
Sigh, it's a little heartbreaking to think about it like that. She can't become an old person like that.
Once the policies loosen and Fu Ci earns more money, she'll enroll in driving lessons and get her driver's license, just like that once-famous fifty-year-old auntie, who traveled all over China's beautiful landscapes.
She hoped that her life would be one of blossoming in enjoyment and dying in splendor.
Suddenly, my hand felt a tightness.
Tang Mingli looked down and saw that her left hand was being held in his palm.
Perhaps worried about being separated from her by the crowd, Fu Ci held her hand very tightly and shielded her with his body to prevent her from colliding with people walking towards them.
Well, if this man continues to perform well, it's not impossible to bring him along in the future.
-
The Tang family.
Tang Mingmei and Li Dazhu arrived early.
When they arrived, Li Hong, who hadn't gotten up until after eight o'clock, hadn't even finished cooking breakfast.
Li Hong was naturally very happy to see her daughter return, but the thought of arriving home at this hour, which meant she would have to get up and leave again, made her feel incredibly distressed.
She said to her daughter, "It's a rare holiday to rest during the Lunar New Year, why not sleep in a little longer? There's no need to be particular about etiquette when visiting your parents' house, just come over for lunch before noon."
In front of Li Dazhu, Tang Mingmei couldn't tell her mother directly that she hadn't slept in once since the New Year preparations began.
I get up before dawn on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
On the 30th of the lunar month, I prepare the family reunion dinner with my mother-in-law, and on the first day of the lunar new year, I prepare for ancestral worship with my mother-in-law.
She has been severely sleep-deprived for the past two days, and her emotions are on the verge of exploding.
Before she got married, every Chinese New Year she would eat her fill and sleep until she naturally woke up.
Only after becoming a daughter-in-law did she truly understand the lessons her mother had taught her before marriage.
Marrying someone else and finding a new life is not an easy thing.
Even though she was busy, tired, and even felt wronged, she still felt that life was better than her previous one.
In her previous life, she didn't have to do anything in the Fu family, but that also made her feel like she wasn't part of the family.
So when she felt angry, she told herself that her mother-in-law truly treated her as a daughter-in-law of the Li family, which was why she taught her step by step.
In a few years, when my mother-in-law can no longer work, she will have to take care of all of this.
Tang Mingmei, who considered herself to be very insightful, retorted to her mother, "I'm not a little girl anymore, how can I still be so concerned about sleeping in all the time?"
These words made Li Hong even more heartbroken.
Tang Mingli got married first, so sleeping in was perfectly normal for her.
So the Fu family is still the best; it's all her and her husband's fault for being so foolish back then.
Tang Mingmei didn't want to continue talking about this with her mother, afraid that Li Dazhu would overthink it, so she changed the subject, asking knowingly, "Hasn't Tang Mingli arrived yet?"
Li Hong couldn't help but speak of Tang Mingli.
“She never arrives this early; every year she arrives around lunchtime.”
Li Hong and her husband have always been dissatisfied with this.
Who goes back to their parents' home close to noon? Is this a visit to their parents' home, or is it treating their parents' home like a restaurant?
For the first two years after Tang Mingli got married, Tang Mingmei stayed in the countryside and never spent the Spring Festival at home. She also never heard her parents mention it, so she had no idea about it.
Hearing his mother say this, he sneered inwardly and made up his mind.
The Fu family members get up early every day of the year. In her previous life, when she married into the Fu family, even though Fu Ci never gave her a kind look, he would accompany her to her parents' house early on this day.
So it's definitely because Tang Mingli was unwilling.
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