Chapter 116 Grandma, wishing you good health in the new year...
Knowing that dinner was early and there would be another meal later, An Fusheng prepared twice the usual amount of food today, plus several more dishes than usual, making a really large quantity. Surprisingly, Ji Fengnian managed to eat most of it.
The remaining bits and pieces were only because his grandparents strongly discouraged him from eating too much and causing him health problems.
An Fusheng believed that Ji Fengnian was driven out by his fellow villagers because he ate too much.
The remaining food on the plate was a mess of side dishes. An Fusheng was about to throw it away when Ji Fengnian grabbed him tightly and said, "Can I keep these dishes for dinner?"
"These are just leftover side dishes and soup, let's not eat them. If we get hungry tonight, we'll make dumplings," Grandma said.
Ji Fengnian was still reluctant to leave.
A year ago, he certainly wouldn't have cared about these leftover soups and scraps, but now that he's been homeless and starving, he'd be willing to kowtow to anyone who gave him these leftover soups or, if they were kind enough, gave him a bowl of white rice while he was wandering.
An Fusheng: "Then find a bowl and pick out the edible parts."
"OK."
Ji Fengnian didn't look for a new bowl. He simply took the bowl he had just used to eat and scooped all the remaining food into it. He ate the rest that couldn't fit in the bowl.
An Fusheng: "..."
...
Since coming to work with others at the beginning of the year, Ji Fengnian hasn't had a proper haircut.
After arriving in the city, he discovered that a haircut there cost tens of yuan, whereas in his village it only cost five yuan. Ji Fengnian didn't believe that city people could cut hair so skillfully, so he was convinced that city people were trying to rip him off. He wasn't going to be a sucker, so he refused to get a haircut.
When he was living with fellow villagers, he would ask them to cut his hair with scissors. Later, when he was still a wanderer, he couldn't find any scissors and never cut his hair again. Now his hair is shoulder-length.
His hair hadn't been washed or combed in so long that it was all tangled. When he was taking a bath, his grandfather made him rub the shampoo on his hair several times until the foam turned white before he could rinse it off with water. He also applied a lot of conditioner, but he still couldn't comb his hair properly. He had to eat with his hair all messy.
After dinner, everyone took a walk in the yard. Two sparrows were chirping on the wall. Grandpa glanced at the two sparrows and thought of Ji Fengnian's hair. "Little Nian, how about Grandpa cuts your hair?"
Ji Fengnian could only look at the messy hair with disdain: "Okay, thank you, Grandpa."
There were many children in the welfare home, and it had all the basic hairdressing tools. Lou Lan helped find the tools, and Ji Fengnian moved a stool to the yard and had his grandfather cut his hair there.
The sun is shining brightly today; the afternoon sun makes people feel warm and cozy.
Ji Fengnian took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and ate a hearty meal. Now, sitting on a stool, listening to the buzzing of the electric hair clipper, he felt drowsy. Ji Fengnian thought, "No wonder everyone likes the New Year. The New Year is really great."
"Alright." Before Ji Fengnian fell asleep, Grandpa said, "Lift your head up, Grandpa will shave your beard too."
"Huh?" Ji Fengnian touched his chin and found that he had actually grown a beard.
Grandpa's haircutting skills were surprisingly good. After Grandpa cut Ji Fengnian's hair, he instantly transformed from a homeless man into a spirited young man.
Grandma nodded repeatedly: "That's how it should be, he's a handsome young man."
Ji Fengnian was a little unaccustomed to not having his hair to cover his face for a while. He touched his short hair and grinned at his grandparents, "Thank you, Grandpa."
"Don't mention it."
The children looked at Ji Fengnian, who seemed like a completely different person, and lined up to ask their grandfather, "Grandpa, can you transform?"
Grandpa said with great pride, "Of course."
...
It had been raining for the past few days, and Ji Fengnian was so cold that he couldn't sleep at all. Now that he was dressed warmly, had eaten well, and had his messy hair cut, he felt very relaxed and sleepiness came over him.
Grandma saw that he could barely lift his eyelids and asked, "Xiao Nian, do you want to go and rest for a bit?"
Ji Fengnian yawned, forcing himself to stay awake, and said, "Okay."
The orphanage had some unfinished rooms, but there was a relatively clean room next to the living room where they stored miscellaneous items. Lou Lan led him to that room: "The other rooms are never opened and smelly. Why don't you make do with sleeping in this one for now?"
"Any place will do," Ji Fengnian said. "Okay."
A folding bed stood in the storage room. Lou Lan brought over a quilt, and Ji Fengnian had already unfolded the folding bed.
"I can do it, thank you." Ji Fengnian took the blanket from Lou Lan's arms.
There were quite a lot of things in the storage room, so Lou Lan bent down to move them.
Ji Fengnian casually spread a quilt on the folding bed, took off his shoes, and lay down on it with another quilt in his arms.
Lou Lan looked away for less than a minute, and when she looked up again, Ji Fengnian was already asleep on the folding bed. The blankets underneath were spread out in a mess, and she didn't know if they were uncomfortable to sleep on. The blankets covering him weren't spread out either; they were just rolled into long strips and he was sleeping with them in his arms.
Lou Lan sighed, pulled the blanket out of his arms, and spread it out to cover him properly.
This room used to be a proper room with a balcony and windows, but later the number of people in the orphanage decreased, and everyone slept on the third floor, leaving the rooms on the second floor empty. This room was connected to the living room, where children ran around and climbed, and too many things would get in the way, so Lou Lan put all the things she didn't need into this room.
The room was spacious, and many things used to be placed directly on the floor. Now, in order to make a little more room for Ji Fengnian, Lou Lan stacked them against the wall.
Grandma came in from behind and, hearing Ji Fengnian's steady breathing, exclaimed in surprise, "He's already asleep?"
Lou Lan nodded.
"How pitiful!" Grandma sighed.
Lou Lan remained silent.
Grandma continued, "I didn't understand why you would give up your promising future and insist on coming to the orphanage before, but now I think I understand a little better. These children are so pitiful, how could anyone bear to leave them?"
Lou Lan said, "Thank you, Mom."
After putting her things away, Lou Lan drew the curtains, closed the door, and left the room with her grandmother.
...
In the South, there's no tradition of eating dumplings during the Lunar New Year, but since we'd already finished all the food at home, and cooking another meal would be too much trouble, Grandma said we'd make dumplings for dinner.
Most importantly, Grandma said that she would hide coins in the dumplings she made for Chinese New Year, and whoever found the coin would be the luckiest person in the new year.
Who wouldn't want to be the luckiest person?
So everyone kept urging Grandma to hurry up and make dumplings.
Everyone had made dumplings before, and now everyone felt they were experienced and wanted to participate.
An Fusheng then moved the dining table into the kitchen.
While preparing the dumpling ingredients, An Fusheng glanced at Ji Fengnian's bowl of messy leftovers. Many of the dishes contained meat and lard, which had solidified into lumps of various colors after cooling down. It looked incredibly disgusting, so An Fusheng casually poured it away.
...
Ji Fengnian was still asleep when they ate dumplings that evening, so no one woke him up, and the family happily ate dumplings together.
I want coins!
I want coins!
"I want a coin too!"
When An Fusheng distributed dumplings to everyone, they all made wishes.
Unexpectedly, everyone's wish came true very quickly.
"Ah! I got to eat it!"
"I got to eat some too!"
"Me too! Me too!"
...
An Fusheng looked at him smugly.
He made sure to poke the dumplings before serving them, so everyone got one.
After eating dumplings, Grandpa, Grandma Lou, and Grandma Wen took turns giving out lucky money. The children were overjoyed as they received one red envelope after another. Wen Xinglan and Wen Xingrui didn't have a concept of money yet, but they were very interested in the red envelopes, curiously turning them over and over to look at them.
"Fuzai, Yueyue, come here, Grandpa will give you New Year's money."
"Grandma has one too."
"Of course, we can't forget Aunt Lou."
"Here, Mother Wen's share is also essential."
An Fusheng was surprised to receive New Year's money. Although he had always received it before, things were different now. An Fusheng said with emotion, "Thank you, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Lou, and Aunt Wen."
Wen Yue also thanked her grandparents, Aunt Lou, and Aunt Wen.
In fact, An Fusheng also prepared lucky money for everyone. He turned 18 this year and found a job and earned money. He is an adult now.
An Fusheng not only prepared lucky money for his younger siblings, but also for his grandparents and mothers.
Wen Yue also prepared some for everyone.
The whole family received lucky money. The grandparents were all smiles. Their son and daughter had refused to have children, thinking they wouldn't get to enjoy the blessings of their grandchildren. But now they are all enjoying it.
After distributing the New Year's money, it was completely dark. There was no bonfire or drumming, and the orphanage's gate didn't face a bustling street, making it rather quiet. An Fusheng clamored to take his younger siblings to set off fireworks.
Grandpa bought a lot of fireworks for everyone this year, all kinds of them.
The fireworks that Grandpa bought are ones that even children can set off.
But An Fusheng wouldn't let them light the fire themselves, so the whole yard was filled with cries of, "Big brother, quickly light a fire for me!"
"Big brother, I want one too, hurry up!"
An Fusheng lit a lantern-shaped firework and stuffed the lantern pole into Wen Xinghe's hand: "Xinghe, this is for you."
"Thank you, brother."
Fireworks crackled and popped, sparks flew before his eyes, and Wen Xinghe felt as if he could see a glimmer of light.
...
The children didn't need to stay up all night. After playing with fireworks for a while, Mama Lou sent them off to bed.
"We're not sleepy yet."
"If you play with fireworks too much, you'll wet the bed tonight, I'm telling you."
"Okay, but are we not going to set off the fireworks?"
"We'll release it next year."
When next year?
"After midnight."
"Will you invite me when we set off fireworks after midnight next year, brother?" An Shisi asked.
An Fusheng: "I'll call you when you wake up."
"Big brother, you should call me too."
"You must call me too."
...
Midnight.
"Bang!"
"Bang bang bang!"
"Splash splash~"
"Bang!"
The New Year's fireworks went off right on time.
An Fusheng surveyed the rooms next door from his own, where everyone was sleeping like little pigs.
An Fusheng was in charge of staying up all night on New Year's Eve, and naturally, he was also responsible for setting off the firecrackers to welcome the new year.
He moved all the fireworks to the yard, lined them up, and quickly lit them all.
With a low roar, a firework ball soared into the sky, then exploded with a loud bang, transforming into colorful flowers. This was followed by a series of continuous bangs as layers upon layers of rainbow flowers bloomed into a sea of blossoms in the dark night.
An Fusheng looked up at the layers of flowing flowers and murmured, "Grandma, wishing you good health in the new year."
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Author's Note: Happy May Day! Wishing everyone a happy holiday in advance. I'm updating early today; heading home tonight! [Rabbit head with upright ears]
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