Chapter 136: Buying New Year's Goods

As the New Year approaches, the family compound becomes increasingly deserted. Many family members have returned to their hometowns in advance, taking their children to prepare for the New Year's ancestral worship. At this time of year, it is extremely difficult to apply for a family leave. Most military officers are unable to accompany their wives and children home for the New Year. This happens every year, and the family members who come to accompany the army have become accustomed to it.

The family building became much quieter without many children making trouble. Lin Yue was still a little uncomfortable with it. Fortunately, the two young couples next door, Xu Xiaodi and Wang Tingting, did not return to their hometown, so she was not without someone to talk to.

Xu Xiaodi is pregnant and is not suitable for long-distance travel. She can only stay here for the New Year. Although she can't go back this year, the couple is still very happy. On the other hand, Wang Tingting and her husband are not so happy. Director Gu just finished his family leave. Wang Tingting didn't want to go to her unfamiliar in-laws' house to celebrate the New Year alone. The two had an argument about this. Director Gu saw that she was determined and had been in a cold war with Wang Tingting for several days.

Lin Yue and Zhang Yuandong had never considered going back to their hometown. They had no ties there, and it was impossible for them to travel a long distance to go back for the New Year. However, Lingling and Wanli, the two children, had been here for four months and had not forgotten their friends in Xiaotian Village. They were a little disappointed when they heard that they could not go back to their hometown.

Lin Yue suggested that they could write a letter back to their friends.

The two children looked at each other, their eyes sparkling with excitement, and asked hurriedly: "Mom, is this the letter you wrote to Aunt Jianhua? Can we mail it ourselves?"

Lin Yue smiled and nodded: "Of course, after you finish writing the letter, let's pick a day when your father is off and go to the city to mail the letter together."

The two children cheered for joy. They thought their mother would give the letter to the postman as she did in the past, but they didn't expect her to go to the city to mail the letter herself. They hadn't been to the city for a long time, so they were happy to be able to go out and play.

The two siblings were so excited that they didn't delay any longer and immediately sat down at the desk to write letters to their friends.

Although the two were educated early, they were still young. They knew a lot of words, but they didn't know many. Fortunately, pinyin had already appeared in the 1950s. When they came across words they didn't know how to write, they used pinyin instead. Sometimes they just drew pictures directly. The letter of 200 to 300 words took the two of them three pages.

Lin Yue didn't look at what they wrote, but just said: "Before putting it in the envelope, check it carefully to see if there is anything in the letter that I told you not to say outside."

The brother and sister nodded quickly and read the letter they wrote from beginning to end again. Lin Yue had already started teaching them what they could and could not say. The children were still too young, and if they waited until next year to teach them, it would be too late.

It was too cold in June. A few days ago, there was a heavy snowfall. The roads were all icy and the buses were prone to slipping. It was not suitable to take the children to the city now. Today, Zhang Yuandong was there, so Lin Yue dared to take the four children out with confidence.

Xu Xiaodi's health was getting worse, so Lu Zhiguo took on the task of buying New Year's goods. However, his days off and working days never matched up, and he happened to have to go to the post office to mail a package. He heard that Zhang Yuandong was going to the city with his wife and children, so he just went with them.

Lu Zhiguo is a very outgoing person and is good at getting along with children. With him around, the children were very happy along the way.

Arriving in the city, Lin Yue first took Ling Ling and Wan Li to the post office. There was a mailbox at the entrance of the post office. Lin Yue told them to just put the letter in there. But the two children obviously didn't trust the mailbox at all. They held the letter they wrote in their arms and refused to put it in there no matter what. Lin Yue had no choice but to take them into the post office and find the staff.

The brother and sister regarded sending letters as a very important matter, and they had to give each of them an envelope. The staff took the letters and looked at them. They saw that Wanli's letter was normal. The recipient's name was Zhang Xianle, while Lingling's name was "Zhang Ergou". Combined with the ages of the two children, it is not difficult to guess that the recipient should not be very old.

The staff member didn't know what to say, so he confirmed again before asking, "How old is the recipient? He can't be as young as you, right?"

Wanli spoke first: "Brother Lele is already ten years old and he is in primary school!" Zhang Xianle is Wang Xiuxiang's youngest son and he is indeed exactly ten years old this year.

The staff member said helplessly: "You know, not everyone knows the postman who delivers the letters. Generally, those who are not familiar with the postman will be sent directly to the brigade. But for children... the brigade officials may not be able to remember all the children in the village. You should add their parents' names on the envelope."

The two siblings nodded, not quite understanding. Wanli took the pen and added a line of small words after Zhang Xianle's name: Wang Xiuxiang's Auntie's son. Lingling scratched her hair and asked Lin Yue: "Mom, what are the names of Brother Ergou's parents?"

Lin Yue teased her, "The father of Zhang Ergou, who lives in the east of the village, is Zhang Shouyang, and the father of the one who lives in the north of the village is Zhang Zhihe."

Ling Ling stamped her feet and said, "That Zhang Ergou from Grandpa Pojiao's family is as old as my uncle now. I'm not talking about him! And he has changed his name to Zhang Shouyuan now!"

Lin Yue smiled, "Oh, that's Zhang Shouyang."

Lingling hummed, lowered her head and added Zhang Shouyang's name.

After the two young men finally handed the letter to the staff, Lin Yue went to mail her own package. Last time, Zhang Shouren and Zhang Shouyi sent her more than 30 salted eggs and two salted goose eggs. Because they were afraid that they would be squeezed on the way, they used a lot of straw to separate them one by one. When Lin Yue received the package, only two of the more than 30 eggs were so squashed that they could not be eaten. Although the eggshells of the rest were damaged, they did not affect the taste. It can be seen that the brothers were very careful.

Lin Yue was very grateful for their kindness. Thinking that they had no parents to help them take care of things, and only two half-grown boys to live on their own, after discussing with Zhang Yuandong, he sewed a set of cotton pants and cotton shirts for each of them, and also saved twenty yuan. Because it was the end of the year, Lin Yue sent some New Year goods to Wang Xiuxiang and Liu Jianhua. There were a lot of things, so he simply divided them into three packages.

The mail delivery speed is very slow at this time, and I don’t know if it can be delivered before the New Year.

What she didn't expect was that this would be her last time to come here to send a package to her hometown. For a long time afterwards, she almost lost contact with her hometown.

Lu Zhiguo was also sending packages. After Xu Xiaodi became pregnant, he wrote a letter to his hometown, hoping that his mother would come to take care of Xu Xiaodi, but his mother called and said that she would not come no matter what, and even said that Xu Xiaodi should go back to her hometown to take care of the baby.

Lu Zhiguo had kept this a secret from his wife. He didn't want Xu Xiaodi to worry about it, so he decided to talk to his mother first and then tell Xu Xiaodi. This time when he sent New Year's gifts to his hometown, he sent more in Xu Xiaodi's name, hoping that his mother would agree to take care of her because of her filial piety.

After leaving the post office, the group headed straight to the largest department store in the city. The items here are quite complete, and you can basically buy everything you need for the New Year in one place.

The troops will distribute a lot of New Year's goods during the Spring Festival, including vegetables, fish, meat, eggs and noodles. Even if they don't have enough, they can buy them all at the vegetable market near the military area. The things they want to buy today are mainly couplets, red paper, firecrackers and the like.

Big cities are different from small towns. There are even escalators in department stores. Lin Yue was worried that Lingling and Wanli would be scared, so he wanted to reach out and hug them, but they were both very stubborn and only let their mother hold their hands while they stepped onto the elevator carefully.

To prevent anyone from getting hurt by the elevator, staff were standing next to it. Lin Yue knew that the children would be curious about these new things, so he stopped persuading them and instead carefully protected them.

The two kids stood on the elevator, their bodies straight, their mouths tightly pursed, and their expressions more serious than each other. Lin Yue thought it was funny, knowing that they were nervous and scared, but he didn't expose them, pretending that he didn't notice their abnormality. After getting off the elevator, he praised the two of them, making their faces red and their eyes sparkling. Lingling looked back at the elevator behind her, looking like she wanted to do it again.

The group bought fireworks, firecrackers, candles and red paper one by one. Since it was the first time to celebrate the New Year here, Lin Yue also bought a pair of small incense burners.

When Lu Zhiguo bought paper money, he was wondering why the couple didn't buy any. Zhang Yuandong said expressionlessly, "I'm afraid I'll be punished for doing these feudal superstitions in the military area."

Lu Zhiguo wanted to say that paper money was feudal superstition, but so were the red paper and candles! However, seeing that Zhang Yuandong did not want to talk more, he remembered the rumor in the army a few years ago that Zhang Yuandong had severed ties with his hometown, so he quickly shut up and did not dare to ask any more questions.

Zhang Yuandong was indeed not worried about the discipline in the army. The discipline in the barracks often cannot be applied to the family compound. Now that the big movement has not started, there is no need to worry about being put on the line after the New Year. He didn't want to buy these things because he didn't know who to burn them for. Incense, candles and paper money are used to commemorate ancestors. Since he knew that Zhang Zhiwei was not his biological father and had a falling out with his family, he naturally didn't want to worship the ancestors of the Zhang family.

In fact, neither of them believed in these things, but they still felt a little guilty about the poor girl Lin Yue. When Ling Ling and Wan Li celebrated their birthdays, Lin Yue and Zhang Yuandong secretly burned a lot of paper money for Lin Yue, and the candles were also for her memorial.

On the way back, Wanli and Lingling were much braver, and they took the escalator up and down several times, their eyes full of excitement. Zhang Yuandong was afraid that the two children would not behave themselves in the escalator and hurt themselves, so he followed them all the time. He was not a person with many facial expressions, but he was tall and wore a military uniform. His expression was intimidating without anger. Many people passing by cast curious eyes on the father and his two sons, and always felt that he would grab the two children and beat them up in the next moment.

Before going back, Lin Yue went to the market and bought a lot of pig offal and pig bones. This time she bought more, and when she finished making the salt sauce, she would share some with the neighbors on both sides.

With so much pig offal in his hands, it would drip everywhere whether he put it in a cloth bag or a net bag. There were too many people with him, and Lin Yue couldn't put everything in the space, so he simply bought a wooden basin and put all the pig offal into it.

On the bus, there was a scene like this: two military comrades were carrying a lot of things in their hands, and each of them was carrying a child on his back. They were accompanied by a pair of cute twins, who also carried a lot of things in their hands, and looked like they had just finished buying New Year's goods. They were also accompanied by a beautiful female comrade, who stood steadily on the bus while holding nearly a basin of pig's offal without changing her expression.

Fortunately, there were few people on the bus, otherwise she might not have been able to get on the bus.

Because it was the end of the year, there were actually quite a few people on the bus carrying chickens, ducks, fish and other things, some of which were still alive. It was not a new thing for someone like Lin Yue to take a pig into the water on the bus. The main reason was that the style of the painting did not match her appearance, which made people want to take a look at it.