Chapter 129: Staying Up All Year Round
After the meal, the Zhao family sat for a while, sealed the gifts given to the Wan family's grandchildren in red envelopes, and then said goodbye and left.
Old Mrs. Wan also prepared several red envelopes for Wan Xingmo, Wan Xingchen and Wan Yirou.
Wan Xingmo was embarrassed to take it, but Old Lady Wan forced it into his hands.
After eating the New Year’s Eve dinner together, everyone gave each other red envelopes, and then stayed up all night in their own homes.
After the Zhao family left, everyone in the Wan family moved into Old Lady Wan's east room.
The women and children were all on the kang.
Mrs. Wan Er and Mrs. Wan San were busy taking out the melon seeds, peanuts, candied dates and giving them to the children. Mrs. Liu was leaning on the quilt on the kang with her pregnant belly.
Old Mrs. Wan was sitting at the table on the kang holding little Fubao, and the children were surrounding the second and third wives of Wan. Even though they had just finished their meals, the children's eyes still lit up when they saw the delicious food, especially the sweet maltose.
The Chinese New Year is simply the most wonderful thing for children, especially this year. Not only do they have new clothes to wear and red envelopes to receive, but the New Year’s Eve dinner is also the most sumptuous they have ever seen.
In fact, not only children but adults are also looking forward to life at the border.
Apart from the relatively harsh environment at the border, their family now lives a hundred times better than in Yangliu Village. They have money in their hands, food at home, and the furniture in the house is all new. Everyone has a happy smile on their face.
"Okay, you naughty boys, go play over there. You'll have enough to eat tonight, but one thing, don't run into your Fourth Aunt." Old Mrs. Wan scolded her grandson with a smile. Second Sister-in-law Wan also smiled and drove the children to the other end of the kang to play.
When little Fubao saw her brothers being together without her, she also grunted and tried to crawl out of Grandma Wan's arms.
"Grandma, Fubao wants a pot."
Little Fubao supported himself on the kang with his hands, knelt on the kang with his legs, stuck his little butt out, raised his little head, and spoke to Grandma Wan in a baby voice with bright eyes.
Old Mrs. Wan quickly let go of little Fubao.
"Go, dear, play with your brothers."
Old Lady Wan raised her head and told her grandchildren, "Keep an eye on your sister and don't make her unhappy."
Wan Quan also crawled over and picked up Xiao Fubao and placed him among a few people. One wanted to give Xiao Fubao candy, and another wanted to peel peanuts for Xiao Fubao. Several little guys started to circle around Xiao Fubao. They loved this little sister so much.
Little Fubao also likes his older brothers. He happily sits in the middle, holding something in each hand and putting it into his mouth.
"Wan Wen, you have to look after your sister. She can't eat too much sugar. She is still young and it's not good for her teeth." Wan Ersao warned Wan Wen with some concern.
"I know, mother."
Wan Wen replied happily.
The adults then started to play by themselves.
Several men from the Wan family sat on the ground around the brazier, eating melon seeds and chatting.
Old Mrs. Wan asked Second Sister-in-law Wan while sitting cross-legged and eating melon seeds.
"Second daughter-in-law, how is Shen's tonight?"
Today it is Wan Ersao who is taking care of Shen. She visited Shen before and after the New Year’s Eve dinner.
"Mother, she hasn't woken up yet, but she can eat now. I fed her some medicine and boiled the ginseng you gave her. I think she will sleep for a while. The doctor said that Shen was overworked and needs to rest more. Rest will help her recover."
Old Mrs. Wan nodded. To be honest, she was also reluctant to part with the ginseng, but there were no good supplements at home. Before Shen Jinyuan sent the supplements, she had to cut one or two slices of her own ginseng for Shen to use. At most, it would be counted as silver and deducted directly from the one hundred taels.
"Well, OK. After we finish our vigil, you can sleep in the same room with Shen tonight and take good care of her. If she wakes up and can eat, there is some minced meat porridge warming up on the stove. You can feed her a bowl of it. Although tonics are good, grains are the most nourishing. If she can eat, she will get better soon."
"Mom, don't worry. I'll take care of Shen tonight, so you don't have to worry." Wan Ersao said with a smile.
Old Lady Wan looked at Old Master Wan and Old Second Wan and asked, "What's the matter with you using the mayor's carriage today?"
Speaking of the carriage, Wan Lao Da continued, "Mom, this is a coincidence. When we went to the town this morning, we met Jin Niu at the entrance of the village. He also went to the town, but he was looking for the mayor. You also know what happened last night. Aunt Wu is not the arsonist, but she saw the arsonist. After all, there was a fire in the village and people died. The village chief was afraid that the higher-ups would investigate and he was afraid that it would be too late to explain and Aunt Wu would be arrested as a suspect. So he went to the town to report the case so that he could keep a record.
Jinniu also helped us a lot on the way. He helped carry Shen all the way to the town. Jinniu knew that our family had some relationship with the mayor, so he begged me to go with him. I couldn't refuse. After all, the village chief had taken good care of our family. Now that something happened to their family, and they didn't need me to do much, I just accompanied him, so I went.
But things went smoothly. After the mayor personally took our statement, he heard that we were here to see Shen, so he sent his carriage to take us back. Jinniu got off directly at the entrance of the village and went home. "
After hearing this, Old Mrs. Wan also sighed.
"You just need to know about your Aunt Wu's affairs, but you must not spread rumors outside, understand? This is the private matter of the village chief's family. The village chief has his own reasons for how to deal with it. We outsiders should not spread rumors and cause trouble. Just keep your mouth shut and live your own life well, and don't learn to be gossipy."
Old Mrs. Wan took the opportunity to put a tight ring on her sons and daughters-in-law.
"Mom, don't worry. There has never been anyone in our family who talks too much. You don't have to worry about that."
This made Mrs. Wan very happy, as no one in the family was a talkative person.
"Speaking of which, it's snowing so hard outside. It's still unclear whether Shen's brothers can deliver the supplements on time. The heavy snow has blocked the roads, making it difficult to go out. Second wife, third wife, you two should take good care of him these days."
Listening to the strong wind and snow outside, Old Mrs. Wan couldn't help but feel worried.
Boss Wan looked up at the roof.
"Mom, I don't know if our roof can withstand such heavy snow. This house has not been occupied for half a year, and no one has maintained or repaired it. We were in a hurry when we came here and didn't have time to check it. Why don't I and the second brother go up and take a look and sweep away the fallen snow?"
After a moment's hesitation, Old Lady Wan said, "That's fine, but it's snowing hard outside. We can't even open our eyes if we go up there. It's too dangerous. Let's wait until the second half of the night. But we still need to clean up the snow. The house is a big deal. We don't know how long this snow will last, and we don't know when we can start building the new house next spring."
"Mom, this can only depend on God. We can't control it. But we can go to the town to look for shops at the beginning of the year. If there is a shop with a suitable price and a good location, we can rent it first. I see that the land is frozen tightly. There are so many people in our family. We can't just stay at home and eat up all the food. It's better to open the shop first. When the spring plowing season comes, the shop will be on track, and we won't be afraid of being busy at both ends."
Wan Laosan was still thinking about his wife's food shop, so bringing it up at this time could give everyone new ideas.
The second and fourth Wan brothers also nodded in agreement, after all, their two families also had a share.
"I think it's okay. When we are in Yangliu Village, there is a lantern festival in the town during the Lantern Festival. I don't know if there is one here. If there is, we can go to the town to see the excitement and see which shops in the town are doing a booming business."
During the Lantern Festival, usually every shop would give out lanterns to attract people, but they had not been in the town for long last time and were imprisoned, so they had no time to walk around the town.
Wan Ersao then continued, "Mom, we went to the town today and saw a lot of people here. We also saw a lot of Hu people. They were big and strong and looked very fierce. Maybe it's New Year's Eve today, there are not many people on the street, and many shops are closed. They are said to open on the eighth day of the first lunar month. If you have this idea, why not go and take a look on the eighth day? After all, it takes more than one or two days to decide on a shop."
As soon as Wan Ersao finished her words, little Fubao shouted with a smile from the other side of the kang: "Mom, Fubao is going."
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