After returning from the town, Ruan Xi and Ruan Cuizhi rested at home for two days. After they had recovered their strength, they began the busiest days of the year - taking sewing machines from one end of the village to another, making new clothes for people.
After a busy period before the New Year, the two took a break two days before New Year's Eve, closed the tailor shop and stopped taking work, and stayed at home to help Liu Xinghua fry meatballs, steam steamed buns, stir-fry peanuts, and make delicious food for many years in preparation for the New Year.
On New Year's Eve, people get up in the morning to do a thorough cleaning, sweeping and scrubbing the house inside and outside. Then they light a fire and boil some batter, paste couplets on the door and window flowers on the windows, and the atmosphere of the New Year becomes even stronger.
In those poor times, there was nothing else to look forward to except wearing new clothes and eating delicious food, so everyone looked forward to the New Year. Because only during the Chinese New Year will the family be willing to spend money so that we can eat things that we can’t eat at other times.
Many families work hard to save money for a year just to have a comfortable New Year.
It is precisely because of this that everyone is full of expectations, happy, and has a strong sense of ritual, so the New Year atmosphere in this era is particularly strong.
The family was happily busy all day, cleaning the house inside and out, and started preparing the New Year’s Eve dinner in the evening.
Ruan Xi made stir-fried green beans and fish-flavored eggplant, Ruan Cuizhi made stir-fried pork intestines and twice-cooked pork, Ruan Jie made stir-fried bacon with chili peppers, and Liu Xinghua made mapo tofu and boiled fish.
Ruan Zhigao and Ruan Changsheng washed a pot of vegetables, took out the hot pot ingredients, and cooked a small hot pot on a small charcoal stove.
The New Year’s Eve dinner is when the festive atmosphere is the strongest. The happiness and unhappiness of the whole year no longer seem important in front of the table full of fish and meat. If you eat happily and contentedly at this moment, you will be happy and contented for the whole year.
Ruan Zhigao and Ruan Changsheng drank two cups of wine happily. Under the light of the oil lamp, their faces were redder than chili peppers.
Ruan Changsheng ate a spoonful of vegetables, picked up the wine bowl and said, "Unconsciously, another year has passed, and the new year is coming soon. I wish everyone in our family will get better and better in the new year!"
Ruan Xi smiled and picked up the small bowl in front of her, which was filled with boiled water. Neither she, Ruan Xi, Ruan Cuizhi, nor Liu Xinghua drank any alcohol.
She held the bowl and said to Ruan Changsheng, "Congratulations to Uncle Wu for finding the person he loves this year and settling the marriage issue. I wish you a happy life and all the best in the new year!"
Seeing Ruan Xi say this, Ruan Jie also followed suit and picked up the water bowl, smiling and saying, "Then I wish my grandparents, my aunts, uncles, and sister good health, success in everything, happiness, and all their wishes come true in the new year!"
After Ruan Jie finished speaking, Ruan Zhigao, Liu Xinghua, and Ruan Cuizhi laughed happily, and the atmosphere in the room was extremely good.
After laughing, Ruan Zhigao looked at Ruan Changsheng in the relaxed and lively atmosphere and said, "Look at what your two nieces said, and then look at what you said. It's obvious whether you are cultured or not."
Ruan Changsheng did not compare himself with his niece, but only said: "Please don't look down on me. I am also somewhat educated."
Ruan Zhigao looked at him and said, "Then please say two idioms for me to hear."
Ruan Changsheng thought for a while and said, "Congratulations on your prosperity! May you make fortune!"
Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie were stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then they both burst out laughing.
Liu Xinghua smiled and glared at him, "You only have money on your mind."
Ruan Changsheng replied, "That's not right. There are also you, the old man, my sister, and my niece."
Liu Xinghua couldn't help laughing because of his coaxing.
…
The family finished the New Year's Eve dinner together with laughter. After washing the pots and dishes, they stayed in the house chatting. They heard firecrackers in the middle of the night. Ruan Changsheng picked up the firecrackers and rushed outside. Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie hurriedly got up and followed him out.
As the firecrackers exploded outside, Ruan Xi covered her ears, with a smile on her face as bright as the festival.
Also associated with the Chinese New Year are lucky money and wearing new clothes to pay New Year's greetings on the first day of the New Year.
Although we stayed up late to celebrate the New Year, everyone got up early on New Year's Day. Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie went to the stilt house after breakfast in the morning and were the first to pay New Year's greetings to Ling Zhiyuan and Zhou Xueyun.
After paying New Year's greetings and receiving peanuts, melon seeds and colorful candies, the two brought Ling Yao out again and went to other families to pay New Year's greetings together.
After paying New Year's greetings for half a day and having lunch, the three of them went to the old tailor's grave again.
Ruan Xi put some paper money in his schoolbag and brought a box of matches. He squatted down in front of the tomb and burned the paper. The paper money was rolled into the flames one by one.
After burning the paper money and extinguishing the sparks, she stood silently in front of the old tailor's grave for a while, then went home with Ruan Jie Lingyao.
The next few days were all about visiting relatives and friends.
Fourth aunt Ruan Cuilan returned to her parents' home on the second day of the Chinese New Year and brought her husband and children to join in the fun.
After the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the festive atmosphere gradually faded away.
After the Spring Festival, Ruan Xi and Ruan Cuizhi naturally returned to the tailor shop and started taking jobs. But because the Chinese New Year had just passed, there were not many families who wanted to have their clothes altered, so it was very quiet every day and not many people came.
Ruan Xi's daily routine remained the same. Apart from doing work in the tailor shop, he spent the rest of his time reading books and memorizing lessons and studying literature. Memorize those simple elementary school knowledge over and over again.
The Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month was another lively day, and then life went back to normal.
Looking at the height of the sun in the evening, Ruan Xi and Ruan Cuizhi packed up the tailor shop, closed the shop and went home with Ling Yao and Ruan Jie. When the four people were walking on the mountain road, they saw the postman in the mountain and greeted him: "Delivering the mail?"
There is only one postman in the entire Fengming Mountain, and we can only rely on him whether sending or receiving letters, so it takes a long time to receive or deliver letters. Some people can't wait and go to town on their own.
Slowness is the main theme of this era.
The sun sets slower, the vehicles move slower, and the days pass slower.
The postman turned around and replied, "Yes, delivering the letter."
Ruan Jie asked again: "Whose family is the letter being delivered to?"
A few years ago, Ruan Zhigao wrote a letter to her uncle, and this might be a reply letter from her uncle.
Then the postman really said, "It's a family named Ruan."
Hearing this, Ruan Jie's eyes lit up and she looked at the postman and said, "That must be our house."
Then he looked at Ruan Cuizhi and said, "Did uncle reply to your letter? Or did he send money back again?"
Before Ruan Cuizhi could say anything, the postman stopped.
He was obviously too tired to walk any further. He stopped to take a breath and said to the only adult, Ruan Cuizhi, "This is the only letter I want to deliver. If it's to your family, I won't go up there. I'll give it to you here."
As he said this, he opened the green mail bag on his body and pulled out a brown envelope.
He handed the envelope to Ruan Cuizhi and asked her, "Is it yours?"
Ruan Xi moved closer to Ruan Cuizhi and looked at the envelope together, only to see that the recipient written on the envelope was not Ruan Zhigao, but Ruan Cuizhi. Looking at the sender's name, it is not Ruan Changfu, but Liu Xiong.
After reading the envelope, Ruan Cuizhi turned around and met Ruan Xi's eyes. Neither of them said anything. Ruan Cuizhi took the envelope and said to the postman, "I am Ruan Cuizhi. This letter is for me. Thank you for your help."
In this case, the postman delivered the letter and stopped going up, turning around and walking downstairs.
Ruan Cuizhi put the letter into her pocket without reading it, and continued to return to Fengyan Village with Ruan Xi, Ruan Jie and Ling Yao.
When she got home and sat down in her room, she took out the letter, tore open the envelope and poured out the paper inside.
Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie sat next to her, both wanting to see what Liu Xiong had written.
Then I opened the letter and saw that there was no formatting on it, only four words - Agree to Divorce.
Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie both smiled when they saw these four words. Ruan Jie said, "Third Aunt, he finally agreed."
Ruan Cuizhi heaved a sigh of relief after looking at the words on the letter paper, and said without hesitation: "I will go to town to find him tomorrow."
During dinner in the evening, she told Ruan Zhigao and Liu Xinghua about this. Ruan Zhigao and Liu Xinghua were greatly relieved and were eager for Ruan Cuizhi to go through the formalities with Liu Xiong immediately and completely sever their ties.
Ruan Zhigao said, "Let Xiao Wuzi go with you. We can rest assured that he will take care of us. He has a lot of things to buy. He needs to buy cloth for the girl to make clothes, and also buy things to decorate the new house."
Ruan Cuizhi nodded and said, "Then let's go down together."
The next day, after Ruan Cuizhi and Ruan Changsheng went down the mountain, Ruan Xi was the only one in the tailor shop for half of the morning. In the afternoon, Ruan Jie and Ling Yao came as usual and continued reading and studying with her.
Ruan Xi was absent-minded while studying, staring at the grape trellis and thinking - Ruan Changsheng was going to get married in a few months, and the family had to vacate a room for him as his new home. If they used Ruan Yuejin and Ruan Yuehua's room, they were afraid that Sun Xiaohui would make a fuss again.
After thinking for a while, Ruan Xi came back to his senses and looked at Ruan Jie and said, "Xiao Jie, Uncle Wu should be ready to decorate the new house. Why don't you and I move out with Auntie Wu? We can live here from now on and free up the room for Uncle Wu to use as his new house."
Ruan Jie was still writing, but she put down the pencil in her hand when she heard the words.
After Ruan Xi finished speaking, she naturally had no objection and nodded directly, "Okay."
So the next day, Ruan Xi asked Ruan Zhigao to invite someone to her house to help, and moved all the beds, boxes, cabinets and other things in her, Ruan Jie and Ruan Cuizhi's rooms to the tailor shop.
After moving in, the room in the house was vacated, and the next step naturally required repainting the walls, buying new beds, bedding, pillow boxes, wardrobes, etc. Arranging it into a new house is no small undertaking.
Ruan Xi and the others helped in whatever way they could, but the big work was still done by Ruan Zhigao and Ruan Changsheng. Ruan Changsheng asked a carpenter in the mountains to make furniture, and he ran back and forth between the village and the commune to buy all the things he needed.
Four or five days later, Ruan Changsheng and Ruan Cuizhi came back from the town after shopping, both of them carrying large and small bags.
Ruan Changsheng gave Qian Chuan the cloth he had bought in the town, and paid her the wages for making the clothes, and then asked her to find a tailor in the town to make the clothes herself. After all, she isn't married yet. If I ask her to come to the mountains to make clothes and still live here, I'm afraid people will gossip about her.
But Ruan Zhigao, Liu Xinghua, Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie were not particularly concerned about his purchases. When they saw him and Ruan Cuizhi coming back, they simply ignored him, grabbed Ruan Cuizhi's hand and asked, "How is it going? What about the divorce?"
Ruan Cuizhi looked relieved and smiled slightly, saying, "It's done. We're divorced."
Hearing this, Liu Xinghua breathed a sigh of relief. "It's good to get divorced. You can live your life however you want after the divorce. I won't urge you to find another one this time. If you can't live well, it's useless to marry a hundred people."
Ruan Cuizhi nodded, "Well, I don't have that idea for the time being."
Ruan Cuizhi's divorce had been going on for a year and a half, and now it finally had a result. Liu Xinghua felt very happy and cooked two more dishes in the evening, as if Ruan Cuizhi's divorce was a big happy event.
Of course Sun Xiaohui didn't know about this, otherwise she would have gossiped privately and said that Liu Xinghua had a mental problem, because her daughter's divorce was acting like she was married.
After dinner in the evening, when Ruan Cuizhi entered the room, she found that all the things in the room had been moved away, including her clothes. So she had to follow Ruan Xi and Ruan Jie to the tailor shop to sleep there.
Although there were two beds in the tailor shop, the three of them slept together that night.
Ruan Cuizhi lay on the bed and relaxed her whole body and said, "Finally, we are divorced. The stone in my heart has fallen to the ground, and I feel completely at ease and at peace. From now on, I, Ruan Cuizhi, will have no relationship with the Liu family anymore."
Ruan Jie asked curiously, "Third aunt, why is Liu Xiong suddenly willing to divorce?" Didn't he say before that he would never divorce even if he died?
Ruan Cuizhi smiled and said, "He really told me that he didn't want to waste his time with me anymore. It's not difficult for him to find a second marriage with his condition, and he would suffer if he dragged it out. He said that if I stayed in this deep mountain forest, I would never find a good man in my life. He also said that I was restless, unsteady, and unfaithful to women, and no decent man would want me. I was beaten up by your fifth uncle again."
Ruan Xi couldn't help laughing and was quite speechless.
Ruan Jie continued to speak from the side: "Then Third Aunt, you should find a better one for Liu Xiong to see."
Ruan Cuizhi was in a very good mood, and her words were like dancing notes. "Let's talk about it later. I feel more comfortable being alone right now."
Ruan Jie hummed, "Then we'll talk about it later."
As the night deepens, the air begins to flow slowly and lazily, and spring begins to stir among the woods and mountains.
From spring to summer, the Ruan family has been busy preparing for Ruan Changsheng's wedding.
As the wedding date approaches, the bridal chamber has been cleaned and decorated, with a festive atmosphere filled with red.
The banquet is prepared and the guests have been invited. We are just waiting for the day to bring the bride back and have a lively banquet.
Because the mountain road was long and it was not easy to pick up the bride, Ruan Changsheng and several of his childhood friends set out for the town a few days in advance, bringing with them a matchmaker hired by their family, and carrying a festively decorated sedan chair covered with red silk and big red flowers.
Because Ruan Changsheng was getting married and there were a lot of things to do at home, Ruan Xi naturally closed the tailor shop. These days she helped with chores at home during the day, welcoming and seeing off guests, and went to the tailor shop with Ruan Cuizhi and Ruan Jie to sleep at night.
After being busy for most of the day, I felt a little tired, not knowing what I had done. So Ruan Xi grabbed a handful of melon seeds and brought a small stool to sit in the corner, eating melon seeds while relaxing alone.
After eating for a while, Ling Yao also brought a small stool over and sat down next to her.
Ruan Xi looked at him and smiled, then reached out and put a handful of melon seeds into his hand.
The two sat side by side and ate melon seeds together. Ling Yao asked her, "It's almost time. I think she should be back tomorrow."
Ruan Xi knew he was talking about Ruan Changsheng coming to pick up the bride, so she nodded her head to respond. But before she could utter a word, she heard someone shouting, "He's back! He's back!"
Ruan Xi was a little surprised, and muttered: "You're back so soon?"
Then, just as she finished her words, the girl who was the same age as her and shouted that she had returned ran up to her, took a long breath and said to her: "Xiaoxi...you...your parents are back..."
Ruan Xi picked up the melon seeds and put them to her lips when she suddenly paused.
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