Yan Daqiang glanced at his second brother, his disappointment in him beyond words. He beckoned to him, then opened the door to the main room and went out first. Yan Erqiang had always been afraid of his older brother. He looked at his mother, then at Yan Xiaoqiang, and seeing that they were both silent, he could only slowly walk out.
About three minutes later, Yan Erqiang's voice came from outside, begging for mercy: "Big brother, I won't do it again, I won't do it again, big brother, I was wrong, please forgive me this time, I will definitely change." Cai Min inside felt her hair stand on end; this big brother was too terrifying.
The door to the main room creaked open, and Yan Daqiang dragged Yan Erqiang in, pulling him in front of Grandma Yan and saying, "Mother, this boy is unreasonable. Father passed away early, and I, as the eldest brother, have already given him a severe lesson. Please forgive him this once."
Grandma Yan's tears streamed down her face. The knot in her heart was no longer there. As long as her eldest son was alive, the family would not fall apart. Yan Daqiang took out a handkerchief and wiped away his mother's tears: "Mother, on New Year's Eve this year, all three of your sons will be here. You should happily wait for us to kowtow to you."
Grandma Yan nodded repeatedly, but tears still streamed down her face—tears of happiness. Yan Xiaonan took out a White Rabbit milk candy from his pocket, struggled to peel off the wrapper, and then stuffed the candy into Grandma's mouth, saying, "Grandma, don't cry, the candy is sweet."
Grandma Yan hugged Yan Xiaonan tightly: "My darling, how come you're so smart?"
Seeing that Grandma Yan was happy, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Cuihua quickly pulled Xuemei to the kitchen. Today was the 29th of the lunar year, which is the Little New Year in the Chinese calendar, so there still had to be a few big dishes.
Bei Nan's voice called from outside the door: "Grandma, Grandma, we're back!"
Yan Xiaoqiang hurriedly went to open the door. The two boys had brought back a lot of things from the foot of the mountain these past two days. It's very cold over there, so he didn't want them to get too cold. When he saw the small buckets in their hands filled with fish, he was pleasantly surprised and quickly took the buckets, urging them to go inside and warm up by the fire.
Cuihua was also worried about not having any fish for the New Year's Eve feast. Fish is an essential dish for the New Year's Eve feast, symbolizing abundance year after year. However, the river was almost dry, now just a thin layer of ice. Where could she get fish? As for buying fish at the market, who knows when that would be?
Yan Xiaoqiang handed the small bucket to Cuihua: "We'll have fish tomorrow, see how you plan to prepare it."
When Cuihua saw this, she jumped up happily and quickly scooped several ladles of water from the tank to raise the fish properly so she could kill them alive tomorrow. She kept muttering about how capable the two boys were. Yan Xiaoqiang chuckled and said that the boys were capable, but compared to Zhongnan, they were nothing. These fish must have come from Zhongnan.
Cuihua was furious, but had no words to retort. Zhongnan was too good at catching fish. She decided to stop thinking about it and quickly prepare the dishes. So many people were waiting to eat. Just as she was busy, Cai Min walked in, looking a little embarrassed: "Cuihua, let me help."
Cuihua was delighted to hear this, as she was short-handed. She quickly pointed to the potatoes on the ground and said, "Why don't you help peel these? We want to stew potatoes with meat."
Upon hearing about meat, Cai Min became very enthusiastic. She quickly grabbed a small stool and started peeling meat, but her eyes kept wandering around restlessly. As she looked around, she thought to herself, "Erqiang's younger brother's family has so much food!"
Xuemei was preparing to stir-fry the vegetables. She scooped out a large lump of lard and put it into the pot. You know, wild vegetables won't taste good if they don't have enough oil. Since her uncle brought so much stuff, she had to treat him well.
Just as she was about to put the wild vegetables into the pot, Cai Min cried out as if her own flesh had been cut off, "Xuemei, have you gone mad? You put so much oil in a stir-fry! You're going to die tomorrow!"
Cuihua was a little unhappy to hear this. What did she mean by "I'm not going to have a proper wedding tomorrow"? Xuemei rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the sky. She put the vegetables in Cuihua's hands and said, "Mom, you cook. I'm kicking her out." Then she really did snatch the peeler from Caimin's hand and kicked her out.
Xuemei even walked up to Yan Erqiang and said, "Second Uncle, it's fine if your wife doesn't want to help, but please don't let her cause trouble. There are so many people eating, we can't handle it all."
Yan Erqiang was at a loss for words. He thought that the reason there were so many people was because of their arrival. But his family consisted of four people, and his wife was not only not helping but also causing trouble. What trouble had Cai Min caused?
Cai Min was a little scared when she saw Yan Erqiang's gaze. Why was that look coming out again? She said with some grievance, "I saw that Xue Mei put too much oil in her stir-fry, so I couldn't help but say a few words."
"What did you say?" Yan Erqiang knew Cai Min's sharp tongue all too well, but he had to make things clear today, otherwise the beating he had just endured would have been for nothing.
"I just said, 'If you put in so much oil, we're doomed tomorrow.'" Only then did Cai Min realize that her words were indeed problematic, but once the words were spoken, they could not be taken back.
"Tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Eve, do you think it makes sense for you to say something like this today?" Yan Erqiang was about to faint, but unfortunately he couldn't. Let's do it. This woman really didn't mean it that way. She was probably just worried about the oil. But do you even care about it?
Yan Daqiang glanced at Cai Min and finally understood why his second brother was so useless. How could such a good-for-nothing manage a family? Oh well, this brother is ruined, and his children won't amount to anything either. Just now, when Nan Nan was feeding her mother candy, the two of them kept swallowing their saliva. It was so embarrassing.
Grandma Yan spoke up: "It's a new society now, we don't care about these things. It's alright, it's alright. North, South, Southwest, you guys quickly get your bowls and chopsticks. Qiangzi, go to your room and get a bottle of wine. You three brothers, have a good drink today."
Yan Xiaoqiang hurriedly ran into his mother's room. After looking around, he saw that there was wine on the kang (a heated brick bed), and several bottles of it. He grabbed a bottle and took it out without noticing that Yan Zheng had followed him inside.
Yan Zheng had just seen Yan Xiaonan give candy to his grandmother, and he noticed that Yan Xiaonan came out of this room. He figured that the White Rabbit candy must be hidden in this room, so after Yan Xiaoqiang opened the door and went in, he followed him in. He searched around but couldn't find the candy, and he started to get anxious.
Seeing Yan Xiaoqiang take the liquor from the kangqin, he was delighted, thinking that the milk candy should be on it. So he took off his shoes and climbed up. When he got to the kangqin, there was indeed milk candy on it, next to the liquor bottle. So he grabbed the milk candy and stuffed it into his pocket.
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