085, New Year's greetings
085, New Year's greetings
“Crackle—”
The sound of New Year's firecrackers came from far away and gradually got closer. The most recent firecracker seemed to come from the neighbor's house next door, and the sound was particularly loud.
Lu Mingfei opened his eyes and stared blankly at the bed board above him. After a while, he reached out and pressed his aching forehead. He had gone to bed too late last night, and it felt like he hadn't slept long when he was woken by the sound of firecrackers.
There was no one else in the room except him at this time. Zhao Lang had eaten dumplings last night and left, leaving him a New Year's gift.
Thinking of this, he reached out to the head of the bed and touched a small flute.
I didn't look at it carefully last night, but now I realize that this small flute is only the size of his little finger. It is made of jade, emerald green all over, and feels cool in his hand.
There are two small holes on the top of the flute, which can be used to make sounds.
When Zhao Lang gave this thing to him last night, he said that if he needed to find him for anything in the future, he should blow the flute. If the secret guards of the palace were nearby, they would come to him as quickly as possible when they heard the sound of the flute.
But he hasn't tried it, so he doesn't know how effective it is.
Of course, unless it is an extremely urgent matter, Lu Mingfei will not use this thing indiscriminately to avoid making others run around.
After thinking about it, he hung the small flute around his neck and took off the jade pendant he was wearing.
Looking at the jade pendant he took off, it was the one Zhao Lang had given him many years ago. When his family first came to Kyoto Prefecture, they were broke, and he had even taken the jade pendant to a pawnshop to pawn it. Of course, he later redeemed it when he made some money.
After redeeming the jade pendant, he has been wearing it on his body and has never taken it off.
Even now, when he thought back on this incident, he felt that he and Zhao Lang had a deep connection. If Zhao Lang hadn't given him the jade pendant, his family wouldn't have survived the difficult times eight years ago, and his father might have passed away long ago. Without his father, their family wouldn't have the life they have today, and his brother wouldn't have been born.
Oh, maybe he wouldn’t be who he is now.
Because he was targeted by human traffickers that year. If Zhao Lang hadn't been with him at the time, it would have been difficult for him to escape from the traffickers on his own. He might have been taken out of the city by the traffickers and sold somewhere unknown. If he had been abducted, it would have caused their family to break up.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but laugh. It seemed that it was not this jade pendant that brought good luck to their family, but it was Zhao Lang who brought good luck to him.
Hearing the voices of his father and mother talking outside the yard, he knew that his family had already woken up. Lu Mingfei did not continue to lie in bed. He got up, dressed, poured some hot water, washed his face, rinsed his mouth, put on his hat, scarf and gloves, and then opened the door and went out.
As soon as he came out, he met his father. Lu Mingfei smiled and wished his father a happy new year: "Dad, Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year! Our Mingfei is another year older." Lu Youtian said as he took out a red envelope wrapped in red paper from his pocket and gave it to his eldest son. "Study hard and try to pass the Tongsheng exam this year."
"Okay, thank you Dad, I will do my best!" Lu Mingfei took the red envelope from his father with both hands and responded with a smile.
"Brother!" Lu Mingrui, who was making fire in the kitchen, ran out when he heard his brother's voice, and pounced on his brother as soon as he saw him.
"Happy New Year." Lu Mingfei bent down and picked up his younger brother. Looking at the child's chubby face, he couldn't help but come over and rub his face against his brother's, causing the little guy to giggle.
When he looked up, he saw another child running out of the kitchen. It was Zhang Xiaobao who came to their house yesterday, followed by his brother Zhang Qi.
The two brothers dressed neatly today and wore their old clothes, shoes and hats.
Since he was little, his clothes were not as dirty as other children's, so his old clothes, although whitened by washing, were always clean and had few patches on them, because he grew taller before these clothes had time to wear out.
At first, he couldn't bear to throw away these clothes, so he put them at the bottom of a box, thinking about giving them to someone in the future. Later, after his younger brother was born, he washed all the old clothes he had taken off, folded them, and put them away neatly, thinking about saving them for his younger brother in the future.
However, before his younger brother could put on his clothes, the Zhang Qi brothers arrived.
It just so happened that one of the brothers could wear the old clothes he wore when he was five or six years old, and the other could wear the old clothes he had changed out of two years ago. The clothes he wore after going to school were made of better material, so these old clothes looked pretty straight on Zhang Qi.
Once the two brothers cleaned up, especially the elder brother Zhang Qi, they looked clean and handsome. Most importantly, his clothes could keep him warm. After the two brothers put on thick clothes, their little faces were no longer black and blue from the cold.
The younger brother Zhang Xiaobao looks chubby and has a boyish personality. He looks like a simple kid. He is just the right companion for his younger brother, and the two kids play together.
Seeing the two brothers looking at them, Lu Mingfei smiled and said to Zhang Qi and his brother, "Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year." Facing Lu Mingfei's smiling face, Zhang Qi hesitated for a moment and replied in the same way as Lu Mingfei.
Zhang Xiaobao looked at the older brother a little shyly and didn't dare to speak.
"Mingfei is up too." Liu Sanniang, who was cooking breakfast in the kitchen, heard her eldest son's voice and came out to greet him.
"Happy New Year, mother."
"Happy New Year."
"Your father just said to set off firecrackers. You guys go to the door and set off the firecrackers." While speaking, Liu Sanniang looked at her husband who was standing beside her.
"Okay, I'll go get the firecrackers right away." Hearing this, Lu Youtian went to get the firecrackers.
Lu Mingfei also came to help. He found a cigarette and lit one end. After his father placed the firecrackers at the door, he said, "Dad, go to the back. I'll light them."
"Hey hey." Lu Youtian trotted away, calling the two little ones to hide behind him.
After making sure that his father and three children were hiding at the back and no one was passing by the door, Lu Mingfei quickly used the cigarette in his hand to light the fuse of the firecrackers.
As soon as the fuse was lit, sparks flew up and he quickly turned around and ran back.
“Crackle—”
A burst of firecrackers rang out, thick smoke billowed out, and red firecracker paper flew everywhere.
***
After lighting the New Year's firecrackers, the family returned home to have breakfast. For breakfast today, they had dumplings that they had made last night, and most importantly, they had them dipped in vinegar!
Lu Mingfei picked up some dumplings with his chopsticks, dipped them in vinegar, and put them into his mouth. Just after taking the first bite of the dumplings, he heard his mother ask him, "You ate so many dumplings last night?"
Liu Sanniang asked this question not because she didn't want the child to eat dumplings, but because she was a little surprised that the child ate so much for dinner last night, so why did she cook so many dumplings in the middle of the night?
"..." Lu Mingfei almost choked on the food in his mouth. After he slowly chewed the food and swallowed it, his mind turned and he said, "I read for a while last night and I was a little hungry in the middle of the night..." Reading is a bit brain-consuming, right?
"Oh, yes, you study hard. Mother will prepare more food for you in the future. Just eat when you are hungry." Liu Sanniang looked at her eldest son, whose face was so thin that it was pointed, and whose clothes were empty. Only then did she realize how hard her eldest son studied on weekdays, not to mention that he also helped with housework when he had some time, which made his life even harder.
No wonder her eldest son had never gained weight over the years. Only then did she realize that she had not fed her eldest son enough.
If Lu Mingfei knew what his mother was thinking at this moment, he would definitely say, "Mother, you misunderstood. It's not like that..."
This beautiful misunderstanding was planted between the mother and son.
Lu Mingfei also couldn't tell his parents that there would be guests at home in the evening, and the food he took out from the kitchen would be fed to the guests.
After the family had breakfast, they went out to pay New Year's greetings to the whole family, including the Zhang Qi brothers.
He didn't go to someone else's house to pay New Year's greetings, but to his adoptive parents' home.
The only relatives his family had in Kyoto over the years were his adoptive parents'. His adoptive parents didn't have many relatives to visit, so during the holidays, the two families would visit each other, sometimes even having meals together and celebrating the holidays. The relationship between the two families had been very good over the years.
On the morning of the first day of the new year, the two families would exchange New Year greetings. Sometimes they would come to the pancake shop, and sometimes his adoptive parents and their family would go to their house.
Hearing the knock on the door, Xu Yueniang came with her son to open the door. When she saw the person outside, she smiled and said to the person outside, "You are finally here. Our kid has been asking you when you arrived since he woke up this morning."
"younger brother!"
“Second brother!”
Lu Mingcong hugged his younger brother Lu Mingrui, and the two brothers hugged each other.
They had just met yesterday and hadn't seen each other for a whole night, but the two brothers acted as if they hadn't seen each other for a long time. Seeing this, Xu Yueniang shook her head. She took Liu Sanniang's hand and said to the others, "Please come in."
"Happy New Year, stepmother." Lu Mingfei handed over the gift in his hand.
"Happy New Year. You just come, but what else do you bring? Really." Xu Yue Niang glanced at her adopted son and Liu Sanniang and her son, then reached out to take the gift and handed it to her husband who was walking behind her.
"Happy New Year." Boss Lu took the things and invited the guests in with his wife.
Lu Youtian and Boss Lu said hello, and the two men followed the wife and the child with their things in their hands, talking as they walked, and went into the house with everyone else.
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