When it was almost twelve o'clock, firecrackers were heard outside. Zhou Huaian and his brothers stopped playing cards and took out all the firecrackers and fireworks sticks in the house, "Brother and sister-in-law, let's set off the firecrackers."
Yang Chunyan and Li Qiuyue were worried that the sound of firecrackers would scare the children, so they hurried to the main room and picked up Jiuer and Xiaolong who were sleeping in their cribs.
Zhou's mother went upstairs and said to the children, "Wake up, your father has started setting off firecrackers."
Several children jumped up, followed Zhou's mother downstairs with flashlights, and ran out to the yard while shouting "Let's watch the fireworks!"
Brother Zhou Huaian just lit a row of firework sticks and sky rockets inserted at the edge of the ditch, and "bang bang bang" beautiful fireworks of all colors suddenly bloomed in the dark night sky.
After the firecrackers were set off, Zhou's father took the lead and led everyone to wish the old man a happy new year. The old man waved to the children and said, "Come here."
The children all stood in front of him, "Grandpa."
The old man took out a stack of red paper bags and said to the children, "You are one year older now. You should think before doing anything and don't go to places you shouldn't go."
There wasn't much money in it, just RMB 1.2 per child. It was New Year's gift, and it was given to the children to ward off evil spirits and to calm their nerves. It also hoped that the children would be safe and sound in the new year.
The New Year’s money is only kept under the child’s pillow for one night and ends up in the adult’s pocket early the next morning.
"Got it!" Zhou Jiaming looked at the New Year's money he handed over, then turned to look at Zhao Huifang, "My mom said that I can't take the New Year's money this year. I have to compensate my dad for the fishing net."
The corners of Zhao Huifang's mouth twitched, "Just take what the ancestor gives you."
Zhang Xiuxiang also nodded, and several children took it happily, "Thank you, ancestor! May you live 100 years old!" Then they knelt down and kowtowed several times.
Zhou Huaian also held Xiao Jiuer and kowtowed to the old man several times.
After wishing the old man a happy new year, Zhou's father and mother sat on chairs. Zhou Huairong's brothers, with their wives and children, kowtowed to the two elders and wished them a happy new year. The children also received lucky money.
Then it was the children's turn to greet their parents, uncles, and aunts. After a round of greetings, little Jiuer's little pocket was filled with red envelopes.
Before going to bed, Yang Chunyan put all the red envelopes under her son's pillow. She got up early on the first day of the new year, took out the red envelopes and packed them separately, intending to give them to the child to take care of himself when he grows up.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the old man took his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the cemetery to worship their ancestors.
On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian returned to her parents' home with their children and New Year gifts. When they arrived at the Yangjiaping intersection, they saw a few boys, who were as tanned as loaches, crowded on the edge of a field, sticking firecrackers into a pile of cow dung and lighting them, causing the dung to explode all over the ground.
A few boys clapped their hands and laughed at the cow dung all over the ground.
Zhou Huaian looked at it and laughed, "Yan'er, Ding Dingmao and I did the same when we were kids."
Yang Chunyan rolled her eyes at him, "You don't mind the dirt!"
Zhou Huaian chuckled, "Erchun is even more disgusting. He threw firecrackers into the toilet of his neighbor's house, splashing shit all over his butt."
Yang Chunyan: “…”
When the three of them arrived at Yang's house, they learned that Yang Dongmei had gone to the town to pick up Wang Zhen. Yang Weiguo and his wife had not returned to her parents' home yet and were waiting for them at home.
Dashuang and Xiaoshuang, who were dressed identically, held the little frog and said, "Brother Jiuer, let's play with the little frog."
Yang Chunyan pointed at Dashuang and Xiaoshuang and said, "Jiuer, call me big cousin and little cousin."
"Pot..." Xiao Jiuer looked at the two identical cousins curiously, turned her head shyly and hugged Yang Chunyan's neck.
"Come here, Xiaoyao, let grandpa take you to see the big fish!" Father Yang took Xiaojiuer with a smile, and took his grandson and granddaughter to the fish pond to see the fish.
When Yang's mother saw the things in the backpack, she complained a few more times, saying that they shouldn't spend money indiscriminately and buy so many things. Although she complained, the smile on her face never disappeared.
Yang Weiguo happily called Zhou Huaian to the main room, took out the account book and a passbook and put them on the table, "Look at the account book first, the money is all in the passbook."
Zhou Huaian casually flipped through it, picked up the passbook, opened it and saw that there were more than 70,000 deposited in it. He thought that he only had two more acquisition points than him, and the dividend was still 40%, which was more than three times his.
"Brother, that's not bad. Even with the competition between the two families, it still exceeds last year."
"We are much worse than you." Yang Weiguo sighed, "We have already had a lot of supplies from Hengshan taken away by them. Who would have thought that they would come to Pulin Town to steal my supplies? If you hadn't sent me a letter asking me to set up a new point there, I might not even be able to catch up with last year."
He paused and said, "Next year, I plan to focus on buying red mushrooms there. I will still keep two purchasing points here and let my mother and father look after them. I can't leave the supply to them."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Yes, there are more red mushrooms over there than here, so it's right to focus on that side."
Seeing his support, Yang Weiguo added, "But red mushrooms are not like truffles. I am worried that the road is too long and the road conditions are not good. The red mushrooms can't stand the bumps. Also, the weather is too hot and the mushrooms will soon explode if they are kept in the basket."
Zhou Huaian thought for a while and said, "Brother, I think you can look in the town near the village and buy a piece of land to build a drying house. After drying the dried goods there, you can directly bring them back to Ning'an."
Yang Weiguo was delighted after hearing this, "Yes! Why didn't I think of buying land in the town to build a house." Then he looked at him with admiration, "Huai'an, you are really quick-witted."
It's so rare, and there's also a day when I see you admire me.
Zhou Huaian was thinking one thing in his mind, but he said it very modestly, "No, brother, I just didn't think of it for a moment."
In the kitchen, Yang Chunyan helped to light the fire, and Yang's mother cooked poached eggs for Zhou Huaian. Just as the eggs were put into the pot, Wang Zhen rode his bicycle into the yard with Yang Dongmei.
Zhou Huaian and Yang Weiguo greeted them with a smile, "When did you arrive?"
"I arrived this morning." Wang Zhen smiled as he took the bag off the handlebars and handed it to Yang's mother, who was all smiles. "Mom, this is a holiday gift from my dad and grandpa."
Mother Yang scolded, "You always come with a lot of bags, why are you being so polite?"
Zhou Huaian felt that his mother-in-law was like this every time. As long as they brought things with them, she would feel bad and would rather they came home empty-handed to move things.
The three of them sat down in the main hall, and Yang Weiguo asked Wang Zhen, "Will the construction of the old house start after the first month of the lunar year?"
Wang Zhen: "Yes! The shop next to the hotel has been almost completed. The clinic will be moved there after the first month of the lunar year, and the construction will begin on North Street."
Yang Weiguo: "What about the things in your store?"
Wang Zhen: "There is nothing in the store right now. The store is closed during the first month of the year."
Yang Weiguo looked at him in surprise, "So many things are sold out?"
Wang Zhen smiled and said, "The large electrical appliances were sold out on the 28th, and there are still more than a dozen companies that have ordered televisions that won't be available until after the New Year." He didn't expect the purchasing power to be so strong, and everyone was scrambling to buy televisions that cost only a few hundred yuan.
Radios, tape recorders and some small electrical appliances, not to mention watches, are usually very popular.
Yang Weiguo was very excited after hearing this. If he wasn't busy selling mountain products twice a year, he would have wanted to open a shop in the town.
"It's time for fried eggs." Zhou Huaian and Wang Zhen smiled bitterly at the fried eggs held by Yang Chunyan and her sister, "Would you like some, too, brother?"
Yang Weiguo looked at the fried egg in the two-dou bowl and said with a smile: "This is for my son-in-law to eat, so I'll let it go."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "There will be four this time. You two should finish the eggs and leave the soup."
Zhou Huaian and the other man then picked up their spoons and started eating. Before they had finished the two eggs, they heard someone outside shouting, "Doctor Yang, help, help!"
Several people hurried out and saw a woman with short hair cut to her shoulders with tears on her face and a middle-aged man holding a child entering the yard breathlessly.
Yang Dongmei saw the child's hand was dripping with blood, so she hurried forward and asked, "Mrs. Xu, what happened to Xiaobing?"
"I was blown up by the electric cannon. One of my fingers was blown off." Mrs. Xu started crying as she spoke, "Wu...Wu..."
"Hurry and carry the child to this room." Yang Dongmei hurriedly opened the clinic next door and asked Xu Lao Da to put the child on the crib. Wang Zhen stepped forward, unwrapped the package on the child's hand, checked the white cloth that had been stained with blood, and examined the injury.
The injuries on the child's left middle finger and index finger were particularly serious.
The skin on the palm, index finger and middle finger was blown away by the firecrackers. The flesh around the index finger nail was blown away, exposing the bone, which was still bleeding.
"Xiaomei, give me the silver needle, I'm going to clean the wound." Wang Zhen then asked Boss Xu, "How did the child get injured? How long has he been injured?"
Boss Xu said in a low voice: "My home is at the entrance of the village. The child was injured for a few minutes. The soldier and several other children secretly bought "sky-shaking" and "lightning cannons" with their New Year's money and set them off outside the yard.
After the soldier lit the fuse of the firecracker, he waited for a while and saw that the firecracker did not explode, so he went forward to pick up the firecracker to check, and the firecracker exploded in his hand. The child immediately rolled on the ground holding his hand in pain.
A few kids were so scared that they ran back to call us, and when we got there we saw blood all over the floor. The family quickly found a piece of white cloth to wrap him up and brought him here.”
The couple looked at Wang Zhen with concern, "Doctor Wang, is the child's bone broken? Will he be disabled?"
Everyone nearby knows that Dr. Yang’s youngest daughter is not only a doctor herself, but her fiancé is also the grandson of Dr. Wang from Ning’an City.
Wang Zhen: "Once I stop the bleeding, I'll check and you'll know."
"The needle is here!" Yang Dongmei handed the opened box of silver needles to Wang Zhen. He picked up a silver needle and inserted it into the acupuncture point. The bleeding slowly stopped.
Yang Dongmei took saline solution, hydrogen peroxide and iodine from the cabinet and mixed them according to the proportions. Wang Zhen asked Xu Lao Da to hold the child and use the bottle to wash the child's wound.
While washing, he said to Boss Xu, "You are right to bandage him with white cloth. If you use paper, the blood will soak the paper and the paper scraps will stick to the skin, which is not good for the injury.
Also, if you had used a rubber band or a piece of cloth to tie the area above the bleeding, the wound would not have continued to bleed."
Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian felt that Wang Zhen was trying to teach Mr. Xu and his wife how to deal with such a situation in the future. (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com