Chapter 43
Time passed in the blink of an eye, and Jian Li just felt that the winter vacation was too short!
She clearly hasn't had much rest, so how come it's already the fifteenth day of the first lunar month?
Wang Mengmei opened her small restaurant. She originally thought that there wouldn't be many people inside on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. However, from the first day she opened the restaurant, it was so busy that she couldn't even move at mealtime.
On the Lantern Festival, the store was crowded with people, and Wang Mengmei was busy and sweating.
It's really strange! Why haven't we seen so many people in previous years?
Xue Ling came over to serve the dishes. After hearing this, she continued, "More and more people have moved to the city in recent years. The restaurants near my home have been open since the third day of the New Year. In fact, it's not just the restaurants, the vegetable markets are open since the fifth day of the New Year."
Life is becoming more and more convenient. Many people have many people at home and don’t want to cook by themselves, so they bring their relatives out to eat.
Clean and hygienic, saves time and effort.
Xue Ling stuck out her tongue and said, "If our store hadn't been closed, I would have planned to have my dad bring my grandma and my uncle's family to our store for dinner this year."
Xue Ling's family is a very ordinary family, and they have similar troubles as ordinary families.
My father, who couldn't tell the difference between the big family and the small family, liked to support my mother's family. They had been arguing for decades, but it didn't hurt them and was just trivial.
This year, as expected, her parents had another fight after the Chinese New Year. Xue Ling thought that she would take them out to eat next year. She would rather spend some money than have to fight at home over who cooks and who washes the dishes.
Ni Hao gained some weight after the Chinese New Year, and his face, which used to have clear outlines, became slightly rounder, making him look more easygoing.
While Xue Ling and Wang Mengmei were talking, he was just quietly cutting vegetables, though he seemed a little more dull than usual. Occasionally, when Wang Mengmei turned around, she could still see him grinning foolishly.
Wang Mengmei joked, "Are you in love?"
Ni Hao's face flushed red, and he almost cut his finger: "Not yet..."
Wang Mengmei was happy to see young people pairing up, and said with a smile: "When it's settled, you can tell me, and I'll give you a big red envelope."
Ni Hao was a good worker, and Wang Mengmei wanted to keep him, but she was afraid that he would have other ideas after getting married. So Wang Mengmei asked this question, and she also showed some goodwill.
As she was speaking, Wang Mengmei saw the corner of Xue Ling's clothes flash past the back kitchen door.
She sighed inwardly.
We are all experienced people, how can we not see that Xue Ling has some feelings for Ni Hao?
Ni Hao usually works very efficiently, and since he is the only man in the store, he takes care of all the difficult tasks. Wang Mengmei, who is already married, would only regard this diligence as "good sense", but for Xue Ling, who just graduated from school, it is normal for her to be tempted to fall in love with a big brother who doesn't act or speak like a high school boy.
If both of them had that intention, Wang Mengmei would have nothing to say, but Wang Mengmei watched coldly. Ni Hao treated Xue Ling like a little sister. Because of this, Wang Mengmei did not dare to make any comments and just pretended not to know.
Now that Ni Hao has someone he likes, Xue Ling probably has given up.
On the evening of the Lantern Festival, Jian Feng got off work early. After waiting for Wang Mengmei to finish her work, the family hurriedly closed the store and went out to watch the fireworks.
Jian Li made the same rice dumplings she had made, and held in her hand the small lantern that Jian Feng had insisted on buying for her.
It is really a lantern, without any decoration, just a simple plastic shell with a small light string inside.
They cost five bucks each.
Jian Li is about to vomit blood, so she might as well go and rob!
This thing has no technical content at all. I wonder if something that purchases for one dollar can be sold for five dollars?
“I’ll sell this next year too!”
What a mistake. She should have stocked up early. Why didn't she save a hundred dollars in one night?
Wang Mengmei tapped her on the head: "Little money-grubber."
The family of three joined the crowd. This year, Taocheng started to hold a lantern festival. Each department launched its own colored lanterns, and a large open space was marked out in front of the municipal government, waiting to set off fireworks.
Jian Li was jumping around in the crowd and could not be seen. Jian Feng rolled up his sleeves excitedly and said, "Come on, let me lift it up for you to see."
Before Jian Li could figure out what was going on, she was carried up on her father's shoulders.
Just then, the fireworks in front were lit and exploded in the sky with a whoosh.
The firelight reflected in everyone's pupils, causing adults and children to cheer.
Jian Li also thought it was weird. She had seen more beautiful fireworks in her previous life, such as the big footprints, five rings, blue fireworks, and colorful fireworks during the Olympics. But none of them were as good as the one in front of her.
The fireworks are not round, but they are beautiful.
Jian Feng held up the girl for a while and then put her down to show Wang Mengmei.
Wang Mengmei was embarrassed: "I can see it."
There are adults holding children all around, where is anyone holding their wives?
Jian Feng carried his wife on his shoulders without saying anything: "You can see it more clearly from up there!"
Wang Mengmei was lifted up, and she stood out from the crowd, her face flushed.
After the round of fireworks was over, Jian Li felt uncomfortable with the squeezing, so the family simply left.
After leaving the most crowded group of people, the three saw someone selling candied haws on the street.
Each person bought a string and followed the flow of people looking at the lanterns on the street.
After walking for a while, I saw someone selling the same small lantern as Jian Li's.
"Four dollars, four dollars!"
Jian Feng took a bite of the candied haws with a snort.
The lanterns on the roadside have various shapes, most of which are based on the Chinese zodiac signs and various auspicious patterns. Jian Li is very interested in watching them.
When I finished my walk and was about to go home, I heard someone say that there was an accident at the fireworks display.
"The firework tube fell over and the fireworks exploded into the pile of people."
"I heard that the ambulance came and took away several people!"
"The area has already been evacuated. Let everyone go home."
Wang Mengmei was still terrified when she heard this: "Luckily we left early!"
If we catch up, getting injured by the fireworks is the least of our worries. The main problem is that there are so many people, what if they get trampled on?
"Go, go, go, go home quickly."
After walking a few steps, the vendor selling lanterns started shouting.
"Three dollars each!"
Now that everyone has left, who should I sell this thing to?
It’s better to sell them at a discount as soon as possible.
After walking a few steps, another lantern seller started shouting out his wares.
"Two dollars, two dollars!"
The one diagonally opposite was even more ruthless: "One dollar and five cents!"
Jian Li comforted Jian Feng, who was obviously in a bad mood: "Look at the bright side, I only bought this one this year."
When Wang Mengmei was complaining about her past, she loved to bring up the past. The thing she talked about most was that when she was a child, she had to buy at least three lanterns every year for the Lantern Festival.
When she sees someone else with a pair of trolleys on the street, she wants to buy one too. But she always forgets about them after buying them, and they get squeezed and lost or stepped on by others, and then she wants to buy them again. If she is not allowed to buy them, she will cry loudly.
During the holidays, Wang Mengmei didn't want to punish her, so she could only buy her again and again.
Wang Mengmei was speechless when she saw how self-aware she was. "How dare you say that."
Not to mention the ones from far away, I bought two last year.
Just as they were talking about the embarrassing things that happened to Jian Li when she was a child, they heard a child crying and an adult scolding them.
"Buy, buy, buy, that's all you know how to do! Why didn't you take the things I just bought for you? You deserve it! I won't buy it!"
The child stood in front of the lantern vendor with tears in his eyes and refused to leave.
The adult scolded him and finally had to take out a dollar.
"Don't come out with me next year! It's just a waste of money!"
Jian Li looked at her mother dimly: "You said that too."
He said this every year, but he would still bring Jian Li out the next year.
Jian Li carried her little lantern back home and had a sound sleep.
The next day, Wang Mengmei woke me up early.
"Go report today, hurry up, get up and ask your dad to take you there."
As Jian Li was getting dressed, she kept grumbling like Xianglin Sao: "I'm so stupid. I thought there were still many days left in the winter vacation. I'm so stupid..."
I only finished thirty pages out of the original sixty pages of the comic. As for the winter vacation homework, I worked like crazy in the last few days to make up for it.
Jian Li made excuses for herself, saying that it was too cold in winter and there was no heating at home!
The road was icy, and Jian Feng rode his bike carefully. He took Jian Li to school, sent her to class as usual, and paid the tuition before leaving.
Xia Liu had already arrived. When Jian Li sat down, she heard Xia Liu discussing last night's fireworks explosion with the people at the back table.
"My parents and I were there. We were far away and just happened to see the firework going up along the ground and then exploded."
The person sitting at the back table exclaimed "Wow" and asked if she was injured and if someone was really taken away by the ambulance.
Xia Liu shook his head: "I wasn't injured, but it seemed that a few people were hit by the explosion and were sent to the hospital."
Later, the police came to disperse the crowd and let everyone go home.
Jian Li asked Xia Liu: "You guys went there last night too? Why didn't I see you guys?"
In previous years, Aunt Lijuan always came to visit their family.
Xia Liu: "Isn't your mother busy? So we went there first, hoping to meet you there, but we never got there."
The class gradually gathered, and most of them were discussing the fireworks explosion incident last night.
To a child of this age, experiencing this accident personally is the only major event in his ordinary life.
In the lively atmosphere, only Xu Yanan, who was sitting in the front seat, remained silent.
Compared to before the winter vacation, Xu Yanan has become thinner and more taciturn.
Xia Liu wrote on a piece of paper, "Have you heard that Xu Yanan's father lost his job?" and then pushed the notebook to Jian Li.
Jian Li took a look and nodded.
When Xu Jianguo lost his job, her father even went to persuade him.
In fact, the leaders of the cotton textile factory did not necessarily want to make Xu Jianguo look bad. After all, he was an experienced worker for many years. All they wanted was for Sun Yan not to leave the child behind in the city, and everything would be fine.
But Sun Yan was determined to register the child under her own household registration.
Jian Feng tried to persuade her, but Sun Yan refused to appreciate it and said a lot of unpleasant things.
Jian Fengqi was so powerful that Wang Mengmei heard the reason why Sun Yan did this from a guest who went to dinner.
Because the child was under the name of Xu Jianguo's eldest brother, and Xu Jianguo's eldest brother only had one daughter, Sun Yan was afraid that her son would become someone else's if left with someone else for too long, so she was anxious to take the child back.
As a result, the factory had no choice but to fire Xu Jianguo.
After Xu Jianguo was fired, it was Wang Liming who gave him a hand.
Wang Liming gave Xu Jianguo a contact number, saying that he was the contractor of a construction site in Shenzhen.
"When you get there, contact him and tell him that I introduced him."
Foreman workers in other places are also assigned to different areas of land. Some of them come from a village or a county, and they don't like to hire outsiders. Wang Liming gave Xu Jianguo a local foreman. As long as Xu Jianguo works hard, he will definitely make money.
Xu Jianguo hesitantly asked himself why he couldn't go to Wang Liming's construction site.
Wang Liming said: "I will not work on the construction site after the Chinese New Year."
Ever since he vomited after drinking with Jian Feng that day, Wang Liming went home to see his wife and daughter, and had a lot on his mind.
Working on construction sites pays, but accidents often happen. Wang Liming thought about it again and again and decided that for the sake of his family and himself, he would rather take a step back.
He thought that he would give the contractor a gift after the Chinese New Year. With the money he earned in the past few years, he planned to open his own door, window and floor store.
Compared to the big guys at the construction site, this was of course less money, but Wang Liming thought it would be better for him to settle down early and bring his wife and children over as soon as possible.
He was really worried because his family was separated by huge distances.
However, Wang Liming did not cheat Xu Jianguo. The person he introduced to Xu Jianguo was someone he knew well. With Xu Jianguo's character, he should not be bullied.
So Xu Jianguo had already boarded the train to the south before the Lantern Festival.
only……
Jian Li secretly glanced at Xu Yanan in front of her.
Xu Yanan pursed her lips, and there was now a hint of imperceptible pain in her usually firm eyes.
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