Chapter 100 Do you prefer a girl or a boy? Chinese New Year.
It's a new year again, and this year the clan family is feeling especially festive.
Two days ago, Zong Xiao went to the town and bought a few red lanterns. They hung them up in front of their houses and courtyards.
Red is both festive and auspicious, and that’s how it should be during the Chinese New Year.
The grandmother also made new clothes for the whole family, even for Dafu.
The originally small Dafu is now half a person's height when standing up. It is really a good dog to guard the house.
The grandmother touched the dog's head, untied the rope, and took it to the kitchen.
This Chinese New Year, Yuan Gu and others are preparing food in the kitchen.
There were bones in the house, and the grandmother picked out a big one and threw it to Dafu.
Dafu got the bone and returned to his den wagging his tail.
Now that it has grown up, its nest has been moved from the house to the yard.
The nest that Zong Xiao built for it with stone bricks was big and sturdy.
When Yuan Gu saw the clan mother come in, she hurriedly asked if she needed to prepare a few more dishes.
Today they only prepared six dishes, four meat dishes, two vegetarian dishes, and a pot of dumplings.
During the Chinese New Year, dumplings are a must-eat.
"That's all. Eat this today and make new ones tomorrow," said the grandmother.
This year, the Liu family sent half a sheep. My grandmother listened to Qiu Yun and specially made a basket of dumplings stuffed with mutton.
It’s a pity that Qiu Xuan couldn’t stand the smell, so in the end she didn’t eat any of the mutton dumplings.
However, she did eat a lot of vegetarian food. After the meal, she felt a little full and called everyone to go out for a walk.
It was cold and the other people in the family didn't want to go out, so in the end only Zong Xiao stayed with her.
The two of them didn't go far, they just walked around the village.
The terrain at the foot of the mountain is good, and the villagers make a living by growing crops on the land. Qiu Xuan had long planned to buy land, but money was in short supply, and she had to buy the house, yard, and shop, so the land purchase was delayed.
The couple now stood at the edge of the field. Qiu Yu pointed and asked, "What do you think about us buying a few more acres of land next year if we make some money?"
Fields are the foundation. Without fields, there would be no food. After all, people must eat food.
"I'll ask around when the time comes, but villagers generally don't sell their land."
An acre of good farmland costs about ten taels of silver. Although it is a lot of money, ordinary people rarely sell their land unless something goes wrong.
Those cheap lands that are always sold out have poor harvests, so there is no need to buy them.
Qiu Xuan also understood this principle. She was not in a hurry and just said it.
After all, after buying the house, yard and shop, the couple now don’t even have ten taels of silver in their hands.
Most of the things we bought for the New Year this year were made by my mother and Anji.
However, the family never makes such distinctions when it comes to food and drink; it doesn’t matter who buys more and who buys less.
It was cold and windy, so the two of them returned home after a short stroll.
As soon as I entered the house, I bumped into Siqi. The child was holding a paper kite in his hand and was about to go out.
"Let's fly a kite?" Qiu Xuan couldn't help laughing when she saw a big and a small person following him.
Siqi pursed his lips and nodded.
"Aunt, do you want to fly a kite with us?" Huaixue held Shuyun's hand. The child was covered tightly with a tiger-head hat and a rabbit fur scarf, with only a pair of big round eyes showing on her face.
"Auntie won't go. You guys go play. Come back early so you don't get cold."
Huaixue smiled sweetly, turned to Siqi and said, "See, I told you you can go out."
Siqi still pursed his lips and said nothing.
Qiu Xuan didn't understand the meaning of Huai Xue's words until she returned to the house and met Yue Yang, then she understood why Huai Xue said that.
It turned out that when she asked everyone to go out together, no one wanted to go because they were too cold.
Later, Huaixue saw the kite and wanted to go out and fly it. Siqi hesitated and refused to agree, but it was only after Yueyang gave the go-ahead that the child picked up the kite and took them out.
"Is there any chance that the Four Flags will not agree?" Qiu Yu was surprised.
Although Siqi was a bought child, he is very down-to-earth. Basically, all the small things at home can be left to him, and sometimes he can also look after the children.
"I was afraid of being bumped into by you guys. Why didn't I go out when you told me to? Now I have to go out." Yueyang bent over with laughter.
Qiu Xuan was silent. She had nothing to refute!
Yes, just now when she called them to go out, no one wanted to go out, but now when she mentioned flying a kite, they were all willing to go out!
"But when did we have a kite at home? I don't remember buying one." Qiu Xuan turned her head to look at Zong Xiao, waiting for his reply.
"I didn't buy it either. I think it was my third brother who bought it." After Zong Xiao finished speaking, the couple looked at Zong Anji together.
"Neither did I! Don't look at me." Zong Anji raised his hand to prove his innocence before he could even swallow the cake in his mouth. "Please don't wrongly accuse me."
Every time something new appears at home, it is basically brought back by Zong Anji, so everyone thought so this time.
But the kite was not bought by him, could it be bought by the clan grandmother?
As she was speaking, the grandmother came in from outside carrying a plate of fried dough twists.
This thing consumes a lot of oil and sugar, so my mother-in-law usually doesn't want to make it.
It’s the New Year, and there’s going to be a new baby in the family, so the grandmother was happy and willing to let it go.
"What are you talking about? You're laughing so happily." The grandmother put the things on the table and found a place to sit down.
"Mom, did you buy the kite that Huaixue and the others are playing with?" Zong Anji asked quickly.
The clan mother waved her hand and said, "How can that be? The kite was made by Siqi himself."
"Does Siqi have this skill?"
"Of course I do. I see that kite is well made. Let them play with it if they want. There was no place to fly kites when we lived in the mountains before."
The mountains were full of trees. At that time, the villagers didn't even have land, let alone fly kites in the fields.
Now that the conditions are in place, let the children play if they want.
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After the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Zong family started to get busy again.
Many pigs were slaughtered during the Chinese New Year, and Zong Xiao went to every household to make reservations for pigs to be slaughtered.
More people know how to make that thing now, and the price is a penny higher than before, but they still buy it anyway, just to make more sausages while the weather is cold.
Once the bun shop opens after the New Year, they plan to continue selling sausage noodles.
In restaurants, sausages are also served as a side dish.
This thing is very oily and more fragrant than stir-frying with pure pork. Many people like to eat it.
Because Qiu Xuan was pregnant, she had some free time these days and didn't go out to work in the kitchen. Every day she just sat in the house with Yue Yang, drinking tea and chatting.
Sometimes she would also learn some needlework.
After all, as a mother, this is the time when she feels the most maternal love, and she also wants to make two sets of small clothes for her child.
She calculated the date and found that if the baby was full-term, it would be around August, which was the hottest time of the year.
Yueyang picked out a few pieces of soft cloth from the wooden box. They were all fine cloth sent by her parents in the past, and the material was particularly soft.
Yueyang put them on the table and let Qiuxuan choose for herself.
"Second sister-in-law, take a look and see which color you like."
"These two." Qiu Xuan pointed to the two pieces, one in goose yellow and the other in tender pink.
Yueyang looked at her with a smile, "Such a bright color is not suitable for a boy. Second sister-in-law, look at Shuyun. She looks like a little girl in that dress. People always mistake her for a girl when she goes out."
"That means our Shuyun is handsome." Qiu Xuan touched her still somewhat flat belly and said, "I like girls. If I could have a little girl as cute as Huaixue, I would be satisfied."
"Where's the second brother? What does the second brother want?"
"As for him, I've never asked him, but in his eyes, it doesn't matter whether it's a boy or a girl." Qiu Yu thought about it and she really didn't remember anything like that.
She thought it would be a good time to ask at night.
In the backyard, Zong Xiao rolled up his sleeves and worked with Zong Anji to deal with the dirty sewage.
The river has already frozen over, so we can only go to the backyard to deal with these things. There is a well here, so it is convenient to get water.
Zong Anji had long been accustomed to this strange smell. He scrubbed it expressionlessly as if he was washing clothes.
"Second brother." Zong Anji raised his eyes to look at Zong Xiao and asked with a smile, "Second brother, do you want a boy or a girl?"
"Both are good." Zong Xiao had never thought about whether to have a boy or a girl. After all, the birth of this child was quite unexpected.
The couple had never thought about this before, but they would love the child very much when she came.
"Look at what you said. This won't work. You have to choose one of the two." Zong Anji didn't let him go and insisted on getting to the bottom of it.
Zong Xiao was really annoyed by his noise. After thinking it over carefully, he said, "A daughter, like your sister-in-law, would be best."
Zong Anji chuckled twice and winked at him, saying, "Second brother, you don't know this, right? Girls take after their fathers, and sons take after their mothers. Look at Shuyun, she looks so much like Yueyang."
Zong Xiao's face darkened instantly, thinking that if his daughter was like him... he couldn't think about it anymore.
Horrible! So terrible!
At night, Zong Xiao scrubbed his body twice with soap nuts for fear that his body odor would offend Qiu Xuan.
He didn't return to the house until his whole body was covered with the fragrance of soapberries.
Qiu Xuan had already gone to bed and was a little sleepy from waiting.
Because of what Yueyang asked her during the day, Qiu Xuan had been thinking about it for several hours.
After all, she was curious too.
"Why are you taking so long to shower today?" Qiu Xuan waved at him, motioning him to sit on the edge of the bed.
Qiu Xuan took the cloth and slowly wiped his hair.
Zong Xiao's hair is black and thick, Qiu Yu is so envious.
She said to herself, "It would be nice if the child had the same hair as you."
Zong Xiao was also thinking about something. He didn't hear everything and just thought that the child should just let him do as he pleased.
He frowned slightly, feeling a little bit dissatisfied.
What's so good about his looks? When he was a kid, no kids wanted to play with him because of his face.
If it weren't for a strange coincidence, he wouldn't have been able to marry Qiu Xuan.
He turned his head and grabbed Qiu Xuan's hand.
Qiu Xuan was stunned: "What's wrong?"
Zong Xiao looked at her bright eyes, and before he could say anything, he heard Qiu Yun ask him again.
"Yueyang asked me this morning whether I wanted a son or a daughter. What about you? What do you want?"
Zong Xiao: "All good, like you is the best."
Qiu Xuan laughed and said, "Look at what you said. Is it bad for you?"
Zong Xiao couldn't lie to Qiu Yu, so he nodded, "Not good."
"What's wrong with this?" Qiu Xuan finally noticed something was wrong. She pulled Zong Xiao's shoulders and made him turn around to face her.
She asked, "Tell me the truth, why is it that you are not good?"
Zong Xiao couldn't say it, so he had to point to the scar on his face.
The scar that almost trapped him for life was still hideous.
But Qiu Xuan was used to it and no longer thought there was anything wrong with it.
Besides, the half of the face without the scar is actually very beautiful.
"It's not like a child will be born with a scar." Qiu Xuan stroked his left cheek and murmured, "Besides, in my eyes, you are the best."
He heard such words again and again, but every time he heard them from Qiu Xuan's mouth, his heart warmed.
When their love was at its peak, neither the husband nor the wife bothered about what they had just said.
After all, it is their own biological child, and it doesn't matter whether it is a boy or a girl to both of them.
They all like it.
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