When they arrived at Teacher Yuan's house, her mother-in-law was cleaning fish. She greeted her mother-in-law with a "Hello, Grandma," and quickly washed her hands and took the things from Liu Yun's hands.
"Xiaoyun, why are you always so polite? Pingzi, Xiaoyun is here."
At first, she was a little unhappy about her daughter-in-law asking her son to help find jobs for the students, but she didn't say anything. However, seeing the young woman sending things over every month, and always meat, she really appreciated this kind of gratitude.
"Hello, Teacher Yuan. I'd like to wish you a happy Lunar New Year's Eve and a happy new year in advance."
"It's fine if you come to visit, you don't need to bring anything."
After having a cup of tea at Teacher Yuan's house, I made an excuse that I had to go home and left. After some back and forth, I returned with a bag full of candy and cookies. I never leave empty-handed, and they are all things that are quite rare now. These things are not meant to be taken home, so I put them directly into my space.
It was almost noon when they got home. Liu's mother was chopping meat to make snowflake balls. Snowflake balls are made by chopping meat into minced meat, shaping it into balls, and then coating it with a layer of soaked glutinous rice. This meat was a New Year's gift from Xiao Zhihua, weighing a full four and a half pounds.
Here, people generally don't eat lunch during the Lunar New Year. They eat dinner quite early, and then have another meal late at night, but that late-night meal only consists of cured meat. They get up around four or five o'clock the next morning for breakfast. Also, according to local custom, the men of the family are responsible for preparing the meals late at night and on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year.
"Mom, come and take this."
"I'll do it, I'll do it." Liu Aidang immediately went to take over as soon as he heard Liu Yun's voice.
Whether it was Liu Aidang or Liu's mother, no, it should be said that everyone in the Liu family was somewhat silent.
Liu Yun was carrying a basket in her left hand, covered with a cloth with a large bundle of chives on it, and scallions, garlic and cilantro hanging around it. In her right hand, she was dragging a burlap sack behind her, which was still moving.
There's a sack next to the bicycle downstairs; carry it up. Luckily, the Liu family lives on the second floor next to the stairs, otherwise they would be exhausted.
"What did you take?" Liu's mother hurriedly took the basket. She knew from her daughter's shopping over the past six months that there must be eggs in it. If they spilled, it would not only be a financial loss but also have a bad omen.
Liu Aidang carried the sack up and quickly closed the door, while Liu Yun lay on the chair panting. She was exhausted. She hadn't expected the radishes and cabbages to be so heavy. She had ridden her bicycle for most of the county and was sweating profusely.
"Why did you buy so much?"
"Just give me ten yuan, the rest is my New Year's gift."
Liu's mother deftly took out a ten-yuan note. Now she had a rough idea of her little girl's personality and knew that there was definitely more than just these things inside.
When Liu's mother opened the sack, sure enough, there was a big rooster, a duck, and a fat rabbit. Judging by their weight, they were worth more than ten yuan.
The other sack contained radishes, cabbage, peanuts, melon seeds, and mushrooms.
Lifting the cloth covering the basket, it was indeed full of eggs, including chicken eggs, duck eggs, and several goose eggs. It was clear that these goose eggs were for Xu Hongxing.
Although Liu Yun disliked Liu Aiguo and his wife, Xu Hongxing was pregnant with twins and about to give birth, so she couldn't bring herself to mistreat her. Now that she was on vacation, she basically didn't stay at home, for fear that she would lose her temper and cause something bad to happen. Anyway, she would bring twenty eggs back to Liu's mother every week, and Liu Yun didn't care how her mother distributed them.
Liu's mother packed her things, took the cloth from the basket and put it in the box under the bed, took out the bath basin, poured some hot water and went to Liu Aidang's room.
"Could I borrow your room for a moment?"
Although these were Liu Aidang's things, most of Liu Yun's things were also inside. After wiping the sweat off his body, he went out to help.
The fish had already been cooked and frozen yesterday, Liu's father was already killing chickens, Liu Aiguo and Liu Aidang were killing rabbits and ducks respectively, and Xu Hongxing was making dumplings. Seeing so much food, Xu Hongxing, unusually, did not show any displeasure.
Seeing this scene, Liu Yun went to wash the radishes, scallions, ginger, and garlic. Actually, Liu Yun hadn't experienced such a scene in a long time; it felt a bit unfamiliar last year, but she didn't expect to feel so comfortable with it this year.
For dinner, Liu's mother steamed a bowl of snowflake dumplings, a small plate of fried peanuts, dried green beans and vermicelli, stir-fried eggs with chives, a bowl of fish, and a bowl of pork jelly.
Mr. Liu sipped his wine, bought by his son-in-law, and munched on peanuts, thoroughly enjoying himself.
After finishing their meal, cleaning up, and washing the dishes, the three members of the Liu family busied themselves in the kitchen.
Xu Hongxing and Liu's mother started making shoes. Xu Hongxing made shoes for children, while Liu's mother made shoes that were clearly for Liu Yun's dowry.
Liu Yun was bored while sitting there. Seeing the shoes her mother was sitting on, she took out a piece of flawed yarn that she had bought some time ago without needing a ration coupon and started knitting a sweater. She had learned this from the older sister in the finance department.
The finance department is really busy when it's busy, but really idle when it's not. Everyone sits together knitting sweaters. Everyone here has one, so there's really no shortage of them. No wonder everyone wants to be a worker.
Liu Yun traded chickens and ducks with her colleagues for some yarn, and she has already knitted two sweaters. However, her family doesn't know this, otherwise they might have started arguing again.
If she hadn't seen Liu's mother making shoes for her, she probably wouldn't have thought of knitting a pair for Liu's parents.
Although feudal superstitions are now being abolished, every household still secretly practices them. A whole cooked chicken and cured meat are first used to worship ancestors and Bodhisattvas. This is an occasion that the men of the family should perform. Then, Liu's mother leads her daughter and daughter-in-law to kowtow. However, Xu Hongxing does not need to do this because she is pregnant and it is feared that it will offend the child.
The preference for sons over daughters here is actually much better. Even in the 21st century, there are still many places where men can go to worship ancestors, while women are not qualified. But whether here or in her original hometown in the 21st century, which is similar to this place, both men and women go to worship ancestors, except for pregnant women, who are said to have yin energy that will be bad for the child. Moreover, the work is all done by men, and women only need to follow behind.
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