Chapter 108 Chapter 108 Xia Pingzhi is on the table with Jiang...
Xia Pingzhi was eating with Jiang Zi at the table. When she saw Xia Li come in, she glanced at her and asked, "Is today officially our day off?"
Xia Li: "Yes! Look, I brought back all the New Year benefits!" She shook the two boxes and quickly put them on the ground. Her hands were sore from carrying them all the way after getting off the car.
When Jiangzai saw his mother return with something, he couldn't eat anymore. Curious, he jumped off his chair and ran to Charlie's legs. He looked at the two boxes on the ground and asked, "Mom, what's in these?"
Charlie bent down and reached out to scratch his nose. "What is it? Do you want to guess?"
Jiang Zai shook his head. He didn't know what was inside, so Xia Li let him open it himself. She then casually placed her bag on the sofa in the living room, washed her hands, and sat down at the dining table.
I'm really hungry.
She poured herself a bowl of rice and said, "It gets dark so early, but it's a holiday now, so it doesn't really matter. I can finally rest for a few days."
Xia Pingzhi looked at the children surrounding the two boxes and asked, "What did you get? Boxes and boxes? Are they all the same at the factory?"
Xia Li groaned, "How could that be possible? The leaders have theirs, we have ours, and ordinary workers don't have any. They just got an extra week's salary for the New Year, which is already pretty good."
When she was still an ordinary worker, what did the factory give her? Nothing at all. She just wished she could have an early holiday for the Lunar New Year. Others thought the same thing. They still had to buy train tickets to go home, which was even more difficult than she had imagined.
After seeing the child, Xia Pingzhi poured her a bowl of hot soup, placed it in front of her, and told her, "Drink some soup first to warm yourself up."
Xia Li took a few mouthfuls of rice, then picked up the bowl and drank slowly without a spoon. As the hot soup entered her stomach, it instantly moisturized her internal organs, making her feel extremely comfortable. While eating, she saw her son coming over with a pair of scissors, his eyes seemed to ask her if he could. Xia Li laughed and nodded, "Go ahead!" She had brought it all the way back and really didn't want to care about it anymore. If the child wanted to open it and take a look, then let him open it. How to open it depends on his ability. She probably knew what was inside. After all, she was from the factory office. Although she didn't pay attention to such things, she would have found out if she was more careful in her daily life.
After getting his mother's consent, Jiangzai squatted on the ground with a pair of scissors and started tinkering with it to see where to start.
Auntie, however, didn't even eat her meal. She stared at him intently, even complaining to Charlie, "Is it fun for a child to use scissors? You let him open the box by himself?"
Xia Pingzhi's tone was filled with disapproval, but Xia Li smiled. She had a different opinion: "Aunt, if it were any other child, I might not let him do this, like An Nan, but our Jiangzai has been a steady child since he was young. Don't worry! It's okay!"
"By the way, is he not going to eat anymore? Jiangzai, are you full?" Xia Li asked her son who was squatting at the door.
There was still half a bowl of soup in his small bowl on the table, so Charlie asked this question.
When Jiangzai heard his mother calling him, he turned his head and nodded, then quickly turned away again.
But her aunt said to Charlie, "It's okay, he's full. I told him not to drink anymore. It's not good for children to eat too much."
Holding the small pair of scissors in his hand, Jiangzai finally cut the tape on the box, which took him a lot of effort. When he opened it, he found something inside that he didn't recognize. Jiangzai pulled out a piece of string and looked at his mother in confusion.
Xia Li turned her head while eating, and when she saw him like this, she almost laughed out loud. After quickly swallowing her food, she smiled and said to Jiang Zai, "The food is in the other box. You opened the wrong one. Open that one and try it."
Jiang Zai asked, "Mom, what is this?"
"Ah, this is a hair dryer. It's for mom and aunt to use, but not for little boys like you."
Xia Pingzhi had seen this item in department stores but had never thought of buying it. Seeing Xia Li bring one back this time, she asked her niece, "Are you giving this as a New Year's gift? It must be quite valuable. I think it costs at least a hundred yuan in the supermarket."
Xia Li smiled and nodded. "Yeah! It's not cheap, but our factory also produces this. This is our factory product. I heard that during the Chinese New Year before, they just distributed some kind of food, which was not interesting at all. So, I mentioned it to our factory director one time, and I didn't expect him to actually agree."
"Your factory director is a really nice person!" Xia Pingzhi felt that such a generous factory director must be doing a good job.
Jiang Zai squatted on the ground and watched. He didn't understand why his mother and aunt could use this thing, but he couldn't. As his little hands touched it, a seed of curiosity was planted in his heart.
The remaining box contained individually wrapped pastries. After unwrapping them, the three of them tasted them and found them to be substantial. Xia Pingzhi suggested that if she got hungry later, she could try some of these first, and they would help her feel less hungry. So, she placed them in the living room.
After dinner, Xia Li took the hair dryer to the bathroom. She had a good shower and washed her hair today, then tried out the hair dryer. Her hair was quite thick and long, and washing it in the winter and then waiting for it to dry was a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Xia Li found the hair dryer quite useful. She had seen similar products for sale before and was thinking of buying one to try.
It was fine. Charlie lowered her head, pulled all her hair forward, and bent over to blow dry it. The hair dryer had two settings: the first was slightly warm, the second was even warmer. Since it was cold, Charlie went straight to the second setting; it was just right, and it dried her hair faster. To help it dry faster, she kept fanning her hair.
Xia Pingzhi walked to the door of the bathroom and heard a buzzing sound coming from inside. At first she wondered what the sound was, and it took her a few seconds to react.
After a while, Charlie came out in her pajamas with her hair loose. Jiang Zai heard the noise outside and quickly came out of his room, looking up at Charlie curiously.
As she walked, Charlie looked at him questioningly. Why was he following her? She walked to the living room sofa and sat down, then picked up the remote and turned on the TV. There weren't many good channels on TV at the moment, so she randomly picked one that interested her.
"Come here, son!" Xia Li patted the sofa next to her and called Jiang Zai over.
Jiangzai walked over obediently and sat next to his mother. He still looked at his mother curiously, but when he saw that there was nothing different, he couldn't help asking, "Mom, how do you use that thing?" He couldn't figure it out.
Charlie didn't expect him to still be thinking about this. She looked up from the TV screen, leaning against him and ruffling his soft hair. "Did Mom forget to tell you that the machine just now is for blow-drying hair? Because Mom and I have long hair, it dries quickly." However, after seeing her son's somewhat disappointed look, she understood that boys his age didn't have the ridiculous ideas of adult men. "I don't use this kind of thing for women." Jiang Zai's eyes told Charlie that he wanted to try it, too.
So Xia Li promised, "Next time after you take a shower, Mom will help you blow dry your hair, okay?" She asked the child with a smile.
Jiang Zai nodded happily.
"Do you want to watch TV with Mom for a while?"
"Yeah!" Jiang Zai sat down next to his mother, a little closer. Xia Li immediately picked him up and held him in her arms. The picture of the mother and son snuggling together was so warm.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon. The family of three doesn't need to prepare too much New Year's goods, but there are many kinds. So Xia Pingzhi told Xia Li not to sleep in on the first day of the holiday, but to start working right away.
Xia Pingzhi made a list, including pork hind legs, spare ribs, whole chickens and geese, dried dates, kelp, mushrooms, and so on. Peanuts, melon seeds, and candies were also indispensable. Every family had to prepare a plate of them, as well as fruit snacks, otherwise they would really neglect the guests.
Today, Xia Li brought Jiang Zai with her, pulling a small cart, and followed behind her aunt. They were at a market, bustling with activity and people, all busy picking and choosing, no one holding anything empty-handed. At this time of year, even the most frugal families would spend some money and put in some effort to celebrate the New Year with great fanfare.
Jiang Zai followed Xia Li, holding her hand tightly. Xia Li also put half of her thoughts on him. Even though they were still holding hands, she would look at him from time to time. When they arrived at the market, her aunt stopped and told her to take good care of the child.
There's really no other way. If I go shopping alone, I can't buy much, and I can't carry much either. But I can't leave the child alone at home either. If something happens, the adults won't be around, and it'll be too late to regret. So, there's no other choice but to bring the child with me, and spend a little more time with him.
Jiang Zai was holding a bag of candy, which he had bought at the candy stand at the door. The owner had arranged the candies in baskets on a board, each categorized by price. These were priced at a certain price per pound, and those were priced at a certain price per pound. They were all different. If you wanted the expensive ones, you could buy the expensive ones. If you didn't want to spend money, you could buy the cheaper ones.
What child doesn't like candy? Even the rich and powerful love it, so who doesn't? Their family wasn't wealthy, but they had enough to eat and drink. Since it was Chinese New Year, Xia Li let Jiangzai pick out some of his favorite treats and bought a few extra just in case any of the other kids came over for the Spring Festival.
Jiangzai chose candies based on color and shape, and picked whichever one looked good. Xia Li had no objection, but later she picked out some chocolate candies, milk candies, and her aunt's favorite winter melon candies and lobster cakes to add to the mix.
These things were naturally carried by Jiang Zai.
Now they were following behind, and the aunt saw a stall selling dried shrimps up ahead. She saw that the quality was good and the price was acceptable, so she picked out two pounds and called out to Xia Li behind them, "Xia Li, hurry up and bring the children over here!"
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