Chapter 62 Chapter 62 I'll wait for you
Since the house was renovated, Miao Ying's family has rarely been so lively. Almost everyone in the village has come to their place. There are so many people that Miao Ying doesn't want to take out anything to entertain them. If he really wants to take out anything, all his New Year's goods will have to be eaten up.
So Miao Ying could only boil water. Water was free anyway, and the firewood was picked up by Huo Xing, so it only took effort and no money.
Fu Lingzhi was very demanding at the beginning, but by the end his hands were a little sore and his handwriting was a little deformed, but no one said it was bad, so he just kept writing.
Until dark, Fu Lingzhi felt that his hands were not his own, and his hands were shaking when he held the chopsticks while eating.
The food was not very good. There was only one meat dish for each person at the table, and the rest were potatoes, radishes, and cabbages. Winter was coming, and these were the only vegetables left in the fields.
After finishing their meal, Miao Ying and Fu Lingzhi returned to their room. Miao Ying helped Fu Lingzhi squeeze his hands and asked, "How are you? Are you tired?"
Fu Lingzhi was indeed exhausted, but he was also very happy. He had earned money with his own hands. When he emptied the copper coins from his heavy purse and counted them one by one, there were about a hundred coins, a sum he had never considered important before.
"That's how our life is," Miao Ying said, sitting next to him. "We earn money to make a living, then we eat a good meal and buy some cloth to make clothes. Then we spend it all, then we earn more money, then buy something for the family, then earn more money again. The cycle repeats itself endlessly."
Fu Lingzhi looked at him.
Miao Ying smiled and said, "If you want, you can make money with us."
In the past, Miao Ying made money thanks to Fu Lingzhi, and now Fu Lingzhi also makes money because of Miao Ying. It is said that relationships linked by interests are not solid, but he and Miao Ying are different. They met because of money, and later Fu Lingzhi saved his life. He thinks he should be friends with Miao Ying for life.
Fu Lingzhi packed the money and wanted to hand the purse to Miao Ying, but Miao Ying shook his head: "This is the money you earned yourself, keep it for yourself."
Huo Xing waited for Miao Ying to return to the room, and he leaned against the bed to wait for him. Miao Ying took off his clothes and got into the bed. The bed had been warmed by Huo Xing, and it felt warm as soon as he lay in it.
It’s so nice to have someone to warm the bed. Miao Ying turned over comfortably.
They would chat every night before going to bed, talking about what had happened in the past few days. Thinking of Fu Lingzhi, Miao Ying propped himself up and said, "I always feel that I am not being very upright."
Saving Fu Lingzhi was an accident. On the one hand, he kept him because he had nowhere else to go, and on the other hand, he had other things on his mind. He still wanted to cooperate with the Fu family.
After all, Fu Lingzhi grew up in the Fu family. Now the head of the Fu family is Fu Lingzhi's elder brother Fu Lingyou. I don't know if I can get to know Fu Lingyou through Fu Lingzhi.
"You can tell him the truth." Huo Xing put his arm around his shoulders. "After he's seen it and integrated into our lives, he'll know that what you did was not wrong."
Miao Ying hummed. He was a little sleepy. He had been listening to gossip all afternoon, and his head was buzzing. Before going to sleep, he thought of something else: "Tomorrow I have to ask Lingzhi to write a pair of Spring Festival couplets for the house. Xiaobao will write the ones to hang in his room, and Lingzhi will write the ones outside."
Huo Xing hummed.
"Go check tomorrow to see if the rapeseed is about to bloom..."
"I went to check it out today, and there are already small buds."
"I..." Before he could finish his words, sleepiness swept over his body and Miao Ying fell asleep again.
The next day was Chinese New Year. The sound of firecrackers could be heard continuously on the mountain since morning. Miao Ying took out his clothes from under the quilt and put them on. Outside the house, the sound of Huo Xiaobao reading could be heard.
After he got up and washed, Fu Lingzhi also left the room and asked Miao Ying, "Is there anything I can do?"
Miao Ying nodded: "Yesterday I only wrote Spring Festival couplets for the villagers. We haven't written any for our family yet. You and Xiaobao can write a few and hang them up."
Today is New Year's Eve, and everyone in the family is busy with their own things. Huo Xing and Xiao Mu had already left home. They were going to visit the grave of Carpenter Yao today, so they left home very early.
Grandmother and Li Hongying didn't need to go out. They could just wait for Huo Xing to come back and worship in the yard.
While they were waiting for Huo Xing to come back, Fu Lingzhi had also finished writing the Spring Festival couplets. Grandmother got up early in the morning and prepared the paste. Several people discussed how to paste the Spring Festival couplets. Huo Xiaobao was giving blind instructions from below. Miao Ying climbed up and down several times, and finally couldn't help but spanked Huo Xiaobao.
When Huo Xing came back, the house was completely new.
Spring Festival couplets were posted on the front door. The yard was spotlessly clean. There were Spring Festival couplets posted on the door of each room, but the handwriting was different. The handwriting in the room where the two children slept was childish.
After Huo Xing came back, they set up a simple altar in the yard and placed several tablets on it.
Miao Ying watched his grandmother take out the tablet from the room and said, "Sometime, we'll build a shrine in the main hall, and then we can place the tablets for grandfather and two uncles there."
Grandma nodded. They had originally intended to do so, but things kept coming up and they didn't remember it until today.
There is nothing special about their sacrifices. They just light incense and candles, burn paper money, and the younger generations come up and kowtow, and that's it.
But when all the paper money in the basin had burned out, my grandmother threw some more in and said, "I wonder if you have met him. If you have, please give him some."
Everyone in the yard was silent. Fu Lingzhi was not there. He took the steamed buns and corn bread and took Youyou to the back of the mountain to get some fresh air. In the past, when he was at the Fu family, he had never entered the ancestral hall because of his brother's status. He was always left in the room during the sacrifices.
The daytime hours in winter are short. They ate a few bites of food quickly at noon and then began to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner.
On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, every family will stay together and chat about family matters.
They also made a small stove at home, which was filled with charcoal fire and on which they roasted some peanuts and chestnuts. There were also some snacks on the small table on the other side.
Knowing that Fu Lingzhi was at home, Huo Xing wanted to avoid suspicion, so Miao Ying called him to the kitchen to help him, leaving his grandmother, mother and two children outside.
The New Year's Eve dinner was more sumptuous than last year. There were two plates of bacon and sausage alone, and a big pork elbow that was stewed until it was mushy. The thick soup poured over it made it melt without chewing.
The two vegetarian dishes were also stir-fried with rapeseed oil, and the aroma of the oil could be smelled from a long distance away.
The soup is bone soup. The soup made from pickled bones is snow-white. The radish in it has absorbed the soup and is full of fresh fragrance.
Last year they spent the Spring Festival in the kitchen of a small rented house, but this year they have a big house that everyone in the village envies.
The dining table was placed in the main hall. Grandmother and mother sat at the top seats. The remaining Miao Ying sat next to Fu Lingzhi. Huo Xiaobao and Xiao Mu sat together. Huo Xing sat alone. It was quite harmonious.
There was wine on the table, and everyone had a wine glass in front of them, except for the children. It's the end of the year, so it's okay to have a drink.
This was the first time that Fu Lingzhi celebrated the New Year like this. There were no endless rituals or endless lectures. It seemed like this was how the New Year should be celebrated.
After their grandmother started eating, they all started eating. Fu Lingzhi only recently realized that Miao Ying’s cooking was actually very delicious, especially the thing called sausage, which he had never eaten before.
Li Hongying didn't want to ignore him either, so she kept picking up food for him using a serving chopstick. Fu Lingzhi saw the thoughtfulness of their family, and his eyes began to sore again.
The two children ate even happier because they knew what they liked without the adults helping them with food.
The adults all drank a few glasses. Miao Ying felt that the alcohol was not very strong, so he drank a little more. Huo Xing did not stop him. It was the New Year after all, and everyone should just be happy.
When the New Year's Eve dinner was almost over, grandma and mother took out red envelopes. Since there were two little children in the family, they naturally had to give them lucky money, but unexpectedly, they also gave one to Fu Lingzhi, who felt a little embarrassed to take it.
Then I heard Li Hongying say, "In our family, all unmarried children get lucky money, but Ah Xing and Xiao Ying don't. It's not much, just a token of my appreciation."
Fu Lingzhi was nervous, but he accepted it anyway. In the past, at home, they no longer received lucky money after they turned ten, but his eldest brother would secretly give it to him every year, which made him feel that he had not grown up yet.
Thinking of his elder brother, the corners of Fu Lingzhi's mouth, which had been curved all day, drooped again, and he drank a few more glasses of wine.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, the two children were so sleepy that they yawned. The grandmother and mother each made a wash for one of them, and asked them to wash their faces and feet thoroughly before sending them back to their rooms to sleep. Then the grandmother reminded the three younger ones to wash their feet thoroughly as well.
Miao Ying was puzzled and asked Huo Xing why he had to wash his feet thoroughly on New Year's Eve.
Huo Xing said, "It's because my grandmother said that if you wash your feet on New Year's Eve, everyone in your family will get a bite of meat."
Miao Ying laughed. He was a little drunk and looked at Huo Xing with hazy eyes: "Then hurry up and wash your feet."
Their family no longer lacked basins; Huo Xing had made several. Fu Lingzhi also brought a basin and water back to the room to wash his feet.
Huo Xing fetched water for Miao Ying to wash her feet. Miao Ying had taken off her shoes and socks early in the morning and was sitting on the edge of the bed with her feet up, waiting for Huo Xing.
Huo Xing squatted down and put his feet into the water. He touched Miao Ying's feet. Maybe because he wore poor shoes and socks, a layer of calluses had formed next to his little toe, which did not match his fair skin.
"What are you touching?" Miao Ying moved his feet, lifted up his wet feet, and stepped on Huo Xing's chest, leaving a trail of water marks.
Huo Xing held his feet, pulled them to his mouth and kissed them.
Miao Ying was drunk and didn't think there was anything wrong with this action. He stepped on Huo Xing's chest with his other foot, neither lightly nor heavily. Huo Xing's breathing became heavier, and the hand holding Miao Ying's ankle tightened.
Miao Ying's feet broke free from his hands, but he did not leave, and put his hands on Huo Xing's shoulders again. His feet swung around, and a touch of white looked like
Huo Xing couldn't bear it any longer, so he pressed Miao Ying down and kissed him on the mouth.
Miao Ying drank the wine, but he didn't smell of alcohol. Huo Xing felt that he was fragrant from head to toe. He showered Miao Ying with kisses on his face and neck. When he was stripping Miao Ying of his clothes, Miao Ying held his hand.
Huo Xing's eyes were filled with suppressed anger, but Miao Ying smiled, sat up, and pushed him away: "Grandma said that I have to wash my feet well tonight, otherwise I won't be able to eat meat in the future."
His eyes were red and moving, with a hazy look of drunkenness, and the cunning in his eyes could not be hidden: "I'll wait for you."
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