PNB Chapter 144 It’s a new year again
Chapter 144 It’s a new year again
This year, the brother and sister received more generous red envelopes than in previous years, as well as a lot of new clothes, shoes, food and daily necessities for the New Year.
They were all bought by uncles from other branches of the family, as well as my aunt and godmother’s family.
After the New Year's Eve dinner, the children at home played together and stayed up all night. My cousin An Qiuxia said sourly: "It's so happy to be my third uncle's child. I hope my cousin will be reborn."
But her younger sister, An Qiuxiang, looked at her sister in confusion and said frankly, "Third sister, we are not bad either. Our parents are also very good. I think I am very happy too."
An Qiuxia was choked and didn't know how to respond. How could she say that this was the same? Compared with the cousins of the third room, they were just like the maids around the young lady.
An Dongmei, standing next to him, smiled and tried to smooth things over. "The girls in our An family are all doing well. I don't know how many girls in the team envy us."
Otherwise, if she were in other families, with her health condition, she would have died of illness long ago and would not have lived to this day.
Although her family couldn't afford high-end food or expensive clothes, she was content to have enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear and to be alive.
The younger sister-in-law also agreed, "We are living a good life. Otherwise, look at the girls in the Li family. They work at home every day and are not given food to eat. When they reach the age, they are forced to find someone with a high bride price to marry them off. This is called selling daughters."
An Qingyu was talking about Li Sanni's family. Years ago, Li Erni was married off by the old lady in their family after receiving a betrothal gift of 300 yuan.
The man worked as a butcher in a slaughterhouse. After his wife died, Li Erni was beaten black and blue not long after she got married. She returned to her parents' home crying.
But who were the Li family? They were timid outside, but bullies at home. They wouldn't care about her life or death. Furthermore, they were fawning over the new son-in-law from the slaughterhouse, hoping to get some of the money out of him so they could get a bite.
People in the village looked down on their family's behavior behind their backs, saying that it would be unlucky for a girl to be born into their family.
"Qiuxia, is Second Sister-in-law preparing to find you a boyfriend? You'd better keep your eyes open. Marrying a girl is a lifelong event."
The aunt kindly reminded An Qiuxia.
An Qiuxia lowered her head shyly and said, "It hasn't happened yet, so please don't talk nonsense, little aunt."
"I heard what my second sister-in-law said to your grandma. What's there to be embarrassed about? What kind of person do you want to find?"
An Qiuxia whispered, "You have to be able to support your family, otherwise life will be difficult in the future. You can't be uneducated, and you can't be ugly."
"Indeed it is……"
Several girls were chatting about their requirements for choosing a partner, while An Xueyan was quietly eating melon seeds on the side.
She didn't say anything. According to her observation, her cousin Qiuxia was very opinionated and it was possible that none of the people chosen by her second aunt would be successful.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, she wore a new red and green dress and had a high braid. She followed her brother, cousins and sisters to visit close relatives in the village to wish them a happy new year. Her pockets were stuffed with all kinds of snacks. An Xueyan and her siblings also visited Dr. Huang to wish him a happy new year. Dr. Huang gave them the red envelopes and food that he had prepared long ago.
Originally, I wanted to invite the old man to celebrate the New Year with me, but he disagreed, so I had to send some New Year's ingredients over and told him how to cook them.
In the new year, everyone has a happy face. In order to get a good omen, the adults are much gentler to the children. The children with pocket money go to the supply and marketing cooperative of the commune to buy firecrackers.
An Xueyan and the others also went with them. They kept eating all the way and the group of children made the road very lively.
When they arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, they saw their classmate Zhao Yang, who also saw them.
He trotted over and greeted enthusiastically: "An Honglei, An Xueyan, Happy New Year, what are you buying?"
"Happy New Year, classmate Zhao Yang." An Xueyan replied with a smile.
"Happy New Year, Zhao Yang, we are here to buy firecrackers." An Honglei explained his purpose.
"Come with me, I'll take you to find my mother."
Zhao Yang enthusiastically pulled An Honglei into the supply and marketing cooperative. There was a circle of people gathered in front of the counter, so An Xueyan gave up and followed him in.
He skillfully called to a woman behind the counter, "Mom, give me a few boxes of firecrackers. These are for my two classmates, the two who got first place in the county in the exam."
The woman inside had just sent away a shopper and was about to get angry when she heard her son asked for firecrackers. However, when she heard the words "number one in the county", she instantly became gentle and kind, and took out 5 boxes of firecrackers with a smile.
I said to my son, "Are 5 boxes enough? Does Yangyang want to buy some more?"
"That's enough, Auntie, thank you. Here is the money, please keep it." An Honglei handed over the prepared money.
Zhao Yang said with a bright smile: "Okay, if you want to buy anything, just come to Auntie and buy it. You are really polite. Go with Zhao Yang and have fun."
"Okay, bye Auntie."
"Mom, can you give me two more boxes?" Zhao Yang stretched out his hand towards his mother with a playful smile.
Zhao Yang's mother glared at her younger son, took out two more boxes and gave them to him, then took money from her pocket to make up for the loss.
"Thank you, Mom. You are such a good mother. I'm going to play." Zhao Yang took two boxes of firecrackers and went out with An Hong.
A few of them went to find a place to play with firecrackers, and then other children bought firecrackers and played with them.
I lit the firecrackers and threw them into the cracks in someone else's wall, and the firecrackers blew the cracks open a little.
"You little bastards, you blew down my yard wall. I'm going to beat your butts to pieces." The owner of the yard yelled in the yard.
"Hahaha, you can't catch it~" Some brave people outside laughed out loud.
Some people threw firecrackers into broken pots or old buckets. They also buried firecrackers in the soil, leaving only the core outside, and lit them to see if they could blow up the soil. An Xueyan also tried to light a few firecrackers.
Listening to the sound of firecrackers and the laughter of children, these were her happy childhood times.
In the evening, the brother and sister also went to the cowshed to pay New Year's greetings. Since they had no money, they used the things they had saved, and Grandma Li made delicious food for the brother and sister.
On the second day of the New Year, they did not go to the county town, but waited at home for their eldest aunt's family to come. Their eldest and second uncles were also waiting at home for their married daughters to return to their parents' home. Their fifth uncle's family went to their fifth aunt's parents' home. There were also several uncles in her grandmother's family, but her grandmother would not visit them to pay New Year's greetings until after these few days.
At 10 o'clock, the eldest aunt's family came to the house with things. As soon as the eldest aunt entered the house, she gave An Xueyan a bag of White Rabbit milk candy that she bought for the brother and sister.
I also bought pork legs, malted milk, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. for my grandparents, as well as two hairpins, one for An Qingyu and one for An Xueyan.
Her grandmother also took out all the good ingredients at home and cooked a big table of delicious dishes with her little daughter to entertain her daughter, son-in-law and their family.
An Chunyu, the eldest daughter of my uncle, and her family of four came back and brought gifts to visit my grandparents.
It is said that An Xiahua, the eldest daughter of the second uncle's family, was pregnant and did not come back. It was her son-in-law Zhao Mangui who came alone with some things and also brought a bag of sugar to sit with her grandparents. The second daughter An Pannan and her husband also came back with their necks held high and brought six large meat buns made at home for her grandparents.