Yesterday the sun was shining and the sky was blue, but the next day there were snowflakes. Fortunately, there are roads in and out of Yangjiacun. In other villages, it is estimated that after the new year, they will have to leave relatives as soon as possible before the cold melts, otherwise they will definitely have muddy feet later.
They didn't drink at Yang's house last night. Yang Ma and Zhou Ya had already prepared the dishes for stir-fry. As a result, the general called for someone and took Yang Dongxu away, so he had to bring a bottle of good wine to the general's house for a drink.
I drank a little too much and my head was foggy. But after washing my face and drinking a bowl of millet porridge, I felt completely refreshed. While there was still snow on the road, we quickly went to the farmhouse to pick up the three old men.
Because the snow seemed to be getting heavier and heavier, I rushed back without having lunch at the farmhouse.
"Why are you bringing so many things back? There are so many things at home and you can't finish them all." Seeing Yang Dongxu start to move things from the trunk of the car, Yang's mother scolded and handed Xiao Wenchen in her arms to Zhou Ya Wanted to come over and help.
"Just hold it, Mom. I'll move it." Zhou Ya pushed her son back and helped Yang Dongxu move things.
"Xiao Cheng said that he would only do business for one day, but there was a heavy snowfall and there were not many customers. We will not open until the sixth day of the Lunar New Year after the new year. Some of the dishes were wilted and difficult to serve. I will definitely buy fresh ones after the new year, so I asked Pulled some back.
It’s not just me. When I went there, he was piling some dishes for the chefs and waiters to take back. Yang Dongxu said while moving things.
Most of them are fresh vegetables, freshly bought and prepared for today's business. Now that I don't need it, I asked my brother-in-law to bring some back. In addition to vegetables, there are also some fish and a few turtles.
The Yang family owns a pig farm, and the eldest sister Hongying is worried that there will be no meat at home. It was difficult to deliver fresh meat, and I had never heard of any kind of bacon being cured all year round, so there was no shortage of meat here in the Yang family, so they sent fish and soft-shell turtles.
"The color of this turtle's shell is quite heavy, but it's different from the wild ones. Those turtles sold on the street look like they are farmed, and their shells look soft." Although Yang's mother complained, she was still a little happy in her heart. After all, parents don’t care what their children give them. But filial piety will make them happy.
"The one you are looking at is indeed wild. It was caught in the reservoir two days ago and has not been fed. The other ones are all farmed, but because the water area of the reservoir is relatively large.
And they don't feed much food. They just put in small miscellaneous fish as bait. It is indeed better than other intensively cultured soft-shelled turtles. Not to mention other things, it is more energetic than others in terms of activity. Yang Dongxu said with a smile.
"Then I'll clean this one up tonight and make soup for the old man to drink."
"We are all old, what can we do? Don't put anything in the stew for a while, let Xiao Wenchen drink it. It is the time when the child is growing up." Old man Xuan wanted to help, but Yang Dongxu refused. So he glanced at Yang Dongxu angrily, then turned around and reached out to tease Xiao Wenchen with a doting smile.
Such differential treatment made Yang Dongxu just roll his eyes.
Besides, as long as children aged two or three years old have balanced nutrition, will they be able to grow taller?
Don’t you have to wait until you are half-grown to live in poverty before you need to keep up with nutrition to grow taller?
"By the way, old man, please check the pulse of a cousin of mine and his wife in a moment." Yang Dongxu turned to Mr. Sun and said.
When a boyfriend and girlfriend get together and don't want to get married, the biggest fear is getting pregnant. But if you want to get married, what you want most is to get pregnant immediately.
It has been almost two months since Zhang Jing packed up her luggage and moved into the general's house. Both of them wanted to have a child as soon as possible. Yesterday when I was drinking, I drank a lot and talked about how I wanted to have children. No matter what happens if a man and a woman really fall in love in the future.
"Okay, got it." Mr. Sun responded.
On New Year's Eve, we get up in the morning and put the children into new clothes. In the morning, they start making paste and pasting couplets. At noon, they cook a big pot of meat and bones. This is lunch.
When it gets dark in the afternoon, people from one sect gather together, bring paper and cannons, and begin to visit the graves of their ancestors in the cemeteries around the village.
I had heard before that a cemetery would be built in Yangjia Village. From now on, all elderly people who die will be buried in the planned cemetery. And the old cemetery will also be moved there.
Many people did not agree because they did not want to touch the graves of the older generation, so the cemetery planning was not completed. So when the old man passes away, he still invites Mr. Yin and Yang to come over and see where the land is suitable for burial.
Therefore, there are many cemeteries around the village, and every time at the end of the year, ancestor worship is held. Basically, we go around the village in a big circle before coming back.
After the ancestor worship, Yang Ma, Zhou Ya, Cui Ma, and the aunt who came to help had almost prepared the New Year's Eve dinner. My grandparents were called over, as well as my uncle and his family.
This has been the way it has been for the past few years, with a large family gathered around a specially customized huge rotating dining table. The family did not seem deserted because of the two married daughters, but instead felt more lively.
After dinner, the old people sat down to talk and watch TV for a while, and then went back to go to bed early. The older generation goes to bed early and usually goes to bed after eight o'clock.
In fact, people nowadays go to bed very early. Usually everyone is asleep by nine or ten o'clock. Unlike when smartphones were introduced a few years later, everyone still felt energetic holding a mobile phone at 11 or 12 o'clock. And after falling asleep, I still can't sleep well and often suffer from insomnia.
My uncle wanted to go to a big brand, so he took Father Yang with him. Although there has been some restraint over the years, this problem has never been changed.
But as the children get older, they are not as dissolute as before. In addition, my aunt is really virtuous, and I don’t know if one thing will bring down another. Grandpa and grandma can't control my uncle, but my aunt, who is virtuous and doesn't lose her temper very much, takes care of him honestly.
Although there are occasional mistakes, in recent years, there have been no angry quarrels with my aunt because of playing cards or other things.
Maybe it's because my uncle has finally found the responsibility of being a father when his children are older.
"Don't play too big?" the aunt couldn't help but asked.
"I know, how much fun can we have in our village without going outside?" the uncle responded victoriously.
The aunt pursed her lips and said nothing.
There is already a lot of fun in Yangjiacun. After all, Yangjiacun is a market. Many people who like to play cards at the end of the year and feel that they are not satisfied in their own small village will come to Yangjiacun to play. If you want to play bigger, you can only go to the town.
In the past few years, although the health of Grandpa and others has been getting worse day by day. The atmosphere of playing cards is better than before, but it is still restrained. There are already signs of an increase.
However, thanks to the country’s development in recent years, everyone’s pockets are much richer than before. Although the fun was a little bigger, there was no such thing as losing all the money earned outside the home after a year of hard work, and then the whole family got into a fight on the first day of the new year without ever having done anything. So everyone turns a blind eye to the big fun on New Year’s Eve.
Victory, who has been holding back for a year, definitely wants to take advantage of this opportunity to have fun, but he obviously can't do it alone. Because no matter whether he loses or wins money, his aunt will not give him a good look. But it's different when it comes to Yang's father. There's a bit of room for maneuver.
Especially if you are unlucky and lose too much money, Yang’s father will basically help you. It is said that there are people who are bold and courageous, and Shengli feels that he will definitely be able to kill everyone today.
"Go and take a look later." Yang's mother kicked Yang Dongxu who was teasing her son.
"I know." Yang Dongxu responded.
In fact, there was no need for Yang's mother to shout, Xiao Wu and others had already come to see Yang Dongxu to go out to play.
When playing cards, there is basically one pavilion for the older generation and another for the young people. Everyone came up and played mahjong and Pai Gow, but not much.
When the older generation and the young people start to get together in the warm place, and there are a few more heckles, it's time to get excited. Then a large group of people gathered around a card table, including the banker and the side player. It was like raising funds, and the game gradually became bigger and bigger.
"The granary is locked by Grandpa. Where are we going to play this year?" He forgot to put two packs of cigarettes in his pocket when he went out and followed Xiao Wu out of the house. In fact, if you don't like to smoke when playing cards, it is said that it is unlucky to loose money.
But Yang Dongxu obviously doesn't have this taboo. Besides, winning or losing is just a small amount of money in his opinion. He can't blame others for losing money and feel uncomfortable even sitting on the bench.
The reason why the granary becomes a gathering place for card games during the Chinese New Year is because at the end of the year, the public grains handed over by each village will be emptied. The space inside is large enough for many people to gather.
However, for some unknown reason this year, half of the public grain handed over by the village is still in the granary, so naturally the granary cannot be opened for playing cards.
That’s right! Now farmers have to pay public grain according to the amount of land they cultivate.
But if I remember correctly, starting from this year, the government will begin to reduce agricultural taxes on a large scale. Then by the end of next year, agricultural taxes will begin to be completely abolished. Not only do farmers not have to pay public grain taxes for farming, they also receive subsidies.
As a farmer, I still remember this incident clearly. This is also the policy that he has insisted on and implemented since he came to power, making the people very grateful.
"Go to Da Mao's Restaurant. Usually there are people playing cards in his backyard, so it's a good time to go there. Otherwise, if you go to someone's house during the Chinese New Year, you won't want to see anyone's wife and children." Da Liang said with a smile.
If it's just a few buddies playing mahjong or something, that's basically no problem. After all, several families are familiar with each other. When Yang Dongxu comes back, he either eats here or drinks somewhere else.
But at the end of the year, many people came out to play cards and made a lot of noise, which was a bit unwelcome.
And in the past two years, there have been more and more mahjong parlors in some cities, and this trend has begun to spread to small towns. Yangjiacun is a market, although because people go out to work all year round, there is no professional mahjong parlor. But big-name people are starting to have places to gather.
