Returning to '97, creating a new life

Nowadays, it's not common to eat New Year's Eve dinner at a restaurant. A few restaurants in the city are open on New Year's Eve, but "Ke Zai Lai" is not one of them.

The hotel closed for the holiday yesterday, and Termu's family went back to the grasslands to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Xu Kai paid for a taxi to take them directly to their destination, as a reward for their decision to stay at the shop until the end of the year.

Uncle Sun Mingcheng and Aunt Yang Ying arrived at the restaurant with Xu Kai's car. Wang Lei, Xu Kai's good friend from junior high who was working during the winter break, had arrived earlier. When Xu Kai and the others arrived, Wang Lei had already tidied up the place inside and out. He had done everything he could do by himself, and there was a faint sweat on his forehead.

After putting up the couplets and informing the guesthouse staff to keep an eye on things, Xu Kai finally locked the courtyard gate and drove Wang Lei home.

Xu Kai had already arranged the New Year's gifts for all the employees. In addition to the gifts, there were also New Year's red envelopes. When they arrived at Wang Lei's grandfather's house, Xu Kai took out a pack of Hong Guobin cigarettes from the trunk: "These are for your dad. Don't you dare sneak one into your pocket."

Wang Lei didn't stand on ceremony and chuckled, "My smoking habit has been officially approved by my dad, so the cigarettes will definitely be split between us."

Xu Kai smiled and took out two packs of cigarettes from the glove compartment and tossed them to Wang Lei.

"Thank you, Boss. Uncle and Aunt, I'll be going now."

There are other places to rest, but the arcade is so busy that there's no time to rest. Yang Yu is there during the day, and her second aunt, Xu Meilan, goes there at night.

In order to earn more money, Ma Xin said he could work continuously during the Spring Festival. Other young people were also very interested in triple pay. In addition, the bosses, including Xu Kai, gave generous New Year's gifts and large red envelopes, so working during the Spring Festival was not stressful at all.

Xu Kai tossed a pack of cigarettes to the arcade; smokers could take them as a New Year's bonus. His presence as the boss boosted morale. As for customers, Xu Kai had consciously kept a low profile and naturally didn't engage in small talk or try to build rapport with regulars.

After wandering around, we returned to Grandpa's house after noon. Unlike the rural tradition that eating earlier is considered auspicious, the Sun family's New Year's Eve dinner always started around three or four in the afternoon.

The younger guys were all playing in the arcade, but Xu Kai wasn't interested. He already had mahjong and poker games planned at home, and he didn't want to join them. He chatted with his grandparents for a while, then drove off. In his previous life, he had a childhood dream that he pursued after making money, but now that he was older, the dream was gone.

I bought a whole trunk full of fireworks and firecrackers. Although I don't want to set them off myself anymore, it's still a way to fulfill a childhood dream at the most suitable age. Compared to last year when I wasn't so well-off, Xu Kai can be a little more willful this year.

During the New Year's Eve dinner, his uncles wanted Xu Kai to sit at the head table, but he refused.

"Come sit here, Xiao Kai." His cousin Xiao Lili pulled him to sit next to her.

Three tables.

The elderly man sat at a table with his uncle and aunt.

A table for ladies.

One table for the children.

My mother's generation had nine siblings.

In Xu Kai's generation, there are ten siblings. Only his eldest uncle has two children. The rest of the children were born after the country mandated family planning. They are mostly workers and dared not disobey, so they all have only one child.

Except for the child from my uncle's family, who is only six years old and cannot eat alone, the remaining nine children are now gathered around a table, chattering and making a lively scene. Even Sun Wei, the cousin from my fifth uncle's family, who is only in the first year of junior high school, is already old enough to join her older siblings in gossiping.

Before his rebirth, Xu Kai's relationship with them gradually grew closer after he became an adult. They were all close relatives. In the years that followed, there were weddings, funerals, and holidays. As they got older, things changed. In the era of only children, their relationship was the closest they had ever been.

After Xu Kai returned to Songcheng to open a media company and stopped wandering around, they became even closer, getting together from time to time for drinks.

After being reborn, Xu Kai struggled to fully integrate last year, as his true mental age made him feel somewhat out of place. Last year, when his elders praised him, his peers didn't seem to enjoy it and instead distanced themselves from him.

This year is different. Xu Kai's rise has brought benefits to the whole family. The arcade business has brought enough benefits to everyone. Although they haven't broken even yet, the prospects are promising. As a result, these brothers and sisters have more pocket money and two sets of new clothes for the New Year.

My maternal uncle's older brother, Sun Bo, is already working and has a girlfriend. Now that my maternal uncle, Sun Mingren, has more financial security, he'll try his best to buy you a house with central heating when you get married.

The gap is so large that people no longer feel jealous or angry when elders praise other people's children, so there is no conflict. In addition, the overall upgrade of the ingredients for this year's Chinese New Year, the fireworks and firecrackers displayed in the warehouse, and the boxes of beverages of various brands and flavors...

Everything is telling everyone one fact: their cousin is different now.

Because of their similar ages, they have a lot in common when discussing new things, and they don't have to worry about being reserved when they are with older people. After dinner, they can sit on the kang (a heated brick bed) and play cards without interrupting their conversation.

My maternal uncle's family has an older brother and an older sister; the two children are the eldest among their siblings.

My second aunt's cousin Xiao Lili and my third uncle's cousin Sun Ting huddled together next to my eldest uncle's cousin Sun Xue. When girls chat about gossip or random things, the conversation can be quite risqué.

They sat behind the card-playing brothers, and Xu Kai heard Gai Lili's voice gradually growing louder: "Sister Xue, have you ever been to that 'Emperor's Palace'? Tell us about it, I heard that place..."

Sun Xue slapped Gai Lili's arm: "You brat, focus on your studies, what are you asking around for? That's not a place for you."

Like her older brother, Sun Xue also started working, and her status automatically changed to that of an adult. She also began to explore some of the things that adults could access.

Gai Lili's eyes were full of curiosity as she grabbed Sun Xue's hand: "Sister, tell me about it, I heard it's really exciting there."

Sun Ting, standing to the side, also looked on with curiosity. The two of them were two years and one year older than Xu Kai, respectively, and were at the age when they were beginning to take an interest in the adult world.

"Sister, tell me, tell me."

Sun Xue glanced at Xu Kai and the others playing cards nearby, lowered her voice, and the two of them leaned over. Sun Wei, the little sister from her fifth uncle's family, also leaned forward, but was pushed away by Gai Lili. The four sisters are the four sisters, but this topic is not for a little kid like you in the first year of junior high school to listen to.

The six brothers over there, the youngest of whom, Sun Chao, was watching TV with the old man in the east room.

Sun Peng, the second youngest, is a year younger than Xu Kai and is almost certain to graduate from junior high school. He can afford to go to a vocational school or technical secondary school, but he hardly ever goes to school and has little pocket money. When his four older brothers play cards, he can only watch. When he hears his sisters chatting, he gets excited and goes over. As cousins ​​who have slept in the same bed since they were little, he naturally doesn't care whether the image of a boy who shouldn't participate in girls' topics will fall on him.

"Sister, tell me about 'Emperor Hotel'! I heard the shows there are really exciting."

Gai Lili and Sun Ting each kicked Sun Peng, saying, "Get lost, you little brat, what are you doing getting involved?"

Sun Peng scoffed, "Tch, I have classmates who have been there, what don't I know?"

"You all better behave yourselves. Is that a place you can go?" The eldest brother, Sun Bo, frowned and glared at his younger siblings. Like his uncle, the eldest brother had followed suit since childhood and had the responsibility of being the "elder brother." However, he also had a bit of a show of authority and believed that his younger siblings had to listen to him. To put it bluntly, he sometimes acted like the "elder brother."

Sun Peng didn't take it seriously at all. At his age, he would pretend not to hear his parents, let alone his cousin.

"It's just taking off--clothes..." Before he could finish the word "dance," Xiao Lili covered his mouth and glared at him.

Wang Tao, the cousin from my aunt's side, is the eldest son besides my uncle's older brothers and sisters. According to the order of the boys and girls together, he is the third oldest.

He attends a junior college and has already found an internship. His family has done everything they can to arrange it for him, and he can start working in a factory as soon as he graduates.

With a cigarette dangling from his lips, this eldest cousin was the toughest fighter when they were kids. No matter which of his younger siblings was bullied, Wang Tao would always stand up for them, whether he could win or not, he always had that big brother vibe. More than a decade later, after being laid off, he tried small businesses but kept losing money. It was Xu Kai, who started a media company, who gave him a direction: a man in his forties who started livestreaming and talking about the "underworld."

Although he's no longer a part of the martial arts world, he's always loved it since childhood. Now that he's older, he never imagined that his youthful recklessness would become the foundation for supporting his family.

"I'll take you there when you're adults; you can't go now."

Sun Peng didn't want to give up: "Brother Tao, it's just that... what's the big deal? Can't we go?"

People around them also thought it was nothing, why be so strict? Even though they were still in school, they were all about the same age. In the world of young people who were generally precocious in the 1990s, the little things between men and women were really nothing.

Wang Tao curled his lip: "What do you know? There's a new show over there recently with foreign actors. It's really exciting. You're too young to watch it."

His words piqued everyone's interest even more. They stopped playing cards, and even the eldest brother Sun Bo and eldest sister Sun Xue were intrigued. Although they didn't gather around, they listened attentively when asked to explain in detail.

New things have an unprecedented appeal to young people.

Xu Kai was somewhat amused and exasperated, but upon reflection, he could understand. He had all been through that age. Not to mention the live-action scenes in "Emperor's Palace," even some DVDs were treasured. Many people even kept pirated pornographic books, even if some pages were missing. They would curse while reading, but they would never miss a single page. If a page was missing, they would even try to imagine what it was about by connecting it to the context.

He had no interest in listening, so he pulled his fifth uncle's cousin Sun Wei along and called out to his uncle's younger cousin Sun Chao, who was in the east room, to go to the road outside the courtyard to set off fireworks.

They thought it was just a secret among young people, but to their surprise, the very next day, some of them actually put it into action...