Jean Love

"I won't plant it next year, I won't be able to plant it anymore. My shoulder is a little dewy, especially when it's cold, it's sour, numb, and painful. Sometimes it seems like it's gone."

"Mother, I bought you a leather jacket, made of cashmere, try it." Zhao Xin took out a black leather jacket.

"Isn't this expensive? We work every day in the fields at home. How can we wear this? It gets dirty after just two strokes." Mother put down the half-filled soles of her shoes.

"It's not expensive, I bought it at the night market street. If it's dirty, just wipe it off with clean water." Zhao Xin said, helping her mother put it on her shoulders.

"Hey, it's just right, it fits well." The mother stood up, shaking her head from side to side, and looking at her waist.

"Hehe, I look younger by wearing this." Seeing them trying on clothes, I walked over and told my mother that in her room, there was a box of Cordyceps sinensis, in porcelain jars, bought in a supermarket. It is said that it is good for the body, but I don't know if it is actually good.I bought a box and took it home as a Chinese New Year gift.

My mother complained that we spent money indiscriminately: "I bought it before, but drinking it has no effect, it's a waste."

No waste, clothes, food, the most basic, this cannot be saved, I patted her on the shoulder.The new leather jacket feels good to the touch. "Excuse me, excuse me," seeing their mother and daughter blocking the hall door, I squeezed in.

"Don't pass, don't pass." The babbling little niece stood by the threshold of the kitchen, with her hands spread out, her legs slightly split, her pink round face, and her childish voice.Block the grandpa who wants to come out of the kitchen.

Grandpa didn't say anything, he picked up his little niece, with a kind and loving smile on his face.Carrying her to the hall, seeing her little niece kicking her legs and struggling, she put her down and stroked her head with her right hand.

"Come on, my little darling. Grandma hugs." "Just don't let him pass, he scolded grandma yesterday, hehe. She knows how to protect me at such a young age. How smart." It was my grandma who hugged my little niece and put it on On her legs, her hands were tightly wrapped around her small waist, and her mouth arched a few times on her cheeks.Instill some words that should not be instilled in children.

Grandpa glanced at it, ignored it, turned around and went into the kitchen again, and after a while, he heard me called: "Mao Ya, clean up the dishes and prepare to eat."

"Oh, okay. They haven't come back yet." I looked, and my father and brother hadn't come back yet.

"Say Cao Cao and Cao Cao will be here." Zhao Xin called out.

I set the dishes and chopsticks and saw them come back.The younger brother put his hands in his jacket pockets, shrugged his head, shrugged his shoulders, and walked into the living room with small steps, laughing, a cowardly look of pretending to be happy after losing money.

"Mom is the only one in the world!" Father saw the new leather coat on his mother, showing envy, looked at Zhao Xin, and then at me, as if he was trying to find out who bought the new clothes for mother.

"You also have this dead look, in your room."

"My older sister bought it. Everyone, old and young, has a share." The grandma seemed to see through other people's thoughts at a glance, put down the little niece, and said to the father reproachfully.

"Oh, oh, it's good to have it, it's necessary for Chinese New Year. Haha." Father is in a good mood today.

The sister-in-law has not spoken. After two years in this family, he should be used to watching and listening to it. These are like mixed plays on Broadway.

"Mom, Zhao Xin, everyone has eaten."

The sister-in-law brought a small bowl and prepared to feed the little niece with a small spoon.

During the Chinese New Year that year, my brother worked in a hotel restaurant and had no holidays.

"Hey, isn't there any cooking?" Father raised the chopsticks.

"What are you cooking? I killed the chicken at night. I cooked so many dishes this morning. The rice was heated by old bones. You youngsters are so sorry. Once you put the dishes and chopsticks away after the meal in the morning, no one will be seen." Grandma stopped Chopsticks, stopped chewing, and began to express their opinions again. Although they were old, they spoke with a lot of air.

"Grandma, my father told you to come to my house to have a New Year's Eve dinner." Outside the hall, a boy in his teens and 20s, looking shy and timid, whispered to his grandma.

Grandma turned around: "No need, I eat it every year, good luck to you."

That child is grandma's grandson, and the child's father is my father's nominal elder brother, a son born before my grandma came into our house. We live in the same village and we don't usually see each other very much, but every New Year's Eve dinner is a must for the old man to come over.

Every year, every time like this, grandma verbally said no, no, she would go every year, and my father said she was going there to give out red envelopes, but my mother told him not to talk nonsense, where did she get the money.

I remember that every time my grandma went to our house, she would explain this and that at our house, just for a meal, as if she was going to leave for a long journey.After I came back, I carefully described what good things she ate, although most of the time we didn't listen very much, because it's the Chinese New Year in the countryside, and every family eats the same food.

When I came back, I saw that my little niece was still asleep: "Come on, baby, grandma hugs me." I stuffed a red envelope into my niece's pocket, and wrapped it in a piece of red paper.Said: "Grandma will give you lucky money, be obedient and enjoy it, and grow up quickly."

"Give out red envelopes, here, grandma, here you go, good health and long life." The younger brother also began to distribute red envelopes.

Seeing grandma talking about it, it must be because she drank a lot of alcohol. Grandma is like this. She often gets drunk when she goes out to drink. When she comes home drunk, she talks about this and points at that.When it was serious, she yelled, and when it was more serious, she cried and cried, recalling the history on the bed, hoarse, and when others went to see her, she was not confused, she only said that she was possessed by a god.Like the sorceress who opened the altar, she cadenced, cried, and chanted some words that normal people could not understand in an abnormal tone. We comforted her and gave her a glass of honey water.Slowly stopped and fell asleep.

I guess I didn't drink too much tonight. Seeing that she is sober, she keeps teasing her little niece.

"This belongs to the elder brother. He has no holidays. He asked me to give it to you. I wish you good health." The younger brother handed over the second red envelope.

"Old man, dear grandson, go out and be lucky and earn a lot of money..." Grandma kept admiring, which made my younger brother laugh, and went over to stroke her shoulders: "You can also make a lot of money at home." Take care of your body and take care of your children."

Zhao Xin and I also went over to give her the New Year's red envelopes one after another, and we both received corresponding compliments.After praising him, he got up: "Clean up the bowls and chopsticks. I'm going to sleep first. The boy said that he bought some foreigner's health wine outside. I said don't return the bowl for me. He said it was specially Bought it for me. Hehe, it’s still delicious, not intoxicating, and it makes me warm after drinking it..." Grandma put down her niece and walked slowly towards her room, explaining and showing off as she walked.

"There is still chicken soup at home, you can drink a bowl before going to bed." Mother reminded.

"No, his family also killed a big thread chicken, which weighed seven or eight catties, and boiled a lot of eggs. If you are full, you can eat."

Mother stopped talking, and Zhao Xin saw that everyone was full and started to clean up the dishes.The sister-in-law was preparing to bathe the niece, the grandfather went to bed, and the father left without knowing when.

Someone outside the door called my younger brother, saying that he was waiting at someone's house. He first walked over and patted his mother on the shoulder. Seeing that his mother didn't say anything, he turned around and left.Mother hates other people's gambling the most, and it's just for Chinese New Year, so it's not easy to swear at people directly.

"Who will be on the stove tonight?" I asked my mother.

"You don't have to worry about it. Your father has gone out, and he will suppress you when he comes back," the mother said.

Pressing the stove is to give lucky money to the Kitchen God.It is a custom in our place. Every year on the night of New Year's Eve, after twelve o'clock, firecrackers are set off in front of the kitchen stove and in front of the main entrance of the house, and then some rice is placed on a shallow plate, and some money is placed on the plate. Press it with rice grains and place it in front of the incense burner in the stove.The purpose is to bless the kitchen god and pray for abundant food and wealth in the coming year.

This night, the oil or electric lamps in the kitchen burned until dawn.Whoever gets up first the next morning can collect the stove money. Over the years, most of my memory is that my father is responsible for these things.

That night he would go out to play cards or watch other people play cards. When it was twelve o'clock, he would come back, wash his hands and face, put some rice on the plate, put a hundred yuan on it, and then start setting off firecrackers, setting off firecrackers outside the main hall , he will remind his sister-in-law to protect the child, because the main entrance is just facing the window of brother-in-law's bedroom.

Get up early the next day, clean up the stove, start a fire and cook. On the morning of the first day of the new year, our family will fast, so the morning dishes are simple, except for tofu, there are only vegetables.In my eyes, my father's interest in Chinese New Year has not changed. He is very active and pious in buying and posting Spring Festival couplets, and going to the ancestral hall to worship gods.Like an old child, cheerful.