mesbooks Chapter 366: Collapsed
Chapter 366: Collapsed
When Yu Xiang returned home from get off work the next morning, she saw the pile of fireworks in the yard and asked Huang Xiaochuan, "Did you buy fireworks yesterday? Why did you buy so many?"
"Ding bought it, a whole truckload, and sent so much to Yu Wei's family. I've never heard of giving fireworks as New Year's gifts before. He's unique, like a child who never grows up." Huang Xiaochuan said helplessly.
Yu Xiang laughed and said, "That's normal. There's a saying that a man is a boy until he dies!"
"Did you have a work schedule for the Spring Festival?" Huang Xiaochuan asked, feeling sorry for Yu Xiang who looked exhausted.
"It's holiday time. We interns won't be on duty during the Spring Festival."
"Your aunt has put your breakfast in a pot to keep it warm. I'll go get it. After you finish eating, go and get some sleep."
As soon as she entered, Xuanxuan hugged Yu Xiang's leg and called out in her childish voice, "Auntie!"
"Hey! Has Xuanxuan had breakfast yet?" Yu Xiang bent down and hugged her.
"Auntie, let's eat."
"Xuanxuan is so good!"
Yu Xiang kissed Xuanxuan on the cheek, then put her down and greeted her grandmother, uncles, and aunts one by one.
Grandma urged her aunt, "Jiazhen, hurry up and bring out breakfast."
Huang Xiaochuan quickly replied, "I'll go! Aunt, don't get up."
At this moment, Liu Jin, who was sitting on Zeng Jiahua, started yelling and kicking her legs, giving her grandfather Zeng Jiahua quite a hard time.
Yu Xiang knew what the little girl meant; she wanted a hug too.
Yu Xiang went over, picked her up, and kissed her on the cheek. Only then did the little girl calm down.
After Huang Xiaochuan brought breakfast to the table, he saw Liu Jin Hou in Yu Xiang's arms, so he reached out and took Liu Jin Hou from her and held him in his own arms.
Liu Jin became unhappy and squirmed in Huang Xiaochuan's arms like an eel, crying out, "Ah!"
Huang Xiaochuan hugged her tightly and glared at her: "Auntie needs to eat, you're not allowed to be naughty."
He then casually covered Liu Jin's mouth. Huang Xiaochuan had now figured out that as soon as the little guy's nostrils flared out, he was sure to spit. So Huang Xiaochuan would take precautions in advance.
When the little one was being disobedient again, the aunt took Liu Jin from Huang Xiaochuan and then gave him a lecture.
The little girl is quite amusing. Although she's a bit of a handful, she's terrified of her maternal grandmother. As soon as her aunt takes action, the little one becomes well-behaved.
Seeing this, Huang Xiaochuan felt relieved; it was good that he had something to fear.
I looked around but didn't see my second sister, Zeng Xia. My eldest sister's husband, Tang Jianhua, and my eldest sister were busy killing and plucking chickens in the yard, while my second sister's husband, Huo Miao, was cleaning a snail weighing over 30 jin.
He asked his aunt, "Where's my second sister?"
Upon hearing Huang Xiaochuan ask Zeng Xia, her aunt became furious: "She's like a pig, still hasn't gotten up."
Huang Xiaochuan was speechless. He couldn't just run into her room and pull her up like he did when they were kids. They were adults now, and even siblings should have some boundaries.
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Big Stick and Little Stick immediately sat down at the gate, staring intently at it.
The older sister glanced at the people coming in outside, then tied up the big and small sticks before opening the door.
The person who came was Old Xu, the tailor from the tailor shop not far from home. Before the Lunar New Year, my grandmother and aunt asked him to come over to take measurements and make several sets of clothes for the women and children in the family to wear for the New Year. Now that they were finished, he personally delivered them over.
As soon as the old tailor entered the door, he saw Grandma and said, "Grandma, your new clothes for the New Year are finished, and I've brought them to you."
Grandma stood up and said politely, "Master Xu, you could have just called us and we would have picked it up ourselves. There's no need for you to make the trip in person."
Several modern silk cotton-padded jackets were spread out on the leather sofa, in peacock blue, crimson, lotus root color, and auspicious bright red. Two red cotton-padded jackets with silver fox fur trim were clearly made for Xuanxuan and Liujin.
Xuanxuan immediately dropped the doll in her hand and rushed over, her fingers sinking into the fox fur trim. Although Liujin was being held in his aunt's arms, his eyes were also fixed on the new clothes and he couldn't bear to look away.
After her aunt saw off Old Xu the tailor, Zeng Xia lazily came downstairs, rubbing her eyes as she asked, "Mom, what's for breakfast?"
Aunt replied irritably, "Breakfast? Lunch is coming up soon, you've been sleeping like a log. After you've eaten, go out and play, and when you're tired, come back and sleep. You don't even ask about Liu Jin."
Zeng Xia didn't listen to her aunt's words at all, but when she saw the silk cotton-padded jacket on the sofa, her eyes lit up, and she quickly ran down the stairs to the sofa, found her new clothes, and tried them on.
Zeng Xia had gained quite a bit of weight around her stomach lately. She took a deep breath, put on her clothes, twirled around in front of her family, and asked, "Does it look good?"
Huang Xiaochuan teased her, "Hehe! If you hadn't taken a breath and held your stomach in, I bet you wouldn't have been able to button up this shirt."
"My little brother is bullying me again, Grandma!"
Zeng Xia immediately sought her grandmother's support, but because of talking, the breath she had been holding in suddenly dissipated, her stomach relaxed, and the buttons on her clothes popped off.
This scene was witnessed by the uncle, aunt, and grandmother. Huang Xiaochuan also saw it and immediately burst into laughter, tears streaming down his face. Zeng Xia felt extremely embarrassed and immediately covered her face and ran upstairs.
Grandma asked doubtfully, "Did Master Xu take the wrong measurements?"
Auntie said angrily, "How could that be? I was right next to Master Xu when he took Xia's measurements that day. Master Xu was worried that she would gain weight during the New Year, so he gave her an extra size."
Zeng Jiahua said with a dark face, "She's not allowed to eat meat during the New Year. She can eat half a pork hock by herself. She really has a good appetite."
On the afternoon of Lunar New Year's Eve, the winter sun shone obliquely on the old Western-style house, making the three-story red brick building gleam with a golden luster.
Huang Xiaochuan, who had just returned from Grandpa Wang Deyi's place, was busy carrying a basin of paste and putting up Spring Festival couplets with his two brothers-in-law. All the doors inside and outside the house had to be pasted up. The three of them had a clear division of labor: his second brother-in-law, Huo Miao, carried the stool, Huang Xiaochuan was responsible for brushing the paste on the couplets, and his eldest brother-in-law was responsible for climbing up and down to paste the couplets.
Steam filled the kitchen, where braised gluten with four kinds of vegetables was piled in a blue-and-white porcelain bowl, and the braised pork and bamboo shoot soup was bubbling in a clay pot. My aunt sprinkled a handful of green garlic leaves into the clay pot and called out to the kitchen entrance, "The food is served!"
A moment later, the steam from the sixteen New Year's dishes on the table climbed up the beams and condensed into fine water droplets on the Baroque chandelier above the dining room.
As dusk painted the stained-glass windows red, the sound of firecrackers rose and fell in the alley outside the wall. Soon after, the sounds of families calling their children home for New Year's Eve dinner could be heard. Once the children had all gone home, the alley gradually quieted down.
Inside the old house, Huang Xiaochuan and Yu Xiang sat together with their grandmother, uncles, aunts, and the whole family, raising their glasses in blessings. Amidst laughter and joy, the festive atmosphere of the New Year grew stronger.
After having New Year's Eve dinner, with nearly fifty minutes to go before the Spring Festival Gala started, the whole family opened the courtyard gate and went to the alley to set off fireworks.
The moment the fuse burned out, the whole world seemed to be paused. Suddenly, a golden light burst shot across the sky, illuminating the entire alleyway. Amidst the gasps of adults and children watching, millions of sparks exploded in the inky night sky, like someone had overturned the Queen Mother of the West's crystal goblet, scattering fragments of gold, red, indigo, and silver, illuminating the rooftops of every house in the alleyway.
Immediately afterwards, a cluster of silver stars shot into the night sky, causing the windows of the entire alley to tremble. Seventy-two fireworks exploded in the clouds, instantly illuminating the night sky.
Adults and children alike looked up at the night sky, exclaiming in surprise as the bursting fireworks illuminated their faces in a kaleidoscope of colors.