My Girlfriend Catherine (novel) Zhang Baotong 2016.3.21

8. New Year in the countryside

After the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, it was dark. We have a custom here that you can't sleep at night on the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve. In fact, you can't sleep if you want to, because the sound of firecrackers has not stopped since the afternoon, and it has to be until after midnight. However, after midnight, a new round of firecrackers will start again.

After eating, there was nothing to do, and my mother was going out to play cards. We have a habit of playing cards here, especially at this time of the Chinese New Year, playing cards is even more crazy. Because the people who went out to work came back, they brought back a lot of money, just like the price will increase when there is more money, so that the people who usually stay at home will escalate the small game of cards one after another, from the one or two yuan or two or four yuan cards played by the cousins and the old people, directly upgraded to five yuan and ten yuan, or twenty yuan and thirty yuan, and even fifty yuan and one hundred yuan.

My mother is also famous for playing cards, but my family has no money, so my mother can only go to the card field often to have a good time, and does not play in real combat. But this year's Chinese New Year, my mother is happy, and she has a little money in her hand, so she wants to touch a few handfuls.

So, as soon as I finished eating, my mother handed over the task of cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks and washing to my father, and ran early to occupy a seat. Catherine and I helped Dad clean up the dishes and chopsticks, and there was nothing to do. Because it is the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, it seems out of place to pick up a book and read it. Catherine saw that my mother was playing cards, and asked me to take her to see it.

So, I took her to Ning Wazi's house. Ning Wazi is two or three years older than me, and she didn't go out to work, but she opened a mahjong parlor in the house, and I heard that the annual income is more than that of working outside. Therefore, Ning Wazi's family built a two-story small building, all of which are one-color tile veneers, which can be regarded as the first family in our village to get rich.

Entering Ning Wazi's house, there were eight mahjong machines in two large rooms, and two tables of hand-rubbed cards were added to the living room. When we entered the house, all ten mahjong tables were occupied, and there were some late arrivals who had no place to sit. Therefore, Ning Wazi and his wife were busy arranging people upstairs.

Catherine saw that my mother was already sitting at the table and playing, so she came to the side and watched. I hurried to find a high stool for her. My mom played her cards and asked her, "Do you know how to play?"

"I've played once or twice in the past, but I still don't know how to do it. ”

My mom said, "So you're going to fight?"

Catherine said, "I don't fight, I just look." ”

However, my mother insisted that Catherine play, because letting someone else play cards was the most hospitable gesture we had here. I also pushed hard to get Catherine on. Catherine refused, maybe she really wanted to touch two, so she went to the table and let my mother be a counselor next to her. However, there were no extra stools in the room, so I could only stand by and watch.

After watching it for a while, I saw that Catherine had two handfuls in a row, and I wanted to get out of here. Because the whole house is thick with smoke and miasma, you can't see the people on the other side clearly when you sit here, and the noise in the house is very loud, and some people play cards and fall very loudly, which can sometimes startle people. I only stayed here for a while, and then I felt that I could not stand it, because I panicked at the sound of noise, and my mind dizzy at the smell of smoke.

I said to Catherine, "I'm sorry to keep my mother with you, I'm going home." ”

Catherine was in the mood for a while, and said, "Go back." ”

When I got home, I saw my father sitting alone in the hall and smoking. I said, "Dad, today is the Chinese New Year's Eve, and you don't go out to play mahjong?" because we have no other entertainment there except playing mahjong, that is, there are other entertainment activities, and everyone doesn't like it, but they just like to play mahjong.

Dad shook his head and said, "As soon as I'm gone, there's no one left at home." ”

I said, "I'll keep the house, and you go play mahjong." ”

Dad shook his head again and said, "I don't have any money on me." ”

I took out two red tickets from my pocket and put them in his hand and said, "Go ahead." ”

Dad took the money in his hand and said to me, "Don't tell your mother." ”

I said, "Don't worry, I won't say." ”

Dad said, "I'm going to take a look, I'm afraid I won't have a seat now." Then he went out the door.

I closed the door and sat next to the heater, reading a book while the fire was burning.

However, after twenty or thirty minutes, my mother came back with Catherine.

I asked, "Why did you come back so early?" because the playing of cards would end at twelve o'clock at the earliest.

Catherine said angrily, "If you don't fight, you only fought for a while, and you lost more than twenty yuan." ”

I said, "What's the matter, just for fun." You just go to the playground, not that it costs money. ”

My mom said, "We only paid two or four yuan, and you didn't see the people next to you all playing five or ten yuan." ”

Catherine said, "If it's five or ten dollars, I'm not going to play." ”

I said to my mom, "Then why don't you fight?"

My mom said, "I saw that Catherine wanted to go home, so I took her with me." It just so happened that your dad was over, so I let him beat him. ”

I said to Catherine, "It's okay not to fight, let's go, let's go to sleep." "I got up and gave my mother the heater and took Catherine into our room.

The next morning, just as we were about to have breakfast, my mother called us both to the empty room on the west side of the hall and said to us, "Go and kowtow to your grandparents." ”

At this time, I saw that on the table under the portraits of my grandfather and grandmother, four small plates were already set up, containing fruits, sweets, peanuts and pastries. A few incense sticks were smoking. And my mom has already laid out the cloth mats for kneeling.

We celebrate the New Year here to pay New Year's greetings to our ancestors, and this kind of worship is called inviting ancestors, which means inviting ancestors to celebrate the New Year with their families. I knelt on the cloth cushion on the ground in front of the table, kowtowed to the two old men three times, and said, "Grandparents, you can celebrate the New Year." Then, Catherine did as I did, kowtowing to her grandparents and saying, "Grandparents, Catherine has given you a New Year's greeting." ”

Then my mother asked me to set off firecrackers. In the past, our family used to set off firecrackers for 5 yuan a hang, but this year, my mother bought a firecracker for 50 yuan a hanging, which spread out more than 10 meters long. I said to my mother, "Why are you willing to spend money on such long firecrackers?" ”

Mom said, "This year, our family has a lot of happy events. ”

I put the firecrackers away for Catherine to light them. Catherine was a little scared and didn't dare to order. I said, "It means you're going to bring good luck to our family." ”

As soon as Catherine heard this, she took the incense in my hand and went to light the firecrackers.

The firecrackers rang off in front of the door for a while, and then my mom said to everyone, "Let's eat." ”

After eating, my mother asked Catherine and I to go to the houses of the village to pay New Year's greetings. Actually, every year my mom and my dad go out to pay New Year's greetings, but this year she arranged it this way, maybe she wanted us to give the family a nice look.

There were only about 30 families in the village, and all of them were not far from one family, so at noon, they ran all the houses.

In the afternoon, when I was fine, my mother organized our family to play mahjong. The four of us were just enough to get together a table, and we set up a battlefield on the small wooden table for dinner. My mom and my dad sat across from me, and Catherine and I sat across from each other. The price is five yuan and ten yuan.

When I was a freshman, sophomore, and junior year, I had to go home during the summer and winter vacations, and when I was idle at home, I often got together with the people in the village to play mahjong. However, in my senior year, I was preparing for the graduate school entrance examination, and I never played again. However, my level of mahjong is still quite high, don't look at my parents are old fighters in the village, compared with me, they are still a little behind.

Our family is a master of the hemp altar, and only Catherine is not familiar with the business. Naturally, you have to lose a lot when you fight. However, I deliberately did not draw her cards. Later, my dad didn't play with her cards, and he intended to play her a draw. It's just her and my mom who always tie cards. It's time to cook in the afternoon. Catherine counted the money, and won two hundred and thirty dollars, and was so happy that she asked me how much I had lost. I said I lost one hundred and eighteen. And she counted a hundred and eight and gave it to me.

After dinner in the evening, Catherine didn't let my mother go to the mahjong parlor, cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks on the table early, put the mahjong on the table, and urged everyone to play. It was twelve o'clock in the evening, and it turned out that my mother and Catherine had won.