One day of the big year, Zhang Baotong 2017.1.28

The sound of firecrackers has been ringing non-stop since the night, as if the Huaihai Battle is in full swing, and the dense sound of a storm, mixed with the rumbling cannonballs, has been resounding one after another over the city and countryside of Miluo. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info I was awakened by the sound of firecrackers very early, so I woke up early in the morning. My little sister told me not to go for a run today, because the smoke outside was very heavy. As soon as I went out, I was startled by the sound of firecrackers in my neighbor's house, so I hurriedly hid in the house, closed the door, and waited for the sound of firecrackers to subside, as soon as I opened the door, the thick smoke of gunpowder swept towards our house along with the wind. Choking on my nose, I closed the door again.

In front of our house is the county seat, behind which is the countryside, and the rumbling cannons are getting louder and louder from both sides. I think people set off cannons to exorcise ghosts, but I'm afraid that the ghosts have long been scared away from the land of China, and I don't know if they have escaped to the United States or the United Kingdom.

Although the customs of the New Year have changed now, in Xi'an, the New Year's greetings are all sent on the mobile phone to send a text message is considered to be the New Year's greetings, but in my mother's family area, the New Year's greetings are still an old custom, and you have to go to every family to visit the New Year. However, because people have moved to live in buildings, it is very inconvenient to pay New Year's greetings, because I only remember the residents of the old family area, and as soon as people moved to the buildings, I didn't know. That's why I don't go to New Year's greetings very much.

Because most of our family members are northerners, we have to eat dumplings on the morning of the New Year. Wait for the dumplings to go down to the pot. Mother asked us to pay New Year's greetings to our deceased father. In my mother's bedroom, there is a portrait of my father, and in front of the portrait are three plates. Fruits, dried fruits, and sweets are placed inside. And I also put a few dumplings that have just come out of the pot. So, we knelt on the ground and kowtowed, and said, Father, I have given you a New Year's greeting.

At this time, the nephew outside the door had already lit the firecrackers. After the crackling of firecrackers, everyone began to eat dumplings. While eating dumplings, someone has already come to the door to pay their respects. At this time, the mother began to put candy and dried fruits on the table, and took out the candy for the New Year's greeters to eat.

Most of the people who pay New Year's greetings are neighbors and acquaintances who come and go regularly. New Year's greetings are generally to say good to the new year, or to greet how you have been doing lately, and have your children returned? There are also some juniors who have come back from other places to come to visit, or to visit old classmates and acquaintances who have not seen each other for many years. Our family area is the family compound of the Railway Engineering Bureau, and the children move around, often not seeing each other for many years, so they can use New Year's greetings to meet each other. Because many of the elderly have moved to other places, their sons and daughters do not come here anymore, and those who can return here come to visit the elderly every year. There are also some who have settled in the Miluo family compound after retirement.

After breakfast, there were more people paying New Year's greetings, wave after wave. Some people come out alone to pay New Year's greetings, some are the whole family and young people come out to pay New Year's greetings together, and some are younger generations who come out with their wives and children to pay New Year's greetings. Sometimes three or four waves of people come together, so that the house can't be crowded, so they stand outside the door and talk.

In order to pay homage to other people's homes, my mother asked my younger brother and sister to go out to other people's homes to pay New Year's greetings. There used to be tens of thousands of people in seven family areas, and now many people have moved to other places, but they still have a deep affection for this place and want to visit the old place again. There is a man who works in Shandong and is now retired, and he came to our house with his wife and children to pay New Year's greetings, saying that my mother had helped his family a lot in the past, and that he especially liked to eat my mother's baked flatbread. He's been away for more than 40 years, so this year he's made a special trip to visit his hometown. When he came to my house, my mom didn't recognize him anymore, but he introduced my mom to his parents. The mother didn't recognize him until she heard it. He said that his parents missed my mother very much, but they were not in good health and could not come, and they wanted to see the family compound and the old man again. So, he used his mobile phone to take pictures of the family compound and also took some photos of my mother. Take it home and show it to your parents.

As I was talking, someone came to my house to take a picture of my mother, saying that an acquaintance missed my mother and wanted them to send a video to it. At that moment, three or four waves of people came to take pictures of our house. Because in the family compound, only our family still lives in a bungalow, and the other families have moved to live in the building. And the people who have moved here want to see what they used to know from the past.

However, one of my neighbors sat at our house and began to talk about his so-called glorious history to our family from beginning to end, which annoyed me a little, so I went to pay New Year's greetings to other classmates. I went to a fellow scholar who was engaged in railway engineering in Xi'an to pay New Year's greetings, and then I went with him to several other fellow scholars to pay New Year's greetings, and everyone sat together to chat and brag and look back on the past. I also went to the home of a classmate's mother. This is what my mom told me I had to go. Because my classmate has been missing for more than 20 years. It is said that he followed his brother to do business and borrowed more than 1 million from his brother, because he was afraid that his brother would force him to ask for money, and he has not been heard from since. Both parents thought he might not be alive anymore. Last year, his father died, and his mother was very lonely. His brother and sister-in-law came back yesterday afternoon and came to my house, and my sister-in-law said that my mother had a large group of cats at home, and the house was either cat or fish, and it was impossible to enter, so I drove over yesterday afternoon for a while, and then drove away in the evening.

I came to my classmate's house, and my classmate's mother was cooking fish intestines for a large group of cats. The room is not very large, so the smell of fish intestines is very strong. See me for New Year's greetings. My classmate's mother held my hand for a long time, asked me how long I would come back and when I would go back, and said that his youngest son was so pitiful. Say my mom is so blessed. I said that you should also be blessed, the eldest son has tens of millions, and he is the richest big boss in our family area. But she sighed and said that she was very pitiful, and that no one had taken care of her all day, and that she could only talk to these cats if she had a word to her. Listening to her words, I thought, our family is poor, and I used to think that if I had money, I would buy a big house, take my mother to live with me, and let my mother enjoy it. However, I now deeply feel that being a mother does not necessarily have to live in your big house, how to enjoy it, as long as the children are by her side, they will be satisfied.

At lunchtime, everyone except my sister was not there. So, while eating, everyone discussed the matter of taking turns to take care of the mother. We also discussed this issue during the Spring Festival last year, when we agreed that each of us would live with my mother for two months a year, but my mother vetoed it, she felt that everyone had their own things and didn't want to trouble others, but this year she has changed, and she feels a little lonely and can't do it. I'm afraid that if something happens to me, I don't even have anyone around. I originally thought that each family would contribute 500 yuan a month, and my eldest sister would take care of my mother. Because her family lives in the local area, and she is a woman, it is convenient for my mother to bathe and wash clothes. It's more difficult for her family. However, this opinion was rejected by everyone. More people prefer to take care of each person for two months. If you can do it, I can do it. So, in the end, it was decided that my brother would take the lead from the end of the Chinese New Year, followed by my sister and me, then my eldest sister, my brother and my younger sister. Six people are exactly two months each.

Then Xiaomei proposed to install a water heater in the house so that she could take a bath frequently. My brother suggested that I should connect the network cable so that I could spend some time. I also agree, because I have to post works on the Internet every day, and I can't do it without a network cable.

After eating, it is natural to play mahjong. Someone suggested that it should be paid for ten or twenty yuan. Because they feel that they can't afford to play five or ten yuan. I usually play five yuan and ten yuan, and I must go, because there are many people, and there is usually one person in the family. However, I didn't want to play 10 yuan or 20 yuan, I felt that it was too big, and it would be easy to hurt my feelings no matter whether I won or lost, so I didn't fight, so I let my brother-in-law play. I was just chatting and watching the game.

At two o'clock, my classmates came, and when they saw that our family was playing cards, they asked me to go to other classmates to chat with each other for the New Year. We went to a female classmate and sat down together to talk about the past and the present. She is the daughter of the Director of our Works Division and was a member of our study committee from primary school to junior high school. Because she changed her household registration in the first year of junior high school and went to work in the UNRWA, she was still a nurse until she retired. Because we were a year younger at that time, we did not go to the Agency, so we went to high school and went to the countryside, and later some of us became cadres, and some of us became scholars and engineering technicians. So, she deeply lamented that it is really not good for people not to go to school.

Naturally, dinner is still a gathering of the whole family. Meals are also set to the table. However, compared with the past Chinese New Year, even if there is a good meal now, because people have too much oil and water in their stomachs, they don't feel fragrant no matter what they eat. While I was eating, a friend sent me a message to greet the New Year. I asked him if he was going back to Miluo because he came back every year. He sent a message saying that his mother had died half a year ago and now has no home, so he has not returned. He also said that he had come back for the New Year every year for more than ten years, and he had never spent the New Year at his mother-in-law's house, so he went to accompany his mother-in-law for the New Year this year. Because my mother-in-law is also alone, she is very lonely. Looking at this message, I feel sad. When people get old, they can't do it themselves, and their parents can't do it anymore. Year after year, year after year, year is not as good as year, and this is how people's lives unconsciously go to decline. So, I stopped to eat and replied to him, "Your today is our tomorrow, and we will all come to this point in the end." And look forward to seeing each other again in the future. But I knew we couldn't meet again. Because his mother is gone, he can't come back here. If my mother is gone, it will be difficult for me to go back to Miluo either.

After eating, my brother invited us to play mahjong at his house because he had a mahjong machine at home. So we went to their house. However, as soon as everyone went to their house, their mother was not accompanied and went to bed very early. went to my brother's house, and everyone took turns playing mahjong. Before you know it, it's ten o'clock. Because tomorrow is the second day of junior high school, some people have to go back to their parents' homes. So, everyone dispersed. We went back to my mother's house, and she was already asleep. We talked together for a while, then started washing up and went to bed.

The year-long old passed like this.