On the second day of the Lunar New Year, all the married daughters will return to Ning, take their father-in-law and children back to their parents' house to pay New Year's greetings, and have sisters, brothers, sisters-in-law and sisters-in-law who have not seen each other for a long time.

Li has been looking forward to this day as early as a year ago, and the last time she heard her brother give a New Year's gift, she said that her father's feet were swollen and weak, and she had never been born in peace. I finally passed Chinese New Year's Eve, suffered the first year of junior high school, and finally went to my mother's house on the second day of junior high school.

That is, you can go on the second day of the new year this year, and the daughter-in-law of the Chen family is not allowed to go to her parents' house on this day in previous years, and she is only waiting for Wen Yan to go to her mother's house at home, so that it will be dragged until the eighth or ninth day of the new year, and you will have to look at Mrs. Chen's face with two bags of fruit and two catties of brown sugar. Fortunately, several sisters-in-law of the Li family are polite and don't care. If it was such a scheming sister-in-law, she didn't wait to see the tea, so she threw that idea in her face.

Let's just say that Zhang's sister-in-law, every year when she goes back, she will sarcastically say a few words, and she can't eat well. Since the birth of the three eggs, Zhang's family has not come to the door during the New Year's holidays.

Leaving the mother's house on the second day of junior high school is the most solemn thing in the countryside New Year's Festival, which family does not prepare enough for the festival, that is, the poor family would rather borrow silver than bring two bags of fruit to be despised by the mother's family.

Early in the morning, Mrs. Chen scolded the Duan family, Chen Xuejiao listened with her ears, it turned out that Wen Yan couldn't come to her parents' house to visit relatives on the second day of the new year, and her eldest sister returned to her parents' house in the second year of junior high school, and the old lady of the Duan family ordered the two daughters-in-law to stay at home to accompany the guests.

Mrs. Chen got up early in the morning, grinding Zhao's, Zhang's, and Cai's cutting vegetables, oil, and meat, which was more lively than the New Year, waiting for her daughter to come to the house. As soon as I received the letter saying that I couldn't come today, I went back to my parents' house on the fifth day of the new year, and I almost lost my breath without coming up.

"The daughter of the Duan family goes to her mother's house, and my daughter of the Chen family is not without a mother? She walks hers, what's the matter with my daughter? ”

She also didn't want to think that she was usually the same as the old lady of the Duan family. Only her is reasonable, and everyone else's is unreasonable.

Since getting married, the first time I went back to my mother's house in the second year of junior high school. Li prepared a full festival gift, half a sheep, a pig's head, ten catties of pork, four pairs of live chickens, eight boxes of silk gift boxes containing various kinds of pastries, and two horses with fine satin.

Chen Xiucai's body can move, and as a son-in-law, he naturally has to go.

Put the things on the flatbed, and while the snow on the road had not yet melted in the morning, he pushed it to the town, put the flat car at Wen Ying's house, and hired a new carriage.

It's still early. The whole family didn't have breakfast. In the first month, the shops in the town are not open, only some snack stalls are placed under the city wall, there are chicken noodles, small meat dumplings, and water steamed buns.

Chen Xiucai had a few copper plates on the ground. I bought a steamed bun for my wife. The steamed buns are steamed in a steamer with dead noodles, and the pieces are transparent and shiny, and they are peeled off and put on salted fish fillets, shredded potatoes, fried eggs, oily spicy seeds, and sprinkled with minced green onions. One bite and a mouthful of fragrance.

I was afraid that I would be thirsty just by eating water and baking buns, so I bought a few bowls of soy milk at another stall. Poured it in one go, both quenching thirst and warming up. From the town to Lijiazhuang, just along the Xiaohuai River, the riverbank is covered with snow. A white expanse.

The people near the river put red paper and red cloth on the willow trees on both sides of the riverbank, and they swayed gently with the north wind when they looked at it from the bridge. The shaking red cloth was also shaking, a piece of red.

Arrived at Li's house. A large family flocked to the gate of the courtyard to greet them. Because it was the first time for the Li family to return to their parents' house on the second day of the Lunar New Year, the three sisters-in-law discussed postponing the date of returning to their parents' house and waiting for the sister-in-law's family alone.

When Mrs. Li saw Xuejiao's grandchildren getting out of the car, she couldn't close her mouth with a smile, hugged Chen Xuejiao in her arms, and pulled Qi Ping to ask if she was cold.

Li didn't think it at first, but when he saw his father standing beside Li, his face was thinner than before, and tears came up.

Old Man Li teased Qi Ping all the way, and said to Li Shi: "...... You see I'm thin, I'm so thin, my illness is not a big problem, it's just that I ate too much meat before and I fainted. ”

When Li heard this, he saw that his father was thin and his spirit was good, so his heart relaxed slightly.

When she arrived at the house, Mrs. Li hugged Xue Jiao and Qi Ping one by one, picked up the soft glutinous hawthorn cake on the table and stuffed it into the mouths of the two children. When Mrs. Li saw that her daughter and son-in-law and several grandsons were wearing bright new clothes, she took off her outer jacket, and the thin clothes inside and the outer jacket were the same color, and she knew that the whole silk was sewn.

Old man Li is next to Chen Xiucai, and the more he looks at this son-in-law, the more he likes it. Although his daughter has been having a hard time in the past when she got married, she can't stand the fact that her son-in-law is a scholar who brings him face. In the past, there was gossip from the neighbors, and he ignored it but felt uncomfortable in his heart, but now he saw that his daughter's family was having a prosperous life, and he gave heavy gifts before and after the year, so he smiled.

There were men talking outside the house, and Mrs. Li saw that her daughter's life was getting better day by day, her eyes and mouth were bent together, and she pulled Li's mother into the inner room.

Chen Xuejiao and Chen Xueru sat in the inner room, talking interesting things about the New Year with Li Chanchan.

Mrs. Li's eyes swept over her daughter: "Now your life is better." He raised Li's hand, touched the bracelet on his hand, and said, "This is gold?" ”

Li untied the bracelet on his hand and said with a smile: "The outside is gold-plated, and the inside is copper." ”

Mrs. Li put it back on her: "Your future jewelry is hidden, your mother-in-law is a goose plucker, and you can dig a piece of the meat on the mosquito's leg." ”

When I entered the door just now, the eldest sister-in-law and the second sister-in-law were there, but the third sister-in-law was missing.

Mrs. Li sighed and said, "A few days ago, my neighbor Chunni and her mother made a joke, saying that your third sister-in-law has a round belly, and she looks like a girl. Your third sister-in-law was annoyed on the spot, and she was secretly crying in the house these days. I said that it is fate to have children and daughters, and if you don't have a son, you can't live. ”

Mrs. Li can think about it.

Here, Chen Xuejiao took a box of rouge and a box of jasmine pollen to Li Chanchan, Xueru took two handkerchiefs, the one with the lotus flower was embroidered by her, and the one with the peony flower was embroidered by Jing Hao.

Li Chanchan smiled happily, these things are all things she loves. Li Jiazhuang is far away from Baitu Town, although Li Chanchan does not lack the pocket money, she has never been to the town alone, so she asked her two cousins to bring it, and both of them are wooden people on it. Now that I have pollen, I took it apart on the spot and sprinkled a thin layer on my face. Li Chanchan's thick eyebrows and big eyes, and her round face were tender and watery, and she looked more and more pink when she rubbed the powder.

She has a strong temperament, usually loves to bloom lotus, lotus, peony, peony and other red and bright flowers, seeing the handkerchief embroidered with her favorite flowers, half-open and half-closed stamens rolling dew drops to give the real thing, the mouth sighs and praises.

"Say it's the fifteenth, there will be fireworks on the bridge in Baitu Town, the ice of the Xiaohuai River will be smashed open, and lotus lanterns will be released, will you go and see it?" Li Chanchan held her cheeks.

"Go and see, cousin, come too, and stay in our house." Chen Xuejiao said with a smile.

Old Mrs. Li's eyes swept Xue Jiao a few times, and whispered to Li's ear: "The eldest brother of your second family, the eldest brother of the Yue family, beat a fan in the town yesterday, I don't know if it's true or not." ”

Li Shi was surprised: "There is still this matter, isn't it broken?" ”

"Dogs can't change their, butcher Zhao should be angry with his sister, saying that his face is swollen, and the powder head is going to make trouble in front of Chen's house, I think that when the time comes, you close the door tightly, don't let Xue Jiaoxue come out." Old Mrs. Li glanced at Xue Jiao and Xue Ru sisters again.

As he was talking, he heard Qiao's shouting outside: "It's time to eat." ”

There were two tables, one for men and one for women. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Mr. Li showed off his talented son-in-law and followed his daughter to relatives, and invited people with faces and heads in the village to accompany him. The whole chicken and duck on the men's table are all on Chen Xiucai's side, because the old man Li can't eat big fish and meat, I don't know how many times he lost his temper at Mrs. Li in the next year, this time in front of his son-in-law, only in front of his son-in-law, there was only a plate of vegetarian fried spinach and a plate of cold cabbage shredded in front of him, and he happily tore a chicken leg to his son-in-law while eating, and he was happier to see his son-in-law eat than he ate himself.

The Li family picked wild grapes from the mountains and made two jars of wine, and the home-brewed wine tasted less sweet and tasted like honey. Li scooped it with a small spoon and handed it to his daughter and granddaughter, Chen Xuejiao was greedy for the fruity flavor, and drank two large cups in one go, Li hurriedly stopped, Mrs. Li added another cup and handed it to Chen Xuejiao and said: "For the New Year, let her drink it, and she can't get drunk, I'm afraid." ”

Chen Xiucai drank bamboo leaf green, which was specially brought by Mr. Li to a friend from Jiangnan to follow the cargo ship.

Because his injury happened to be just right, and his bones ached faintly on a snowy day, Old Man Li refused to let him drink more, and only drank two small cups.

On the table, everyone saw that Chen Qi'an was handsome and slender, listening to his words, he was polite and humble, not proud of being a scholar, and said to Fei Lao Liu and Lao Gao a Fei uncle, Uncle Gao, and the two old fritters who ran the rivers and lakes were happy. Old Man Li's mouth couldn't close with joy, this grandson liked him more than his own grandson.

The man's voice overshadowed the voice of the woman's relatives, and Li heard that others couldn't help but praise Qi'an, thinking that her nephews were all sitting together, and only one of them was Quaqi'an, afraid that a few sisters-in-law would eat it, so he quietly praised a few nephews.

The meal was eaten until the sun set in the west.

Even though Mrs. Li is reluctant to give up, there is no reason for her daughter to live in her mother's house during the New Year's Festival. Mrs. Li rubbed Chen Xuejiao's head, wanting to let the children stay for a few more days.

Because she was worried that the Li family would be angry with Mrs. Chen at home, Chen Xuejiao politely refused, and only enlightened Mrs. Li with words: "Grandma, when spring begins, the snow melts, and the peach blossoms bloom, I will stay for a few more days." ”

Old Man Li spoke: "I got married in the tenth year of junior high school, and my daughter is still coming." ”

Before leaving, I made an appointment with Li Chanchan and went to Baitu Town to watch the fireworks together on the fifteenth. (To be continued)