On the day of the 24th year, Li Xiaoqi got off the car in the second gate, only to see that the second gate was crowded and full of people, on one side was a monk, and on the other side was a Tao, Li Xiaoqi was stunned for a moment, turned his head and saw the rough Yang Pozi, and hurriedly beckoned over and asked, "What is this for?" Who found all this? Mrs. Yang was so busy that her forehead was oozing sweat, and she explained with a smile: "It's Mama Zhang, I went to the place ten days early, alas, the fifth master doesn't know, we went early, and we couldn't find anyone if we went late. Fifth master, you are busy, I have to take them over quickly, it's a shame to miss the hour, now it's not as good as before, Mama Zhang's rules can be strict, that's not wrong at all! Mrs. Yang replied in a rambling manner, and busily led the monks and Taoist priests to the front yard.

Li Xiaoqi stood in the second gate, looking at a team of monks on the left, a team on the right, laughed for a long time, and then slowly shook back to her half-acre garden, she was shocked by the harmonious scene of this monk and Tao mixed together, and forgot that this is the custom here, the twenty-four year is a major event, to invite the monk to the home to recite a night of sutra, and I don't know if it is to ask for a safe and auspicious year, or to send the gods of the stove to heaven to say good things, anyway, no matter which one, it is to ask for a good life. Li Xiaoqi turned his head to look at the big red lanterns hanging everywhere, the red and warm lights swayed happily in the breeze, with waves of warmth and joy, Li Xiaoqi paused, this is her home, it's going to be the New Year, everyone is happily busy preparing for the New Year, Li Xiaoqi took a deep breath of the cold air with the smell of incense and candles, wrapped her cloak, stood for a while, turned around and went to the front yard, it's going to be the New Year, she also looks at the excitement.

Li Xiaoqi returned to the half-acre garden after watching the excitement, Wisteria was standing at the gate of the half-acre garden and looked around, seeing Li Xiaoqi coming from afar, he hurriedly greeted him, handed the hand stove in his hand to Li Xiaomi, and said with a smile: "The fifth master came back late today." ”

"It's not too late to come back, I'll go to the front yard to see those monks chanting scriptures." Li Xiaoqi took the stove and replied with a smile, Wisteria laughed: "I just said, if the fifth master usually has something, he will send someone back to say it, why didn't he come back so late today, and no one came to say." ”

"Well, after reading the scriptures for a while, I went to the kitchen to go around, there are many people in the kitchen, and Mama Lu is also there, why is it so busy this New Year?"

"Look at what the fifth master said, if you are not busy during the New Year, when will you be busy? After the New Year, I began to fry oil goods, steamed steamed buns, make fine fruit snacks, boil red bean porridge tonight, and worship the god of food early tomorrow morning, but I can't be sloppy, by the way, I am about to ask the fifth master to show it, in addition to the cotton clothes and quilts of five taels of silver every month, do you want to give silver? ”

"Shi Yin?"

"Well, the fifth master is the first time to celebrate the New Year in our Kaiping Mansion, I don't know the rules of our Kaiping Mansion, since the handover, the rich and noble people of Kaiping Mansion will chisel the big silver bills into half a tael, one or two pieces of broken silver, choose those poor homes, and stuff them into the cracks of the doors and windows in the middle of the night to help people, scatter wealth and accumulate blessings." Wisteria explained carefully, Li Xiaoqi was stunned, this rule is really the first time she has heard of it, it is really interesting, the poor family opened the door early in the morning and saw those half taels, one or two silver, I don't know how to be surprised, this year can also be happy.

"How much silver does the Liang Wangfu give every year? What about the others? ”

"I heard Mama Zhang say that the year before last and last year in the Liang Wangfu were all one thousand taels of silver, all of them were one or two pieces, and other families don't know, this scattered silver is quiet, each family sends their henchmen and family members to go, and the scattered must be scattered, but how much is scattered, no one knows."

Li Xiaoqi listened with some emotion, turned his head to look at the wisteria and ordered: "Let's not be unconscious here, take five hundred taels of silver to Mama Zhang, she knows the number of silver scattered in Liang Wangfu, and she must have passed through it in previous years, tell her, be careful not to send heavy money to Liang Wangfu." Wisteria pursed his lips and laughed: "Fifth master, don't worry, there are a lot of things to pay attention to here, and they will definitely not be heavy." Li Xiaoqi tilted his head and thought about it, bent his eyes and laughed, what Wisteria said was that he couldn't underestimate these people.

The two entered the house, Danyue hurriedly stepped forward to wait for Li Xiaoqi to go to the cloak, took off her shoes and sat on the kang, Hongju served a cup of hot red date tea, Li Xiaoqi took it and drank it, sighed comfortably, turned her head to look at Wisteria and ordered: "Tell Mama Zhang, everyone has worked hard for half a year, and at the end of the year, let her prepare for double the reward, so that everyone is happy." Wisteria hurriedly smiled and agreed, and after agreeing, he bent his knees and thanked: "I'll thank the fifth master first." Haitang, who was taking the two little girls to set up a meal, also smiled and bent her knees and thanked: "And me!" Danyue and a few little girls in the house also joined in and thanked for the reward, Li Xiaoqi couldn't stop laughing, waved his hand and said, "That's it when I heard that there is silver?" The errand in this half-acre garden, turn around and let Wisteria add another embroidered gold purse! ”

The room full of girls was lively again, wisteria blasted a few out, and waited for Li Xiaoqi to eat with Begonia, and then took a piece of red paper folded into a thick layer and handed it to Li Xiaoyi, and said with a smile: "This is sent from Zhuangzi early this morning, saying that it is a New Year's gift for several masters, Mrs. Zhang looked at it and accepted it, let me transfer it to the fifth master, she and Mrs. Sun followed the car to Zhuangzi, saying that they were going to prepare for the ancestor worship and would come back tomorrow afternoon." ”

Li Xiaoqi took the red paper and flipped through it, it was all salted chicken, dried fish, dried beans and the like, listening to Wisteria talk about worshipping ancestors, he hurriedly raised his head and ordered: "Tell Mama Zhang tomorrow, our family will pay tribute to ancestors in two places, one for the Li family and one for the Wei family, and the two places should be exactly the same, and send one to the Fan family." Wisteria agreed, Li Xiaoqi finished explaining, and went sleepily yawning, bathing, washing and sleeping.

The next day, Mr. Fan and Erhuai and others returned to Liushu Hutong first, Li Zongliang and Wei Shuisheng stayed in the camp to watch, and they came back at the age of twenty-nine, Zhang Gouzi was busy pulling Jiang Shuncai to see his new house, Cheng Wang also followed with great interest to join in the fun, Mingwan and Wu sister-in-law were looking at the curtains in the new house, and the male and female owners of the new house finally got together and took a closer look at the places.

Since Mr. Fan and the others came back, Li Xiaoqi only went to Liang Wangfu for half a day, and she gave herself a holiday.

In the rare excitement and busyness, the days pass the fastest, in the blink of an eye, it is the Chinese New Year's Eve, early in the morning, before dawn, Mother Zhang got up everywhere to check the results of sprinkling and sweeping the court, removing dust and cleaning the courtyard household is not a small matter, the sun is shining all over the willow alley, Mother Zhang asked Li Zongliang to change the door gods everywhere, hang Zhong Kuixiang, nail the peach charm, and then post the spring card, Li Xiaoxiao followed and looked at the excitement, there is no play here, the rules are extremely heavy, Li Zongliang looks serious, every post must be re-cleaned, yes, these, in fact, are sacrifices.

Busy until noon, inside and out, the atmosphere of the New Year is full, Mama Lu commanded everyone to start to place the incense flowers and candles everywhere, and they had to be lit up at night, placed in advance, so that they would not be busy at that time, but the kitchen was busy, preparing for the reunion banquet, preparing all kinds of snacks for the New Year, this snack also has rules, which ones can not be wrong, and also make dumplings, Tianjiaozi is always around, everyone has to bite into the dumplings, Li Xiaoqi shook around, and then shook back to the half-acre garden to change clothes, Came out and turned to the front yard, Li Erhuai didn't see anyone, Sister Zhang didn't know where to go, Li Xiaoqi raised his eyebrows and laughed for a moment, heard that Baicaotang was very lively, and walked all the way in, only to see that Guizi gathered Zhang Gouzi and a few, and was throwing dice for fun, Li Xiaoqi stood behind, stretched his neck and looked at it for a long time, and then shook it out, stood at the door and thought about it, and went to the east courtyard to find the eldest brother, but the east courtyard was empty, Li Xiaoqi tilted his head and thought about it, guessing that he was about to prepare for the ancestor worship, and then to the lotus garden, sure enough, Wei Shuisheng was not there, Li Xiaoqi stood alone at the gate of the lotus garden for a long time, and Mr. Fan must also be preparing to worship his ancestors, as if she was an idler this afternoon.

Li Xiaoqi shook around the garden, simply returned to the half-acre garden, watched the little girls fold Pepsi bags, looked at it for a while, yawned boredly, and simply fell asleep on the kang.

In the evening, before it was completely dark, the lanterns everywhere were hung up brightly, illuminating the yard without shade, that is, in the house, under the table and under the bed, there were also very small candles, the so-called illumination of the void, on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, it could not be dark anywhere, that is, it was a little darker, and it would also damage the fortune of next year, wisteria was a little more nervous than others, with a light moon and green orange, the front and back of the half-acre garden, up and down and down looked at it two or three times, and made sure that every place was illuminated, only to breathe a sigh of relief, her fifth master was about to open a weaving workshop to make a lot of money, you can't dim a little bit, in case the void spoils the business of the fifth master, it is a big deal.

There were two tables in the front hall, Li Zongliang and others had a table, Jiang Shuncai, Cheng Wang and others had a table, the female relatives of the family said that there were only two big sisters Zhang and Mrs. Sun, and they were not guilty of paying attention to those who opened another table, and they simply sat at a table with Li Zongliang, and there was a muffled or crisp sound of firecrackers in the street market outside, and the firecrackers of the Li family also sounded enthusiastically, Li Xiaoxiao covered his ears and jumped to the door of the main hall to see the crackling, shining firecrackers, the sound of firecrackers stopped, this Chinese New Year's Eve reunion banquet officially began, Li Zongliang toasted first, and the rest of the people toasted, a round of toasting down, everyone is interested, boxing guessing, the more you drink, the more lively it is, Li Xiaoqi and Sister Zhang, Mrs. Sun retreated to the back of the kang, eating snacks and drinking tea, slowly gossiping, although they are all fatherless and motherless people, but at this age, they still have to keep a good guard.

Li Xiaoqi drank tea, and in a flash, he saw Wei Shuisheng coming out of the front hall, standing in the courtyard with his hands behind his back, looking up at the stars in the sky, Li Xiaoqi frowned, turned his head to look at Sister Zhang, and whispered, "I'll go out and have a look." Sister Zhang glanced at Wei Shuisheng in the courtyard, nodded clearly, and handed Li Xiaomi's cloak over, Li Xiaoqi took the cloak and draped it, turned around and walked out of the house.