On the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone gets up early.

Mu Feng followed his father to the elders of the family to pay New Year's greetings, and his mother and Mu Yun cooked at home, and at the same time greeted relatives and friends who came to the house at any time.

Yuehua County has always retained the habit of kowtowing to the elders in the family during the New Year.

When the younger generation arrives at the elder's house, they first kowtow to the elder's ancestors, and then kowtow to the elders one by one. No matter who you kowtow to, they all face north, shouting "So-and-so, kowtow to you," and then kowtow to the elder's wife or other elders.

The elders will never stand in front of the younger ones and wait, and often smile and say, "Don't kowtow, don't kowtow, you're old." "I will also pull the front one of the younger generations hard, not to knock, but where to pull, one head a year, it is indispensable.

Thirty or fifty people worship one by one, because there are many people, many people can't enter the courtyard of the elders, and the younger generations line up to kowtow outside the gate.

Kowtow to the New Year on the first day of the new year, only look at the generation, not the age. Some people are older, but younger; Although some are young, they are older, so it is often seen that people who have seen half a hundred shouts "Four masters, I kowtow to you", and then kneel down to kowtow to children.

Although this scene looks funny, everyone does not object to it, but those who are reluctant to kowtow to the younger elders because of their age will be considered rude.

Mu Feng should be called Mu Defeng according to his generation, because when he was registered, Zhou Guilan didn't care, so he omitted the word "De", but this generation is still there, and it is still a relatively high generation in the Mu clan.

When I went out early in the morning, Mu Feng and his father often met people of the same clan who were lower than their own on the way to pay New Year's greetings, and they always wanted to avoid it quickly, otherwise people would kowtow to themselves on the road.

Especially this year, several times by the younger generations of the family to see from afar, they rushed over to kneel on the ground, sometimes more than a dozen old and young people knelt on the ground together, just like the common people in ancient times met Lord Qincha.

Mu Feng in his previous life was particularly annoyed by this, especially when he kowtowed to others, he felt that his dignity was gone, but he never dared to disobey his father's wishes, and he worshiped all the way and kowtowed all the way every year.

Mu Feng, who was reborn, was not so resistant to kowtowing to the New Year, and when he saw his elders and relatives, he would kowtow, so that he could avoid non-stop polite words, and quickly brought the feelings between each other closer, after all, only his own people in the clan have such a high-standard etiquette.

Moreover, this year's New Year's greetings, Mu Congli is a little high-spirited, unlike in the past, when he was always cautious and couldn't stretch.

Mu Feng could also feel it, and the attitude of relatives and friends towards them had also changed. No matter where you go, you will be enthusiastically dragged into the house, handing out cigarettes, pouring water, chatting warmly about children, the elderly, health, etc., and the words are full of the kindness of your own people, not at all like in previous years, not far away.

This world is very realistic, the rich have distant relatives in the mountains, and the poor are in the world. When your conditions are good, you will have more resources and your social status will often rise. With the continuous consolidation and growth of the handicraft business at Mufeng's home, Mufeng's home has now become a source of work for many people. During the New Year's greetings, Mu Feng also saw that some relatives still had raw materials for handicrafts at home, taking advantage of the Chinese New Year to make more goods, just to earn more money.

Mu Feng roughly calculated that excluding the wages paid to the workers, their family had earned more than 200,000 yuan in the past three months. More than 200,000 in 1997 can be counted as a huge amount of money for ordinary families at that time, almost equivalent to more than 2 million in 2022.

Of course, although the expenses are traded through Mu Feng's account every time, the money earned is kept by Zhou Guilan, and Mu Feng honestly hands over the money to his mother every time.

When Zhou Guilan received the first money from Mu Feng, Zhou Guilan opened her mouth in shock and couldn't speak for a long time, and asked several times, "Is it ours?" and "Is it ours." ”

3 months is not a long time, but Mu Feng's family has quietly changed. The biggest change is that his father Mu Congli did not go out to work as a construction worker, which made Mu Feng the most relieved.

However, there is one problem that has not been solved, that is, the heater in the house is not good, and it has been relatively cold.

The winter in the north is particularly cold, and Mu Feng's home is not connected to central heating, so he has installed soil heating, but it is not warm no matter how he burns. Watching TV in the house, I didn't dare to stretch out my hands. When I sleep at night, the bitter north wind often whistles and pours into the house through the cracks in the windows.

Originally, Mu Yun asked his second aunt Mu Congfang to contact the post office family courtyard for a house. In this northern county, only public houses can be connected to unified central heating, and the house is warm. But the 110-square-meter house contacted, the other party asked for 60,000 yuan, and Mu Congli was reluctant to buy it, so this year's Spring Festival is still relatively cold. Mu Feng was nothing, but he was worried about his father's old cold legs.

After the New Year's greeting in the morning, Mu Congli, Zhou Guilan, and Mu Yun watched TV and swallowed melon seeds in the main house.

In the back room, Mu Feng called Zhuang Jingxian to pay New Year's greetings.

In the Spring Festival of 2022, people have begun to use mobile phones to edit videos on WeChat, and telephone New Year's greetings, text message New Year's greetings, QQ New Year's greetings, etc. have long been out of fashion, but in the Spring Festival of 1998, few people have mobile phones, even landline phones are not fully popular, and telephone New Year's greetings are a new thing.

When Zhuang Jingxian and the others received Mu Feng's New Year's call, they were still very happy and exchanged New Year's greetings.

Mu Feng, who was reborn, felt that some necessary forms were still needed, such as telephone New Year's greetings. It doesn't take much for you to make a phone call, but letting the other person know that you keep him in mind will strengthen your place in his or her mind.

In fact, what Mu Feng wanted to hear most was Jiang Xiaowen's voice.

In Mu Feng's mind, Jiang Xiaowen always occupies an important position. At the time of the Spring Festival reunion, in the depths of the 40-year-old soul, what I especially miss is the lover of my previous life.

Recently, his memory of some things in the future has become a little blurry, such as the name of Jiang Xiaowen's parents, he has to think hard for a while before he can vaguely remember, which makes him sometimes have some fear, worried that one day he will forget Jiang Xiaowen, and he is distressed inexplicably, so he often writes down some important information about Jiang Xiaowen in his notebook, as if he is afraid of losing the most important treasure.

Because he knows that no matter what happens in his life, even if he has nothing, is useless, offends everyone, and is pointed out by thousands of people, there will be one person who is willing to go with him all the time, and that is Jiang Xiaowen.

Mu Feng clearly remembered Jiang Xiaowen's mobile phone number, but it was more than 20 years later, and it made no sense to know it now. Mu Feng knew the phone number of Jiang Xiaowen's parents, and this number had long been recorded in his notebook. Mu Feng picked up the phone and broadcast it nervously, thinking that even if he didn't speak, it would be good to listen to Xiaowen's voice, but the phone prompt was empty, and it should be that Jiang Xiaowen's house had not installed the phone at that time.

didn't hear Jiang Xiaowen's voice, Mu Feng was a little melancholy, and went back to his room to read. I couldn't watch it, so I came out to watch TV with my parents and Mu Yun.

Seeing the happy appearance of the family, Mu Feng's mood gradually improved. Sometimes Zhou Guilan also joked with Mu Congli, this kind of relaxed atmosphere was rare in previous lives. In particular, Mu Feng felt that the anxiety that had been pressing on his father for a long time was slowly dissipating.

Mu Congli's pressure and anxiety are similar to Mu Feng in his previous life, and he has no money to make trouble. If you don't have money, you won't have the confidence to live, you can't afford to build a big house, you don't dare to get sick, and when you encounter your children going to school, finding a job, getting married, etc., you have to borrow money and beg for help in a low voice.

Borrowing money is done once or twice, and relatives and friends will generally help, but if there are more times, other people's faces will no longer be so good-looking, and their waists will bend again and again.

Fortunately, the life of Mu Feng's family is improving at a speed that is visible to the naked eye, and Mu Congli's mood is getting better day by day.

was watching TV, the phone rang, and Mu Feng ran over to answer: "Hey, hello, who is it?" ”

"Happy New Year, Wood!" Fang Jing's crisp voice came from the phone, Mu Feng was a little surprised, but he was very happy.

"What's good if you don't have a beautiful woman around!" Mu Feng was in a better mood and teased Fang Jing.

"Then come to my house, I will accompany you for the New Year." Fang Jing said with a grin.

"Okay, I'll go over it in 10 minutes."

"Don't, don't, don't, my mom and dad are here."

"The ugly daughter-in-law wants to see her in-laws sooner or later, and the handsome husband wants to see Lao Taishan sooner or later, it doesn't matter." Mu Feng was still smiling and teasing Fang Jing.

"Alright then, come on. I'll just say you're here for me to make up for it. Fang Jing said softly, across the phone, Mu Feng seemed to be able to see Fang Jing's shy and happy appearance.

"Make-up classes on the first day of the Lunar New Year? Who believes! Female donor, it doesn't matter if your head is empty, the key is not to get into the water. Mu Feng said with a smile.

"I told my mom a long time ago that you would make up for me during the holidays."

"Your mom agrees, but what about your dad?"

"My dad listens to my mom, come on."

"No, I can't go today. As soon as your father and mother see me, they will definitely praise me, and when others praise me, I will worry, worry that others will not praise me enough. Mu Feng giggled and joked.

"Foolish, anyway, you have to come and make up for me these days."

"Okay——, I see that when I have time, I will teach my beloved disciples some unique skills."

"Poor, I mean really. Now as long as it is about studying, my mother is very supportive. ”

Fang Jing put down the phone and was in a good mood. She didn't know why, she always wanted to chat and talk to Mu Feng.