Wu Yumei got up at around 4 o'clock and went to the toilet, but could not fall asleep again.
She closed her eyes and listened to the rhythmic rise and fall of Lao Chen's snoring next to her, which reminded her of the pig noises she heard in the pig farm when she was a child.
Mr. Chen said that her thinking was not accurate, but she refused to admit it. Now that she thought about it, it was indeed true. When she couldn't sleep, her thoughts were flying around. Sometimes she thought of the scene of participating in the school table tennis competition in junior high school, and sometimes she recalled the first month's salary she received to buy something for herself when she first started working. She bought a pair of bright red high heels...
In less than three hours, Wu Yumei will get up and prepare for the most grand meal at the end of the year - the New Year's Eve dinner. Thinking of this, her heart felt a little uncomfortable, her hands were itchy, and she wanted to slap Lao Chen on the forehead.
Wu Yumei really did this. Lao Chen stopped snoring, turned over, and continued to sleep.
Wu Yumei sighed in her heart, blaming herself for not having the heart to accept her daughter's proposal to travel to Hainan for the New Year this year.
However, there is no movie about the Chinese New Year that the girl said so lightly and simply - Mom, every New Year you cry out that you are tired, you quarrel with my dad when you are tired, and you scold me when you are anxious, which makes everyone very annoying. If you ask me, it would be better to go on a trip with the whole family to celebrate the New Year, which would be relaxing.
Last year, didn't you say you were envious of Uncle Zhang and his family going to Thailand to celebrate the New Year? We don't have to go abroad, and it's the same with a trip to Hainan.
Why can’t I travel to celebrate the New Year? Wu Yumei asked herself.
Lao Chen spent most of his life in a work unit in the city where there was no profit and became a semi-leader. He was still an old scalper who worked quietly in the work unit. Only when he returned to his hometown could he transform into a filial son and a respected "cadre" who returned to his hometown with honor. Therefore, he attached great importance to this annual family gathering.
When the elders on both sides were still alive, one month before the Chinese New Year every year, Wu Yumei would start preparing new year gifts to bring back to her hometown, red envelopes for the younger members of the family, a trip to her hometown for New Year greetings, new clothes and shoes for the family, peanut and melon seed candies for guests at home, etc.
The New Year's gifts brought back to his hometown must be dignified and dignified, and the red envelopes given to his juniors should exceed the estimated return gifts, but not too much. The family's new Spring Festival clothes must show urban trends but not lose their dignity...
The most important thing is that all expenses must not exceed the total budget for the New Year. This is really not an easy task. In these calculations, Wu Yumei's sleep is getting lighter and lighter every year.
Until the sky was slightly bright, the sound of firecrackers could be heard faintly from the edge of the city. It was more than ten kilometers away and had no deterrent effect. It was far worse than the sound of firecrackers that exploded in her ears when she and Lao Chen got married. Wu Yumei's thoughts wandered again.
and Lao Chen have been married for almost thirty years. When they first met Lao Chen, he was a tall, tall and handsome young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes. Wu Yumei took one look at the photo and her life was decided.
Nowadays, Wu Yumei's heart has long been calm when facing this face. The big protruding eyes on the thin face sometimes make people feel ferocious.
However, there are still rewards. Her daughter has inherited the outstanding facial features of Lao Chen - Lao Chen in his youth - and her big eyes are bright and shining. This is what Wu Yumei is most gratified about.
Thinking of her daughter, Wu Yumei's heart tightened again. Her daughter returned from taking the high-speed train for several hours last night. When she and Lao Chen went to the train station to pick her daughter up, she felt that her daughter was not in high spirits and seemed worried.
She excitedly wanted to hug her daughter, but was blocked by the suitcase her daughter pushed in front of her. After returning home, her daughter quickly washed up and fell asleep. She didn't even get to look at her daughter properly or even look at each other.
I don’t know how my daughter is doing this year. If she calls frequently or talks too much, she will get impatient and lose her temper, or she will just say perfunctorily that everything is fine.
Wu Yumei felt that she understood her daughter less and less. Sometimes she would even feel nervous and uneasy before making a phone call, as if she was waiting for an assessment. But her fear could not suppress her longing for her daughter. As soon as the video was connected, she immediately burst into laughter and asked her daughter what she had eaten and what she was wearing.
Wu Yumei decided to get up. She wanted to make breakfast for her daughter and replenish her body.Her daughter works and lives alone in a big city and often eats out. How can the food outside be so good? gutter oil , vegetables with pesticides that cannot be washed, meat grown with feed hormones...
Every time she thinks about her daughter's diet outside, Wu Yumei is frightened. She wants to pack up all the food at home and send it over. No, it is best to have all the meals cooked for her. Young people nowadays don't like to cook or do housework. I really don't know how to run a family when they get married.
Wu Yumei started to worry. She was always worried about this and that. This was probably one of the reasons why she couldn't sleep. Wu Yumei wrapped herself in a dark red thick cotton-padded coat that reached to her knees and walked out of the bedroom. When she closed the door, she saw Lao Chen turned over again and lay flat on the bed, still sleeping peacefully.
Wu Yumei walked to the balcony and took a look at the dim and shiny sky outside the window. The winter in the south is wet and cold, and it has been raining continuously for a week. The weather forecast said it would clear up during the Spring Festival, but the cloudy and foggy look outside the window showed no sign of the coming sunshine.
A few strings of sausages and bacon were hung on the balcony of a building opposite. They were dull in color and looked like they didn't get enough sunlight. They were definitely not as delicious as the ones at home.
Wu Yumei knew that her daughter loved to eat sausages and bacon. As soon as winter came, she went to the market to pick out the best black pork, seasoned it, brewed it, and dried it herself. There were not enough sunny days after winter, so Wu Yumei was worried that the sausages and bacon would not be properly exposed to the sun. She went to the countryside on the outskirts of the city and found villagers who still had earthen stoves at home to process and smoke them.
Wu Yumei had planned everything. Her daughter couldn't eat much at home for a few days, so she packed all the leftovers for her daughter to take home. She also estimated how much her daughter would give to her colleagues and leaders. This kind of hometown flavor is rare in big cities.
The air conditioner came in through the balcony window. Wu Yumei pulled her collar and walked to the kitchen. The kitchen is a familiar position to her. Wu Yumei in the kitchen is like a general on the battlefield. black rice , glutinous rice, lily , lotus seeds, red dates, peanuts, raisins, and wolfberries are put into the pot and put on the stove under Wu Yumei's formation.
The fire of the gas stove was shining brightly. Although Wu Yumei's hands were cold, her heart was already warm. She walked gently to her daughter's bedroom with hands and feet, pushed the door open a crack, glanced at the big dumpling on the bed, and then gently closed the door. That big dumpling was once just a small dumpling, with arms as long as each other, leaning against the chest, so soft and petite, why did it grow so big all of a sudden? Wu Yumei chuckled.
It was only after seven o'clock, and Wu Yumei got into the kitchen again after washing up. There is nothing to complain about, the conditions now are much better than before. I remember back then, they celebrated the New Year every year at the Chen family's ancestral house in the countryside. Wu Yumei used the earthen stove in the ancestral house to cook with firewood, and was so smoked that she couldn't open her eyes.
Wu Yumei suddenly remembered that in those years when she brought her daughter back to her hometown every year, the first thing she did when she entered the house was to kneel down and kowtow to her ancestors. Her daughter was unwilling and disliked the dirt and chicken feces on the floor. She cried for a long time and was scolded by Lao Chen.
Later, a building was built in her hometown, and the conditions improved. However, the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs in the countryside, the musty smell of quilts, and the hard wooden beds kept Wu Yumei awake all night.
In addition to not sleeping well, celebrating the New Year in the countryside is also more troublesome in terms of social customs - on New Year's Eve, three animals must be sacrificed to worship ancestors, and at night, people must stay up late. Starting from the first day of the new year, they have to go to the homes of relatives and friends in the countryside and counties to pay New Year's greetings and drink. If you want to take turns to eat the banquet carefully, you can eat it from the first day of the new year to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
These New Year customs and procedures have been greatly simplified in recent years. With the death of the elders in the village, the younger generation has taken root and developed in the city, slowly spreading out, and then it is difficult to gather together, just like the cabbage being blanched in Wu Yumei's hand.
After the death of Lao Chen's parents, Lao Chen, as the eldest brother, took on the responsibility of convening. Since then, the three brothers of the Chen family have reunited at Lao Chen's house every New Year's Eve. This is the fifth year of celebrating the New Year at home. Although celebrating the New Year at home is simple, just greeting people and having a meal, Wu Yumei has been busy since she was a child for this meal.
A few days ago, Wu Yumei asked someone to buy two native chickens from the countryside for more than three hundred dollars. These days, money can't help but be spent. Two chickens were tied up in a small corner of the kitchen, pooping yellow and green on the ground.Wu Yumei looked at the two chickens and added a handful of rice and a few cabbage leaves to their food bowls.
This was the last meal. After finishing this meal, they would go to the "execution ground". Wu Yumei silently recited Amitabha in her heart and felt a little sympathy for the two chickens. She broke off a few corn kernels from the corn that had just been cooked and threw them into the food bowl. Both chickens were wilted, so they had to be killed as soon as possible.
Wu Yumei was a little anxious. She strode into the bedroom, opened the curtains vigorously, and shouted to Lao Chen to get up quickly and kill the chicken. The air-conditioning outside the house took the opportunity to flow into the bedroom, diluting some of the heavy rotten air that had accumulated in the house all night.
"It's crackling early in the morning, can you let me have a good sleep! Isn't it just a meal? It's so urgent every year."
Lao Chen raised his hands to cover his eyes, his voice was muffled, and there was a mouthful of phlegm stuck in his throat.
Wu Yumei was angry, and her voice suddenly became loud and clear: "Just one meal? You should make it! You don't know that the chicken soup needs to be simmered for several hours? If you don't kill it in the morning, how can I stew it with air? When will your brother's family arrive? Have you agreed?"
Lao Chen stood up slowly while coughing. Wu Yumei said nothing and rushed to the kitchen to check the breakfast cooked in the pot.
Wu Yumei and Lao Chen decided together on the New Year's Eve dinner menu. To be precise, Wu Yumei drew it up and Lao Chen made the final decision. This is the process of making most of their family's decisions.
Wu Yumei also cared about it when she was young. After all, Wu Yumei had always watched her father obey her mother's orders since she was a child. There are three daughters in Lao Wu's family. The family has been experiencing a long period of "yin and yang". After marrying Lao Chen, Wu Yumei saw a completely different family shape.
When Wu Yumei's father-in-law was alive, his father-in-law was the sky, and Lao Chen was the pillar holding up the sky. After the death of his father-in-law, Lao Chen regarded himself as God. Wu Yumei often ridiculed him. Lao Chen was mostly unaware and only jumped up when Wu Yumei said something harsh.
After years of quarrels, Wu Yumei figured out a rule. She found that as long as Lao Chen felt that she was the first person to seek advice, Lao Chen would close her eyes and write an agreement to most requests. If she could patiently listen to his analysis, she could get his full support and recognition.
After Wu Yumei figured out Lao Chen's temper, she stopped arguing. After all, this marriage was her own choice, and she couldn't get divorced. Besides, Lao Chen was not a bad person at all, he just lacked warmth, and the marriage did not survive on warmth.
Wu Yumei entered her daughter's bedroom again. This time she was no longer cautious. She threw a set of plush home clothes with cartoon pictures that she bought for her daughter years ago on the bed and told her daughter to get up quickly and have breakfast.
Wu Yumei saw her daughter pull up the quilt to cover her head. She stepped forward and pulled off the quilt, dragged her daughter up, and while getting clothes to put on her daughter, she said: "You are so old, you still want me to put clothes on you, are you ashamed? Get up, there are many things today, you have to help mom."
" Oh, let me sleep again. I finally have the chance to sleep in during the holidays. Can you please stop disturbing me? I won't have breakfast!" Her daughter closed her eyes, frowned, and her long hair was scattered around her face. She leaned back. Wu Yumei tried her best to drag her daughter up. At this time, the sound of the kitchen pot lid hitting the steel pot came, and she had to put her daughter down and entered the kitchen again.
When Wu Yumei put breakfast on the dining table, Lao Chen slowly walked from the living room to the dining room, and his daughter also came out of the room. Wu Yumei asked Lao Chen again: "When did your brother and the others arrive? Why didn't you make a call?" Lao Chen said, "Before, the banquet started at four o'clock in the afternoon. They usually arrived in the afternoon. It's the old rule. You don't have to say it specifically. Just prepare at this time."
Wu Yumei His brain began to work at a high speed - it takes at least four hours to make chicken soup from the time of killing the chicken, Beer-roasted duck requires first pressing the duck in a pressure cooker, Stewed pork with pickled vegetables Dried pickled vegetables has been soaked overnight, but the meat has not been processed yet.
The meat needs to be steamed for two hours after being put into the pot. The fried meatballs meat filling can be made together with dumpling fillings . Braised beef brisket has to be simmered for two hours. Steamed fish, spicy shrimps and a few vegetables and cold dishes are not time-consuming. It is enough to stir-fry an hour in advance, but it is estimated that it will take two hours to prepare the dishes...
Wu Yumei was planning while drinking porridge. The hot porridge that had just come out of the pot made her shiver. Lao Chen glanced at Wu Yumei sideways, blew on the porridge in his bowl, and said leisurely: "You must have a plan when doing things, you know If you want to have porridge this morning, you should cook it on time last night so that you can eat it right away in the morning. It’s so hot now that it’s hard to eat.” Wu Yumei ignored Lao Chen and called her daughter again, asking her to come to the table and eat.
Her daughter did not wear the home clothes Wu Yumei bought for her. Instead, she wore a gray-blue velvet pullover and a pair of beige casual pants. Although her daughter looked good in anything she wore, Wu Yumei still wanted to sell the home clothes. But she had to bargain hard with the boss and got it for less than half the original price. Wu Yumei felt particularly accomplished.
She grabbed the sleeves of her daughter's clothes and touched them: "Why don't you wear the home cotton clothes I bought for you. The quality of the clothes is much better than what you are wearing, and it is very warm. It is cold at home, and you wear so little. I specially picked the pink color you like, and there are little rabbits on it. Didn't you like rabbits the most when you were a child?"
The daughter broke free from Wu Yumei's hand, picked up the chopsticks to stir the porridge in the bowl, without looking at Wu Yumei. She said: "I don't like pink a long time ago. I'm still a little rabbit. Mom, I have been working for three years, not in kindergarten."
"You also know that you have been working for three years, you have not had a boyfriend, and you don't know what you are busy with every day. Your Aunt Wang's daughter is a mother." "A girl's time is very precious."
Wu Yumei's daughter's love is a matter of concern. In the past three years, she has gone from sideways to direct, but she has not been able to get any information from her daughter. She tried to arrange a blind date because she was too far away and couldn't control it.
Lao Chen was very relieved. He said to his daughter: "Girls still have to improve themselves first and have a high level before they can find a partner with equal or better conditions." His daughter did not accept his words and said in an unhappy tone: "When is there no time? There are no conditions. I am living well on my own, why do I have to get married?"
Wu Yumei stared at her daughter in surprise and shouted: "How can one not get married?"
Her daughter gnawed on the corn and said vaguely: "Oh, I just don't want to get married now. Marriage, don’t keep asking. It's so early in the morning that people can't have a good meal. "
" If you don't want to think about it now, you will be thirty years old in a wasted time! How come you have such strange thoughts? Who did you learn it from? "
" Girls shouldn't be too picky. Dad knows you are high-spirited, and I don't think anyone is good enough for my daughter. But the older a woman gets, the more devalued she becomes, and you have to know that. ”
Hearing Lao Chen say the word “depreciation”, Wu Yumei felt a flash of displeasure in her heart, but she had to agree. The owner of the fruit shop at the entrance of the community will always give a few extra apples to young and beautiful female customers when he sees them. But if an old woman like her goes to buy fruit, she will only be criticized for being picky and demanding too much.
The daughter was attacked from both sides and finally broke out. She ate the corn hastily, threw down the dishes and chopsticks, and locked herself in the room. Lao Chen probably just thought that his daughter was acting on a whim, and did not show any sadness or anger. He still had the look of "everything is under control" on his face.
Wu Yumei was a little worried, but she had no time and there were too many things to do. She wanted to wait until today before finding a chance to have a good chat with her daughter. Do all girls today think this way - don’t want to get married?
She has also read some news reports, saying that there are so many leftover men and women in big cities. Wu Yumei has never thought about the choice of not getting married. She cannot imagine this choice.
But sometimes, especially at times like now, she would also think about how nice it would be if she were still an unmarried girl.
Wu Yumei's thoughts wandered again. On the windowpane with the big red window grille with the word "Fu", there was a girl jumping and running on the table tennis court, and a young woman wearing bright red high heels with great ambition.
After breakfast, Lao Chen killed the chickens. He proudly threw the two plucked chickens in front of Wu Yumei, as if he had completed a great and arduous task. Lao Chen left the kitchen, leaving Wu Yumei alone to continue fighting.
Near noon, Lao Chen answered a phone call. Wu Yumei, who was in the kitchen, heard Lao Chen yelling loudly. The sound of the pressure cooker's puffs and the sound of rushing water made Wu Yumei unable to hear clearly what Lao Chen was shouting. Later, the call was hung up, and Lao Chen walked to the kitchen door with a furious face. He told Wu Yumei that his two younger brothers would not come to the house for New Year's Eve dinner this year.
"One said he was going to his mother-in-law's house for the New Year's Eve dinner, and the other said he had impromptu arrangements and couldn't leave, and asked us to go to the county for the New Year's Eve dinner. It's really outrageous, and there are no rules. It's so outrageous! They don't take me as an eldest brother seriously at all.
Tell me what you are doing! There are no rules at this time! If Dad were still here, they would never dare to do this..." Old Chen kept cursing, but Wu Yumei breathed a sigh of relief, and the high-frequency chopping sounds on the chopping board calmed down.
Wu Yumei saw that Old Chen had shriveled up quickly after he had finished speaking, as if he had aged a few years, and his two big eyes were more protruding. He was completely different from Old Chen who had just finished killing the chicken.
Wu Yumei said to Lao Chen: "Then the three of us will celebrate the New Year. We don't have to make the beef brisket, and we can make fewer vegetables and cold dishes. We haven't had a family of three to celebrate the New Year."
Wu Yumei's voice There was a trace of joy hidden in it. Lao Chen seemed not to have heard Wu Yumei's words and still murmured: "No rules, no rules..."
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the sun broke through the clouds and slanted into the restaurant, and the New Year's Eve dinner officially started.
While holding a bowl and drinking the fragrant chicken soup, Wu Yumei thought to herself that maybe she could really travel to Hainan next year to celebrate the New Year.
(original title: "New Year's Eve Dinner")
This story has been authored by the author: Dayun Dedong, and authorized to be published exclusively on the Read Stories app every day. Its associated account "Talk" has been legally sub-authorized for publication, and any infringement will be investigated.
