Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

"My dears, since everyone is celebrating the New Year in Guangzhou this year, I decided to go buy New Year's goods tomorrow."

This year, the whole family stayed in Guangzhou for the Spring Festival. In the past few years, we always went back to my mother's house for the Spring Festival. The last time we were so well-gathered was in 2001, which was six years ago.

Therefore, as the second richest man in the family and the pillar of the second generation of the Kang family, Er Lao took the initiative to take on the task of buying New Year's goods. He said: "Buy flour, peanuts, sesame seeds, and sugar. We haven't made fried dough sticks and fried egg rolls for a long time."

My mother was naturally very happy to hear this. She was the one who insisted on traditional Spring Festival customs the most, but with the development of the times over the years, they have gradually become less popular.

The second sister-in-law laughed and said, "Kang Qi Zong is stupid? Aunt Kang, when did you do these women's things? Fried egg powder? Six years ago, you stopped doing these things. Do you remember? Six years ago, when I asked you brothers to make fried egg powder, you secretly went out and bought ready-made ones."

When the past scandal was brought up, the five brothers of the Kang family, including Kang Qirui, lowered their heads in embarrassment. Kang Qirui thought about it and changed the subject: "So what about the New Year's Eve dinner this year?"

"Boss, just go and make the reservation." The second boss said directly. It seemed that he had planned it in advance. Compared with making a reservation, buying New Year's goods is much easier.

When the boss heard that he had to make a reservation, he jumped up excitedly and said, "Hey, hey, hey, don't count on me for this kind of thing. Do you think you can eat wherever you want on New Year's Eve? You don't know that people have already started booking for New Year's Eve during the Mid-Autumn Festival. You're only saying you want to make a reservation now. Where do you want me to make a reservation?"

A Yao nodded, "That's right. I reserved a table for our department's New Year's Eve dinner, but it's only on the 28th of the lunar year. They said we'd have to wait until the second round to get a table. If it's on the 30th of the lunar year, I'm afraid we might not even have a table in the second round."

"You can't even do it in the second round? What should I do then?" The mother was shocked. Is it so difficult?

The second brother thought about it and said, "Since we can't book a seat in Guangfu, why don't we try to find one around Guangfu?"

Upon hearing this, A-Zu shook his head and said, "Don't even think about the surrounding area. A-Qi and I looked everywhere yesterday. Think about it, the materials there are fresh and the prices are cheap. A lot of people are rushing to go there. When will it be our turn?"

"Is there any way farther away? Anyway, Zong, Zu, Rui and Xingzi all have cars. With a car, it should be no problem to travel a hundred or dozens of kilometers, right?" said the big boss Guang.

Kang Qirui rolled his eyes. He was speechless. Running more than 100 kilometers to eat a New Year's Eve dinner? He shook his head and said, "The New Year's Eve dinner is on me."

"You?" Everyone looked at him in surprise. "What can you do? Do you, a university professor, have such a big reputation?"

"University professors don't have that much face." Kang Qirui said with a smile, "But banknotes do have that much face. This year we might as well have our New Year's Eve dinner at the White Swan Hotel. The White Swan won't be full, right?"

He paused, and then said, "The White Swan is fully booked, so is the Garden Hotel. It's impossible that all the five-star hotels in Guangzhou are fully booked."

After hearing this, the boss and Xianglan looked at each other and said, "How much does a five-star hotel cost?"

Kang Qirui waved his hand and said, "I'll take care of it. Don't worry about the money. Leave it to me." As the richest person in the family, Kang Qirui paid for the New Year's Eve dinner with a wave of his hand and a touch of his lips. Zhu Wanling just smiled and didn't mind. She knew Kang Qirui better than anyone how much money he had. Kang Qirui handed all his money to her. This little money was nothing. It was worth it for everyone to be happy during the New Year.

February 2th, the 13th day of the lunar year. The second brother went out early in the morning to buy the ingredients for deep-fried oil-fried dumplings and egg rolls. Under the guidance of the mother, everyone worked together and made the sugar rings that the mother could not make before.

February 2th was the 14th day of the lunar year. On Valentine's Day, Kang Qirui and Zhu Wanling left their child with their mother, Lao Dou, and went to Conghua Hot Spring Hotel for a day, enjoying their time together.

February 2th is the 15th day of the lunar year. As the saying goes, the th day of the lunar year is the day to clean up the mess. On this day, the whole Kang family went out to clean up the huge Kang family mansion inside and out to ensure that the new year can start cleanly and prosperously.

February 2th was the New Year's Eve. Because the New Year's Eve dinner was booked at the White Swan Hotel, everyone didn't have to work much that day, so most people chose to go out to the flower market. Kang Qirui stayed at home to write and post couplets. Zhu Wanling helped him cook the paste, and he moved a table to the door of Kang's house.

After Kang Qirui prepared everything, he thought for a while and then wrote with a big stroke: "The cypress and cypress trees are lush and flourishing, the sun and the moon shine together in the spring of Yaodao, and the joy is shining."

Zhu Wanling cooked the paste and took it out. When she saw the couplet written by Kang Qirui, she said, "Hey, why does this couplet look so familiar? It seems like it has been written before?"

Kang Qirui nodded and said, "Yes, we used this couplet during the Chinese New Year in 01. Now, six years later, we still use this couplet, which is great."

When both parents are alive, it is said that the couple is flourishing. In the couplet, the sun refers to men and the moon refers to women. This couplet means that both parents of this family are happy and both men and women in the family have achieved success in their careers.

In 2007, the Kang family can still hang this couplet, just as Kang Qirui said: it’s great!

Of course, Zhu Wanling didn't understand the implied meaning of Kang Qirui's words, but she didn't delve into it too deeply. She thought that being ordinary and happy was good enough.

After pasting the couplets, Kang Qirui also took Zhu Wanling and Kang Siqi out to visit the flower street. The Spring Flower Market is held once a year, starting on the 28th day before the Spring Festival and ending at the early morning of the first day of the New Year. It is popular among the people for its festive atmosphere and auspicious and beautiful meaning.

"On the eve of the Lunar New Year, we walk through the flower market. The streets are full of jasmine flowers. There are so many of them that it's hard to stop looking at them..." This well-known Cantonese folk song describes the scene of a family of all ages walking through the flower market. "It's not the Chinese New Year if you haven't walked through the flower market." For the Cantonese, a stroll through the flower market before the Spring Festival is a perfect celebration, which means "good luck" in the new year.

The three of them walked around until about 5pm, then left the flower market and rushed to the White Swan Hotel for the New Year's Eve dinner. Before the New Year's Eve dinner, Kang Qirui organized everyone to take a family photo in front of the hometown waterscape of the White Swan Hotel. The last time the Kang family took a family photo was when they traveled to Saipan.

In this life, Tianyou was not sent back to his hometown in southern Henan, but has always been with the eldest brother Guang Xianglan, and the family is happy. The second brother did not suffer from overwork like in his previous life, and he also had a daughter, and he was happy with both sons and daughters. Sachiko also got what she wanted and achieved a career, so she did not go to Japan, but stayed in Guangzhou and A Yao. A Zu became the boss of a film and television company, and his mentality changed, and he was no longer carefree. Because he often had to travel on business, he also cherished the time with Diana and Paul. In this life, A Zu and Diana can be said to be conjoined dolls.

Watching the family happily eating the New Year's Eve dinner, Kang Qirui couldn't help but smile. (End of this chapter)