Zhou Xiaoyun’s Happy Life

Chapter 36 Happy New Year

At dawn, Zhou Xiaoyun was woken up by the sound of firecrackers. There was a small piece of cake placed next to the pillow and he had to eat it before he said anything. It means "open cake", which is homophonic for "open mouth high".

After two bites of the soft and sweet cake, the sweetness lingered in my mouth for a long time. This is Zhou Xiaoyun’s favorite New Year food. Unfortunately, it is only sold during the Chinese New Year and even if you want to buy it, you can’t buy it. Moreover, the cakes at this time also tasted very authentic, and merchants rarely adulterated them, unlike the cakes sold later that were not even steamed.

Zhou Xiaoyun put on a new cotton-padded jacket and trousers that she had never worn before. When making them, Zhao Yuzhen specially made them a little larger so that she could continue to wear them in the coming year. Generally speaking, they fit well.

Zhou Xiaoyun deliberately went to look in the mirror. In the mirror, he was one year older and already seven years old. He was taller than he was half a year ago, and he was also a little fatter and no longer as skinny.

Zhou Xiaoyun neatly tied her hair into two braids with colored rubber bands. Her face was particularly fair and her eyes were bright against the pink cotton-padded jacket. She looked like a cute girl no matter how she looked, so she went out with satisfaction.

 “Happy New Year, Dad. Happy New Year, Mom.”

 Father Zhou and Zhao Yuzhen agreed with a smile and let Zhou Xiaoyun have breakfast.

For breakfast, there are vegetable and meat dumplings called "Wanwanshun" and glutinous rice dumplings called "Yuanbao". Don't call them random names when eating. If you say something wrong, you will be scolded.

Zhou Xiaoyun couldn’t figure out where these titles came from, but anyway, they were always correct.

 When eating "Yuanbao", I actually got a dime coin, which was another unexpected surprise. As usual, this coin was attached to the New Year picture on the wall. It could not be picked out and used until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and this corner belonged to Zhou Xiaoyun.

 Eating coins is considered a good sign and brings good luck in the new year. Early in the morning, Zhao Yuzhen boiled four dimes in boiling water and wrapped them in large glutinous rice balls.

 Father Zhou was the first to eat it, and he was also beaming, knowing that he would have good fortune this year.

Zhao Yuzhen also ate one, and together with Zhou Xiaoyun’s, there was only one glutinous rice ball with coins left.

Dabao was extremely jealous when he saw Zhou Xiaoyun sticking sticky coins on the New Year pictures, and shouted that he wanted to eat a glutinous rice ball with coins. In fact, Dabao never likes sweets. For a dime and so-called good luck, this can be regarded as a huge sacrifice for Dabao.

Dabao became anxious after the four glutinous rice **** were eaten and no coins were found. He used chopsticks to cut the glutinous rice **** in the big bowl in half one by one, and finally got the coins at the bottom of the bowl as he wished. He happily attached the coins to the New Year pictures.

 After Xiaobao and Erya had eaten, the four brothers and sisters started to go from house to house to pay New Year greetings.

The first stop was the uncle’s house. The aunt grabbed a lot of sweet potato seeds, sugar and greasy fried noodles for the children. Zhou Xiaoyun politely took a few words, but Dabao stuffed his pockets full.

An unexpected surprise was that the uncle gave each of the children one yuan of lucky money. Although Xiaobao was young, he knew that money is a good thing and he quickly took it and put it in his pocket.

Zhou Xiaoyun arrived at Xiaobao and said, "Why don't you quickly say thank you, uncle."

 Xiaobao did as he was told, and his uncle kept praising him for being smart.

Erya was well-educated and said in a sweet voice, "Thank you, uncle." This made both uncle and aunt laugh.

Dabao's eyes were already shining when he saw the new year's money. He muttered and rushed out to buy a match whip with Zhou Zhihai.

Zhou Xiaoyun saw Dabao disappearing in a flash before he could stop him, so he had no choice but to thank his uncle on Dabao's behalf.

After leaving the uncle’s house, Zhou Xiaoxia was added to the New Year’s greeting team. After walking through several houses, the team became larger and larger. After walking around from the beginning of the village to the end of the village, he said "Happy New Year and good luck in getting rich" to everyone he met. Zhou Xiaoyun's face turned sour from laughing. During the Chinese New Year, you have to smile when you see people, even if you don’t smile, it won’t work!

More than an hour has passed since the New Year greetings, and I can finally take a break, Zhou Xiaoyun thought to himself.

Before she could finish thinking, Wang Jingjing, Fat Niu, and Xiao Bu Dian rushed over to her again and dragged her to play shuttlecock. Zhou Xiaoyun smiled bitterly and asked, "Is it okay if I don't go?"

 “Of course not!” Several people said in unison.

Zhou Xiaoyun had no choice but to cheer up and followed helplessly.

 The first day of the Lunar New Year was spent paying New Year greetings and playing. At the end of the day, Zhou Xiaoyun's legs were so tired that they became weak. Unable to wait for her to rest and regain her composure, she started visiting relatives the next day.

 The characteristics of the Chinese New Year are eating and drinking, eating at home, eating at relatives' houses, relatives coming to their own homes to eat, married girls returning home to eat, bringing their parents' family to eat, and brothers and sisters of the whole family gathering together to eat...

 In short, there is nothing else but eating. If you visit all your relatives and eat them all, it will probably last more than ten years of the first lunar month, and a year will pass by eating.

The second day of the Lunar New Year is the day to return to her natal family. Zhao Yuzhen, who rarely returns to her natal family, took her husband and children back to her natal family in another township.

Zhao Yuzhen has three sisters in her natal family, and only one uncle, the fourth, is unmarried.

Zhao Yuzhen ranked third. The two elder sisters above were also married and brought their families with them when they came back. A bunch of children were chattering so lively.

 During the meal, the adults sit at the same table and drink, and bring a few dishes to the small table for the children to eat together.

Erya was held by her mother on the big table. The three brothers and sisters Zhou Xiaoyun, two children from the aunt's family, and a pair of twins from the second aunt's family were eating lively around the small square table.

Xiaobao was a little anxious because he was short and couldn't reach him and loved to eat. Zhou Xiaoyun took a bowl and put some vegetables for Xiaobao to eat.

Zhao Yuzhen took a moment to take a look and saw that Zhou Xiaoyun was taking good care of Xiaobao. She was relieved and went back to chat with her sisters.

 (End of this chapter)