Chapter 321 - New Year Greetings
Chapter 321 – New Year Greetings
Because they stayed up too late playing, the Yu family’s breakfast was later than usual but it was still a lot earlier compared to families who normally got up at around 10 in the morning for breakfast.
Madam Zhao estimated the time that Second Brother-in-law and Second Sister-in-law would finish their breakfast before taking the children over for New Year’s greetings. Madam Li took a look out the window, pushed her son toward outside signaling with her mouth and said, “Heizi, go with your aunt to your Second Uncle’s house to give New Year greetings. Didn’t you say that your job as a full-time worker was given to you by Brother Six based on Xiaocao’s reputation? Take advantage of the New Year’s to go thank them.”
Madam Li was very calculating. If she’d really wanted to thank others, why didn’t she tell him to go to their house with a gift before New Year’s? Instead, she waited until New Year’s Day to have Heizi to go to their house to give greetings. Those who haven’t married were all considered children and can get New Year’s money. Was this thanking them or asking them for New Year’s money?
Heizi didn’t think that much of it. Having a better relationship with Second Uncle’s family wasn’t a loss. He opened the door and said to Madam Zhao, “Wait for me Aunt. I’m coming with you guys to go to Second Uncle’s house for New Year greetings.”
Madam Zhao didn’t like Madam Li taking advantage of others to earn easy money. Thus, she didn’t like Heizi as a result, even if he already learned to be good. However, since the younger family member already said it, then she would seem too petty if she refused, so she nodded and took her young son back to the room to wait. It was too cold outside, and she didn’t want Doudou to freeze.
Heizi quickly washed, put on a half-new coat that didn’t have patches on it and went out. Madam Zhao took her child and half-walked, half-slipped to the foot of the West Mountains. There was a slope on the way to the old residence and it had just snowed, which made it harder to walk. Madam Zhao could barely take care of herself, much less a child as well.
Heizi saw that his aunt was struggling with walking, picked up Doudou and placed him on his shoulder and said with a smile, “Aunt, I’ll go ahead with Doudou. You take your time behind us and don’t fall”
Little Doudou who was sitting on Heizi’s shoulders, giggled. Madam Zhao saw this and was frightened, “You be careful, don’t slip…”
Heizi ran as if he was flying up the slope and then jogged the rest of the way to the Yu Family’s old residence. Normally, he was busy working at the wharf, leaving early and returning late. He seldom had the chance to go to Second Uncle’s house. He would take advantage of the break he got for New Years to come more often.
He wouldn’t be like his mother or father. One of them only silently listened to his wife, while the other one only wanted to take advantage of others and was refused at the door. As relatives, they should have better relationships. Brother Six had said that Second Uncle’s family will definitely flourish in the future. He didn’t want to go up and benefit from their association, but who could guarantee nothing would happen in the future? Having one more rich relative was never a bad thing!
Before long, he had taken his little cousin up to the old residence. Before stepping through the door, Little Doudou happily shouted, “Older Brother Shitou, Doudou has come to play with you! Older Sister Xiaocao, can you take me on the sleigh today?”
The two families, who were just about to eat breakfast put down their chopsticks upon hearing the sound. Madam Liu came out of the house and was a bit surprised to see Heizi, but soon recovered with a warm smile, “Heizi came? Come in and get warm. Little Doudou, where your Mother? She didn’t come?”
Little Doudou came down from Heizi’s shoulders and said, “Happy New Year to Second Aunt! My mother is slow and is behind us! Older Brother Shitou, I’m here…”
Heizi said ‘Happy New Years’ to Madam Liu and followed Little Doudou silently into the room. He was hit with the unique fragrance of the dumplings. He swallowed his saliva quietly and with a smile said, “Second Aunt, you guys haven’t eaten yet. I’ll come back later…”
Yu Hai came out of the inner rooms and saw the tan and strong Heizi. He patted him on the shoulders and said, “Why are you being an outsider with Second Uncle? Didn’t eat yet? Come in and have a bowl of dumplings. Your second aunt and oldest aunt made a lot.” As he said this, he pulled Heizi into the house and pushed him down at the table on the kang bed.
Madam Liu thought that Madam Zhao must’ve not eaten, so she went into the kitchen and brought in a basket of frozen dumplings. She revived the fire to cook the dumplings. As for the extra bowl of dumplings, she let her husband, who followed her in, to take it to Heizi.
Little Doudou was carried to the edge of the kang bed and put down to sit with the children. Little Shitou picked a dumpling from his bowl and blew on it before putting it in the little guy’s mouth. Little Doudou’s mouth was bulging and he was chewing hard. His pair of black eyes were bright, “Brother Shitou. It’s a pork dumpling, and there’s so much meat. It’s so delicious!”
Xiaocao took out a small bowl and gave the dumplings in her bowl to the little one. She smiled, “Eat more if it’s delicious! If it’s not enough, we can make more!”
Heizi, who had been working for nearly a year, had become a lot more mature, so he no longer ate like a bandit like he did when he was a child. He smiled innocently, but his heart wasn’t as peaceful as it seemed. ‘Second Uncle’s family really is rich and the disaster year didn’t seem to have any impact on them. They have cabbage and pork dumplings, and pork made up the majority of it with only some cabbage added in. The dumplings with leeks and eggs are so fresh, and there are a lot of eggs in it. It seems that there are sandworms added in too. The fragrance is so tempting!’
When Heizi felt that his saliva couldn’t be held back anymore, Yu Hai came in carrying a bowl full of dumplings and said, “Heizi, this is a bowl of cabbage and pork-filled dumplings. Eat this first. If it’s not enough, your second aunt is in the kitchen cooking another pot!”
“Thank you, Second Uncle. This is enough for me to eat!” With Heizi’s current appetite, a bowl of dumplings would only allow him to be half full. However, he doesn’t dare to openly eat and let Second Uncle think he came over to get money.
Old Yu ate the dumplings stuffed with pickles and pork and said to Heizi, “You aren’t an outsider, you don’t have to be so polite. Eat!”
Heizi restrained himself at first but became more relaxed later. He ate the fragrant and delicious dumplings with big bites and his eyes began to burn. How long had it been since he had such delicious dumplings? In the past, when the conditions were good, the dumplings he had at home were all cabbage and pork-filled dumplings with more cabbage than pork and each person only had so many. In order for him to eat more, he had stolen Xiaosha’s and Little Shitou’s dumplings. On the second day of the New Year’s, when he went to his maternal grandfather’s house, he could sometimes eat dumplings, but the taste of those was far inferior to the ones of Second Uncle’s.
“Have some soup, don’t choke!” Old Yu saw that Heizi was eating so fiercely, he felt bad. He estimated that this year had been rough on them there, so it was good enough that they weren’t going hungry. Ai… Although he divorced Madam Zhang, humans were emotional beings. He watched Heizi grow up. Although they weren’t blood-related, anyone would have emotions toward a dog once they’ve raised it long enough.
Madam Liu and Madam Zhao came in with two plates of dumplings each. Yu Caifeng and Liu Hu had already eaten so they gave up their seats. Madam Zhao ate some cabbage and pork-filled dumplings and tried two chive and egg stuffed dumplings. She praised her second sister-in-law’s cooking repeatedly
Madam Liu smiled and said, “I dare not take the credit; several of the stuffed dumplings were created by Xiaocao. Especially the chive and egg filled dumplings; she added some sandworms to make them more delicious.”
Yu Caifeng also praised, “These pickled vegetable and pork-filled dumplings are more authentic than what we ate in the northeast. Our family’s head had two full bowls! Sister-in-law, you eat first, we’ll go digest our food! ”
At the table on the kang bed, everyone was eating happily. Under the kang bed, there were two small beings who were unwilling, ‘I don’t want to gnaw on bones. I also want to eat dumplings!”
Little Doudou liked Little Black and Little White the most. Upon hearing their pitiful whine, he stretched out his head and gave them two of his dumplings.
Madam Zhao saw this and scolded her son, “Doudou, how can you give the dumplings to the dogs? How wasteful!” In her opinion, people couldn’t even get enough to eat, what was the point in raising dogs? What’s more, giving dogs meat dumplings to eat was just outrageous.
Seeing that Madam Zhao’s body was shaking with anger, Madam Liu hurriedly advised, “It’s just two dumplings, don’t scare the kids. Doudou hurry and eat. Don’t let the dumplings get cold, or you’ll get a tummy ache.”
Yu Xiaocao was full. Seeing that the two little ones were staring at the table after eating one dumpling, she bent down and patted their heads and said, “Your breakfasts are in the West Room and Big Gray is in there too! Go, I’ll take you over there!”
Little Black and Little White, upon hearing the words, finally moved their eyes away from the table on the kang bed. They followed behind Xiaocao with their butts up in the air. Their small steps became brisk as they knew that their little master wouldn’t treat them badly.
Yu Xiaocao brought a bowl of dumplings from the kitchen. When she walked into the West Room, she saw that Big Grey was eating a piece of cooked pork. Ever since trying the taste of cooked meat, Big Grey wasn’t willing to eat raw meat, especially the dead boar meat, which had been frozen for many days and was hard. Thus, Yu Xiaocao cooked a pot of meat for it and the two little ones every day, putting in a small amount of salt and seasonings. The big one and two small ones all happily ate it.
One bowl of meat dumplings was split in half into Little Black and Little White’s food bowl. Little Black couldn’t wait to eat it and burned his tongue, making a whine of sadness. Little White was gloating at the side as if he was saying, ‘Fool, who dares to eat dumplings just out of the pot without getting scalded?’
Little White was smarter. He first took a dumpling out of the food bowl and put it on the ground to cool for a while. Then he carefully tried it. When he decided that it wasn’t too hot, he ate it with relish.
Big Grey smelled the fragrance of the dumplings and suddenly felt that the delicious pork lost its delicious taste. He paced to the edge of Little Black’s food bowl, squeezing the little guy out of the way and took one out to slowly try. Mm, the taste wasn’t bad! Then he opened his mouth and took half the basin.
Little Black looked at this with tears in his eyes. He dared not be angry, but his eyes were full of complaints, ‘Is there a father like you? Taking his kids’ food! Why aren’t you taking it from Little White and just bullying me? Wuwuwu….’
Yu Xiaocao, who had just turned around and went out, heard Little Black’s sad cries and thought something had happened. So she returned to take a look. She saw Little Black watching pitifully and Big Gray lying on the edge of his food bowl, eating all the dumplings in two or three bites. After finishing, he took the piece of meat from his bowl and put it in Little Black’s food bowl. He used his paws to pat his son’s head telling him to eat.
Little Black stared at the meat in the food bowl with tears in his eyes and endless resentment in his heart, ‘I don’t want to eat meat, I want to eat dumplings. Wuwuwu! Little master, be the judge. A father picking on his son, are there any heavenly principles?’