Xu Zhiqiang took off his old cotton-padded jacket and put on new clothes. The old lady patted and touched Xu Zhiqiang's body here and there: "It's very good, it fits."

"Lanxiu's craftsmanship is getting better and better, and she can do it this way."

Xu Zhiqiang's body felt warm, and his heart felt even warmer. It was better to be his biological mother.

The old lady said: "Okay, take it off."

Xu Zhiqiang was moved and said, "Mom, why are you taking it off? Just wear it like this. It's quite warm."

The old lady glared at him: "The Chinese New Year won't be celebrated until tomorrow, so I'll save the new clothes for the Chinese New Year."

"Take it off!"

Xu Zhiqiang saw how pleasing the old lady was at this time. Even if his mother glared at her, he thought it was deep maternal love.

He took off his new clothes and put on his old cotton-padded jacket, and suddenly saw a large ham on the square table in the room.

Xu Zhiqiang walked over and saw the trademark "Jinhua Ham" on it.

"Mom, where did this come from?"

The old lady quickly showed off, "The New Year's goods that Sissi bought for me and your dad were bought at the Overseas Chinese Store in Beijing and cost dozens of yuan!"

Xu Zhiqiang clicked his tongue, "So expensive?"

"Susie and her family are really willing to give her money!"

The old lady snorted, "You know what, it's all Sissi's own money."

Xu Zhiqiang said in surprise: "Where does she make money? I don't think she is very efficient at farm work."

The old lady waved her hand and said, "What do you know."

"Sissi is very capable."

"Forget it, it's not appropriate to talk to you about this."

Xu Zhiqiang was still looking at the ham, "Mom, let's eat this tomorrow."

The old lady said: "Okay, just eat it. I can't bear to give this good thing away."

When Su Qian and the others were having dinner in the evening, they didn't see Yu Xue coming out to cook.

Su Qian only felt that Yu Xue had brought it upon herself. If she had been nicer to Xu Zhiqiang, Xu Zhiqiang would have cooked the food for her now.

While eating, Susie remembered that she hadn't bought any New Year's goods yet, "Let's go to the county town today, we have to buy some New Year's goods."

She twitched her fingers and said, "I have to buy a chicken, and I have to buy a fish. I have to eat fish during the New Year, so that I can have more than enough every year."

Zhao Tingting said from the side: "If we don't have chickens, why should we buy them?"

Susie shook her head, "No, they have to keep the big feathers to lay eggs, and buy another old hen."

Zhao Tingting added: "We in the north have to eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year. How about we buy some flour to make dumplings?"

Zhu Zhicheng and Qiao Mu both nodded.

Su Qian said: "Where is the meat? I'm afraid you won't be able to buy meat tickets on the black market during the Chinese New Year."

Zhao Tingting smiled and said, "Tomorrow the team will share the meat, everyone has a share."

Susie's eyes lit up, "Really, that's okay, then let's make dumplings."

"But we also have to buy chickens and fish, and by the way, we also need to buy firecrackers. Let's have a lively New Year."

After breakfast, a few people quickly packed up and went to catch a ride next to the highway.

Not long after, a bus came. The bus stopped, the door opened, and Susie was dumbfounded as she looked at the bus full of people.

Zhao Tingting stepped into the car with a quick stride and pulled Su Qian up. Qiao Mu and Zhu Zhicheng squeezed in after them.

Four people stood by the car door, so crowded that their fronts were pressed against their backs.

After walking not far, the car stopped again, and Susie quickly shouted: "Master, please stop the car, we really can't fit it in the car."

The driver looked back and saw nothing. There were people in the aisle blocking his view.

The driver opened the door anyway, and a man and a woman got in. There was almost no space in the car.

The car continued to move forward.

Finally, the car arrived at the county town. Several people got off the car and felt the New Year atmosphere as soon as they left the station.

There are many more stalls on the street, and no one is checking or taking care of them at this time.

A few people walked around and finally bought all the things they wanted to buy.

Susie also bought a bottle of white wine to drink during the New Year.

After walking for a while, she saw someone writing couplets on the street. Su Qian said to Zhao Tingting: "Let's buy a pair and stick them on the door. This will create a New Year atmosphere."

The person who wrote the couplets was an old man. The old man took a thick brush, dipped it in ink, and started writing a pair of couplets in a short while.

Several people squeezed past, and Su Qian said: "Old man, we want a pair of Spring Festival couplets."

The old man took up a pen and wrote on the red paper, "As time goes by, people live longer - spring fills the universe and brings happiness to the door."

A horizontal batch of "everything is updated".

The ink on the couplet she had just written was not dry yet, so Susie gave her two cents, picked up the fan on the table and fanned it for a while. After the couplet was dry, she rolled it up carefully.

Just as she was about to leave, Susie saw that there was cut blue paper on the big table, "Oh, I haven't seen it in this color before? This color is also pretty good-looking."

Zhao Tingting quickly pulled Su Qian away and walked a few steps before whispering: "That kind of couplet is posted when someone in the family is gone."

"If someone dies in a family in the past year, the red couplet cannot be posted on the door, but the blue couplet must be posted."

Susie stuck out her tongue. She really didn't know this custom.

They didn't put up couplets very much during the Chinese New Year at that time. Trouble, at most they put up a blessing character on the door.

After buying the things, Susie said very experiencedly: "Let's go to the station and take the bus. We won't be able to get on the bus halfway."

When we arrived at the station to buy tickets, a few people were very clever and were the first to get on the train with their things.

When the bus left the station, it was still only full, but slowly more and more people were on the bus.

Soon the carriage was packed to the brim again.

After finally arriving at the Yangjiao production team, several people struggled to squeeze out of the car.

Returning to the collective household, they put the fish in the bucket, the old hen in the chicken coop, and the white flour firecrackers in Zhu Zhicheng's house.

After buying the New Year's goods, I went to divide the meat the next day.

The production team raised more than a dozen pigs and had to turn in ten of them every year. The remaining pigs were killed a few days before the New Year, and the meat was divided among the whole village so that everyone would have meat to eat during the New Year.

When they arrived at the threshing floor, Susie felt that the entire production team was here. In addition to the screams of pigs, there were also the laughter of aunts, the cries of children, and the voices of men bragging.

After a while, Susie felt that her ears were almost giving out.

Looking again, there was blood and water on the ground, and the whole threshing floor was still filled with a fishy smell. Susie couldn't bear it anymore, "You guys help me get the meat, I'm going back."

Just as she was about to leave, she saw Yang Laosan also crowding in the crowd, probably coming to collect the meat as well.

One of Yang Laosan's eyes was removed, and his eye socket was empty. He was wearing a shabby cotton-padded jacket, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, his back hunched and his head hanging down. He had lost all his former liveliness.

Usually on such occasions, Yang Laosan would run around, either touching this butt or eating that one's tofu. Now his whole body was completely wilted.

Qiao Mu also saw Yang Laosan, his eyes casually passed by, and then walked to Su Qian, "I'll take you back."

Susie smiled, "It's only a few steps away, what can I give you as a gift?"
Chapter completed!