Chapter 94: Visiting Relatives at the Liang Family

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Li Long climbed up early.

Habit is truly a terrifying thing. Even though he no longer needed to get up early to hitch the horse cart, after ten or twenty days of getting up before dawn every day, now even if he didn't need to work, his biological clock had automatically marked it, and he woke up when the time came.

He couldn't sleep in even if he wanted to.

He hadn't heard the sound of firecrackers outside yet, so Li Long got dressed and went to the west room. Liang Yuemei had already set up the stove and was wrapping dumplings.

"Xiao Long, go prepare the firecrackers. Later when your sister-in-law calls to boil the dumplings, you light the firecrackers on your side."

Li Long agreed, took a thousand-count electric light firecracker from the fire wall, and went outside to unpack it.

Li Juan and Li Qiang, who were wearing new clothes, had also climbed up. Seeing Li Long go out, they immediately followed.

Li Long used thin wire to tie the firecrackers to a long pole and then held them high.

"Qiangqiang, dare to light them?"

"Don't dare." Seeing the electric light firecrackers were so big, Li Qiang really didn't dare to light them—he knew they were different from the "two-kick" firecrackers from last night, which his little uncle had set off.

"Haha, then you hold the pole here with your feet." Li Long leaned the pole diagonally against the courtyard wall, letting the firecrackers fall outside the courtyard wall, and someone just needed to hold the pole here.

"Good."

Li Long took out his kerosene lighter, walked outside the courtyard wall, and lit the head of the firecrackers.

When Liang Yuemei opened the door and shouted, Li Long lit the firecrackers on his side.

The huge sound made his ears ache. It had to be said, the quality of firecrackers at this time was truly good!

After the firecrackers were set off, Li Qiang immediately rushed out and picked up the duds outside the courtyard wall. Li Juan also followed to pick them up—Li Long remembered that he seemed to have done similar things when he was a child.

After breakfast was New Year greetings. Li Long gave Li Juan and Li Qiang ten yuan each as New Year money. Although Liang Yuemei felt it was too much, Li Long felt it was something that should be given.

Next was New Year greetings in the village. Ordinary New Year greetings were visiting east and west, no need to bring gifts, just say Happy New Year. Unless you ran into someone with a particularly good relationship, generally, everyone went back to their own homes for lunch.

Li Jianguo didn't require who to visit, but the Gu family had to be visited. The relationship between the two families was very good. It wasn't appropriate to let Li Juan take Li Qiang to visit at this time, but these children also had their own way of celebrating the New Year, often running from house to house in groups, and also comparing whose candy tasted better, whose peanuts tasted better, etc.

Li Long went to the Gu family and saw Gu Xiaoxia still studying, feeling quite gratified. After leaving the Gu family, he went to Tao Daqiang’s house to have a look, and then returned to the east room. He used to like the bustle, but now he felt that staying quietly and reading was also quite good.

In the afternoon, Xu Haijun came to find Li Long to play, but Li Long declined. He felt that he was twenty, and running from house to house like a child was a bit childish.

Early the next morning, Li Long went to the stables to hitch the horse cart and brought it back—today was the second day of the Lunar New Year, time to go to the Liang family.

In the past, Li Long wouldn't go—he wanted face, he felt the Liang family were relatives of his brother and sister-in-law, and had nothing to do with him, so he would stay at home. And his brother and sister-in-law couldn't overcome him, and he wouldn't cook, so Liang Yuemei would usually prepare his food in advance.

When Liang Yuemei mentioned this last night, Li Long didn't hesitate and agreed—go.

In fact, he understood in his previous life that compared to his own parents, the Liang family took better care of him. For the sake of his big brother Li Jianguo, the things the Liang family brought when taking care of this side would often include a share for Li Long. Old Man Liang truly treated Li Long as a junior.

It was just that Li Long in his previous life was concerned with that pretentious self-esteem and failed to live up to this care.

Knowing Li Long was going, Liang Yuemei was very happy. Li Long took the initiative to propose hitching the horse cart to go—the whole family was going, and they had to bring some meat, fish, and the like, so it was naturally inconvenient to carry them.

At this time, the team’s horse cart was really quite idle. After all, not everyone was willing to spend one yuan and sixty cents to rent a horse cart to visit relatives, so they would walk if they could walk.

When driving the cart out of the house, Sister-in-law Lu from across the street happened to go out and run into them, asking in surprise:

"Juanjuan’s mom, what are you doing?" "Going back to my maiden home," Liang Yuemei said with a smile. "Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year, we’re going back to my maiden home."

"Yo, then Xiao Long..." Sister-in-law Lu remembered that Li Long wouldn't go in previous years, and was even more surprised to see Li Long sitting on the cart.

"I’m going too. Haven't seen Grandpa and Grandma Liang for a long time, I’m going to pay them a New Year greeting." Li Long also said with a smile.

Li Jianguo flicked the whip, and the horse cart went along the main road. Sister-in-law Lu watched the horse cart and muttered to herself, this Li Long has truly changed.

When the horse cart arrived at the Liang family five kilometers away, Liang Wenyu was still nagging that the eldest sister would arrive soon.

The second sister Liang Xingmei’s family was closer and had already arrived. Liang Xingmei married a farmer from a neighboring team, Du Haihua. The two production teams were less than a kilometer apart, and these two teams belonged to the Qianjin Commune, adjacent to the Hongqi Commune where Li Long and the others were located.

"Uncle, Big Uncle!" From far away, Li Qiang saw Liang Wenyu and then shouted loudly.

Liang Wenyu was a bit surprised, then quickly hurried over, picked Li Qiang up from the cart:

"Qiangqiang is here! Let Uncle see, so heavy, you’ve become a big kid!"

Then he looked at Li Juan: "Juan is here too, you’ve grown taller!"

After Liang Wenyu greeted Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei, he looked at Li Long.

!.

In the past, Li Long wouldn't come, and Liang Wenyu felt he was pretentious. Now that he came, he felt a bit awkward.

Liang Wenyu was half a year older than Li Long, but Li Long had always called him by his name when greeting him.

"Brother Wenyu, Happy New Year!" Li Long took the initiative to greet, making Liang Wenyu stunned for a moment before saying: "Happy New Year! Heard you tossed around a few times before the New Year, how is it?"

"It’s okay, anyway, there’s no shortage of meat at home now," Li Long said with a smile. "This isn't it, there’s still some to honor Grandpa and Grandma."

Looking at the half-side of wild boar meat, two sheep legs, and a bag of fish loaded on the cart, Liang Wenyu couldn't help but say:

"This... is it too much?"

"Not much, not much, there’s still plenty at home," Li Jianguo laughed.

In the past, because of Li Long’s burden, plus the miscellaneous things in the production team, Li Jianguo had received many subsidies from his father-in-law’s family, which led to his brother-in-law Du Haihua being sarcastic whenever he saw him.

Bringing back so many things this time, let’s see what that Du guy has to say!

Speak of the devil, hearing the movement outside, Du Haihua and Liang Xingmei walked out of the room, and then saw the horse cart.

It was rare to drive a horse cart to visit relatives in this day and age. After seeing Li Jianguo, Du Haihua said half-jokingly and half-sarcastically:

"Yo, Big Brother-in-law is quite flashy, only a few kilometers away, and you got a horse cart. This is because you’re afraid the battle formation isn't big enough."

"It’s not that I’m afraid the battle formation isn't big enough, but that I can't carry the things," Li Jianguo didn't pretend not to hear Du Haihua’s sarcasm, and directly took the bag of fish from the cart and put it on Du Haihua’s shoulder:

"You’re here, just in time to help, take this fish into Dad and Mom’s room."

Du Haihua had actually seen the things loaded on the horse cart after he finished speaking, and was stunned, otherwise he wouldn't have been directly "calculated" by Li Jianguo.

The fish was already on his shoulder, and it wouldn't be appropriate for him to put it down, so he had to carry it into the room.

At this time, Liang Yuemei’s father, Liang Donglou, and mother, Chen Xiuzhu, came out of the room, happily welcoming their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren—including Li Long.

In their eyes, Li Long was also a junior like a relative.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 95 =====