Chapter 253: The New Year's Money

In the Northeast, the dumplings on New Year's Eve are generally eaten after 12 o'clock in the middle of the night.

Before eating dumplings, you have to set off firecrackers, using the sound of firecrackers to scare away the Year Beast.

At the same time, it is also to send away the past year and welcome the New Year.

Wang An's family had quite a lot of firecrackers, small whips, big firecrackers, and double-kicks; of course, they were all bought by Wang An before.

Wang An led Wang Yi and the two little sisters to set them off for more than half an hour with a "crackling" sound.

In fact, the firecrackers at this time were just for the sound, and had no ornamental value at all, but the four brothers and sisters played quite happily.

After setting off the firecrackers, the whole family sat around the table eating dumplings. Wang An even took out the deer blood wine, and except for the children, everyone poured some.

Deer blood wine, besides nourishing yin and strengthening yang, is very beneficial to the body for both men and women if they drink a little.

After all, the main effect of this thing is actually to strengthen muscles and bones, resist fatigue, and increase the body's resistance.

However, this thing can't be drunk too much, mainly because it's easy to have a nosebleed if you drink too much.

Due to Wang An's divine operation, putting 16 coins in the dumplings, the whole family ate money.

Especially Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli, the happy little expressions when they ate the money made the family, who were already laughing and talking, laugh even more.

New Year, happiness is the most important thing!

At this time, Wang An suddenly felt that his rebirth was absolutely very meaningful to his family!

After eating and washing the bowls and chopsticks, Wang Dazhu, as the head of the family, personally pressed the pot.

This pressing the pot is not literal, but putting dumplings, steamed buns, and New Year cakes into a large bowl.

Of course, you only need three or five dumplings, one or two steamed buns, and a few slices of New Year cake.

Then put the bowl into the pot fork in the pot, and finally cover the pot lid.

Doing this is actually a kind of yearning and expectation for a better life.

Having food in the pot and food in the bowl has been the highest yearning of all farmers for thousands of years.

Of course, this is just a custom, don't over-interpret it.

Then, it came to the most important link for children: asking for New Year's money.

In the Northeast, unmarried girls don't need to kowtow to their parents, but after getting married, they need to kowtow to their parents-in-law to pay a New Year's call.

So Wang An led Mu Xueqing and Wang Yi to kowtow to Wang Dazhu and his wife to pay a New Year's call.

Although Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli don't need to kowtow, they also need to pay a New Year's call to their parents.

Then Wang Dazhu and his wife distributed the prepared New Year's money to the five juniors.

Not much, not little, impartial, one big ten-yuan note each.

Wang An looked at the big ten-yuan note in his hand, and a sense of happiness arose spontaneously.

Without special circumstances, this is also the last time Wang An received New Year's money.

Because this year is the first year Mu Xueqing married over, called a new daughter-in-law. From next year's New Year, Wang An and his wife will no longer have the qualification to receive New Year's money.

However, Wang Yi and the two little sisters didn't care about the amount of New Year's money at all, because this New Year's money is also called "pocket-pressing money."

After the first month, that is, after the 15th of the first month, they have to return it to their parents.

That is to say, this money is only kept in the pocket for 15 days, and by the 16th day, they don't even have the right to keep it.

So for children, this New Year's money is not as real as a piece of meat.

In this day and age, red envelopes are not popular yet, so New Year's money is money, naked money.

In previous New Years, the four Wang brothers and sisters each had one yuan or a few cents of New Year's money, and this year, each had a big ten-yuan note.

No matter what, you can see how the family is living from the amount of New Year's money.

After receiving the New Year's money, the whole family covered the kang and went to sleep.

Covering the kang is actually laying out the bedding.

Because the temperature is low, the fire kang in the Northeast is hot all day, and after laying out the bedding, the heat of the kang will be covered.

However, in this way, the quilt is very hot, and it is quite comfortable to sleep in.

In such a hot quilt, Wang An, who drank deer blood wine, can be described as unusually heroic.

Wang An tried several positions and felt it wasn't enough.

And after a long period of exercise, Wang An still didn't feel tired. In fact, when eating dumplings, Mu Xueqing also drank a little deer blood wine.

You have to know that this thing is something that strengthens muscles and bones and resists fatigue for anyone.

So Mu Xueqing was the same, with good physical strength and unwilling to admit defeat, and full of fighting spirit.

The two fought one battle after another, and because they were young and didn't know fatigue, neither of them submitted to the other.

However, this kind of thing has always been an advantage for women.

Some people compare men to cows and women to land.

And the common saying is good: there are only tired cows, but no broken land.

Until the last battle between the two ended, Wang An looked at his watch with the storm lantern.

Damn, it's almost 4 o'clock!

Wang An, who was just 20 years old, started the new year in the battle with Mu Xueqing.

On the morning of the first day, the whole family got up early to welcome the God of Wealth.

Although they slept at 4 o'clock, neither Wang An nor Mu Xueqing had a trace of fatigue.

Welcoming the God of Wealth is actually setting off firecrackers early in the morning.

After setting off firecrackers and eating breakfast, they started to kowtow to pay a New Year's call to the family in the same village. Of course, it was still limited to men.

The Wang family didn't have many elders. The only ones Wang An needed to kowtow to pay a New Year's call were his eldest grandfather Wang Dashu and his wife, and his second grandfather Wang Daliang and his wife.

Mu Xueqing, as a new daughter-in-law, also had to follow Wang An to kowtow this year. From next year, she could do it at will.

After paying a New Year's call, many people would wander around the village. This is called "running away from a hundred diseases."

In fact, it is also borrowing the homophony. Running away from a hundred diseases is to drive away all disasters and diseases, which is also people's vision.

Medical treatment in this era is very underdeveloped. No matter what disease, even a cold, as long as you get it, it is very likely to cost your life.

When running away from a hundred diseases in the village, as long as the villagers met, they would pay a New Year's call to each other and say Happy New Year.

It was just that Wang An discovered that although everyone had smiles on their faces, many people's smiles were faked, especially many families who raised sheep, who were full of sorrow.

This wolf disaster really caused quite a lot of losses.

It echoed the old saying in the countryside: "A family with ten thousand *guan* of wealth doesn't count the ones with fur."

On the second day, Wang An accompanied Mu Xueqing back to her parents' home and drank a lot of wine again.

On the third day, Wang An and Mu Xueqing started visiting relatives. It was also to visit the elders. It was mainly to recognize the door. In fact, there were only three families: aunt, old aunt, and old uncle's house. After all, Mu Xueqing was a new daughter-in-law, so she still had to walk through every house and follow Wang An to kowtow to pay a New Year's call.

After all these were finished, Wang An started wandering around again, becoming a "loafer" again.

During the day, it was either drinking or playing cards.

The number of times he had "daytime sound" with Shen Wei was also quite a lot, and every time he cut Shen Wei under the horse.

In the Northeast in this era, before the 15th of the first month, mountain trekkers generally don't go into the mountains.

Because not killing living things in the first month is also a rule that many mountain trekkers follow.

Although Wang An had never followed the rules, he wouldn't deliberately destroy them.

The traditions left by the older generation must have their reasons, and besides, Wang An isn't short of money, so there's really no need to fight with mountain beasts in this big first month.

Soon, time came to the 16th of the first month, which was February 20, 1981. In the countryside, this year was considered over.

This also means that the new journey of this year has begun, and Wang An has too many things to do this year.

Mountain trekking and hunting, building new houses, panning for gold, lifting ginseng; no matter which one, it is not something that can be completed in a short time.

However, you have to eat one bite at a time, and do things one by one. Take your time, get anxious, it's useless!

On the morning of the 16th of the first month, Wang An loaded all the things that should be sold onto the sled, and then drove the sled toward the county town.

This time, there were more things on the sled, including 5 bear gallbladders hit with Seeing Mu Xueli; these gallbladders were all dry now.

There were also three complete bear skins, 26 complete wolf skins, and 14 complete red dog skins.

All these furs were hit when mountain trekking with Seeing Mu Xueli. After such a long time, they were finally all dry and could be sold.

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(End of chapter)