Chapter 362: New Year

Four people, two beds, but unable to sleep. I paced around the room in frustration.

It was still my mother who made the final decision: "Both of them can sleep with me. As long as they don't mind an old woman like me."

Xi Meizhu had been smiling; she was confident. Although she wasn't a daughter in the true sense of our family, now that she was in our house, she seemed to have a status I couldn't shake.

Huang Weiwei said busily: "Who would mind Mother? Sleeping with Mother is such a happy thing."

I heard Xi Meizhu say softly: "Pretentious."

Three people squeezed onto my mother's bed, and no one could sleep comfortably. I saw it clearly.

My eyes swept to the portrait of my father hanging on the wall, and my heart suddenly brightened.

"Weiwei can sleep in my bed. I'll stay up for the New Year!" I said, feeling proud of myself for coming up with such a brilliant idea.

"No!" To my surprise, Huang Weiwei flatly refused my proposal. She snuggled up to my mother, as if they were relatives who hadn't seen each other for centuries and couldn't be separated for even a moment.

"Weiwei sister isn't going? Then I'll go," Xi Meizhu smiled faintly: "If the three of us squeeze into one bed, Mother won't be comfortable."

Her reason was simply high-sounding, leaving no room for flaws.

Huang Weiwei paused, looking at my mother hesitantly.

My mother smiled and patted Huang Weiwei's head: "Silly girl, go. On New Year's Eve, Feng'er has to stay up for the New Year; this is our family's tradition."

Huang Weiwei was still hesitating, and Xi Meizhu on the side teased: "If you don't go, I'm really going."

"You go, you go, I knew you wanted to go," Huang Weiwei shouted angrily, letting go of my mother, glaring at me: "Why don't you take Meizhu?"

None of us expected her to suddenly get angry. A young lady from a wealthy family, being able to marry into a family like ours, was already a blessing from a previous life, not to mention that she wasn't even our family's real daughter-in-law.

Her anger left the three of us at a loss.

The air in the room became stifling. None of the four of us spoke. It was as if whoever spoke would shatter this glass lamp.

A burst of firecrackers sounded outside, followed by the happy cries of children coming through the window.

Huang Weiwei sensed the atmosphere, smiled embarrassedly, stole a glance at me, and stammered: "I didn't mean anything else."

"I know," I followed with a smile, trying to break the solidified awkwardness.

"Shall we go set off firecrackers?" A trace of girlish playfulness flashed in Huang Weiwei's eyes.

"Okay," I agreed, finding a few coils of firecrackers from the cabinet.

"Meizhu, come together," Huang Weiwei invited her enthusiastically.

"I'm not going." Xi Meizhu hadn't come out of the conflict just now. She refused Huang Weiwei's invitation.

"Zhu, go," my mother said: "It's the New Year, we should set off firecrackers. To drive away bad luck."

"I've been afraid of setting off firecrackers since I was a child, Mother." Xi Meizhu insisted on refusing.

"Then we'll go." I understood that the best way now was for me to take Huang Weiwei outside to set off firecrackers. In the sound of firecrackers, the old year would pass, and no matter how bad the mood was, it would vanish in the sky-filling roar.

I almost half-hugged Huang Weiwei out the door.

Outside, the world was silver-clad, and the bone-chilling cold was dissolved in the bright red Spring Festival couplets everywhere.

Children were running on the small street, and although they were dressed bloatedly, it didn't affect their happy running at all. Firecrackers sounded one after another, announcing that the New Year was coming.

I spread the firecrackers on the ground, and the red firecrackers reflected several bright colors on the snow-white ground.

Lighting a cigarette, I took two deep puffs and handed the cigarette butt to Huang Weiwei, signaling her to go light it.

Huang Weiwei was startled, threw the cigarette butt, and hid behind me, shouting: "Damn Chen Feng, you want to blow me up."

I hugged her and kissed her on the mouth: "Wife, it's the New Year, you're scolding your husband, how should I punish you?"

Huang Weiwei laughed coquettishly: "How do you want to punish me?"

"Go light the firecrackers."

"Not going."

"Not going? A wife should follow her husband."

"Get lost. This girl hasn't married into your house yet."

"Are you marrying or not?"

"Marrying."

"If you're marrying, go light the fire."

"Not marrying anymore."

"Not marrying won't do." I stared into her eyes, smiling wickedly.

"What do you want to do? Chen Feng." She was startled by my wicked smile and wanted to escape, but was held tightly in my arms, unable to move at all.

"I'm not doing anything," I said, but my hands were not honest, wanting to reach under her clothes.

"You want to die!" She tried to stop me, looking around, and scolded: "In broad daylight, aren't you afraid of being seen?"

"Not afraid."

"You're not afraid, but I am." She blushed and begged me: "I'm your wife."

My heart trembled, and infinite love spread.

"Dear wife, let me do it." I let her go. She jumped away like a little squirrel.

The firecrackers exploded on the ground, and red paper scraps flew all over the sky. My mood suddenly opened up.

Our firecrackers attracted a group of children, who surrounded us in green and red, screaming excitedly.

"Brother, set off fireworks. Fireworks are better to look at." They shouted, swarming over and surrounding us.

"Brother doesn't have fireworks at home," I said, squatting down, stroking their tender faces, feeling incomparably loving in my heart.

"Sister, set off fireworks." They went to beg Huang Weiwei again.

"Okay. Sister will set off fireworks for you to see." Huang Weiwei also squatted down, hugged a little boy, and kissed his face happily.

The children clapped and cheered happily.

I asked suspiciously: "Are there fireworks at home?"

Huang Weiwei smiled and didn't answer, turned and went into the house, and after a while, came out with a large bag of fireworks.

The children's eyes lit up instantly, and they laughed, shouted, and waited for the sky to be filled with the brilliance of fireworks.

"All for you to play with." Huang Weiwei distributed the fireworks to the children, her smiling face looking soft and beautiful under the lights.

The children took the fireworks and swept out like a gust of wind.

We looked at each other and smiled happily and beautifully.

Not far away, the fireworks in the children's hands were lit, and laughter accompanied the sound of fireworks echoing in the night sky.

"Let's go home," I said, holding her hand and entering the house.

My mother's door was closed, and there was no sound inside.

I hesitated, wanting to knock on the door.

Huang Weiwei pulled me and said: "Mother is asleep, don't disturb her."

I poked my head into my room again. No one was there. Xi Meizhu was with my mother!

"You go to sleep too," I said, hugging Huang Weiwei into my room.

"No."

"If you're not sleeping, what are you doing?"

"I'll accompany you."

"All night long."

"I'm not afraid."

"My heart aches."

"I just want to accompany you."

"Okay, okay, okay." I agreed repeatedly. I walked around the room and picked up a candy box, preparing to fill it with the candy and pastries needed for breakfast on the first day of the New Year, according to the number of compartments in the candy box.

This was my father's patent while he was alive. Every New Year's Eve, my father would stay up until dawn.

On this night, he would boil eggs and peel them. He would fill the candy box and, in the middle of the night, go to my bedside and put a small red envelope under my pillow.

Thinking of this, my nose felt sour, and I almost shed tears.

Huang Weiwei seemed to sense my sadness, held my hand tightly, and said softly: "Feng, let me do it."

Looking at her carefully filling the fruit plate, a sense of sweetness rose in my heart. Thirty years of wind and rain, harvesting such a beauty today—life is like this, what more could one ask for?

Our family had many rules, especially for filling the fruit plate, which had its own requirements.

Of course, not just our family, every household in Hengyue City poured a lot of effort into the fruit plate. Whether a family was wealthy or not could be seen from whether their New Year fruit plate was rich.

No matter whose house it was, the compartment in the very center of the fruit plate must contain the same pastry. We called it "Fa Bing" (Prosperity Cake), predicting that the coming year would be prosperous.

Families who were particular would definitely wrap the Fa Bing in red paper. The Fa Bing couldn't be eaten; no matter how many times the pastry box was changed, the Fa Bing was always in the middle compartment.

And precisely because of this, children had an incomparable love for the Fa Bing. They always thought the Fa Bing in the middle was the most delicious thing. For example, I always secretly ate the Fa Bing when I was a child, causing my mother to look for it everywhere.

New Year's Eve, the happiest day for families under heaven. I was the same, looking at Huang Weiwei's busy back, a happy smile spreading from the bottom of my heart. ===== CHAPTER 363 =====