Rebirth: Rewriting Youth

Chapter 44 Years

On New Year's Eve, every household is decorated with lights and colorful decorations to celebrate the safe end of the year.Shen Yu was also asked by Shen's mother to clean at home early in the morning.Mother Shen was busy making lunch and stuffing wontons.

Father Shen also took a break in the past two days and was busy pasting Spring Festival couplets outside the door.In the corridor, if you occasionally meet your neighbors, everyone will smile and wish you: "Happy New Year."

After a simple lunch at noon, Shen's mother started busy making wontons in the afternoon.

Shen Yu's family has been eating wontons on New Year's Eve since childhood. At first, Shen Yu thought it was some kind of custom.When I was still living in Yanyuan New Village when I was a child, I ate at Chen Hang’s house several times on New Year’s Eve, and the table was full of delicious dishes.

So later I asked Father Shen in confusion why the family didn’t cook food on New Year’s Eve?

I only found out after listening to Father Shen’s explanation that since the first day of the new year, I basically eat out. If I cook a large table of dishes on New Year’s Eve, it will be completely wasted if I can’t finish it.Wontons can be kept in the refrigerator and eaten all the time.

Well, it’s actually just my parents’ frugal habits.

After eating wontons in the evening, Father Shen opened the door to his home, and the family sat together, chatting, waiting for the Spring Festival Gala to begin.Shen Yu remembers that at the 2009 Spring Festival Gala, Jay Chou also performed a song "Compendium of Materia Medica". Uncle Benshan and Xiao Shenyang will also perform "Not Short of Money" at this year's Spring Festival Gala.

When it got slightly dark, bursts of fireworks began to sound outside the window.Shen Yu stood up and walked to the balcony, watching and listening to the thousands of silver dragons flying straight into space outside the window, the thousands of spring flowers blooming in the sky, the crackling of beans being fried, and the banging like thunder.

Various fireworks add a bit of color to the night sky and add a strong New Year flavor to this festive moment.Shen Yu watched with fascination.How long has it been since I saw such a scene?
Starting in 2015, fireworks are not allowed in the city.And Shen Yu felt that it was then that the flavor of the New Year gradually faded away.

Father Shen looked at Shen Yu on the balcony, stood up and walked over, pointed at a certain place and said with a smile: "Look at that, does it look good?"

Shen Yu looked in the direction of Father Shen's finger and saw a huge firework exploding, accompanied by red, blue, green, colorful intertwined into clusters of extremely bright flowers, and then another explosion. It broke into a piece of white stars, spraying and twinkling, like thousands of shooting stars slowly falling down.

Shen Yu smiled and said, "It's quite beautiful."

Father Shen also said with a smile: "These fireworks look like they were set off by a wealthy family. They only have one blast. I have heard of those kind of fireworks. They are very expensive."

Shen Yu thought for a while, smiled and joked: "Then I will work hard to make a lot of money in the future, and then buy you many, many big fireworks like this."

Father Shen smiled and slapped Shen Yu on the head, scolding: "Just study hard and find a stable job to support yourself in the future. I will be the one to make money."

Shen Yu smiled and said nothing.Anyway, after he was reborn, he made up his mind to let his father change his job.Shen Yu didn't want his father to be injured again.

After a while, Father Shen said: "Let's go down and play the double ring."

Shen Yu nodded, went downstairs and fired six double-click cannons with his father, chatted with the neighbor who was setting off fireworks downstairs for a while, scattered two cigarettes, watched the fireworks for a while, and then went upstairs.

When he got home, Father Shen said, "You're not allowed to go out." After saying that, he closed the door to his home.At this time, the Spring Festival Gala is about to begin.Shen Yu sat on the sofa, looking at Shen's mother who was smiling brightly and Shen's father lying on the bed of the imperial concubine, and felt warm in his heart.

Before 10 o'clock, Father Shen proposed to wash up and rest early, as he would have to get up early tomorrow.So the three of them simply washed up and returned to their rooms.

Shen Yu took out his mobile phone from the bottom of the drawer and turned it on, and found that he had received three text messages, from Zheng Yu, Han Shuang, and editor Qin Zhou.Shen Yu replied one by one.

After a while, Qin Zhou's text message came back. After exchanging a few text messages, he mentioned to Shen Yu that it would be released after the year.After a brief discussion, the two agreed to talk in detail after the New Year.

Then I logged into QQ on my mobile phone, sent my best wishes to the two friends, and chatted a few words with a few classmates in the class who were familiar with me and were online.Look at the time, it's past 11 o'clock.Then he turned off his cell phone and fell asleep peacefully with the constant rumbling outside the window.

Everyone has their own unique memories of the New Year.

For most people nowadays, the Chinese New Year symbolizes a holiday, which allows people to temporarily get rid of the worries of work or school and gain a short period of time.

Shen Yu feels that the reason why the taste of youth in later generations has faded is because as they grow up, their attitude towards relationships has weakened.It's because of the fast-paced society that interpersonal communication has faded.It's because living conditions have improved and expectations for food have faded.It's because technology has developed and people's reliance on face-to-face meetings has faded.But everyone always misses the lively New Year celebrations in childhood while complaining.

In the early morning, the sound of firecrackers sounded again, getting louder and louder. In the morning light, sparks sparkled, gunpowder smoke filled the air, and red and green confetti fluttered, making the cold morning very hot.

Shen Yu got up at 7:500, first wished her parents a happy new year, and received a red envelope worth [-] yuan. After eating wontons for breakfast, Shen's mother took out a few cooked vegetables and some country food she had bought in advance from the refrigerator yesterday. If they couldn't buy fish, meat, etc., the family stuffed large and small packages of gifts into the trunk of the car and went out.Bypassing some roads that were often congested during the New Year, Father Shen drove Shen Yu and Mother Shen to his grandfather's house to pay New Year greetings. After Uncle Shen Xufeng and his family drove over in a Toyota Corolla borrowed from Haishi Company to pay New Year greetings, Father Shen and Shen Xufeng took Shen Xujie's family of three to sit at the third grandfather's house.

At about early 10 o'clock, the three families crowded into two cars and drove to the countryside to visit Shen Yu's hometown to pay New Year's greetings to his grandfather.As for Shenyu's third grandpa and little grandpa, they are waiting in the city for others to visit them to pay New Year greetings.

The road to my hometown has been extremely difficult these days because the road is narrow and there are too many cars.Shen Yu squeezed into the back seat, listening to his mother and teacher Jiang Ye chatting about some gossip about acquaintances around them, and looking out the window at the cars full of people.Everyone in the car was wearing brand new clothes, with happy smiles on their faces, and their eyes were full of eagerness to go home. Shen Yu felt the taste of the year that was missing in his previous life again, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously smiled slightly. Raise.

More than half an hour later, a group of people entered the village.Shen Yu saw through the car window that his grandfather was already standing at the door with a cane, watching.Father Shen parked the car steadily on the field in front of the old house.Grandpa had already walked over eagerly on his crutches. When he saw Father Shen getting out of the car, grandpa hurriedly asked: "Ade (young grandpa), Aren (third grandpa) are not here again?"

Father Shen said calmly: "They also want to wait at home for people to come to visit and pay New Year's greetings."

Shen Yu got out of the car and shouted to his grandfather who looked disappointed: "Grandpa."

Grandpa saw Shen Yu, smiled, held a crutch between his legs, stretched out his hand and said, "Xiaoyu is here."

Shen Yu hurriedly stepped forward to support his grandfather and said with a smile, "Happy New Year, grandpa."

Grandpa's hand held Shen Yu's arm tightly and said: "I have to take the college entrance examination carefully this year, and then I will go to Ah Li (the second grandfather)."

Shen Yu said with a smile: "Don't even think about Grandpa Second. I will definitely get into a good university by then, okay?"

At this time, Shen Xujie also came over with his family carrying gifts and said with a smile: "Uncle, don't think so much. I'll wish you a happy new year first."

Grandpa leaned on a crutch and said with a smile: "Okay, okay."

At this time, Uncle Shen Xufeng's family and two cousins ​​also arrived. A group of people held gifts and said auspicious words, and the atmosphere became lively.

Mother Shen took the vegetables she bought and went into the kitchen to cook with her grandma.

After drinking sugar water, everyone took gifts and went to the uncle's house in the old house behind the house to pay New Year greetings.

The uncle is a relatively unconventional person in the Shen family. He is very poor in mathematics, excellent in Chinese, and can write extremely beautiful pen calligraphy.Because I was partial to subjects and my grades were too bad, I stopped attending elementary school.

Shen Yu saw that his uncle bought two packs of Hard Powder powder today, and Shen Xufeng's family was already having a bit of trouble with his uncle, so he put down the gifts and exchanged greetings before going to Qiancun to pay New Year's greetings.Father Shen and Shen Xujie's family were sitting in the main room smoking and chatting with their uncle.

Shen Yu's cousin Shen Bin came over with a smile, looked at Shen Yu up and down, and then said: "You have lost so much weight."

Shen Yu smiled and called: "Brother."

Shen Yu's cousin, like his father, was partial to academic subjects and very poor in Chinese. His math scores were inherited from the Shen family, and he basically got full marks in junior high school.But then I only went to a vocational high school and now I am working in a machinery factory.

Shen Bin also smiled and nodded, then came over and said mysteriously: "Shall we ride a scooter to the team to buy firecrackers?"

In the past, Shen Yu would have agreed happily, but now Shen Yu just smiled and waved his hand and said, "Forget it, we'll eat in a while."

Shen Bin said with some disappointment: "Okay."

After a while, everyone returned to grandpa's house. Father Shen moved a small table out of the main room, and Shen Xujie took out a deck of cards from the briefcase he carried with him. A group of people started to fry gold flowers. It’s an old Chinese New Year tradition!

The uncle was serving tea and water on the side, but did not serve the table.Shen Yu knew that his uncle had no money and was afraid of losing. Father Shen and the others were playing big games, so they didn't dare to come.Except for Shen Xujie and his wife who knew how to say thank you to their uncle, Shen Xufeng and his wife completely ignored him.

Shen Yu sat aside with a small bench and watched all this silently.I couldn't help but think of the words of Huang Bo in later generations: "When you become popular, you will find that there are good people around you." Thinking of the condescending look of these so-called relatives after Shen's father was injured in his previous life, Shen Yu couldn't help but feel I feel that people still have to live a little selfishly.What would it have been like if grandpa had also gone to school?

(End of this chapter)