A pleasant life in a courtyard

Chapter 76
New Year's Day.

Since [-] o'clock in the morning, firecrackers have been roaring one after another to welcome the new year.

It wasn't until late in the night that I stopped for a while.

Li Xiang finally closed his eyes and squinted for a while, but what woke him up was the crackling sound of firecrackers.

There are a series of sounds that don't stop, and there are "boom" sounds every now and then.

Needless to say, the one who made the noise must be a child who got up early and was doing something with the firecrackers he bought or picked up.

These children can't even wake up when they go to school. On these days, they are so energetic that they get up earlier than chickens.

Li Xiang was the last one in their family to get up, and the whole family was waiting for him.

When Li Xiaodi saw that he was dressed, he came over and said auspicious words attentively. He looked at him with twinkling eyes, and it was self-evident what he meant.

Li Xiang took out the red envelope he had prepared and handed it to him.

The younger brother eagerly took it and opened the red envelope when he saw the amount inside.

Three cents, one cent more than what he originally asked for.

The grin that was originally grinning became even wider now, almost reaching behind the ears, which made Little Brother Li very happy.

At that moment, Li Xiang became the best brother in the world.

However, he has already won a few of the best titles right now.

Mother Li gave him two cents, and she was the best mother in the world.

If the eldest sister gives him a dime, she is the best sister in the world.

It seems that this so-called best has a bit of a bad street meaning.

I believe that if a child gives him candy or toys, he will immediately call that child his best friend in the world.

After Li Xiang had washed up, Li's mother took the lead and took the three children to visit the elders to pay New Year's greetings.

At this time, neighbors also pay special attention to New Year greetings. They have to go to the elder's home to pay their respects first, and then wait at home for the younger generation to come and pay their respects. If they bump into each other on the street, they can greet each other casually. This is a polite way between unfamiliar people.

And the one who can be led by Mother Li is the old lady.

The old lady sat there, watching the children bowing to wish her New Year's greetings. She happily said "good, good, good" several times, and then gave each of the three children of the Li family a red envelope.

After coming out of the old lady's house, the three of them opened the red envelopes and saw that Li Xiang and his younger brother Li received [-] cents, while the eldest sister received [-] cents.

Although the eldest sister is used to the old lady's favoritism, every time she encounters her, she feels an indescribable feeling in her heart.

If you want to be happy, this old lady's behavior is undoubtedly showing time and time again that the Li family despises her the most.

You have to say you are unhappy, but if you meet an old lady on the street, she will not give you money for nothing.

Li wanted to hand the [-] cents he got to his eldest sister to tell her not to feel sad, but her eldest sister waved her hand and refused.

She still has some self-respect. What's the point of giving in? She only wants what she deserves.

After Mrs. Li led them to pay homage to the old lady, she went home first and waited for other juniors to come.

The three of them, led by Li Xiang, continued to greet other families.

Later, except for the first man's family and the Wang family, who gave three people a dime in red envelopes, the rest of the family grabbed a handful of peanuts and melon seeds and stuffed them over them.

In a normal neighbor relationship, such interactions are normal.

When it was the Li family's turn to be visited by others to pay New Year's greetings, they responded with similar greetings.

When the Wang family came, they gave Wang Sheng and Wang Yun a [-]-cent red envelope and added a handful of fruit candies.

The Jia family's children are younger, so they call Li Xiang their uncle and aunt, and Li's mother and grandmother.So Mother Li stuffed a lot of snacks into the pockets of the three children, and added another five cents to each of them.

At this time, money is more attractive to children than snacks.

Banggeng sold the snacks in his pocket to two sisters under the pretext of selling them, and then took away their five cents.

Seeing that the amount was not large, Qin Huairu let him go and ignored him.

By the time I was done with all the visiting and worshiping in the courtyard, morning had already turned into morning.

At this time, the Li family had breakfast for the first grade of junior high school.

At the dinner table, Li Xiaodi, who has always been the most diligent, is not thinking about this at all.

One dollar and three, Li Xiaodi counted the cents in his pocket several times to confirm whether there were really that many.

He didn't notice that as he took out the money again and again, Mother Li's eyes were filled with thoughts.

If there were other adults present, they would definitely understand what Mother Li's eyes meant.

After finishing breakfast, Li Xiang headed to his teacher's house, carrying the New Year's gifts he had prepared early in the morning.

Entering the living room of Professor Hao's house, I saw that the corner was filled with gift bags of various sizes, but no one else was there.

According to my wife, those who came to visit me came early in the morning to pay New Year greetings, put down their things, exchange a few words, and then rushed to the next house.

In the first year of junior high school, everyone is very busy.

Compared with these exquisitely packaged gift bags, the things Li Xiang brought looked a little shabby.

But he didn't take it seriously. This was the best thing he could come up with now, and the teacher wouldn't care.

The mistress opened the package he brought and saw the candies and pastries. She pointed at the pile of things in the corner and said disapprovingly: "Just come here, please. Don't bring anything here. There are piles at home." Now, after dinner, you can take these back and feed them to your younger brothers and sisters."

"Your wife is right, these things are not cheap for you. You have to do things according to your ability. When you start working in the future, it will not be too late to think about us again."

Professor Hao had read Li Xiang's information and knew that his family's conditions were not very good.

So I'm worried that this kid will make a fool of himself just to give gifts.

In fact, even if Li Xiang doesn't have his plug-in at home, he is not short of money now.

After adding in the various things that Li Xiang brought out, he can save a lot on food expenses and daily necessities every month.

Therefore, giving the teacher a New Year gift worth seven or eight yuan during the Chinese New Year will not cause any harm to the Li family.

Knowing that the teacher was caring about him, Li Xiang did not blame him, but patiently explained to the two elderly people the changes in his family in the past six months.

"Teacher, Mistress, this is my wish. Don't look at the many things here that look quite expensive. Except for these pastries and candies, everything else is made by ourselves."

His words aroused interest in the two old men.

Li Xiang pointed to the other two things and continued: "These bean sprouts are made by my mother herself. The soybeans used are the new year's goods from their factory. We eat them very well. There are few vegetables in winter, so I want to bring them with me." Come over here and you two can try it too. We also made this meat sauce ourselves. My mother’s cooking skills are very good. I think she’s no worse than the chefs in the restaurant.”

When he heard that Li Xiang's family had made it himself, the old man felt relieved and could no longer refuse.

But after accepting it, Professor Hao and his wife did not change their intention to subsidize the young disciple.

　Thank you to the reader friend "Book Friends 20210301106460054746" for the reward.

　　Thank you also to other friends for their recommendation votes.

　　PS: I have a question, why do other people’s books have dubbing, but not mine?
　　My character dialogue settings are very colloquial, so it should be fun to match them up.

　　Do you want to try it?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)