Dad's Pastoral Life

Chapter 217 Let's take you back and have a look

After dividing the fish, the taste of the new year becomes more and more serious.

腊月25打豆腐、26卤肉、27杀鸡杀鸭、28油炸麻花、29做糍粑、三十贴对联、放鞭炮、除夕宴，祭祖，然后守着春晚抢红包。

The days whizzed by.

This year's "All Pig Banquet" was held on the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month.

However, this year's "whole pig feast" is obviously different from previous years.

In the previous "whole pig feast", there was only one pig, and if it was not enough, it was made up with vegetables.

For example, stewed pork trotters with lotus root has half of the lotus root, and it is impossible to eat all the trotters; for example, fried twice-cooked pork with fragrant dried, fragrant dried should account for half of the weight;

A pig is shared equally by the whole village, and everyone can only afford one pig.

I had a "whole pig feast" this summer. It was a wild boar obtained by Cheng He. It was not enough, and I supplemented it with some seasonal vegetables.

A pig weighs only a few catties, and there are fewer people in summer. In winter, the Chinese New Year is basically back, and there are more people. On average, there are even fewer people.

But this year, everyone discussed it, and every family brought some meat by themselves, or half a chicken, or half a rabbit—anyway, this year’s meat dishes are solid, and the meat is eaten in large pieces.

Why?It's not short of money on hand.

Eat this meal, eat well.

……

In this land in the east, almost everyone is preparing for the new year, and everyone is celebrating the new year with joy; but on the other side of the Atlantic, there are also groups of yellow-skinned people who are also preparing for their new year locally.

Yes, no matter how far away from home, no matter how long they have been away, the Chinese New Year is something they will never forget.

People who are thousands of miles away from home show in this way that they still care about their homeland.

In Manhattan, New York, USA, in the Lewis Villa area on Lexington Island, a Rolls-Royce drove slowly along the quiet alleys, drove to a certain villa, slowly drove in, and arrived at the parking lot.

A yellow-skinned middle-aged man got out of the car, holding a bunch of gifts in his hands, and walked through the hall of the villa to the backyard.

Outside the large lawn yard is an artificial lake with silver waves.

The weather is fine today, and many old men are fishing by this lake to pass the time.

When the middle-aged man saw his father, he walked over, looked into the fishing bucket, and asked with a smile, "Dad, how's your harvest today?"

His father is very old and in a wheelchair but can still fish.

The old father glanced into the bucket and said with a puckered mouth, "It's not very good."

The middle-aged man said again: "Dad, Aunt Liu told me that the meal is almost ready. Do you want to go back now? Or fish for a while?"

"Are you ready?" asked the old man in the wheelchair.

"almost done."

"Then let's go back. Old guys, go ahead, I'll go back first." The old man greeted the people who came fishing with him to pass the time, with a smile on his face.

Today is the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the domestic chef hired by their family has already prepared a reunion dinner.Now, it's time for reunion dinner.

A person who has been away from his homeland for decades is now going to celebrate his homeland's festival.

The middle-aged man pushed his father back to the villa.

In the living room of the villa, it was decorated in a festive New Year's mood. The tabletop was replaced with a red Fushou tablecloth, the sofa cushion was also replaced with a festive red color, and many red decorations were hung on the walls.

Lanterns, fish every year, blessing characters and so on.

After entering the house, four generations gathered together, and there were more than [-] lively people, all of whom came to accompany the old man to celebrate the New Year of the motherland.

In fact, the third and fourth generations basically can't speak Chinese anymore. This is just the insistence of the elderly.And the family members respect him.

On the huge round table, a New Year's Eve banquet has been set up, steaming hot.

There are fish, meat, chicken, and duck, all authentic Chinese dishes, two bottles of white wine, and a Chinese New Year's Eve banquet.

In fact, there is no one in this family who can cook very authentic Chinese dishes. We can only invite Chinese chefs for the New Year's Eve banquet.

The New Year's Eve banquet is full of children and grandchildren.

Seeing this, the old man was a little excited, his hazy eyes were a little moist, and said with a smile: "Everyone sit down. My family, what are you waiting for?"

More than [-] people of hula la size are on the table.

The middle-aged man took out a gift box wrapped in red paper, walked up to his father, and said, "Happy New Year, Dad."

The Chinese he seldom speaks is used, and the speaking is not very standard and a bit awkward.

At the Chinese New Year's Eve banquet, there is no gift-giving session, but it seems to have become a habit for them to give gifts during the festival.

The old man took the gift and asked, "What is it?"

"Take it apart and have a look, don't you know?"

The old man smiled and opened the present.

What he received was not only a gift, but also his son's filial piety, which made him very happy.

The moment the gift box was opened, the old man's hand froze - he was staring at the gift in the box in a daze.

For whole seconds, he didn't move.

"Dad, what's wrong with you?"

"Grandpa, are you okay?"

"Grandpa, how are you? Is there something wrong?"

Seeing him like this, the juniors at the table were all anxious, thinking that the old man had something wrong with his health.

The old man came back to his senses, raised his head, and tears were already streaming from his eyes.But he laughed and said: "It's okay, I'm fine. I'm just so excited."

He picked up the gift in the box - a dragon lantern made of bamboo.

He turned his head and asked his son, "Where did you buy this?"

"This is... I bought it online. This is a Chinese souvenir. I think you will like this." The middle-aged son replied him.

Obviously, my father liked this very much, and he was so excited.

"Henry, do you know where this came from?" When the old man in the wheelchair asked again, he choked up.

Henry is the yellow-skinned middle-aged man, he is at a loss, didn't he just say that?This is bought online.

"I..." The old man pointed to his chest and said excitedly, "I played with this when I was a child. This is something from my hometown. I have found my hometown! Henry, I have found my hometown. This is my hometown. Hometown stuff!"

The old man was very excited and incoherent, holding the bamboo lantern in both hands, looking left and right, couldn't put it down, and burst into tears.

When he was sobbing and excited, he gently put this bamboo gadget to his mouth and kissed it lightly.

Henry suddenly understood everything.

He has heard his father's stories since he was a child.

When my father was only in his teens in the 40s, he was abducted by a man from other places because of turmoil, war, poverty, famine and other reasons.

At that time, people really could do anything for a bite to eat.

My father was later sold to Nanyang to do hard labor. After decades of hard work, he fled to the United States until now.

After wandering outside for a long time, people want to return to their roots.Over the years, my father has always had a wish to go back and have a look.

But my father didn't go to school before, and he was young when he left his hometown, so he never knew where his hometown was.

In fact, more than half a century has passed, even if he remembered the name of his hometown at that time, the name must have been modified later, and there is no way to check it.

It had been decades, and the more he couldn't get it back, the more this wish was stuck in his heart.

The old man wanted to be buried in his ancestral grave after death, not in an American cemetery.

At the very least, he didn't even know where he was from. Didn't he become a lonely ghost after death?

The older you get, the more you think about it.

Henry didn't expect that the gift he bought on a whim actually made his father find out his hometown!

He was also very excited, and said, "Dad, are you sure? How about I ask the children to check the production address of this souvenir on the Internet?"

This can be found for sure.

Before he could speak, the young man at the table had already started checking on his mobile phone.

This Chinese gift has seen advertisements recently, they are not very unfamiliar, and it is not too troublesome to check.

Within 2 minutes, they had already found out that it was produced in a Chinese village called "Peach Blossom Village".Well, it seems that there was a lawsuit with the Koreans not long ago?
They had some impressions, as if they had watched it before.

After finding this keyword, they used translation software to find the "Peach Blossom Village Official Website", and they expressed their satisfaction. A village even has an official website, which is developing well!

There are not many things on the official website, but there are all the necessary introductions, such as the current situation of Taohua Village, some simple history, and some characteristics of the village, etc.

Well, there are some videos, which are quite interesting to watch.

They showed the video to an old man in a wheelchair. The old man was very excited watching it, and it felt like it no matter how he looked.

Although he hadn't seen that place for decades, he just felt that it was his hometown.

He remembered the wild fruits he ate there, the meatballs he ate during the Chinese New Year, and the bamboo dragon lanterns he played during the Lantern Festival.

The old man asked the younger generation to find a candle, he lit it, put in the bamboo dragon lantern, took out a thin bamboo pole from the gift box, and put it on the bamboo dragon lantern lightly.

When I was a child, it was a bamboo dragon lantern, and I played with it by lighting candles.Now, people have removed the bamboo poles that they picked up, and just put them at home as decorations.

"This thing is played like this." The old man muttered to himself, as if explaining it to the younger generation.

It was indeed his childhood toy.

Several great-grandchildren who had never seen this kind of toy felt very curious.

One by one got off the table, looked closer, and chirped:
"Wow, you can even light candles here, it's amazing!"

"It's amazing, it's amazing."

"Great-grandfather, this is very beautiful, can you give it to me?"

"Great-grandfather, is this your childhood toy?"

The old man looked up at these children. He was about the same age as them when he was deceived from his hometown.

In a flash, more than half a century has passed.

It's like a lifetime away!
Henry looked at the website, and there was a contact person named Cheng.His father was also surnamed Cheng, Cheng Erxi, the second child in the family.

"Dad, shall I take you back to have a look?" Henry said.

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(End of this chapter)