Bamboo Fragrance

Chapter 111 Untitled
After detoxification, Li Diaozhu recuperated at home for nearly half a month.

When the goose-feather-like snow fell in November, she officially opened the door and began to receive the concerned visitors.

At that time, Mai Ya'er was about to give birth, Li Kongzhu who heard the news hurriedly supported her at home, and went to Mai Ya'er's house.

When she arrived at Zhao Mengzi's house, Mrs. Lin who opened the door saw her, and screamed repeatedly how she hadn't seen her for a month, since she had lost so much weight.

Li Kongzhu just touched his face, said that he had some ideas and was not happy, the one who has been raised for nearly a month has already recovered a lot.

Seeing what she said, Mrs. Lin took a serious look at her and saw that her complexion was rosy and glowing, so she believed her words and led her towards the main room.

At this moment, besides Zhao Mengzi's family, there are also Hui Niang and her servants who are sitting in the pawn room.

Seeing her, Hui Niang immediately got up from the chair regardless of her weight, and ran towards her. "You came!"

Li Kongzhu stretched out his hand to hold her outstretched hand, and the waiters behind the two were startled and whispered in their ears to their master to be careful.

Hui Niang's eyes were red, she looked her up and down for a long time, and then asked softly, "But it's all right?"

"Okay!" Li Kongzhu took her hand and spread it to both sides, showing her his whole body, and then stared at his unprotruded belly with a loving and soft light for a moment, then turned his eyes She patted her hand, "Sit down quickly!"

Now that Li Chong was busy in the village, she didn't go back to the town to sit in the town, and stayed here for so long with her growing belly, after all, she was still worried about her.

Hui Niang wiped her tears with a silk handkerchief, and pulled her to sit on the upper kang that the Zhao family gave up.

Mrs. Lin served her hot sugar water, and after Li Kongzhu sat down, he looked at Zhao Mengzi, who had just returned from leave and was a bit out of his wits.

"How long has it been going on?"

"It started after breakfast." After seeing that she was well, Hui Niang was relieved, and then talked about the birth of Malt. "I planned to visit your place again today, but it didn't work out. I just took two steps, and the amniotic fluid broke."

Hearing the bursts of cries of pain coming from the next door, Hui Niang touched her stomach subconsciously.

When Li Kongzhu heard she said that he was going to see her, his heart tightened for a moment, he was afraid that he fell because of slippery road or something, and when he learned that the amniotic fluid broke automatically, he let out a sigh of relief.

Counting the days, it should be full term.

This wait was directly past Xiangwu.

At that time, none of the three members of Zhao's family was in the mood to eat, but the two pregnant women couldn't be hungry. Therefore, when the time came, Yu Jiadi and Hui Niang's servants went to the Zhao's kitchen , made a burrito with stir-fry.

When it was served, the faces of the members of the Zhao family blushed inexplicably.

Lin's smile was even more embarrassing: "I forgot to be so stupid."

"Don't worry about it, it's us who bothered you!" Li Kongzhu rolled up the pancakes and handed one to Hui Niang.

Seeing that the other three people didn't come over, he didn't care, and started to roll one for himself spontaneously.

Hui Niang, who was holding the cake, saw that she was having a good time eating after the roll, so she couldn't help but stare at her suspiciously.

Li Kongzhu raised his eyes to look at her, smiled at her and said: "A grown-up can be hungry, but a child can't stand being hungry."

Hui Niang was taken aback by this remark, did you mean her?

Li Kongzhu breathed a sigh of relief after eating a pancake, and seeing the person opposite was still staring at her inquiringly, he blinked at him.

"Ah~~"

A sudden scream made everyone in the room change their faces, Zhao Mengzi ran out with a pale face and trembling legs.

"Daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law, how are you doing, ah~"

Hearing Zhao Mengzi's urgency, everyone also went out of the house in unison.

"Wow wow..."

Before they reached the door, they heard a cry.

Immediately, Mrs. Lin bowed to the west with a happy face, "Amitabha, Amitabha, it's good to be born, it's good to be born."

Li Kongzhu and Hui Niang looked at each other, this lord doesn't know yet, since he started worshiping Buddha?
At this time, Zhao Mengzi outside, just as the steady woman was holding the baby and was about to open the door, ready to say congratulations with a smile on her face, took advantage of the time to get into the room, slammed the door with her backhand, and gave a quick close up.

"Hey~" Mrs. Wen was caught off guard and yelled, "Oh man, why are you so reckless, this delivery room is a filthy place, it will be a long time of bad luck for you to go in this time."

The people in the house happened to come out at this moment, upon hearing this, Mrs. Lin rushed towards the west room over there, stretched out her hand and slapped the closed door and shouted, "Meng Zi, come out quickly, listen Are you there? A woman can’t see a baby, come out quickly.”

"Mother~" Zhao Mengzi in the room was comfortingly stroking his wife's bloodless face, and when he heard his mother's words, he said helplessly to the outside, "Ya'er is so empty, I I want to accompany him!"

"You baby, when can't you watch it? Do you need to be in a hurry? Wait for Wen Po to pack up, and you can watch it for as long as you want. It's not that the dystocia is gone, you can't see it anymore, be obedient, come out soon!"

Li Kongzhu and Hui Niang looked at each other when they heard that, Wen Po, who was locked out over there, was not persuading or congratulating her baby, but turned around in a hurry.

Or Zhao Hanshi couldn't see it anymore, he drank his wife's mouth, then asked the Wen woman, "What happened?"

Seeing that someone finally asked, Wen Po laughed again and said, "He's a big fat boy, he's not light, he weighs seven pounds!"

As soon as he heard that the boy was in the same boat, Mrs. Lin didn't care to complain about her son anymore, so she turned around and rushed to hug her, "Show me... yo, you're really fat, look at those eyes and nose." Yes, it looks like Ya'er, and this forehead is exactly the same as our Mengzi." She opened the tightly covered blanket as she spoke.

No, as soon as she opened the blanket and was blown by the cold wind, the child immediately began to cry.

Seeing this, Zhao Hanshi glared at Mrs. Lin again, walked over and snatched the baby and handed it to Mrs. Wen to fix it.

"Okay, don't catch a cold, it's not that you haven't had a baby, why are you so ignorant?"

Lin's face was embarrassed by what was said, and the Wen woman knocked on the door again, "Men of the Zhao family, please open the door quickly, my son is very cold."

After hearing this, Mai Ya'er, who had just recovered from his breath, pushed his man weakly, "Why don't you hurry up and open the door and let your son in, do you still want me to suffer and cry to death?"

Zhao Mengzi wiped his red eyes and nodded, opened the door to let Granny Wen in, then carefully closed the curtain and closed the door.

Seeing him coming out, Mrs. Lin couldn't help talking, but Zhao Mengzi didn't argue, and let her talk with his head down.

Waiting for Wen Po to clean up, and after saying that she can go in, Yu Jiadi brought a bowl of candied eggs and handed it to Zhao Mengzi.

Zhao Mengzi smiled gratefully, and Lin Shi was embarrassed again, which was good, and made her look like a wicked mother-in-law.

When a group of people went in together, Mai Ya'er Jieshi was lying on the bed looking at the little baby in the swaddling baby with a happy face.

Hearing the sound, when he raised his eyes to look at the crowd, he unexpectedly saw his sister-in-law whom he hadn't seen in nearly a month, and wanted to stand up with excitement on his face.

Seeing this, Li Kongzhu stepped forward quickly, pressed her half-up body, held her hand and patted her.

Mai Ya'er choked her throat and said hoarsely, "Sister-in-law, why are you here!"

Wiping her tears with a silk handkerchief, she gave her a reproachful look, "You can't cry during the confinement period, or your eyes will hurt in the future. If you give birth to a baby, I won't be able to avoid it. Isn't it too bad?" Is it close to human?"

Mai Ya'er nodded movedly, and lay down again with a relaxed body, "Seeing that you're fine, I'm relieved!"

"It's okay!" Li Kongzhu straightened her sweat-drenched hair that was still sticking to her forehead, "I'm not standing here right now, you can just sit on the confinement and wait for your spirit to be better." , I have come to see you often, and I still have a lot of things to ask you!"

Hearing that there was something to ask her, Mai Ya'er wanted to ask what it was, Li Kongzhu reached out to stop her mouth, and said with a smile: "Let's rest at ease!"

Mai Ya'er nodded, and Li Kongzhu looked at the red swaddle beside her again, and looked up at her with questioning eyes.

Mai Ya'er twitched the corners of her pale mouth, "Hold me, I'm so stubborn, I've been tossing me a lot in my stomach!"

Li Kongzhu nodded, smiled and carefully tried to hug her. Seeing this, Mrs. Wen hurried over to teach her the correct way.

Li Kongzhu blushed in embarrassment, but fortunately with the help of Wen Po, he finally made the right move.

After getting up, Zhao Mengzi, who was carrying the sugar water, quickly went to the bedside, and started feeding the eggs while talking to his wife in a slow voice.

Li Kongzhu walked up to Hui Niang with his soft boy in his arms.

Both of them looked at the newborn baby with some curiosity, and saw that his face was wrinkled and red, and he couldn't tell whether it was beautiful or ugly, but he looked very much like that little old man. Although it was funny, it was inexplicable. This made the two women feel so soft-hearted.

Hui Niang reached out her little hand to press the corner of his mouth, and the child felt it, and immediately turned his mouth to bite.

Or thinking it was funny, she stretched out her fingers and pressed on the other side, but she turned her head to bite again.After turning it over three times like this, the child finally opened his mouth and cried.

Seeing this, the two women were at a loss for a while, and Mrs. Lin over there took over the hand in a funny way, "You are not mothers yet, I don't know, this kid is looking for milk when he is hungry, this finger pointed him, He couldn't find it, so didn't he cry aloud?"

Li Kongzhu and Hui Niang looked at each other and smiled shyly, while Lin took the baby to the place where he had eaten sweet eggs and recovered his physical strength, and handed the swaddle to her, asking her to undress and try to suck it down for the baby. It's best to breastfeed early.

This scene is not suitable for them to stay any longer, they all said a few words and left the room.

After waiting for the old couple of the Zhao family to get rid of Mrs. Wen, Li Kongzhu told Hui Niang again about Zhong moving to live with her.

After receiving the gracious consent, she bid farewell to the Zhao family and headed home because of the support of Yu's family.

Seeing this, Hui Niang, who was following her off, stared at her receding figure, and couldn't help but start thinking.

This first snowfall was heavy and fierce. At that time, Li Kongzhu was walking on the village road where the snow was bare to his feet. Looking at the silver world completely covered by white snow, Li Kongzhu couldn't help but let out a mouthful of white turbid air.

Recalling how worried the group was when Mai Ya'er gave birth, she thought, no matter how many people cared for Mai Ya'er at that time, it could not be worth the momentary care of a man by her side.

Although in the past month, she has been prohibiting herself from thinking wildly, always finding some excuses for a certain man in her heart.But in a corner of my heart, I still couldn't help being disappointed and melancholy.

Even Mr. Hua was a little embarrassed to see her now, and asked her several times, but he wanted to write a letter to a certain man to ask about the situation.

She remembered that after hearing this, she only smiled lightly and stroked her stomach, and asked Hua Lao who was escorting the letter.

After learning that it was a hidden guard, he refused to write a letter to ask about it.

If it was a postman, she might believe that the letter might be lost, but the hidden guards who come and go, unless they were assassinated, would never say that the letter was lost.

Seeing that her complexion was a little bad, Yu Jiadi looked at her worriedly, "Young lady, are you tired?"

Shaking his head, just as he was walking to the door of his own house, the woman pushed the door open and walked in.

At that time, Little Niach, who was sewing up and came out for a walk, saw her, and wanted to run over with a small cane.

Seeing this, Yu Xiaoling who was behind hurriedly yelled and went forward to help her.

Li Kongzhu looked at the now more rounded little loach, and Bai Shengsheng's face was covered with a pair of clear jewel eyes, full of childish affection as always, watching her smile is extraordinarily cute!
Beckoning, strode up to join him.

Bending over, he took his hand. Seeing that the soft little hand was also gentle and gentle, he nodded in satisfaction, "How did you slip outside? How long have you been slipping, but are you tired?"

Wiping the sweat from his little nose, the child shook his head and shouted loudly: "I'm not tired! The room is so stuffy, I want to see Xueli!"

Li Kongzhu nodded, knowing that lying on the kang for more than a month was the ultimate torture for him.

Just imagine how annoying and uncomfortable it would be for an adult to let you lie there motionless, let alone a child under five years old?

Go up the steps, lift the curtain and enter the main room.

As soon as he entered, a sense of warmth came over him, Li Kongzhu glanced at the brazier in the room.After ordering Yu Xiaoling to sew the window markers, he helped Zhao Nixiu onto the kang.

Just as the two were joking and having fun with small toys on the kang, Mr. Hua turned back from the village.

Lifting the curtain and entering the room, when he saw the two of them, he opened his mouth involuntarily.

Li Kongzhu looked at him with the wooden horse, then turned his gaze to the other side of the kang and said: "What's the matter, old man, sit down and talk about it!"

Mr. Hua hummed, just after Xiaoling served the tea, he said: "Jingguo is now facing a snow disaster, and the heavy snow fell half a month earlier than ours. In addition to the plague and civil strife, there are countless refugees and disaster victims in Jingguo. "

"Oh~" Li Kongzhu snorted, but did not speak.

The old man thought for a while, as if he was defending someone, "Although Yasukuni is already troubled, the army of a powerful country doesn't look like it's easy to fool. I heard that the battle at the frontier was to find a way to advance. Mr. That kid from the family personally led the team to sneak into the enemy camp, burned their grass and food, and destroyed their chariots and horses. Then he knocked out two teeth of the guards in the border city. Although it is still expanding, it is really It's really slow and exhausting."

If it is still so difficult to advance in the coming year, it seems that the practice of expanding the territory and destroying Yasukuni will have to be changed.After all, if it goes on like this for a long time, if Yasukuni cannot be won, in terms of manpower and material resources, no matter how rich the country is, it will eventually run out of money.

Hua Lao frowned and began to think, while Li Kongzhu's heart trembled for a while, he looked at the pensive old man calmly, lowered his eyes, and continued to play with the little loach as if he didn't care.

When the old man came back to his senses, he couldn't help sighing when he saw her talking and laughing with the child with a calm face, as if she had nothing to do with the matter.

Thinking of the letter that went there, the old man was also a little puzzled. He thought that with the boy's nervousness, he would definitely ask someone to come back to look at it, or write a long letter to ask questions.

But I don't want to, since there is no sound like this.

In the past month, people around him have sent news back from time to time, but every time the news is not the news he wanted to ask.

I tried to ask the messenger a few times in circles, but all I got was a dazed face and unclear reasons.

Sighed, "That kid, I'm afraid he's too busy to get away!?"

Li Kongzhu's eyes were deep, and he turned his eyes for a moment. He smiled warmly as if he didn't hear it, and continued to laugh.

Elder Hua looked at her helplessly, then sighed again, got up and walked out of the house.

When the person disappeared completely, Li Kongzhu stared at the turbulent curtain and became stunned.

It's not that she's hypocritical, but she feels that there are two concepts between whether the letter has been sent or not.

If she didn't write the letter, she might choose to hide it and still get rid of the poison. At least a certain corner of her heart won't be sad, and she won't be like now, making excuses for it all the time, feeling lost and powerless.

"Third aunt?" Wazi, who was playing with another bamboo ball, saw her in a daze, and whispered incomprehensibly.

Li Kongzhu was brought back to his senses by this call, and he showed a warm smile without a trace, and started another round of toy exchange between the two of them...

Entering December, Li Kongzhu, who was more than four months pregnant at this time, gradually became more prominent.

She showed her feelings like this, even if she wanted to hide it, she couldn't hide it.

At that time, although everyone in the village was talking about this matter, no one would take it to the public to offend him. In addition, after calculating that month, it was obvious that it belonged to Zhao Junyi. Therefore, this After checking the rumors, it didn't cause much trouble.

Li Kongzhu doesn't care about these at all, in her opinion, as long as the people around her can understand.

Fortunately, Hui Niang found out about her pregnancy shortly after moving here. Although she complained a lot about her, in the end, she finally let her know that she had contracted an illness in the early stages of pregnancy, and she didn't want to make her lie about it. one thing. (Of course, the matter of infectious diseases is a lie fabricated by Li Kongzhu, just to fool her.)
Since it was the twelfth lunar month, there was only one month left before the new year. At that time, everyone's workshop, but because of more and more orders, everyone in the workshop began to be busy without touching the ground.

But even with such a busy schedule, not only did everyone have no complaints on their faces, on the contrary, everyone was working harder with smiles on their faces.

Because the more people who order, it means that they can continue to work overtime, so that at the end of the month, the wages will increase. For them, this is equivalent to a good fat year.

Such a great event, other villages can't even look forward to it, how can they be unhappy because of the busy and tired these days?

Li Chong returned to the town after Li Kongzhu got well, and now according to what Li Kongzhu said, he has cultivated a group of boys who can speak well.

The main task now is to let them go to the counties to sell vermicelli. As for the canned food, we will not recommend it for the time being because of the severe shortage.

But even so, some shops that wanted to order vermicelli sent people to look at them, and after learning that there were cans, they still followed suit and placed a lot of orders.

The current canned hawthorns and pastries, even if the workshops ration the goods, there are still some shortages.In addition, there are many imitations, and there are more merchants vying to receive the fruits. At this point, they often invest more costs in order to obtain the fruits, but even so, they still let other merchants snatch a lot of them. , making them very helpless.

When it was less than half a month before the Chinese New Year, Li Kongzhu planned to use the income of the past few months to plan and prepare.

At that time, after she was carrying the ledger to the main room, she called Zhao Niqiu over.

After he came, he randomly took out an account book and threw it to him.

The boy stretched out his hand to take it over, and happily took the little abacus onto the kang, and with his legs crossed, he began to move it seriously.

Thinking about this kid because at the beginning of the month, he went to the school with Jing Zhe to attend two classes.Because I was confused and confused, I cried very sadly when I came back.

Li Kongzhu saw this, and comforted him for a long time, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, persuading him to grow up before going, and let him follow her from now on, let her teach her well within a year or two. For a while, he will not be afraid of not being able to understand such words when he is of the right age to go to school.

When the child heard it, although he felt wronged and guilty, he hummed and nodded in agreement.

Li Kongzhu glanced at the little boy beside her who was making plans, and couldn't help but shook his head amusedly.

Some people, some things, when you meet them, you can't help but admire them.

Who would have thought that this kid, who can't read and write, would be obsessed with the voice of Abacus?

Ever since this kid followed her, he had been extremely interested in counting accounts, so much so that the first time he saw it, he pestered her to teach him on the spot.

Li Kongzhu was doing a simple one-day account book that day, because he had enough time, he readily agreed to start counting from the simplest numbers.

Unexpectedly, this kid has a very high level of comprehension. As for counting, he just learned it with his hands after teaching it once.

Seeing this, Li Kongzhu slowly taught him the simple addition and subtraction of ones, and the boy was able to comprehend it very quickly.In the end, because he couldn't touch the abacus for a long time, the boy started to shake the abacus in front of her eyes, pestering her to force her to teach him the addition and subtraction of the abacus quickly.

Li Diaozhu couldn't do it, so he spent another two days teaching him the simplest addition and subtraction from tens to hundreds.

So much so that now, this kid can help her calculate the simple daily account book.

"Sister-in-law, I've finished the calculation, you can add up the total!"

Li Kongzhu touched him with a smile, and brought the account book, without looking at it, he just flipped through the pages and added up the total.

It's not that she's not worried about the boy's bad calculation, but that she has tried to calculate it many times during this period, and the boy has not missed it every time.

Sighing, he finished the sum and calculated the ledger with a brush. Li Kongzhu looked at Zhao Niqiu, who was still playing happily, and felt that such a kid would be like a child prodigy in modern times.If the family conditions are better, if they can be well cultivated, they may be able to win a lot of medals in that kind of brain competition when they grow up.

It's a pity that this person lives in ancient times, and arithmetic is extremely scarce, and she, a third-rate teacher, has limited ability. If things go on like this, within two years, this kid will be able to surpass the mathematical concepts she knows.

"Loach! After the third aunt has the ability to become famous, the third aunt will invite you a good teacher who specializes in teaching this arithmetic?"

"Huh?" The boy turned his head to look, and when he came back to his senses, he showed a row of cute millet teeth and smiled, "As long as I have my third aunt to teach, I will help my third aunt to settle the score."

"Stupid boy!" Helping her settle the score, can be regarded as buried.

"Ha ha!"

Accompanied by the child's laughter, Li Kongzhu shook his head helplessly and laughed for a while, thinking in his heart, he could only teach for two years, and after two years, she would probably be much more famous than she is now, no matter how slow the time is. Take it easy and find out.

As soon as the twelfth lunar month is over, it is time to officially enter the New Year's Eve. At this time, Li Diaozhu has already started to prepare for the year-end awards and gifts for all the employees of the workshop and store.

On the 28th day of the new year, the work was officially suspended. During the period, she first handed out the year-end bonuses to the shopkeepers in the town, and then Li Chong took the bank notes to Yinzhuang, where she exchanged a large basket of copper coins. return.

At that time, the mule cart loaded with money was just about to enter the village, which attracted the villagers to follow and stretch their necks to look up.

When the mule cart arrived at the gate of the workshop, the villagers who had seen each other along the way also gathered at the gate early.

The workshop steward came out and moved the basket of copper coins to the high platform next to the door.When Li Kongzhu arrived, everyone couldn't wait to get out of the way, hoping that she would go on stage quickly, so that they could share the baskets of copper coins early so that they could spend them on gifts for the New Year's Eve. Money, get some back.

Unexpectedly, when Li Kongzhu walked in from the crowd, he looked at the copper plate basket on the high platform, raised his eyebrows slightly, and apologized to the villagers in the village instead of rushing up.

"The workers in my workshop haven't delivered the boxing gifts yet, can I invite the brothers, sisters-in-law and aunts who are reserved to wait?"

Everyone looked at the copper plate in the basket, and looked at Li Kongzhu's smiling face, knowing that it was not theirs if they didn't get it, so they could only nod their heads patiently, and let her enter the workshop first.

Upon entering the workshop, all the employees in the workshop were dressed in overalls and stood there neatly.Seeing her coming, following Zhao Mengzi's shout, everyone saluted her in unison.

Li Kongzhu waved his hand and asked Zhao Mengzi to go to the entrance of the village to see if the ordered pork had arrived.And she came to the stage and began to talk about this year's year-end awards.

"It has been less than four months since the workshop was opened. Although the benefits are considerable, the total income is not very much. Although there was no such thing as a year-end bonus at the beginning, I think most of the people in the workshop are open-faced. There is no separation, but in fact it is almost the same as separation, and the money you want to share will not be in your hands. Therefore, starting this year, the workshop began to set year-end bonuses, that is, for those who have full shifts throughout the year, they will be paid according to one year. Counting ten liters per month, in December of a year, that is a bonus of 120 liters per person. In the past three months of this year, counting the April bonus, each person will receive a year-end bonus of [-] liters, and each person will have two catties Pork collar!"

"Suck!" After listening to the first part, everyone couldn't stop inhaling in unison. While being moved in their hearts, they are also determined to follow suit in the future.

Zhao Mengzi over there ushered in a carload of two boards of pork into the village. At this time, there were also the sounds of breathing in and out of the workshop outside the workshop.

Waiting for the cart to come in, Li Kongzhu ordered the pillar pulling the cart to let him chop and divide the meat for everyone, and told him to take two catties extra when he introduced it.

Zhuzi is now mainly responsible for receiving goods, so the salary is much higher than that of the workshop workers.

After working for a few months, he also took nearly a tael of silver from home, which made his mother Amitabha want to invite his cousin to have a meal at home.

But now that she has a big belly, I'm afraid that this New Year's Eve will be invalidated.

While thinking about it, he scratched his head and approached, "Hey, just leave it to me!"

Li Kongzhu nodded, and followed the steward beside him to move out the tables and stools from the workshop.

Ordering Yu Jia to put the box she was holding on the table, while she sat behind the table, holding the account book and began to call the names one by one to get the red envelopes.

After distributing the workshop, she went out to the high platform at the entrance of the workshop, said a lot about the benefits of the workshop, and said a lot of words of gratitude, then ordered the steward of the workshop to help count down the basket of copper coins .

Although a basket of copper plates was distributed to the villagers of Ruo Da Village, and everyone could not hold a few, there was still money for two catties of pork, so that the free money made the villagers very happy for a long time , stayed at the door of the workshop for a long time, unwilling to leave...

On the 29th, Li Jingzhe reluctantly returned to Lijiacun. To show his filial piety, Li Kongzhu asked him to take a few catties of meat and brought two pieces of floral cloth with him to show his filial piety.

On New Year's Eve, Li Kongzhu invited his family of four in order to have fun. After a lively reunion dinner, the group gathered in the main room to talk and laugh together. Laughing and waiting for the arrival of the new year.

(End of this chapter)