Chapter 60 Chinese New Year
Yan Jiecheng took the candied haws back home.

"Boss, you're back. What did Li Shengli say?" Yan Bugui was sitting at the table, drinking tea in a leisurely manner.

"Did you see what's in Li Shengli's hand?" At first, Yan Bugui didn't see clearly what was in Yan Jiecheng's hand. After Yan Jiecheng entered the house, Yan Bugui glanced at Yan Jiecheng and then he noticed what was in Yan Jiecheng's hand.

"Wait a minute, what do you have in your hand?" Yan Bugui was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Yan Jiecheng could really get something from Li Shengli.

"Hehe, candied haws." Yan Jiecheng deliberately put his hands behind his back but he didn't expect to be discovered by Yan Bugui.

"This was given by Shengli. I saw he bought a big bunch. It's so long." Yan Jiecheng stretched out his hand and gestured.

"Brother, do you have any for me?" Yan Jieti looked at Yan Jiecheng with shining eyes.

Yan Jiefang and Yan Jiekuang also stared at the candied haws in Yan Jiecheng's hand with burning eyes.

Yan Jiecheng wanted to say that everyone had a share, but then Yan Bugui spoke up.

"Boss, hand it over." Yan Bugui sat calmly on the chair and stretched out his hand to signal Yan Jiecheng to hand over the candied haws.

"Dad, this is what Li Shengli gave me." Yan Jiecheng was a little reluctant. If it was just the money, forget it. He also wanted to take back the snacks.

"I know. I'll divide it among you." Yan Bugui looked as if he would not allow any discussion.

Yan Jiecheng had no choice but to reluctantly hand the candied haws in his hand to Yan Bugui.

"Let's distribute it according to contribution. First is the eldest brother. He worked hard to get the candied haws from Li Shengli, so he gets one." Yan Bugui took a candied haws from the string and handed it to Yan Jiecheng.

"Next is the second one. He didn't contribute much, but today is New Year's Day, so you should have one too." Yan Bugui took another candied haws from the string and handed it to Yan Jiefang.

Yan Jiefang was originally listening to Yan Bugui's analysis with a smile, but Yan Bugui's first sentence made the smile disappear from his face immediately, until Yan Bugui's next words brought the smile back to Yan Jiefang's face.

"The same goes for the third and fourth brothers." Yan Jiekuang and Yan Jieti, who had thought they had no hope of eating the candied haws after Yan Bugui took them away, felt relieved when they saw Yan Jiefang also got one. They thought to themselves that their father never showed favoritism to anyone, and if Jiefang had one, they would have one too.

Yan Bugui picked two candied haws and gave them to the two people.

The four children took their own candied haws and looked at the other candied haws in Yan Bugui's hand, their eyes full of desire.

Yan Bugui ignored the looks from the four children and pursued fairness as his main goal in everything he did.

"Your mother works so hard to cook for you, don't you want a share?" Yan Bugui continued slowly.

Although reluctantly, the four of them nodded.

"It's my turn next. If I hadn't seen Li Shengli coming back and asked the eldest brother to go check, there wouldn't be any candied haws to eat, right?" Yan Bugui raised his head and glanced at the four children. "So the rest are mine."

"I knew it." Yan Jiecheng breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Yan Jiefang and the others. He was his father, but his behavior had not changed at all.

Yan Bugui also had his reasons. There were only seven candied haws, and it would be difficult to divide them no matter how. He knew his children well. If there were six of them, each had one too many, and if there were four of them, each had two, there would be one less. No matter how they were divided, it would not be appropriate. Only by taking them himself could the problem be solved.

Yan Jiecheng and the other three looked at each other and stuffed the candied haws into their mouths. However, the candied haws, which were so sweet, didn’t feel that sweet anymore.

At Li Shengli's house, Li Shengli sat by the stove, reading a book and drinking tea, occasionally biting off a piece of candied haws from the candied haws. After eating a few pieces, he couldn't eat any more. This thing is sour and sweet and can be eaten as a snack, but if you eat too much, your teeth will feel sour.

There was no TV at this moment. Li Shengli listened to the time outside, boiled water in advance, and waited until almost twelve o'clock to cook the dumplings. It happened that he had eaten a little early in the evening, so he was a little hungry now.

Dumplings should be wrapped before midnight on New Year’s Eve and eaten at midnight, which is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating dumplings means "changing the year and handing over the child". "Zi" means "midnight", and "jiao" is homophonic with "dumpling", which means "joyful reunion" and "good luck".

Lee Seung-ri has kept the custom of eating dumplings at 12 o'clock on New Year's Eve for two lifetimes, so of course he has to keep it this time.

While making dumplings, Li Shengli listened to the noises in the yard. Several families were making dumplings.

Listening to the time, Lee Seung-ri finished eating the dumplings. After eating the dumplings and helping himself to digest the food, Lee Seung-ri prepared to go to bed. There was no way he could stay up to celebrate the New Year at this moment as he had no TV and no computer.

After lighting the fire in the stove, Li Shengli washed up and went to bed.

After a good night's sleep, Li Shengli was woken up the next day by the sound of fighting in the yard.

Rubbing his eyes drowsily, Li Shengli was reluctant to get up as he slept later than usual last night.

The noise of fighting outside was getting louder and louder. Li Shengli stuffed his clothes into the quilt and covered himself up. After a while, he heard a rustling sound from under the quilt.

After getting dressed, Lee Seung-ri threw off the quilt and got out of bed quickly. The new year starts with not staying in bed late on the first day.

After getting up, Li Shengli lit a fire and put a kettle on the stove. While waiting for the water to boil, Li Shengli went out for a few laps. After running, he went back to the room and did some push-ups and other exercises. When the room warmed up, Li Shengli poured some hot water and wiped his body.

After changing into new clothes, Li Shengli looked at himself in the mirror and saw that he looked like a spirited young man.

At this time, the yard began to become lively. When Li Shengli went out and met someone he knew, they bowed to each other and said Happy New Year to each other.

Li Shengli had no plan to go to other people's homes, and since there was no one at home, he simply closed the door and refused visitors.

After Li Shengli left, Yan Jiecheng and his two siblings, Liu Guangtian and his brother in the backyard, and several young people in the yard looked at each other in bewilderment at the locked door of Li Shengli's house.

"Where did Shengli go? I was thinking of asking him to go out and celebrate the New Year together." Liu Guangtian said puzzledly.

"Oh, I remember now. Li Shengli won't go out to pay New Year's greetings in the past two years." Yan Jiecheng slapped his head and almost forgot what Yan Bugui said.

"Why?" The younger Liu Guangfu was not very clear about these customs.

"He has to observe mourning." The other young man apparently also remembered it.

"I almost forgot. Let's go to someone else's house." Yan Jiecheng pulled everyone and prepared to leave.

"By the way, in this case, we can't go to Qin Huairu's house in the Central Courtyard either." Someone remembered that there were more than one family that had to observe mourning.

"That's right. Fortunately you reminded us, otherwise Aunt Zhang would have scolded us to death." Ma Jianshe shuddered when he thought of Jia Zhang's character. Who wants to be scolded for nothing during the New Year?

(End of this chapter)