Chapter 494 New Year Greetings

Han Li was urged by the two elders to leave his master's house. Now it was morning, so he rode his bicycle to the farthest place, Old Liu.

There was no one on the road, and there were two more than ten kilograms of big fish in the snakeskin bag on the back seat of Han Li's bicycle.

These fish were exchanged from Meng Zaihong in Shanghe Village, and now Han Li just took them as his trophies to give as gifts.

The inspection at the entrance was still inevitable, and after the inspection, Han Li was escorted to Old Liu.

Old Liu was walking the dog and training the lark every day as usual, or playing chess with a few people living here, or meeting some people who came to pay New Year's greetings, reminisce about the past, and build relationships, but most people were blocked outside the door.

But it was almost the New Year, and his family had not seen any trace.

Han Li was not convenient to inquire about this, and did not want to know, so he chatted with Old Liu for a while and talked about the process of dealing with the "Aunt Liu".

In the middle, Han Li also mentioned the foreign language textbooks. Mr. Liu just laughed and said that young people should learn more and turn knowledge into their own knowledge, which may be useful someday.

Then the guard called to say that someone was visiting, and Han Li took the opportunity to leave.

But when he left, Gong Jianglong handed Han Li a cloth bag with several bottles of canned cherries in it.

Let's not talk about whether the canned cherries are delicious or not, but they are scarce goods. Due to various reasons, it is difficult to see them in many stores at present.

Han Li left Mr. Liu and then rode his bicycle to his junior high school and high school teachers' homes. As for why he didn't go to his elementary school teacher, it was because not all teachers deserve respect.

Han Li went to his teacher's home to pay New Year's greetings and give some gifts. This habit started a long time ago.

Han's father and mother are people who came from that era. They have a special respect for teachers. Even in the first few years, they would let Han Li go to the teacher's home quietly before the New Year.

In addition, except for those who were selected as professors or professor assistants, other educators had a hard time in this era.

However, it was still early, so it was not appropriate to go to the teacher, so Han Li started to walk around the street.

At this time, apart from the supply and marketing cooperatives and department stores, the most crowded places were the post offices. There was a long queue at the door of each post office, and in some places, it could even stretch for two miles.

Those who were queuing were calling their relatives and friends, and most of them were calling the educated youth who went to the countryside to work in the fields. Even if the phone bill was expensive, and one call might even cost the money for the New Year's meat, they also wanted to hear the voices of their children over there when the New Year came.

However, the educated youth who could receive the call had good conditions in the countryside, because at this time there were still countless villages that did not even have electric lights, and could only rely on kerosene lamps and candles for lighting, not to mention such high-end things as telephones.

Han Li never liked to gather in crowded places, but now there were many people everywhere. At this time, the population of the city was not as large as in the future, but there were few places for everyone to go. Today, even the alleys were full of children running and playing everywhere.

Han Li finally went to the bookstore to read for a while, and came out when the time was almost right.

He first went to the home of his junior high school teacher Mai Huaihai, who was relatively close to here. When he was far away, Han Li put away his bicycle.

He was holding a snakeskin bag in his hand, which contained a small half bag of cornmeal and about one and a half pounds of fat meat. It was not that Han Li could not take out more, but if he took out more, it would be easy to cause trouble.

Although he respected his teachers, he did not want to implicate himself because of this matter.

Although Teacher Mai Huaihai's family lived in poverty, it was also because there were too many children, but his current situation was not bad among teachers, because he was not classified as another side at the beginning.

Although the situation in recent years was special, the family could still get by relying on that salary.

Han Li did not stay here for long. The teacher and the student simply reminisced about the past, and the teacher pulled him to say a lot of words of thanks and left.

Next, Han Li took out the same amount of things from the high school teacher Zhang Yubo, but his situation was not so good.

Although the doors and windows had been simply repaired, it was obvious that they had been broken.

This teacher was usually very cautious. Even though Han Li and his sister often came during the New Year and other holidays, he would never explain a single question to them outside. Unexpectedly, he still couldn't escape this disaster.

When Teacher Zhang Yubo saw Han Li coming, he forced a smile on his originally miserable face.

Han Li had no way to ask about this situation, and didn't know how to comfort him. He could only secretly put more brown sugar and peanuts in the snakeskin bag.

This time, Han Li was driven away by Teacher Zhang Yubo before he said he was leaving. Without saying much, he just pointed at the doors and windows with a bitter face.

When Han Li left Teacher Zhang Yubo's house, it was completely dark. He went back to his own home first.

After eating something at home, he talked to his mother and the Yun sisters and returned to his master's house to replace his father.

After taking his master's pulse, decocting medicine, bringing water to wash his feet, and taking the chamber pot, Han Li lay back on the bed to sleep.

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Year of Jiayin, Month of Wuyin, Day of Dinghai, February 10, 1976, the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Early this morning, Han's mother came with Han's elder sister and the Yun sisters. As for Han's father, the second sister and the youngest sister, they still had to go to work.

This was all what they had discussed yesterday. Master Li is not able to cook alone now, and there is no one around him, so their family plans to spend New Year's Eve here this year.

When they came, they brought meat, hairtail distributed by the unit, some groceries for the New Year, and the "mixed mixed food" they bought.

Mixed mixed food is one of the must-haves for the New Year in Sijiucheng. They are divided into three grades: high, medium and low.

The high-end is called fine mixed mixed food, which includes apple preserves, apricot preserves, peach preserves, candied dates, melon strips, green plums, hawthorns and sugared lotus roots.

The mid-range mixed mixed food is called coarse mixed mixed food, which includes dried pears, dried persimmons, hawthorns, crisp dates, hazelnut kernels, peanut kernels, etc.

The worst is called "mixed grabs", which only contain melon seeds, peanuts, and crispy beans.

The mixed mixed food of the Han family is the coarse mixed mixed food bought by Han's second sister. As for Sijiucheng, there are more high-end big eight pieces and thin eight pieces during the New Year.

The eight big items are Fu (blessing) cakes, Lu (luck) cakes, Shou (longevity) cakes, Xi (happiness) cakes, jujube flower pastry, Taishi (preceptor) cakes, black sesame pastry, and Sachima.

The eight small items are jujube flower pastry, Yudie pastry, Xiaojuan pastry, Hehuan pastry, Ganlu fruit, Furong cake, Powdered pastry, and Egg yolk pastry.

Although several members of the Han family work, they can still make do with buying a little to satisfy their cravings, but now that the New Year is approaching, those small mixed food, large and small items are really not something they can buy whenever they want.

They can buy the coarse mixed food because of their second sister working in the supply and marketing cooperative. Others can only rely on peanuts with skins to celebrate the New Year.

Han's mother and the others started to get busy as soon as they arrived. If the situation in the family in Sijiucheng allows, everyone must have carp, four-happiness meatballs, dumplings, etc. during the New Year.

They were busy talking and laughing on one side, and Han Li was not idle either. He took out the paper and pen that his mother brought when she came and started to write couplets.

Sijiu City pays attention to posting couplets on the morning of New Year's Eve, so Han Li posted them at his master's house after writing them, and then Han's mother sent him and the Yun sisters back to their own homes to post couplets.

However, it took Han Li a long time to post the couplets at home, and what happened during this time was probably only known by the bed in his room.

When the three of them came back, Han's father had already come from the unit, holding the wine that the unit had just distributed.

Now, the best wines in the eyes of most units and middle-class people in Sijiu City are "Xifeng" and "Si Te".

This is because of the first national wine tasting in 52 years. Because these two wines are both famous brands and suitable in price, they have become the first choice for many people during the New Year or as gifts.

Then the second sister and the younger sister all came back from the unit. After another busy period, the sound of crackling firecrackers rang out in the yard.

During the meal, Han Li did not approve of his master drinking at first, even if he said a lot of alarmist words, it didn't work.

In the end, Han Li could only stare at his master and choose to decompose the alcohol after a certain amount of alcohol in his stomach.

Not long after the meal, Master Li started to chase people away, and even Han Li was about to leave at first.

He even stood up and walked back and forth in the room twice to prove that he was fine, but in the end Han Li still stayed.

Yimao year. Wuyin month. Wuzi day. February 11, 75, the first day of the Chinese New Year.

Han Li got up early in the morning and started cooking dumplings, setting off firecrackers, and kowtowed to his master, but he was driven away by his master after he kowtowed.

(In Sijiu City, greeting your family members is called kowtow, and others can only be called simple greetings.)

This time Han Li did not shirk, because he had too many things to do today, but repeatedly told his master not to move around. etc.

After returning home, he kowtowed to his parents first, and then was led to the West Mountain by his father.

The Han family's ancestral home is in the land of the alliance of the nine princes in Ji Province, but the ancestors could no longer find each other because of the war.

Dad and grandpa settled in Sijiu City during the country's first five-year plan. Every year on the first day of the lunar year and Qingming Festival, their family would kowtow to the south at Xishan Mountain, as a way of remembering.

Unfortunately, grandpa died in the third year after he came to Sijiu City, and later grandpa was buried here.

Every year on the first day of the lunar year and Qingming Festival, when they kowtowed to grandpa, they would also kowtow to the south.

The father and son first placed wine, pork, fish, trough cakes, and jar stoves on grandpa's grave, and then kowtowed and chanted after lighting firecrackers.

They twisted off a small piece of the things placed on the grave and threw it on the grave, then quickly packed up and ran away.

They had to run away, because everyone who went to the grave was afraid of being caught in the act, and if they were caught, it would not be a joke.

However, the father and son often did this in the past few years, and they were very familiar with the route and ran very quickly.

When the father and son returned home, Han's mother was talking to the Yun sisters, but their faces seemed a little too red.

However, before Han Li could secretly ask, Han's mother spoke.

"You two should hurry up and go to pay New Year's greetings. When you come back, we will go to the photo studio to take family photos together."

Han Li was kicked out again without asking a single question. His first stop after he came out was Yu Daqiang's house.

Because this time they were mostly paying New Year's greetings to some elderly neighbors, although they were not far away, there were too many houses, so in previous years they would contact a group of people to accompany them to pay New Year's greetings, so that sometimes they could hide behind the crowd and take a break.