stonecrandall Chapter 265, New Year's Eve Dinner
Chapter 265, New Year's Eve Dinner
It gets dark quickly in winter, and it gets dark by five or six o'clock.
The boys at home came back late and started cooking very late, and when it was dark outside, their dishes started to be fried.The dry firewood in the stove was burning hot, and vegetables were being fried in the cauldron. Aunt Qiao was in charge of this year's New Year's Eve dinner.
After a while, the aroma of cooking spread to the outside.
It was nearly eight o'clock in the evening before their New Year's Eve dinner was ready.
"Come, come, help me out with a dish and then we can eat." Aunt Qiao was in charge of cooking, and they were working in the kitchen, sweating all over in the cold weather.But now that the boys in the family are back, no matter how tiring they work and how much sweat they sweat, they are happy in their hearts.
"Aniang, I'll help serve the dishes." Brother Qiao Mingyong came over to help serve the dishes
Qiao Minglang was not idle either, and went to help the aunt.
"Go to the living room. The tables are all set?" Mrs. Qiao is busy in the kitchen. She has ordered someone to do the outside work. She hasn't checked it yet, so she doesn't know if the tables and chairs are all set.
Qiao Mingyong left with the dishes and left a sentence, "It's all set."
The dining table in the kitchen is too small, they have a lot of people, and the living room is relatively large, so they put the dining table in the living room.Now that there is electricity at home, turning on the lights is much brighter than lighting candles before, so it does not affect their eating.
Two large tables were put together, and several families sat down around the table. There were quite a few of them, and there were not enough places to sit.
Aunt Qiao looked at the unmarried boys in the family and said: "When you all find girls to marry next year and have a few more boys, we will have to add another table."
"Yeah, all of you are old and young, let's all be more aggressive." Huang Yan said to her two boys.
"Aniang, aren't we still young? It won't be too late to look for it in two years." Qiao Mingyong said with a smile on his face, trying to get away with it.
"You're still young, do you still think you're three years old?" Aunt Qiao spat at the brat.
Qiao Mingyong rubbed his nose, took the bowl and found a place far away from his mother, squeezed together with his two cousins, and the few bachelors were so jealous by their own mother that they wanted to shrink into a circle.The brothers glanced at each other, and they all saw the same thing in each other's eyes, pity, sympathy...
Qiao Minglang is still young and still studying. The elders in the family just let him study hard so that he can get into a good university in the future. He is not as miserable as his unmarried cousins.
Their meal didn't end until after nine o'clock in the evening.
The two twins were young and sleepy at one o'clock, and fell asleep before finishing a meal.Even though the family was close to the aunt's house, Qiao Minglang was still not at ease. The two girls at home brought their younger brother and younger sister back, and said to the elders, "I'll send them back first, and come back later."
"Have you guys had enough to eat?" Aunt Qiao asked.
Qiao Minglang himself was full, so he asked a few younger brothers and sisters, and seeing that they were all full, he replied to his aunt, "They are all full."
"Oh, then I won't come when I'm full. Go back and take a shower and sleep. I'll let them leave early, come back tomorrow morning, and come to the aunt's house to eat dumplings." Aunt Qiao called out to the eldest son of the family. To send people off, "Mingshan, send Minglang and them back."
"Oh, good." Everyone was full now, and Qiao Mingshan was also talking to everyone when he was full.
"No need, let's go back alone." Qiao Minglang held his sleeping little brother in his arms, afraid of the cold outside, he wrapped the child with his coat.
Qiao Mingshan saw that the little cousin wrapped the little brother with a coat, and casually took a piece of clothing from the back of the chair, put it on the little cousin's shoulders, and said irresistibly: "Let's go, brother will take you back."
In fact, Qiao Minglang didn't think it would be so troublesome, but his cousin wanted to send him back, so he had no choice but to ask his cousin to do so.
Qiao Mingshan sent his cousin and cousins home, and then returned to his own home.
"You guys also go back to take a bath and sleep earlier. We have to get up early for the Chinese New Year tomorrow." Seeing that everyone was full, Mrs. Qiao told everyone to go home early. They got up early today to grind and make tofu. I also went to sell things for a long time, and I have been busy for a while when I came back.
The boys in the family didn't come back from outside until today. Knowing that everyone was tired, Mrs. Qiao asked everyone to go back to rest early, and she didn't forget to remind them: "Come over to eat dumplings tomorrow morning. Let's make dumplings tomorrow morning."
"Okay, let's go back." Huang Yan and the others helped to clean up the table and chopsticks. Seeing that there was nothing to do, they also had to go home.
Everyone has been busy all day, and they are really tired.
In previous years, they made the dumplings in advance, but today they were too tired. After eating, everyone didn't want to continue working, so they left the dumplings until tomorrow morning.
After seeing off several families, Aunt Qiao closed and locked the gate of the yard.
Their ancestors had the custom of keeping watch during the New Year, but now everyone is not so particular about celebrating the New Year. In addition, they all get up so early to work outside. It is not easy to survive until this point .
So the people from several families went back to their own homes, and went to bed after taking a bath.
The lights of several houses were extinguished one by one, and two big red lanterns were hung at the door, shining brightly in the night.
***
Qiao Minglang, who came back home at this time, saw that his elder brother wanted to sleep with him, so he had no choice but to carry his younger brother to the bed in his room.Qiao Mingcheng hugged his own pillow and quilt and put them on his brother's bed. He couldn't hide the joy on his face.
After waiting on the bed for a while, Qiao Mingcheng called out, "Brother."
"Well, why haven't you slept yet?" Qiao Minglang came back from the shower, was wiping his hair with a towel, when he heard a voice behind him, he turned his head and glanced at the child who was still moving on the bed.
He washed his hair just now, only to realize that there is no hair dryer at home. If he had known, he would have brought a hair dryer back. It seems that when he comes back, he will bring a hair dryer, otherwise he will not be able to dry his hair for a long time after washing in the middle of the night.
"I want to wait for my brother to come with me." Qiao Mingcheng rolled on the bed, taking care not to roll over to his sleeping brother. He lay on the bed and looked at his brother with bright eyes.
The child who is only 11 years old after the new year, his family used to be poor and couldn't eat enough, and his siblings were all skinny.But it’s different now. There is food at home, they can eat enough, and they can still eat a meal of meat every now and then. As soon as children have something to eat, they grow fast. In just one year, the children grow up. Changed appearance.
"Sleep, my brother has washed his hair, so he won't be able to sleep until a while." Qiao Minglang wiped his half-dried hair, walked over and glanced at the two younger brothers who were lying on the bed. The younger one was already asleep, and the older one looked...no It looks like he will be able to fall asleep for a while.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and asked about the children's studies at school.
"The third sister's grades are better than mine and the second sister's. The third sister is amazing. She got No.1 in the class in the mid-term exam last time. The teacher praised her for being amazing. Our final exam results haven't come out yet. I can't come out until the school starts, but I think the third sister should take the No.1..." Qiao Mingcheng talked about the third sister who was better at reading than them, and his tone was more proud and honored.
The three of them, siblings, study in the same class. The third sister's grades are the best, and then he gets to him, and the last one is the second sister.
"Well, my sister's grades are good. You can study together. If you don't understand, you can ask my sister." Qiao Minglang listened to the child talking to him about studying at school and how he got along with his classmates, and then talked about After school, I go home to take care of my younger siblings and help the adults with work.
From the children's words, he could hear that the children's lives at home were not too bad.
At the back, the child's voice gradually became weaker, until he couldn't hear the child's voice. He turned his head and found that the child had fallen asleep on the bed.
As expected, he was still a child, Qiao Minglang couldn't help showing a smile on his face, and moved the child who was sleeping on his side inside, and covered him with a quilt.
He didn't get up until he was done brushing his hair, turned off the light in the room, and went to bed.
The quilt covering his body was dry and warm, with a smell of being in the sun. It was presumably that before he came back, the little girls at home washed the quilt and took it out to bask in the sun.
Beside them were the two sleeping brothers, and the little girls were sleeping in their own rooms.
Thinking about the children at home, thinking about how the children lived at home when he was not at home, Qiao Minglang gradually sank into sleep.
This sleep was very deep, and I didn't dream at night.
The next day, he was woken up by the children around him. The children who had already woken up were crawling around beside him. Qiao Minglang didn't even open his eyes, so he reached out and patted the children on the back. , asked: "What's the matter?"
"Brother, hush." Qiao Xiaobao was awakened by his own urination, and stretched out his hand to grab the little bird that was about to pee, fearing that he could not hold back and wet the bed.
Children know from a very young age that they cannot pee on the bed, or they will be spanked by their sister.
"Well, brother, I'll carry you." Qiao Minglang opened his eyes when he heard that the child was in a hurry to urinate, carried the child out to the toilet outside and filled a handful of water, then carried the child back to the house and stuffed it in Go under the quilt, "Hurry up and hide, brother will get you clothes."
It's cold outside, but warmer inside.
There was another brother sleeping in the bed, Qiao Minglang went to fetch clothes for the child to wear, but he forgot to remind the child not to wake up the sleeping brother.
"Brother!" Qiao Xiaobao jumped on his brother as soon as he was happy.
"!"
Qiao Mingcheng, who was still sleeping, let his younger brother jump like this, and woke him up...