Twenty-eight, Spring Festival (1)

  After this week's review, the clicks, collections and recommendation votes have indeed increased significantly! Here, I would like to thank all new and old readers for their support, as well as the editors of the women's channel for their recommendations! Hehe, as a newcomer, any affirmation from you dear readers is enough to greatly encourage me! I will continue to work hard!

  The end of the year is approaching, and various units have posted closure notices and started their holidays. Although there is no mention of a "Golden Week", this place is after all a remote mountain area with its own local policies, so there will be nearly a week-long Spring Festival holiday.

  On New Year's Eve, from the morning, Lin Mama Sun Yumin started busy with the New Year's dinner. The menu was already planned and the ingredients were also prepared in advance. Although there are only four people in the Lin family, according to tradition, they still have to prepare a sumptuous and unfinished New Year's dinner, because of "year after year surplus".

  This year's New Year's Eve dinner, cold dishes include red oil chicken cubes and cool-dressed ferns. Main courses include bamboo shoots with chicken, braised burdock root with duck, sour cabbage fish, sugar vinegar ribs, red-braised pork, fish-flavored meat shreds, treasure rice, as well as tiger-skin chili peppers, winter melon shrimp, tofu bok choy and fish head soup. Although they are all local flavors of home cooking, the dishes are balanced in terms of meat and vegetables, providing a comprehensive nutrition. Lin's mother has brought out her best in this New Year's Eve dinner, with everyone in the family praising it to no end.

  Lin Zhengyu said while eating: "Little sister, although you're getting more capable now. I think the dishes you cook every day are okay, but compared to mom's craftsmanship, it's still far behind! So you need to continue practicing! The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard!"

  "Hmph! Don't be so smug, the sister-in-law you'll find for me in the future might not even be able to cook as well as I do! I think that to prevent trouble from happening, you should learn how to cook with me too! Otherwise, you might go hungry in the future!"

  Lin Zhengyu was choked by her and coughed repeatedly. Lin Dad and Lin Mom burst out laughing, a happy family enjoying themselves together.

  After finishing the New Year's Eve dinner, Fanghua helped clean up the table and did a final tidy of the house. While taking out the trash, she took a stroll outside the living area. There were very few pedestrians outside, almost everyone was still at home eating their New Year's Eve dinner. Only a few mischievous children ran out to set off firecrackers by the side of the houses. The sound of exploding firecrackers and the faint smell of gunpowder smoke was the traditional flavor of Chinese New Year.

  In the evening, I naturally watched the Spring Festival Gala on CCTV. At that time, the Spring Festival Gala was still in its golden age and peak period, far from being criticized by people as it did later. Thinking about it, every year at this time, there are over a billion Chinese people around the world watching the same TV program together, what a magnificent thing.

  The traditional CCTV Spring Festival Gala is a big mixed bag, in addition to songs and dances, short plays, cross talks, there are also operas, acrobatics and so on that take up a large proportion. The director has really tried his best to cater to the tastes of the majority of people, but with the increasing richness of people's cultural life, it is becoming more and more difficult to satisfy everyone.

  This year's Spring Festival Gala program is not new to Lin Fanghua, nor is it her focus. She just enjoys the warmth of the family atmosphere on this cold winter night, with everyone snuggled up in a big bed, two trays on the bed filled with various melon seeds, peanuts, and fruits. While watching TV, they chat and eat together, feeling the arrival of another Lunar New Year as the countdown to midnight begins, with the sounds of New Year's greetings, cheers, and deafening firecrackers outside.

  On the morning of New Year's Day, Lin Fanghua, who had gone to bed after one o'clock in the morning, was woken up by the sound of firecrackers set off by children outside. After getting dressed and getting out of bed for a while, Lin's mother had already cooked the tangyuan and put it on the table.

  Northerners eat dumplings during the New Year, while southerners always eat tangyuan on the morning of the first day of the year and must eat at least four, symbolizing "reunion" and "good fortune in all seasons".

  Lin Fanghua was afraid of eating sweets since she was a child, and her mother's Tangyuan were always gigantic. Usually, after eating two, she would be full, the third one was hard to swallow, and the fourth one was impossible to eat. So, when her mother wasn't paying attention, she secretly put the last one into her brother's bowl and let him help solve it.

  After breakfast, Fang Hua and several high school girls who had made an appointment earlier went to visit their teacher together. When passing by the small garden in front of the auditorium, they took a stroll inside. Although there were no fresh flowers in winter, several plum blossoms were blooming quietly.

  Class teacher Liang's home is not in this unit, he went back to his hometown for the New Year. So everyone went to visit several main subject teachers, one of whom was a very respected teacher who taught chemistry, Chen Guangzhen. Her husband had passed away early, and she raised her only son He Chao alone. He Chao is that small boy in the same class as Lin Fanghua, who was admitted to the University of Science and Technology and later went abroad for his Ph.D.

  Ms. Chen is a strong woman, not only has she been single for many years and kept herself clean, but also has her own way of teaching. It was she who took over from Mr. Yu Liang to continue teaching chemistry to Lin Fanghua's class, when most students in the class had lost interest in chemistry lessons. She still managed to win the unanimous welcome of the students. In her classroom, even the naughtiest student did not dare to make trouble, for fear of provoking public anger. It can be said that not everyone can be a teacher, it also requires talent.

  "Happy New Year, Teacher Chen! We've come to pay our respects!" Several girls chimed in unison as soon as they knocked open the door.

  Teacher Chen wore a green velvet Chinese-style quilted jacket, and her hair was obviously just permed, looking very spirited. Seeing so many students come to pay their respects for the new year, she was also extremely happy: "Hehe, Happy New Year! Come in quickly and sit down! Eat candies, eat melon seeds! At Teacher's place, don't be polite!" Finally, she shouted towards the inner room again: "He Chao, aren't you coming out to greet your classmates?"

  He Chao responded and came out, rushing towards the many female classmates who were still giggling. Teacher Chen patted her son's neck: "What are you standing there for, stupid? Pour water for your classmates!" Then she said to everyone: "Just in time, I'm cooking Tangyuan, I'll give each of you a bowl, let's taste the teacher's craftsmanship!"

  "Teacher, don't be polite! We all ate at home before coming here!"

  "Come on! You can eat more after finishing this one! Don't worry, the teacher's zongzi are small and won't make you full!"

  Everyone was reluctant to refuse, and in the end they could only hold a small bowl with 4 tangyuan in their hands and eat them up.

  But Teacher Chen's Tangyuan is indeed unique. The small Tangyuan, which is not as big as a longan, four plus one piece, is equivalent to Lin Mama's one Tangyuan. The sweet and not greasy jujube paste filling inside also made Fanghua, who originally didn't like eating Tangyuan, finish four small Tangyuans in one breath.

  Everyone was eating when five or six boys came in to pay their New Year's greetings, among them a man named Chen Jian wearing military uniform. He wore the soldier's winter uniform.

  It's also strange to say that the military schools in China, when new students enter school, they are given summer uniforms in officer style, but winter uniforms are given to them as soldier uniforms. So in Fang Hua's eyes, Chen Jian's outfit with a military hat, student badge and soldier uniform is really not matching at all, typical dressing chaos. However, other classmates still envy Chen Jian's national defense green outfit, especially the boys.

  He Chaobei busily went to move stools and invited his classmates to sit down. The small living room seemed a bit crowded. Chen Jian happened to lean against Lin Fanghua's side and sat down, and everyone else also started chatting with each other.

  "Chen Jian, when did you come back? I didn't see you even after the holiday."

  "Our school had a late holiday break, I just got back a few days ago!"

  "I heard your military training is particularly tough, is it?"

  "Yes! Intensive training for a month, and afterwards it's still class and training every day! No different from the training department!"

  Everyone asked him a lot of questions about military training and also asked about his shooting results. When they heard that he scored 88 rings with 10 bullets, a girl couldn't help but mention Fang Hua's score of 49 rings with 5 bullets, which shocked all the boys sitting together.

  Before long, Teacher Chen brought over freshly cooked tangyuan for the late-arriving boys. Lin Fanghua helped collect the used bowls and chopsticks while saying: "We're not here to pay our respects to the teacher on New Year's Day, it's clearly a class reunion at the teacher's place! And yet, we still have to be fed and housed by the teacher!" Everyone burst out laughing.

  Mr. Chen said hastily: "It's okay! You've come, and I'm especially happy!"

  Lin Fanghua, who was about to enter the kitchen to wash dishes, turned her head and said to everyone: "Alright, let's hurry up and eat! After eating, don't bother Teacher Chen anymore! Let's go visit the next teacher together for New Year's greetings!"

  After that, the student team went on to pay New Year's greetings and successively took in several classmates, expanding the team to around twenty people. After paying New Year's greetings to the last teacher, everyone decided to go to the temple fair together to have fun.