"So, that corpse that seeped water, it can’t turn into a corpse lying dead either?"
"Uh-huh, can’t turn into that."
Tan Wenbin said with a helpless smile, "I really think it’s about time to tear down Big Beard’s house and build a temple instead, it truly provides safety and peace to the community."
"What else can I do, sigh, besides striving daily, doesn’t seem like there are other things to do."
Returning home, Li Zhiyuan saw that Li Weihan had arrived, bringing quite a few things.
It was sent from Li Lan in Beijing.
Li Lan sends things back every festive season, including monthly remittances, never missed.
This year’s Lunar New Year gifts are particularly numerous, mainly because there’s an extra part for a "son."
New clothes, new shoes, new stationery as well as various snacks, a whole two big bags.
Li Weihan said to Li Zhiyuan with a smile: Little Yuanhou, look, your mother is always thinking about you.
Li Zhiyuan could only respond with a similarly joyful expression, putting on a little performance in front of his grandfather.
Yes, he knew, she was reminding him this way that she always remembered him.
On Chinese New Year’s Eve, at noon, Li Zhiyuan went with Li Sanjiang to have the reunion meal at Li Weihan’s place.
Originally, Li Sanjiang had planned to invite Li Weihan and Cui Guiying to his house for the New Year’s Eve dinner, but since winter vacation came, Li Zhiyuan’s uncles ended up sending their children back to their grandparents’ place, and the school session started at home again.
Li Weihan felt it was not appropriate to bring all the kids to Li Sanjiang’s house for the meal, so he had chosen this compromise.
After finishing the meal and taking Li Zhiyuan out, Li Sanjiang couldn’t stop cursing those ingrates.
Instead of going home directly, they detoured to Big Beard’s house, because this property also was under the name of Li Sanjiang, and supposedly they should clean it before the New Year.
Run Sheng and Yin Meng had come early to clean for a while, Li Sanjiang also grabbed a broom and joined in, and even Li Zhiyuan picked up a cloth to help wipe the tables and chairs.
By the time they finished, it was already dusk.
Li Sanjiang, with hands on his hips, complained with a laugh, "Really, having such a large property isn’t exactly a good thing, cleaning it is really tiring, haha."
Finally, Li Sanjiang placed two pagoda incense sticks on the dam.
These were made by Aunt Liu herself, truly, if he were to go out and buy them, Li Sanjiang really wouldn’t be willing to light them.
With the incense smoke curling up, Run Sheng took several deep breaths nearby.
Li Sanjiang waved him off: "Go go go, this is to honor the Buddha, so it continues to bless you all next year."
Hearing this, Li Zhiyuan, Run Sheng, and Yin Meng couldn’t help but look towards the peach grove ahead.
Exactly, it truly thanks to its blessings, keeping everyone, in essence, out of trouble.
But such inner complaints could only be kept to themselves, at most verbally grumbling a bit, cannot be overly diffuse, after all, no matter what, not having corpses appearing was definitely something good.
During the New Year’s Eve dinner, Li Sanjiang gave out red envelopes, everyone except Liu Yumei received one, after all they were either his juniors or his workers, as for Zhuangzhuang’s share, he had already given it earlier when he went home for the new year.
Liu Yumei also handed out money for New Year.
Then, Alii gave both of the red envelopes she received to Little Yuan.
The girl still remembered how the boy looked when he was short of money.
Li Zhiyuan, holding Alii’s hand, went into the east room, opened her collection box, and put all four red envelopes inside.
That evening, everyone gathered around the TV to watch the Spring Festival Gala.
When the countdown to zero ended, celebratory sounds came from the TV, and outside, timely firecrackers could be heard.
Local people generally do not have the habit of calculating exact months, they typically roughly count ages by the "New Year."
Li Zhiyuan, holding Alii’s hand, stood on the dam edge, gazing at the fireworks in the distance which were barely visible.
"Alii, we’ve both grown a year older."