After dinner, the women gathered around to make dumplings with sauerkraut pork and cabbage pork fillings. Xiaoxiao sneakily wrapped five copper coins inside.
When the time came to welcome the God of Wealth that evening, "There are five dumplings with copper coins inside, be careful when you eat them, so you don’t bite your teeth!"
"..." Just as everyone was about to put the dumplings in their mouths, they heard this and all paused.
"Why put copper coins in them?" everyone asked, puzzled.
Yang Ming was already used to it, his wife had many quirky ideas during the New Year, and this was just the tip of the iceberg! He thought, get used to it, just get used to it.
"..." Xiaoxiao was resigned, they acted like it wasn’t New Year at all, doing nothing, "Try your luck, whoever gets one is the lucky one."
Was there such a custom? After hearing this, everyone started picking dumplings to see which ones had copper coins, all hoping to be the lucky one.
"Don’t pick, whoever gets one, gets one." Xiaoxiao immediately intervened to stop anyone from picking.
Then everyone began eating normally, and soon a muffled grunt was heard from Yang Ming. Everyone looked his way, and Yang Ming spat out a copper coin.
"Yang Ming, you’re the first one to get one, impressive, you’re the lucky one." Xiaoxiao immediately clapped and cheered.
Yang Ming thought to himself, could he possibly be unlucky having married Xiaoxiao? He was extremely fortunate, and he felt very content.
Seeing the third brother succeed so quickly, everyone else hurriedly ate, hoping to be the next one. There were still four copper coins left.
In the end, it was Old Man Yang, Yang Qiu, Yang Dong, and Yang Guangguang who got them.
Everyone else got theirs normally, but Yang Dong got his because he ate vigorously, consuming twice his usual amount of dumplings, which left him quite stuffed.
This made everyone burst out laughing. After all, it was already past the New Year celebration, and here he was, soon to be married, yet still acting like a child.
Xiaoxiao, however, didn’t eat a single dumpling but only ate vegetables.
Yang Ming noticed and later that night, brought her a plate of dumplings to bed, concerned she might be hungry.
"Xiaoxiao, I saw you didn’t eat much earlier. Here, have some, and eat them if you get hungry later!"
"I don’t eat dumplings!"
"..." He was puzzled, since she used to eat dumplings before. As he was wondering, he heard his wife repeat herself.
"Oh, actually, I can’t eat pork dumplings on New Year’s Eve!"
"Why?" He suddenly became curious.
"..." Could she say it? It was a modern-day tradition passed down from her ancestors, "Actually, it’s because our ancestors from the Zhong Family were fleeing famine and when they crossed a river, their boat sank, but they were saved by a pig. Our ancestor then vowed the Zhong Family would not eat pork dumplings on New Year’s Eve for generations."
"Just like that, sounds crazy, right? But we really have always abstained from eating them on New Year’s Eve! It’s fine other times." Ha ha, ha ha, she herself found it absurd, but it was indeed a longstanding family tradition and practice.
"Not crazy! I’ll fix you something else to eat." He really didn’t find it crazy, everyone has their own traditions.
"No need, don’t trouble yourself, I already ate a lot today." She really hadn’t eaten lightly; a girl, eating as much as a man, her body clearly had gained ten pounds already.
"I’m going to lie down now, feeling sleepy. Don’t turn off the lights tonight, we need to keep them on all night!"
"It’s a custom to keep the lights on all night during New Year, don’t save on candles!"