She yelled around at home. The Eldest Sister-in-law Han didn’t know why, but suddenly, she didn’t swallow her anger like she used to. In retrospect, she satirised her, “It’s all because of you that they didn’t give us anything. Otherwise, they would have sent it long ago.”
It was inevitable to fight again regarding Lin Lan and once again, it was done by the Eldest Sister-in-law and Han Jinyu.
Fighting during the Chinese New Year was not a good sign. Not only would it seem unsightly and embarrassing for the family, but it also offended the ancestors. After all, the family needed to be united for the Chinese New Year.
This was the most important event of the new year.
Even children were refrained from causing a fuss, let alone Han Jinyu. It wasn’t until Old Man Han started to show his displeasure that the Youngest Aunt relented.
Lin Lan didn’t know that because of her, the quarrels in the main house were occurring all day long. Instead, she was directing the children to help her prepare. Maisui tended to the fire to stew some meat, Erwang chopped up the stuffing and she prepped the batter,
They stewed the big pot of meat first. In the afternoon, they mainly made dumplings before proceeding to make a few stir-fried dishes in the evening. The New Year’s Eve dinner would be ready by 7 o’clock.
According to local customs, having the meal at 6 or 7 o’clock was the most sumptuous time of the year. The whole family would sit together to drink and chat, enjoying the food for a long time.
After that, the family would walk around to pay New Year’s greetings. Children were allowed to go to bed if they couldn’t stand it, but the adults would gather to watch the new year pass.
That mainly meant that the grown-ups merely had to add joss sticks to the family tree, which would last all night, so they had to keep watch.
Although breaking The Four Traditions was not allowed, in places like the countryside where clans lived together, clan laws were often more important than political laws. As long as no one deliberately screwed something up, no one really cared much here. Han Yongfang was an overbearing cadre, but he supported these customs. After all, he himself had to worship his ancestors.
In the middle of the night, they still had to welcome the New Year, set off firecrackers and serve dumplings. The dumplings should be wrapped and prepared in the afternoon since they would be cooked in the pot in the middle of the night.
Seeing Lin Lan place the dough on the chopping board, Sanwang was very excited as he was the first to jump over to help.
Lin Lan refused cruelly, “Don’t touch it.”
He was just here to play with the wrapping and was definitely less useful than Xiaowang.
Dawang also didn’t like doing housework that much and kneading dough was especially a chore. For some reason, the concept of it made him resist the idea inexplicably as he did not want to budge at all.
He would rather go to work than do any form of housework.
If he was alone and had to eat something, he would just make something simple and get on with the day. Cooking rice was impossible for him, so the worst case scenario would just be to starve.