New Year's greetings (novel)
Text/Kong Shaoai
The old man is old like a child, looking forward to the New Year one day earlier.
The bad old man who doesn't have to worry about food and clothing has a matter on his mind. He and his wife only had two daughters in their lives, both of whom had ideal jobs and had excellent academic qualifications, but they did not fall in love with each other, and the two maids married in the boudoir. After graduating from a famous university, the eldest daughter was admitted to the sub-district office of a district in the city as an assistant to the director. It's not easy to find a partner, and the family is in a hurry when they are nearly thirty years old. Choosing a good partner for the eldest daughter has become the top priority of the bad family in the past three years. The bad old man who has raised his eyebrows all his life can't afford to bear the pressure because of this matter, and he feels very faceless, and he can't speak in front of people, and he has become an unspeakable addiction to a bad family. He often gives his daughter that the conditions for finding a partner cannot be too high, and it is okay to have no house or car, but the young man is at least a leader at or above the section level of an organ or institution.
It stands to reason that this requirement of the bad old man is not too much, because the door is right, the difference between men and women cannot be too big, and the daughter is already a section-level leader, and her career is immeasurable.
Xinqing is unmarried in his thirties, an officer of the provincial organ, handsome and low-key, with strong work ability and low-key behavior, but in terms of seniority, Xinqing is still a reserve cadre. A year ago, I was introduced by a friend to the eldest daughter of a bad family and fell in love. After New Year's Day, the eldest daughter called her parents to report the good news, and she was going to take her boyfriend home before the New Year. just briefly talked about the situation of Xinqing, and when introducing the young man's on-the-job work, his daughter flickered and was a quasi-cadre. The old man is happy to fall from the sky, and the bad old man is secretly happy in his heart.
The bad old man has studied the I Ching, and he told his daughter to go home to visit relatives before the beginning of spring, and the marriage has a high probability of success. The order is like a mountain, which can be busy with the two of Xinqing in love, buying tobacco and alcohol in the east market, and buying New Year's goods in the west market. In order to please the quasi-father-in-law, Xinqing also deliberately went to the calligraphy and painting market to buy a handwritten red couplet: Happy to live in the treasure land for a thousand years, Fuzhao family is prosperous, and the horizontal batch: Baodi is golden.
Because the salaryman can't buy the Tiantai national liquor, he bought two bottles of Moutai illegitimate son Zunyi 1935, this wine has been fried to 1,000 yuan a bottle, packaged in Maoti poems, red bottles, particularly atmospheric. I also bought 95 Nanjing brand cigarettes and special Qinling black tea. The two took a good leave, but the flying snow couldn't stop the way home, and they took the Hulk bullet train to get home smoothly on the day of the new year.
This day coincides with the bad family killing pigs, and there is a custom of eating pig-killing rice in the local area. The family was overjoyed by the arrival of the newcomers, especially the young man's talent and demeanor, and was indispensable for the warm hospitality of the newcomers. As soon as she entered the living room and sat down, Mrs. Bad brought a bowl of tea with 6 poached eggs, Xinqing took the tea bowl, and dried it in one go.
In fact, there are two special dishes for killing pigs, one is stewed pig blood with radish, and the other is fried pork, which is tender and delicious, fat but not greasy, and Xinqing has eaten a lot of peasant pork and pig blood. At the wine table, the second daughter of the bad old man took the initiative to toast Xinqing, the second daughter was more beautiful than the eldest daughter, but Xinqing didn't dare to look at it, but she just excused herself and didn't drink. This detail was seen and remembered by the bad old man.
After the meal, drinking tea and chatting, the sugar old man asked Xinqing the price of the gifts, in fact, the old man just didn't know the price of Zunyi 1935 wine, and it was clear how much other gifts were worth, but the questioner was intentional, and the answerer Yuan was unintentional, and Xinqing answered truthfully one by one.
On the second day, the family accompanied Xinqing to the 4A scenic spot to play, and Xinqing took the initiative to go to the ticket office to buy 5 tickets. In the past two days, my daughter has made a lot of calls, but Xinqing has very few calls. All kinds of signs made the sugar old man worried. The bad old man has the following suspicions, and concludes that this Xinqing is an imposter cadre. The snow and ice on the road are melting, and the temperature is dropping. The worse the old man became, the more angry he became, from the cold head to the back of his feet, and his attitude towards his son-in-law made a hundred and eighty turns. The heat drops to freezing in an instant. The old-fashioned bad old man, based on experience and cognition, has a few assumptions, and his heart is anxious.
The most suspicious thing is that if the guy is the leader, he will never eat a big bowl of poached eggs. At present, leading cadres all eat coarse grains and wild vegetables, and how can anyone who is a cadre eat meat and blood on the table. If Xinqing is the leader, the phone will not stop saying hello to the New Year.
The current leaders are all good drinkers, but the little sister brought it to Xinqing's mouth with a full pour of wine, but he refused, and she didn't drink a drop of wine.
If Xinqing was a leader, he would not have paid for tickets out of his own pocket in the scenic spot.
If the guy is the leader, how will he know the price of tobacco, alcohol and tea, and does the leader still need to buy it himself for smoking, drinking and drinking tea?
The bad old man secretly speculated that Xinqing was a fake official and an impostor, and he really didn't escape the bad old man's eyes.
Xinqing realized that something was wrong with her. Thirty-six plans, go for the upper plan. Xinqing said that he was still at work normally on the thirtieth day of the lunar month, and he had to rush back to the unit to deal with official business.
The young man felt that this bad old man was more difficult to deal with than his own leader, and he did things carefully, not knowing what was wrong. This year's worship is like a little rooster greeting the big weasel, it is thrilling and dangerous, it is good to be able to save a little life, and marrying a daughter-in-law is a dream.
All the mistakes are caused by a well-intentioned panic remark from a bad family and daughter. A white lie of the bad family and daughter, changed the lover's plan, and it was inconvenient to break it for a while, so she had to stay alone to reunite with her family and clean up the mess, she planned to tell her sister the truth first, so that her sister could learn her own lesson.
The streets and alleys of the small county town are full of red lanterns on the electric poles and tree branches, and the smell of the New Year is getting stronger. The westbound train has entered the town station. On the platform of the railway station, the bad old man's heart was like a rolling wave.
Edit: Leisurely
The picture is from the author
About the Author
Kong Shaoai, born in April 1961, has a university education, a member of the Communist Party of China, and a retired cadre of the Shangnan County Civil Affairs Bureau. He is a veteran propagandist and a member of the Shangluo Writers Association.