Feng Yu’s mother woke him up at 6 am on the morning of the Lunar New Year. She does not care if Feng Yu had slept in the early hours of the morning. This was the traditions of the region. The earlier you do visit, the more auspicious it would be. Feng Xingtai was now the wealthiest boss in the district, People from Tai Hua Food Processing Factory and Tian Peng Pig Farm would be visiting him very early. It would not be very nice for the visitors to see Feng Yu still in bed when they visit!
Feng Yu stuff some dumplings into his mouth and went to wash up. Just when he was dressed up, there was knocking on the door.
“Director Feng, happy new year. Sister-in-law, Xiao Feng, happy new year.” The person who visited was from Tai Hua Factory, and he said lots of auspicious greeting when he entered the house.
Feng Yu shook his hands and exchanged some greetings. Feng Yu had decided that to leave his house.
“Come, Xiao Feng, this red packet is from uncle.” This person took out a 10 RMB note and pushed it into Feng Yu’s hands.
Feng Yu: “……”
The amount he earned a day during the past year was more than the annual salary of an average person. He had even given out over a hundred thousand RMB as bonuses and rewards. Now, he was treated like a kid, and this person still used his status as an elder to make him accept this 10 RMB!
Feng Yu forced a smile and kept the red packet. He mumbled a thank you. He was frustrated. Since when he had to say thank you for 10 RMB?
Just when he was about to escape from his house, someone came.
When this person saw Feng Yu, he also took out a 10 RMB note and pushed it into his hands.
The visitors came one after another. Within an hour, Feng Yu received a few hundreds RMB of red packets. All the visitors gave 10 RMB notes as red packets!
Finally, there was peace. Feng Yu massaged his sored face and sat down exhausted on the sofa. It was not easy to entertain people. Feng Yu felt that it was more tiring in the past hour than attending an hour of physics lesson!
“Dad, how come I don’t know these people?”
“These are the people that had worked with our factory. I did not expect some of them to turn up too. Especially that Song Deliang and Zheng Guangming. You should also know their characters well. They had rushed here so early in the morning from the village to visit us. I think they were expecting us to give them something when we return to the village for new year visiting.” Feng Xingtai shook his head. Those two shit stirrers had shamelessly “borrowed” soybean oil from the factory a few times and did not return once!
Feng Yu was also feeling helpless. To these shameless people, there was nothing he could do. Even if you scold them, they will just ignore you. If you beat them up, then they will be returning every day, asking for compensations.
Zhang Muhua asked unhappily: “Why did you ask Xiao Yu to accept those red packets even when he said that he does not want? You don’t remember last year when you gave their kids 50 RMB red packet, they still complain that it was too little? This year you must at least give them 100 RMB each!”
Feng Yu had not thought of this earlier. But never mind. It’s only a few thousand RMB. This amount was nothing to his family. This year, Feng Yu asked his father to donate to the local police station was much more than this amount.
Knock, knock, knock~~~
The knocking starts again, and Feng Yu immediately jump up from the sofa and shouted: “Dad, mum, I am going out for New Year Visiting. Keep some lunch for me.”
Feng Yu opened the door and said Happy New Year and ran off. He did not let the visitor stop him.
This person entered the house and did not see Feng Yu. After asking, he realized that the kid that ran out earlier was Feng Yu. His face showed hints of regrets. Feng Xingtai’s son was not around and he could not give him the red packet. He was also not sure if Feng Xingtai would give his children red packets when they met.
After leaving the house, Feng Yu went to Wen Dongjun’s house and knocked on the door.
“Happy New Year. Xiao Yu you are here. Come in.” Wen Dongjun’s mother saw Feng Yu and invited him into the house. She was envy of Feng Xingtai for having such a capable son.
Feng Yu entered the house and noticed that some people were sitting on the sofa. They seem to be people from the Farm Department and subordinates of Wen Deguang. Wen Dongjun was sitting in a corner listlessly. When he saw Feng Yu, he immediately jumps up. He was finally freed!
The guests left when they saw Feng Yu entering. Wen Dongjun’s mother threw away the paper cups into the bin. There were already lots of paper cups in the bin.
Her husband had become a leader and was having more and more authority. They did not become richer, but her husband’s workload became heavier. Her husband did not receive gifts, and yet he still got to entertain guests. Just the paper cups cost a lot of money.
Feng Yu greeted Wen Deguang and dragged Wen Dongjun out of the house. Wen Dongjun was the same as Feng Yu. He was trapped in the house since early in the morning. But the only difference was that Feng Yu’s mother wanted him to leave the house, and Wen Dongjun’s mother did not want him to go. Those people who visited Wen Deguang came empty-handed, and they would at least give his son a red packet.
Wen Dongjun was already attending high school and felt embarrassed to receive red packets. But he still got to listen to his mother, if it wasn’t for Feng Yu, he still got to stay at home to collect red packets.
“This year’s New Year was meaningless. We are not allowed to go ice fishing and not allowed to go hunting. All the shotguns were confiscated earlier this year. How about we go visit our old classmates?” Wen Dongjun was bored, and he rather goes back to school.
These 2 brothers went to look for Liu Kun. Li Na had gone back to her hometown for a visit with her parents.
At Liu Kun’s house, the 3 of them still felt bored. Wen Dongjun suggests to visit another classmate, and there would be 4 people. This way, they could play poker.
At the classmate house, the person who opened the door was a girl. This girl was also their classmate from their junior high school. When she saw the 3 of them, she was shocked. The 3 of them were also shocked.
It was because this girl was carrying a baby and she was dressed as if it was her home.
“Dear, who is it?” Someone in the house was asking.
“It’s Liu Kun and the rest. Come in please.” The female classmate invited them into the house.
Dear?
Feng Yu and the other two looked at each other. These two were not even close in school, and now they were married and also had a child? Cannot be. Both of them were still too young.
In the house, the 3 of them sat for a while and left. Before leaving, Feng Yu gave the female classmate 30 RMB, saying that it was the red packet for the child from them.
After graduating from junior high, this couple had nothing to do and started playing together. Soon, they were dating, and the girl got pregnant! Abortion in that era was a big issue. If it was the 2nd child, the hospital was more than willing to perform the abortion. But most hospital would not do it if it was the first child.
Both families discussed and decided to let this couple get married. Since they were not old enough to be registered, they just held a simple ceremony and start living together. When they reach the legal age, then they would register their marriage. Currently, the couple survived by working in the fields.
Feng Yu and the other two visited a few classmates’ houses and noticed that their lives were very much different from their classmates who had stopped school after junior high school. They had nothing in common to chat.
In the end, they finally found a classmate that was also studying in High School and the 4 of them played poker for a while.
When they left in the afternoon, Wen Dongjun sighs: “I am disliking Lunar New Year!”
