First Month

Eating dumplings on the morning of the First Month.

Liu Yuanzhou had been drinking with Liu Chuang and the others last night, not returning home until very late, where he collapsed into bed. He was sleeping soundly when a string of firecrackers suddenly went off with a "crackling" sound.

Liu Yuanzhou was startled awake. He opened his eyes, stared blankly for a moment, then pulled the covers tighter, thinking he would sleep a little longer, enjoying a rare day of laziness.

"Get up and eat dumplings," his father, Liu Da, urged him from the doorway.

His plan to sleep in ruined, Liu Yuanzhou had no choice but to sit up and find his clothes. He saw a set of new clothes folded neatly on the pillow, a dark blue set that his mother, Zhang Shi, must have placed there last night.

Liu Yuanzhou dressed and went out of his room, finding the sun already high in the sky.

He walked into the central room, where the dumplings were already cooked, and his elder brother and sister-in-law had already started eating. Liu Yuanzhou greeted everyone with a "Happy New Year" and picked up a bowl of dumplings from the stove to eat. His mother, Zhang Shi, added soup for him, a tofu and vermicelli soup, and she made sure to scoop extra tofu into Liu Yuanzhou's bowl.

Local custom dictated that no one should leave the house on the first day of the First Month, and no visiting relatives was allowed. After the meal, with nothing to do, Li Shi suggested playing cards. The cards were square pieces made of bamboo, called Mahjong, which required four people to play. Everyone agreed. Liu Yuanzhou brought over a small table, placed it on the heated brick bed, and settled his parents down to play, standing behind his mother to watch.

Zhang Shi hadn't played in a long time and was a bit rusty. Liu Yuanzhou occasionally gave her pointers. After a few rounds, Zhang Shi's skills improved, and Liu Yuanzhou began to feel bored. He told everyone he was going out and turned to leave.

He didn't go to the riverbank where he often practiced martial arts, nor did he go to Third Master's house. Instead, he headed towards the mountain behind the village.

Liu Yuanzhou reached the mountaintop in one breath, not even panting. It seems that after practicing martial arts for more than two months, my physical strength has far surpassed what it used to be, Liu Yuanzhou thought to himself.

The wind howled on the mountaintop. Looking at the distant, rolling mountains, Liu Yuanzhou felt refreshed and relaxed. He calmed his mind and began to practice Stance Training.

After about the time it takes to burn three incense sticks, Liu Yuanzhou woke from his Enter Samadhi, slowly ended his Stance Training, and felt delighted. His Stance Training had improved again. This feeling of making a little progress every day was truly fascinating to him. After resting for a moment, he began to practice Plum Blossom Fist, performing it twice, carefully experiencing the changes in strength within the fist techniques, and gaining a bit more insight.

After finishing the fist techniques, Liu Yuanzhou was covered in sweat. Practicing fist techniques was quite exhausting.

After descending the mountain, Liu Yuanzhou had nothing to do for a while. He thought about going to Third Master's house to read, but that seemed boring too, so he simply wandered aimlessly through the village. Children ran past in groups on the village roads from time to time, playing games, but there were few adults, as they were probably all gathered together drinking and playing cards.

Before he knew it, he had reached the small square in front of the village ancestral hall, where he saw several old men squatting by the wall, basking in the sun and talking about something. Liu Yuanzhou thought of his grandparents. He was still young when they passed away, and his memories of them were now very vague.

He recalled going to burn paper money for his grandparents yesterday. His father, Liu Da, had kowtowed while muttering to himself, saying roughly two things: first, he was reporting the good news that his eldest son, Liu Yuanbo, had married a wife; and second, that his second son, Liu Yuanzhou, was also approaching the age of marriage, and he hoped that his parents in heaven would bless his second son to marry a good wife as well.

Liu Yuanzhou couldn't help but laugh, but he also felt a mix of emotions. He would eventually have to go out and make a name for himself. As the saying goes, 'While parents are alive, one should not travel far.' How would he explain it to his parents when the time came?

Liu Yuanzhou shook his head and smiled bitterly to himself, "If I can't figure it out, I won't think about it. There's always a way. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to go out."

Visiting relatives began on the second day of the First Month. Liu Yuanbo took his wife, Li Shi, to her parents' house to pay a New Year's visit. Liu Yuanzhou also went out early in the morning with his mother, Zhang Shi, to visit his maternal grandparents. Liu Yuanzhou carried a shoulder pole with baskets containing rice, flour, wine, and meat, which were gifts for his maternal grandfather and his two maternal uncles, as well as some sweets and pastries for the children.

Liu Yuanzhou's maternal grandfather's village was called Zhang Family Gully. There were two routes from Liu Li Village to Zhang Family Gully. One was to take the mountain road, which involved climbing up the mountain behind Liu Li Village and crossing two mountains. The advantage was that it was close, but the disadvantage was that the mountain roads were narrow and difficult to walk, and because of the snow in winter, the shady side of the mountain had not yet melted, and some sections of the road were impassable. Therefore, they could only take the other route, which was a flat road that did not require crossing mountains, but it detoured through Crouching Tiger Slope, Great King Village, and five or six other villages, making it more than ten miles longer than the mountain road.

The two of them set off from home early in the morning and arrived at Zhang Family Gully close to noon.

"Isn't this Cui Cui? Back to see your father?" As they entered the village, an acquaintance greeted them, and Zhang Shi also returned the greeting. Cui Cui was the childhood name of mother Zhang Shi.

Liu Yuanzhou and his mother walked into his maternal grandfather's courtyard and saw four or five children chasing and playing in the yard. One of them, a five- or six-year-old boy with a robust appearance, saw people entering the yard and shouted loudly, "Grandpa, Mom and Dad, my aunt is here!" He wiped his nose with his sleeve, abandoned his playmates, and ran towards them.

Zhang Shi smiled and said, "Xiao Ning, come let your auntie take a look. Oh my, you've grown taller again." She touched the boy's head.

The boy called Xiao Ning was the youngest son of Liu Yuanzhou's second maternal uncle. He had even attended Liu Yuanbo's wedding banquet last time. The second maternal uncle had two daughters before Xiao Ning, so he was treasured beyond compare.

Xiao Ning shook off Zhang Shi's hand, walked to the baskets that Liu Yuanzhou was carrying, grabbed one of the baskets with one hand, and tried to lift the cloth covering it with the other, shouting, "Candy, I want to eat candy."

Liu Yuanzhou quickly put down the shoulder pole, pulled Xiao Ning away, and frowned, "I'll find some for you when we get back to the house. What's it going to look like if you mess everything up!"

"No, I want to see, I want to eat now," Xiao Ning struggled, but he couldn't break free from Liu Yuanzhou's grip, so he kicked Liu Yuanzhou with his feet.

Liu Yuanzhou dodged, but didn't let go of his hand. He opened his other hand and grabbed Xiao Ning's collar, lifting him up. Xiao Ning was lifted into the air, his feet dangling. Liu Yuanzhou laughed, "Hehe, try kicking me again."

Xiao Ning was in mid-air, flailing his arms and legs, shouting, "Let me go, let me go, Liu Yuanzhou."

Liu Yuanzhou just wouldn't let go, laughing heartily. Xiao Ning then burst into tears with a "wah" sound.

"Second Child, quickly put him down." Zhang Shi saw that Xiao Ning was teased to tears and quickly came over to hit Liu Yuanzhou's hand.

Liu Yuanzhou then put Xiao Ning down and laughed, "Crybaby."

Xiao Ning cried even harder. Zhang Shi glared fiercely at Liu Yuanzhou and went to coax Xiao Ning.

Liu Yuanzhou shrugged, sighing inwardly, Xiao Ning was very well-behaved when he went to his house last time, but now he is indeed so naughty.

At this moment, several people came out of the kiln.

A woman of about thirty-seven or eight ran over and asked anxiously, "Xiao Ning, what's wrong?" This woman was Liu Yuanzhou's second aunt, Ma Shi, Xiao Ning's mother.

When Xiao Ning saw his mother coming, he cried even harder. He simply lay on the ground, kicking his feet randomly, not caring that his clothes were covered in mud, crying and howling, "Second Child hit me, Second Child hit me."

Ma Shi picked up Xiao Ning, patted the dirt off him, and glared at Liu Yuanzhou with a straight face.

"How dare I hit him? I was really just playing around." Liu Yuanzhou quickly explained.

"Xiao Ning, don't cry, here's some candy for you." Zhang Shi grabbed a handful of candy and stuffed it into Xiao Ning's hand, then smiled at Ma Shi, "Oh, sister-in-law, the children are just playing around, you're taking it seriously."

At this time, Liu Yuanzhou's second uncle and maternal grandfather walked over. His second uncle, Zhang Xiaoan, said with a smile, "It's okay, it's okay."

With candy in his hand, Xiao Ning stopped crying. He broke free from his mother, stuck his tongue out at Liu Yuanzhou, and then shouted, "I have candy to eat!" After saying that, he ran away, and several playmates chased after him.

"Cui Cui, Second Child, hurry back to the kiln." Second Uncle Zhang Xiaoan called out, his wife Ma Shi still had a straight face, obviously still minding what had just happened.

"Yes, Cui Cui, Second Child, it's cold outside, let's go back to the kiln to talk." Grandfather also said, he walked closer to Liu Yuanzhou, patted him on the shoulder with his big hand, and laughed, "Second Child has grown taller again, haha."

Liu Yuanzhou laughed, "I'll catch up with you next year." Grandfather was tall, and Liu Yuanzhou was still half a head shorter than him.

"Haha, good, good." Grandfather laughed loudly.

Over here, Zhang Shi was also holding Ma Shi's arm, talking and walking towards the kiln. Liu Yuanzhou picked up the load again, and the family went into the kiln.

Once inside the kiln, Zhang Shi lifted the cloth curtain on the bamboo basket and took out the gifts. "Sister-in-law, this is meat and wine for Dad, and some rice and flour, and these are snacks for Xiao Ning and the others." Zhang Shi said, handing the things to Ma Shi.

Ma Shi finally stopped wearing a straight face and laughed, "Why did you bring anything?" Saying that, she took the things.

Liu Yuanzhou's maternal grandfather had two sons and one daughter, the eldest son Zhang Xiaoping, the second son Zhang Xiaoan, and the third daughter Zhang Cui, who was Liu Yuanzhou's mother. The eldest son had already separated from the family when he got married. When the second son got married, the old man's partner was no longer alive, so he lived with the second son's family and never separated again.

Zhang Xiaoan asked his sister and nephew to rest on the kang, and asked his wife Ma Shi to cook. Ma Shi happily went.

"Dad, you stay with your sister and Second Child to talk, I'll go help with the cooking too." Zhang Xiaoan poured hot tea for the three of them and went out.

So the remaining three sat on the kang, drinking tea and chatting.

"Dad, how is Dan Dan's matter?" Talking about the eldest brother's family, Zhang Shi asked.

Grandfather put his head close to the window and looked outside, sighed, and said quietly, "Alas, the bride price has finally been returned to the family."

"Your eldest brother still has some money left, Dong Lin and Dong An also put together some for him, and I gave him all the money I had hidden, and he also borrowed some from the second child, and finally got enough." Dong Lin and Dong An were the two sons of the eldest uncle Zhang Xiaoping, and both had already started their own families.

"The second child's family doesn't know about me giving money."

"Sigh, no matter what, it's good that it's paid off, or how would Dan Dan survive?" Zhang Shi sighed in relief.

"Who says it isn't? I pity my granddaughter." The maternal grandfather choked up, then said with resentment, "This rebellious son, he's already a grandfather and still gambles."

"Grandpa, Aunt, the food is ready, my mom is calling you to eat." As the three were talking, a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl came in and called out timidly. She was wearing a gray padded jacket with several holes revealing the cotton inside.

"Oh, it's Ping Ping, okay, we'll go over now," Zhang Shi said. The girl called Ping Ping was Zhang Xiaoan's second daughter, Liu Yuanzhou's cousin.

Ping Ping lowered her head and went out. Liu Yuanzhou then said, "Why didn't they make a new set of clothes for Ping Ping even for the New Year?"

The maternal grandfather coughed, "You don't know what your second aunt is like, alas." As he spoke, his expression was rather unnatural.

"Let's go, let's go eat, I'm starving," Zhang Shi said as she got off the ground, urging them.

Lunch was dumplings. After lunch, Liu Yuanzhou and his mother, Zhang Shi, took gifts to his eldest maternal uncle Zhang Xiaoping's house, the two families lived quite far apart.

The two arrived at Zhang Xiaoping's house, only to find the door locked. They asked the neighbors, who said that the whole family had gone out to pay New Year visits. The two had no choice but to return to Zhang Xiaoan's house.