Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 91 Visiting to Wish Happy New Year_1

Chapter 91: Chapter 91 Visiting to Wish Happy New Year_1

The Mo Family’s New Year’s Eve dinner was sumptuous, with twelve dishes including both meat and vegetables. The two families sat around the table, warming themselves by the fire as they ate joyously for nearly two hours before they set down their chopsticks to continue staying up late into the night.

At Zi Hour, the Mo Family lit incense candles in the courtyard and, after offering a sacrifice of fish and meat, set off a long string of firecrackers. Only after everyone ate dumplings did the vigil come to an end.

Listening to the intermittent sound of firecrackers outside, everyone yawned contentedly as they headed back to their rooms to sleep.

On the first day of the new year, early in the morning, Mo Yan and the younger generation got out of bed, dressed in their brand-new clothes, and paid their respects to the two elders, Mo Qingze and Lizhong.

Mo Qingze and Lizhong had prepared in advance, smiling as they took out several red envelopes from their sleeves and handed one to each person.

Mo Yan accepted it with a smiling face and hid it in a waist pouch, while the three little ones couldn’t wait to open theirs. Seeing one waist pouch contained a half-tael silver fish, and another a half-tael silver peanut, they were overjoyed, quickly stowed them away, and clutched them to their chests as if afraid of losing them by accident.

After washing up, Mo Yan boiled a pot of longevity noodles in old hen soup for the family’s breakfast, signifying a wish for a safe and smooth new year.

After the six of them finished eating the fragrant noodles, they planned to take the New Year’s gifts they had prepared the night before and go to Liu Yang Village to pay a New Year’s visit.

Before they could leave, however, someone knocked on the courtyard gate. Mo Yan opened it and saw Lin Yong, Lin Da, and more than ten others had come to give their New Year’s greetings.

"Ah, Brother Lin, happy New Year!"

After a moment of surprise, Mo Yan quickly invited them in.

Lin Yong, with a hint of a smile on his usually stern face, handed over two cleaned rabbits to Mo Yan, "Caught them yesterday afternoon; they’ve already been seasoned."

Mo Yan received them with a smiling face and gave thanks. Mo Qingze quickly invited them inside to sit, offering them snacks and tea.

Mo Yan, carrying the rabbits, went into the kitchen to start boiling dumplings. With seventeen people suddenly arriving, they wouldn’t be satisfied with less than two hundred dumplings. She used two pots of water to boil them, and it took four boils to finish cooking the two hundred dumplings.

Steaming hot dumplings were served at the table, and their delicious taste whetted the appetite. Lin Yong and the others, with rumbling stomachs, knew it was customary not to refuse, so they didn’t stand on ceremony and tucked in heartily.

These men had eaten at the Mo Family once before and knew the food was delicious. What they didn’t expect was that even the ordinary dumplings tasted better than those from their own home, especially the stuffing was generous, the meat flavor strong, so delicious they felt like swallowing their own tongues.

Each person had a full bowl of dumplings, and in the end, they drank the broth clean, leaving a table full of empty bowls. The men felt somewhat embarrassed. When they counted the number of dumplings they had consumed, they felt even more embarrassed.

With Si Shi nearing and knowing that the Mo Family needed to hurry to Liu Yang Village for New Year’s greetings and return in the afternoon, Lin Yong and the others didn’t delay any longer and decided to leave after sitting for a while.

Mo Yan and the others quickly prepared cured meat, sausages, and other New Year’s gifts to take with them, and together they left with Lin Da and the others kindly helping to carry their things.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and the streets no longer have ox carts to hitch a ride with; one could only rely on their legs to walk to Liu Yang Village. Lin Yong and the others got up at the break of dawn and it took them four hours to reach the Mo Family’s place.

The adults were fine, walking empty-handed didn’t tire them, Mo Yan was of a bigger build and could barely keep up; Zhenzhen, being young and with short legs, was struggling after an hour and couldn’t go on. Mo Qingze stopped to carry him on his back, yet he still thought of himself as a young man and firmly refused to be carried.

Mo Qingze cared little for that, he grabbed him and hoisted him onto his shoulder. However, in the past few months, the Mo Family had eaten well, and Zhenzhen had put on quite some weight. Mo Qingze, merely a scholar without the strength of a farmer, also grew tired after carrying him for a while.

Seeing this, Lin Yong, without a word, took Zhenzhen and placed him on his own back, yet his pace did not slow.

Watching from behind, Mo Yan, out of envy, rubbed her slightly sore legs and decided to buy a cart after the New Year. She had been so busy that she had actually forgotten such an important matter.

After resting twice on the road, they finally arrived at Liu Yang Village at noon.

Li Zhong and his grandson came this time not only to wish familiar people like Lin Meng a Happy New Year but also to make a trip to the village chief’s house. After all, since they were going to live in Liu Yang Village, it was necessary to foster a good relationship with the village chief.

Mo Yan and the others were also planning to visit the village chief’s house, but the first New Year’s visit had to be to Old Man Mo’s house.

So the group split up, Li Zhong and his grandson followed Lin Yong and his group, while Mo Yan and her family went to Old Man Mo’s house in the west of the village.

No matter what the relationship between the two families was like, Old Man Mo was Mo Qingze’s uncle by blood, a close blood-related elder. Old Man Mo could close his door and refuse to let Mo Yan and her family in, but they could not avoid paying a New Year’s visit to their elder.

From a distance, they saw the chimney of Lao Mo’s House billowing with smoke, indicating they were preparing lunch. Upon arrival, Mo Yan’s family, carrying New Year’s gifts, saw the younger generation playing at the entrance.

Shitou was the first to notice them; he threw down the pebbles and ran over, rushing up to Mo Yan, grabbing her legs, and sweetly calling her cousin sister and cousin brother as he looked up at Mo Qingze and the others.

Mo Yan pinched his cheek, bent down to pick him up, and saw he was wearing a faded white outer garment with a new cotton-padded jacket she had made for him not long ago underneath. It was clear that his family hadn’t made him any new clothes, and upon seeing Goudan and Erni also wearing old clothes, she knew that Lao Mo’s House didn’t have a good New Year.

It wasn’t just that Lao Mo’s House hadn’t had a good New Year; since Mo Yongshou and Mo Yonglu had been imprisoned, and one of them was to be exiled three thousand miles away after the New Year, never to return, the house was never at peace.

Just last night, during the New Year’s Eve dinner, Mrs. Hong burst into tears again as she looked at the empty spots of her second and third sons, her words filled with vicious curses against Mo Yan’s family.

Old Man Mo had been severely ill, and it wasn’t until these last couple of days that he had started to recover. Mrs. Hong’s outburst had reminded him of his suffering sons and, out of stress, he had fainted again, but fortunately, he hadn’t vomited blood.

"Who let you come to my house? A bunch of heartless and ungrateful wretches, I’ll kill you all!"

Just then, a shrill voice of yelling arose, startling Little Stone into shivering. Mo Yan looked up to see Mo Yongxi, his face twisted in anger, charging towards them and raising his hand to strike at Xin Er, who was in front...

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