Chapter 22: New Year's Day

  "There were many unread text messages on Ouyang's phone, including those from Chen Juan, Mu Yuhan, Wang Lin and Xu Xue Mei. But the one from Xu Yujie was the most disturbing for Ouyang."

  "Ouyang Chenxi, are you willing to be with me forever?" Ouyang finally understood why Xu Yuje had been so awkwardly smiling that day, and also understood why Xu Yuje was so concerned about Ouyang's grades. For a moment, Ouyang didn't know how to respond to her, so she vaguely replied: "Of course, we're classmates, we'll definitely be together, and it will be the same in the future." After responding, Ouyang simply stopped thinking about these things and turned off her phone.

  Back in the big house, everyone had finished dinner and was crowded together, chatting and laughing. Ouyang pulled Ma Si and Xiao Dong to his own room. The kids played computer for a while before hearing Feng Hongyan yell from the opposite room: "You guys come watch the Spring Festival Gala!" The kids all came over to the big house where the adults were playing poker on the **, with Feng Qinglian watching them from the ** corner. Ouyang couldn't read Feng Qinglian's expression, but he could tell that her eyes revealed disappointment and helplessness. Ouyang brought over a few chairs from his room, and the kids sat down beside the TV. After a while, the doorbell rang, and Feng Qinglian said: "Ma Si, it must be your dad coming back, go open the door." Ma Si ran to open the door, and indeed it was Feng Manyan outside. As soon as he came in, Ma Si smelled the alcohol on his father's body and asked: "Dad, didn't you drink too much?" Feng Manyan laughed and patted Ma Si heavily, saying: "When have I ever drunk too much?" It was clear that Feng Manyan was in a good mood today. After putting away his things, he entered the big house, greeted everyone, and joined the elders to play poker.

  Time had passed unnoticed, and the clock pointed to half past ten. Feng Qinglian, Feng Hongyan, and eldest aunt Li Hong came down from upstairs and headed towards the kitchen. Ouyang knew that they were going to wrap dumplings. Feng Hongyan turned back to Ouyang and said: "Chenxi, bring over that box of sugar jars next to the phone." Ouyang handed it over. Every year, the Feng family would put sugar in their dumplings. In the past, Ouyang would always eat too much because he wouldn't leave the table until he had eaten all the sugar, which made him very full and unable to sleep at night. Maisi and Feng Xiaodong went to take a nap in the small room after nine o'clock, while sister Feng Chunyan was still watching the Spring Festival Gala with great enthusiasm. As for Ouyang himself, he would never sleep before eating the New Year's Eve dinner; he didn't want to oversleep like Maisi and miss out on even one dumpling.

  In the kitchen, Feng Hongyan, Li Hong, and Feng Qinglian were wrapping dumplings. Li Hong was mixing the filling and asked Feng Hongyan, "Won't Ouyang be coming back this year either?" Feng Hongyan nodded silently. Li Hong continued to ask, "How's Chenxi doing in school in the city? Isn't there a big difference between him and our kids here?" Feng Hongyan didn't look up and said, "I really had no idea until I went out. Originally, I thought it would be good for him to go to school with Maisi in District D, and then attend high school and university in the city too. I just wanted to keep him by my side. But later I realized I was wrong, and he needs to go out and see the world. The schools in the city are on a higher level than ours here, from the teachers to the students." Li Hong nodded and said, "That's true. I should have sent Xiaodong to school in the city too. Otherwise, he wouldn't be attending a vocational school now. Even though it's just a vocational school, his classmates have seen more of the world than Xiaodong has. That's why Xiaodong feels embarrassed and wants to transfer schools next semester." Feng Qinglian heard this and put the freshly wrapped dumplings into the pot, saying, "You've thought about it carefully, but his school is still quite far from us - it takes over an hour to get there and back." Li Hong sighed and said, "What can I do if that kid insists on doing this? Ah, Hongyan, you won't have Chenxi take the commuter bus forever, will you?" Feng Hongyan paused for a moment before saying, "Well, what else can we do? If it really doesn't work out, I plan to go look at renting an apartment or something." Li Hong shook her head and said, "That's not as good as buying an apartment near the school. Your husband Ouyang can certainly afford it."

  Feng Qinglian was just about to ask her daughter why she had kept the purchase of the house a secret, when she saw Feng Hongyan give herself a warning look, so she didn't say anything.

  Almost all the dumplings had been put in the pot, and Ouyang shouted from inside the house: "Mom, Zhao Benshan's sketch has started, come quickly to watch!" The three of them heard this and walked into the main room from the kitchen. Even Ma Si and Xiao Dong, who were sleeping in the small room, were woken up by Feng Chunyan. Actually, Ouyang liked it best when they were all together like this, a family squeezed into a not-too-big-or-small room, without having to think about anything else, with all eyes fixed on the TV watching the Spring Festival Gala, as if they had returned to the old Feng family home. Grandfather was laughing the happiest, and thinking of this, Ouyang's nose suddenly felt sour.

  Zhao Benshan's crosstalk had just ended, and it was time to eat dumplings. The whole family sat around the table, and Mother scooped out six plates of dumplings from the pot, smiling and saying there were more. Normally, at this time, Ouyang and Mais would be shouting to go downstairs to set off firecrackers. There were fewer people setting off firecrackers near the Ouyang's house than before, but the sound of firecrackers was still continuous. However, the Feng family couldn't set off firecrackers this year. Ouyang and Mais looked at each other, but neither of them said a word. At the dinner table, Grandfather Feng Delun would usually raise a glass of white wine first, and then they would start eating. This year, everyone didn't intend to pick up their chopsticks first. Then, Feng Qinglian picked up his cup, poured a glass of beer, raised it, and said, "Happy New Year." The awkward atmosphere was immediately dispelled, and everyone started moving. As expected, Ouyang got sugar in his dumpling. This year, there were more people, so Feng Hongyan specially wrapped six pieces of sugar in the dumplings. Besides Ouyang, Mais, Second Uncle, Feng Manyan, Xiaodong, and Feng Chunyan all got sugar. Feng Qinglian laughed with a mouthful of food, saying that the younger generation would definitely have a successful academic year since they got sugar.

  After finishing the New Year's Eve dinner, Second Uncle and his family left with Old Uncle. Feng Hongyan also didn't stay long, as it was already past 12 o'clock. However, Eldest Uncle and his family stayed for a while longer. Li Hong helped Feng Hongyan clean up the kitchen, while Xiao Dong and Mai Si put the tables back in their original positions. Xiao Dong asked Mai Si, "Where's Ou Yang?" Mai Si smirked and said, "Do you even need to ask? He must have gone to sleep, thinking that he'll win a big prize tomorrow." The two brothers laughed after saying this. After finishing cleaning up, Eldest Uncle and his family were also about to leave. Before leaving, Li Hong pulled out a stack of lottery tickets from her pocket and said to Feng Hongyan, "Tomorrow morning, let Mai Si and Ou Yang go with Xiao Dong. We have quite a few lottery tickets this year, around 15. Adding the ones we bought together, they can each get over 10 tomorrow." Feng Hongyan took the tickets and smiled, saying, "It's just some pots and pans, and drinks." Li Hong didn't think so, saying, "Your son is going to middle school in the city, who knows, maybe he'll win a big prize for you. Let's go!" After saying this, she left with her family.

  Feng Hongyan washed up and returned to the house, seeing that her mother had not yet gone to sleep, she asked: "Mom, why haven't you slept yet?"

  Feng Qinglian turned her head and looked at her daughter, asking: "Why didn't you mention buying a house just now?"

  Feng Hongyan lay down and said, "Li Hong is a person with many thoughts in her heart. If I say it, she will either think that I am showing off my wealth or that the house was bought with money you gave me. It's better to wait until we move over there before saying anything."

  Feng Qinglian nodded and said, "You're talking about our family. Your dad just passed away not long ago, and you've already started making a fuss about moving his grave. Alas, I still haven't managed to keep this family going well."

  Feng Hongyan grasped her mother's hand and said, "Don't worry, mom, our family won't fall apart."

  Mais returned to the room and saw that Ouyang was indeed sleeping on the bed. Mais smiled, lay down, and soon fell asleep as well.

  The next day, Ouyang got up early and called out to Mais, put on his clothes, took the lottery tickets from his mother, counted them, there were 30 of them, three people could each take 10, it couldn't be just 10 bottles of Coke, Ouyang thought, and then quickly headed towards Xiaodong's house with Mais.

  D District's New Year's Day, the second day of the Lunar New Year, and the third day, there will be a lottery draw at both D District Club and D District Stadium. However, it is said that the winning rate is higher at the club, so every time Ou Yang and his friends would get the lottery tickets from the club.

  Originally, Feng's house was only a five-minute walk from the club and stadium, but now Ou Yang's house is farther away. The two of them arrived at Xiao Dong's building and called him to join them as they headed to the club.

  As expected, there were many people, and every year during the lottery draw, people would line up in long queues from the entrance to the square. This year, the three of them arrived early, around 9 am, so there weren't too many people yet. They decided that each person would line up separately, and in the end, Ma Si's queue was the first to move forward.

  The lottery tickets were paper slips with a staple at the top, which only needed to be torn open. The three of them each grabbed 10 slips and went inside. Ou Yang thought it wasn't right to grab too many at once, but Ma Si felt that if you could win the jackpot, it didn't matter how you grabbed the tickets, so he simply grabbed a handful.

  Upon entering the venue, there were familiar faces everywhere. Ouyang saw many of his elementary school classmates accompanying their parents to open lottery tickets, but most of them couldn't recall each other's names. The three of them opened their respective lottery tickets separately, and Mais and Xiaodong still didn't get anything good.

  "What's A103? And what's with the extra 'A' in front?" Ouyang looked at his lottery ticket and felt that it was different from the previous ones with numbers 1, 2, 13, so he raised his head to look for...

  "It's VCD, I've got the VCD!" Ou Yang excitedly jumped up, Ou Yang couldn't believe his eyes. Then Mai Si snatched the lottery ticket and said: "I'm relying on it, it really is." Only Feng Xiao Dong was the calmest, picked up the lottery ticket to check, smiled and said: "Let's go cash in the prize, Ou Yang, call your mom and tell her, I estimate we won't be able to carry all this stuff back." Ou Yang reached into his pocket for his phone, only to remember he had turned it off last night. As soon as he turned it on, he received a text message from Xu Yue Jie.

  "I've told you so many times, don't you understand? Since you said that, I'll take it as your agreement. You're not allowed to go back on your word."

  Ouyang didn't even have time to respond to Yu Jie, and immediately dialed his mother's phone number. His mother was also very happy on the other end of the line, telling them to take a taxi back and she would reimburse the fare.

  Three people came to the prize exchange area, except for Ouyang's VCD, all other prizes were exchanged in the ordinary prize exchange zone. Mai Si was holding a large pile of towels and drinks, with an unhappy face. Ouyang comforted Mai Si saying: "You forgot, you got a bicycle last year." Mai Si heard this and became happy, following Ouyang and Xiao Dong to the special prize exchange zone. This VCD is quite heavy, Ouyang gave all his other prizes to Xiao Dong, holding the VCD with both hands and walking out, surrounded by envious glances from time to time. Xiao Dong said to Ouyang: "Ouyang, if you get another big prize, give it to me." Ouyang happily replied: "Definitely, we three are together."

  Sometimes Lady Luck is just around the corner.