Chapter 98: The Year's End

  That day on the way home, Chen Feier was full of unwillingness, but had no choice. Because Lu Qi was always laughing and talking with us, but to her, he was extremely cold. In fact, seeing Feier's shy and timid appearance, I felt a little moved. I don't understand why that guy is like this towards her. But I also can't say anything, emotions are best when they're mutual. Unrequited love is the most unbearable. Thinking back to my past life, wasn't I secretly in love with him too? And it was all in secret, no one knew. But Feier is much stronger than me back then, at least she knows to try and pursue him, even if it's not successful, there won't be any regrets!

  Thinking so, I couldn't help but smile at Fei'er, standing still and waiting for her. Lu Qi saw that I wasn't moving and curiously asked: "What's wrong? Are you tired?" I shook my head, he would never understand my feelings. At this moment, all I have for Fei'er is sympathy, no matter what she does, it's all for the person she likes.

  Fei'er walked over, I warmly held her: "Fei'er, let's go together! Don't mind those stupid boys, okay?" Lu Qi inexplicably scratched his head, while Fei'er had a surprised and delighted expression, probably didn't expect me to treat her like this. Along the way, I teased Fei'er about stories of her and Lu Qi when they were young, their first meeting, how they gradually became familiar with each other, and then gradually fell in love.

  As we were chatting happily, Lu Qi quietly walked beside us, listening to these things that he might have long forgotten. His face gradually showed a thoughtful expression. I guess he also had feelings for Fei Er! No matter what kind of feelings, thinking of these warm past memories, his heart would inevitably have some thoughts.

  As expected, in the conversation that followed, Lu Qi was not as cold to Fei Er anymore. Fei Er thanked me with a soft voice: "Ruo Yun, thank you." I smiled: "Fei Er, you're a lovely girl, I like you, of course I'll help you. But don't do stupid things again in the future." Fei Er smiled awkwardly: "I won't." We finally arrived at our village entrance, and with a wave of hands, Chou Hui and I headed home. For the rest of the journey, I thought Lu Qi would treat Fei Er well.

  Before long, the year-end is approaching. My mother also closed her clothing store and devoted herself to buying New Year's goods at home. I remember when I was a child, every December 20 or so, every household was busy preparing for the New Year. The adults were the busiest, calculating when to go shopping on the street and when to prepare this and that at home. Which things need to be stir-fried, fried, steamed, which ones are to be given as gifts, etc., although they were busy to the point of exhaustion, everyone's face was filled with joy. After a year of hard work, the villagers just wanted to have a good New Year's celebration, so no matter how much money they had, buying New Year's goods was a must.

  This makes me recall the nursery rhyme from my childhood: 23rd, sweep away dust; 24th, send off the kitchen god; 25th, make tofu; 26th, buy fish and meat; 27th, slaughter the year's chicken; 28th, slaughter the year's duck; 29th, every family has it; on the 30th, have fun for a night...

  In my memory, at this time, my mother should be stir-frying dried food, peanuts, corn, broad beans, rice crust and so on. This was the happiest moment for us as children, we would gather around the stove, competing to burn fire, because that way we could eat the delicious food first.

  There is a dish that I love the most, from childhood to adulthood, every year I eat it, but still can't get tired of it. It's our local specialty, made with glutinous rice flour and cooked white radish strips into balls, steamed together. The freshly steamed balls are picked up with chopsticks, can be eaten directly or dipped in sauce. Don't underestimate these balls, there are many ways to eat them, steaming, stir-frying, boiling, all possible. Especially on snowy days, cooking some balls on the stove, adding some chili peppers, it's so refreshing! Look, my mom is really making balls now.

  Looking at this dish, I suddenly thought of a delicious dish I had at my wife's family. They called it meat cake, but I think that's not quite right, so I gave it the name three-color cake. Because this dish is made with three ingredients: fish meat, pork and eggs, and it's steamed. The finished three-color cake is colorful, white fish meat, red pork, yellow eggs, the three colors form a grid, soft and tender, very delicious. So, I carefully told my mom how to make it, my mom was extremely happy, asked me how I knew how to make this dish, I smiled and said it was from a classmate. My mom didn't ask much, just said we can try it out. And also told her sister-in-law about it, she's good at cooking, should be able to succeed. I thought, yeah, my aunt is a genius in this area, if I don't tell her, she'll definitely be unhappy. However, she hasn't come back yet, according to Xiaohui, we have to wait two more days for her to come home. As for the New Year's goods, she has already slowly bought them in town, just waiting for the holiday to come back home.

  My second brother is also on holiday, because he's in high school, so his holiday started later than ours. My second brother and I began to help out with household chores. Mom assigned me the task of cleaning my own room, not a speck of dust allowed. My room isn't big, just a bed, desk, chair, and closet, that's all. Looking at how small my room is, then glancing over at my second brother's room, haha, his room is much bigger, and there are more things in it, making cleaning up a lot more troublesome.

  I'm having fun. I invited my second brother to a competition, to see who can clean their room first, and emphasized that everything, including the door and window, must be spotless. My brother saw me like this and knew I thought I was going to win for sure, but he didn't say anything, just said let's compete, who's afraid of whom? So, my brother and I started cleaning our rooms separately. After tidying up my clothes and bed, I then organized my desk, which is an old-fashioned one with a large, deep drawer that holds my books, some of which were messy, so I had to quickly put them in order. The desktop was wiped clean with a cloth, on top of which sat a round mirror and a comb for brushing hair. The door and window also needed to be wiped down, fortunately, my window is smaller than the one in my brother's room because it's not the master bedroom, so I moved a stool over and stood on it, humming a tune while wiping the glass: Happy New Year, Happy New Year, wishing everyone a Happy New Year, we sing songs, we dance, wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Just as I was singing triumphantly, a sudden sharp pain made me stop. Ah? Bleeding?! I exclaimed in shock. Only to see that my right middle finger was bleeding profusely.

  My second brother heard my cry from next door, rushed over, saw that my hand was bleeding, and quickly pulled me down, saying repeatedly: "How could you be so careless! Quick, let me help you bandage it." He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and carefully wrapped it up. I looked at my second brother, my hand still hurt, but I felt much more at ease in my heart. Hehe, at the critical moment, my second brother was still quite concerned about me, his sister.

  But how could I get hurt? I found it strange, looked at the window, and there was nothing. Second brother went to check and said: "You see, the problem is here, this piece of glass has been broken for a long time, but the family just filled up the other half below, and their joints came out more, you wiped the glass without looking carefully, so you were cut by the extra glass." Oh, I see. Suddenly, my mind was shocked, how come this scene is so familiar? It seems like I've been through it before. I remember that there is a curved scar on my right middle finger, which has not disappeared for many years. Is it the same as today's injury? Then in that case, hasn't my return changed anything? The same location, the same wound... what's going on here?