20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 469 New Year’s Eve
"Tuk tuk tuk..."

"Gurgling..."

On New Year's Eve, the Jiang family's house had been busy since early morning.

Mix the dough, chop the stuffing, roll the dough, make dumplings, paste couplets, marinate pig's trotters in the pot, steam sausages on the pot, shave live fish in the trough, and place side dishes on the plate...

Everyone in this big family, from top to bottom, master to servant, has work to do and never has a moment's rest.

Everybody was busy, talking and laughing, feeling the so-called New Year atmosphere.

Of course, the happiest people are the two children.

Dongfeng started buying New Year's goods on the eve of the New Year. Jiang Ya and Jiang Chengye followed him around like little followers all day long, asking him where he hid all the delicious food.

Zhang Zhengdong had no choice but to grab a handful of small snacks such as crispy candies and nuts from time to time and secretly feed them to the two children to satisfy their cravings.

Unexpectedly, just giving him food was not enough. Jiang Ya forced him to dress up as a peddler carrying a load on his shoulder and play the "buying and selling" game in the house.

"Sugar candy, selling sugar candy..." Zhang Zhengdong sat on the chair, muttering listlessly.

"Hey, little brother, there are crispy candies for sale here!" Jiang Ya led Jiang Chengye over and asked seriously, "What flavor is your crispy candy?"

"It smells like sweet-scented osmanthus." Zhang Zhengdong said with his head down, "Do you want it? If not, I'll close the stall."

"Can I try it?"

“Try it!”

Hearing this, Jiang Ya immediately took the osmanthus pastry from Dongfeng and started to taste it with Jiang Chengye, smiling.

There were only four pieces of osmanthus cakes in total. After the little girl finished eating them, she wiped her mouth, smacked her lips, and said, "Tsk, it's not sweet. Let's not buy it!"

Zhang Zhengdong sighed, then stood up and walked towards the door.

Jiang Ya and Jiang Chengye hurriedly caught up and asked, "Uncle Dong, are you playing with us?"

Zhang Zhengdong shook his head: "No more playing, I'm going to report to the police, someone is eating my candy for free."

Then the two children started giggling behind him.

All of these are different.

Right now, the whole mansion is bustling with activity.

Song Ma and Yingzi were in the back kitchen, leading three or five hired workers to wash dishes, prepare vegetables and make dumplings. There was another table set up in the front hall, which was also not idle. Xifeng was kneading dough, Nanfeng was rolling out the dough, and Xu Ruqing and Xiaohua were making dumplings together. Xue Yingqing was related to the Jiang family, so he was also invited to the house for the reunion dinner.

At the end of the day, at least 1,800 dumplings would have to be made.

From the first to the fifth day of the first lunar month, they had to eat every day, as there were too many people in the house. The family had to eat, the hired workers had to eat, and Yuan Xinfa's brothers who looked after the house couldn't be left out. After the New Year's Eve, Zhao Guoyan and others came to pay New Year's greetings, and there was inevitably another table of wine and food, so they had to be prepared.

Fortunately, it was freezing cold, so we found an empty house to store the dumplings. We opened the window and they were frozen solid in just an hour.

Jiang Ya tied a red hairband around her head and ran around the house with her brother.

Sometimes he would eat some snacks, sometimes he would mingle with the adults to ask for a few dough dumplings, and make little figures in the living room, with a carefree look in his eyes.

In comparison, Yuan's son is a few years older and can now help Yingzi in the kitchen.

Just at this moment, Zhang Zhengdong suddenly came across the corridor carrying a bucket of paste and came to the entrance to change his shoes.

Jiang Ya was sharp-eyed and turned around to ask, "Uncle Dong, where are you going?"

"I'm going to put up the couplets." Zhang Zhengdong pushed open the door with a muffled voice.

Seeing this, Jiang Ya immediately followed quickly and said with a smile: "Then I will go with you?"

Zhang Zhengdong did not comment. After changing his shoes, he let the little girl follow him through the courtyard, came to the front door, applied paste, and pasted up Spring Festival couplets.

Jiang Ya watched quietly from the side, saying "that's crooked" from time to time, and really seemed like a qualified assistant.

When the Spring Festival couplets were pasted, she suddenly said, "Uncle Dong, I know what's written on it."

"Oh." Zhang Zhengdong picked up the paste, took two steps back, and checked again whether the Spring Festival couplets were pasted crookedly.

"Why don't you ask me what it says?"

"Let me ask you, what does it say?"

After hearing this, Jiang Ya was very happy and couldn't help showing off in front of Dongfeng. She raised her hand, pointed at the Spring Festival couplets on the door and the horizontal banner on the lintel, and started muttering to herself.

This probably doesn't mean she is naturally smart, but the couplet is too straightforward:
"Year after year, everything is good - no worries!"

After finishing reading, Jiang Ya looked up at Uncle Dong happily, waiting for praise.

"Great, great." Zhang Zhengdong said perfunctorily.

"Uncle Dong, when did you buy it?" Jiang Ya asked.

"This was written by your father."

“My dad is awesome!”

"Wait until dinner time, then you can tell your dad in person!" Zhang Zhengdong wiped himself and walked towards the yard.

"Uncle Dong, you're going back to the house now?" Jiang Ya hurriedly followed him and begged, "Well... can I set off some firecrackers with you?"

"It's not even dinner time yet, why put anything here? Let's wait until the evening."

"Please set off two small ones for me! My...my little brother wants to watch you set off firecrackers!"

"Do I look like a firecracker to you? If not, light me up!"

Jiang Ya immediately shook Dong Feng's arm and said coquettishly: "Uncle Dong, I beg you, there are so many firecrackers, can you just let me set off two..."

"Oh, okay, okay, I'll put it on for you, put it on for you!" Zhang Zhengdong had no idea what to do with her, so he had to order, "Go into the house and change your clothes!"

Jiang Ya's eyes suddenly lit up, and she immediately ran into the mansion. Suddenly, she looked up and saw her mother sitting in front of the window of the bedroom on the second floor, nodding and smiling at her.

While preparing red envelopes for the New Year, Hu Xiaoyan took in the situation in the yard. She then turned her wheelchair, took out a thick cotton jacket from the closet, and waited for her daughter to go upstairs to change clothes.

In the entire Jiang family mansion, Jiang Lianheng was the only one missing.

At this moment, he was locking himself in the small room in the northeast corner of the corridor on the first floor, burning incense and paying tribute to his father Jiang Chenghai and his three uncles.

Originally, he wanted to take this opportunity to say a few words from his heart to these undead souls.

But when he really walked into the house and saw the black lacquered tablet with gold characters on the altar, he suddenly found that his heart was empty, as if there was nothing to say.

Jiang Chenghai, Li Tianwei, Sun Chengmo, Jin Xiaoyi...

Four tablets stood quietly on the altar, waiting for him to say something.

Jiang Lianheng held it in for a long time before finally uttering a word, muttering to himself: "Dad, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, Fourth Uncle... I'm living a good life now, but..."

Halfway through his words, he suddenly hesitated for a moment.

The room was very quiet, and the four uncles seemed to care more about the second half of his sentence. Jiang Lianheng scratched his head and muttered self-deprecatingly, "It's just... I feel a little less fun, not as happy and interesting as before... I feel a little less free."

As he said that, he quickly waved his hands and laughed loudly, "Oh, that's all bullshit, let's not talk about it. Anyway, I'm doing pretty well now, I have everything I need, and no one mentions that I'm the son of 'Sea Owl' anymore. Okay, that's about it, I don't have much to talk about with you four old men, just eat and drink well during the New Year, and if you have anything to say, tell me in your dreams!"

As Jiang Lianheng spoke, he lit three incense sticks on the candle flame.

He bent over and kowtowed three times. When he was about to place the three incense sticks in the incense burner, he vaguely heard some untuneful humming.

Hearing the voice, Jiang Lianheng's brows suddenly tightened.

He was silent for a moment, until he confirmed that the humming was real, then he realized that the sound came from the basement of the mansion - that could only be Zhao Lingchun humming alone.

Jiang Lianheng certainly knew that Zhao Lingchun had been imprisoned in his own basement, and he also knew that Dongfeng had been "taking good care of her", but over the years, he had never personally gone down to see the situation inside.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel curious, so he stood up, moved the altar away, grabbed the handle on the ground, and pulled open the secret door of the Jiang family's basement.

"call--"

A gust of cold air suddenly blew towards me.

The smell in the basement was not as foul and smelly as expected, but it was underground after all, so the air was inevitably a little turbid and mixed with a little earthy smell.

Jiang Lianheng walked slowly down the stone steps and casually turned on the light switch on the wall.

With a "click", there was two flashes in the basement, and then a dim and dirty light came on.

At the same time, the faint humming sound also came to an abrupt end.

After all, it is a vault used to store gold and silver. It looks quite tidy, but a little empty and cold, which makes people feel a little uneasy.

The stone steps were not long, but Jiang Lianheng seemed to have taken a long time to reach the bottom floor.

Although this was the first time he had come here in person since the mansion was completed, he knew that the heavy iron door on the right was where his silver dollars and gold bars were hidden.

At this time, there was only one light on in the basement, which was on the wall at the entrance, and it could not illuminate the deeper end.

Jiang Lianheng suddenly had an idea and decided to see how much property he had, so he went to the vault first, took out the key given by Hu Xiaoyan, and with a "click", he pulled open the palm-thick iron door.

He groped his way along the wall, turned on the light, and was stunned for a moment.

However, I saw a display shelf on each side of the room, which was filled with wooden boxes of various sizes, covered with red cloth. When I opened them, I saw that there were either silver dollars or large and small yellow croakers, piled up in piles, all classified without any confusion.

At the end of every year, Hu Xiaoyan would take out half of the Jiang family's income and convert it into real money in case of emergency.

Huifangli, Heshengfang, Fuchangcheng, Zongheng Insurance, Fengtian Land, Yingkou Land, the boss's bonus, investment dividends...

Each business is labeled on the wooden box, and with just a quick glance, one can easily tell the general operating status of each business.

The shelves on the left are all about business. Two wooden boxes are the heaviest. One is marked with "Fengtian Port Opening Reserve Fund" and the other is marked with "Family Emergency Reserve Fund", and the source and composition of the funds are also indicated respectively.

On the right shelf is the money reserved for family members.

Every year, Hu Xiaoyan moves a small portion from the left shelf to the right shelf.

Although there was no name written on it, the couple had a tacit understanding. Just from the marks on it, Jiang Lianheng had guessed that it was the money saved for Sifengkou to use when he started a family and career.

In addition, there are "red", "flower", "six", "seven"...

I'm saving money, it's not too much yet, but it's always on my mind.

However, what really surprised Jiang Lianheng was that even though Hu Xiaoyan always called Shu Ning a slut and thought she had had a big fight with him about Dong Niya, there were still funds from the "third room" and "fourth room" on the shelf.

Of course, needless to say, the savings of the couple and their children are definitely the largest.

Jiang Lianheng felt a little emotional - it was not easy for the mistress of the house to achieve this.

At the same time, he was also a little surprised - I'm so rich?

Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he glanced and suddenly found a very inconspicuous small wooden box in the corner.

There was no mark on it, but he recognized it at a glance: that was the money left to him by Lao Cui, and he had not touched a penny in more than ten years.

Jiang Lianheng took it in his hand, rubbed it for a while, and then put it back into the deep corner.

After closing the heavy iron door, Jiang Lianheng took a deep breath, and finally took a step forward, slowly walking towards the far end of the basement.

Under the dim light, there was a row of wooden fences standing not far in front of me, as if it was a prison dungeon from the previous dynasty. But when I got closer, I found that the environment inside was not as bad as I had imagined. There was a bed, a table, a chair, a toilet, a mirror, a basin, an electric light on the ceiling, and even a few comic books and novels on the bedside.

At this moment, a woman with messy hair was kneeling on the mattress with her back to the fence, scratching the wall with her nails, tilting her head and muttering softly.

The situation was extremely strange.

Zhao Lingchun seemed to be talking to someone, and it was definitely not Jiang Lianheng.

She knew someone was coming in, but she didn't care.

Every day someone came to bring us food and water. They came without saying a word and left without saying a word. They did come, but it seemed as if they had not come.

Sometimes he would bring her a couple of books, sometimes he would change her bedding, and sometimes he would even force her to wash her hair. Who would care?

She was still talking to herself, sometimes sad, sometimes secretly happy, sometimes angry, and sometimes resentful, as if there really was a soul talking to her here.

"You're here... why did you come just now... I thought you weren't coming... hehe, I knew you couldn't bear to leave me... wuwuwu, don't you want me anymore..."

“Then let’s go… anywhere is fine… No, no, I can’t leave… If they find me, they’ll definitely beat me to death… Wuuuu…”

"Do you really want to take me away... Hehe, then beg me... Let me see your feelings... I don't ask for much, really not much... My family used to have everything..."

In the past, Jiang Lianheng often heard people mention this rumor:

There is a crazy woman in every mansion.

He didn't believe it before, but now he does.

The bigger the family, the more supreme authority the head of the family has. With just one word, he can decide life and death.

Although the reasons for madness are varied, the culprits are nothing more than "master" and "grandmother".

Accompanied by a burst of seemingly crazy talk, Jiang Lianheng slowly came to the gate of the fence, stood still, looked at her with a frown.

Zhao Lingchun knelt on the bed, listening to the footsteps getting closer and closer. When she was completely enveloped by a dark figure, she suddenly stopped and said without turning her head, "Thank you."

Jiang Lianheng was a little confused, so he cleared his throat and replied, "Lingchun, it's me."

Hearing the voice, Zhao Lingchun's body suddenly froze, and his whole body suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably.

After hesitating for a long time, she turned her head back tremblingly.

When their eyes met, Zhao Lingchun's face was as pale as paper, his eyes were full of fear, and he felt his throat tighten, and he couldn't even utter a word.

It was not until Jiang Lianheng approached the fence and tried to come in that she suddenly jumped up from the bed, screaming "Ah" from her throat, and curled up in the corner, kicking her legs randomly and begging bitterly:
"Brother, I was wrong, I was wrong, don't kill me, don't kill me! Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, save me!"

(End of this chapter)