Siheyuan: Return to the Era of Prosperity

Chapter 40 Staying New Year’s Eve
As soon as I pushed the cart into the courtyard, I saw Yan Bugui setting up a table and writing couplets for his neighbors.

Some gave a few cents, some gave melon seeds and peanuts. In his words, this was the fee for writing.

Shen Zhiyu took a look, parked the car at home, handed his brother 3 cents, and asked him to go out and find Yan Bugui to write a pair of white couplets. It was New Year's Day and he didn't want to spend cents.

Shen Zhiyu made some corn flour batter at home, and he and his younger brother Shen Zhihua pasted the couplets, and the four siblings began to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner.

"Brother, what are we going to eat tonight?" asked his younger brother Shen Zhihua.

Shen Zhiyu didn't even raise his head, continued to make dumplings, and answered casually: "Stir-fried vegetables and dumplings, and stewed meat."

"Zhihua, stop making trouble here and go out and buy some soy sauce." Shen Zhiyu took out a dollar and handed it to his brother.

"Ok."

Shen Zhihua took the dollar and ran away without a trace. When he saw Shen Zhiyu, he shook his head.

"Brother, the third uncle just informed me that individual New Year's greetings are not allowed this year. There will be a group greeting tomorrow morning, and each family is required to contribute some melon seeds and peanuts." Shen Zhiwen said.

Shen Zhiyu knew that this should be Yi Zhonghai's idea, so he asked, "Is Yi Zhonghai back?"

Sister Shen Zhiwen nodded and said, "I will be back at noon today."

Shen Zhiyu knew that there would be a lot of things to do during this Spring Festival. With the return of the core members of the elderly care team, these people had a backbone again.

I don’t know when Yi Zhonghai will go to Tianjin again. Everything was peaceful when he was away, but things became more complicated when he came back.

……

"Zhong Hai, I've inquired about it. The street office will require every courtyard to hand over iron for steelmaking in the spring of next year. You should find a way to stockpile some in the next few days and hand it over for those families in the courtyard who can't hand in their tasks themselves. I will lobby the street office to restore your status as an uncle." The deaf old lady said softly.

Yi Zhonghai asked anxiously, "Madam, does Secretary Tu agree?"

The deaf old lady smiled and said, "It doesn't matter whether she agrees or not. Her children are grown up and will get married. When she retires, her children will take over. The person in charge of our area is a new cadre. As long as the majority of people in the compound don't object, it's just a matter of a word from the cadre. As an old man in a compound, he doesn't have much power."

"Okay, I will take Dongxu and Shazhu to buy scrap metal the day after tomorrow." Yi Zhonghai still missed the majesty of the old man.

"Well, Zhonghai, please pay attention to this matter. How are we going to celebrate the New Year this year?" asked the deaf old lady.

Yi Zhonghai said with a smile: "Let's spend the day together with Dongxu and Zhuzi. It will be more lively with more people."

"Yes, my Shazhuzi cooks delicious food." The deaf old lady praised.

The courtyard was very lively today. Children were playing freely, firecrackers were popping non-stop, and every household in the courtyard was eating delicious food. Even Yan Bugui generously fried shredded pork.

The joy of the festival also drives away the misfortunes of the past year and makes us forget the hardships of the past year.

New Year's Eve is the most important festival for flower growers. On this day, families gather together to celebrate the beautiful festival.

It was a rare day when the compound felt a civilized atmosphere.

Today, Jia Zhang's broken mouth could finally speak a few human words, and Liu Haizhong also put down the stick.

After eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, Shen Zhiyu and his two siblings sat around the stove, eating melon seeds and staying up all night.

The custom of staying up all night to welcome the New Year expresses both a sense of farewell and a desire to remember the passing years, and a hope for the coming New Year.

In a poem titled "Keeping the New Year", an ancient poet wrote: "We are invited to stay up all night at Arong's house, with candles burning brightly towards the green gauze; thirty-six decades have passed in vain, but from this night on, I cherish the years."

It is human nature to cherish one's youth. Su Shi, one of the Eight Great Masters of the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a famous line in "Keeping the New Year": "There will be no new year next year, I am afraid that I will waste my time; I will try my best tonight, I can still boast of my youth!"

This shows the positive significance of staying up on New Year's Eve.

Time passed as the four siblings chatted, but Shen Zhiyu's attention was not on the chat. After 12 o'clock on New Year's Eve, he could sign in.

If the system hadn't reminded him at night, Shen Zhiyu would have almost forgotten that he had a sign-in system. This shows how lazy his system is.

The only old alarm clock in the house was moving slowly.

Shen Zhiyu's heart was also beating fast. It was finally almost 12 o'clock and the system had started counting down.

"You three can chat first. I'm a little sleepy, so I'll take a nap." Shen Zhiyu found an excuse, stood up and left the stove.

His younger brothers and sisters were enjoying themselves with melon seeds and peanuts at the moment, and didn't pay any attention to his leaving.

Shen Zhiyu felt bored and sat on the bed to sign in.

"Ding, the sign-in system has been refreshed, please sign in!"

"Sign in!" Shen Zhiyu said silently in his heart, and prayed to all the gods and Buddhas to bless him so that he could get high-quality rewards.

"Ding, please collect the sign-in gift package!"

The system's sound was still mechanical and unpleasant, but in Shen Zhiyu's ears, it was more beautiful than any music.

Shen Zhiyu couldn't wait to open it silently, and the sign-in panel showed the three rewards he had received.

The first is basic medical skills, the note is general medical skills of Chinese and Western medicine, the level of attending physicians.

The second is basic identification skills, identification of antiques, cultural and artistic works, the level of antique owners.

The third is the rationalization of hybrid rice technology and fertilizer technology.

Shen Zhiyu was afraid that his younger brothers and sisters would break in, so he closed the door and started to collect his sign-in rewards.

He first clicked to receive basic medical skills, and immediately a series of medical knowledge came to his mind. Various cases flashed through his mind, allowing him to reach the level of an attending physician in an instant and see patients independently.

Afterwards, he received the basic identification skills, which covered everything from ancient times to the present, from China to the West.

His current level may not be as good as that of the masters of Chinese studies in a single subject, but in terms of breadth, he is probably unmatched. Especially since his identification skills also carry some historical knowledge, making his knowledge even more profound.

The last part was about the rationalization of hybrid rice and fertilizer technology. Shen Zhiyu didn’t understand what this meant, so he clicked to receive it.

The system is still very user-friendly. You can program it as you like, and the system will be responsible for making things reasonable.

Despite this, Shen Zhiyu still did not dare to assign the task to himself. Instead, he made an arrangement in his mind and assigned the fertilizer technology among the two technologies to a Soviet person.

The other party was a researcher from the Soviet Union. He was persecuted for offending someone and fled to our country. In the end, he handed over the technology to the researchers, but he himself did not survive.

Shen Zhiyu also used the same method to develop hybrid rice technology. A comrade of our country who was studying abroad risked his life to obtain this technology. The country attached great importance to it and summoned agricultural experts such as Yuan Lao to conduct deciphering research.

I don’t know whether the system is powerful or not. Anyway, Shen Zhiyu has arranged it this way, and I don’t have to worry about it in the future.

(End of this chapter)