After greeting everyone, Li Da started eating first, taking a bite of a dumpling as big as a gold ingot, and then a bite of a meatball.

　　The last bowl of cabbage was seldom touched, and the meat and fish were eaten up. Gu Zhao thought of saving the cabbage for tomorrow, and Li Zhouzhou smiled: “Husband, the New Year’s Eve meal cannot be saved for next day, I will eat it later when I stay up to see the New Year.”

　　There are some rules to follow. It is not customary to eat leftovers on the last day of the year at the beginning of the year.

　　The bowl of cabbage was left in the main room, covered with a clean bowl.

　　Li Zhouzhou and his husband cleaned up the pots and pans, boiled some hot water and washed up. They couldn’t go back to sleep on the kang, as they had to stay up all night to celebrate the New Year.

　　When Gu Zhao heard this, he said, “Then wouldn’t it be a waste of time to wear the robe?”

　　Li Zhouzhou had forgotten what happened in the morning. He was stunned for a moment when he heard his husband talking about it. He soon understood and his face turned red. “I, I didn’t agree either.”

　　”That’s because I’m shameless. I want to make trouble with Zhou Zhou like this.” Gu Zhao shamelessly moved closer.

　　Anyway, there are only two of them in the kitchen.

　　Li Zhouzhou’s face was burning hot, and he finally said, “I want to, too.” My husband is not shameless.

　　Staying up all night means not sleeping on New Year’s Eve, and sitting all night until dawn the next day. The oil lamp in the main room was on, and the three of them sat around the stove, warming themselves by the fire, eating melon seeds and peanuts, and drinking hot tea when they were thirsty. Not long after that, Gu Zhao estimated that it was around ten or eleven o’clock, and he and Zhou Zhou finished eating the bowl of cabbage.

　　There is no timekeeping in the village, everyone just estimates the time.

　　The sound of firecrackers came from the first house, followed soon by the next one.

　　Li Da also went to the yard to set off firecrackers. Zhou Zhou and Gu Zhao wished him a happy new year, and he gave them red envelopes without saying anything. Now, listening to the sound of the firecrackers, what he thought in his heart was: In the new year, I wish Zhou Zhou and Gu Zhao to have a boy.

　　At the end, he added that it would be fine if it was a girl or a brother, as long as they were healthy.

　　After setting off the firecrackers, I went back to the house.

　　Son-in-law Gu Zhao was peeling peanuts for Zhou Zhou. Li Da turned his face away, pretending not to see that Gu Zhao touched Zhou Zhou’s hand while handing him the peanuts. It was a good thing that Gu Zhao liked Zhou Zhou.

　　I couldn’t sit still in the second half of the night, I was really sleepy. When Gu Zhao was a student in the modern world, he could stay up all night to write papers. When he first came here, he was not used to going to bed before 7 o’clock in the evening. Now it’s only been a short time, and he won’t stay up late.

　　Gu Zhao rubbed his face. Li Zhouzhou said, “Are you sleepy, husband? Lean on me and take a nap.”

　　”Can’t you sleep?”

　　”Just don’t sleep on the kang.”

　　Gu Zhao leaned his head on his wife’s shoulder, but he didn’t fall asleep either. He said, “Talking will make me less sleepy.”

　　Without waiting for his wife to think of a topic, Gu Zhao said, “I plan to go to the teacher’s house every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after the Lantern Festival. When I was in the village, I also studied in the morning, and then I would study at home in the afternoon after lunch.”

　　”Bring gifts during festivals, no need to bring as much as yesterday’s.”

　　When I was studying, in addition to the tuition of one or two taels of silver, I had to bring two dou of grain, one dou of rice and one dou of wheat, every time the crops were harvested. That was twenty kilograms of rice and twenty kilograms of noodles, and three kilograms of meat for the New Year.

　　Now we don’t take any food.

　　Li Zhouzhou listened to his husband and agreed.

　　”Don’t visit on the first day of the New Year. Go to Zhu Xiucai’s house after the fifth day.”

　　”good.”

　　The couple was talking. Gu Zhao opened the conversation, and Li Zhouzhou also talked about what to do after the New Year. They couldn’t use a knife on the first day of the New Year. There were still some frozen dumplings, which they could eat. The offal that his father brought back from home could be used to make sausages, so the offal should be eaten as soon as possible.

　　”Eat it braised?” Gu Zhao felt a little hungry when he thought of the braised meat.

　　Li Zhouzhou: “Braised? My husband, do you mean stewed with sauce?”

　　”The way to cook fish with soybean sauce? No, I mean–” Gu Zhao remembered that there is really no such thing as stewed food nowadays, so he changed the subject and said, “Let’s go to town together in the spring of next year. The drugstore should have it.”

　　Ingredients like star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, fennel, and cardamom should be used as medicinal materials now. You have to go to the pharmacy in town to check for the specific ones.

　　”Okay.” Li Zhouzhou responded.