Chapter 81

Business in the store continued to be good until the 27th day of the New Year. After Li Mo closed the door of their store on the night of New Year’s Eve, she announced to everyone that the store was officially closed.

Everyone was happy that they could finally take a rest and welcome in the New Year after so many busy days.

On the 28th day before the New Year, Meizi and Tiezi rushed over from the village with Xiao shu, and the family was officially gathered. Then, like all ordinary families, they started to prepare for the New Year.

Song Dashan took Tiezi to the market to buy chicken, duck, fish, and meat for the New Year, as well as firecrackers.

Sister Qin took Aunt Wu and Dani and cleaned the house inside and out, then took off all the bed sheets and covers from each room and washed them.

Li Mo and Meizi went into the kitchen to prepare the food for the New Year.

The family worked for two days, and by the evening of the 29th day before Chinese New Year, all the preparations were completed.

On the morning of New Year’s Eve, before Li Mo woke up, the others were already busy preparing for the New Year’s Eve dinner, while she, as a national treasure, was refused by everyone whenever she asked if there was something she could help with. So she could only go and play with the three little kids.

The three little kids were infected with the New Year’s Eve atmosphere. They were so happy that they woke up early in the morning and played together happily.

When Xiao Bao saw Li Mo coming towards them, he got off the wooden horse and ran to Li Mo, hugging her leg, and came and talked to Li Mo’s belly, “Sister, are you awake?”

Ever since he found out that Li Mo had a little baby in her belly, Xiao Bao has been interested in Li Mo’s belly. He has always wanted to touch it and see it. But he couldn’t see anything because of Li Mo’s thick clothes in winter, but he was still very motivated. The first thing he did every morning when he woke up was to look for Li Mo and his little sister in Li Mo’s belly.

Li Mo used to wake up very early, and Xiao Bao would always look for her, but since she became pregnant, she was always sleepy and could sleep more than two hours longer than before. So now, whenever Xiao Bao comes to her in the morning, he will always be caught and stopped by Song Dashan. Then he would tell him. “Your sister is still sleeping in your mother’s belly. You have to wait until your sister wakes up to greet you. You have to wait patiently for your sister to wake up. “

When Xiaobao heard Song Dashan’s words, he nodded his head and went to play on his own. After Li Mo woke up, he would come over and talk to his sister in Li Mo’s belly.

When Xiao Bao decided that the baby in her belly was her sister, at first, Li Mo told Xiaobao, “The baby in your mother’s belly could be a little brother. How do you know that it’s a younger sister? “

Xiao Bao blinked his eyes and said to Li Mo, “But I want a sister, and Xiao Shu is my brother. So, mother, you’re welcome to give me a younger sister. “

In Xiao Bao’s world, all the people he knew were boys. He was surrounded by younger brothers and older brothers, so he especially wanted a little sister.

Seeing that Xiao Bao wanted a sister so much, Li Mo stopped talking and let Xiao Bao call the baby in her belly his younger sister. Maybe if they always referred to her as a sister, she’d come out as a younger sister. Anyway, she also liked having a daughter. She already has Xiao Bao as a son, and it’s just right to have a daughter. She could have both a son and a daughter.

Li Mo walked to the courtyard and sat down on a chair so that Xiao Bao could talk to her belly.

Xiao Bao earnestly chatted with the little life in Li Mo’s belly while she answered Xiao Bao’s questions about the one in her belly every now and then. The mother and son can play for a long time without getting bored.

It wasn’t long before it was time to eat the New Year’s Eve dinner. This year’s New Year’s Eve was very well prepared, with everything from chicken, duck, fish, and everyone’s favorite dishes. The family sat around the table, full of people.

After Song Dashan went out and set off the firecrackers, the family officially started to eat.

Li Mo could not drink, so she replaced the wine with tea. First, she stood up and offered everyone a toast. “Everyone has worked hard, especially the previous day. Everyone was so busy. Thank you for your efforts in our store. I’ll use tea instead of wine to toast everyone, wishing us a new year with peace, happiness, and success in our hearts. “

Everyone stood up and raised their glasses to make a toast.

Li Mo took out three red envelopes from her pocket and gave them to the three little ones first. “Here, this is the New Year’s money for you. Wishing you a new year of increasing wisdom and health.”

The three little ones’ eyes lit up, and they took the red packets and bowed to Li Mo in a decent manner to express their gratitude.

After giving the little ones their New Year’s money, Li Mo took out five more red packets and gave them to Meizi, Tiezi, Sister Qin, Aunt Wu, and Dani.

The adults didn’t expect to get red packets, so they were a bit confused and didn’t know whether they should take them or not.

Li Mo shoved the red packets into their hands and said, “Don’t refuse. This is not New Year’s money. This is the year-end reward for our store. You have worked hard for the business of the store. This is a token of my appreciation for you. Take it. In the future, you will receive it every year. “

Seeing that Li Mo said so, Meizi first accepted, “Then sister-in-law, I will take it. Do not worry. I will do well at planting flowers so that you will earn a lot. “

Seeing that Meizi took it, the others also took it and promised Li Mo that they would do a good job in the future, especially Aunt Wu and Dani. They simply didn’t expect that the people who bought them would treat them so well, so much better than the life they used to live at home. They cherish it too much.

Li Mo waved her hand and asked everyone to sit down. “Everyone, sit down and eat, and have a good meal today. For the New Year, let’s fatten ourselves up a little. “

Everyone laughed and raised their chopsticks to eat without further ado.

The sound of firecrackers rose and fell outside, and in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, the family in the store was happy.

Song Dashan and Meizi have been completely cut off from the rest of the Song family. Tiezi is fatherless, Sister Qin and Huzi have no attachments, and Aunt Wu and Dani are even more unattached. So the family had no other relatives to go to and spent the whole year in the store.

So, Li Mo taught everyone to play poker, planning to take advantage of the New Year to have a good time.

After Li Mo taught them a few times, everyone knew how to play poker, so Li Mo and Song Dashan’s family, Meizi and Tiezi’s family, Aunt Wu and Dani’s family, and Sister Qin’s family, formed a table and played.

It felt like the game was losing its flavor, so Li Mo suggested that they play with money and play with a small amount of money to have a good time.

Everyone had some money in their hands, so they agreed to Li Mo’s proposal and played for a penny a card.

Li Mo, as a veteran, won a small hand, while the other three lost. However, despite the loss, everyone’s interest was not diminished, and they proposed playing again tomorrow.

After three consecutive days of playing cards, Li Mo didn’t want to play anymore. She felt that playing something was too boring. However, except for Li Mo, everyone else was still interested and never tired of playing. After all, in ancient times, activities for entertainment were too boring. People’s way of playing in their spare time was too poor, so they thought that playing cards were fun, just like those women who like to stay in the lounge and play cards.

Li Mo suddenly felt that she should enrich the entertainment at home and in the recreation room so that not only her family could have more fun, but also the customers who came to her store could have more fun and enjoy playing in the recreation room.

So, Li Mo began to think about what modern entertainment activities could be played here.

The first thing that came to mind was playing chess, which is a very common form of entertainment for people in this era. But here people were playing Go and Xiangqi or something, which tests the intelligence of the players and causes headaches from too much brain activity.

Therefore, she can teach you some simple board games, like Gomoku and checkers, which even children can learn, and they are also very fun. At the same time, these can be placed in the leisure room for everyone to play and be entertained to pass the time.

There is a chess set at home, which Li Mo bought for Xiao Bao to learn how to play chess, but now she can use it to teach everyone to play backgammon.

It took Li Mo only a quarter of an hour to teach everyone, and even the three kids learned how to play.

Seeing that the children at home were also immersed in the game, Li Mo was happy to see them having fun, so she taught the children another simple poker game: catching the bamboo pole.

One person takes half of the cards, and then one person arranges them on the table. When they find the same card, they can take it back to their home as their own card. This game was very simple. The raw materials were also just poker cards, but without losing the fun, it was easy to get the children to like it.

As a matter of fact, the three children in the family enjoyed playing. Even Dani, the older child, followed the game with great pleasure.

In this way, the family played cards, played chess, and picked up the bamboo poles. Men, women, and children, happily engaged in family entertainment activities. Every day was spent in laughter.

The family spent the whole Spring Festival sleeping, eating, and playing, not only having fun but also growing some flesh on everyone’s faces.

On the eleventh day of the first month, Li Mo put away her playfulness and began to make preparations before opening the store.

Last year’s balm was almost sold out. They had to make new ones, and she needed to send Sister Yue several hundred boxes. Now is the season for plum blossoms and spring azaleas. Li Mo plans to add a plum blossom flavor and spring azalea flavored balm to sales.

Plum blossom trees are especially abundant in the village and can be found everywhere, and spring azaleas are also found on the back of the mountain, so Li Mo arranged them for Meizi and Tiezi. “Meizi, we need to trouble you and Tiezi. You go back to the village and tell us that our store accepts plum blossoms and spring azaleas at the same price as the previous collection of osmanthus, and we will go back to the village in a couple of days to collect them and make a new flavor of balm.”

Meizi responded crisply, “Sister-in-law, it’s time for Tiezi and me to go back to the village to look after the flower garden. When I go back, I will talk to the people in the village about this. “

Speaking of flower gardens, Li Mo remembers the flowers in their gardens. Last fall, there were only a limited number of flowers that could be planted. There were not many flowers in the flowerbeds. There was a lot of empty space. And there was a lot of empty space just waiting for spring to come and plant more different varieties of flowers. The year has come to an end, and it is now time for spring. It’s time to plant some new flowers.

Li Mo said, “Meizi, soon it will be spring. Many flowers can be planted. You will ask the florist who guided us before to see which flowers can be planted. Then I will buy the flower seeds from the town and ask Changbang to bring them back to you. “

Meizi said, “I have already tilled and fertilized the ground to plant the new flowers. We only need to buy the seeds and plant them. ” When Meizi remembered the flowers she planted last year, she got excited. “Sister-in-law, some of the flower seeds we planted last year will bloom this spring, so there will be more varieties of balm, and we won’t need to go to the village and the back of the mountain to pick them.”

Li Mo was also very happy to hear that when she made the flower garden last year, the purpose was to be able to make more different flavors of balm, and now it was finally the season to harvest. With the new flower seeds planted this year, she believed that in the future, they would not have to worry about the source of flowers, and they would have different kinds of balm to sell all year round.

The next day, Meizi and Tiezi went back to the village with a reluctant Xiao Shu, while Li Mo took the others home to make the beauty products for the opening of the store, and Song Dashan went to the street to buy snacks for the lounge.

After two days of preparation, Song Dashan drove the donkey cart back to the village to collect the flowers.

The last time he went to the village to collect osmanthus flowers, everyone in the village knew that Song Dashan was coming to collect flowers again, so they all ran to the village and the back of the mountain to pick flowers. When Song Dashan came back to the store, there was another cart full of flowers.

While the flowers were fresh, Li Mo organized the whole family to make the balm and used two days to make hundreds of boxes, half of which were sent to Sister Yue’s store.

By this time, it was already the 15th day of the first month of the year. A year had passed, and the store was open once again.

On the first day of business, many old customers came to the door, and when they saw Li Mo, they had endless words.

“Your store was the last to open. Some people open on the eighth day of the year. “

“I want to do a beauty treatment this New Year’s Eve, but I can’t. I have been waiting for your store to open. This waiting lasted for half a month. “

“I feel that my skin was much better before the year, but after the New Year, I ate a lot of greasy food. Suddenly, a lot of pimples grew again. I hurriedly went to your store to get rid of it. “

“……”

The guests pulled Li Mo to talk one by one, and Li Mo smiled and replied to them one by one.

When people were almost here, Li Mo clapped her hands and said to everyone: “Today, our shop officially opened for the new year. To celebrate the new year, our shop held an opening event. Three days before the opening, all those who spend more than 40 yuan in my store are free to take a box of balm. “

A box of balm in the store was sold for eight yuan. To put it another way, they got the eight-yuan balm for free. This news aroused interest and discussion among the people present.

Li Mo continued: “And I want to tell you some good news. There are two new balms in our store. The first one is a plum, and the other is an azalea. You can try it for free today, and you can choose the balm that you want to take away. “

Once this statement was said, the guests’ hearts were once again drawn in.

Someone in the crowd asked: “Can the money paid for beauty treatments and makeup be counted as forty yuan?”

There were many women who wanted to come for beauty treatments who wanted to ask this question.

Li Mo nodded, “All of them count. No matter if you buy rouge or makeup, you can get a box of balm for a one-time cost of forty yuan or more. “

Although most of the people who come to Li Mo’s store are not short of money, having something for free, the people are still very happy and don’t want to let go of this opportunity for nothing.

And those who are not very rich are even more moved.

So, right away, there were women in the store picking rouge and powder and intending to buy them together today. They reached 40 yuan.