She encouraged her son to go out for a walk, maybe he could fall in love with that girl, and she could ask someone to find a matchmaker.

She mentioned this matter twice, but Tugen found her verbose and annoying, and said she didn't need to worry about it.

To be honest, how can any mother not worry about her son seeking a wife?

But she didn't dare to mention it openly now, for fear of making Tu Gen unhappy during the New Year celebrations.

"Is there anything better? I usually go to less places. I go to the city more than anyone else, so I just stay at home."

Chen Tianhua said and went back to his room in the east wing. He was afraid that his mother would nag her and mention the matter of finding a partner again.

It's not that he doesn't want to find a wife. This kind of thing is something that can only happen but cannot be asked for. Besides, he doesn't like any girls in the village yet.

Marriage is an important matter, and it cannot be rushed.

He returned to the house and made red envelopes one by one with red paper to contain the New Year's money.

During the first month of the first month, when I visit relatives, I have to give New Year's money to the younger generation. He owns a fishery business, and now he is considered a person with income. He is also the male of the family, so he can take the New Year's money from the family, so naturally it is up to him to pay it.

He prepared about a hundred red envelopes, each containing fifteen coppers, which required a lot of shame.

After dinner, my mother began to prepare New Year's gifts for the next day.

On the bedside table and floor cabinet in the west wing are various gifts wrapped in yellow straw paper, which are actually food.

The food in the late Qing Dynasty was naturally not as colorful as in later generations, and it was unimaginable to have such dazzling and exquisite packaging.

When it comes to food packaging, they are all made of yellow straw paper, wrapped in a triangle shape, with a square piece of red paper covering it to express celebration, and then tied and knotted with a thin hemp rope in a cross.

Because they are all yellow straw paper bags, if you are not careful, you will not be able to tell what is inside the straw paper bag.

This time, Chen Tianhua went to Shaoxing city to buy all the New Year gifts, including longans, lychees, red dates, lotus seeds, sugar, and low-end fragrant cakes, peach slice cakes, persimmon cakes, etc.

Of course, the specific varieties and quantities required were dictated by the mother, recorded by Chen Tianhua, and purchased according to the list.

The specific content of each package will be marked after he purchases it, using abcd.

Therefore, whatever kind of food the mother needs must be recognized by Chen Tianhua.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the people were quite scarce in material supplies, far beyond Chen Tianhua's imagination.

For example, white sugar is white granulated sugar. This was a very common condiment in later generations, but now it is a precious food, only eaten by the rich and powerful, so it is very rare and quite expensive.

Foods such as dried longan, dried lychee, red dates, and lotus seeds are basically not available to ordinary people.

This year, my mother also figured out that she would celebrate the New Year in a decent way, go back to her relatives in glory, and grit her teeth and buy a lot of valuables.

On the early morning of the second day of the second lunar month, Chen Tianhua accompanied his mother, sisters Tingjuan and Youjuan, carrying various gift bags, such as longan, lychee, lotus seeds, sugar, etc., to his uncle's house, which was his grandma's house, to pay New Year's greetings.

My mother said that I must go to my grandma's house on the second day of the Lunar New Year every year. This has been a habit for many years and is unshakable, rain or shine.

Before I arrived at my uncle's house, I saw a lot of people gathered in front of Xuejiatai from a distance, including adults and children.

They are all descendants of my uncle's family.

My uncle's family members, Ding Xingwang, eldest cousin Chaoyuan, eldest cousin Fengying, second cousin Juying and their children are all here, and of course there is also my unmarried little cousin Chaogen.

Only the second cousin, Chao Jin's family, went to his father-in-law's house and was not here.

A bunch of men and women were waiting outside the main entrance, mainly for the big boss Tu Gen.

"aunt…"

"Auntie is here!"

"Oh Tugen, the boss is here."

"..."

Chen Tianhua's family was welcomed into the upper room like distinguished guests and sat down in the living room.

Then everyone went to their own places to pay New Year greetings one by one.

In the first month of the year, a great ceremony must be performed. Chen Tianhua knelt down and paid homage to his grandmother, uncle and aunt one by one.

Everyone bowed to each other and worked for a long time before it was over.

Chen Tianhua accepted New Year greetings from the younger generation, all of whom were his eldest cousin. There were seven children in total from his second cousin.

“New Year’s greetings to my cousin!”

"I wish my cousin a happy New Year. I wish my cousin a lot of money in the coming year."

"..."

As the head of the family, of course he has to give out new year's money. A heavy fifteen copper coins is quite generous.

Those little guys were so happy that they laughed.

In rural areas, these fifteen copper coins are quite a lot of money, almost fifteen times the amount of money given to people as a lucky gift to ordinary people.

After the mutual New Year greeting ceremony is completed, the next step is to enter the next step, where the host receives the guests.

At this time, the eldest cousin Rao Xing, who was in charge of housework, brought out her specialty snacks:

Four small soup bowls of white sugar lotus seed soup, followed by a plate each of glutinous rice and sesame dumplings, dumplings, rice cakes and drunken chicken.

You can choose whatever you want, and the content is so rich that you won’t be able to eat it all.

Seeing this, Chen Tianhua finally understood why his mother said she was leaving early to visit relatives and couldn't have breakfast.

It turns out that there are a bunch of snacks as soon as you enter the door, followed by the main meal.

White sugar lotus seed soup is the highest-end dim sum nowadays, but Chen Tianhua is not a fan of it, and he often eats it in later generations.

But there was one thing that he ate for the first time in his life, and he was hooked as soon as he tasted it.

That is the ‘sesame glutinous rice dumpling’ made in rural areas nowadays.

It is glutinous but not sticky, and has a special aroma of sesame. When eaten with some sugar, it looks high-end and particularly delicious.

Chen Tianhua forced his grandma to eat white sugar and lotus seed soup. He only ate the sesame and glutinous rice dumplings. He did not touch other snacks such as rice cakes and rice dumplings.

Today, the old grandmother smiled the most happily, with wrinkles on her face, looking kind.

She saw that her nephew had a promising future, and her years of worrying about her daughter's family were like a stone falling to the ground. She could finally let go.

Chen Tianhua suddenly discovered that his uncle, who was less than fifty years old, had gray hair, probably due to the worries he had put in these past few years.

…

At the beginning of the dinner, the men went to the Eight Immortals table, with the uncle sitting at the head, and the cousins ​​and husbands sitting at the same table, where they mainly drank.

The women and children ate at the table next to them, with the old grandmother as the leader. They all crowded together to eat. This is the custom.

The elders are toasted first, then the eldest brother, brother-in-law, etc. Among the eight immortals at the table, Chen Tianhua is the younger one and has a lower seniority.

After a round of toasts, the cousins ​​and cousins-in-law all toasted in return, and then all started talking about business matters.

"Tugen, since you are doing such a big boat business for your eldest brother, please take care of us." The eldest brother-in-law took the lead in speaking.

"Brother Tugen, why don't you do something for me? I heard that all outsiders have entered your business, so I want to be able to come in too." Afan, the husband of cousin Juying, said.

Juying is about the same age as her eldest sister Tingjuan, and they just got married a few months ago.

The young lady's husband, Afan's family, is considered a small rich farmer in the local area. They have some land, and they still owe some foreign debts after getting a wife.

After getting married and separated, Afan also had pressure in life.

"Tugen, I got engaged last year, but now I still don't have the money to find a wife, and I don't have a new house or any furniture. Why don't you do some business for me and let me save some money?" the little cousin said. Gen also came to join in the fun.

"..."
Chapter completed!