The year is over with the sound of firecrackers, and the spring breeze brings warmth to the summer.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is New Year's Eve.

The sound of firecrackers are everywhere in the small mountain village, and the sound of firecrackers echoes layer by layer among the mountains and becomes louder. Lin Ping stands on the high ground on the mountain and looks down at the villages in the mountains. The atmosphere of the village is strong, and the flash of firecrackers burst from time to time, like a meteor that passes in the night sky in a flash.

Lin Ping felt the smell of firecrackers drifting with the air, and felt a light fragrance. The noisy firecrackers, bright red Spring Festival couplets, and the smoke in the air, which made the New Year smell like the New Year. With the development of society and the construction of urban civilization, more and more cities will no longer allow residents to set off fireworks, and some places will not even allow residents to post Spring Festival couplets. The New Year atmosphere feels a little weaker. Although there are also delicious food, new clothes, and there will be children who are asking for New Year’s money and the joyful "Spring Festival Gala", the traditional Spring Festival culture passed down seems to be gradually disappearing.

A new era, a new Spring Festival?

Lin Ping always feels that something is missing, the traditional Chinese emotional expression method is missing.

"Teacher Lin, what are you doing where you stand?" Ma Zhongguo shouted, "Come down quickly and set off the whip!"

Lin Ping replied happily: "Okay!"

"Come on, you can pick up the whip, take it with it!" Ma Zhongguo handed the bamboo pole to Lin Ping and joked again, "Don't be scared by firecrackers and left!"

"No, how could it be possible?" Lin Ping said with a smile.

"Then I'll order it!" Ma Zhongguo said as he walked to the firecrackers, "Rise it high!"

"Bang!"

As the first firecracker exploded, a series of crackling sounds followed.

After the firecrackers were blown up, the smoke faded. Teacher Ma looked closer to the explosion and said happily: "Good omen, good omen! All the firecrackers were blown up, and there was no one that didn't sound!"

Lin Ping and Ma Zhongguo smiled and went back to the house to have the New Year's Eve dinner. This was the most sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner that Lin Ping had come here. This New Year's Eve dinner allowed him to regain the New Year's flavor that he had lost for a long time. In the past, he had big fish and meat every day, and the food during the New Year was no different from usual, so he couldn't eat the New Year's flavor. In the past six months, he had been in Kushan and had a simple meal almost every day. Suddenly, the big fish and meat came over the New Year and felt moved to cry.

Happiness will still be more obvious and satisfying in comparison.

After dinner, Teacher Ma wrapped the ten yuan money one by one in red paper.

"Is this a red envelope?" Lin Ping asked with a smile.

"Yes, for the children, they will come to ask for red envelopes tomorrow morning!" Ma Zhongguo said with a smile, "This is already a custom."

"Then do I want to give it to you too?" Lin Ping asked.

"Of course, it's okay. I've already bought yours for you!" Ma Zhongguo said with a smile, "I'll share half of you later. The children will be blessed tomorrow and can get two red envelopes."

The next morning, before dawn, a student came to school with flashlights.

Liu Weiguo, the first one, followed Liu Dazhu and Liu Xiangqian. As soon as the three of them entered the house, they knelt down and kowtowed, and then said, "Teacher Lin, Teacher Ma, happy New Year!"

Then he stretched out his hand to ask for the red envelope.

Lin Ping was shocked by the way children in the mountains asked for red envelopes. It was really a tradition. This way of kowtowing and asking for red envelopes was cancelled in most areas in the 1990s. Children in most areas only need to wish the elderly a happy New Year and say auspicious words to get red envelopes.

After a while, all ten students from the Kushan Mountain Rural School came to the school to greet Lin Ping and Ma Zhongguo.

"Tell your parents that we will come to school for dinner on the first day of the New Year tonight. Teacher Ma and I will prepare the meals. Let us have the New Year together!" Lin Ping said to the children.

The children happily agreed to have dinner at school together, which was such a lively thing.

"College student, you really know how to make trouble," Ma Zhongguo joked, "We need to prepare for this."

"Haha, these children are so energetic. Have a meal with them and spend the rest of the year!" Lin Ping said with a smile.

Ma Zhongguo nodded with a smile: "Yes, I think after you come, the school really feels like a family."

At noon, Liu Qingmei still did not come to greet Lin Ping and Ma Zhongguo. Lin Ping asked worriedly: "Did Liu Qingmei come to greet you in the past? Teacher Ma?"

Ma Zhongguo, who was smoking a dry tobacco, spat out a cigarette and said, "Come on."

"Then I'll go to her house to have a look." Lin Ping said and pushed the bicycle out.

"I'll go with you." Ma Zhongguo put away his tobacco gun and said.

"It's okay, I'll go by myself, I'll go back quickly." Lin Ping said.

Ma Zhongguo glanced at Lin Ping and said, "That's fine. If something is wrong, come back and tell me, don't be reckless."

"good."

Lin Ping rode his bicycle and rushed to Liu Qingmei's house.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the doors of every household were open to facilitate the wishes of the people who came to pay New Year's greetings. However, when Lin Ping came to Liu Qingmei's house, he found that the doors of Liu Qingmei's house were closed.

Lin Ping got off the bicycle and walked to Liu Qingmei's door but found that the door was locked. Why is the New Year's door locked? Lin Ping, holding a glimmer of hope, patted the door and asked, "Is there anyone? Liu Qingmei, Aunt Feng, are you at home?"

"Teacher, I'm here!"

Liu Qingmei's voice came from the door, and then Liu Qingmei handed out a key from the crack in the door below, "Teacher... This is the key."

Lin Ping held the key and opened the door. Liu Qingmei stood at the door with tears on her face. When she saw Lin Ping, she couldn't help but burst into tears: "Teacher!"

"What's wrong?" Lin Ping frowned and asked.

Liu Qingmei threw herself into Lin Ping's arms and cried endlessly.

"Where is your mother?" Lin Ping looked into the house and asked.

Liu Qingmei cried and choked up and told the story.

It turned out that Liu Qingmei's father did not go home for the New Year this year, and this was the first time that Liu Qingmei's father had not come home for the New Year. Liu Qingmei and her mother had been looking forward to Liu Qingmei's father going home half a month ago, but Liu Qingmei's father did not come back until last night's New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Eve, Liu Qingmei's mother Feng Chunxiu prepared a table of good wine and dishes. The mother and daughter sat at the table without saying a word. Other people's houses were having a happy New Year, and the atmosphere in Liu Qingmei's family was terrifyingly depressed.

Even though she knew her husband would not come back, Liu Qingmei's mother still held an impossible fantasy and looked at the gate motionlessly.

"Mom, dad won't come back..."

The hungry Liu Qingmei choked and said, without her mother's consent, she dared not move her chopsticks to eat the food on the dining table, but she was so hungry that she was too hungry when she looked at the delicious food on the table.

Liu Qingmei's mother glared at Liu Qingmei, and Liu Qingmei lowered her head and didn't dare to say a word.

The food was so cold that it could not be cooler. Liu Qingmei, who was hungry and sleepy, could not hold on and closed her eyes and fell asleep. However, after falling asleep, she opened her eyes and found that her mother was no longer there and the door was locked from outside.

Lin Ping sighed and touched Liu Qingmei's head and said, "It's okay, your mother will not be in trouble. She may have gone to the city to find your father."

Liu Qingmei nodded in tears.

Lin Ping smiled and said, "Go back to the house first, wash your face, stop crying, be stronger! The teacher also drinks a glass of water."

Liu Qingmei took Lin Ping to the house, and the food in the middle of the house was full of delicious food at the dinner table.

"Have you not eaten yet?" Lin Ping asked.

Liu Qingmei said, "I've eaten it."

"Then these foods..." Lin Ping asked, pointing to the intact food on the table.
Chapter completed!