Siheyuan: Wang Bo's Happy Life

Xu Damao brought Lin Xiu to his parents' home to celebrate the New Year early in the morning. At the dinner table, Xu Damao's mother kept urging the couple to have children, which made Lin Xiu frown.

After dinner, Lin Xiu followed her mother-in-law to the kitchen to clean up the dishes. Only Xu Damao and his father were chatting at the table.

"Da Mao, you've never had a child?"

"No."

"Well," Xu Damao's father pondered for a while, then said solemnly in a low voice: "If it really doesn't work out, then divorce and find someone else who can give birth and raise children."

Xu Damao thought about how Lin Xiu had been arguing with him recently, and he felt annoyed. He nodded solemnly, "I will divorce her after the New Year."

Xu Damao's father took a puff of his cigarette and looked at Xu Damao with a complicated expression. After a long while, he whispered, "Damo, tell me the truth. You don't really like men, do you?"

"no!"

Xu Damao was like a cat whose tail was stepped on, his entire body standing on end.

On New Year's Eve, Wang Bo stewed a chicken at home. More than 30 non-laying chickens, ducks and geese in his small courtyard had been slaughtered and were now neatly placed together.

He was also hesitant when he was stewing it just now, thinking that it wouldn't be contagious if it didn't lay eggs.

One dish was not enough, so Wang Bo picked up the pot and prepared to make braised pork.

Wang Bo first cut the pork belly into pieces, put it into a pot with cold water, added scallions, ginger and cooking wine to blanch it, then put the drained pork belly into the pot and stir-fry until the oil comes out.

After serving the meat, Wang Bo took the pot and put in rock sugar. He then fried the sugar color over low heat and put in the pork belly to color it. He then added cooking wine and soy sauce and stir-fried evenly. He then added boiling water to cover the pork belly, and added onions, ginger, garlic, star anise and cinnamon. Finally, he brought to a boil over high heat and then simmered over low heat.

By the time Yu Shui brought the dumplings over, the soup in the pot had already been collected.

Wang Bo brought the braised pork and stewed chicken to the table. Yu Shui smelled the aroma and said with a smile, "It smells so good! Brother Xiaobo, you are a great cook."

"You have to try it first to tell me how good the cooking is."

Seeing Wang Bo looking at her proudly, Yu Shui took the chopsticks and took a bite of the braised pork.

After putting it in his mouth, Yu Shui chewed it, opened his eyes and said in surprise: "Brother Xiaobo, this braised pork tastes fat but not greasy, tender but not dry, and melts in the mouth. Your cooking skills are better than my brother's!"

"Look at what you said," Wang Bo glanced at Yu Shui, "How can your brother compare with me? No one in the whole city can do it better than me!"

Yu Shui obviously didn't believe it, but she still praised him, "Of course, my brother Xiaobo's cooking is second to none! Brother Xiaobo, wait a minute, I'll bring some over to my brother so he can try it, so he doesn't think his cooking is the best in the world all day long."

"Give him more, so that he knows there is always someone better than you."

"Yes, yes, Xiaobo is that outsider!"

Yu Shui said with a smile, while handing Sha Zhu a small bowl, "I'll send it to my brother first, and I'll come back later."

After the rain went out, Wang Bo also strolled out.

Wang Bo stood outside the courtyard, looking at the starry sky above the city. Gradually, the stars hanging high in the night sky slowly fell down. Wang Bo looked closely and found that it was snowing.

The tiny ice crystals fluttered in the air and danced with the breeze, reflecting countless tiny lights in the dim light of the lanterns, making Wang Bo feel as if he was standing among the stars.

Even though he has been in this world for nine years, Wang Bo still finds it difficult to adapt to the New Year. He feels like a wanderer with no return date, and he misses his parents and relatives in his memory very much.

"Ugh."

Wang Bo sighed and looked up at the stars in the sky that echoed with the ice crystals.

Perhaps somewhere in the night sky, my parents are standing outside the house, looking up at the twinkling starry sky, looking at me across billions of light years.

Wang Bo couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Dad, Mom, Happy New Year, your son misses you."

I don’t know how long it took, but I heard Yu Shui shouting in the yard, “Where have you been, Brother Xiaobo?”

Wang Bo collected his thoughts, wiped away the tears from his eyes, and shouted to the yard, "Here I come!"

The next day was New Year's Day. Wang Bo did not get up early as usual, but he was woken up by the knocking on the door. He opened the door and saw Shi Tou and You Yu.

"Happy New Year, Uncle!"

The two boys kowtowed to Wang Bo with a smile, and then looked at Wang Bo with a smile.

Wang Bo gave each of them fifty cents and asked casually, "Whose house did you two go to for New Year's greetings?"

"We went to Grandpa Yan's house in the back house, and they gave us one cent each!"

"Why didn't you ask for more New Year's money?"

Shitou said first: "My grandmother said that the New Year's money given by the elders is a blessing to me. It doesn't matter whether it's a lot or a little. There is no comparison."

"Okay! Your grandma is right. Youyu should learn more from your brother Shitou."

Wang Bo originally wanted to give them some advice and ask for more New Year's money, but after hearing what Shitou said, he gave up the idea. In this compound, there was only one bad boy, Bang Geng, and it was enough to educate the others in a good way.

At this time, Sha Zhu came out from the middle courtyard. Shi Tou and You Yu ran to Sha Zhu and kowtowed to him, "Uncle He, Happy New Year!"

Seeing the two children, Sha Zhu was also very happy. He responded with a smile and gave them a few cents as New Year's money.

After the two boys ran away, Sha Zhu continued to walk out. When he passed by Wang Bo's house, he couldn't help but stop and asked Wang Bo, "Did you really make the braised pork yesterday?"

"What's wrong? Are you scared by my cooking skills? I'm better than you." Wang Bo looked at Sha Zhu complacently, "Sha Zhu, your uncle just doesn't want to serve those good-for-nothings, otherwise you wouldn't be in charge of the steel mill kitchen."

How could Sha Zhu believe it? He retorted: "Just brag. There's nothing wrong with being so proud of just because you cooked a good dish."

Wang Bo raised his head and shook it gently, saying helplessly, "I am not interested in trivial things like cooking, and you have no talent. Practice hard. Maybe one day you will see my back, and it will be your lifelong honor."

Pretending to be cool is like the wind and it always accompanies me.

After Wang Bo finished speaking, he left Sha Zhu with a confused look on his face, closed the door and went back to lying down.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Qin Huairu returned from the village with her whole family. Banggeng didn't care about anything else and went from house to house to wish each family a happy new year and ask for lucky money. The neighbors secretly cursed at them, saying that this family was so poor that they had lost their dignity just to get such a small amount of money.

Banggeng asked for money from the entire compound, and Shazhu gave him an idea: if he could get less from the family, he should kneel down and make a scene. This made Banggeng earn a lot of money.

When Banggeng finally came to Wang Bo's house, Wang Bo grabbed him by the clothes and threw him out right after he kowtowed. It was only because the snow outside was thick that Banggeng would have been seriously injured.

On the other side, Liu Haizhong, who had been holding it in for several days, finally couldn't help but quarrel with Liu Guangqi. After the quarrel, Liu Guangqi took his son and wife and left directly, leaving Liu Haizhong with nowhere to vent his anger, and he beat up the two brothers Guangtian and Guangfu severely.