ng Yuhuai naturally understood her aning and quickly waved his hands, "Don’t worry, it probably isn’t uncle. Mother didn’t want them to co, and I had already refused them earlier. I guess it’s mostly people who ca early in the morning to celebrate the New Year."
Hua Xiaomai was very reluctant to et Tang Maolin’s family, finding them troubleso. Upon hearing this, she breathed a sigh of relief, went forward to remove the door bolt, and just as her vision blurred, unable to see clearly who it was, she heard an ear-deafening burst of laughter.
"Happy New Year, sister-in-law, we’ve co to pay a New Year visit!"
It was all n’s voices, thunderous, directly assaulting her ears. Hua Xiaomai stepped back in fright, and upon looking more carefully, she saw it was Han Hu, Li Yingchun, and others from Lianshun Escort Agency, laughing so hard their teeth were showing but their eyes were not.
"Ah!" she hastily smiled as well, "Why have you co so early in the morning?"
"To pay a New Year visit, of course! It’s better to co early rather than late!" Han Hu said cheerfully, giving her a hollow fist salute, "Sister-in-law, you haven’t visited the Escort Agency for so ti now. Today, seeing you, I almost didn’t recognize you!"
What did he an by that? Was he saying she had gained too much weight and lost her shape?
Hua Xiaomai imdiately wanted to roll her eyes, just about to retort, when another jumped in, jokingly saying, "Happy New Year, sister-in-law, shouldn’t you give us lucky money?"
"Cut it out!" Hua Xiaomai snorted with laughter, "Considering your age, shouldn’t you be older than ? Yet you’re asking for lucky money, do you have no sha?"
"But who lets you be the sister-in-law?" the man was not annoyed at all, "You can’t deny it!"
As they were talking, ng Yuhuai hurried over, worried about too many people bumping into his wife. He pulled Hua Xiaomai aside while letting the others into the yard and greeted them with a smile.
Mother ng had already busily gone to the kitchen to prepare tea and lon seeds candy, arranging everything in the yard, which imdiately beca lively.
By chance, the first day of the New Year was blessed with good weather. Early in the morning, although the sun had not yet risen, the sky was exceptionally bright, seemingly warr than usual. Everyone sat warmly together in the yard, not feeling the cold at all.
As they sat idly, they rely exchanged auspicious words and laughed and joked for a while. Although Mother ng was not good-tempered and impatient with socializing, today she restrained herself sowhat, inviting everyone to stay for a al.
The n from the Escort Agency, mostly straightforward and casual, didn’t stand on ceremony with her and happily accepted imdiately. Hua Xiaomai listened to their conversation and suddenly rembered sothing, pulling on ng Yuhuai’s sleeve and whispering a few words to him.
"Sister-in-law, you and Yuhuai have intimate words to share, can’t you wait until after we leave to say them?" Han Hu squinted his eyes about to tease, but noticing ng Yuhuai’s stern expression, he hurriedly swallowed the rest of his words.
"Today..." ng Yuhuai furrowed his brows, "You all ca early in the morning to pay a New Year visit to my place, I appreciate your kindness, but Uncle Ke..."
He didn’t say the rest, but the aning couldn’t have been clearer.
Expecting many visitors for the New Year greetings on the first day of the lunar month, he had originally agreed with Hua Xiaomai to visit Ke Zhenwu in the city the next day. He guessed that the n from the Escort Agency should have the sa idea. Just now, when a crowd suddenly surged into his ho, he hadn’t had ti to think it through. It was only after Hua Xiaomai’s reminder that he realized there might be sothing inappropriate about this.
Indeed, he was now officially in charge of Lianshun Escort Agency, and Ke Zhenwu had discussed hosting a table at Daoxiang Garden on the day of the Spring Wine Banquet to formally hand over the Lianshun Escort Agency in front of everyone. However, Ke Zhenwu was the founder of the Lianshun Escort Agency and the one who had brought all these n into the Escort Master business. It wasn’t right that they ca to Fire Knife Village to offer New Year’s greetings and had not thought to visit Ke Zhenwu first. It was not only inappropriate but also gave an undesirable impression that they cared less now that things were changing. He felt quite uneasy about it.
Han Hu had been all smiles, but upon hearing this, he was imdiately taken aback, as were the others, who looked at each other in dismay. After a mont of silence, Han Hu awkwardly said, "Well... we thought since Fire Knife Village is farther from the city, we’d co here first. Of course, we plan to visit Uncle Ke too..."
"There should be a proper order to these things," ng Yuhuai said gravely, "Although Uncle Ke doesn’t mind these formalities, we must still handle things properly—tomorrow we will all visit him together. In his presence, do not ntion that you have already been here today, and do not act this way in the future."
"Uh... okay," Han Hu replied, scratching his head, clearly embarrassed.
The mood, which had been very cheerful, suddenly turned a bit cold. Hua Xiaomai glanced at ng Yuhuai, saw his stern face, and patted him, signaling him to not continue, and then cheerfully changed the subject.
"Later, I’ll cook a couple of dishes for everyone to try. Tomorrow when you visit Uncle Ke, I won’t be joining you, so please give him my regards. And if Uncle Ke gives out New Year’s money, don’t forget to ask for my share too!"
Li Yingchun was the first to burst out laughing and quickly nodded in agreent, patting his chest and promising to bring her a big ingot. The rest of the people silently breathed a sigh of relief and chid in agreent, and the courtyard regained its amicable atmosphere.
...
Han Hu and the others stayed until after lunch and only left in the afternoon, and during this ti, visitors to the ng Family’s house for New Year’s greetings continued in waves. With ng Yuhuai and ng’s elderly mother at ho, Hua Xiaomai was able to slip away and also visit the Jing Family’s old house to see Hua Ermu and little Tie Chui.
As evening approached and the sun began to set, the courtyard finally beca calm again. ng’s elderly mother was already busy preparing dinner in the kitchen when Zhou Yunyun suddenly arrived.
Normally, visits for the New Year’s greetings were supposed to be in the morning; by now, it was quite late. Puffing and panting, Zhou Yunyun ran up to Hua Xiaomai and imdiately started to apologize profusely.
"I’m sorry, Master. I had planned to co in the morning, but my mother took my sisters out visiting early in the morning, and I was left alone in the kitchen working with the food. I wasn’t paying attention and ended up delaying until now. Please don’t be mad at ..."
She was clearly nervous, speaking rapidly while nervously twisting the hem of her clothes.
Hua Xiaomai was quite surprised and looked her over, shaking her head in disbelief: "You’ve been in the kitchen all day? On such a big festival, couldn’t you have taken a couple of days off for yourself? Even if you were preparing those four dishes and one soup, there was no need to be this busy—seriously, what ended up happening?" (To be continued. If you like this book, you are welco to vote with recomndation ticket and monthly ticket at Qidian (qidian) to support . Mobile users, please visit m.qidian to read.)
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