Chapter 080.

“Make new clothes! ……”

Dan Sui popped out of the courtyard gate in one step, bending over and pouting her buttocks as she landed firmly on the ground.

Servant Danling followed her, calling out to her slightly nervously, “Spike, be careful.”

“I know, sister!” Dan Sui answered, and with a twist of her body, ran towards Li Shuang’s house next door.

Zhen Zhen came out of the house with her bag.

Servant Huai Ming followed her and asked, “You really don’t want me to go with you?”

Zhen Zhen looked back at him, “No, Liu Zhi and He Shuo aren’t going, so you stay home with me and watch the kids.”

The two little ones, Dantong and Xingyu, also wanted to go, so they were easily calmed down.

As he walked Zhen Zhen to the gate of the courtyard, he saw Dan Sui leading Li Shuang and He Ziyan out from the next door, and when he turned his head, he saw Wen leading Doudou out as well.

Li Shuang and Wen greeted Shui Huaiming, and then Zhen Zhen took the children forward.

When they reached Mrs. Chen’s house, Wen called out into the yard, “Mrs. Chen, let’s go.”

“Coming.” Chen’s sister-in-law answered, locked the door and turned around and said with a smile, “I’m usually busy at work, and I have to clean up the house during my breaks, so I haven’t gone shopping for a long time.”

Now that it’s New Year’s Eve, it’s only natural to go out and buy things, food and clothes.

Five adults took three children out of the hutong.

Walking on the road chatting, talking about how to spend this year.

Li Shuang said, “The meal can be served at anyone’s house, just one family will contribute eight dishes, do you think it’s okay?”

“Yes.” Wen was the first to answer.

Turning her head to see Mrs. Chen, she added, “Mrs. Chen’s family is small, so we can offer four dishes.”

Li Shuang and Zhen Zhen naturally had no problem with this and both nodded in agreement.

But Chen’s sister-in-law had her own opinion and disagreed, “I’m not going to be special, if you guys put out eight dishes, then I’ll put out eight dishes too. Don’t look at my family’s small population, but Cheng Chen and I have big appetites, so one of us is as big as the two of you.”

Hearing her say this, Zhen Zhen, Li Shuang and Zhen Zhen all laughed out.

After saying goodbye to the matter of each family’s dishes, Zhen Zhen added, “Let’s all say what you’re planning to cook, too, so that you don’t crash the party later and make another three or four servings of the same dish.”

Wen smiled and said, “It’s okay if we bump into each other, we have four families and four handicrafts, it’s the same dish, it’s a different flavor, and it can be treated as a different four dishes.”

Li Shuang also laughed, “Wen said a little sense, for example, my craft is not good.”

Dan Sui suddenly raises her hand next to her, “My mom cooks the best!”

Serving Danling reached out and touched her pink little face, “Well, Auntie San is even better than the chef at the restaurant.”

The five of them brought the child with them, talked and laughed as they walked down the street and began to do their business.

Naturally, they went to the cloth store to buy cloth, and then took the measured size to the tailor store to make a new dress for each person in the family to wear in the New Year, and then bought some red paper and firecrackers and fireworks and so on.

With three little dolls following, snacks are naturally inevitable.

Three dolls while playing and eating snacks, in the street walked a lot of road, but also did not shout tired.

Of course, the three of them were brought here because they could follow and run around at will.

After half a day of shopping in the street, when they came back in the evening, several people had four big words hanging on their faces – full load.

Although it was true that they were very tired after shopping for half a day, they were also really very happy, so they offset each other.

Because she didn’t bring Dantong and Xingyu along to play, the first thing Zhen Zhen did when she arrived home was naturally to give them a share of the delicious food.

The two dolls got the goodies, and after taking a bite, they were so happy that they were bouncing around.

This happy and lively atmosphere in the hutongs grew from light to strong, and it was at its strongest on New Year’s Eve when the New Year’s Eve dinner was served.

The whole afternoon before the New Year’s Eve dinner, the four families were busy cooking in their respective homes.

By the end of the busy evening, each family had prepared eight dishes.

As agreed in advance, Zhen Zhen, Ah Wen, and Li Shuang took the dishes to Mrs. Chen’s house.

Her family had a small population and wasn’t lively all year round, so they planned to add more popularity to them on New Year’s Eve.

The other children were small, so He Ziran and Cheng Chen were able to follow Shui Danling and serve the dishes together.

So Shui Danling brought Cheng Chen and He Ziran with her, working back and forth in the hutongs, the three of them crisscrossing their figures, going from one house to another, bringing the dishes prepared by each family to Chen’s sister-in-law’s house one plate at a time.

The dishes were steaming.

The whole hutong was filled with the flavor of human life.

Rows of red lanterns hung on the lintel of the door, matching the sound of the people, illuminating the hutong with a reddish joy.

The dishes were all prepared and brought to Mrs. Chen’s house, where there was still a table for adults and a table for children.

The children, regardless of the circumstances, reached out their hands to grab their favorite dishes.

Some of the dishes that could not be grabbed were helped into the bowl by Shui Danling, Cheng Chen and He Ziran.

The children then took spoons and scooped up the dishes in the bowl and stuffed them into their mouths.

Dabai was lying on his side, gnawing on a bone for a long time.

At the adults’ table, there were bottles and glasses of wine, so they drank a little wine.

Before eating, everyone lifted up their cups and talked for a while about celebrations.

Nowadays, all the families have no worries, and the days are going by comfortably, so the joy comes from the heart.

After the first glass of wine, everyone ate and drank as they pleased.

The lesbians are drinking red wine, Ah Wen carrying a glass of wine to Zhen Zhen front, and Zhen Zhen said: “Zhen Zhen sister, there are some things that I hold in my heart has never been serious to tell you, today we are all here, I have to in front of everyone to toast to you, I want to thank you, if not for your words, I may not really survive at that time.”

Zhen Zhen picked up her cup and touched her, “It’s all in the past, it will get better from now on.”

Shizuku and Zhen Zhen took a sip of wine together, Shizuku swallowed her wine and chimed in, “It will definitely get better in the future.”

Unhappy words were left unsaid.

On this day, when everyone is gathered together, it is natural to focus on joy.

After three rounds of joyful drinking, all of them raised their glasses again, and first, He Shuo smiled and said his expectations for the new year, “For the brand new year, I wish all of us here all health and peace, and all the best!”

After He Shuo finished speaking, the others clinked their cups one by one to pick up the conversation:

“Happiness and well-being!”

“Good luck will follow you!”

……

“The more you live, the more you prosper!”

“Every year has its own day! The day will come every year!”

“Flowers are similar year after year! The people remain the same year after year!”

***

The winter vacation is relatively short, after the New Year and then a Lantern Festival, it is almost time to start school.

The children reported to school to start school, the service Danling also packed clothes, return to school on time.

As in the first semester, after the school curriculum was set, Shui Danling copied a few class schedules for different majors and gave them to Zhen Zhen.

Zhen Zhen also consolidated the classes on the schedule, picked out the classes she wanted to take, and organized a new schedule.

She followed the schedule’s classes and times, and went to school on time and on schedule.

And of course she never stopped writing since she sent out her first manuscript years ago, and every time she wrote something she was more than happy with, she also found a newspaper or magazine to send it to and then put her mind at ease and waited for a reply.

After the start of the school year, her life at school and at home was no different from before. She listened carefully to the classes at school, reported to the literature club when it had activities, and read and studied at home, taking care of her children.

But after only two weeks of going back to school, Zhen Zhen felt that the atmosphere of the school seemed to have changed.

Because she always went to class on time, she didn’t have much interaction with the students in the classroom, and only occasionally heard a few words, but she would actively participate in the activities of the Literature Club, where she heard more and more comprehensive information.

After hearing more and more, the more clearly feel the atmosphere of the literature club has changed, Zhen Zhen will not want to go.

Today, Ye Manlin came to notify her to participate in the activities in the evening, she did not have the same passion and enthusiasm, and politely said to Ye Manlin: “Xiaoye students, I have a fact at home tonight, I can not go, I will not come.”

Ye Manlin knows that she has a family, naturally understand, “OK, then you busy with family matters.”

Zhen Zhen went home in relief and didn’t come over again at night.

But when she chatted with Shui Huai Ming before she went to bed, she still brought up this matter, holding a book in her hand, and casually said, “Originally, the Literature Club organized an activity today, but I didn’t go.”

Servant Huai Ming knew best how much Zhen Zhen loved the Literature Club.

There must have been something wrong, so he looked at Zhen Zhen and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Zhen Zhen held the book in her hand and put it on the quilt, exhaling softly and looking at Shi Huai Ming.

Looking at a small moment, she said: “I think that now in the school and ……” after a small pause to pick up: “We are no longer discussing academic and artistic issues, all are political, I have little interest. I’m not interested.”

Hearing this, Servant Huai Ming also lowered his eyebrows and murmured for a moment.

As an insider of the organization, he was naturally more aware of what had happened recently and what the political situation was.

He was not in a position to say anything more relevant, and only looked at Zhen Zhen and said, “If you’re not interested then don’t go.”

Zhen Zhen nodded, “I’ll just delve into what interests me.”

Speaking of what Zhen Zhen was interested in, Servant Huai Ming suddenly remembered something else.

He reached out and pulled open the drawer next to the writing desk, took out an envelope from it and said, “Another newspaper wrote back to you today, I put it on the desk for fear of losing it, so I put it in the drawer for you.”

Zhen Zhen is now very calm in the face of the newspaper and magazine’s letter of reply.

Having been returned more than enough articles, her expectations have brushed down, and she is now numb.

So she said while receiving the envelope, “Don’t even need to read it, it must have failed again, and was returned again.”

As she said this, she took the envelope and tore it open, completely losing the apprehension and anticipation she had initially felt when she received the letter back.

After tearing it open, she also took out what was inside with little interest, and as a result, this time, just after looking at it for a while, she immediately froze with her eyes wide open. Then she looked fiercely at Servant Huai Ming and blinked at him.

Servant Huai Ming was a bit puzzled and asked out loud, “What’s wrong?”

He wanted to take something from Zhen Zhen’s hand to look at it, but was dodged by Zhen Zhen raising her hand.

Then Zhen Zhen looked at him and smiled, the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but grin wider and wider, pursing her lips didn’t help.

She didn’t scream or overly show her excitement, she only looked at Shui Huaiming and said in a very low voice, “I’ve passed the draft!”

When he heard this, Mr. Huai Ming suddenly froze for a moment, more excited than Zhen Zhen, “Really?”

Zhen Zhen nodded vigorously at him, and then gave him something in her hand, “The remittance slip was sent along with it.”

Servant Huai Ming looked down at the remittance slip for the manuscript fee and suddenly held Zhen Zhen’s face and kissed her on the head.

He seemed to be even more proud than Zhen Zhen and looked at Zhen Zhen and said, “I knew you would be able to do it.”

Zhen Zhen smiled and said, “Although I don’t earn much money, I’m a man of my word, I’ll treat you to a restaurant tomorrow!”

Servant Huai Ming also laughed along, “Then I’ll have to think about what to eat.”