Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 373 - 350: New Year’s Second Update

After dinner, everyone, both young and old, gathered in the living room to watch the Spring Festival Gala, while Li Xianglu, Yang Huan, Su Yan, and Lu Anna, four women, sat around the round couch and talked about Leng Qing and Li Jianqing’s situation.

Lu Anna was shocked when she heard Leng Qing was getting a divorce and said uncertainly, "It can’t be Ai Luo, could it?"

Upon hearing this, the women all fell silent; marital infidelity is no trivial matter. Even if you’re in love, you should get a divorce before pursuing someone else; falling for another while married is an affair.

Especially since Li Jianqing’s marriage is a military one.

But Li Xianglu shook her head and said, "I trust him, it wouldn’t be him."

Lu Anna was about to give Minmin a sip of water when she suddenly remembered something and said, "Right, it wouldn’t be Ai Luo, Ai Luo is about to get married."

What?

Everyone then turned to look at Lu Anna, who then started telling what she heard from her mother after returning home.

This past half-year, she hadn’t been in contact with Ai Luo; it was really inconvenient. She only heard from her mother after returning home that Ai Luo had a boyfriend abroad, and they were asking her family in China to get some certifications, saying it was for purchasing property, and later the news came that Ai Luo’s intention to buy the house was because her boyfriend wanted to buy it, and it was for their impending marriage.

Although unconfirmed, the pride in Ai Luo’s mother’s demeanor was likely not feigned.

She heard that the boyfriend is a French Chinese, whose family emigrated there before the liberation, born in France, handsome, and only thirty years old.

Li Xianglu was stunned after hearing this: "That’s too fast."

Su Yan glanced at Li Xianglu and elegantly picked up the black tea from the coffee table, saying, "People in France confirm relationships very quickly, and some even get married after just three days, what’s so strange about that?"

But, but Ai Luo is Chinese, thought Su Yan, because she is Chinese, so it took half a year; otherwise, they would have gotten married immediately upon meeting.

Seeing this, Yang Huan then spoke about a couple who had a flash marriage that she and Qin Shouren encountered during their more than two years in Germany.

But even then, the quickest was three months, right? The Germans are very precise, and the men are very responsible, even somewhat rigid, so things there can’t compare to France and other places.

After a while, Qin Shouren came to call everyone. They had to leave as they were hosting guests the next day and needed to prepare; secretly, they had their own little plans.

This was later mentioned by Qin Xi, saying that last year during New Year’s, Qin Shouren took his family of three home in the evening, Li Xianglu thought Mr. Qin was making an unnecessary fuss, but Qin Xi said that originally, they were supposed to have dinner at the man’s home on New Year’s Eve, and staying at Mr. Qin’s place was out of consideration for him, but they couldn’t stay past midnight, otherwise, they would be spending the New Year under another family’s roof, and would lose their luck.

Li Xianglu heard this and just smirked about the superstition but didn’t stop them, as coming over here for New Year’s already involved a lot of accommodations.

So, she didn’t stop them, carrying a basket of food to their car; it was already past eleven pm, the children were still not sleeping and causing a ruckus, but Li Xianglu didn’t stop them either; just one night, let them have fun, while she and Qin Xi and Qin Zhen stayed up with Mr. Qin.

It wasn’t until midnight, after setting off firecrackers, that everyone went back to their rooms holding their children.

Mr. Qin and Su Yan also supported each other back to their room.

The next day, the new year arrived. Li Xianglu was still groggy when Qin Xi woke her up, saying, "Hurry up, let’s go give New Year’s greetings to Grandpa."

Li Xianglu jumped out of the bed in shock. As the twins had gone to bed very late, they were still sound asleep in their cribs at this time. Li Xianglu directly scooped them out of their covers. Ba’er was cranky from being woken up and was about to cry out of annoyance, but Li Xianglu quickly soothed him, "We are going to give New Year’s greetings, great-grandpa will give us red envelopes, you know about red envelopes, don’t you?"

The two children had already received red envelopes before, from their full-month celebration, to their hundred days and their first birthday. Li Xianglu bought each child a ceramic piggy bank and put all their money in it, planning to give them each a bank card when it accumulated more.

Upon hearing this, the two almost instantly got up and ran to the cabinet to get their piggy banks, causing Li Xianglu a bit of a headache as she grabbed them back and quickly dressed them in the goose-down red Tang suits made for them this year, with black cotton pants trimmed in red, and both wearing black cotton leather boots. The children were naturally fair-skinned, and dressed like this, they looked like the wealth-dispersing children from New Year paintings.

However, they both insisted on holding their piggy banks. Li Xianglu was so irritated she almost scolded them, but the little ones were stubborn about holding onto them.

Seeing this, Qin Xi said soothingly, "Alright, let them hold it. It’s almost nine o’clock, let’s hurry. I heard Qin Zhen and others have already gone."

Ba Yi and Ba’er, upon hearing this, immediately banged on the door wanting to go out. Li Xianglu helplessly and Qin Xi, each holding one child, quickly followed.

Once they reached the front courtyard, the two children rushed to Mr. Qin and Su Yan’s spot, eager to kowtow and ask for red envelopes.

After the children happily took their red envelopes, Li Xianglu and Qin Xi came forward to give their New Year’s greetings to the elders and also received red envelopes.

With the red envelopes in hand, Li Xianglu and Lu Anna hurried to the kitchen. According to family tradition, dumplings are eaten on the first day of the New Year. The family had prepared four types of dumplings two days ago: chive and beef, carrot and lamb, pork with green onion, and egg with chive and shrimp.

Both stoves were on, one boiling meat dumplings and the other vegetarian dumplings. As Li Xianglu brought out the first pot of dumplings, Xu Wu and Da Li also came over, distributing red envelopes to the children.

Minmin’s face turned red with excitement upon receiving her red envelope, and Su Yan said with a smile, "Kids nowadays are so smart; they know red envelopes are good things at such a young age."

After eating the dumplings, Da Li and Xu Wu left early to give New Year’s greetings to their leaders. Su Yan and Mr. Qin weren’t planning on going this year; they thought it would be nice to have the Qin Family gather together, especially with Su Yan here, so Mr. Qin wouldn’t be lonely.

Li Xianglu didn’t insist, so the two families squeezed into one car and left.

Around eleven o’clock, everyone arrived. Qin Zhen was holding Minmin, Lu Anna brought tobacco and liquor, Qin Xi was holding the twins, and Li Xianglu carried some fabric and a lamb leg.

It was the naughty Xiong Youxin who opened the door, but he pouted and said softly, "There are guests at home." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Guests at home? Li Xianglu raised an eyebrow, both Qin Xi and Qin Zhen also looked surprised. On New Year’s Eve, who would come to visit?

Everyone entered, took off the children’s coats before letting them go in, and it was only when they got to the living room that they saw that Qin Family’s eldest uncle and Mr. Qin were there, with Qin Shouren sitting with them, but all three looked upset, seemingly in some argument.

Li Xianglu and Lu Anna exchanged a glance, greeted everyone, and then went to help in the kitchen.