ALL NOVEL
Chapter 30
When Chi Yan saw the picture Chu Yang sent, he directly clicked save and replied: "It's very beautiful."
After Chu Yang sent it to him, she didn't look at her phone anymore. She first went to eat breakfast, then the family continued to prepare for the New Year.
For example, Chu Luo and Chu's Dad cleaned up the yard even cleaner, and the place to put firewood had to be cleaned up completely. Chu's Mom also washed everything in the kitchen again and cleaned the house and washed things: this is something they have been doing these past few days.
For Chu Yang, it was quite novel. In her previous life, she was alone and didn't have so many rituals. During the New Year, it was just a meal, not much different than normal. As for cleaning the house, she would clean it anytime.
Unlike now, all the pots, pans and containers had to be taken out and washed, and every corner had to be swept clean. The weeds in the corners were all pulled out and shoveled away. Chu's Dad even went downtown to buy two potted plants and put them in the yard.
As Chu Yang fed the chickens the vegetable leaves and leftover rice from last night, someone knocked on the door of their house. Chu Luo went to open the door, then said to Chu Yang, "Sis, someone is looking for you." Then he said to the person outside, "Come in first."
Chu Yang: ? Who was looking for her?
A tall, thin boy walked in, and then Chu's Dad said, "It's the Zhang family's kid, Xizhi!"
When Chu Yang heard this, she immediately knew. It was the son of the uncle who had come to borrow a car from Chu's Dad before. He went to the same high school as the previous Chu Yang, and was from the same village. They were even in the same class in 10th grade, but got split into different classes later.
Chu Yang put everything in her hands away, washed her hands, and said to Zhang Xizhi, "Let's go to the living room."
Seeing that Chu Yang's parents were still in the yard outside, Zhang Xizhi thought that he shouldn't let her parents hear what he was going to say either. So he followed Chu Yang into the living room.
"What's the matter?" Chu Yang poured him a cup of hot water after entering the living room.
Zhang Xizhi scratched his head. He felt that Chu Yang seemed to have changed a bit, not her appearance, but her temperament. But this was just a fleeting thought. "It was your high school class monitor, Xing An, who asked me. He asked if you were going to the class reunion. He couldn't contact you so he came looking for me and asked me to ask you. He also said that you seemed to have deleted the contact information of your former classmates."
Chu Yang nodded. "Yes, I did delete them. After all, we weren't very good friends."
"Oh," said Zhang Xizhi. He didn't know what else to say, since he didn't know why Chu Yang had deleted everyone either.
Chu Yang continued, "Just tell him directly that I won't go. And don't need to look for me again in the future either. I won't go. Nothing good to go for." She remembered that Li Qinglu, the female protagonist in her high school class, was the darling of the class. As for her, she had turned hostile with Li Qinglu, so naturally the others would take Li Qinglu's side if she went. What’s more, she didn’t even know these people. What if her secret was exposed?
A high school reunion was nothing more than eating, drinking and listening to people brag anyway. Nothing worth going for.
"Ah? Should I really say it like that?" Zhang Xizhi felt it seemed a bit hostile.
But Chu Yang didn't care. "Yes, just say it directly. Say I said it."
"Okay," said Zhang Xizhi.
Chu Yang took a sip of water. "Anything else?"
Zhang Xizhi shook his head. "No more. Oh yes, I heard that you saved Hai last time. It was really thanks to you. I heard about it. It was truly dangerous at that time."
Chu Yang handed him an apple. "No need to entertain you if there's nothing else. Here's an apple for you. As for the thing with Hai, it was no big deal. We're from the same village after all."
With the apple in hand, Zhang Xizhi walked out of Chu's house gate. After walking some distance, he looked at the apple and murmured, "How could Chu Yang not ask about Senior Gu Xiao? And wasn't she very close with Li Qinglu?"
Unable to make sense of it, Zhang Xizhi directly passed on Chu Yang's words to Xing An.
Xing An also felt it was very strange. How could Chu Yang not attend the class reunion? Could the rumors be true, that she didn't dare show up because Li Qinglu was with Senior Gu Xiao?
Chu Yang didn't care about this at all. After all, according to the book, the previous Chu Yang had been "so close" with Li Qinglu, and their social circles overlapped greatly. Now that the two were hostile, with the female lead's halo, the others would naturally take Li Qinglu's side. If she went, there certainly wouldn't be anything good waiting for her.
A class reunion was nothing more than eating, drinking and listening to bragging. Nothing worth going for.
Early morning on New Year's Eve, the family started getting busy. Chu's Mom and Chu Yang were making dumplings, Chu's Dad went to kill chickens and fish, while Chu Luo helped out on the side.
They also had to put up Spring Festival couplets, worship their ancestors: in short there were a ton of things to do. Chu Yang didn't know how to wrap dumplings, so she learned by following Chu's Mom, and after wrapping for a while she got the hang of it.
From time to time there would be the crackling sound of firecrackers going off outside. The atmosphere was festive everywhere.
That night Chu's Dad did the cooking, making over a dozen dishes. The family of four had a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner. Chu Yang also received red envelope money from Chu's parents that night, one thousand yuan each.
Chu's Dad had also bought fireworks. Some neighborhood kids came over to their house to watch Chu Luo set off fireworks. Everyone was very happy. Chu Yang also felt extremely happy. It had been a long time since she had experienced such a pure, lively joy and happiness. She hadn't expected that transmigrating into a book would give her such a wonderful family. She would definitely be very filial to Chu's parents from now on.
In the early morning hours Chu Yang received New Year's greetings from Jin Yang and Chi Yan on Weibo. Her Weibo was also filled with lively celebrations, with Chu Yang posting a New Year's Eve microblog that garnered New Year's blessings from dozens of fans in the comments. Not only that, Chu Yang had also received red envelope money from previous customers. She earned a small sum over the New Year holiday.
When Chu Yang woke up on New Year's Day, she saw that her family members were all wearing the new clothes she had bought them. Chu's Mom even admonished Chu's Dad, "You mustn't get your clothes dirty."
Chu's Dad was very happy. "I know, I know."
The clothes Chu Luo wore were a little small, making it inconvenient to wear a sweater inside, so he wore an undershirt and then a jacket over it.
Chu Yang felt them and said, "It's a little small. I'll buy you a bigger size in a couple days."
Chu Luo patted his clothes. "It fits just right now. No need to buy more."
But Chu Yang still felt she should buy him more, so she asked for his height and weight. Although Chu Luo kept saying there was no need to buy any, he still told Chu Yang his measurements.
On New Year's Day, they stayed home waiting for people to come pay New Year visits. On the second day they went visiting relatives, with Chu's Dad taking Chu's Mom to visit Grandma's place, but not bringing Chu Yang and the others. Chu Luo also didn't want to go. "Every time we go over, Aunt looks at us with disgust, as if suspecting we only went to beg. Who cares! And Lin Sheng, with his shifty eyes: he has no manners at all." Lin Sheng was their cousin, a real brat.
Only now did Chu Yang realize they didn't have a good relationship with Grandma's family, probably because they looked down on Chu's family for being poor. Chu's Mom still went mainly for Grandma's sake. The previous Chu Yang and Chu Luo had gone too, but were probably mistreated.
So later on, Chu Yang and Chu Luo rarely went to Grandma's place anymore. It was mainly just Chu's parents going over, but they would always come back the same night, never staying over.