Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 241 Ruixue

Before the New Year holiday, the Ministry of Justice arrested many children of prominent families in one go. Among them, the most senior one was the head of the Li family, and his crime was also the most serious - treason and collusion with the enemy.

As soon as this charge came out, all of the Li family's businesses were affected, with their grain shop being the hardest hit. After the last incident of raising grain prices, not only was the reputation of the Li family's grain shop damaged, but their business also plummeted. After more than half a year, they finally saw a little improvement, but an accusation of treason put them back to square one, and they were even worse off than before.

The Li family's grain shops closed one after another, and all the people in charge of the Li family were arrested. The Li family's elder had to go in person to smooth things over, but the Ministry of Justice happened to be on holiday, and the elder went there for several days only to receive the reply that the boss was away and couldn't handle the matter. The old man was so angry that he covered his chest and almost died.

In addition to the Li family, some people from aristocratic families that had close ties with the Li family were also arrested, but not as seriously as the Li family. The charges were at most molesting decent women and bullying the market, which were not serious in the past and could be avoided by spending some money. But now the Ministry of Justice is full of the emperor's people, and Gu Fengyun dislikes aristocratic families. It would be a miracle if he could make concessions.

In order to avoid being pursued and blocked by these aristocratic families, Gu Fengyun simply took advantage of the holiday to sneak to the Song family and celebrate the New Year with the Song family.

So this year's New Year celebrations at the Song family were more lively than in previous years. In addition to the Gu brothers, Lu Ming and Fu Nian also moved in. There were rooms reserved for them at home, and it was more convenient to take care of them with a group of people living together.

Song Daha and Chen Yuer also bring their children here every day to eat. Now that Chen Yuer's belly is getting bigger, Song Daha simply stops cooking and just eats and drinks with his wife and children. Grandpa Song and Grandma Song are even more smiling from ear to ear. Chen Yuer hasn't given birth yet, but she talks about her little grandson every day.

At first Chen Yuer was worried that Song Qinshi would be unhappy, but it turned out that Song Qinshi was very understanding.

"Dad and little dad have been looking forward to Da He's return. They are very happy for your and Da He's child, no matter it's a boy or a girl."

After hearing what Song Qin said, Chen Yuer let go of her uneasiness and calmly accepted the concern and care from her two fathers-in-law.

Because there were many people in the family, Song Dazhuang built a stove in the yard specifically for roasting the sheep that Song Chunlin brought back.

Song Chunlin is already very familiar with the job of roasting a whole lamb. He put his hands on his waist and directed his father and uncle to evenly spread special seasonings on the whole fat lamb and marinate it overnight so that it can be roasted early the next morning.

It was the first time for the children to see a whole roasted lamb, and they were all very curious. Song Chunming and Song Chunxiao were better off, because they had seen some of Song Chunlin's creative ideas before, and the two brothers could be considered worldly-wise. Li Gensheng, like Song Yuanyuan, stared at the big fat lamb smeared with all kinds of spices without blinking.

Li Gensheng murmured, "This is a roasted whole lamb. Can such a big lamb really be roasted?"

Song Chunlin patted his chest and assured: "It's definitely cooked. Believe me, I've eaten a lot of it at the border. When it's roasted and sprinkled with cumin, the taste is simply amazing!"

Song Qin came over and drove the kids into the house: "Okay, okay, the sheep won't be roasted until tomorrow. It's getting late now, go back to the house and prepare for dinner."

"Okay, time to eat!"

A group of human cubs cheered and went back to eat. Song Qin walked at the end with a smile and picked up Song Yuanyuan who was still sitting in the stroller.

Chen Yuer looked at the baby stroller with envy: "Sister-in-law, your stroller is great. We can push the baby to many places. It's really convenient. In the past, we didn't know that we could push the baby around. We either had to carry them on our backs or hold them in our arms. It was so tiring."

Song Qin agreed: "That's right. We didn't know any of this at the beginning. It was Chunlin who drew the blueprint for the carpenter. But Yuanyuan is growing too fast. I guess it will be ready for use when the one in your belly is born."

Chen Yuer's eyes lit up: "Sister-in-law, are you serious? Then I won't be polite."

"Why are you being so polite? We are all family. I won't have any more children anyway. It will take several years for Chunsheng and his wife to have children. What's wrong with you using them first? Maybe dad is even hoping that you will give Dahe more children."

Hearing about having more children, Chen Yuer's face flushed: "Sister-in-law, what are you talking about? Having more children? At our age, we are content with having a son or a daughter."

The two sisters-in-law walked into the house while talking and laughing. There were two tables in the main room, one for adults and one for children. It wasn't even New Year yet, but the tables were already full. At a glance, there were chickens, ducks, fish and meat.

As usual, Grandpa Song said a few words, the gist of which was that everyone should go to bed early today because there was still a lot of work to do tomorrow on New Year's Eve.

The descendants below responded in unison, and Grandpa Song narrowed his eyes in satisfaction.

"That's great. Our family can finally be considered a big family."

Early in the morning on New Year's Eve, the Song family, young and old, got up early, and even the younger ones crawled out of bed. Song Chunxiao's specific task today was to look after his younger sister, while Song Chunming followed behind his brothers and pasted window decorations, blessing characters and couplets on several houses.

There are many houses in the family, and it takes a lot of effort for these children to paste the stickers, from the Song family's old house, to Song Dahao's house next door, then to Lu Ming and Fu Nian's homes, and finally to the Song family's workshop.

The workshop is currently in a state of suspension, but there are still a lot of vermicelli, jam and chili sauce in the workshop's warehouse, which are reserved for family consumption and for giving as gifts during the Chinese New Year.

The Song family's current status has risen, so naturally there are more people coming to pay New Year's greetings than in previous years, so Grandpa Song also specially prepared a lot of gifts, all of which are used as return gifts.

As for the gifts for the head of the village and the village chief, Song Chunsheng delivered them personally as a sign of respect.

The children finished pasting window paper-cuts and couplets on all the houses. When they returned home, Song Chunsheng was still hanging lanterns with Gu Fengyue. Knowing that Song Chunlin liked palace lanterns, Gu Fengyue specially brought all the palace lanterns bestowed by the emperor to the marquis' mansion and hung them in the Song family's small courtyard, which really made the house sparkle.

"Okay, this is the last one. After we hang it up, we'll go eat." Gu Fengyue came down from the ladder and looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction.

A group of kids were standing in the yard chattering at the lanterns. One said the rabbit ones were pretty, another said the tiger ones were majestic, and another liked the octagonal lanterns, saying they were exquisite.

The little guys chatting with each other added a lot of color to this winter.