CHAPTER 483: CHAPTER 269: GRINDING SKILL LEVEL

Under Qin Huai’s door-to-door New Year greetings and sharing of the tangyuan, the entire Qin Family Village had a taste of the dumplings.

The name "Four Happiness Tangyuan" spread throughout Qin Family Village overnight, even little children, still babbling and chewing their fingers, would clap their hands and happily shout "Four Happiness Tangyuan".

In return, Qin Huai received a stack of red envelopes from the villagers. Each envelope contained little money, mostly 5 or 10 yuan, with the occasional generous 20 yuan.

The amount wasn’t much, but the quantity was! When Qin Huai finished delivering the tangyuan and returned home to count the envelopes, Qin Luo also came back from her good friend’s house. Qin Luo, holding twelve red envelopes and returning joyfully, was stunned when she saw the two large bags of envelopes in front of Qin Huai, and her first reaction was: "Brother, where did you buy these red envelopes?"

Then the siblings started counting the envelopes together.

Qin Huai happily received 2,655 yuan in cash.

All of it was small change, which could be saved to buy ingredients at the village’s small supermarket. The village already had a so-called "small supermarket", actually a small shop run by the village chief’s eldest daughter-in-law. It sold everything, mainly daily necessities and seasonings.

In previous years, Qin Huai would make snacks at home during the New Year and always asked the village chief’s son to help buy ingredients since he had a van, making shopping convenient.

The beautiful New Year’s Eve passed by delivering tangyuan and counting red envelopes.

On the morning of the first day of the New Year, Qin Huai was awakened by the sound of firecrackers. Upon checking the time, he found it was already past seven. He opened the curtains and looked outside, seeing red paper scraps everywhere. Luckily, Qin Huai was a sound sleeper and woke up only when it got noisy.

Otherwise, judging by the thickness of the red scraps on the ground, anyone with lighter sleep would have had to get up around 4 a.m. today.

Opening the window, a full blast of sulfur smell hit him.

Ah, the smell of New Year!

Qin Huai silently closed the window and stretched in front of the sunny sky outside. He didn’t wear yesterday’s bright red, furry outfit, as that attire was only good for looking festive and was inconvenient for working.

Yesterday, being New Year’s Eve, required wearing something festive. Besides, the workload was not too heavy, just a little warm-up, so any work clothes were fine.

Today is different. Today is the first day of the New Year, a day to officially hone one’s skills, so no sloppiness is allowed. Proper work attire must be worn.

Qin Huai took out Huang Ji’s work uniform from his suitcase. It fit well, was well-tailored, of the right design, and had his name embroidered on the chest. This is a uniform only a formal employee at Huang’s Kitchen could wear; even apprentices didn’t have it.

He grabbed his phone, pushed open the door, and Master Qin made a grand New Year entrance!

"Brother, Happy New Year! Breakfast is ready in the pot. Grandma has reheated the leftover chicken soup noodles and Three Meat Buns from yesterday. Aunt Wang came early, saw you weren’t up, gave us some eggs, and went back. Aunt Wang’s fried eggs are delicious, I ate three!" Qin Luo poked her head out, holding a big bowl full of Longevity Noodles.

Qin Huai went outside to wash up.

Although Mr. Qin’s house had a modern kitchen, it didn’t have a washbasin for cleaning up. In the morning, water was fetched in a basin for washing the face and brushing teeth, done outside, under the pretense of breathing fresh air early in the morning.

Qin Luo followed Qin Huai with a bowl in hand.

"Brother, what snacks are you making today? Early this morning, First Uncle, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, Fourth Uncle, First Aunt, Second Aunt, Third Aunt, and Fourth Aunt all called to say Happy New Year and to discuss when they’d come over. They’re planning to come in pairs over four days; otherwise, there won’t be enough snacks to share." Qin Luo had barely finished speaking when Qin Congwen walked by, talking on the phone.

"Second Uncle, Happy New Year! Are my cousins coming over to see my mom tomorrow? Tomorrow won’t work, it won’t work, both of Huaihuai’s uncles are coming to visit tomorrow. Today? Today isn’t possible either, today the villagers are visiting each other’s homes, several uncles are here in the village, right?"

"Huaihuai is awake? There’s leftover noodles in the pot, hurry up and eat. Luoluo wanted to eat, but Grandma wouldn’t allow it." Qin Congwen spared a moment to show concern for his son and then politely declined, "Yes, Huaihuai just woke up, exhausted from making snacks yesterday."

"Four Happiness Tangyuan? You heard about it too? It’s spread to your place already?! Second Uncle, I tell you..." Qin Congwen continued his conversation, gradually walking further away.

Qin Huai quietly spat out his mouthwash, glanced at the large bowl Qin Luo was holding, and asked, "So, what’s the general plan now?"

Qin Luo started counting fingers as she reported the plan: "As usual, uncles and aunts are given priority. The second to the fifth day is reserved for them."

"This morning, Aunt called and said that He Cheng’s cousin is going abroad on the eighth day and wants to have something nice before leaving, so Grandma bumped their visit to the sixth day."

"Uncles are arranged from the sixth to the tenth day."

"You know the great-uncles, Grandma doesn’t quite like them, so they’ve been scheduled for the eleventh to the thirteenth day. Second Great-Uncle is worried it’s too late and you wouldn’t want to make snacks, so he called Grandma early this morning, but she didn’t pick up. He’s calling Dad now, trying to push it forward."

The Qin Family doesn’t have many direct relatives, but the extended family is exaggeratedly large.

Qin Huai’s maternal grandparents passed away before Zhao Rong adopted him, and Zhao Rong had four elder brothers and four elder sisters, making her the ninth child.

It wasn’t until the second year after being adopted by Zhao Rong and Qin Congwen that Qin Huai familiarized himself with all his uncles and aunts. Qin Huai’s eldest uncle was a full 22 years older than Zhao Rong. The first time Qin Huai saw his eldest uncle, he thought it was his grandfather. If Zhao Rong hadn’t introduced them quickly enough, he almost called him ’Grandpa’.