Chapter 393 New Year's Eve, or New Year's Eve
The island country also used to celebrate two New Years, and the timing was not much different from that of China. It was only in modern times that it gradually changed to focusing on the New Year.
Perhaps it is because the two countries are neighbors and their cultural customs are inevitably similar, or perhaps it is because with the development of the times, the preparations for New Year's Day and New Year's Eve in all Asian countries are similar.
The Zeshan family was no exception. They printed out a large number of New Year's greeting cards before New Year's Eve. These cards are similar to greeting cards and are used to send holiday greetings to relatives and friends who are far away and cannot meet. It is a very old-fashioned way.
But even in today's island country, the custom of sending letters is still preserved. This is probably related to the fact that their postal industry has not been abandoned too much. In short, under the ruthless order of Sawayama Ako, Sawayama Haruno was forced to finish writing all the New Year greetings.
You have to know that there were nearly forty letters, and they were only sent to relatives in the Osaka area. After writing them, his hands were cramped so much that he couldn't bear it anymore. Fortunately, Miyazawa Mana felt sorry for him and secretly imitated his handwriting to help share some of the burden.
In fact, it's not that other girls can't be asked to help, but their handwriting is too delicate and it's easy to be spotted. Sawayama Haruno is worried that after they leave in a few days, curious relatives will come to the house and find nothing, so it's better not to do anything for now.
In addition to New Year's greeting cards, decorations such as mirror cakes are also popular in the island country. These are pairs of round rice cakes that symbolize harvest and abundance. Every New Year, the islanders will place them in the most conspicuous place in the home.
In addition to preparing mirror cakes and the like, one also has to prepare straw ropes and pine branches to hang on the door lintel, meant to keep filth and misfortune out of the door. For some reason, when he was young, whenever Sawayama Haruno saw his mother holding large pieces of straw objects woven with straw ropes and pine branches, he would always think of the mugwort that was hung in his previous life.
I think it has been influenced by some culture, as the shadow of Chinese culture can be seen in many places.
Of course, if we talk about these things, the most exciting things about the Chinese New Year cannot be missed.
Ah, coming, coming
Sawayama Haruno noticed that Ezaki Suguha was the first one to come down from the stairs after taking a shower. It seemed that she wanted to come to the kitchen to help early. She should not come again after taking a shower, as he would go in later!
"Suguha!"
Ayako Sawayama was sitting on the sofa, seemingly checking her son's New Year's greeting card, but in fact her attention was all focused on upstairs.
Now that she finally saw a girl coming down, her eyes suddenly lit up and she quickly called her over.
"Hmm? Auntie, what's wrong?"
Just as Ezaki Suguha was about to go to the kitchen to continue helping with cooking, she stopped abruptly after hearing what Sawayama Ako said.
She looked at Zeshan Haruno in confusion, as if she didn't understand why he was still sitting here. Is it really okay for her uncle to be alone in the kitchen now?
".I'm going to help."
Sawayama Haruno shrugged. He had already guessed what his mother was going to do. After all, her pockets were so full, anyone could guess it.
But then again, although I received something called "New Year's Jade" when I was a child, how much was it? It seemed to be only about two or three thousand. Ah, my mother must be partial.
Sawayama Haruno felt both amused and helpless, but he didn't think much about it. He stretched his stiff body and prepared to go into the kitchen to help his old father.
He has several skills that can improve his cooking skills. It would be a waste if he just stood by and watched. It seems that this year's Osechi cuisine has not been made yet? In that case, why not try it yourself?
For Osechi cuisine in the island country, appearance is more important than taste, but Sawayama Haruno is sure to have both.
In the living room, seeing Sawayama Haruno's departing back, Ezaki Suguha hesitated for a moment and finally chose to sit on the sofa.
Sawayama Ayako immediately took the opportunity to move closer and said kindly, "Suguha, I actually wanted to talk to you alone before, but you know that Haruno is always running around, so I don't have much chance."
“That’s true.”
Suguha Ezaki blinked. She indeed had not talked much with Ako Sawayama in private.
The two of them have only met a few times, and most of the time, Zeshan Haruno has other things to do or other arrangements, so they only meet briefly and then nothing happens. But what does it mean that the aunt brings this up now?
"You and Haruno have lived together for a long time, right?"
"A long time ago, probably around October last year?"
"In October?"
Ako Sawayama was shocked. This relationship had lasted longer than she thought. By the way, Maki had only been dating Haruno for a short time at that time, right?
No, no, the relationships among my daughters-in-law are really confusing. It’s better not to worry about them and get to the point!
"Since you've lived here for so long, haven't you ever thought about taking things a step further?" Sawayama Ako paused, then added, "I'm not talking about whether you and Haruno are dating or not. I mean, like Maki."
"Like Maki?"
Suguha Ezaki's face slowly turned red.
It was not easy to make her, a calm and outspoken person, become shy. The reason why she became like this was because she understood what Zeshan Ako meant. It turned out that the twin granddaughters were not enough to satisfy the old lady, and she had to
"I, I haven't thought about it that much yet."
Jiang Qizhiye's eyes were a little evasive, and she whispered: "Because when I go to college next year, I may have to participate in many kendo competitions. This is in exchange for admission, so."
In fact, she had discussed this with Sawayama Haruno a long time ago, and the other party even took the initiative to suggest taking more safety measures to prevent Ezaki Suguha from being unfortunately "infected".
It might be okay for other girls, but after all, Ezaki Suguha often has to participate in very intense sports competitions, so it is naturally impossible for him to drag her down for this reason.
Even if there is enough free time during the competition, recovery will take a long time, and the missed training time will cause her level to drop again.
Therefore, no matter how you look at it, Suguha Ezaki is the least suitable one to have children among everyone. It is better to say that except for Maki Miyazawa, who is currently the most carefree, everyone else will have various major problems.
"Is this so"
After listening to what Suguha Esaki said, Ayako Sawayama showed a look of some regret.
But she was not someone who didn't understand human nature. After knowing the reason, she would of course choose to understand and support the other party, so she took out the New Year's red envelope she had prepared early in the morning. "This is for you."
She put the New Year's money, also known as "New Year's Jade", in an envelope.
However, the weight of the bulge is surprising enough. Even without touching it, you can roughly feel that it is definitely more than 100,000 yen.
The Sawayama family, including Sawayama Haruno's girlfriends, are actually not short of money, but whether or not one is short of money is completely different from how much money one can receive in red envelopes from elders during the Chinese New Year. Even Ezaki Suguha, who grew up in a wealthy family, saw such a "huge" red envelope for the first time.
Normally, a few thousand yen is enough. Almost no one would give so much. After all, it is just a token of appreciation.
As if she could see the dilemma that Suzuha was in, Sawayama Ako stuffed the envelope into Suzuha's hand without hesitation and said comfortingly, "Take it. I've already given one to Mana."
"OK then."
Hearing this, Ezaki Suguha had no choice but to accept the red envelope.
Ayako Sawayama naturally followed the principle of fairness when dealing with the issue of her daughter-in-law. As early as when Mana Miyazawa helped Haruno Sawayama write a New Year's greeting card, she had already secretly slipped a red envelope to the other party in advance.
Of course, the amount is the same.
After chatting with Suguha Ezaki for a few more words, Ayako Sawayama reluctantly let him go into the kitchen to help, while she prepared to take out the buckwheat and knead the noodles on the spot.
Today is not only New Year's Eve but also New Year's Eve. To put it simply, it is the last day of the year. The custom on this day is that the whole family gets together to eat soba noodles.
Of course, as one of the daily foods of most islanders, soba noodles are often seen in all kinds of festivals, and Ako Sawayama is quite familiar with making it.
As for the three people busy in the kitchen, to be precise, after two of them went in, Haruno's father was politely asked to come out and rest.
Suguha Esaki is in charge of tonight's cooking, while Haruno Sawayama is preparing Osechi cuisine in preparation for tomorrow. It doesn't matter if he does it a little early. He doesn't need to finish it all, just enough to leave semi-processed for tomorrow.
The so-called Osechi cuisine is composed of toast dishes, bite-size dishes, grilled dishes, boiled dishes and vinegar dishes.
The toast is made of black beans and herring roe, which are salty snacks that can be enjoyed with wine. This method is the easiest to solve, after all, you only need to arrange the purchased ingredients step by step.
"Kuchidori" means appetizer. Most people's appetizers are fish cakes or spring rolls. However, considering that Ayano Yui had previously clamored to eat something like beef tongue sashimi, Sawayama Haruno softened his heart and decided to satisfy her here.
There is nothing wrong with using cold dishes such as sashimi as appetizers. After all, appetizers are meant to be small in portion and not filling. Sashimi is a dish that perfectly fits this requirement. Does this explanation make sense?
Sawayama Haruno was amused by his own thoughts.
He shook his head and casually asked Ezaki Suguha beside him, "What's going on upstairs? Why are they taking so long to come down?"
"It seems like they are playing Monopoly. When I came out of the shower, I saw them still playing together." Ezaki Naoha said without raising his head.
"Playing games again??"
Sawayama Haruno paused for a moment, and immediately had a bad feeling in his heart.
Could it be that it is Miyazawa Maki or Ayano Yui who are taking the lead in playing games again? I always feel that every time they encourage others to play games, nothing good happens.
The thing that impressed me the most was that I asked Suguha Ezaki to run to the convenience store downstairs and buy a bunch of "balloons".
The other few times are memories that I am too embarrassed to talk about.
I don't know how they will bully Shiori. I hope Mana can help look after her after she takes a bath.
"Do not worry."
Suguha Ezaki paused in the process of cutting vegetables and a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Master should be fine. Although she was trapped unwillingly, she wanted me to take the opportunity to pull her out. But it seems that she has not suffered any embarrassing punishment yet, so I ignored her request."
"Are you really okay? Maki and Yui are here."
Sawayama Haruno touched his chin and suddenly became a little suspicious. It seemed that Suguha had experienced a similar incident, which was why her mentality changed so quickly. Could it be that this was the reason why she deliberately ignored Mine Shiori?
Thinking of this, he looked at Ezaki Suguha beside him and said half-warningly and half-jokingly: "Be careful that she will retaliate next time."
However, Ezaki Suguha didn't take it seriously at all, and even chuckled, as if she was doubting how Mine Shiori could really take revenge on her. It was she who let her go last time, otherwise, with Mine Shiori's personality, she would have fainted from shame.
Seeing that she did not deny it, Sawayama Haruno complained in his heart while turning his attention back to himself.
The bite-size dishes are ready, and the next step is the grilled dishes. Needless to say, these are the types that need to be grilled. Since we are not going to eat them today, we will leave them alone for now and jump directly to the boiled dishes and vinegar dishes.
Vinegar foods are the easiest to handle. They just need to be pickled with salt. Although the process will make your hands a little sore and the smell is very pungent, you don't need to keep handling it after it's done, so it's quite convenient.
The part that needs to be prepared when cooking is the fish. Clean the fish and empty its internal organs in advance. There is more than one fish because you will definitely have to make miso soup tomorrow. In order to enhance the flavor of the miso soup, it is best to fry the fish in advance.
Sawayama Haruno couldn't finish everything at once, but he could get the preparations done and try to serve dinner within an hour tomorrow night.
After all, there are eight people in the family now. If I really wait until tomorrow to cook, I don’t know how long I will finish.
"Almost done, the other plates will be placed like this for now."
Sawayama Haruno began to seal the prepared Osechi dishes one by one in plastic bags, and then decided to take them to the living room and put them away temporarily.
Since tonight's food is not finished yet, and it is impossible to put all of these dishes in the refrigerator, they can only be left outside temporarily and brought into the kitchen after dinner. Anyway, in the current weather, they will not be frozen even if they are left outside for a few days and nights.
Sawayama Haruno also brought in the half-kneaded buckwheat noodles by his mother. He thought the other party was too slow. This kind of thing depends on himself. With several skills given by the system, he can perfectly control the strength and efficiency and make the buckwheat noodles in the shortest time.
(End of this chapter)
