Chapter 1367 - 537: Dundun: I Did My Best! Going to the Market, Buying Firecrackers, Putting Up Spring Festival Couplets, the New Year Is Here!

Chapter 1367: Chapter 537: Dundun: I Did My Best! Going to the Market, Buying Firecrackers, Putting Up Spring Festival Couplets, the New Year Is Here!

For children, these are much more attractive than the opera on stage that they don’t understand. After eating sweet stuff, they try salty snacks, tasting various treats in turn.

At the time, I went to listen to the opera with my grandparents.

The elderly couple listened all morning, content to buy new year’s goods and return home, while Lin Xu ate until he was stuffed.

Now, Grandpa has passed away, and there’s no opera troupe in the village, never returning to the age when you’d eat hawthorn candy sticks and cotton candy, and grandparents would help lie to parents anymore.

Upon hearing Lin Xu agreed to go, Shen Jiayue immediately started planning cheerfully:

"Which car should we take?"

Which car?

Lin Xu glanced at the luxury cars parked at the gate, thinking that neither a Maserati nor a Land Rover Range Rover had the vibe of going to a rural market.

He glanced at Zhang Chunsheng’s electric tricycle, chuckled, and said:

"Let’s just take the electric tricycle. Chunsheng’s tricycle has room at the back for you to sit. I’ll give you a ride and we can experience retirement life a bit early."

"Sure, I haven’t sat on one yet. Just don’t go speeding and scare me later."

Chen Meijuan couldn’t help but remind upon hearing her son and daughter-in-law’s conversation:

"You need to dress warmly on the tricycle. Yueyue, remember to wrap your scarf and put on a hat. Xiao Xu, wear gloves, don’t catch a cold right during the holidays."

"Okay, Mom, we’ll dress warmly."

Hooray, we’re going to the market!

Cousin Shaokang mentioned lots of firecracker stalls at the market, we’ve got to pick out something nice.

Beijing hasn’t allowed firecrackers for many years; now there’s finally a chance to indulge in them.

Shen Jiayue thought gleefully, even planning to shoot a VLOG.

Since we’re celebrating the New Year back home, we’ve got to do it right. It’s a pity we don’t have a big floral jacket, otherwise, it would be even more down-to-earth.

After lunch, she bade farewell to many relatives, drove with Lin Xu back to their place to grab hats, scarves, gloves, and other cold-weather gear and returned to the farmhouse courtyard to ask Chunsheng for the car keys, and prepared to set off.

"Haha, feels so novel. Xu Bao, I’m seated and ready, you can drive..."

Lin Xu secured the sports camera on the handlebars, then put on his gloves, pulled on his down jacket hood, inserted the car key, and gently turned the throttle to move forward.

Leaving the scenic area gate, passing the ticket booth, and driving forward about a kilometer, a small fork appeared by the roadside. Turning in, and moving two more kilometers, they found the market.

In the past, rural markets were important venues for villages to purchase goods, covering clothing, food, housing, transportation, agriculture, and livestock sales.

But now, with village supermarkets and the prevalence of online shopping, rural markets have declined significantly.

They only scale up during holidays, usually sustained by small stalls and vendors maintaining these village customs.

This village’s market stretches along the road, lined with stalls on both sides, blocking the road completely.

Lin Xu parked the tricycle by the roadside at the village entrance, first locking the handlebars, pulling out the keys, then lifting the seat to fetch a U-lock from the toolbox to lock the wheel.

As he did this, Shen Jiayue had already secured the small sports camera to her down jacket’s zipper.

After locking the tricycle, the two walked towards the market.

There were many people at the village entrance, selling couplets, ring toss games, balloon blowing, electronic shooting games, and lots of other activities.

Shen Jiayue happily approached the ring toss stall, bought ten rings, and managed to hook a fluffy little panda.

The onlookers expressed regret, but the girl was elated:

"I hadn’t prepared a New Year’s gift for Dundun yet, so I’ll give it this little panda, it’s fluffy, it’s sure to like it."

How motherly, even remembering the child while playing ring toss.

Lin Xu sighed inwardly.

If only he had known she’d play ring toss, he would have brought Dundun—it would surely succeed in hooking anything with it around.

But recalling how his sister-in-law spent the entire afternoon playing claw machine, he began to feel it’s better not to bring Dundun, lest luck runs out from overuse.

It’s best to minimize using it when having fun.

"Play some more? How about trying for a Transformer with ten more rings?"

The stall owner eagerly advertised but was politely declined by Shen Jiayue:

"I’ve already gotten what I wanted; I’ll save play for next time."

After finishing, she wandered to the couplets stall:

"Xu Bao, do we need to buy any of these?"

"No, we’ve bought them all already. Tomorrow morning we have to drive back to the city and home to paste couplets. Such rituals can’t be missed."

"Great, I’m best at pasting couplets, my mom says my height’s just made for sticking couplets."

Our mom sure has her special way of giving compliments.

Lin Xu and Shen Jiayue continued to push through the crowd.

Soon, both were holding peeled sugar cane, eating while checking out the stalls.

"Wow, this sugar cane is so sweet. Glad I didn’t let the vendor press it into juice; sugar cane should be gnawed for fun."

Lin Xu spat out the sugar cane residue into the plastic bag he brought and chuckled:

"Going to the market doesn’t really pair with sugar cane, it should be hawthorn candy sticks. If I find some hawthorn candy sticks later, I’ll buy you one. Do you like yam or hawthorn ones?"

"I like both; whatever you buy, I’ll eat."

In this setting, it doesn’t matter what you eat, the key is strolling through this unfamiliar market with Xu Bao, this feeling is truly blissful.

If retired, leisurely riding an electric tricycle around the market like this would be pretty enjoyable.