New Year’s Eve is the day for Chinese people to stay up late, worship their ancestors, and eat a family reunion dinner. Liu Yu had asked Grandma Er, and there was no tradition of staying up late here; everyone simply ate their reunion dinner early and went back to their rooms to sleep.
However, staying up for New Year’s Eve is a sentiment deeply engraved in the bones of every Chinese person, so Liu Yu decided to follow the customs and habits of his past life.
As for ancestor worship, he took it even more seriously. The relatives close to the original owner had basically all passed away. Since he had taken over someone else’s body, he should also shoulder that person’s obligations.
He woke up a little past six in the morning, got up to prepare the dishes he would need to cook at noon in the kitchen, and then stepped out carrying a basket of ghost money, two bottles of white liquor, and a whole steamed chicken.
The graves of the original owner’s parents were located halfway up a mountain relatively close to the town. It was said that back then, the Liu family had hired a feng shui master to take a look, and he declared that this location was a place of auspicious feng shui that would bring prosperity to the family.
There were quite a few graves on this mountain, mostly belonging to nearby townspeople. When Liu Yu entered the mountain, he could already see people arriving one after another.
The snow piled heavily on the trees rustled down, catching him off guard and burying him in a shower of white.
He pulled the collar of his down jacket tight with both hands to prevent the snow from falling inside his clothes. Following his memories, he climbed up to the graves of the original owner’s parents.
The area in front of the graves was completely empty, and the graves themselves were overgrown with weeds, showing not the slightest trace of having been visited.
Liu Yu sighed. He knew that judging by the utter lack of conscience among those adults in the old Liu family, there was simply no point in expecting them to come and tidy up the graves on ordinary days.
Their stinginess was truly all-inclusive; they didn’t even care about the graves of their own biological sons and brothers on regular days. It was chillingly callous to an astonishing degree.
He exerted a great deal of effort to clear away the weeds from both grave mounds, placed the steamed chicken and white liquor in front of them, and began burning paper money.
As he burned it, he couldn’t help muttering: “Hello, aunt and uncle. I’ve been too busy to come visit you until now. If you can see, you should already know by now that I am not your biological son. My soul swapped with his, but you don’t need to worry. The place I lived in during my past life is very nice; it’s not like here where people go short of food and clothing. As long as people work hard, everyone can eat their fill, and your son is probably already as fat as a pig by now.”
At this point, he couldn’t help biting his lip, wanting to complain a bit more about that fellow who didn’t know how to exercise restraint when eating.
However, remembering that he was still standing in front of people’s parents’ graves, he clamped his mouth shut and dropped the subject.
He stood aside and watched until the paper money was completely burned before saying: “Alright, I’m heading out. From now on, barring any unexpected circumstances, I’ll come visit you on every major holiday and festival, and burn some money for you to spend. You spirits in heaven don’t need to bless me; just bless your son living in another world instead.”
A piece of charred paper ash was lifted by the cold wind, floating in the air for a moment before fluttering away toward the outer mountain forests.
Liu Yu patted his hands, picked up his basket, and walked back down the mountain without looking back.
Before he even reached the village entrance, he ran into the original owner’s eldest uncle and second uncle, Liu Yiquan and Liu Zhongquan. A string of children followed behind them, with Liu Gui among them, glaring at him with hostile eyes.
Liu Zhongquan wore an embarrassed expression and called out for him to come over to their house at noon to eat a reunion dinner with everyone.
Liu Yu returned a faint smile to him, bluntly stating that his own meals were already prepared, and declined the offer.
He had a decent impression of the original owner’s second uncle’s family. The second uncle was cowardly and timid by nature, following his parents’ lead in everything, and the second aunt was the same, but fundamentally neither of them were malicious people.
His cousin and two female cousins had decent personalities and treated him fairly well, never bullying him.
However, he really had no words for his eldest uncle’s family. You could only say that children turned out just like their parents. Liu Gui perfectly combined all of his parents’ character flaws—he loved taking advantage of others, had a violent temper, and was completely unreasonable.
When dealing with such a person, Liu Yu could make him furious simply by ignoring him entirely. This trick worked every single time; he didn’t even glance at this poorly raised spoiled brat the whole time, only nodding and smiling at the second uncle’s family before walking away.
“Wild kid! Completely unmannered!” Liu Gui said, his face turning livid as he stared at the retreating back.
Liu Mei and Liu Ju both furrowed their brows, looking as though they disapproved of their lawless little cousin’s remark, yet they found it hard to refute.
Liu Limin, however, didn’t indulge him at all, directly mocking: “You’re scolding way too early now. Why don’t you wait until we get up the mountain and curse in front of other people’s parents’ graves?”
As the eldest grandson of the family, although he wasn’t favored by his grandparents, he was one of the main laborers in the household, and nobody dared not take him seriously when he spoke on ordinary days.
At least someone like Liu Gui, who excelled at bullying the soft and fearing the hard while trimming sails with the wind, was terrified of him when his mother and grandparents weren’t around.
Hearing this, Liu Yiquan’s face immediately darkened, but knowing his own son spoke sharply and was in the wrong, he smoothed things over with a laugh: “He’s still young; children always talk like that without any sense of propriety. Besides, Heqing didn’t even say anything, so us family members shouldn’t quibble over these things.”
Liu Limin wasn’t afraid of his eldest uncle either, rolling his eyes unreservedly before shutting his mouth. Of course his cousin didn’t say anything—if he wanted to say something, he’d have to be able to hear it first! Slandering others behind their backs while thinking you’re in the right—no wonder Liu Gui had been raised to be hated by everyone and dogs alike.
The group walked up the mountain with mixed thoughts and a heavy, gloomy atmosphere.
Liu Yu had no idea that after he left, that group of Liu family members had started a dispute over him. Had he known, he definitely would have given his cousin’s sharp tongue a huge thumbs-up.
Back home, without resting for a single moment, he immediately set about cooking the dishes.
Even though he was eating alone, the proper rituals still had to be observed; eight dishes and one soup, without a single one missing, were laid out on the table.
The soup was old duck soup simmered ahead of time, with a generous amount of mushrooms and red dates added inside. The eight dishes featured both meat and vegetables, including both hot and cold dishes: dry-pot duck paws, oil-braised large prawns, braised pork belly, stir-fried pork with green peppers, braised crucian carp, braised chicken, pan-fried tofu, and salted duck braised with soybeans.
Liu Yu even scooped out some newly pickled vegetables from the crock to round out the number to ten, symbolizing that next year’s life would be ten-out-of-ten perfect.
Before starting the meal, according to custom, a string of firecrackers had to be set off in front of the door. Every household was rushing to do so, afraid that being late would get them laughed at by others.
Liu Yu lit the firecrackers, immediately covered his ears, and dashed back into the house. He had been left with psychological trauma back in his hometown during New Year when some mischievous kids exploded throw-petards near him, and unless absolutely necessary, he didn’t dare touch these high-power items at all.
Had it not been for New Year, Liu Yu would normally have been far too lazy to cook so many dishes for himself, but today he ate alone to his heart’s content.
During the meal, the original owner’s eldest cousin even came over to look for him once. Seeing that he was already eating and that his dishes looked noticeably richer than those at home, she didn’t have the face to voice the invitation asking him over to eat at her house.
Gazing at the table full of dishes that looked, smelled, and tasted amazing, she swallowed her saliva in secret shame, muttered a goodbye, and turned to leave.
“Cousin, wait!” Liu Yu called her back, turned and walked into the inner room, returning with a can of cookies he hadn’t grown used to eating and had left sitting around, along with two handfuls of nougat candy.
He spoke up: “Take these. Consider them the New Year gifts I’m giving you. Go back and share them with the other cousins, but do it quietly and don’t tell Liu Gui.”
Liu Mei held her hands out in mid-air, hesitating as she said: “This isn’t really good, is it? I can’t take your things.”
She hadn’t eaten candy in many years. Whenever there was good stuff at home, her grandparents would hide it away to feed little cousin slowly. Her older brother occasionally got a share when he spotted it, but when split among several younger sisters, there was barely enough to taste a hint of sweetness.
Now, with so much candy placed right in front of her, she felt a shameful, undeniable temptation. But she felt too embarrassed to take it, knowing her family had treated this cousin terribly, and she felt undeserving of the kindness.
Seeing through her thoughts, Liu Yu shoved the items straight into her hands and said: “These are things I don’t really care to eat anyway, so having you take them is perfect. Some things have nothing to do with you, and I don’t harbor resentment toward you either.”
Liu Mei asked cautiously: “Really?”
“Really. Cousin, hurry back and eat your meal!” Liu Yu urged with a helpless smile.
Only then did Liu Mei feel reassured as she headed out. When she reached the doorway, as if remembering something, she turned back with a troubled expression and said: “Oh right, there’s one more thing I want to tell you. This morning, the sacrificial offerings you brought for third uncle and third aunt were all taken away by second uncle and Liu Gui.”
Fearing he would misunderstand, she immediately explained: “We didn’t touch them; my brother even wanted to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen. The steamed chicken was eaten by Liu Gui on the way back, and the liquor was given to grandpa and grandma to hide away.”
Liu Yu: “…”
He had still underestimated their lack of a moral compass; they even swiped the sacrificial offerings meant for the deceased.
Looking utterly speechless to the extreme, he simply smiled and waved at Liu Mei to signal that he understood. Seeing this, Liu Mei said no more, tucked the items into her bosom, and left.
Fortunately, his time had been tight today, and he had postponed the task of visiting his maternal grandfather and uncle’s graves until the first day of the New Year. Otherwise, he had no doubt Liu Gui could have found out where their graves were and stolen all the offerings as well.
After the meal, he packed all the dishes back into the cupboard. He had cooked too much food in large portions, and one person simply couldn’t finish it; these dishes would basically be enough for the next two days.
Just as dinner time arrived, Grandma Er came over to bring him a basin of vegetable and meat meatballs. Liu Yu was deeply moved and, finding it impossible to refuse her kindness, insisted on returning a package of nougat candy, saying it was for Erni to try.
Shortly after, Liu Wenyu and his younger brother also came over carrying large porcelain basins respectively.
Liu Wenyu said: “These are meatball and braised tofu dishes made at our house. They probably aren’t as good as what you cook, but my parents wouldn’t believe it and insisted I bring some over for you to taste.”
Liu Yu was just fretting over having cooked too much food to finish; now, things were great—he’d have even more leftovers to struggle with.
“Thank you.” Although he didn’t need anyone to send him food, knowing someone could show him goodwill without asking for anything in return made him genuinely happy.
He pulled open the cupboard doors wide; the dishes inside were piled so high they could barely fit. In the end, he had to take out the pork skin jelly and duck paws he had made last night to barely squeeze them in.
Liu Wensheng cried out loudly: “Brother, I told you Heqing definitely ate alone at home at noon! Mom and dad refused to believe me and even scolded me. Look at all these dishes in the cabinet—they should believe me now!”
Liu Wenyu was also rather speechless toward that family and gave the boy a smack on the back of his head.
Liu Yu grew thoughtful. No wonder they all rushed over right around dinner time; it turned out they had all assumed he would go back to the Liu family for dinner.
Liu Wenyu and his brother left carrying the exact same porcelain basins they had brought.
Only this time, the food inside the basins had been replaced with the pork skin jelly and dry-pot duck paws that Liu Yu had packed for them.
To prevent the two of them from getting scolded by the village head when they got home, he bluntly stated that if they didn’t accept the dishes he made, he wouldn’t accept the food they sent over either.
“This pork skin jelly is so delicious!” Liu Wensheng said, licking his greasy fingers.
Liu Wenyu sneered: “Heh, I’ll just wait and see if you can manage to eat this entire half-basin before you even cross your front door.”
The two bickered all the way back home.