Rebirth 1980: Marrying my sister’s best friend at the beginning

Chapter 686 Celebrating New Year’s Eve!
The distance between Qingshan County and Ning City is not particularly far, only more than 70 kilometers.

Normally, it takes up to an hour and a half by car.

Of course, if you take a county bus, it will take two and a half hours. If it rains or snows, three or four hours is normal.

When the two arrived in Ning City, it was already eleven o'clock in the morning.

Since the train still had more than an hour to arrive at the station, Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang did not wait around, but drove to the city's shopping mall together.

When he was leaving, his mother asked him to buy some New Year pictures. He forgot to buy them when he went to buy New Year goods two days ago.

As the largest and most prosperous shopping mall in Ning City, the joint venture mall has naturally become Li Yi's goal.

Maybe it's because today is the New Year's Eve and everyone has already bought everything they should buy, so there are not as many people in the mall as expected.

Although there are quite a few, the scene of rubbing shoulders is quite different from what I imagined!
The two walked a few steps in the mall and soon found a stall selling New Year paintings.

The New Year pictures these days are all old-fashioned paper paintings. They change color after being posted in the house for a few months, and they are not easy to take care of.

Unlike the New Year paintings of later generations, if the paintings become dirty, you only need to simply wipe them with a damp cloth.

Moreover, the content of the New Year pictures is not the various kinds of fortune-seeking and rolling wealth that are common in later generations, but mainly portraits of great people and good fortune and longevity.

Li Yi knew his mother's preferences, so he immediately selected two busts of great men, and then selected several New Year picture dolls, which he thought should satisfy his mother.

However, when he was about to pay, he saw that there were window grilles for sale at this stall.

These window decorations include simple patterns such as flowers, birds, and characters, as well as complex and beautiful themes such as dragons and phoenixes, twelve zodiac signs, etc., and at first glance, they are cut out by ingenious women themselves, not machine-engraved.

Li Yi remembered that his mother was particularly fond of window grilles. He had asked his second sister to learn how to cut window grilles for a period of time with Qiu Shengniang in the village. As a result, the second sister could do anything, but she was not good at this.

After learning for a long time, I can also cut a happy character.

When my mother saw this, she finally gave up.

Now that he encountered window grilles, Li Yi picked a few with good meanings and planned to buy them back to make his mother happy.

After shopping, the two returned to the station, and it was almost twelve o'clock.

At the train station, after a long whistle, the train finally arrived, and Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang also arrived at the exit!

He didn't tell his little brothers beforehand that he would pick them up. If he didn't wait at the exit, he might miss picking them up.

Not long after they arrived at the exit, they saw a large group of passengers pouring out of the exit. Almost all of them were carrying large and small bags and were in a hurry.

After a while, Dongzi, Shitou, Qiangzi, Li Yeqiao, Liu San and others walked out of the station carrying suitcases, various packages, snakeskin bags, etc.

After Li Yi saw them, he immediately waved and said: "Dongzi, Qiangzi, here!"

When several little brothers saw Li Yi, they immediately ran over happily.

After a while of greetings, Li Yi asked everyone to get in the car, and then took them back to Qingshan County
New Year's Eve!
The red lanterns have been hung up in the Li family's yard, the festive couplets have been posted, and the "fire" has been set up, just waiting for the cannons to celebrate the New Year.

In the house, a large family was watching the Spring Festival Gala while cooking New Year's Eve dinner.

That’s right, it’s the Spring Festival Gala!
Many people think that the Spring Festival Gala started from the Spring Festival of 83, but this is not the case.

As early as the New Year's Eve of 79, CCTV began to hold a "New Year's Gala", which used teahouses and ballroom dances. On this Spring Festival Gala, a "Toast Song" was sung all over the country and has remained popular for a long time!

It's just that the Spring Festival Gala before 83 was not live broadcast, and it did not have as luxurious a host lineup as it did later. It was all recorded in advance and broadcast at the time.

In the kitchen, Li Yi put the stewed pig head and pork knuckles into a large aluminum basin to cool down. He would peel the meat off after a while, otherwise it would be difficult to peel it when it cools.

Today, he has completely transformed into a super chef. After returning from the city, he got into the kitchen and started cooking fish and stewing meat. He was responsible for all the hard dishes with some "technical content".

There is no way, who among the whole family has the best cooking skills!As for others, they are not idle either, they also have a task - making dumplings!

There are many people in the family this year. In addition to Li Yi and his family, there are four more people: Zhang Ziqiang, Yang Zhiwen, Zhang Feng, and Yang Miao. Plus the eldest sister and little Ruirui, there are a total of 12 people, big and small.

With so many people, cooking every day is a big project, so Li Yi suggested making more dumplings today. If you don’t want to cook in the next few days, just cook dumplings to eat!
Naturally, my parents, Jiang Xue and others had no objection to this.

Anyway, living conditions are better now. There is no shortage of pork, cabbage, or flour at home, so it’s okay to have more buns.

So starting from three o'clock in the afternoon, almost all members of the Li family started making dumplings.

After each cage is wrapped, it is immediately taken outside to freeze. After freezing, it is put into a snakeskin bag and placed in the cold room.

At eight o'clock in the evening, as the last dish was cooked, the Li family's New Year's Eve dinner also began.

This year’s New Year’s Eve dinner is particularly sumptuous. In addition to the staple food of dumplings, the other dishes are all hard dishes, including braised pork, grilled pork strips, braised elbow, braised rabbit, pheasant stewed with mushrooms, braised lamb, shredded lamb tripe, and braised pork. Fried tofu, stir-fried soybean sprouts with meat and more!

In addition, Li Yi also prepared a lot of drinks today, including tables, red wine, and local soda and champagne.

Festivals, food, and wine!
When these elements are all brought together, the main theme is a lively one!
The only thing that was almost funny was that Li Yi didn't drink because he had to wait to drink with his little brothers to spend the New Year together.

There is no way, he knows how much he can drink. If he raises a toast today, then there will be nothing wrong with him during the Chinese New Year.

Therefore, he was very determined not to drink alcohol today!

This New Year's Eve dinner took almost two hours for everyone to finish.

After cleaning up the dining area, it was already past ten o'clock.

Then everyone went back to their houses and prepared to change into new clothes.

This is also a local custom. Whether adults or children, they generally don't wear new clothes before the New Year's Eve dinner.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, I started to change into new clothes.

Then at twelve o'clock, the cannons will start to "receive the gods". This is the real New Year!

On the Kang in the main room, Li Yi was playing with Yun Rui and Yun Jin. The two children were surrounding Li Yi, walking and crawling for a while, mainly focusing on being casual.

Li Yi stared at the two of them closely, fearing that they would bump into each other. That was called caution.

Jiang Xue, on the other hand, was standing on the ground, sorting out the new clothes for a family of four.

When she saw that the buttons on Yun Rui's clothes were a little loose, she immediately found needle and thread and immediately tightened them. The atmosphere in the room was warm and happy.

At 11:30, firecrackers began to sound outside one after another, and the "bang bang" sound was heard endlessly.

Li Yi knew that he was about to start "receiving the gods", so he and Jiang Xue immediately dressed Yun Rui and Yun Jin in new clothes.

Then the two of them got dressed and came outside the house!

In the yard, my parents, eldest sister, Zhang Ziqiang, Zhang Feng and others also came out. While everyone was chatting, they watched the "Er Kicks" and "Sky Monkey" that rose into the sky and exploded from time to time.

At [-]:[-], my father saw that it was almost time and asked Li Yi to prepare immediately!
Then Li Yi handed the Yun brocade in his arms to his mother, and he came to the center of the yard and lit the "vigorous fire".

In an instant, the pile of firewood burst into flames, and the huge flames illuminated the entire yard.

Then, several men in the family moved out all the firecrackers and fireworks that had been prepared before, and then began to set off.

Soon, the fireworks took off amidst the sound of firecrackers, and then temporarily released brilliant colors.
PS: "Receive God" and "Wang Huo" are local New Year customs. The gods of wealth and joy are received by "Wang Huo". "Wang Huo" means that the coming year will be prosperous and everything will be prosperous!

(End of this chapter)