Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 225 Chinese New Year
After Wang Zhou finished signing, Lin Heng collected the note and drove to the credit union.

When he came down today, he had planned to open another account specifically to store the money from the purchasing station and the canteen.

He made a lot of money this year, and mixed with the money he earned, he forgot where he spent it.

After opening the account, Lin Heng deposited the money into the passbook.

Turning around and walking back, the market on the street has come to an end now, everyone has finished leaving, and the stall owners have begun to pack up and prepare to go home for the New Year.

Lin Heng walked around to see if there was anything he could miss. Generally, prices would be much cheaper at this time.

But along the way, I didn’t see anything I particularly wanted to buy.

"Boss, do you want to buy a donkey head and donkey skin? I will sell it to you at a cheaper price later."

As he drove to the middle of the bridge, an uncle shouted to him.

Lin Heng was looking at the other side, but when he heard the sound, he turned around and saw that the uncle had spread a tarp on the ground to sell donkey meat. There were still donkey heads, tails, half a donkey skin, and some bones left on the stall. and some meat.

Xiulan first talked about the bones that Lin Heng was carrying, and then placed the gifts she brought on the table: "These are the clothes that Lin Heng and I bought for you when we went down to the city before. My parents and Caiyun girls each have one set. ”

After thinking about it, Lin Heng bought them all. The total sum of these things was not very expensive.

After loading, Lin Heng gave the money, went back and gave the three ribs to Uncle Gao, and then sent Wang Zhou home.

Lin Heng nodded: "Okay, let's go together, and forget about the gifts we bought for them before."

His home is not in the direction of Hongfeng Village, but it is not far away and only takes half an hour to go back and forth.

The uncle quickly agreed, picked up a snakeskin bag and started loading Lin Heng's things.

The donkey meat was picked up and stored in the 'refrigerator' made by Lin Heng. The bones were naturally used to stew soup, but there were just a little too many.

Realizing that Lin Heng seemed to be interested in buying it, the uncle with his nose hair growing out quickly said: "This is my donkey. The day before yesterday, the donkey fell down the mountain and broke his leg, so I had to kill it and sell it for meat."

Lin Heng went to the store to get the donkey heads and other things he bought, and also took back all the unsold fireworks in the store.

"Not much, just thirty."

Father Lin and Mother Lin were speechless when they heard this and wanted to beat up such a big boy like Lin Heng.

Father Lin also said: "That's right, we don't go to town a few times a year, why do we need so many clothes?"

"Donkey heads, donkey skins, donkey bones, and unsold fireworks from the store." Lin Heng laughed and said, "The donkey skins are made into donkey glue and are good for people."

Xiulan saw that Lin Heng had a big snakeskin bag in the car when he came back. She tilted her head and said, "What did you buy again?"

Xiulan originally thought like this, carrying the things into the house to marinate them.

Xiulan walked over, looked at the things, and asked, "Did it cost a lot of money?"

Lin Heng stopped the car, walked over, took a look, and asked, "How much does the rest cost?"

Lin Heng used boiling water to scald the donkey skin. After scalding, he used a steel-making dagger to shave off the hair and fat. Naturally, these two things cannot be used to make donkey glue.

"Take out three of the ribs and put them separately." Lin Heng thought for a while and said.

"That's okay. I'll get the tools to help with it."

He didn't have any doubts about the donkey he raised, but he was worried that it was a sick donkey. After looking at the eyes and mouth, he felt that it shouldn't be the case.

On the way back after seeing off the people, Lin Heng saw that all the vendors on the streets of Huangtan Town were gone and all the shops were closed.

When the uncle heard this, he immediately beamed with joy: "It's thirty for the whole package. Even though I have a lot of bones, I weigh nearly a hundred pounds."

Mother Lin looked at the clothes and shook her head: "You kid, why are you buying clothes again? Lin Heng spends money indiscriminately and you spend money indiscriminately."

The two carried their things and went to the old house where their parents lived first. The second elder couldn't help but be curious when he saw the two carrying so many things.

In addition to being clean, the donkey skin still weighed ten pounds. Lin Heng broke it into pieces, put it in a pot, added high-strength white wine and started to simmer it over low heat.

"Okay, you are such a generous boss."

Xiulan went into the house and got the tools. The two of them first burned the head and tail of the donkey to remove the hair. It took an hour and a half just to clean them.

The donkey meat was very clean. Except for the head, there were still spine bones and ribs. The four leg bones were gone. Adding the tail and the piece of donkey skin, the remaining ten kilograms of donkey meat was almost a hundred kilograms. .

"I want to say it too." Xiulan turned around and went into the house to get things. She bought clothes for her parents Caiyun, and her eldest brother bought some food and clothes for the children.

It was already three o'clock in the afternoon when we got home, and every house on the road was cleaning.

In fact, he mainly wanted to buy donkey skin to make some donkey glue for Xiulan. Since it was not expensive, he bought it for one piece. Thirty cents per pound was not expensive at all.

"Okay, I bought it."

"What are you doing?" Father Lin asked helplessly.

Finally, Lin Heng split the donkey's head into two halves, handed it to Xiulan and said, "We just have some marinade. Let's marinate the head and tail of this donkey."

"Okay." The uncle agreed quickly.

"Lin Heng bought these donkey bones today. I couldn't finish eating and got some for you."

Xiulan looked at the bones and said, "You can take some of those bones to your parents and eldest brother. We can't finish them all. My eldest brother and his friends brought some for us when they were making rice cakes in the afternoon."

Lin Heng was too lazy to say more. He spread his hands and said: "Wear them, what else can you do? I bought them all, can you burn them?"

But in this day and age, no one is interested in bones at all, and this thing cannot be sold.

"There's only the last bit left. If you want it, I'll sell it to you cheaply. They say dragon meat is in the sky and donkey meat is on the ground. This is a good thing." The uncle kept selling.

Xiulan was more gentle: "Lin Heng is rich. If you have clothes, you don't have to wear patched clothes all the time."

These two old men were so thrifty that they continued to wear their clothes and trousers with seven or eight patches in them, even though they obviously had new clothes.

Seeing that his parents still wanted to nag, Lin Heng took Xiulan Xiaoxia and ran away. Only Caiyun said a word of thanks from behind, and he didn't dare to interrupt just now.

After taking it to his father, he took it to his eldest brother. Sister-in-law Liu Juan watched Xiulan bring things and felt a little restless. She pulled Xiulan and said various words of thanks.

She used to have strong opinions on Xiulan. Although she didn't go to pieces, she always liked to make sarcastic comments. But now that Xiulan was rich, she never ridiculed or ridiculed her. She even bought things for her children, which made her blush.

Lin Yue didn't know what to say. He just patted Lin Heng's shoulder and said thank you heavily. There was no need for too many words between the two brothers.

The two of them were about to leave after delivering the things, but Liu Juan insisted on keeping them to eat, even if they were braised meat at home.

In the end, the two of them could only agree to have a meal in the evening, where Xiaoxia played with Lin Wei, Lin Tao and the others. Lin Heng went back from time to time to add fuel to the fire and stir the donkey skin to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.

After dinner, the donkey skin had completely melted when we returned home, but there was still a long time before it could be boiled into donkey hide gelatin.

Lin Heng took out the clay pot stove for making tea, lit the charcoal and slowly cooked the rest in the small iron pot he used to cook on the mountain.

At night he got up and added charcoal twice.

On the morning of the 31st day of the twelfth lunar month, when Lin Heng got up, the donkey-hide gelatin had reached the final stage. Now he just poured out the black juice in the pot.

Lin Heng first poured out half of the donkey-hide gelatin and let it cool naturally. Then he added rock sugar, black sesame seeds, raisins, chopped red dates, and walnuts to the remaining half and stirred it evenly to make donkey-hide gelatin cake.

After letting it cool down, Lin Heng weighed it and found that the pure donkey-hide gelatin weighed one pound and two taels, while the donkey-hide gelatin cake weighed five kilograms. "Try one."

Lin Heng handed Xiulan Xiaoxia a piece of donkey-hide gelatin cake each. He didn't feel tired making this kind of thing, but found it very interesting. He felt that this was one of the joys of life.

"It's delicious!" Xiulan nodded affirmatively and reached out to feed Lin Heng a mouthful.

"Sweet~" Xiaoxia's eyes also curved into small crescents.

Lin Heng had a smile on his face. This was what he wanted to hear. He nodded and said, "As long as it's delicious, don't take it out for the New Year."

"Of course, it's mine."

Xiulan nodded, first found a plastic bag to pack the donkey-hide gelatin and donkey-hide gelatin cake, then put it into a wooden box and put it in the cabinet.

After finishing it, Xiulan said: "Let's go and see how the donkey head is braised."

The three of them went to the kitchen together. The fire in the stew pot was naturally out, but the donkey head and tail that had been soaked in the stew all night were very fragrant.

After taking it out, a strong aroma of marinated meat comes out, and the bright red color is also very attractive.

"It's completely rotten."

Xiulan was good at separating the bones and flesh with a gentle tear. She put it in the pot and tore a large piece for Lin Heng.

The donkey skin is springy, and the donkey meat is delicate and soft, full of the aroma of braised meat. After careful reflection, there is a scent of donkey meat itself. Lin Heng can only say that it is worthy of being called dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat on the earth.

"Bring some to your parents for lunch later." Lin Heng said with a thumbs up.

"it is good."

Xiulan nodded, then she tore some more, and each of the three of them ate some, then mixed some paste and started pasting the couplets on the door.

Xiaoxia pulled the dog and asked curiously: "What are you doing?"

"This is Chinese New Year."

Xiulan answered her while posting couplets with Lin Heng.

After putting up the couplets, door paintings, and upside-down blessing characters, Lin Heng finally hung up the red lantern, and he suddenly felt joyful.

Xiaoxia looked at it curiously, and then entered the house with Lin Heng. The door of the house was also pasted with couplets, and each small door had a blessing character.

"It looks much more festive now."

Lin Heng nodded with satisfaction.

Xiulan also prepared things and said with a smile: "Let's go to my parents' place."

Xiaoxia insisted on dragging her little Laifu along with her. When they passed by, everyone from her eldest brother's family had already arrived.

Lin Heng took some firecrackers for Xiaoxia and others to play with.

"Thank you, Second Dad!"

Lin Wei and the others were so excited when they got the cannon that they started to blow up a rotten foreign porcelain bowl in the yard, and they also blew up piles of soil and cow dung outside.

"Dad, let go!"

Xiaoxia doesn't dare to set off cannons, but she likes to hear the noise, especially the fried foreign porcelain bowls.

Lin Heng was also bored and accompanied her to fire off the cannons. When the cannons went off, she giggled, but let her retract again and again.

The most pitiable thing was Laifu who was following her and was frightened by the firecrackers.

The adults played cards for two days, and the children played with cannons. This was the Chinese New Year, and it was very joyful.

"The reunion dinner is ready and the dishes are served!"

Following Mother Lin's shout, everyone stood up to serve the dishes. This year's 12th noon reunion dinner was far better than before. There were dishes served at the beginning, followed by several more dishes including pork legs, steamed meat, fish, chicken, etc. No food was served.

The children had already finished cooking and were drooling looking at the dishes on the table, waiting for the adults to give the order to start.

Lin Heng felt a little emotional. When he was a child, he looked forward to the Chinese New Year because there was delicious food during this time, and he could play with his friends as much as he wanted. Even if he got into trouble, his parents would not beat him or scold him during this time.

In my memory, it is the most anticipated and wonderful time of the year.

When I grow up, I also look forward to the Chinese New Year, but it is no longer for food and fun, but only at this time when I can get together with my family and friends. Normally, because of my busy schedule, I always spend less time together and more time away.

Father Lin lit the firecrackers, ran in with a smile, and the reunion dinner started amidst the sound of firecrackers.

"Eat, drink!"

The adults raised their drinks, the children raised their drinks, and everyone celebrated happily.

The child picks up big chunks of what he likes to eat and puts them into his mouth. Whenever this happens, his parents will nag him to pay attention to etiquette, such as not lying on the table, not eating all the time, not always holding chopsticks in his hand, etc.

But everyone was very happy today, and no one said anything about the child eating all the time. Mother Lin always likes to bring some food to everyone, while Xiulan and Liu Juan always bring food to their parents.

Lin Hengze ate, drank, and chatted casually.

His mother's cooking skills have improved, and the dishes on this table are pretty good. Lin Heng's favorites are fried dumplings, braised pork legs and donkey heads.

After a while, Lin's father got drunk, patted Lin Heng's shoulder and said: "Thanks to you this year, our family has become my pride. Now I have a lot of face in the village, and I have lived a lifetime." Finally feel proud."

"Dad, let's have a drink."

Lin Heng smiled and poured a glass for his father. Being his father's pride was one of his dreams when he was a child. However, dreams will always fade when he grows up. The world is difficult and it would be good to be able to support himself, let alone becoming the pride of his parents.

In his previous life, his nearly fifty-year-old father was forced to dig coal to help pay off debts because of debts. Those things made him feel guilty and regretful day and night.

In this life, he finally became the pride of his father through hard work. After a sip of wine, the strong alcohol made his whole stomach burn, but Lin Heng felt that his heart was burning even more at this moment.

After having a drink with Lin Heng, Lin's father had another drink with Lin Yue, talking about what was in his heart.

Both brothers Lin Heng thought their father was drunk, but he said he was not.

"Actually, it doesn't need to be said so much. We are all a family. If we work together and work together, we will definitely make our life better and better."

Lin Heng said with a smile that he felt a little tipsy too.

"Brother, you are right, let's put our efforts in one place."

Lin Yue nodded and drank the wine in one gulp.

After this little wine was finished, everyone stopped drinking. After eating the dishes for a while, they started to eat.

We also eat dumplings at noon on New Year’s Eve. The dumplings stuffed with pork and green onions made by Mother Lin are very popular, and everyone eats a big bowl.

"Come on, let's set off cannons!"

After eating, everyone was shouting.

There are not so many reasons in life, just be happy.

(End of this chapter)