Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, eat meatballs wrapped in rice wine.

Two days passed in a blink of an eye, and finally it was the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month.

As the New Year approaches, the sound of firecrackers becomes more and more frequent every day, and the greater the density, the louder the sound.

A few days ago, at least I could rest in the second half of the night.

After the 28th, the sound of firecrackers never stops almost 24 hours a day, making it impossible for people to sleep well.

And the day of the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month is even more outrageous.

The crackling sound of firecrackers turned into thunder that resounded through heaven and earth. When a firecracker exploded, almost half of the village was shaking.

But people won't say anything. Even if they are woken up or frightened, they will only sigh that the sound of the firecrackers is so loud and they wonder how thick the firecrackers are.

It was a little after four in the morning. Yu Qiutang was still with his eyes open, looking at the dark ceiling, when he heard the door opening. He drew aside the curtains and saw that it was his eldest sister who had gotten up.

Except for Yu Qiushi, almost all the children in the Yu family are not lazy.

But Yu Chunxing was the most hardworking among them.

She possesses the excellent qualities of rural women that have been passed down for thousands of years. She is almost like an old ox that works hard and never complains. She will never stop without any reminder.

Look, she got up and started sweeping the snow while it was still dark.

When Yu Qiutang heard the "rustling" sound, he couldn't lie on the kang anymore, so he got up and went out.

Starting from the late night, it started to snow lightly. This is the weather here. It snows on New Year's Eve almost every year, without exception.

"Woke up."

Yu Chunxing saw Yu Qiutang coming out and smiled.

In the past, Yu Chunxing would definitely say, why get up so early, it's still early, go back and lie down for a while.

But today is the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Today people should get up as early as possible, preferably after midnight.

In fact, in the early years, when there were many children in the family, many families would get up in the middle of the night and start busying themselves.

Because according to the rules, on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, we have to eat spicy red noodles. The spicy red noodles need to be rolled out little by little. If there are seven or eight people in the family, it will take several hours to prepare.

Yu Qiutang rubbed his eyes and stepped forward to ask him to sweep it, but Yu Chunxing didn't give it to him, "No, I'll do it. You have a lot of things to do today."

Yu Qiutang couldn't grab the broom, so he had to wash his face and brush his teeth. Within a few minutes of brushing his teeth, the doors were opened one by one, and everyone came out yawning.

"Look how early uncle gets up."

Yu Chunmei said to Xiaodong who had tears in his eyes.

Xiaodong held his mouth and was about to burst into tears. The adults' rule was to get up early today, which was a good omen for the new year, but the children felt that being woken up from their sleep was a huge injustice.

But children's sadness and happiness are always short-lived.

Soon, Xiaodong and Dadong were both attracted by Xiaowei's firecrackers and completely forgot about going back to sleep.

Xiaowei also likes his two little cousins ​​very much and protects them very patiently while they play.

Xiaoyun and Chunju followed Yu Qiutang to make lanterns.

During the Chinese New Year in Rongcheng, it is a must to hang new lanterns, which are commonly known as "hanging sky lanterns".

In the early years, every household would erect a tall lantern pole in their yard. The short ones were at least seven or eight meters high, and the tall ones were even more than ten meters high.

Sort of like a TV mast.

A pulley will be left on the top of the tower, with a lead wire hanging down. Lanterns will be hung up on New Year's Eve every year, and taken down after the twenty-third day of the first lunar month.

Later, as people gradually got televisions and needed to receive signals, they combined antennas and lanterns together, and the pole's function became more diverse.

Later, steel telephone poles began to appear. Those who made the telephone poles also fully considered the needs of the people and directly reserved lantern hooks on the poles, completely solving the problem.

Lanterns are hung on the 30th of every year. When it gets dark, when you walk out of the village, you can see red lanterns all over the mountains. It is very spectacular, just like stars.

Lanterns are used to light the way home for the deceased, and they express people’s longing for the deceased, hoping that they know that even after death, they still live in the hearts of future generations.

Unlike later generations who bought ready-made lanterns and could just pull out the frames and hang them up, at this time the lanterns had to be pasted with strips of red paper.

Commonly known as "pasted lanterns".

Every household has a lantern stand, which is naturally not used on weekdays. On the morning of the day after the Chinese New Year, the stand will be taken out, dusted off, and then red paper will be cut into strips and glued to the stand with glue.

This job naturally requires carefulness.

There's no need to rush.

If you are not careful, it will rot and all your efforts will be wasted.

But on the 30th, women are usually busy cooking and have no time to do this kind of thing, so it has to be done by men.

But most men in the Northwest are of a rough type. If you ask them to use brute force, one can do the work of two people, but if you ask them to do this kind of dexterous work, it is really difficult for them.

Unfortunately, this only happens once a year, and practice makes perfect.

Before the family was divided, this kind of thing was of course done by my father Yu Dejin. He was a professional carpenter, so doing this kind of thing was a piece of cake for him.

Now that the family is separated, we need to do it ourselves.

Yu Qiutang was well prepared.

Fortunately, he is also a half-craftsman and his hands-on ability is not too weak. With the help of his cousin and niece, the lantern will be ready in less than two hours.

But then, he suddenly remembered that their new yard had just been built and the lantern pole had not been erected yet, so he went out to cut a locust tree.

It was already past ten o'clock in the morning when the holes were dug, the poles were planted, and the two lanterns were hung up.

The snow seemed to be getting heavier.

But it did not affect the atmosphere of the New Year at all. The sound of firecrackers in the village continued, and the atmosphere was still lively.

"Tangtang, go call your brother Jiang back to wash up and have dinner."

The eldest sister lifted the kitchen door curtain and shouted.

Yu Qiutang agreed and went to find Yu Qiujiang.

Yu Qiujiang now lives in the new courtyard, but some of his old things still need to be kept in the old place. It is not convenient to move everything into the new courtyard, so he is often busy here.

When Yu Qiutang came over, he found Yu Qiujiang standing at the door of the blacksmith shop, staring in a daze towards the direction of the village. He was so engrossed that he almost walked up to him before Yu Qiujiang noticed him.

"Brother Jiang, the eldest sister wants us to eat noodles. Spicy red noodles, which you like very much."

Yu Qiujiang smiled.

But he did not leave immediately.

Yu Qiutang called out a few more times before he came back with a smile.

"What were you looking at just now?" Yu Qiutang asked.

Yu Qiujiang shook his head, "Nothing."

"Really?"

"It's nothing." Seeing that Yu Qiutang still didn't believe him, Yu Qiujiang had to explain, "I just think this is pretty good. It would be great if we could have this kind of mood every New Year."

Yu Qiutang was startled, then smiled.

"Yes, things will get better slowly."

"hope so."

In the main room, everyone sat at the dining table and ate noodles.

This table is more than two meters long and is very large. It is a super dining table specially built by Yu Dejin for a group of people here.

The wood is a rare lacquered wood. It doesn't need to be painted, but the surface is very smooth, which is a very good piece of furniture.

The men and children were at the table, while the third and eldest sisters were still busy in the kitchen.

This kind of rolled noodles is put into the pot one handful at a time, and only three bowls can be scooped out each time, so not everyone can sit down and eat together.

As long as you roll out long noodles, it will basically be hard work for the hostess of the house.

While everyone else is sitting at the table to eat, they have to keep going down the drain and getting noodles. If everyone else is sitting at the table, then no one will go down the drain.

This doesn't involve too much about the status of men and women. It's mainly because men of this era are often the backbone of the family and need to put in a lot of effort. They really don't have the energy to do these things every day.

Of course, men have had a hard time in any era.

Just like in any era, being a good wife and mother also has a hard life.

Sometimes a family is like a building block. In order to make it solid, both men and women must support it with all their strength. If one of them is missing, no matter how hard the other blocks work, the building block will not be stable.

"Big sister, you and third sister can eat too. I've almost finished eating."

Seeing his elder sister bringing over three bowls of rice again, Yu Qiutang hurriedly drank up the soup in the bowl.

"No, you guys hurry up and eat, we're not in a hurry, there's no time to eat."

The eldest sister said so, but usually, by the time everyone has finished eating, there are often only some crumbs left, or even no crumbs at all.

What's worse, the soup was also finished.

The cook couldn't eat any noodles and had to eat steamed buns.

Therefore, the virtuous women of this era seem to have had their selfishness removed.

It seems that their only mission in the world is to take care of others.

Parents-in-law, husband, children, grandchildren...

She is very nice to everyone around her, but she never thinks about fighting for her own interests.

Yu Qiutang followed the eldest sister to the kitchen and helped her light the fire, letting the third sister go to eat first. Xiaowei and Xiaoyun, who were not very sensible, also came and replaced the eldest sister.

But soon, Yu Qiutang himself was pushed away by Xiaoyun and Xiaowei, who said that it was just a meal and they could do it together.

Only then did Yu Qiutang realize that after this year, they would both be one year older, and even Xiaoyun would be 10 years old.

By this calculation, he hasn't seen his brother Chunsheng for ten years.

The thought that my brother might be somewhere and unable to come back for the time being, and that one day he would suddenly return home in glory, dimmed again.

Brother, it’s really gone.

Yu Qiutang felt that this was a kind of obsession.

Although his brother had been good to him before, he himself admitted that it was vague as to how much he loved his brother. Even if he had loved him very much, it had faded after decades of wasting time.

And his feelings for his brother are more like an obsession.

The obsession with my brother's return has surpassed the fact of his return.

After dinner, the women cleaned up the kitchen and prepared meals for the afternoon and evening, while the children set off firecrackers in the yard and had a lot of fun.

Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang began to compose couplets.

On the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, there are a lot of things to do, and the adults must complete them one by one in a hurry. Otherwise, if they miss the time, it will be unlucky and will affect their fortunes in the coming year.

On the 27th, when going to the market, Yu Qiutang bought a brush, ink and red paper in preparation for writing couplets.

But when he took it out today, Yu Qiujiang was stunned and looked at him with a wry smile.

He immediately realized that he was confused.

My fourth uncle had just passed away, and relatives were not allowed to post red couplets. They had to change them to yellow or green.

There was no choice but to run to the small shop in the village to ask. Fortunately, there was red paper, so I didn't make a fool of myself.

When preparing the ink, the elder sisters were very surprised and wondered when Yu Qiutang learned how to write calligraphy.

The main reason is that Yu Qiutang didn’t read a lot, and no one has seen him write before.

But in fact, when Yu Qiutang was old in his previous life, he would practice calligraphy every day when he had nothing to do. As he practiced, he gradually became able to write.

It’s not that he has any superb artistic attainments, but he has no problem dealing with the couplets in the village.

You have to know that in that era, many people in the village couldn’t even read, let alone write couplets, and they had to beg others to write for them.

Yu Qiutang's calligraphy is really something that can be shown off.

But if compared with the old people in the village, there is a big gap.

People in the past had no problem with their calligraphy, regardless of how much knowledge they had. As for Yu Qiutang himself, his calligraphy with a pen could not catch up with his father's.

When the ink was being prepared, Yu Qiujiang said that writing on green paper with ink did not look good. He then remembered that he still had some gold powder left from before, so he took it and asked Yu Qiutang to mix it with the ink.

Of course, gold powder is not real gold powder, it is actually copper powder.

It is also a common usage in writing couplets.

The golden words you can see on the market today are written with gold powder mixed in.

"The flying snow sends spring away..."

"The sound of firecrackers bids farewell to the old year..."

"Good news upon opening the door!"

"A good harvest!"

Every time Yu Qiutang finished writing on one side, Yu Qiujiang would press it down with something he was using next to it, letting it dry naturally.

There are too many rooms in the house, and a lot of couplets are needed, including those for the front door, stove, granary, warehouse, trees, etc., which adds up to more than twenty pairs.

Yu Qiutang lay at the table and wrote for more than an hour. When he finished, his waist ached so much that he could hardly stand up.

"Let me rest for a while, we'll go post it later."】

Yu Qiutang collapsed on the sofa.

It doesn't take too much effort to write, but lying down like this is really tiring.

Yu Qiujiang said with a smile: "You take a rest, I'll call Xiaowei to go and paste it together."

Yu Qiutang said, "That's fine, let's let the boys experience it as well."

Yu Qiutang held a small stool and sat at the door of the main room, watching Yu Qiujiang and Xiaowei paste couplets, with the two boys Dadong and Xiaodong following closely behind.

Xiaoyun prepared the meal with Yu Chunxing, Yu Chunmei, Yu Chunju and other aunts.

Dinner is very important and cannot be prepared in a short time.

Couplets need to be glued to the edge of the door frame with paste made from flour.

The paste is made by putting some flour and water in a porcelain jar and mixing them together. Then put it on the fire on the stove and roast it, stirring it while roasting, and finally it will become a paste.

This also requires skill.

If you have no experience and the paste is not cooked through, it will not only be hard but also not stick together, so all your efforts will be in vain.

But this kind of thing is really difficult to make unless you are a woman with good needlework skills.

Only women who need to make a lot of soles every day and use paste to stick them together would do this. Yu Qiutang recalled that when they were in the troglodyte courtyard, his father would blame Chen Meidi for not being able to make a good paste in the past few years.

But later on he gradually stopped scolding.

Chen Meidi also learned how to make shoe soles. (End of this chapter)