The happiness of rebirth is knocking on the door

Chapter 21

In the year 1986, Li Xiaohong felt that it passed very quickly. Maybe a normal day should be like this. Behind the time, there was a person holding a whip and constantly urging it forward. Unknowingly, the Spring Festival of 1987 Coming soon.

On this day, Zhang Meiying still cooked the meal early, gathered all the things in the kitchen at home, and covered it with a piece of plastic film. It's 23, and it's the day to sacrifice the stove to the Stove Lord. Every household has to clean the room to prepare for the New Year, and eat stove candy and kang sesame cakes at noon.

From this day on, the sound of firecrackers began to sound intermittently in the village, which was played by naughty little boys.

An adult taught me a lesson: "Little bastard, be careful! Who dares to set me on fire and I will peel his skin!" But even if he put on a vicious look, he couldn't hide his anger. Full of joy.

The children were not afraid of the fierce yelling, and ran away smiling one by one.

After a busy day with my mother, the two finally finished cleaning the house. By the way, they replaced all the sheets and quilt covers with new ones, and washed out the original ones.

Although not the main force, Li Xiaohong was so tired that his back hurt.I thought to myself, luckily the well has been dug at home now, and the underground water is not cold for washing clothes. If I drink the water from the big well as before, it will be too painful to carry the water by myself.

"26, to cut the meat, 27, to kill the chicken, 28, to stick a picture, 29, to fill the wine, on New Year's Eve, eat flat food (dumplings)."

It is said that it is 26, to cut the flesh, but the Chinese New Year visits to relatives intermittently until around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.Afraid that I couldn't let it go, it was on the 29th that Li Xiaohong's family went to buy half a piece of pork.At thirty, no one slaughtered pigs anymore, and everyone cooked them at home and ate them.

"Mom, does our family need so much meat this year?"

Zhang Meiying smiled and tapped her on the head, "You child, why can't you remember when you're so smart? You can't talk too much about Chinese New Year, it's good to have enough every year."

Li Xiaohong remembers that when she was a child, her mother made a lot of dumplings every year. She chopped a basket of radishes and mixed some meat fillings.

At that time, there was no refrigerator, and the stuffing was sour at the end of the meal, and my mother was reluctant to throw it away. In addition, there were a lot of delicious food at home during the Chinese New Year, and the dumplings were rich in vegetables and meat, and my mother’s seasoning level was also average. In the end, eating sour dumplings was really a challenge Painful process.

This year, my mother bought so much meat, Li Xiaohong felt that she had to persuade her not to be like previous years.

Seeing her mother's ruddy face and satisfied expression, Li Xiaohong reached out and hugged her: "Mom, I will let you eat meat every day from now on."

"Where can I eat meat every day? Even your second uncle in the city can't afford it. Mom is very satisfied with this life."

"Does mom still believe me? From now on, I will let mom eat whatever she wants and wear whatever she wants."

Zhang Meiying obviously didn't take Li Xiaohong's words to heart, and only regarded it as a child's wish, but she didn't want to hurt her daughter, so she followed the words and said to her daughter, "Why don't you believe it? Then it's done, then I'll wait." Enjoy the blessing of my daughter."

"Then I'll make our dumpling stuffing this year, but you have to do the meat chopping, Mom."

"No problem." Li Xiaohong cooks the meals at home when the daily farm work is busy, and Zhang Meiying also feels that the meals she has cooked for more than ten years are not as good as those made by her daughter.No matter it's my daughter, even if she is smart, she is better than others in everything, even cooking is top notch.

But she didn't know that the current daughter was no longer that real child. She was well-informed, and she was naturally better at cooking than her from the era when she couldn't eat enough.

It's agreed, the two will divide the work, Zhang Meiying will pick the bones and chop the meat, and she will wash the radishes.

Push the washed radish into thin slices with a pusher for pushing sweet potato slices at home, then cut into shreds and put them in a large pot to cook.

"Mom, our family bought a lot of meat this year, let's put more meat in the stuffing."

"No problem." Zhang Meiying waved her hand and delegated all the authority to Li Jiahong.

In the end, Li Xiaohong used one-third of the cabbage, one-third of the radish and one-third of the meat in the stuffing.

In fact, to make meat stuffing, it is best to eat half the meat and half vegetables at home. If there is too much meat, it will not taste good if there are too many vegetables.Usually there is not such a large amount of oil and water, and Li Xiaohong was afraid that he would be hurt if he ate too much meat, so he only used one-third of the meat in the end.In this way, when marinating the meat, add an egg and stir well, and the meat and vegetables will be more sticky.After the stuffing is mixed, it smells fragrant.

Li Xiaolu stood aside, put his finger into his mouth and bit it, the water almost flowed down. "I want to eat!"

"Hey, you can't eat it raw, or you'll get a stomachache. You can only serve it to Lulu after it's made into dumplings and cooked."

"Mom eats, sister eats too."

"Okay, we all eat."

"My sister told you that you can't eat your fingers. If you let my sister see it, there will be no delicious food in the future."

Li Xiaolu quickly took out his fingers, hurriedly put both hands behind his back, and stared at his sister with big black eyes.It means that I haven't eaten my fingers, so please give me something delicious.

Seeing how well behaved Li Xiaolu was, Li Xiaohong couldn't help but kiss her fair and tender face.

"Hey, let's have an egg custard first."

Li Xiaolu has always loved to eat eggs, and when he heard his favorite egg custard, he swallowed, even Li Xiaohong heard her googling.

Children, it's better to eat more things that are easy to digest, and let her eat less dumplings at night.

Li Xiaolu obediently asked her sister to wash her hands, and then started eating with a small bowl.

Zhang Meiying watched her youngest daughter develop a habit of loving cleanliness under the supervision of her elder sister, and she couldn't help thinking, it seems that reading books is a good thing, otherwise, people in the village would say that they are not clean, and that they are not sick after eating, so who cares about paying back meals? Wash your hands before and after toileting.

But Honghong was right. Lulu was required to cut her nails and wash her hands frequently since she was a child, unlike her sister who had worms in her stomach when she was young, and she never heard her stomach hurt.

A family of three enjoyed themselves happily.

It's thirty today, and Li Xiaohong is busy when she hears the sound of "Ding Lingling".

"Your dad is finally back, let's go out!" Zhang Meiying said with a smile.

"Dad, Dad!" As soon as he heard that his father was back, Li Xiaolu ran out in a panic. He accidentally tripped himself, fell down and gnawed on the mud, and got up again, with mud on the corners of his mouth. I don't know, just run forward.

Both Zhang Meiying and Li Xiaohong laughed.

Outside the yard is really Li Zhijun.He pushed the bicycle with joy, which was the most commonly used permanent brand at that time, with a beam in the front and a rear seat in the back.Seeing the three mothers and daughters, they were all smiles.

My father originally had a dimple on the left side when he smiled. It seems that my dimple is inherited from my father.In Li Xiaohong's original impression, her father's face was full of wrinkles, and his face became stiff due to illness. He never knew that his father was like this when he was young.

At this time, I saw a large basket on each side of the back seat of the bicycle, full of things I don't know.

In front of the entrance to the courtyard is a small steep slope, which is formed by building the entire courtyard higher to prevent water accumulation.

The back seat of the bicycle is loaded with a lot of things, but the front is light. Zhang Meiying pulled the handlebars forward to prevent the front of the bicycle from tilting up when going uphill. The two sisters Li Xiaohong pushed behind, and the family happily entered the courtyard.

"Dad, what did you buy so much?"

"I bought a lot, and I will show you after unloading the things in the house."

Remove the threshold, the bicycle is directly pushed into the main room, and the goods are unloaded on the spot.

Li Xiaohong came over with a wet towel and wiped her sister's face and hands before letting her see what her father had brought.

After a while, the ground was full of things, including apples, snacks, steamed buns, dried noodles, melon seeds, sugar, and finally clothes.

Li Xiaolu looked here and there, and felt that he couldn't take care of his eyes. What should I do? I want everyone, but my mother must not agree, Li Xiaolu thought a little sadly.

"Why do you buy so many things? Can relatives run out?"

"Didn't we make money selling dried noodles this year? Of course we should buy more things to celebrate the New Year." Li Zhijun said vigorously.

Sure enough, a career is a man's second life, and a man with a successful career will be particularly energetic.

Zhang Meiying gave him a sharp look, "Then this is too much, right? Look at this dim sum, it weighs dozens of catties, and you can't use it up even if you visit relatives."

Li Zhijun picked up a snack, which was the kind of candy corner that is popular when visiting relatives.The outside is a layer of snow-white slightly hard shell, and the inside is a relatively thick liquid syrup, which flows out when you bite into it.

"This year, each relative will seal two more packages, and they have taken care of us a lot in previous years. Besides, we can eat by ourselves. Let the children satisfy their hunger." Say: "Come on, Lulu, open your mouth!"

"Father doesn't wash his hands, he's not good!" Li Xiaohong looked at Tang Xi eagerly, but still took a step back.

My sister said that if you eat without washing your hands, there will be small bugs in your stomach. The bugs are like earthworms, so the stomach will be eaten by bugs, so scary!I don't want worms in my stomach.

"My daughter still likes to be clean." Hearing this, Li Zhijun put down the candy corner in embarrassment, "Come on, let's gather things together and put them away, and try on the new clothes I bought for you."

"I want to eat sugar corners!" Li Xiaolu spoke quickly, while stretching out his white hand, which meant that he had washed himself clean.

"Lulu take it and eat it by yourself."

"Then you can't eat too much, I'm going to eat dumplings in a while."

"Just eat two yuan!" Li Xiaohong stretched out her chubby fingers.

"So cute!" Li Zhijun patted her head.

"Well, this child is taken care of very well by her sister." Zhang Meiying said.

"What is this material? It feels so smooth."

"I heard that it is the most popular chemical fiber now, and it will not fade or deform."

Zhang Meiying grabbed the clothes in her hands and rubbed them, but it wasn't deformed at all.

"It's expensive, right? You can just buy it for your children. What else can you buy for me? I'm such an adult, I can't do it without a piece of cloth."

"It's Chinese New Year, what if I don't make you a new dress?" The two of them smiled tacitly as they spoke.Li Xiaohong couldn't help but think, the relationship between parents is really good, I just feel that it is as sweet as eating candy corners when I was a child.

Zhang Meiying first let her two daughters try on the tops, Li Xiaohong is a watermelon red one, Li Xiaolu is a rose red one, the color is actually right, but in Li Xiaohong's eyes it looks a bit earthy, and it looks a bit bulky.

However, after a winter, the two of them were both white and tender, with a good temperament, and their clothes were not ugly.Especially Li Xiaolu, who is white and fat, wearing new clothes looks like a fat doll in New Year pictures.

"It's better to be bigger, otherwise the child will grow up fast, and it would be a pity that such a good material will only be worn for one season."

The family happily prepared their things and were preparing to continue making dumplings.

At this time, Wei Lijun called outside: "Xiaohong, is Xiaohong at home?"

"Here, come here!"

"After eating dumplings, go to my house to watch TV. It is said that there will be a surprise in this year's Spring Festival Gala. I will reserve a good seat for you first!"

Li Xiaohong thought for a while, and since she was fine at night anyway, she agreed.

Putting a lot of candy in her pocket, Wei Lijun took it away embarrassingly.

"This year is too busy. After the Chinese New Year, we will also move a big color TV!" Li Zhijun said.

(End of this chapter)