The Chinese New Year will not be celebrated for more than two months after New Year's Day, so the educated youth will have to wait until early February before they have the opportunity to go home for annual leave and reunite.
Therefore, the old educated youths discussed that everyone would get together on this day to have a lively atmosphere. After all, New Year's Day is also a serious holiday.
However, since Brian's death and Shao Hua returned to Beijing, Chen Liang and his gang rarely come to the east side. Yun Ling occasionally heard them chatting privately and thought it was unlucky to die here, so people from both sides rarely interacted with each other, and they were quite distinct. posture.
So the other party's New Year's Day party didn't call anyone here.
But that afternoon, Sun Qian and Guo Jiyun held hands and knocked on Yunling's door.
Yunling was surprised: "Why are you here?"
They should be preparing food at this time, right?
Sun Qian raised her eyebrows: "Huh? Didn't Isatis inform you? Let's celebrate New Year's Day together!"
"I said we would spend New Year's Day together this morning, but I thought you would be over there." Yunling took the rice and vegetables, opened the door and welcomed them in.
Guo Jiyun slumped on the kang, waved his hands and said, "I don't want to get together with them. Talking around 18 turns, I'm exhausted."
Sun Qian and Yunling looked at each other, laughing and shaking their heads, helpless at her frankness.
When guests arrive, Yunling, as the host, naturally gets busy.
She took out several large plates from the cupboard, poured peanuts, melon seeds and sugar cubes on each plate, and placed them on the kang table. Next to them was a small plate for cracking melon seeds and throwing away the skins. Then he went to the big vat in the snow outside and took out a few frozen pears and persimmons, soaked them in a basin of warm water and melted them. The sweet and juicy smoothie taste was strange to outsiders like them who ate it for the first time.
But Guo Jiyun and Sun Qian are not here for free money, they just follow her and do whatever they say.
Today, everyone agreed to bring their own food rations, and each person would add one more dish. The rich would bring meat, and the average would bring vegetables.
Guo Jiyun's hometown is a native of Harbin Province. Her family mailed several red sausages. This time she brought them all and cut them directly and put them on the plate. The pieces of maroon oval sausages were spread on the white plate, and they were arranged beautifully. Like a big red peony, very festive.
It just so happens that her cooking skills are average, which saves her from the complicated cooking steps.
Sun Qian's family is in Shanghai, and the high-standard New Year's Eve dinner there includes a special dish - Babao Duck.
According to the formal preparation of this dish, a lot of expensive ingredients are required. In the cold Northeast region, even if you have money, you may not be able to assemble them. She simply simplified the recipe, not so demanding, just home-cooked flavor.
She cut the back of the tender duck bought from the villagers' homes, dug out the internal organs, and cut off the duck's feet; then she submerged the whole duck in boiling water, blanched it, took it out and washed it, wiped off the water with a dry cloth, and then spread it with soy sauce, Rice wine, sugar and other seasonings, place the duck belly side up into a large bowl.
Yunling helped her cut a large piece of meat from the whole smoked ham hanging from the eaves, and cut it into cubes together with the soaked dried shiitake mushrooms. He took out the wild chestnuts picked in the mountains in autumn, peeled the shells and got the meat; he chopped the washed chicken, and the fragrant glutinous rice was also grown in the system, washed it clean, and steamed it with water.
Finally, stir-fry all the ingredients with lard, green onions and ginger, add soy sauce and sugar to taste, mix them into the glutinous rice, stuff them all into the duck belly, and steam them for three to four hours until the duck meat is crispy. Take it out after it rots.
Yunling only participated in part of the vegetable cutting process, but she felt that this dish was very troublesome and couldn't help but ask: "Is this really a simple version?"
Sun Qian wiped her sweat, wiped her hands with a dry cloth, and replied: "The dishes in Shanghai are quite exquisite. My family has made this before, with scallops, shrimps, green beans, winter bamboo shoots and chicken gizzards... This place is not close to the sea, so I simplified it a lot."
Guo Jiyun glanced at the steamer on the iron pot and sighed: "You guys are really good at eating. This dish is so fancy that it would be very valuable to sell it in a state-owned restaurant!"
There was only one iron pot, and now that it was used, it had to wait at least three or four hours, so the three of them had to move their positions.
Yunling tiptoed at the door of the house next door and found that it was still dark inside. She wondered why she hadn't come back yet?
This morning Chu Silan said he was going to the county town, but it was almost evening and he hadn't come back yet. Yunling was a little worried, would something happen to her on the road alone?
If it gets dark soon and she doesn't come back, Yunling plans to go outside the village entrance to look for her.
At this time, Qian Li was preparing to make dumplings at home. The stuffing was made of pork and sauerkraut, with 60% sauerkraut and 40% pork. The sauerkraut was the same vat that the three of them had pickled together in the autumn.
She can be said to be the only one among these girls who has never touched Yang Chunsui. In Yunling's words, don't let her cook unless necessary.
Sun Qian stared blankly at the dumpling skins that Qian Li was rolling out, whether round or flat. Her brain was a little short-circuited for a moment, and she didn't know how to evaluate it without hurting her self-esteem...
Guo Jiyun was a conscientious person, and he couldn't hold it in for a long time. He hid behind Sun Qian and laughed secretly.
Qian Li pursed her lips, pressed a few dough balls hard, and vented her frustration: "The dough is still not kneaded well. It's not round no matter how hard I roll it out..."
She muttered softly, but Yunling next to her heard her clearly. She suppressed her smile and taught her step by step.
"Hold the rolling pin with your right hand, hold a corner of the dough with your left hand, and roll it while turning it. The dough should be thicker in the middle and four thinner, so that it won't leak when wrapping..."
She stood behind Qian Li, her hands delicately clasped, her voice gentle and gentle, without any impatience, and she taught over and over again.
"It's so round!" Qian Li picked up the dumpling wrapper, her almond-shaped eyes widened, as naive as a deer, and praised her, "Your craftsmanship is really good."
Yunling worked hard and rolled out one piece in just a few strokes, and each piece was so identical that the difference could not be seen with the naked eye.
"Our family used to make dumplings for every festival. The whole family had to make dumplings, and no one could be left behind."
Mentioning this, Yunling suddenly felt homesick.
To be honest, she is not an emotionally sensitive person.
It is no exaggeration to say that she may seem a little cold-hearted to outsiders. Even her calm eldest cousin complained that she had been indifferent to others since she was a child and would not be amused no matter how much she was teased. When she grew up and could read, she would spend all her time reading in her parents' study, growing into a nerd.
But in fact, her ability to develop such an independent character stems from her parents' careers.
Yunfu and Yunmo go around the hospital every day. Hospitals in the capital are busier than other ordinary hospitals, and the patient cases they receive are more difficult and complex. Therefore, they are not only always ready to stand on the operating table, but it is also common to work overtime, let alone after get off work. He had to go home and study international medical information, so he couldn't take care of a child like Yunling.
Yunling was brought up by her maternal grandparents when she was young. Her grandfather was an old Chinese medicine doctor. His way of raising children was extremely rough - he put the cub aside while her grandfather read, while Yunling lay next to her and blew bubbles; her grandfather played the flute, and Yunling Ling just crawled around holding the little toy Bamboo Xiao...
As a result, Xiao Yunling gradually learned to read, read and identify herbs at a young age.
When they were older and no longer needed care, my grandparents returned to their hometown of Yun Province to take care of themselves. She lives with her parents and nanny Qi Ma in the capital. Whether she goes to school or goes to the hospital to study, she always makes her own decisions.
In fact, Yunling thinks this is good. She is used to relying on herself for everything and not relying on others. If she had been at all indecisive, she would not have made the wisest decision immediately after the trouble at home - to go to the countryside decisively and plan her future life reasonably based on the current situation, instead of crying and asking for help.
At that time, she felt that there was no room for change, but her family's connections still needed to be managed. Her parents had many old friends, and they might be able to take care of each other a little bit after leaving the capital, so she would visit them one by one before leaving.
Perhaps because Yunling was only a seventeen-year-old girl, she was not qualified enough to speak, and outsiders felt that she could not be the head of the family. So at that time, there were many people who took advantage of the situation and added insult to injury, but fortunately, there were still uncles and uncles who protected her. . Even when the Yun family was at its most depressed, no one really dared to bully someone in person, but it was inevitable to gossip behind their backs.
Her mind gradually drifted away, and she couldn't help thinking about whether her parents in the capital would have a hot meal of dumplings on New Year's Day.
But after thinking about it, Yunling lowered her eyes and sighed silently.
She knows her parents' tempers best. It's common for her to forget about food and sleep when she's busy with work. She probably even forgets that today is New Year's Day.
My eyes gradually became moist, but I still controlled my emotions rationally. Today is a joyous day and I cannot shed tears in front of everyone.
Yunling raised her head slightly, blinked twice, and returned to normal.
Good things come in hard times, and when the Chinese New Year comes, you can take annual leave to go back and see.
