Although this Qingsang County is not big and is located at the foot of a mountain, things have changed and the stars have changed, but it has also added a few minutes of beautiful scenery. It is a place with outstanding places and people.
There was a huge crowd to celebrate the god’s ceremony. People gathered outside and inside under the altar, standing on tiptoes to look into the distance, fearing that they would miss the celebration. What's more, they even took advantage of the small stool of an unknown vendor nearby to stand on it and try their best to look out, fearing that they would miss it. A wonderful moment to celebrate God.
The fire is burning, the incense is lingering, the paper money is burning, the blind workers are beating the drums, and sacrifices are being made to the ancestors. The corpses are praying in front of the altar, bathing their hands and burning incense.
"...In order to inherit the virtues of Tianjingming, I hope to have a rest without borders forever. Wealth and honor are not what I want. I hope that the men will be divided and the women will be able to return home. The widowed, old, weak, sick and disabled will have someone to rely on. I will cherish my good days and enjoy my husband's destiny... …”
"Dong-dong-cha, dong-dong-ch'a, dong-dong-ch'a, dong-dong-ch'a, dong-dong-ch'a..." The army presented their blessings, spitting out red cloth banners with "New Year, New Year, Peace and Joy" from their mouths.
Night also came at the tail end of the ceremony to celebrate the gods, the crowd gradually dispersed, and the excitement of New Year's Eve had just begun...
When the sheep lanterns are first put on, the sun is fading, the streets and shops are brightly lit, and the red lanterns are hung in the mid-air with strings of silk threads, and the shining stars are like the stars in the heaven falling on the earth.
The window grilles of the wine shop reflected the shadows of people congratulating each other on the New Year and drinking wine. The clinking of wine glasses, the sound of guessing games, and the sounds of talking, laughing and playing...
Not far away, a dark and sturdy man with a strong back was seen spitting out sake at the torch with sparks in his hand. The torch then shot out a stream of fire and escaped towards the sky, floating in the air and surrounding the strong man. A group of lively men and women suddenly exclaimed and cheered.
It shined brilliantly and attracted everyone's attention. The cheers came one after another and could not be calmed down for a long time.
Perhaps such a lively and grand event can only be seen after the New Year, or the business is booming during the New Year Festival and the annoying sound of bargaining has disappeared, and even the penetrating shouts of the vendors are full of joy and vitality.
Amidst the cheers of people, clusters of fireworks rose over Qingsang County. Fireworks burst into the night sky, and colorful fireworks of different sizes bloomed like flower bones. After the explosion, it made a small and continuous sound, and then fell in the wind, like stars falling into a folk fairyland, matching the lanterns floating on the Qingsang River. The crackling firecrackers on the street add to the sound of the year-end and the "flowers blooming and falling" in the night sky.
In the alley, a few children gathered together to pick up the scattered firecracker fragments that had not been burned out. They carefully covered their ears with the incense sticks picked up from unknown sources and set them off, letting out cheerful and crisp laughter. .
The noodle stall is filled with smoke, exaggerating the thick smoky atmosphere. The boiler is cooking the noodles with a milky white color, and the steam is bubbling out. There are several tables and stools in front of the stall, with bowls and chopsticks on them. However, there were only a few diners. Maybe it was because the time had not yet come and people’s interest had not stopped, otherwise they would definitely come to this noodle stall to warm up with a sip of hot soup and a bowl of noodles.
"Girl, the fish noodles in sour soup you asked for are ready, and this young master also has the meat noodles in vegetarian soup." The middle-aged woman dressed as the proprietress brought up two bowls of steaming noodles and quickly placed them in front of Master Yun Chu. She was dressed in linen and coarse cloth, and her hair was simply pulled into a bun with a wooden hairpin, which was neat and tidy.
"Aunt Yuan, it's a new year!" Master Yun Chu reached out to take the noodles, with a smile on his face, and pushed the noodles in front of Zi Sangning: "Tianshi Zisang, come and try it. Uncle Yuan's craftsmanship is amazing. It’s easy to taste.”
"Eh..." Aunt Yuan responded with a smile.
Master Yun Chu turned his head and smiled at the sixty-year-old man with frosty temples who was rolling noodles in front of the stove: "Uncle Yuan, do you have any gifts for the New Year?"
"Hmph, these two bowls of noodle soup are my New Year's gift. I don't cook easily." Uncle Yuan snorted from his nostrils, and his goatee trembled: "Little girl, you are tricking me, I don't know. He must have come here to trick me into making soup noodles."
After saying that, he raised his head, narrowed his eyes to a slit, and looked at the man in red who was opposite Master Yun Chu. The man also stared at them for a long time, with an unpredictable expression, and finally lowered his gaze and silently asked. I picked up a chopstick and blew the noodles in the bowl.
"I brought a boy here today. He looks quite unfamiliar. Where did you get such a clean and sharp boy? But..." Uncle Yuan paused, thinking about something, and pretended to be angry: "The price of the noodle soup." It can’t be less. Besides, little girl, you don’t have the courtesy to reciprocate, so why do you have the nerve to ask for a New Year’s gift from an old man like me?”
"Uncle Yuan, I'm here tonight to support you. Isn't this the greatest recognition of your cooking skills? Is this New Year's gift substantial enough?" Master Yun Chu lowered his head and took a sip of the soup with a spoon, and praised the noodles several times. He gave a thumbs up to Uncle Yuan, making Uncle Yuan's beard tremble with joy.
She glanced at Zi Sangning, who had been eating noodles silently, and saw an almost imperceptible smile on his face.
Cheating? Was he also the one who lied to her? She definitely doesn't have the guts to lie to a heavenly master.
Furthermore, looking at her current situation, she doesn’t know who is deceiving whom?
Master Yun Chu had no choice but to accept his fate and sighed silently in his heart.
"There is a way to flatter someone, no wonder he is so flexible and flexible." Zi Sangning said softly, with a faint smile in his words.
She was celebrating the New Year, why should she be so unhappy? She just thought he was praising her.
They are so generous that they don't bother to argue with them.
Master Yun Chu breathed a sigh of relief, trembled at the noodles, and said vaguely: "Thank you very much for the compliment, Master Zisang."
Zi Sangning lightly knocked on the table: "Why do you think you're eating like this? Be careful."
Master Yun Chu waved his hand: "We are all our own people, it doesn't matter, there is no need to worry about it."
Zi Sangning: "..." Then he nodded, as if her words made sense.
"Come on, I also know that my noodle soup is unrivaled..." Uncle Yuan touched his goatee, followed his footsteps and left the stove, walked to the side and sat on a stool.
Aunt Yuan, who was choosing vegetables on the side, was a little annoyed. She glared at Uncle Yuan and said, "You're just lying to me. He's just a good friend of the girl. How can such a glaring man with a beard ask a girl for a New Year's gift?" Then she smiled. He said to Master Yun Chu, "Girl, don't pay attention to him. This old man won't be able to stop talking if he doesn't talk seriously. Eat slowly and be careful not to burn it."
"Hehe." Uncle Yuan smiled dryly.
Aunt Yuan glared at him again, and stopped selecting vegetables: "You haven't taken care of the stove fire yet, it's about to be turned off."
Uncle Yuan silently made a face at Aunt Yuan, then turned away, without saying anything else, he just sat quietly and looked into the distance, but all he could see in his peripheral vision was Aunt Yuan.
"Nothing is right." Aunt Yuan's angry voice gradually became weaker. She lowered her head and chose the dishes, ignoring Uncle Yuan.
Uncle Yuan had no choice but to retract his gaze angrily and turn back to the stove fire.
Master Yun Chu lowered his head and took two bites of noodles silently. Both of them were silent.
Master Yun Chu suddenly said, "How is it? Uncle Yuan's craftsmanship is pretty good! I've been a guest here for ten years, so we've long been familiar with each other." He even knew the details of the other party.
Zi Sangning responded lightly, with a smile: "Yes, it's indeed good."
"That's it."
There was a fire next to the stall, and a black-and-white striped kitten was wagging its tail comfortably beside the fire. It looked back and looked around from time to time. I don't know if it was trying to keep warm or if it was attracted by the roasted chicken on the chopping board. It looked so naive.
"Uncle and Auntie, I'm back." Xun Xun called out, and a young man who looked a bit elegant in a gray gown trotted back. He was also holding a large bag of herbs in his hand. He coughed slightly and immediately covered his mouth. Pressing it down, the beads hanging on his wrists slid inside his sleeves.
When Uncle Yuan heard the voice, he just raised his head and relaxed his eyebrows: "You're back." He lowered his head and looked at the stove fire without saying anything.
"This child doesn't know how to wear more clothes in such a cold weather." Aunt Yuan hurriedly took the herbs from the man's hand and pulled him to lean against the fire. Her tone was full of concern: "Why don't you just rest at home? Are you feeling better? ? Let you run inside and out. Jinghong, are you hungry?"
"I'm fine, Auntie, we just finished eating and we're not hungry yet." The young man shook his head and stretched out his hand to roast on the fire for a while, then placed the marinated roast chicken on the rack. The kitten was not afraid of the man and still indulged in the fun of stepping on his tail.
"Auntie, I might be able to sell this roast chicken for a lot of money later, so I won't have to worry about the money for the next medicine." Xu Jinghong seemed to be getting more and more excited as he talked, gearing up for a big fight. Now, I looked at the kitten forgetting herself by the fire. Even before I started dipping into the sauce, the kitten was already hooked.
"Okay, okay." Aunt Yuan smiled happily, with only a thin slit left for her eyes and wrinkles forming at the corners of her eyes.
Master Yun Chu smelled the faint fragrance of medicine floating in the air, and his eyes turned.
The corners of her lips twitched slightly, but in the end she didn't say anything. She just lowered her head to chew the noodles and swallowed them.
The marinated roast chicken was placed on the grill, and the oil splashed out occasionally, and a little oil star foam splashed on the kitten. It suddenly jumped up and "oooooooo..." and jumped away from the fire. He trotted back again, still reluctant to leave the fire.
After a while, the skin of the roasted chicken was already golden and shiny. A layer of oil was poured on the roasted chicken. It was sizzling and the aroma rushed out, making the cat sway its tail and meow "meow". Jinghong cut a piece of meat and secretly threw it on the ground for it.
Perhaps the roast chicken was so tempting that it made the diners sit down in twos and threes and said, "Mrs. Boss, would you like a bowl of noodle soup?"
Another person said: "Boss, how do you sell roast chicken?"
Immediately, someone followed suit.
"Sir, here you go..."
The noodle stall that had just been leisurely and quiet suddenly became busy, full of fireworks and vitality.
Master Yun Chu slurped down a bowl of noodle soup. He was already seven to eighty percent full. He smacked his lips and slowly savored the delicious food.
Opposite me, Zi Sanning, who had been eating noodles silently without saying a word, slowly picked up the noodles with his long eyelashes trembling slightly.
"Tianshi Zisang, are you full? Let's go eat some food, shall we?" Master Yun Chu asked, looking at Zi Sangning's soup noodles that were about to bottom out and looking at the busy market ahead.
It doesn't matter if she eats or not, as long as she likes the excitement.
"Well, pay, Junior Junior Sister."
"..."
Weighing his increasingly deflated wallet, a deep sense of powerlessness surged into Master Yun Chu's heart.
Without the oppression of the Master, life would be more comfortable.
She had to think of a sure way to find out if he had made a mistake. She had to think of a way to find out.
