New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve dinner!
Due to the special day, Zhou Yang specially prepared two bottles of good wine.
Both Fan Debiao and Liu Yunlong made an exception and poured a glass!
Eating sumptuous meals, drinking wine, and doing household chores makes this day a comfortable one.
When eating, Bao'er stood close to Zhou Yang and asked Zhou Yang to feed him a piece of meat with chopsticks from time to time. His mouth was full of oil after eating.
This is the first time for the little guy to have New Year's Eve dinner with his grandparents. In addition, there are two more uncles in the family, so he feels very happy.
Just after eating, Huzi came over with Erni and others, saying that he wanted to take Baoer out to play.
Zhou Yang immediately dressed Bao'er in thick clothes, put on a hat and gloves, and stuffed a handful of candy cubes into each doll's pocket before letting them go.
Then his father began to clean up the dining room, while Liu Yunlong washed the dishes.
Li Youwei and her mother checked everyone's new clothes to see if the buttons were fastened and the hems of the pants were sewn, and they were ready to put on new clothes later to "receive the spirit".
Zhou Yang, on the other hand, called Fan Debiao and went to the yard to prepare for the "fire".
It is also a custom in Saibei Province to light a fire on New Year's Eve when the cannon is fired at 12 o'clock to "receive the gods" and pray for everything to go well in the coming year!
There is something special about a strong fire. The higher the flame, the smoother the coming year will be.
The two first went to the yard to get some flax firewood, and then found a lot of dry branches and dead wood from the firewood pile. It took them a while to clean it up.
Now that everything is ready, we are just waiting for the cannon to fire at 12 o'clock.
Suddenly, Zhou Yang saw that the dumplings placed in the yard were frozen solid, and he thought that the Yan family and his son at the pig farm didn't know how to prepare for today's New Year's Eve dinner.
He knew that Yan Gengdong's personal knowledge and management ability were of course not great, but his cooking skills were far behind. He could only say he was good at it.
As for the technical work of making dumplings, he may not be able to do it.
Thinking of this, Zhou Yang decided to send him some dumplings.
Afterwards, he discussed this idea with Li Youwei. After all, these dumplings were made with great effort by his wife and mother. It was obviously inappropriate for him to give them away without saying a word.
Li Youwei, who had long been accustomed to Zhou Yang's sudden generosity, naturally didn't say anything. Instead, she found a small enamel basin from the cupboard and filled him with a basin of frozen dumplings.
Then, Zhou Yang took the enamel basin and took Fan Debiao out of the door.
Although it was almost nine o'clock in the evening, the whole village was very lively at the moment.
The lights in every house are on, and some people even hang up red lanterns. The whole village can be said to be brightly lit.
There were also many people on the street. Some were building fires at the door, while others were walking towards the brigade headquarters carrying small horses.
Of course, there are more children in the village.
Everyone was so excited today that they didn't sleep. They ran from one house to another in small groups, almost going crazy.
The whole village looks peaceful and energetic at this time, which makes people feel good.
...
As soon as he arrived at the pig farm, Zhou Yang saw his father-in-law walking out of Yan Gengdong's house, holding an identical yellow enamel basin in his hand.
After seeing Zhou Yang, Li Fengnian smiled and said, "It seems we want to go together!"
"Haha, don't you think that the father and son don't know how to make dumplings, so I just sent some over!" Zhou Yang said with a smile.
Li Fengnian said with a smile: "Yan Xiaozi and his son will have a good year this year!"
Although Zhou Yang didn't say anything, he didn't care in his heart. Just a few dumplings can only improve one or two meals!
"Dad, do you have any plans for tonight?" Zhou Yang asked again.
"Yes, after picking up the cadres of Shencun, they will gather at the brigade headquarters and then patrol along the village. But if you are tired, don't go. Just keep Jianguo watching!" Li Fengnian said.
Zhou Yang immediately remembered that the village cadres would patrol along the village for an hour or two every year after picking him up.
The reason is that the villagers will set off firecrackers when "receiving the gods". Sometimes when the firecrackers fall, they happen to encounter weeds or firewood stalks, which can easily cause fires.
In addition, the sound of the cannon is too loud, which may scare the big animals in the barn.
One New Year's Eve, a firecracker fell into the horse pen, causing the mules and horses to be frightened.
In the middle of the night, mules, horses and donkeys overturned the livestock sheds and ran wild all over the village. Villagers went all over the village to catch livestock on New Year's Eve. It was such a scene!
Since then, the village has developed the habit of having the village cadres gather together to patrol after the cannon fire on New Year's Eve to ensure that everything is alright before going home to sleep.
"Dad, I am also a production captain after all, how can I let my elder brother do everything for me! Don't worry, I will go to the brigade headquarters to meet everyone after the cannon is fired!" Zhou Yang said.
"Okay! Then go in, I'll go back first!"
"Um!"
After watching his father-in-law leave, Zhou Yang and Fan Debiao pushed open the door of the house where Yan Gengdong and his son lived.
In the room, Yan Gengdong was clearing away the dishes and had obviously just finished eating.
Seeing Zhou Yang push the door open and come in, Yan Gengdong immediately said with a smile: "When I heard the noise, I thought it was you!"
Zhou Yang smiled and said, "I'll bring you and Wen Hui some dumplings. By the way, why didn't you see Wen Hui?"
"Going to play with Huzi!"
Then Yan Gengdong said with a smile: "What are you going to give me? There are many people in your house this year, so take it home quickly!"
"Why are you so polite to me..."
Before he finished speaking, Yan Gengdong said with a smile: "I'm really not polite to you this time, look over there!"
Looking in the direction of Yan Gengdong's finger, he saw two large bamboo sieves placed on a wooden shelf in the corner, and the bamboo sieves were full of wrapped dumplings.
Good guy, there are so many dumplings, at least six or seven hundred!
If only the Yan family and his son were to eat, even a meal of dumplings would last more than ten days.
"You and Wen Hui made so many dumplings yourself?" Zhou Yang asked in surprise.
"We don't have this kind of craftsmanship. They are all gifts from the villagers!"
Then Yan Gengdong talked about this with Zhou Yang. It turned out that since the afternoon, members of the commune had been delivering dumplings to him one after another.
Although each family gave away not many, only twenty or thirty, but there were so many people that there was almost no room to put them at the end of the night!
As he spoke, Yan Gengdong's nose felt sore.
He knew that the villagers were grateful for his hard work in the past six months. After all, without him working day and night with the old, weak, sick and disabled, those Landrace pigs would not have grown up.
It can be said that most of the money distributed by the members is the wealth created by them.
Therefore, as the new year is approaching, everyone is thinking about the father and son.
To be honest, Zhou Yang was also very moved when he heard this.
Although it is just a bowl of dumplings, it represents the feelings of the folks.
After all, not everyone is rich these days, so having such a heart is really rare.
After chatting with Yan Gengdong for a while, Zhou Yang left the pig farm, of course, leaving behind the dumplings he brought.
During the Chinese New Year, how can I get back the gifts I gave out?
When I got home, it was already past ten o'clock!
At this time, mother and Li Youwei had prepared new clothes for everyone, and the family was sitting on the kang watching TV.
There are no Spring Festival galas now, and the New Year's Eve shows are just normal shows, but even so, Li Youwei and others still watched them with gusto.
Because they had to wait for the "reception" at twelve o'clock, everyone had no intention of sleeping, so they just watched TV and chatted.
Soon it was half past eleven, and there were occasional sounds of firecrackers outside.
Zhou Yang immediately went to the old house to find Bao'er, and then several people went back to their houses, all put on new clothes, and prepared to "receive the gods".
At twelve o'clock sharp, the family, including Fan Debiao and Liu Yunlong, all put on new clothes and came to the yard, and then lit a fire.
Immediately afterwards, everyone started setting off firecrackers again!
As the deafening kicks continued to explode in the air, people couldn't help but cheer loudly - New Year!
(Rural boom)
