It takes time to prepare for the formalities when going to Ukraine, Yang Pingfan took the opportunity to enjoy the two-person world with Li Lan, strolling through the winter streets, Yang Pingfan was bored for a long time, and finally couldn't help but say, "Lan, do you think I'm bored?"

"How do you say that?"

"I feel like I'm very uninteresting, until now, dating you is just eating, watching movies, walking, and I haven't been able to create surprises and romance for you......"

Li Lan was wearing a blue-sapphire scarf, looking petite and cute, she looked at Yang Pingfan and said another sentence: "I'm cold." ”

Yang Pingfan immediately took her into his arms.

Li Lan said quietly, "What I need is this kind of warmth, not some flamboyant tongue." ”

Yang Pingfan didn't expect Li Lan to say such things, choked for a while, sighed, hugged Li Lan's slender waist tightly, and slowly stroked Li Lan's waist-length hair, hoping that time would stop there.

Suddenly, there was a vague fragrance, it was a sweet chestnut fragrance, Yang Pingfan hadn't made any moves, Li Lan had already reacted first, and pulled Yang Pingfan to run forward.

Under the dim street lamp, an uncle stepped on a tricycle, on which a large iron pot was propped up, and a short chimney was cocked, and the pot was filled with black iron sand, and the uncle used a shovel to stir-fry the chestnuts wrapped in the iron sand.

The chimney is steaming hot, accompanied by the sound of stir-fried chestnuts, and the unique sweet fragrance of sugar-fried chestnuts wafts out on the street, so that the greedy passers-by are excited.

After queuing for more than ten minutes, Yang Pingfan finally bought two bags.

Just out of the pot chestnuts, with a fingernail on the side of a cut, and then gently pinch, the chestnut skin will be broken, revealing the yellow chestnut kernels, buckled out sweet, fragrant and glutinous, eat simply can't stop the mouth, holding a bag of hot sugar fried chestnuts, as if the warmth of the whole world in his arms, of course, peeling the chestnut skin must be Yang Pingfan's work.

"Do you know," Yang Pingfan said while peeling chestnuts, "China has a very long history of eating chestnuts, chestnuts are one of the five fruits, our ancestors have a very long history of eating, and a bowl of chestnuts was found in the tomb of Zhang Wenzao in the Liao Dynasty."

It is said that the great poet and poet Lu You loved to eat chestnuts, he often carried a bag of chestnuts in his sleeve, before going to the court, while walking, while peeling the chestnuts to eat, and when the chestnuts were finished, it was almost time to go to the court, but I don't know where he put the chestnut skin, whether he put it in another sleeve, or threw it everywhere?

In the Ming Dynasty, chestnuts were also spread to Korea and Japan, and now people in these two countries are also very fond of chestnuts, and a variety of chestnut cakes represented by yokan have been developed in Japan.

In the early years, there was a lot of attention to the sugar-fried chestnuts.

The fuel for fried chestnuts with sugar does not use coal, carbon or firewood, and it is a waste reed mat that is dismantled from the canopy, which is said to be flammable, with little smoke and no smoke.

Sugar fried chestnuts sugar frying, refers to the frying of chestnuts in the pot with maltose, so that the sand can stick to the surface of the chestnuts, in the early years to pay attention to the use of old sand fried, it is said that the chestnuts fried with new sand are not delicious enough, with an earthy smell.

In the early years, it was important to use manual frying, frying chestnuts is not only a hard work, but also a technical work, chestnuts fried to half-cooked, a little grin to add sugar syrup, this is just right.

If you want to be famous for fried chestnuts with sugar, it must be from Sijiucheng. During the Republic of China, the largest dried fruit shop in Beijing was the "Tong Sanyi" outside the front door, and it is said that their family had at least 20,000 catties of chestnuts every autumn, which showed that the business of fried chestnuts in sugar was good.

Now there is a famous shop "Wang Laotou" in Beijing that fried chestnuts with sugar, which was first opened in the 80s, because of the good quality of the chestnuts selected, the big skin is thin, and the fried are glutinous and sweet, which has been recognized by customers. Later, the business was good, and it is said that he went to Huairou to contract the mountain, and selected excellent varieties to carefully plant them for the store. Later, because of the renovation of Huashi Street, the store moved to Yufeiqiao Temple of Heaven East Road.

The chestnuts of Beijing in the old years, the foreign port is mostly called "Liangxiang chestnut", Liangxiang does not produce chestnuts, Fangshan also only has a small amount of chestnuts in several villages such as Nanjiao and Beijiao, but Liangxiang is the main road out of Beijing, and it is also the distribution center of chestnuts in Beijing, Huairou and Changping chestnuts are sent to all parts of the country through Liangxiang, and the big bags are signed with "Liangxiang delivery", and there is the name of Liangxiang chestnut in the field. The people of Beijing recognize Huairou chestnuts the most, and the chestnuts with higher quality in Huairou area are generally called "Huairou oil chestnuts".

Although the chestnuts look the same, they taste different. In the past, the chestnuts that paid attention to the first class were the autumn equinox chestnuts, the chestnuts of this variety had high sugar content, strong glutinousness, sweet taste and were resistant to storage; the second-class chestnuts were used tiger claw chestnuts, the tiger claw chestnuts were big, and they were named because the chestnut shell was cracked and resembled tiger claws; now the chestnuts on the market are mostly some high-quality varieties cultivated by grafting in the Beijing area in the early 70s of the 20th century, Yanshan red chestnut, Xiazhuang No. 2, and Yanchang chestnut are all relatively common excellent varieties on the market. ”

While helping Li Lan peel chestnuts, Yang Pingfan talked eloquently, telling all kinds of allusions to sugar-fried chestnuts, which made Li Lan stunned for a moment, and couldn't help asking, "How do you know so much, and even know these in such detail?"

"I have read Liang Shiqiu's "Yashe Talks about Eating", and I have a deep memory of the description in it, and then, I myself also like to eat fried chestnuts with sugar, and I have studied it specially. ”

Yang Pingfan said, stretched out his hand and pinched Li Lan's delicate nose, Li Lan was impressed when he heard it, and it took a long time to react, "You wiped the pot ash on my nose?"

"No, how is that possible?"

Li Lan looked at Yang Pingfan's serious appearance, and didn't believe it in her heart, "I'll take out the mirror and take a look." ”

"Oh no, eat the chestnuts first. ”

"I knew there was a ghost, don't run!"

The two of them giggled and ran away, leaving a happy air in the air.

——

There is only a direct flight from the imperial capital to Kiev in China, and the two of them first take the high-speed rail to the imperial capital, and then take a flight to Ermao.

Ermao's winter is extremely cold, but the neat row of birch forests outside Boryspil Airport gives Yang Pingfan an unyielding feeling. The red wall, full of the weight of history, although it has been separated for decades, can still see the traces of the glory of the super empire in the past, but looking around, it is rare to see CBD city buildings like the first-tier cities in China, just like the fate of this country, with the glory of the past, but it can't stop falling into the abyss.

He and Li Donglai stayed in a hotel in the city, and the representative of Galaxy Technology Company in Ermao had already confirmed various details with the other party in advance and gave Li Donglai contact information.

Although the Ermao family has its own language, but after a hundred years of rule, Russian has become a common language, although Li Donglai claims to be a cook in the army to raise pigs, but Yang Pingfan feels that he must be a ghost, a soldier who can speak fluent Russian, the ghost believes that he is a pig.

Therefore, in this operation, Li Donglai was responsible for communicating with the other party.

Li Donglai made a phone call and agreed with the other party to meet on the afternoon of the third day, because they had just arrived, in order to reassure the customer, the address that the other party promised to meet was decided by the two.

The two were bored in the hotel, Yang Pingfan wanted to buy some specialties for Li Lan, and proposed to go out for a walk, and Li Donglai readily agreed.

On a winter day in the streets of Kiev, a middle-aged woman who had apparently begun to fade despite her heavy makeup walked slowly down the streets, walked to a relatively crowded intersection and squatted down, opened an old canvas bag, took out some objects and placed them on the cloth bag, and then used a stick to prop up a paper shell with black pen that said it was sold at a low price.

However, the people on the street were in a hurry, everyone was frowning, full of anxiety about the present, full of confusion about the future, and these small metal objects, which were obviously very old, did not arouse people's interest.

In fact, it is already difficult to find anything other than food, medicine, alcohol, drugs or guns to arouse people's interest.

After a long time, two men stopped, one of them was slightly startled, then crouched down and carefully picked up the small metal objects and looked at them, his fingers rubbing over them.

The weight of these medals, which are the Order of the State of the USSR, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, and various combat medals, shines across these objects.

Unlike the man's excitement, the woman who sold these things couldn't wait, she kept peddling these things to this potential customer, and in order to ensure the authenticity of these things, she also took out a few yellowed photos, pointed to the person on them and said: "These are real, all of them belong to my grandmother, you see this is her, you look at this again, this is her holding me." If you want, just give me some money and take it, I really need money for food right now. ”

Yang Pingfan didn't know Ukrainian, Li Donglai only knew Russian, and could only guess a few blind translations, the women saw this, immediately switched to standard Russian, and talked with Li Donglai, through Li Donglai's translation, Yang Pingfan roughly knew the origin of these medals.

The middle-aged aunt introduced herself as Natasha and had two bachelor's degrees, and her heroic grandmother, who had received these great medals, had been part of the famous "Night Witch" air force during World War II, and it was at that time that the old man received these medals.

Yang Pingfan was a little moved, he looked at Li Donglai, Li Donglai nodded, this aunt with the same name as the black widow did not lie, these people in the photo are the famous "Night Witch", those Soviet hero women who once made the Nazis feel terrified on the battlefield.