On New Year's Day in 1989, when it was just dawn in the morning, there were bursts of firecrackers one after another, and the sleepy eyes of the cultivator woke up.

He looked left and right, his father-in-law Ye Shifang and grandmother Wang Ying had already gotten up at some point, and there was a sound of kowtowing in the hall. He knew that this was a compulsory practice for the adults in the family every morning and evening, to incense the Buddha hall.

The usual days will be simpler, and after Ye Shifang takes them to the three holy shrines enshrined in the Buddhist hall and bows three times and nine times, it would be good to speak a scripture. However, on days like New Year's Day, prostrations are more frequent, and the scriptures speak for a long time.

If such a day is put aside, the cultivator will definitely sleep on the kang for a while, and he will not be willing to get up. But today, not long after he woke up, he got dressed and got off the kang.

The severe cold of winter can't stop the enthusiasm of the people, especially in this era, TV has not yet been popularized in the countryside, take Yuchi Village as an example, nearly 200 households, as of the end of 1988, there is only one TV, and it is still in the branch secretary's house, the courtyard of a high-ranking family, and no one dares to come to his house to watch. Therefore, the cultural and recreational activities of the common people are not a few times a year, and the completion of the celebration of the Sansheng Temple can be regarded as enriching the cultural life of the people in ten miles and eight towns, and it can be regarded as the New Year in advance.

At the place of the Three Holy Temples, the loudspeaker has already sounded. Listening to the sound is the city's Qinqiang troupe testing the sound effects and microphones, and the bursts of whining sound are extremely uncomfortable to listen to, but even so, as long as this horn sounds, it is like turning on a spell, urging people's hearts, you have to hurry up and go to the venue, this big show is about to start.

Ye Shifang stipulated that during the temple fair, the endorsement task of cultivation was canceled, but every morning when he got up, he had to read and review what he had learned before.

He sat on a small bench on the steps of the corridor, and his vision was slightly off to see the scene of the hill on the opposite bank.

Since the heavy snowfall on the winter solstice, the weather has been mostly clear, but the temperature is so low that the short sunshine during the day has barely melted the snow on the ground, except for the cleared roads and courtyards, which are still white in all directions.

The village, which had been silent for several days, seemed to be lit by a trumpet all of a sudden, and there were people on the small road, and when they arrived on the main road, there were groups of people, and then on the main road to the temple fair, it was an endless stream of people, and they were moving forward one after another.

The road is like a river of people, converging from the trickle into a rolling formation, which adds a thick and heavy color to the pale and lonely valley and mountains in winter.

People wore thick cotton jackets and flower scarves of different colors, and the mist between breaths intertwined in the direction of the Three Holy Temples. This road is noisy, calling friends one after another, not only young people, but also those fellow villagers who have not seen each other for many years, and they are also very cordial. Most of the young people go into battle empty-handed and lightly. At most, one of the men was holding an empty cloth bag in his hand, apparently planning to buy something at the temple fair. Most of the old people were well prepared, such as horses or low stools for sitting and watching the play, blankets for water and dry food, which of course only those who planned to fight all day long, as well as dry tobacco pots and tobacco pouches full of tobacco leaves.

It is about two miles from Yuchi Village to the Sansheng Temple, and the cultivators have a meal at their house, and the one who can go to the temple fair today is the father-in-law Ye Shifang, and the cultivator naturally follows him to take a look.

Niu Chuanqing hardly participates in this kind of thing of going out to the market to visit the temple fair, firstly, he doesn't seem to believe in these ghosts and gods; secondly, usually the whole family goes out, and he has to stay to take care of the door of the house; and in the whole winter, the fire in his room is basically unextinguished, and someone has to take care of the fire.

Wang Ying, the hard-working grandmother, is reluctant to join in the excitement on a cold day, she has a bunch of needlework to do, and besides, there are eight days anyway, and when the sun is good, she will go around again. Mother Tian Mengjia has to take care of her two younger brothers, and she can't take a break, she plans to wait for her husband Niu Yonghou to be idle one day, and the two of them will each hold a child, and then go shopping.

Since Ye Shifang returned to Yuchi Village, the clinic "Jishitang" in the urban area has been handed over to his son Niu Yonghou and two apprentices to take care of. Among his children, the second son Niu Yongqiang and the third son Niu Yonghou inherited their own medical skills, and he also accepted more than ten apprentices, five of them came out of Jiujiang, Jiangxi in the south, and two in Baoji, Shaanxi, in the north, and the rest were impatient to memorize those medical books "Qianjin Yao Fang", "Tangtou Song", "Yellow Emperor Neijing" and so on, so they learned martial arts from him.

Niu Yonghou got up early to eat something, and then rode down to the city, where he was on duty today. In the winter season, the snow fell heavily a few days ago, many people walked or rode in the snow and fell, and most of the people who came to the clinic to take a look at them were some small bruises, but it also took a while to recover.

Of course, there are also those who have injured their muscles and bones, most of which are elderly, the milder ones are dislocated and twisted tendons, and the more serious ones will be filmed in a big hospital first, and then come here to see, they will give corresponding treatment or advice according to the fracture dislocation. After all, the consultation fee of small clinics is cheap, but it is true that there is not as advanced medical equipment as large hospitals, and for the health of patients, they will refuse: "Your injury is too serious, for the sake of your body, it is recommended to have surgery in a big hospital." Even if you come back to us for rehabilitation after the surgery!"

Ye Shifang held the little hands of the cultivators, and the grandparents and grandchildren walked through the crowd, and there were a variety of things sold by stalls on both sides of the road. Selling fried oil cakes, fried twist flowers, selling melon seeds, peanuts, candy, selling honey dumplings, selling dough, fried cold noodles and so on.

In particular, there must be a small stove embedded in the center of a square platform, on which are stacked with chopsticks, a large bowl of thick mash, a pot of eggs, and a large plate of oil dumplings. There is a wooden bellows next to it, and every time a bowl of hot soup is made, the bellows must be pulled "click...... The fire jumped up from the bottom of the small pot on the stove, and it looked exceptionally warm.

Cultivating likes the sound of the bellows pulling, there are also next to the pot stove at his house, every time he cooks, he helps his grandmother or mother add firewood and carbon under the stove door, although he has no strength to pull the bellows at this age, but this kind of labor is a warm thing in his heart.

He likes to look at the faces of his family against the backdrop of the fire, grandma Wang Ying is a kind red, his mother Tian Mengjia is a warm red, his father-in-law Ye Shifang is a solemn red, and his father Niu Yonghou is a simple red.

When I saw the adults with children, I immediately came to the spirit and fiddled with the toys in front of me, such as the green-skinned frog that tightened the clockwork, such as the toy mouse that pulled the string and put it on the ground, such as "Dangdang...... When the rattle and so on, many children are unable to take a step.

Of course, because it is a temple fair, naturally there are the most vendors selling incense paper money in this stall, and most of them are old men and old ladies.