Chen's mother already knew that Chen Anxiu was going to Beijing, and after breakfast that day, she carried Chen's father to push a cart of sweet potatoes to the mill and then returned home to help them prepare things, in fact, there was nothing special to prepare, and she had already known that there would definitely be such a trip at the end of the year, and she should have prepared almost enough, now she just needs to clean up and tidy up. It's just that I don't know where they spend the New Year before, and their son hasn't been at home for the New Year for two years, of course they want to leave their children for a reunion year, but after all, people are here all year round, and it's not easy for them to open this mouth. Now that Zhuang Zhuang took the initiative to speak, they were also at ease.

Mao Mao saw his grandmother holding the tape in the sealed box, holding a small sweet potato rabbit in her hand, running over to her back, and calling grandma with a fat face, he usually followed grandma most often, and naturally he was very close to grandma.

Chen's mother supported him from behind with her hands behind her back, patted her butt and said, "Why don't you play with your little wooden horse over there?" ”

Rubbing her with her round head, she knew how to giggle.

Chen's mother didn't have a temper at all when he rubbed the ground, turned around and hugged him and said, "Why is it the same as when my father was young, he likes to cling to people." "As long as there is no illness or disaster, I am happy every day, and it is not annoying at all. It's just that when they were strong and young, they didn't risk that their bodies were so good, they risked growing to this age, they were healthy and healthy, and they rarely had colds.

She reached out and took a small towel from the heating pipe to wipe the scum on her chin from eating, "Grandma can live until she grows up in this life, and she will be content to marry a daughter-in-law." But now they don't even know how long the child can be raised in front of them, and when they think of which day Zhang is strong and strong, tons and horses are gone, their hearts are empty, "Mao Mao, when did you follow your father away, will you miss your grandparents?" "The child is still so young, and I don't know if Lu Dao can remember something.

Babbling and ignorant, Chen's mother smiled and touched his hair that was extraordinarily smooth because of his long hat in winter, the child was still too young, only sixteen months old, less than one and a half years old.

But people don't understand this, they understand something else, he grabbed the little rabbit in his hand and put it in his grandmother's mouth, "Grandma......"

Chen's mother looked down at the sweet potato rabbit she had just carved for him last night, it would be full of tooth marks, especially the two long ears, one of which had not flown anywhere, a rabbit that was originally very good, now it looks a little miserable, she didn't want to eat it, but she couldn't bear to live up to the kindness of her little grandson, so she bit a little bite, praised him and said, "It's so sweet, it's the most well-behaved, grandma likes to take it the most." ”

He giggled and threw himself into his grandmother's arms, kissing him.

Chen's mother patted him lightly on the back, now it's just such a small lump, you can hold it in your arms, but the child will always grow up slowly, and it's not the same thing to stay in Qiuli Town all the time, they are old, they can do anything, but Zhuang Zhuang and the two children, they still have a good future, it's not good to stay here every day. When the birds are big, they all want to fly out of the nest.

*

At the end of the year, everyone is waiting for benefits, and some orders are urgent, so they have to work overtime to send them over, Chen Anxiu went out early today, and Sun Xiao sent the goods of the two families in a row, and it was only more than nine o'clock after unloading, but for Sun Xiao, who got up at six o'clock in the morning, he was already hungry and his chest was attached to his back, "Brother Chen, find a place to eat at the bottom of the mountain, I can't go home." "Stomach rumbling.

He is not the only one who is hungry, Chen Anxiu is also hungry, but this time is not very good, not forward, not behind, they came all the way, many breakfast shops have closed their stalls, most of the other normal restaurants have not yet opened, the city may be better, but it is a long way, "Go to Nanli Village, please eat beef noodles, and give you an extra bowl of braised beef." ”

Sun Xiao snorted excitedly, probably overexcited and consuming too much energy, and after howling, he was even hungrier, so he leaned on the co-pilot to play with his mobile phone.

Because he had eaten with Zhang Shinian before, Chen Anxiu easily found the familiar beef noodle shop, found a place to park the car, and it was already past ten o'clock when he sat down in the store, but there were not many people eating in the store unexpectedly, most of them were young people, probably because of the weekend, they slept lazily at home.

The two of them asked for a large portion of beef noodles, sauced beef, beef offal soup and two cold dishes, the noodles hadn't come up yet, and when they were drinking the soup, someone came in outside, Chen Anxiu sat with his back to the door, and didn't care too much, but Sun Xiao raised his hand and said hello loudly, "Second Brother Chen, what a coincidence." ”

Rain? Chen Anxiu turned around when he heard this, and saw a girl holding Chen Tianyu's arm and just entering the door before he sat down, looking at the appearance of the two of them, he knew that Lu Dao had just fallen asleep and not long ago, the girl's eyes were not very open, and her hair was only loosely tied with a head rope, but even so, it could be seen that the girl was very young and beautiful, with big almond eyes and a very round goose egg face, and Chen Tianyu was sleepy-eyed and overworked.

As soon as Chen Tianyu saw Chen Anxiu, no matter how sleepy he was, he was scared away, "Brother, why are you here?" ”

Chen Anxiu heard the girl whisper, "This is the brother in your family?" ”

Chen Tianyu quickly responded, it is definitely impossible for someone to leave, so he led people over directly, that girl should be extroverted, seeing that Chen Anxiu was not stage frightened, she couldn't hide her curiosity and looked at Chen Anxiu twice, and after listening to Chen Tianyu's introduction, she shouted crisply and happily, "Big brother." ”

Chen Anxiu didn't expect to catch Chen Tianyu's girlfriend who had been kept secret recently, but he had long known that there was such a person in Lu Dao, so he wouldn't be too surprised now, "I've heard Tianyu mention it several times, this is the first time we've met, let's sit together." ”

Chen Tianyu sat down next to Chen Anxiu, and the girl named Xu Tongtong sat down on the chair next to Sun Xiao.

Xu Tongtong is just as Chen Anxiu expected, with a lively and cheerful temperament, the first time they met, they didn't speak at all, and the other three were not the ones who couldn't get on the stage, it was Sun Xiao, who had followed Chen Anxiu in and out in the past two years, and he was no longer the young man who would only open his mouth to serve dishes in a small restaurant, so although something happened suddenly, this meal was quite pleasant.

After eating, when Chen Anxiu got up to pay the bill, Chen Tianyu also followed, and whispered, "Brother, don't tell your family about this matter first." ”

Chen Anxiu leaned sideways against the cashier, pushed the money over, turned around and saw that Xu Tongtong and Sun Xiao were talking, I don't know what Lu Dao said, she patted Sun Xiao's arm happily, she was already very familiar, "It looks good, it's not so bad that you can't take it." What are you worried about? Or are you still going to play this time? "It doesn't look like it's a game before.

"I like Tongtong a lot, but I haven't made up my mind yet, you also know that our parents, I can't wait for a girl to be willing to follow me, so I immediately urged to register my marriage, it's all God's will, what's the urgency after graduation?" In the past, the eldest brother and Providence were grasshoppers on the same rope as him, but now they are married back and forth, and he is the only one left, he is only twenty-six, and he has not wanted to get married so early.

The cashier handed out the change, Chen Anxiu glanced at the amount, put it in the wallet, looked up at his younger brother, and said with a smile, "What you say is simply a strong word, people's providence and literary love are in agreement, why can't you get married, I have to wait for you, I don't know how to wait until the Year of the Monkey." ”

Chen Tianyu knew that this was the case, but he really didn't like to hear this, so he continued to beg, "Anyway, brother, don't tell our parents." Sun Xiao's side, you say it, don't let him leak his mouth. When I figure it out one day, I'll take it back to my parents. ”

"Whatever you want, I'm too lazy to mind your business." Marriage is such a thing, parents are urging it tightly, but if you really want to hope or not, no one can do anything. Why didn't he bother to find something to plug in.

Seeing that he agreed, Chen Tianyu felt a little less anxious between his eyebrows, smiled and put his hand on Chen Anxiu's shoulder and said, "I know that you are my eldest brother." There's not been much going on at home lately, right? ”

"There's nothing going on at home, but we're going to Beijing the day after tomorrow."

"Tons and presumptuous together?"

"Yes."

Chen Tianyu asked tentatively, "Going to Beijing for the New Year?" ”

"No, I can rush back before the year, and I will celebrate the New Year at home this year."

Chen Tianyu quietly breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "Then what about the business in your store, I heard Wen Kai say that you have added two additional boxes to print this year." "The business is so good, Wen Kai mentioned it several times in front of him, wanting to ask how the eldest brother's sales channel was opened in such a short period of time.

"Isn't there still you? If you don't have anything to do, you'll help me keep watch. ”

Chen Tianyu immediately glared and protested, "I'm also very busy here. ”

Chen Anxiu put down a sentence in a leisurely manner, "Who said I was my eldest brother just now." ”

Chen Tianyu's expression was distorted and choked to death, he said Why is the eldest brother so good at talking today, it turns out that there is still this stubble waiting for him, he can't wait to slap his mouth twice, let you owe it, and let you have nothing to do.

Chen Anxiu didn't have any extra sympathy to give him alms, patted his younger brother on the shoulder without brotherly affection, went over to greet Xu Tongtong, and left with Sun Xiao.

On the way, Sun Xiao said enviously, "Second Brother Chen is lucky, his girlfriend is beautiful and rich." ”

Pretty can be seen by anyone with eyes, but rich? "How do you tell?"

"Don't you see the pink bag she is carrying on her shoulder, Le Yun has an exact one, I accompanied her to buy it, I remember it very clearly, the imitation one costs more than 5,000, it really seems to cost 20,000 or 30,000, Xu Tongtong seems to be real." The imitation is about to kill him, can you not remember it clearly? Then a little bit of stuff costs five thousand, and he only needs two hundred to buy a big suitcase.

Chen Anxiu nodded matter-of-factly, "It makes sense, it makes sense." In fact, he doesn't understand this, but he always feels that there is something wrong with this Xu Tongtong, and there is nothing wrong with being lively, but what is wrong? Or maybe he thinks too much and hopes that he likes it.

*

When Chen Anxiu and Sun Xiao returned to the town, Chen's father had already ground their sweet potato flour, and was using a fine sieve to filter the slag in the building materials store, and there were already a lot of fine sweet potato noodles in the big basket on the ground. Rinse back and forth several times, and after precipitation, pour out the water on it, and sink under the bottom of the basin is pure powder.

The sweet potato flour sieved out is not all used to make vermicelli, Chen's father will leave some noodles to make noodles, compared to noodles, the noodles are much simpler, even Chen Anxiu can get started, as long as there are two stainless steel basins, there is a stove and a pot is enough, the water on the stove is boiled, a basin is placed in boiling water, a basin is filled with cold water and put aside, the powder paste is poured in the boiling water basin, and when the dough is formed, peel it off, and throw it into the cold water basin, a flour skin is good, if you want to eat thicker and make it thicker, If you want to be thinner, make it thinner, and like it according to your taste. However, the powder skin that comes out in this way is still soft, and it will take a long time to dry it if it wants to become the kind of hard powder skin sold on the market.

But soft also has the benefits of softness, the taste of cold vegetables and stir-fried is very good, after Chen Anxiu is done, he sent some taste to the three grandfathers in the small restaurant, at noon Chen's father cut some cucumbers, fungus and carrot shreds, put on a little oil, salt, sauce, acetic acid mud and sesame sauce cold mix, the other is fried with shredded meat, and there are peppers in it, slippery, fragrant and spicy. Chen's mother came over at noon with Mao Mao, soaked it with water, and even ate two bites of Mao Mao with a taste.

It takes a lot of people to make vermicelli, and Chen's father made an appointment to make it tomorrow, and the two big iron pots are supported in the courtyard of the curtain shop next door, and there is nothing in the yard of the curtain shop, and it is more than enough to put two large pots. Chen's father went to help set up two temporary pots after lunch, in the afternoon is mainly to sieve powder and rinse powder with Chen's mother in the building materials store, and in the middle of the afternoon, there is also a cash cow and the god of the stove, in fact, to put it bluntly, it is to send and sell the wooden board New Year paintings, the New Year paintings are the god of the stove and the cash cow, but everyone does not say so, to sell is called send, to buy is called please, please God of Wealth, please God of Stove, please cash cow. These New Year's pictures are posted by every household in the town of Autumn every New Year, and I don't know the customs that have been handed down throughout the life of Lu Dao, but the New Year's pictures are not expensive, two yuan a lot. Every year, the people who come to the door are some old men and old women, and sometimes they also sell incense, which is burned at home for bodhisattvas and Chinese New Year's Eve.

This year, it was an old lady who came, and Chen's father paid for the New Year's paintings, and let people in and poured a cup of hot water. The old lady saw that there was a freshly made powdered skin, so she asked more, and Chen's father wrapped two more sheets for people to go back and eat by themselves. Now the old lady was so happy that she had to give a pillar of incense. Chen's mother didn't ask for it, it was not easy for an old man to come out and sell something on this cold day, although a pillar of small incense was not very valuable.

Zhang Shinian and Chen Anxiu are very busy, separated in the morning, and did not see each other until the evening before going to bed, and the situation was slightly better in the next day, because the two of them were going to drive to Beijing, but they didn't want to drive because of fatigue, and they had an accident halfway, this day was the sixteenth day of the lunar month, it was a big set in Qiuli Town, and there was less than half a month before the New Year, this is a New Year's fair, so there were more people in the market than usual, and the things sold were also more New Year's flavor, and the couplets and fireworks that were not there on weekdays were put out, especially firecrackers, from the morning when the market opened, It just crackled and crackled.

Because Chen's father made an appointment with someone to make noodles today, Chen Anxiu paid the heavy responsibility of catching up with the market to sweep the New Year's goods, and the rest is easy to say, mainly to buy couplets and money from the door, if you forget to buy these things, it should be a joke for the New Year. Buying couplets is also a fine job, what kind of door stickers what kind of couplets, big small, long square, big blessing words, small blessing words, zero zero total are corresponding. There are many doorways everywhere in his house, and it is particularly troublesome to buy, one by one.

Chen Anxiu spent half a day just buying this, and after going home with a bunch of red paper, he came out to buy fireworks and firecrackers, and got these things in the morning, and the rest was not in a hurry. Chen's father said that he would not come back for dinner at noon, and the others would be busy with dinner at home, Chen Anxiu was going to the small restaurant to explain what happened after he left, and Zhang Shinian was going to the ton school to hold a parent-teacher meeting, when passing by the curtain shop, Chen Anxiu went in to take a look, more than a dozen big men were busy working in the yard, beating paste, live powder, leaking powder, boiling water, fishing powder, two cauldrons were going on at the same time, Chen's father was responsible for leaking powder by the pot in the east, this is not an easy job, you need to hold the mold with holes in the lower part in one hand, the other hand clenched his fist and kept beating, the dough in the gourd scoop leaked out of the hole one by one, fell into the boiling pot below, and when the noodles floated up in the boiling water, the person responsible for scooping the noodles next to him quickly scooped the boiled powder into the cold water basin next to it.

"Dad, I'll try, I'm stronger than you." Chen Anxiu saw that his father had been beating for a while, so he rolled up his sleeves and wanted to go over to help.

Father Chen took the time to wave his hand at him and said, "This job is not something that can be done with strength. ”

"Isn't this a hard knock? What's so hard about it? "It's not technical at all.

The people here are all fifty or sixty uncles, and those in their forties are rare, not to mention Chen Anxiu, who is a young man, young people have never done it at all, and they don't know the skills in it, and the others saw that he was eager to try, so they encouraged Chen's father and said, "Jianping, let him try, let him try, when we are old, we can't do it, I don't think anyone in their generation will." ”

Dad Chen refused with a smile and said, "Where would he do this, it's a waste to let him get started." ”

"It's just a sweet potato, it's not a precious thing, what is not wasted, if it really doesn't work, let Hua Kun pick it out and throw it away when he fishes for powder, what a big deal."

Seeing that everyone said so, Dad Chen handed the leaky scoop to Chen Anxiu, and instructed him how to beat it, but Chen Anxiu didn't seem to be very good, and the powder that leaked out was not evenly proportioned. are all from the villagers, and others will not laugh at a junior because of this, and it will be over after teasing him.

In order to make the noodles dry quickly, a lot of water is generally poured on the noodles at night, so the frozen noodles are generally selected when the weather is cold, and it is better when it snows, and it can be frozen through at night, knock off the ice on the noodles during the day, and continue to splash them at night, so that there are ten days and half a month of almost, this time to do, just in time to eat during the New Year. If you can't finish eating it yourself, you can also divide it with relatives, and you can make it yourself at home, and you can rest assured that you can eat it.

No matter how busy the matter at hand was, Chen Anxiu put it down for the time being, and early in the morning of the seventeenth day of the lunar month, their family packed up a little and set out collectively to embark on a journey to Beijing.

The author has something to say: there have been too few recently, and there will be as much as possible later.

I wrote about vermicelli in the middle of the night, and suddenly I wanted to eat hot and sour noodles and starved to death