Ran'er and Qinglian stood at the door of the fence, and when they saw Uncle Shun turn around and disappear at the foot of the mountain, they turned around and came to the house.

"Sister, Grandpa Li's family is a good person."

"Yes, Lian'er. Since my sister can remember, she has been taken care of by Grandpa Li's family. If you have a chance in the future, you must repay Grandpa Li. ”

When I came to the yard and saw that it was almost lunchtime, I asked Qinglian to burn the fire and boil out ten catties of standard oil first. Divide the oil stains into two parts, one large and one small, keep the more dumplings on the 30th, and the less part is the same as usual, sprinkle a little salt, and the sisters eat it as a dish. After boiling the oil, put the laba porridge sent by Uncle Shun in the pot and steamed it, and the sisters took it for lunch.

"Lian'er, let's have a good New Year this year. How about making dumplings, stir-frying two vegetables, and boiling ten eggs? ”

"Sister, it costs a lot of money."

"It's just once a year, just break the bank. Does Lian'er want to set off firecrackers? ”

Qinglian shook her head and said:

"Never let it go, it's so loud, it's scary."

"My sister didn't dare to put it down, so I wouldn't buy it."

For the next few days, the two sisters were fine, the weather outside was cold, and they spent almost the whole day on the kang in the east except for a morning run. In addition to teaching Qinglian to read and write, Ran'er also read the four books and five classics sent by the spring water last time, and when she was tired, she took out the needle and thread and bandage used by her mother to embroider before and fiddled with it. Although her mother did not teach Ran'er, Ran'er always watched by her mother's side, and she remembered a little bit. There is nothing to do at the moment, and I can't help but have the idea of learning embroidery. I found a piece of white cloth, tightened it on the bandage, first sketched a chrysanthemum on the white cloth with a pen, and then tried to embroider it. Qinglian read and wrote, and also came to Ran'er's side to read.

The twenty-third year of the lunar month is a small year, and Ran'er remembers that in previous years, her mother had to quit the stove, and she also went to the small shop in Xia Village with Qinglian to buy a New Year's painting of the stove prince, and ten sugar melons. Peel off the old New Year's painting and burn it, paste the New Year's picture, divide the sugar melon into two parts, put it in two small bowls, put it in front of the New Year's painting of the stove king, use an incense burner made of hard paper, light three incense sticks and insert it. Before noon, he burned some paper money and led Qinglian to kowtow to the New Year's painting. The resignation was completed, and the two began to eat sugar melons.

"Is it delicious, Lian'er?"

"It's delicious, it's just too sticky."

Ran Er couldn't help laughing when she saw that Qinglian was very hard every time she opened her mouth.

"It's my sister who is not good, I forgot to tell sù Lian'er, I can only bite a little bit when I eat sugar melon, I bite too much at a time, and my sticky teeth are terrible."

On the afternoon of the twenty-eighth, the sky began to overcast. For the whole day of the twenty-ninth day, the sky was shrouded in dark clouds, and a bitter cold wind was blowing. The water in the outer tank formed a thick layer of ice in the evening, which Ran Er had never seen before.

"Lian'er, did you say it's going to snow?"

"I don't know, I guess it will."

"It rarely snows here, and even it does have sporadic light snow, which melts quickly. Looking at the way it looks today, it's so cold, if it really snows heavily, the house we live in, and the rain pavilion Xiaozhu, I'm afraid we can't help it. ”

"Won't it be crushed, will it?"

"It's possible if the snow is too big. No, Lian'er, we have to prepare. ”

"How to prepare?"

"Lian'er come with me."

Ran Er led Qinglian to the courtyard, only to feel that the cold wind seemed to blow through the thick cotton clothes on their bodies, and the two of them shivered involuntarily. Ignoring the cold, Ran'er picked up a sickle hanging under the eaves, and went directly to the bamboo forest behind the house with Qinglian. Look at a bamboo, which is the thickness of an arm, and after cutting it down three or two times, it is divided into two sections, each of which has the height of a thatched house. Ran'er carried the bamboo, and Qinglian returned to the small courtyard with a sickle. Ran Er took the broom made of thin bamboo branches that she usually used to sweep the floor, tied it tightly to one end of the bamboo with a rope, tried it in her hand, and said to Qinglian:

"If it really snows heavily, my sister will use it to sweep the snow on the roof and the grass pavilion, so that she is not afraid of being crushed."

"Lian'er helps my sister clean up together."

When it gets dark, the wind gets stronger. The window paper was blowing, and the bamboo forest behind the house whined in the wind. The sisters burned the kang hot, and hid in the bed early to keep warm. The two had never lit an oil lamp, and they couldn't sleep for a while, so they talked in the dark.

"Lian'er, tomorrow after breakfast, we will make dumplings, wrap them and cook them first and send them to my mother."

"Well, give my mother more wraps and more meat."

"Okay, put more meat. When my mother was there, she rarely ate meat, saying that she was not in good health and would be disgusting if she ate meat. ”

"Oh. How did my sister spend the Chinese New Year last year? ”

"My sister lived alone. There are no dumplings, just steamed rice and scrambled eggs, which are also sent to my mother first. ”

"When my sister is alone, do you get scared at night?"

"Yes. At the beginning, I was so scared that I covered my head with a quilt and didn't dare to open my eyes to look outside. I dreamed of my mother every night, and my mother was still the same as when she was there, staying by Ran'er's side and talking to Ran'er. After a long time, I got used to it and was no longer afraid. ”

"My sister is so brave. In the spring, when her father and younger brother were just gone, Qinglian hid under the eaves of other people's houses at night, and she was always so scared that she couldn't sleep. The weather is cold, not to mention, when I open my eyes and close my eyes, I saw the scene of my father and mother and brother falling in blood that day. ”

As she spoke, Qinglian moved her body so that she could cling to Ran'er's body. Feeling Qinglian's movements, Ran'er also reached out and pulled Qinglian's small body into her arms. and went around and tucked the corners of Qinglian into the quilt.

When she woke up in the morning, she saw a bright light coming through the window, and Qinglian muttered:

"Why did you wake up late today?"

When the two of them got dressed and came to the outside room and opened the door, they realized that it was not that they were getting up late, but that it was snowing heavily, and the light on the window was the reflection of snow. At this time, the sky is still snowflakes, not big or small. Ran'er walked into the yard and tried the snow on the ground, almost over Ran'er's knees. So he took the shovel under the eaves and cleared a path in the yard first. Ran Er shoveled in front, Qinglian followed behind, and after a while, the road to the door, to the grass pavilion, and to the toilet was swept out. The big yellow dog's nest was next to the chicken's nest, and Ran'er also cleared a way. Looking at the footprints left by rhubarb on the snow, Ran'er knew that every morning was the time for rhubarb to go out to forage, and he would come back around breakfast.

After clearing a few roads, Ran Er didn't plan to completely clean up the snow in the yard, and wanted to wait for the snow to stop before cleaning it up together. Ran Er paid special attention to the rain pavilion Xiaozhu, and deliberately reached out and pushed one of the pillars hard, feeling very solid, and Ran Er put her mind at ease.

The two had a hasty breakfast and began to prepare dumplings. First mix the dumpling filling, then the noodles and so on. After everything was done, Ran'er asked Qinglian to light the fire, wrapped fifteen dumplings first, boiled them, put them in a big bowl, put them in a bamboo basket, and put them in a clay pot of dumpling soup, took incense and paper money, and led Qinglian to walk in the thick snow to go to the grave of his mother.

The stone case in front of the grave has been buried by snow, and the two of them cleaned up the snow on it with their hands, put dumplings and dumpling soup, lit three incense sticks, and stood in front of the grave to talk to their mother.

"Mother, it's the New Year today. Ran'er and Qinglian brought dumplings to their mother, which were filled with pork and cabbage. ”

"Mother, it's snowing a lot today, and it's still falling. Qinglian will be five years old after the end, and she can help her sister do a lot of work, so don't worry about us. ”

Sisters, you and I have been talking for a long time. When the three incense sticks were about to burn out, he burned the paper money, poured the dumpling soup on the snow in front of the stone case, put the dumplings back in the basket, and went back with the snowflakes that were gradually getting bigger on his head.

"Sister, have you seen today's paper ashes?"

"See."

"Sister said that today's swirling paper ashes look like a flower?"

"Well, it's kind of like it, and it's like a face."

Since the Qingming Festival, every time they go to the grave of their mother, the last time they see the flying paper ashes, it has become something that the sisters have been looking forward to. Just like this time, it was very difficult to count paper money on the snow, but the sisters made it for a long time before lighting it. It stands to reason that when the snow below is melted by the burning paper money, it will impersonate water vapor to stick to the paper ashes. However, the paper ashes still flew into the air. For the scene in front of them, the sisters no longer felt strange, and always felt in their hearts that this was a natural thing.

When Ran'er and Qinglian returned home, they didn't care about making dumplings, so they first cleaned up the snow on the roof. Each of them took a handful of brooms made of bamboo, stood on the ground, and swept the snow from the roof one by one. Although it can't be completely cleared, as long as most of the snow is swept down so that it doesn't collapse the house, it's fine. The two sisters were busy for more than an hour, and barely cleaned the roofs of the two rooms and the grass pavilion, and it was already the end of noon. Ran Er scalded the fifteen dumplings that came back from the grave with dumpling soup, and the two of them ate them separately, first padding their stomachs. Next, the sisters sat on the kang in the east room without worrying about making dumplings. The dumplings with three catties of noodles, the sisters still wrapped them for a while.

"Lian'er is hungry, right?"

"I'm not hungry, why don't we wait until the evening to eat together, sister?"

Ran Er looked at the sky, because it was snowing, and she didn't know the exact time, it was estimated that it should be around Shen Shi, so she nodded. The two of them began to stir-fry. After a while, the sky gradually darkened, and Ran Er took out an oil lamp from the niche of the kang head and put it on the table to light it. Said to Qinglian:

"Lian'er, today's New Year, we will also light the lamp."

At this time, the meals have been prepared, and a fried dried beans with meat are dried in the autumn. A scrambled egg with green onions. Two large bowls of pork and cabbage stuffed dumplings, a clay pot of hot dumpling soup. Such a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is simply a big meal for the sisters, especially for Qinglian.

Qinglian saw that Ran'er had placed three seats, and immediately understood, turned around and ran out to get three pairs of chopsticks, three bowls, and poured hot dumpling soup into each bowl.

When the door was closed, Ran'er saw that the sky was still drifting with snowflakes unhurriedly, and the wind had already stopped. On a quiet snowy night, you can occasionally hear the sound of firecrackers in the distance.