Early the next morning, Zhang Taiping got up early and practiced martial arts in the valley after the road, practicing martial arts was like sailing against the current, and if he did not advance, he would retreat, Zhang Taiping did not think about how far his fists and feet could be improved, but at least he had to maintain the current situation. Unexpectedly, the old man had already played Tai Chi in the valley, and Zhang Taiping also followed suit, which seemed to be slow and had no attack power, and only by fighting in an immersive way could he feel the horror in it.

After the old man played Tai Chi a few times, he stopped and stood aside to watch Zhang Taiping practice his fists, feet and knife skills. Although it is not suitable to be proficient in knife techniques, one method can be used to ten thousand methods, and it can still be seen that Zhang Taiping seems to swing the knife at will, and the precise calculation and grasp of the force.

Seeing Zhang Taiping carrying the tree with his body, the tree was shaken and trembled, and the old man's eyes also showed surprise, this kind of power is very rare, even if he is at his peak, it is not impossible to reach this point.

After Zhang Taiping stopped, the old man pointed to the neatly trimmed fruit trees in the orchard and asked, "You pruned this, are you ready to manage the orchard?" ”

Zhang Taiping nodded and said: "Yes, I want to manage the fruit trees well next year, well, then I will build a farmhouse." ”

The old man nodded and said, "It's time to do something." ”

As he walked back, he asked, "The eagle on the roof is yours?" ”

"Yes, this was rescued in the mountains after a heavy snowfall, when someone shot through the wings with a shotgun, brought back for treatment, and boiled it by the way, and named it Xiaojin."

"Yes, those two dogs are not bad either." The old man praised twice, then stopped talking, and walked back with his hands behind his back.

After breakfast, a large group of people came to the house, all of whom had heard that the old man had come down the mountain to visit.

The old man and Cai Yazhi's grandfather came down from the battlefield and settled here, and they blocked the local bandits for the village, which is why the villagers have taken so much care of Cai Yazhi's two sisters over the years. And the old man also has a magical Chinese medicine skills, which has been the role of the author Langzhong in the village for decades, and the prescriptions prescribed are all written according to the individual's condition. And the medical treatment is basically free of medical expenses, and the prescriptions and methods of taking the medicine are written and handed over to the patients to let them take the medicine and decoction by themselves, and they never worry about the leakage of any prescriptions.

Of course, the people of the village were grateful for his reverence, although he had not often seen a doctor on the mountain in recent years, and only when he encountered a sudden illness that he could not be seen to be optimistic about, people came to the mountain to invite him down, and the reverence for him remained undiminished. A large group of people came to visit with all kinds of things, and the village chief was among them.

The old man did not refuse, nodded and asked Cai Yazhi to accept these things, and the people who received the things seemed to have gained great glory, and they no longer stayed at Zhang Taiping's house too much, and went happily.

Only the village chief stayed and drank a few cups of tea with the old man, and he was always holding the junior etiquette to ask the old man for advice, and finally left happily under the old man's nod, it seems that the old man nodded and agreed to something.

It seems that there is really an old man in the family, but an "old" like the old man is a treasure of the whole village.

Most of the surnames in the village are Wang and Zhang, and there are quite a few people who sacrifice the stove on the twenty-four nights. Before it was dark, firecrackers rang out in the village one after another, and you could hear the nursery rhyme from afar: "Twenty-three, the sacrifice is over, and the children clap their hands and laugh." In five or six days, the New Year will come. Evil box, walnut, drop drop two cannons. The five sons of Dengke ping-pong sounded, and the fire rose higher than the sky. It reflects the joy of children looking forward to the New Year.

Zhang Taiping's family is also busy at this time, and is preparing a dry meal, mainly stove cakes and various hemp balls. In the past, it was all branded with patterns, at most it was to put some white sugar in it, and brown sugar was a luxury; But now it's different, people's conditions allow, will put all kinds of ingredients, Zhang Taiping's family now prepared several kinds of filling, including white sugar, brown sugar, bean paste, rock sugar orange peel, sesame paste.

After making different marks in the imitation dough cake with various fillings, a dozen of them are baked together in a large pot, and different marks will be left on it when it comes out, so you can choose your favorite cake according to your taste.

After the stove cake was baked, I made seven or eight dishes, how to say that tonight is also Chinese New Year's Eve, and the fire is always better than usual. After doing this, the sacrifice begins to be made.

The ancients have always been sacrificed by men, folklore, the moon belongs to the yin, the stove belongs to the yang, so "men do not sacrifice the moon, women do not sacrifice the stove". In the evening of the sacrificial stove, the family makes "sacrificial stove soup" with tofu, vermicelli, cabbage, kelp, etc., and serves it to the front of the tablet of the old stove master, and then offers the sesame cake made of sugar paste or wheat sugar syrup, called "sacrificial stove sugar", because "the god of the stove is obscure and says that the white man is sinful, so he sticks to the god with sugar cakes during the worship and makes him not speak". Some also make eighteen fires, and use a rooster, clamp its two wings, and put it in front of the stove god, and at the same time put some grass and beans aside to "mow the god horse". During the sacrificial stove, the chief priest first sprinkles wine on the cockscomb, and then burns incense and candles in front of the shrine, and sets off firecrackers. After the prayer, the statue of the god of the stove is removed from the wall, gently rubbed on his mouth with the sugar of the stove, and burned on a paper horse, while chanting "Send the stove master to ride a horse to heaven", and the sacrifice is over.

Nowadays people are not so exquisite, because women are in charge of the kitchen, all this falls on women, and in the countryside there are now very few men who go to the stove. At least Zhang Taiping's house is like this now, the old man and the two are sitting in the house drinking tea and watching TV, and Cai Yazhi and the four daughters are busy in the kitchen.

First of all, Cai Yazhi pasted the portrait of the stove master and the stove woman on a special recess place on the wall above the pot stove.

The portrait is also accompanied by a couplet, the banner is "the head of the family" four words, the stove master is in charge of the kitchen in charge of the food, in the era of food can not be satisfied, he was enshrined as the head of the family, the accommodation of the vast number of people's desire for things and the good wish not to worry about food. On both sides is a couplet: "Heaven says good things, and down to earth is auspicious".

Tonight is called the sacrificial stove, in fact, it is also called the delivery stove. Zao Ye has been sitting in the kitchen since Chinese New Year's Eve last year, and on the night of the twenty-fourth, he sent him to the sky to meet the Jade Emperor to report on the situation at home that year, and picked him up on the evening of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve. Therefore, people hope that the stove master can say good things in front of the Jade Emperor, and thirty times to bring good luck!

Paste the portrait, then light a pair of small candles on the wooden board in front of you, light a few pillars of incense, and then put the prepared food on the wooden board in front of the portrait, please enjoy the stove master and the stove mother. There are some vegetarian foods on it, and most of them are sweets, I hope that the stove master can say a good word when he eats the sweets and smears the sugar on his mouth to the sky.

Wait for a while, and when the stove master and the stove woman have finished enjoying it, Cai Yazhi took out a paper pony and grain and grass, knelt on the ground and burned it together with the old portrait, muttering silently in her mouth, and gesturing in her hand: Congratulations to the stove master and the stove woman to say good things to heaven, and go down to earth to bring good fortune. Then there was a silent thought in his mouth. Several others did the same, kneeling on the ground and muttering words in their mouths. This is Zhang Taiping still outside with a string of firecrackers, which can be regarded as preparing a horse for the stove master to send the stove master to the sky.

After doing all this, I quickly took down the sesame sugar stove cakes and other things that I had just contributed to the stove and gave them to the family, paying attention to the spirit and praying for the family to avoid disasters.

After the festival, the whole family enjoys the candy, cakes and dinner together. In the past, I was particular about what I ate tonight, and I used noodles and other vegetarian foods for dinner, not meat, and paid attention to eating as much as possible, commonly known as "filling the warehouse". However, now people really don't pay so much attention to it, except for the things contributed to the stove master and the stove mother, the things they eat at home are indeed not taboo.

The old man sat on the main seat, eight dishes were placed on the table, and there were two baskets of stove cakes, and Zhang Taiping also went down to the cellar to take out a jar of wine.

The old man saw that the dishes on the table and the electrical appliances at home were not what they were half a year ago, and the quality of life had obviously improved by more than one grade, so he couldn't help but say to Zhang Taiping: "It is best to use martial arts in the right place." ”

Zhang Taiping was stunned for a moment, but instantly understood what he meant, and said with a smile: "Grandpa, don't worry, I only learn martial arts to strengthen my body." A gentleman loves money in a proper way, and making money is definitely a legitimate means, and he will not do anything wrong. ”

The old man was surprised that Zhang Taiping could say such a thing, but he also knew that this was his guarantee, so he didn't say anything more, and waved his hand and said, "Let's eat." ”

As the old man's voice fell, the little girl first started the chopsticks and sandwiched a piece of pork ribs, but put it in the old man's bowl instead of in her own bowl, and said, "Grandpa, this is the pork ribs made by Aunt Xing, but they are delicious." ”

The old man looked at a piece of ribs in the bowl, looked stunned, and then laughed, shook Cangyu, vented his inner happiness, wiped Yaya's little head and said, "Okay, it's better for Yaya to be grandpa." ”

The other three girls didn't feel anything, but Xing Rushui's heart was shocked, it was not easy for the old man to have such a good spirit and a healthy body at such an age, but he didn't expect the old man of the Zhang family to be really full of energy, and there was no sign of aging at all, and there was no problem in living for another twenty years.

The old man was smiling and eating the ribs of Yaya Calais, his body was strong, and none of his teeth were bad, and he could enjoy any food like a young man.

The next dinner ended in the cheerful atmosphere created by the little girl's ribs.