On the morning of the second day of the first month of the 21st year of Dading, in Lijia Village, Xinchang County, Liaodong County, Wei State, in a farmhouse yard in the west of the village, four boys were boxing in the yard.

The chimney in the stove room emitted white smoke, and the smell of firewood and grass was mixed with the smell of food, which drifted out of the wind for more than a mile. This is Situ Yan's home in ancient times, of course, it is the four brothers Li Dalang who are boxing, and it has become a habit for the four of them to practice boxing in the morning, no matter how late they sleep at night, they will get up in the morning to box. With the improvement of food and physical exercise, the four brothers not only became stronger, but also increased their height a lot, and their thick neck disease had already been cured.

After breakfast, Li Dalang went to the village well to pick up water, the water in the village well was a little turbid, and Situ Yan was probably not used to eat and drink, only to wash. Today is the day of welcoming the son-in-law, according to the custom, it is the day when the married daughter returns to her parents' house, and several half-grown babies have not married, so naturally this day has nothing to do with them. And the New Year is not allowed to move needles and scissors; Do not dump sewage and throw garbage; I can't even take a nap, lest I become lazy all year long.

In the days when they are free, people have little energy, Situ Yan has a cold personality, but during the New Year, she is unwilling to let Li Dalang stay at home, so let them go to find friends who know each other and have a good relationship, or invite people to be guests at home, and everyone can be free in this winter for a year. When it comes to the third year of junior high school, you can't go to the door to meet friends, and that day is called "Hungry Ghost Day", so you can only hide at home to avoid quarrels with people.

At noon, Situ Yan prepared a table of food to entertain the little friends invited by the four brothers of the Li family, such as Xiao Yang'er, Shanwazi, and Dog, "Little Wu, your meal is more fragrant than my mother." Or you can go to my house and be my sister! It was Li Mu who spoke with Li Dalang.

"Li Mu, what do you want to do? Xiao Wu is my sister, don't you have Cui Ya at home! Li Erlang's voice was a little loud, and his reaction was a little excessive. He didn't know why whenever he met his little sister, he was very nervous, and his words were a little rushed, which shocked Li Mu.

"Erlang, what are you yelling about, I don't mean that, I just think Xiao Wufan is delicious." Li Mu was a little embarrassed, and didn't understand why Erlang was so excited.

"Yes, second brother" Li Sanlang pulled the hem of his second brother's clothes to help relieve the siege, "Brother Li Mu, it's a joke!" Several people accompanied the conversation, and the atmosphere improved.

Situ Yan just thought it was a group of half-sized children fighting with each other, and he didn't pay attention to it at all, the little sheep lowered his head and ate, and squinted his eyes at Situ Yan from time to time, in fact, he also wanted to say the same thing as Li Mu, and it was not only these two people who moved this thought at this dinner table.

The dog has been running to Li Dalang's house these days, and it may not sound good to say it, but his favorite is Li Dalang's thatched house, which is clean and fragrant, "Brother Dalang, your thatched house is made of paper (paper used after going to the toilet), and my mother said that the paper is very expensive, and it is written for readers." ”

Erlang was a little proud, and patted the dog's shoulder with a smile, "What is expensive, it is all waste paper, all of which are used by Xiao Wu with firewood and exchanged with the county school." ”

"But I don't see any words on it?"

"That's not all my little five, what kind of water did you get, and the ink was washed, you have to take a closer look, it's still a little imprinted."

Situ Yan didn't want Erlang to mention this, so she glared at him hurriedly, "Second brother, what are you talking about?" ”

San Lang had already seen that the little sister didn't like it, and hurriedly pushed Erlang, "Yes, the second brother and the dog brothers eat, don't mention those dirty and finished." ”

Situ Yan glanced at a few people on the table, and saw that the dog's words did not arouse the suspicion of others, so she settled down and continued to eat. After the meal, I don't know who took out some scattered artillery battles, and a few people played around at the gate of the courtyard for a while, and then dispersed and went home. Before leaving, Situ Yan put two pieces of snacks in everyone's clothes pockets, although there are no elders in the family for the New Year, there is no need to give gifts, but people can't go back empty-handed.

After the third day of the new year, it is the fourth day of the new year, and on this day, the leftover meals from the previous days are combined to make a hodgepodge, commonly known as eating Zheluo. I cleaned the room again, piled up the garbage in one place, waited for the day of "throwing away the poor" tomorrow, found a three-way intersection to throw away the garbage, and threw all the bad luck, unhappiness, and poverty out of the door in the new year, so that this year can have a good life, although superstitious, but Situ Yan still does the same thing according to the old tradition, one is to make the four brothers feel at ease, and the other is that she herself because she has crossed here, she still believes in these strange things a little.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the year will be considered seventy-seven-eighty-eight. Although there was also a big gathering in Xinchang County on this day, Situ Yan did not go. Because today is the fifth day of the Lunar New Year and the beginning of spring, it is a big day of the year for the peasants facing the loess with their backs to the sky, and this day bears too much hope and longing for the peasants.

The village is organizing the villagers to welcome spring, sacrifice, and whip spring oxen, in order to pray for a year of good weather and abundant grains, Li Dalang took Erlang to the ancestral hall early in the morning.

The most important thing in the sacrificial activity is the "whip spring cow", the village is breaking the earth ox containing the five grains, the villagers are scrambling to grab the cow soil, it is called the spring robbery, the cattle soil that is grabbed is scattered into the ground, and the land for cultivation can have a good harvest, originally had to grab the five grains flowing out of the cow's belly, but the five grains are too little, the village is afraid that some villagers can not grab them, so they distribute the five grains to the villagers according to the households, so that each family has the five grains, put these grains into their own rice jars or flour jars, indicating that the grain is sufficient, and the grains are full of jars. In fact, this "whip spring cow" has some witchcraft significance, so the villagers especially believe in these.

On such days, of course, women can't participate, so Situ Yan stays at home to tidy up the house and make spring cakes that must be eaten in the beginning of spring.

In my previous life, in my hometown in Northeast China, my grandmother made spring cakes very particularly, a thin pie crust made of flour, a dish fried with eight fine shreds such as shredded pork in Beijing sauce and stir-fried vermicelli with pickled vegetables, and then shredded green onions, plus a soup, will fill the whole table.

But at this time, the ingredients were limited, so Situ Yan had to take local materials and add some white wheat noodles to the bud grain noodles to make a thin crust. Shredded potatoes (Situ Yan persuaded Li Dalang and a few people for a long time before convincing a few people to be willing to change the name of "poisonous egg" to "potato". ), shredded mountain fungus, shredded meat, garlic sprouts and eggs are fried together to make a combination of vegetables and used to roll spring cakes. It's barely a scene, mainly to eat a sense of meaning and a festive meal.

As soon as the sacrificial activities in the village ended, Li Dalang took his younger brothers home, and the family sat on a warm kang around the kang table to eat spring cakes. Li Dalang had never eaten spring cakes, and at the beginning they were all eating mouthful food and biting into cakes, but Situ Yan couldn't stand it anymore, so he taught him. Li Erlang can eat one in almost two or three bites. Seeing the fragrant eating of several people, Situ Yan felt very satisfied, what this cook wants to see most is that the people who eat are fragrant and full.

"Big brother, after dinner, you go and help me find Little Sheep, Mountain Baby, Dog and Brother Liangzi. I have something to discuss with them. ”

"Okay." Li Dalang should be happy. I didn't ask Xiaomei what she was doing with these people, so she went out to find someone after eating.

Everyone gathered in Situ Yan's house, and then they saw Situ Yan walking out of the east room, "Brothers, I want to sell lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and I can make some money while it is lively." So I want to ask my brothers to help make some lanterns, of course, the money sold goes to the cost of materials, and it is divided equally according to the head. If my brothers don't have anything to do at home, they come over every morning after breakfast, eat lunch at my house, and go back before dinner. ”

Several of them were still half-grown children, one was happy to hear something to play with, and the other was that this thing could still be sold for money, and they all shouted praise. Ryoko is older and thinks more, "Little Wu, it's not that I don't want to do it, it's just that I don't know!" What is this lantern going to look like, can it be done, I don't know it? ”

"yes, I haven't done it before?" "Me too?" A few people who were happy just now, after listening to Ryoko's words, suddenly all of them became frosted eggplants, and they no longer had the excitement just now.

"Brothers, don't worry, although I don't know how to do it, but I can draw lights, and then we try to do it according to the way, it must be impossible at first, but if you do more, it will always be done, and my brothers are so smart, this must not be difficult for you." From tomorrow to the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, there are still 9 days to go, and there is still time. Situ Yan had already thought about it, she couldn't do complex lanterns, but she was better at novel compositions, this year is the Year of the Rabbit, and there are hundreds of cartoon rabbit patterns without thinking about it.

"Okay, so when are we going to start?" Shan Wazi thought that Situ Yan praised them for being smart, so she was happy, but she didn't hear Situ Yan's words clearly, so she couldn't start making lanterns immediately, and he could also make more money for the family and redeem his sister.

"I still have to prepare, starting tomorrow morning." Situ Yan discussed with a few more people before sending a few people away.

When everyone left, Li Dalang asked Situ Yan, "Xiao Wu, can this lantern be sold well?" I heard Li Zhaocai say before, that day the street was full of lantern fans giving lanterns, and he guessed a lantern fan last year and got a lantern? "He is worried, afraid that things are done, but he can't sell money, if it's just his own family busy, even if he can't sell money, it's just a pity, and he won't have other ideas, but now he pulls up a few others, if he can't sell money, and let his family suffer for the New Year, I'm afraid that these families have some ideas.

"We also guess the lantern fans, we will give it if we guess, and if we don't guess and want the lantern, we have to buy it with silver, and a person who guesses once can't guess again. Big brother rest assured, I will think more about the hard-to-guess lamp fans, and I won't let them guess. And the relationship between the mountain baby and the little sheep is very good, once it really can't be sold, it doesn't matter, I think of other ways. Situ Yan understood Li Dalang's worries, so when Li Mu was there that day, she didn't talk about it, but brought a few people to discuss it alone. And she thought about it before making lanterns, she had seen so many strange mysteries in her previous life, I was afraid that the ancients would not be able to guess the mystery if they wanted to break their heads. With this certainty, she dared to go to Zhang Luo.

"Moreover, I will also make some Lantern Festival, get a stove at that time, and buy a pot, and we will sell fried Lantern Festival during the day that day to ensure that it is easy to sell. It's just that I still have to buy this stove and pot. The pot can't be bought bigger, it needs to be deeper. Situ Yan was talking to herself a little to herself.

"Then tomorrow I will go to the county seat, the shops in the county have been opened, I will go and buy things back." Li Dalang felt that it was something that the little sister wanted, and it must be very important.

"That's not in a hurry, let's just buy it again on the day of the fifteenth market, you can use it directly if you just buy it, and you don't have to go on another trip."

"Xiao Wu, isn't it very troublesome to do Lantern Festival, we can't do it, how can I help you?" Li Sanlang still remembered the hard work of the little sister when she was busy with the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and he didn't want to make the little sister tired anymore.

"It's not difficult, you can do it well if you do more. When I'm free, I'll teach you. Situ Yan felt that these money-making businesses had to be taught to a few people, and even if she left in the future, a few people would be able to find a way to survive.

"I want to learn too?" Shiro pulled the little sister, afraid that the little sister would not teach him. "Okay, our family has to learn." Da Lang and Ji Lang looked at such younger brothers, and their hearts were happy.

When Situ Yan was busy in the eastern room, she was able to draw a hundred lantern patterns, all of which looked like cartoon rabbits, which were particularly cute. With these patterns, you can't go wrong with weaving. I went to the door of the west room and listened, and made sure that Li Dalang and the others had slept, so I went to the utility room, took out all the bamboos in the ring and piled them aside, and then went back to the house to rest.