The teahouse and wine shop in Baitu Town began to sell salted duck eggs, and everyone knew that they were pickled by Chen Xiucai's family. There are only three people in the entire Baitu Town who have the name of Xiucai, and when it comes to Chen Xiucai, they all know that they are from Maoshan Village.

Old Man Chen went to the town to do some New Year's goods, and when he heard others say this, his happy eyebrows and eyes flew up. There is someone who knows, pointing to Old Man Chen and saying, Oh, isn't that Chen Xiucai's father. Old Man Chen was happy and bought two packets of peanut candy from the town and gave them to the children in the big house. When Mrs. Chen found out, she sat up and complained.

Mrs. Chen's back injury has been much better, and her back injury was not tight, so she pretended to lie on the bed for a few days, and when she saw the prosperity of the big house, she was also angry.

On the day when the 500 duck eggs in the big house were sold out, Mrs. Chen saw it in her eyes and ate three bowls of rice in a fit of anger.

After the twentieth month of the lunar month, the year is getting closer and closer.

No matter what dynasty it is, the New Year is always happy, lively, and warm.

The private school has taken annual leave since the twentieth day of the lunar month, and Chen Qi'an still does not change the habit of getting up to read when the rooster crows.

He studied under the poplar tree in the courtyard every day, and this scene fell into the eyes of Mrs. Chen in the upper room and everyone in the second room, like a piece of soldering iron burning everyone's eyes.

Xue Yao privately told Zhao that Dafang was stealing the limelight from Qi Lin, and the angry Zhao raised his neck and scolded, if he could get ahead, the carp at the door would also jump out of the dragon gate.

The White Horse Academy is also on vacation, and it is time for Chen Qilin to go home. Zhao couldn't help but be proud.

The big house is the first Chinese New Year after the separation. made a bad amount of money again, from the Li family to the children, everyone was very comfortable.

The family's New Year's goods are naturally rich. Li is a person who loves children, as long as the child wants to eat, he rushes to the town to buy it.

Under the eaves, the pot house is full of pork, chicken, duck, fish, and sausages, and there is quite a joyful abundance in it.

This day is the twenty-third day of the lunar month, a small year, and the sky has a heavy snowfall.

People who have been busy for a year have begun to stop and start preparing for the New Year. Clean the stove and have a good year.

"Don't be greedy, child. After Laba is the New Year. Twenty-three, twenty-three sugar melons are sticky, twenty-four are sweeping days, and twenty-five are buying tofu. Twenty-six buy catties of meat, twenty-seven slaughter chickens, twenty-eight handfuls of dough hair, twenty-nine steamed steamed buns, thirty nights of play, and twist and twist on the first day of the New Year. ”

"Twenty-three sacrifices to the king of the stove, a bowl of tea and a dish of slack", "Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky." Master Zao Jun wants to go to heaven. ”

Early in the morning, Chen Xuejiao and Chen Qi'an sang a ballad in the courtyard, their voices crisp and loud.

This day of the new year. There are many things to do, worship the king of the stove, sweep the dust, cut the window flowers, and take a bath.

Li is usually a diligent person, and he got up even earlier on the day of his childhood. After breakfast. Take the children and start sweeping, sweeping in order to remove the old and welcome the new. Pull out the ominous. People in this era are generally superstitious, and the Li family is no exception, and they must be carefully cleaned inside and out, if not, they are worried that they will have a bad year with dust.

In the pot house, the north wing room, carefully cleaned it, in previous years, the work of cleaning the roof was done by Chen Xiucai, this year Chen Xiucai was injured, Chen Qi'an volunteered, covered with a cloth shirt, tied a feather duster on the bamboo pole to sweep the dust on the roof. Chen Xuejiao and Chen Qiping swept the floor and sprinkled water with a broom, and Chen Xueru wiped the table with a cloth and quietly guarded the basket and cut the window flowers. The family was in full swing, and in less than two hours, the entire north wing room and the pot house, inside and out, were all cleaned, and the windows were really bright and clean, and they were not stained with dust.

After cleaning, the yellow dragonfly came, holding a large handful of plum blossoms in his hand. Chen Xuejiao took it, inserted it in the bottle, and placed it in the house, and immediately had an elegant taste.

The upper room is also dusting, in previous years, this work fell on the head of the Li family, and now that the family is separated, the Li family naturally clings to his own home first. Mrs. Chen didn't let her son dust up, saying that it was a woman's job, so the whole work of going to the room fell on the heads of the Zhao family and the Zhang family, and the two of them were tired and called their mothers.

When the big house was pasting window grilles, Zhao and Zhang had just finished cleaning Mrs. Chen's house, and Zhang took advantage of the time to fetch water and turned his head to look at the window grilles in Jing Hao's hand.

Jing is good at hand, the cut window flowers are delicate and good-looking, a set of three friends of the year is lifelike, and the red plums in the room are reflected in the window, not to mention how beautiful.

The yellow dragonfly saw it and clamored to learn. Jing Hao picked up the scissors and taught her how to cut them, cut a set of Fu Lushou and gave it to her, and cut a set of zodiac signs and gave it to Sister-in-law Jia.

"This set of window flowers costs ten cents in the town, I went to the town with my father two days ago, and the window flowers are not as good as your craftsmanship." The yellow dragonfly held the window flower and praised it.

Chen Xuejiao's heart moved when she heard this, and she smiled and said to Jinghao: "Cousin, it's better to cut more and sell it in the second aunt's shop." ”

Jing Hao thought about it for a while and agreed, this window flower is sold for ten yuan, and she sells seven yuan, and she can also make a lot of money.

After the dust is removed, it is the king of the sacrificial stove.

Li had already placed candy, water, beans, straw, and steamed buns that had just come out of the pot on the table in front of the statue of the stove king. A couplet is posted on the shrine of the king of the stove, the upper one is "good things in the sky", the lower one is "the lower world is safe", and the horizontal batch is "the head of the family". On one side of the statue of the king of the stove is a horse tied with sorghum and a trailer, and Li said to Chen Xuejiao that it is the seat of the king of the stove to ascend to heaven.

In her previous life, Chen Xuejiao spent the New Year at her grandmother's house to worship the King of the Stove, but she only placed candy, fruit cakes, and water in front of the statue of the King of the Stove, which was not as grand as this. So he asked Li curiously: "Mother, are the beans and straw grass for the king of the stove to eat?" ”

"Don't talk nonsense, this is to prepare for the mount of the Stove King's ascension." Li slapped Chen Xuejiao lightly, clasped his hands together and confessed his guilt.

Chen Xuejiao stole a noodle fruit from the plate on the desk, covered her head with a smile, and ran away with a cigarette. There are many taboos in the wax moon, you can't talk nonsense, you can't eat indiscriminately, you can't talk about the gods indiscriminately, otherwise you will be beaten.

As the saying goes, "men don't worship the moon, women don't worship the stove", so worshipping the king of the stove is limited to the men in the family. Li set up the sacrificial items on the table and withdrew with the girls. Chen Xiucai took Chen Qiping and Chen Qi'an's two sons to incense, poured wine, and said in his mouth: "The Lord of the Stove ascended to heaven, saw the Jade Emperor, and said a lot of good things." Less talking".

Chen Xiucai sacrificed here, and Li took Chen Xuejiao and others into the pot house, busy boiling "sugar melons". Sugar melon is used to stick to the mouth of the king of the stove when the king of the stove ascends to heaven at night, folklore, stick to the mouth of the king of the stove and say nothing when he goes to the sky, or say good words and sweet words.

Many families go to the town to buy sugar melons, and the Li family makes them by himself every year.

The so-called sugar melon is a very sticky sugar made from boiling yellow rice and malt. The candy stick that is drawn into a long strip is called "Kanto sugar", and the candy stick that is drawn into a flat shape is called "sugar melon".

Li had prepared the ingredients for making zuò sugar melons as early as yesterday. At this point, you just need to boil the sugar.

Boiling sugar is the most critical step in making zuò sugar melons, and at this time, Xianglian Niang next door came, in order to learn to boil sugar with Li's, and her family's sugar is not good every year.

Li told Xianglian Niang that the key to boiling sugar is to master the heat. I can't control the heat. The sugar pulled out will be "skiny" and become "old sugar", and it will not be brittle to eat; Or you can't pull out the sugar at all. The sugar that is boiled is called "sugar paste", also called "syrup". At this time, the sugar paste forms a thin film on the surface. I saw that Li picked up the sugar from the sugar pot with a candy stick, and the long sugar filaments were continuous, white and transparent, and there were no more small white bubbles in the sugar pot. This is proof that there is no water in the sugar, and at this time, the snow that is burning the pot is busy withdrawing the fire. Lee's was immediately busy "getting out of the pot".

After the pot is kneaded, the sugar paste is kneaded, and Li puts the sugar paste on the cutting board and kneades it repeatedly. This work is not only a work of strength, but also requires skill. First of all, it is necessary to grasp the temperature of the sugar paste. The sugar pan is too hot. You can't get your hands down; If the sugar paste is too cold, it will become hard and kneaded, and Li is ingenious, and every time he makes a lot of effort to knead the sugar in one go.

Xianglian Niang was helping beside her, and praised her mouth.

The last process is to pull out sugar, Li and Xianglian's father are facing each other, and one person is dragging a sugar paste head. Roll the sugar to a certain length, and one side of the sugar paste is closed upwards. Li left and shouted "continue", Xianglian Niang responded "come", and then pulled again. Repeatedly, the sugar paste becomes whiter and whiter, and the more it is pulled out and finer, and finally the "honeycomb" is pulled out, put on the case, filled, spiced, pressed into a general large block, and then frozen, and the large piece of sugar is made.

Chen Xuejiao only felt that it was good-looking, and she watched it with relish.

After the sugar was made, Li took out a wide dustpan and put it outside the house, because the weather was cold, the sugar melon was solidified and there were some tiny bubbles inside, which tasted crispy, sweet and crispy, and had a unique flavor.

The sugar melon is not only sticky to the mouth of the king of the stove, but also the snack of children.

Chen Xuejiao grabbed a piece and ate it, it was crispy and delicious, not to mention how fragrant it was.

After Li finished making his own sugar melon, he went next door to help Xianglian Niang.

When it was noon in the room, the dust removal had not been completed, and the three men Chen Zichang, Chen Zifu, and Chen Zigui had to go into battle under the leadership of Old Man Chen. Mrs. Chen scolded angrily, and put Li in a little bit: "I'm busy coming out, and I don't know whose daughter-in-law it is, she doesn't help her own work, but rushes to help other people's families." ”

This is complaining that the Li family helped Xianglian Niang boil sugar melons. The sugar melon in the big house has not yet boiled, relying on the Zhao family and the Zhang family don't know when to wait, Mrs. Chen has no choice but to scold and enter the pot house.

Boiling sugar melons is a hard work, and Old Man Chen was worried about Mrs. Chen's waist and asked Chen Zifu to go to the town to buy two catties. Chen Xiucai couldn't see it, so he took two catties from his own sugar melon and gave it to the upper room.

Li put the sugar melon under the eaves, the snow had stopped, and he was waiting for the sugar melon hard stone to move into the house. Chen Xuejiao didn't see it, so she found that Zhang's sticky one and put it in her mouth.

Chen Xuejiao is not afraid of her eating, what she is afraid of is that she will touch the candy without washing her hands, and the sugar will be covered with dust, and other people will not eat it. Worried that Zhang's was coming to steal food, Chen Xuejiao had to carry a stool to stay in front of her.

"I don't want a piece of candy, I pick and search like this." Zhang complained to Zhao.

On the day of the New Year, you should wash your body and welcome the arrival of the New Year. Because everyone in the big house loves to be clean, on cold days, every few days, Li will boil several large pots of water for the children to bathe, so Chen Xuejiao and others are clean, and they just washed their hair and changed into new clothes on this day.

In the evening, Li made a table of dishes, although not as good as Chinese New Year's Eve, but also very rich. Braised pig's trotters, braised lamb, large carp, and various kinds of stir-fried cold dishes, according to Chen Qiping, are better than the Chinese New Year's Eve eaten in previous years.

Although there are many people in the upper room, it is quite deserted, and Mrs. Chen is angry for today's dusting, which makes the family restless. In the past, the Li family was in charge of the family banquet, but this year it was the turn of the Zhao family and the Zhang family, who had no experience in cooking big dishes, a fish was half-cooked, the mutton was stewed too badly, and the hair of the pig's trotters was not cleaned, and the scolding of Mrs. Chen at the dinner table did not stop.

The big room is eating and guessing riddles, and it is lively and happy. Li Shi can make this meal hearty, because she knows that the night of Chinese New Year's Eve will definitely be reunited with the upper room, and today should be the New Year in advance.

The sound of laughter came into the upper room, and Mrs. Chen's scolding became even louder, and she even became ruthless.

At this time, I heard the sound of carriages outside, and a knock on the door came along with Qi Lin's voice.

It turned out that it was Chen Qilin who came back.

The people in the upper room put down the dishes and chopsticks one after another, and the Zhao family greeted them first. (To be continued)