The closer to the New Year, the heavier the New Year's flavor of every household, and on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the home is even more lively.

Early in the morning, the whole family did not dare to delay and got up early, because the most important thing on this day is to sacrifice to the god of the stove.

Worshipping the god of the stove is not allowed to participate in this kind of thing, Shen's father took Shen Jinqian's brothers to worship, and Shen's mother took Liu Bicao and Shen He to clean the house inside and out, which is also commonly known as "sweeping dust".

In particular, the kitchen utensils are particularly important, Liu Bicao moved all the spatulas for cooking rice, bowls for rice, etc., out of the kitchen and carefully washed them in the yard.

At noon, the family had a simple meal and began to prepare for the New Year's meal.

Liu Boan and Shen Jinxin were responsible for cleaning up a pot of small fish in a wooden basin, Shen Mei took Shen He to sit in the yard and cut window flowers, and Shen Jinqian wrote couplets on the side.

"Big brother's handwriting is so beautiful." Shen Jinyan, who grinded Shen Jinqian, was very envious when he saw that Shen Jinqian could write.

"In the future, when Jinyan reads the book, your handwriting will definitely be better than your eldest brother's." Liu Bicao washed the lotus root, and Shen's mother took it and cut it carefully, and the thickness of each slice was about the same.

Because there was a lot of food to cook today, the whole family was busy, and in order to be spacious, Shen's father had built a simple kitchen in a corner of the courtyard before.

"Sister-in-law, I will try my best to surpass my eldest brother, and I will also gain fame." Little people have lofty ideals and goals, and they are determined to be part of the whole family.

Seeing him like a little adult, Liu Bicao put down the work in his hand and looked at him seriously: "I would like to say, I said that I would send you to study at home, and I will definitely send you there." But you have to know that gaining fame is secondary, and the most important thing is to make you reasonable. ”

Liu Bicao didn't want him to bury the matter of gaining fame in his heart since he was a child, which would make him very tired in the future. It's more about wanting him to be reasonable, and then things will go their course.

"I see, sister-in-law." Shen Jinyan is now studying with Shen Jinqian, starting from the enlightenment of the "Three Character Classic", and reading it for two quarters of an hour every day after dinner.

Just when the family was busy performing their duties, the courtyard door was knocked and someone came.

After Liu Boan learned the lesson last time, when he heard the door, he took two steps back with agility, and said to Shen Jinxin, "Open the door quickly." ”

Shen Jinxin ate the dumb loss he had made, and slowly opened the door.

"Why are you here?" Seeing that Shen Jinxin's boss was unhappy and wanted to close the door, who knew that as soon as the visitor saw Shen Jinxin open the door, he shouted loudly.

"Mother-in-law, are you at home?" As he spoke, he squeezed in, the sound was loud, and the neighbors around him heard it, and they inevitably came out to see the excitement, Shen Jinxin closed the door with a "snap", keeping the neighbors' eyes out.

The Shen family was also taken aback when they saw someone coming, and their immediate reaction was to go to see Shen Jinqian, and when they saw that Shen Jinqian still looked indifferent, they were relieved.

"You can eat indiscriminately, but you can't talk indiscriminately." Mother Shen had a dark face and continued to cut the lotus root in her hand.

"Yo, is this coupling?" The visitor stepped forward unceremoniously and picked up a piece of raw lotus root on the cutting board with his hand and put it in his mouth.

"Look at what you said, one day husband and wife hundred days, Jin Qian and Ah Xiu didn't become husband and wife, they are also unmarried couples for several years, aren't they?"

As soon as this person entered the door and called Shen's mother his mother-in-law, and then looked at the expressions of the Shen family, Liu Bicao guessed who this person was, and now listening to her words, she can be sure that the person who came was the mother of the fiancée in front of Shen Jinqian.

That's right, this person is the mother of Shen Jinqian's ex-fiancée, Liu.

When Liu looked at the Shen family, he thought about marrying his eldest daughter to the Shen family, and the number of times he came to the Shen family was increasing day by day, either today to ask how to make clothes, or tomorrow to ask how to make shoes.

Over time, the Shen family became familiar with the Liu family, and gradually the Liu family also revealed that he wanted to be a family member.

Later, Shen Jinqian went to serve, and after he came back, he was not young, and the two families put the marriage on the agenda, who knew that Shen's mother was suddenly ill, menacing, and spent all her savings.

When Shen's mother was seriously ill, the Liu family came to Shen's house to say that his daughter was still young, and he didn't want to delay Shen Jinqian, so he wanted to forget the marriage.

In this way, the two families divorced, and then married Liu Bicao.

"Daughter-in-law, the little fish is washed, shall I put it in?" Shen Jinqian picked up the cleaned fish and walked to Liu Bicao.

Liu Bicao saw that Shen Jinqian was a little nervous, and smiled at him: "Put it in, let my mother fry it later, my mother will fry it better than mine." ”

Shen Jinqian saw that Liu Bicao was talking to him, no different from usual, so he put his mind at ease and brought the wooden basin to the kitchen and put it.

"Ouch, this is the daughter-in-law that Jin Qian married later, she looks really smart." Liu seemed to have only seen Liu Bicao at this time, and a large number of her went up and down, "You are a girl from the Liu family, look at my memory, you are a girl from the Liu family, when did you return to the village?" Didn't you work as a maid in the town before? Liu laughed twice, "I've lived in the town with my daughter and son-in-law for a long time, and I don't remember a lot of things, especially the things in our village." ”

Liu Bicao nodded: "Yes, the master is kind-hearted and let me leave the house." ”

Seeing Liu Bicao taking care of her, Liu said more energetically: "It's not, as a subordinate, whether this day is good or not depends on the master's words, like my son-in-law's house, the subordinate's food and clothing are good." ”

"Hmph, if your daughter has someone to serve, she is only a concubine, and the son-in-law in your mouth is not yours, it belongs to someone else's." Shen Jinxin really couldn't listen to it.

Liu's face immediately changed: "The countryside is the countryside, what is the matter with your juniors when your elders speak?" ”

Shen Jinxin was not afraid of him, and seeing that his parents and eldest brother did not mean to stop him, he continued: "Which elder are you counting me? If you dislike the country, what are you going to do when you come back? Stay in the town and wait for someone to serve you, hurry up, my temple is small, and I can't accommodate you. ”

"Hmph, when it's rare, I'm sorry." Liu shook his sleeves and left.

After Liu left, the people in the family looked at Liu Bicao and didn't say anything, they all put their minds at ease and continued to do what they were doing.

"Mother, is the fire of the fish a big fire or a small fire?" After Liu Bicao and Shen Mu made the preparations, they began to burn the fire and prepare to fry the small fish, coupling and meatballs.

Mother Shen looked at the oil in the pot and felt that the size was appropriate: "That's fine, just right." ”

Frying these foods is the custom of the New Year, and every household has to fry it, but according to the situation at home, people with better families should put more meat, and poor people are basically vegetarian.

On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, Shen's mother packed a small bag of beans newly harvested this year, went to the village mill to grind tofu, and when she walked to the mill, she saw Liu and other women who came to grind beans talking something, and when she saw her coming, she scattered in twos and threes.

"On the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, the meat of the year is cut." The custom passed down from the ancestors is that the meat for the New Year should be prepared on this day, and the Shen family has pigs, so they don't have to go to the market to cut pork. The pig in the pigsty has long been fattened and is waiting to be killed today.

As early as two days ago, Shen's father informed the butcher at the entrance of the village that he would come to Shen's house today to help kill pigs. This has been the case for several years, because the Shen family is not only close, but the price is cheaper than in the market.

"Hmph...... Hum..... "The butcher, Shen Jinqian and Shen's father grabbed the pig out of the pigsty, and the sound .....of the pig resounded in the courtyard of the Shen family, Shen He originally wanted to stay in the yard to watch the pig killing, but he couldn't stand it when he heard the sound first, so he hurriedly ran into the kitchen to find Liu Bicao who was boiling water.

"I'll just say you can't stand it, you still don't believe it." Liu Bicao saw Shen Mei running in with her ears covered, and couldn't help laughing at her.

Shen Mei was not annoyed, and sat down next to her: "No wonder my mother avoided it with Jinyan and Xiaohe." "In the first two years, when the family killed pigs, Shen Mei would also follow Shen's mother out, this year Shen Mei wanted to see what it was like to kill pigs, no matter what Shen's mother said, she just didn't go out, she had to stay at home to watch.

Liu Bicao brought out the boiling water for the butcher to use, only to see the butcher's white knife go in and the red knife out, and the pig that was still "humming" and screaming gradually became silent. Everyone waited patiently for the pig hair to be scalded, plucked the pig hair, and then waited for the butcher to clean the pig out of the water.

"Brother Shen, say okay, I want front leg meat."

"Brother Shen, come and give me five catties of meat, your croquettes were too fragrant two days ago."

"Uncle Shen, will your family still raise pigs next year? I'm going to cut the meat again. ”

Half of the freshly killed meat was sold out in a short time, except for the half that he kept at home, and the rest was sold to the butcher. When the yard was almost cleaned, Shen's mother came back with two small ones.

On the twenty-seventh and eighth day of the lunar month, every household began to paste couplets and window flowers, and the Shen family was no exception.

In this way, the flavor of the year is getting stronger and stronger, and the sorrow caused by the heavy snow before has also been washed away, in order to have a good year, in order to have a good harvest in the coming year, they are all full of energy to prepare for the New Year.