It was the twenty-third day of the lunar month, and the man offered a drink in front of the stove.

If you want to ask the chef to say good things, hold the sugar syrup in your hand and stick your mouth.

In the morning, let's put the bean paste, sweet pine, and wine made by Xiao's mother in front of the stove, and let Xiao Zheng light incense and candles to worship, and women are not allowed to worship on this day, Xiao's mother and Jin'er just sweep the stove in the inner room and light the lamp to worship silently. Before worshiping, to apply the roasted sugar starch to the mouth of the old man of the stove, it seems that the king of the stove and his wife like to eat sweets, according to Xiao's mother, the mouth of the king of the stove is stuck with sugar and can't speak, but Xiao Zheng smiled and said to Xiao's mother that it should be to let the king of the stove only say good things and not bad things, you stick to people's mouths and can't speak, how to report work in heaven? Whether this person does good deeds or bad deeds, he likes to let the gods say something good for psychological comfort, and he was slapped on the back by Xiao's mother as soon as he said this.

After worshipping the stove king, take the small scale weighing the traditional Chinese medicine and catch up with the ox cart and go out of the village to Li Zhuang, to Xiao Hai's iron control workshop, let Xiao Hai take out the saltpeter, refined charcoal and sulfur that he bought last time, use the small scale to grind it into powder according to different weights, put it into a small crucible and stir it slowly, and when it is almost stirred, pour it out and light it with fire, after trying a few times, wait for Xiao Zheng to use the fire a little more, and a stream of blue smoke rises after the fire flashes.

Xiao Hai looked at Xiao Zheng's appearance and smiled: "Brother Xiao, you are sulfur and nitrate, do you want to learn Taoist alchemy?" Xiao Zheng said to Xiao Hai: "Brother Xiao, this is a festive New Year, get a gadget to make the children happy, oh, by the way, you can help me find some clean patina and iron powder."

After Xiao Hai came back, Xiao Zheng and Ershun rolled a lot of paperskin tubes that were more than half a foot long and finger thick, and watched curiously as Xiao Zheng evenly mixed the patina and iron powder into the powder he had just made, and then carefully poured the powder into the paperskin tube, and then took a twist and sealed the two ends after it was strong, and after making more than 100 of them, they bundled them, and then loaded the pans and some stoves that Xiao Hai made for himself into an ox cart and went to Lou Shide's house. Mother Xiao and Mother Lou said that they would come to Shenhewan for the New Year after twenty-three, anyway, there was no one else for the two of them, so it was better for the two families to celebrate the New Year together.

Two days later, at noon, Xiao Hai took his son and Zhou Bingrui to Shenhe Bay, Zhou Bingrui brought the money and account books earned this winter, because Zhou Bingrui had a lot of things to do before the year, and he didn't stay long after dividing the money, leaving a gift for Xiao's mother and son and Jin'er for the New Year, and hurried back to the county seat, Xiao Hai took his son to chat with Xiao Zheng, and it was eighty yuan again, this is a winter's income, a small pile of copper coins piled on the kang, and before Xiao Zheng took a few looks, Jin'er moved the money to his room with the help of Lou Shide, Xiao Zheng smiled bitterly.

After eating in the afternoon, Xiao Zheng took out a bunch of caramel he bought, first dissolved the caramel in the pot, fished out the slag at the bottom of the pot, wrapped the clean charcoal with gauze and slowly stirred it in the remaining sugar solution, after a while, the sugar liquid turned into a translucent golden yellow, gently picked up the golden filaments with chopsticks and fluttered with the wind, scooped a few spoonfuls in a pan and brought them to the stove in the courtyard, watched the sugar liquid slowly melt, put the hawthorn fruit soaked in water with a bamboo skewer, and rolled a few times on the sugar solution on the pan. Take out the bluestone slab next to it and put it, the round red hawthorn fruit, wrapped in a layer of golden yellow and shiny sugar coating, Datang's first rock sugar gourd came out!

Lou Shide and Xiao Changning's eyes never left the pot where the sugar was placed, and first made two strings and gave them to the two babies, Lou Shide took it and first bit the thin sugar slices, and as soon as he entered the mouth, the little guy was so beautiful that he jumped on the ground several times before he shouted: "It's so sweet!" Xiao Changning, who was next to him, couldn't stop eating. Xiao Zheng took a string of sugar gourds and handed them to Jin'er, Jin'er opened her mouth and took a bite of the thin sugar slices, followed by a happy smile on her face, raised her hand and gestured at Xiao Zheng and said, "It's delicious!" ”，

Xiao Hai also took a bunch and tasted a few mouthfuls and exclaimed: "Brother Xiao, this rock sugar gourd you made tastes sweet and sour, delicious and appetizing, brother, I haven't eaten sugar before, this thing is not only dessert, after eating, it is slag and stuffed teeth." I can't have imagined that after such a simple trick by you, this hawthorn fruit can be so delicious, how did your head come up with it, brother."

Let Lou Shide go and call the other babies in the village over, the grievances between the children and the children have long been melted, and no one wants to hold grudges between the children. As soon as I heard that there were delicious babies running faster than rabbits, they rushed to the yard after a while, each with a string of rock sugar gourds, and the children blew up after tasting a mouthful, and they cheered and excited to chase and play in the yard.

After the children stopped a little, Xiao Zheng split the bamboo sticks into thin strips again. After a few circles and tied up the silk thread, and then used a few slender bamboo strips to circle a piece, the skeleton of the lantern the size of a watermelon was made, and the red silk cloth was covered up, and the candle was lit inside, and a bamboo stick was picked, and the candlelight shone through the red silk cloth on the ground, and the courtyard added a lot of festive atmosphere. Lou Shide and a few children saw that the lantern was so beautiful, so they shouted to Xiao Zheng to make one for everyone, and a group of children ran to the street with lanterns to show off everywhere, which also made the adults on the street envy and smack their tongues when they saw it.

When Xiao's mother saw it, she said to her son: "How can you be more delicate than a woman when you are a big man, don't be like this in the future, let people see the joke." Xiao Zheng smiled secretly in his heart, I did a lot of hard work to practice this skillful pair of knives, but I didn't dare to tell you. When Xiao's mother and several women saw how easy it was to make lanterns, they all came over to help, and after a while, more than a dozen lanterns were made. Seeing that it was dark, Xiao Hai led his son to carry a few lanterns and prepared to go home, and when he went out, Xiao Zhang gave Xiao Hai the couplets written on red paper and told him how to paste them, and the father and son carried the lanterns and Spring Festival couplets and took a few strings of sugar gourds and went home happily.

On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, Xiao Zheng took Jin'er and Lou Shide, according to the old rules of Mr., and sent some money and food to several families in the village who were not living well, and by the way, he also diagnosed the lower pulse of several old people, and also sent some cakes and a few couplets. repeatedly told Xiao Zheng and Jin'er not to forget to sacrifice Mr. during the Spring Festival, which made the two sigh.

Xiao Zheng's first Spring Festival to Datang has arrived! At this time, the Chinese New Year is far less lively than in later generations, and the rich people are at most to buy more chickens, ducks and fish to eat a few meals, which is already a great thing, and those who have no money are still two meals a day, eating bran and vegetables mixed with food and clothing, fortunately, the small village of Shenhe Bay is still rich, and everyone has gone back.

On the afternoon of Chinese New Year's Eve, the family pasted the couplet sent by Xiao Zheng at the door, and two big blessing characters were pasted on the door of several reading babies, and several red lanterns were hung at the door of each house, red candles were lit near dusk, and the lights reflected the couplets at the door, showing that the door was red, and the small village gave people a sense of peace and happiness. In Xiao Zheng's yard, Jin'er and Lou Shide were separating dozens of fist-sized lanterns, and hanging them on the tree in a string of four or five, and the two of them were mixing words from time to time to light candles, so that Xiao Mu and Lou Mu, who were busy in the room, laughed secretly after hearing it.

The small lantern flashed red, and the breeze was like a fiery persimmon hanging on the branches swaying in the air with the wind, which made people look at a happy feeling from the bottom of their hearts, and set off a peaceful courtyard.