The imperial people's obsession with the New Year is far more than anything else.

The New Year not only represents the day when the war of all human races is finally won, nor does it only represent the day when the Three Thousand Emperors announce the creation of the empire, but also represents the day when their relatives, friends, children, and lovers reunite with them no matter how long or short the road is.

Every year when it comes to the New Year, An Xiaoyu's home will always prepare three things, one is the red blessing character posted on the door, the same is enough fireworks and firecrackers to be set off at night, and the other is a whole piece of pork.

These three things are also things that accompanied An Xiaoyu and An Xiao'an sisters to read their childhood, in the past, New Year's fireworks and meat were the things that the entire Donghuang people dreamed of, and enjoying them together when they were reunited with their relatives was also something they were keen on.

But it's not just because of that.

Or for the people of Donghuang, meat represents the highest standard of life, the word Fu represents the expectation of the future, and the New Year's festival represents the end of the year, the beginning of the new year, the reunion of the family, and the happiness of the family, on behalf of them are still living in this world, and they have happiness after all.

But fireworks are more than just that for the people of Donghuang.

An Xiaoyu has known since she was a child that the Empire's New Year's party will never be the most attractive thing for people in the Eastern Wilderness, because the fireworks that bloom all over the city on the light screen, although they are particularly dazzling and brilliant among the high-rise buildings, it is a kind of celebration of holes.

Since this morning, An Youfu has come to their storage room, counted the fireworks that have been visited three or four times one by one, and then returned to the hall with satisfaction, sat on a low stool, and picked up the porridge made by An Xiaoyu's mother.

An Xiaoyu and An Xiao'an sat on the side, drinking porridge in small sips, but they didn't drink much, according to the habit, they had to empty their stomachs and leave room for half a pig at noon, so as to save too much laughter, and they were not born to enjoy a happy life.

Although An Xiaoyu has no taboos about eating now, and many things are vain under her powerful digestive system, habits are still habits. And if An Xiaoyu takes the lead in eating too much, An Xiaoan will also eat more, and then it will be his younger brother who will be laughed at.

The Jiuxi tribe has a special New Year's flavor this year, perhaps because An Xiaoyu was admitted to the Three Thousand Academy and has a career, which makes them all feel festive; Or maybe it was the gifts brought by An Xiaoyu and Wei Qingxuan that enriched their material enjoyment, and their hearts were naturally filled with happiness and happiness.

In the Eastern Wilderness, happiness is such a simple thing, well-fed, warmly dressed, without sand and wild beasts, with their families and tribesmen, this is their happiness.

Moreover, this kind of happiness does not belong to just one family.

After breakfast, the children ran out of the house, and at the end of the New Year, they didn't need to have any worries, no homework, no housework, no reprimands and complaints from their parents, and even snacks to take anytime and anywhere.

The children of the Jiuxi tribe chased and played through the streets and enjoyed their happiest day of the year, occasionally running into the door of a house and grabbing a handful of fried beans or candy from a large bowl on the stove and stuffing it into their mouths.

Then you might hear the sound of the bowl breaking, and after a tense silence, the carefree laughter of children could be heard again on the other side of the street.

The old people also walked out of the door of their homes, stood in the place where they used to gather, chatted about some stories of spring planting and autumn harvest, talked about a few trivial things, watched the children run over quickly, and discussed whose descendants were the most promising.

The protagonist among them this year is obviously An Youfu.

An Youfu ate breakfast, went out from the door of the house with his hands behind his back with a smile, and walked all the way along the main street of the tribe, his steps were not hurried or slow, and people began to greet An Youfu and say New Year's Day inside the door-to-door door.

Returning to them one by one, An Youfu slowly walked to the head of the village, and saw the old guys standing in the shadow of the platform at the station, so the smile on his face became even stronger.

"The old guy is coming!"

"The old thing is here again!"

There were constant voices of disgust in the crowd, and several old men stood on the station platform at the entrance of the village, watching An Youfu Shi Ran come over, their eyes full of envy and contempt.

Since An Xiaoyu was admitted to the Three Thousand Academy, they have suffered from An Youfu's extremely sassy expression and tone, opening and closing their mouths are all about my granddaughter, how is my granddaughter, and now An Xiaoan is also the top existence in the school, I am afraid that if it is not in a few years, it will become my granddaughter and grandson.

Although An Xiaoyu and An Xiao'an are both children of the tribe, after all, there are still a few people in their families who are not angry! Listening to An Youfu so much all day long, they all felt good in their hearts, so they could only endure this torture in silence, looking forward to when there would be such a promising person in their family.

But thinking about the idleness of the boys in the camera all day long, after all, I can only sigh and sigh, don't turn my face and not look at An Youfu.

Walking to the station platform, An Youfu found his old location, which was on the root of an old tree at the head of the village.

When the empire built the Jiuxi tribe station, it only built a platform, then prepared some places to store accessories and temporary repairs, and built a windproof roof, which preserved all the original plants and landforms at the head of the village.

In the past, when several old men chatted together, it was under the shade of this old tree, but now there is a pergola, which is naturally much more spacious, but the scope of their activities is still inseparable from the old tree.

The shade of the old tree is connected to the shade of the pergola, and the entire canopy extends to the top of the pergola, which is also a natural protection measure and increases the life of the pergola.

An Youfu sat on the root of the old tree, took out the e-cigarette that An Xiaoyu bought for him from his arms, took a puff with great enjoyment, and spit out a puff of hazy smoke, and the whole person relaxed.

Another smoker next to him, who couldn't afford to buy a cigarette, stepped forward and asked, "Old man An, how do you feel?" ”

"That must be cool! Besides, my granddaughter bought it for me! An Youfu raised the silver glittering e-cigarette in his hand ostentatiously, and smiled like a fox at a few old guys.

"Here we go again!"

"yes, the old stuff is starting again!"

A few quiet sighs spread among the old men.

Now who has a competitive child at home, and he doesn't want to show off? An Youfu's behavior can only be said to be because An Xiaoyu is too competitive. After all, when An Xiaoyu was still in high school, some of them showed off who in their family and what kind of good job they had found, so they didn't have to follow the family to farm for a living.

Heaven is a good reincarnation, who does the sky bypass? An Xiaoyu was sent by God to punish their existence.

Compared with the old guys, the young people seem to be quieter and more peaceful.

The young and middle-aged people of the Jiuxi tribe, as well as many people who go out to work, most of them work in nearby mines or bases, or on railways, or in the facilities of other large tribes, because the desert is inconvenient to come and go, and there are strange beasts at night, and they often only return home once in a few months.

So when it comes to the New Year, this happy time is even more precious.

As a result, such a phenomenon has been formed, and the elderly who live a leisurely life in the tribe all day long farming and supporting the elderly enjoy the happiness of fighting with each other even more. Young people who come home from work like to watch their families come and go, sitting at the door and smiling silly.

Of course, the most important thing is to prepare a good lunch.

When the sun of the Eastern Wilderness began to be hot, the whole tribe began to smell of raw meat, which was the smell of blood scalded by hot water, although this taste was particularly bad, especially the smell of every household mixed together, becoming extraordinarily strong, but people still sniffed greedily.

Because even if it is such a bad smell, they rarely smell it throughout the year.

There is a lack of fodder in the Eastern Wilderness, and monsters often burrow, so raising livestock has become a luxury, and the only meat that the people of the Eastern Wilderness can enjoy is the meat obtained by hunting strange beasts outside.

However, the beasts that survive in the Eastern Wilderness, usually in order to minimize the consumption of the flesh, the density of muscle tissue is extremely high, the fat is fat and greasy, the epidermis is hard, and few meat can be easily swallowed.

Of course, there are still many animals that can be used as meat in the Eastern Wilderness, but in order to ensure the intake of meat and the balance of the Eastern Wilderness ecosystem, the people of the Eastern Wilderness rarely hunt in large quantities, but choose to make these meats into flavorful jerky and ham.

So on the New Year, half a fat pig in a family has become the most delicious fresh meal of the year for everyone, and they can't help but pay less attention to it.

From the morning, the housewives of each house begin to use their brains to turn the pork into pots and pots of delicious meat dishes, and then after breakfast, they begin to work on this rare ingredient.

First of all, the pork is divided into several pieces according to the fill, cut into small pieces and blanched, and the blood in the pork is removed, and the raw meat of Baihuahua is obtained. After that, the pork is cut, marinated or stewed according to a predetermined recipe.

On the other side, the men were responsible for fetching water, adding firewood, moving cutting boards, or sharpening bone knives that had not been used for a year.

The whole tribe was filled with the sound of sharpening knives and the smell of pork, and the entire sandy land of the Eastern Wilderness was also soaked with hot water with pig's blood and rusty knife sharpening water, making the whole desert full of festive red.

An Xiao'an is naturally a strong laborer in the family, and together with his father, he split the old firewood into long strips one by one, and then filled it into the stove, his sweaty face was reflected by the firelight, with dark skin, and he looked particularly mature.

An Xiaoyu once wanted to take the axe to help An Xiao'an, but An Xiao'an immediately refused. According to An Xiaoan, in the Eastern Wilderness, this is a man's job, and no matter how strong a woman is, she can't snatch the axe from his hand.

So An Xiaoyu had no choice but to turn to the stove and draw her short knife to help her mother handle the pork.

The special sharp knives of the Ying Shen easily cut through the skin of the pork, cutting off the muscles and bones, and quickly dividing the pork into several large pieces.

However, when An Xiaoyu was still eager to try with a knife, she was strongly resisted by her mother. Because according to An Xiaoyu's speed, the processing is too fast, and I am afraid that everything will be finished every noon, which is not in accordance with the rules.

So An Xiaoyu walked out of his house with a wry smile, he didn't expect that he had no place to stay, seeing that the three people in the family were busy, An Xiaoyu was embarrassed to be alone and idle, so he walked out of the door with An Youfu and found a place where several of their young people often play together.

Several young people in the Jiuxi tribe used to be An Xiaoyu's classmates, some graduated with her, some graduated a year or two earlier than her, and some are still in school, listening to An Xiaoyu's legend all day long, and were forced by their families to study until they were bald.

An Xiaoyu didn't expect that all of them were actually kicked out by their families, and one of them told her, no matter how good you are, whether you can help or not, you will always be the one who is disliked, which is the tradition of the Eastern Wilderness for thousands of years.

So she and her classmates stood or sat under the trees by the lake, chatting about something.

talked about the gossip in the school at the beginning, talked about who was about to get married now, talked about their teachers who were teaching high school now, and talked about their work and study status. Of course, An Xiaoyu is still the only one who can go to college.

In addition, he is a cultivator, so there is probably some distance from their topic, but An Xiaoyu still listens happily, and then occasionally answers their curiosity about things in the city, and tells them what is good and bad in the city.

It didn't take long for the children walking the streets and alleys to run over here, bouncing around An Xiaoyu. Young people don't know what envy and jealousy are, and they don't know what struggle and helplessness are, they only know that An Xiaoyu is now the most powerful young man in their tribe.

So in the hearts of these children, An Xiaoyu will always be the one worthy of worship, so they spontaneously began to get close.

An Xiaoyu did not alienate them, reached out and hugged the youngest girl in her arms, picked out a section of stalks from the ground, and slowly cut them with a knife to eat. And a few children were laughing and joking beside them, and the little girl in her arms looked at the white short knife in An Xiaoyu's hand, and her eyes were straight.

took out some simple snacks from her pocket, and gave them all to them, An Xiaoyu turned them out, so that they could believe that she really had nothing to eat, and then several children scattered in a hurry, stuffing things in their mouths, and shouting and shouting became sweet.

One of the classmates who had a good relationship with An Xiaoyu said to An Xiaoyu: "I saw your cousin a few days ago, and he just came back from school, saying that he participated in some project at school, and he came back half a month late. ”

An Xiaoyu thought of her cousin, when the admission results of the Three Thousand Academy came down in the first batch, An Xiaoyu was the first to leave the tribe, and when she called later, her mother also told her that her cousin Li Pingnan was also admitted to the university, but it was not the point, but it was also a university.

Later, because there were too many things, An Xiaoyu almost forgot that his cousin was still going to school outside, and it sounded pretty good, and he actually participated in the school's project.

As the sun rose and it was close to noon, the young men said goodbye, said they would be together when they were free, and then went home.

In fact, they all know in their hearts that the so-called reunion when they are free is nothing more than next year's New Year. After all, they have already found jobs next to them, and they want to make more money in those places where they sell their labor when they are young, and then go home to farm when they are old, and at least they have some pension money.

An Xiaoyu slowly walked down the street towards her home, the smell of raw meat in the tribe had gradually begun to be masked by the smell of cooked meat.

Braised and stir-fried, vinegared, fried, and made in a variety of ways, exuding a variety of charming aromas, coming out of the door-to-door doors of the halls, hovering over the entire tribe, converging into a happy taste, which will last for a long time.

An Xiaoyu received an order to go to the village to find An Youfu who was boasting and showing off, as the face of the family, An Xiaoyu was naturally the most suitable thing to go out and have a long face.

From an old man's envy and jealousy, An Youfu called up, and when the two grandparents returned home, they heard countless cooks pulling their broken gongs on the way, except for the door of the hall and began to call the nicknames of the children in their own families, followed by a sentence similar to that:

"Where did you die?"

"Get home!"

"If I don't come again, I won't leave you a piece!"

and so on.

Here comes a sentence first, and then one after another, one sentence in the east, one sentence in the west, and the door-to-door still calls the children home. Then a string of silver bells of laughter came from the side of the tribe, and with the sound of running, the little things ran into the house like swallows.

Raising his head and sniffing the aroma of the food in the house fiercely, he was busy trying to serve it, but he was dragged by his mother's ear: "Anxious to reincarnate? Wash it up and come back! ”

So the children all ran into the yard again, drew water from the well, washed their heads, faces, and most importantly their hands, and stood in front of their mothers with their hands stretched out as if they were being examined, and when the housewife had carefully examined them, and there was no dirt left between each hand, they nodded.

The child happily sat on the seat, then the old man of the family, and finally the young and middle-aged, and the family sat on the seat for the final ceremony.

So the entire Eastern Wilderness was silent, leaving only the sound of wind and sand.

It is a silent prayer.