After a while, Zheng Lu came to Xiaolou to get the ingredients and carry four large buckets of pure spirit water as usual.

Lin Xia stood next to him, wearing a rabbit fur cloak, holding a stove and watching the two of them work hard, while Lei Biao and Zheng Lu were carrying the wooden bucket full of water to the carriage.

After moving four times, Zheng Lu wiped the sweat on his forehead and said breathlessly: "Boss, what's the difference between this water, I have to come and move it every time." ”

Zheng Lu didn't know what the difference was with this water at all, and when he came back, he had to carry four large buckets to the store, Lin Xia also specially pointed out that this water could only be used as a soup base, and he also secretly took a sip, which was no different from the water he usually drinks, and it was just a little sweet.

"The water from the mountain spring is definitely different from the water from the well!" Lin Xia directly opened his eyes and said nonsense, in fact, this water was also drawn from the well, but Lin Xia soaked the pure spirit bead.

Zheng Lu only felt a little aggrieved, "Okay, for the sake of the soup base to taste better, I admit it!" ”

Seeing Zheng Lu's serious look, Lin Xia secretly pursed his lips and held back a smile.

"By the way, boss, the county's Wangjianglou has launched a meat pot, and the customers in the store have been pulled away, and the business is a little bad." Zheng Lu was a little frustrated, and hung his head and said helplessly.

Hearing the news of Wangjiang Tower, Lin Xia was a little interested, and asked, "What kind of meat pot?" ”

Zheng Lu saw that the proprietress was very interested in the meat pot, and looked at her very aggrieved, "Boss, don't you want to try the meat pot?" ”

"What's wrong?" Lin Xia looked at Zheng Lu's aggrieved look, and thought to herself that she didn't say anything, how could she feel that this person was about to cry?

"I heard that the meat pot is very delicious, but the boss, you can't grow others' ambitions, our store has robbed the meat pot of business!"

"Poof." Lin Xia couldn't help laughing, "Hahahaha, Xiao Lu, why are you so cute, I still gave you the recipe for the meat pot in Wangjiang Tower!" ”

Zheng Lu looked at Lin Xia, who was trembling with a smile on his face, "Huh? ”

Lin Xia slightly restrained his facial expression and cleared his throat, "Ahem, don't tell others!" As he spoke, he put his index finger to his mouth and shhhh

took out three small cloth bags from his sleeves and handed them to Zheng Lu, waving his hand, "Okay, let's go and open the store, I'm going back to the room to nest, I'm cold." ”

After speaking, Lin Xia trotted into the small bedroom, leaving Zheng Lu at a loss, and when he reacted, he hurriedly got into the carriage and rushed to the county to prepare to open a store.

During this time, Lei Biao and Lin Xia both stayed at home and lived their own paradise days, time passed in a flash, it was already a big Chinese New Year's Eve of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and it snowed, as the so-called 'Ruixue Trillion Year', there was a lot of snow this winter, and there was no shortage of water to grow crops.

The day before Chinese New Year's Eve, Lei Biao and Lin Xia went to the store, told the store guys in advance about the New Year's holiday arrangements, from Chinese New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the new year, a total of seven days, these seven days are paid leave, still calculate the salary, and then give everyone a year-end bonus of 500 wen, a red envelope or two of silver, and give everyone a rich year.

Qian Dong saw that there were many holidays, so he returned directly to his hometown to visit his fellow villagers, while Zheng Lu was an orphan because his parents died when he was a child, so he spent Chinese New Year's Eve with Lei Biao Linxia.

After eating the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner made by Lin Xia, Lei Biao and Lin Xia went out of the house and walked around the village, seeing that the village was full of red lights, and they looked at the red patch. From time to time, there are children running around with rock sugar gourds in their hands, and in the distance, children are told to run slowly and be careful of falling.

Suddenly, a female doll ran and bumped into Lei Biao's legs, and when she saw the rock sugar gourd in her hand fall to the ground, she immediately howled and cried: "Wow-my rock sugar gourd, you pay me rock sugar gourd-"

Lin Xia saw Lei Biao's helpless expression and secretly laughed beside him, and when he saw the pitiful appearance of the female doll, he quickly took out a handkerchief from his arms and squatted down to wipe her tears, and comforted her in his mouth: "Don't cry, don't cry, it's all uncle's fault, I accidentally knocked your rock sugar gourd to the ground, can I compensate you for a rock sugar gourd?" ”

Hearing that there was a rock sugar gourd, the female doll immediately stopped crying, sucked her little nose that was red from the cold, and the glutinous voice almost softened her heart: "Big sister, do you want to compensate me?" ”

Lei Biao's face darkened a little when he heard the title of the female doll.

Lin Xia called him uncle, and the female doll called her big sister, isn't this a generation behind?

Lin Xia obviously didn't think of this problem, stood up and took the little hand of the female doll, "That's right, where to sell rock sugar gourds, I'll help you buy a new one." ”

The female doll was very excited, and obediently gave Lin Xia a hand to follow her, and pointed to the entrance of the village with her other little finger and said, "There are sales at the entrance of the village." ”

"Okay, I'll take you to buy it. What's your name, little sister? What about your father and your mother? Lin Xia asked softly, she always had great patience with well-behaved children.

"Big sister, my name is girl, I don't have a father, I only have my mother, and my mother makes food at home."

Listening to the soft and glutinous children's words, Lin Xia's heart jumped violently, what does it mean that there is no father, only a mother? Single-parent family?

At the entrance of the village, there are several people set up a small stall, on which there are some children like to play with gadgets, like to eat snacks, some small dolls will pass by will be coquettish to buy, adults have seen the New Year, things are also cheap, so they bought directly.

The most popular estimate is the rock sugar gourd, the one who sells the rock sugar gourd is an old uncle, holding a wheat straw in his hand, and thirty or forty strings of red rock sugar gourds are inserted on it, and many little dolls are surrounding the old uncle, looking up at the rock sugar gourd salivating.

Seeing this picture, Lin Xia felt quite funny, and approached the uncle and asked, "How much is a string of rock sugar gourds?" ”

The uncle saw that there was finally a person who bought a rock sugar gourd, and hurriedly greeted: "Two pennies a string." ”

Lin Xia nodded, his lips raised slightly, and he smiled faintly: "I bought all the rock sugar gourds you have in total, you can help me distribute these rock sugar gourds to these children." ”

The old uncle's face was overjoyed, and he nodded again and again, "I have a total of forty-two, a total of eighty-four dollars." ”

Lin Xia glanced at Lei Biao, Lei Biao immediately understood, took out a money bag from his arms, counted eighty-four and handed it to the old uncle.

After the old uncle counted them, he hurriedly took down all the rock sugar gourds with a smile and handed them to the little dolls who had been surrounding here, "Come, these are all rock sugar gourds that the big sister invited you to eat." ”

A group of children cheered when they saw rock sugar gourds to eat. As soon as they heard that Lin Xia had invited her, they all thanked her very politely, "Thank you, big sister!" ”

The corners of Lin Xia's slightly pursed mouth drew a graceful arc, "You're welcome, don't eat more, be careful of toothache." ”

After thanking them, the children ran away with rock sugar gourds in their hands, and the laughter spread to every corner of the village.

Lin Xia took the rock sugar gourd handed over by the old uncle, squatted down and pinched the girl's thin skin and tender meat, a little face like soft dough, "Now, take the rock sugar gourd, don't fall to the ground again!" ”

The girl nodded obediently, and quickly ate a bite of the rock sugar gourd she was thinking about, bit the sugar coating and ate the sour taste of hawthorn, sweet and sour, soft and glutinous to the heart, the girl looked up at Lin Xia and grinned: "Big sister, it's delicious!" ”

"Do you like kids?" Lei Biao saw that his little lady had ignored him for a long time, and he was a little surprised, so he hurriedly opened his mouth to brush a wave of presence.

"I like it." Lin Xia replied without thinking about it.

Lei Biao grabbed Lin Xia's waist with one hand and whispered in her ear, "Then let's give birth to one." ”

Lin Xia's face was slightly red, and she quickly opened Lei Biao's chest, grabbed the girl's chubby little hand and sent it to her house.

When they arrived at the girl's house, it was a hut that was even more dilapidated than the thatched hut where Lei Biao and the others lived before, and it was still in a very remote corner of the village. I saw the girl's mother, she was dressed very shabby, the clothes on her body were hung with many patches, and her face was a little haggard, and then she looked at the girl's new clothes, her face was flushed, and she saw that this mother gave all the good things to the girl.

When she saw Lei Biao and Lin Xia at first, the woman was still a little stunned, and rubbed her hands with her apron in a panic, "Who are you?" Looking at the girl Lin Xia was holding in her hand again, she frowned slightly, "Girl, have you done anything bad?" ”

Lin Xia hurriedly said, "No, no, we bumped into the girl and accidentally knocked her rock sugar gourd to the ground." ”

Knowing the cause and effect, the woman hurriedly bowed to Lei Biao and Lin Xia and thanked her, took the girl and said happy Spring Festival, and warmly invited them into the house to drink a cup of hot tea.

Lin Xia hurriedly refused and left the girl's house, Lei Biao and Lin Xia walked home.

Back at home, Lei Biao looked at Lin Xia very seriously and said cautiously, "I will never leave you alone." ”

Lin Xia's face was red, and he lowered his head and sighed.

When it was time for dinner, Lin Xia stir-fried the dishes, ordered dumplings, a table of Chinese New Year's Eve with a small amount of variety, according to custom, Lin Xia prepared twelve dishes, representing the month of December. The dishes are also very traditional, similar to modern times, in addition to the chicken, fish and meat, as well as the garlic seedlings planted in the vegetable garden by Lin Xia, and the cabbage stored in the cellar, which can be regarded as a rare green vegetable in this harsh winter. I made chicken stewed mushrooms, braised pig's trotters, steamed fish, sweet and sour pork ribs, braised pork, stir-fried cabbage, sour and hot shredded potatoes, stir-fried shredded pork with chili, stir-fried fungus, fried pork slices with green onions, Sixi meatballs, and home-style tofu.

In Lin Xia's eyes, this is a very ordinary dish, but for Lei Biao and Zheng Lu, this Chinese New Year's Eve meal is much more hearty than what they used to eat, and it also has green dishes, you must know that it is not easy to eat in the winter, and the vegetarian dishes sold in the string of incense have also risen by two cents a bunch, because the vegetable farmers have increased their prices.