Originally, pressing candy and beating late rice crackers (called rice cakes on the market) were all busy work when the New Year was approaching, and Grandpa Hao carried out these jobs in advance in order to let us bring some back to Hua'an before the winter vacation.

Pressing candy is a stimulating and happy thing for us children.

Grandpa Hao's family began to prepare the day before. They first fried the dried millet in a pot, and when each grain burst, they removed the chaff and put it in a basket. Two whole baskets. Pick one up and put it in your mouth, it's soft, no chewy, no taste at all.

But don't worry, when they are pressed into sugar, it will change a lot. In the middle of the afternoon, when you are a little hungry, take a piece of candy out and chew it in your mouth, sweet, hard, crispy, fragrant, delicious.

On this day, the adults borrowed a butcher's stool, a long, wide, and thick stool used to kill pigs, as well as a tool for pressing candy (which was actually an empty cylinder with a thin, smooth plank joined together on all sides). ）

In the evening, Grandpa Hao put the sugar in the pot and boiled it, then put the rice that had been popped the day before into the pot and stirred the sugar thoroughly, and then shoveled it all into the wooden box resting on the slaughter bench.

An adult uses a spatula to roll the rice into all corners of the box, flattens it vigorously, and then it's time for the most exciting.

Then I saw two adults carrying something similar to a seesaw. A wooden stick as thick as a bowl three or four meters long, planed smoothly and smoothly, with a wooden bolt at each end - this is used for the armrest of the person sitting on it, and a square wooden block in the center - acts as a rice flower.

Well, one person from each end of the board sat up. First it balanced, then one end fell and the other began to rise. It's really a seesaw. The only difference was that the wooden block pressed against the box in the center was moving. Look, how wonderful it is to fall together.

"Set sail, Kiki, would you like to come up and sit down?" An adult said to us with a smile.

"We? Can you? I said.

"It's up to you to dare?" Another said.

"Go up and try it." My father encouraged me.

"Kiki, are you up?" I asked.

"Me?"

"Let's go."

"I'm a little scared."

"What are you afraid of. Uncle holds you. The two people sitting on it said at the same time.

"We dare to go up to the Optimus Stone Pillar Cliff, but we don't dare to go up to this?" I whispered in Hao Junqi's ear.

"Up." Hao Junqi nodded.

We decided to go up. They let the wood balance, we climbed up separately, the adults put their arms around us, and the small ones fell together, and they fell together, and it was fun. But all of a sudden, the amplitude suddenly increased, and I felt that when one end of mine fell, the adult pressed down as far as he could, and the other end was raised so high and high.

Hao Junqi screamed. Then we went up and up and up again, as if we were going to go up against the roof. I closed my eyes and didn't dare to look down. But the adult made a gesture of letting go, and I couldn't help but scream.

Another round. Hao Junqi clamored to go down. It seems that she was genuinely frightened.

When we came down, two other people sat up, and now there were four people on it. They began to compete, trying to make each other as high as possible, and moving as much as possible. I saw an adult's body crooked. Will he fall? I saw him go in the other direction, his body was correct again, and then he fell steadily, and it was their turn to tease each other again.

The "game" is over, and the plate sugar is pressed. One man removed the four planks of the box, leaving a cuboid on the slaughtering bench, like a wooden plank. I said how do you call it a sugar?

The man brought a long knife and cut the large pieces of sugar into strips. The others then cut the long strips of sugar into small pieces and threw them into the frozen rice, which has been stir-fried.

We ate piece after piece.

But the adults didn't allow us to eat more, saying that we were angry and had a toothache after eating too much. We unanimously guessed that it was the adults who were reluctant. How can you get a toothache after eating such a delicious thing? I can't figure it out.

Although it is not exciting, it is also very fun. The fun is not in beating, but in pinching and eating after beating.

Today's children don't see that kind of scene anymore. I haven't seen anything like that since I left the East Gate. Everything stayed in my impression.

During the day, the adults had already brought a kind of stone hewn utensils for making hemp fruit in the village. A large cylindrical stone, concave into a hemisphere, weighs two hundred pounds. The average person can't lift it.

Grandpa Hao poured the steamed late rice into the concave hemisphere, and two adults each took a small wooden pillar (with a wooden stick embedded in the middle for easy grasping) and squeezed the rice, squeezing it for a while, and the late rice gradually rotted and sticky, so they put away their tools.

The other man brought a tool that was the same shape as the one in front of him, but several times the size of them. Three or four people held the horizontal handle, a long wooden stick thick as a wrist, and stood on either side, and the end of the large, thick and round wooden pillar erected in front of it became round and smooth because of the perennial beating of hemp fruit or rice cakes, and as soon as it was placed in the concave hemisphere, the mushy late rice inside spread out in all directions.

One of the people standing at the front held the crossbar and lifted it up hard, and the rest of the people took advantage of the momentum to push up, and the round and thick wooden pillar was swung up on the top of their heads, and then, they aimed at the concave hemisphere and smashed the wooden pillar into the late rice cereal, and they heard a bang, and the mushy late rice rippled even more.

Again, again, and again.

Some of the late rice paste stuck to the wooden pillars, and the people squatting on the side hurriedly wet their hands in the basin and wiped off the late rice paste stuck to the wooden pillars with their wet hands, and the wooden pillars were raised high above their heads.

Finally, when all the rice was completely mushy and sticky, the adults put away their tools.

An adult carried the whole ball of late rice balls to the butcher stool next to him in one go with both hands, and Grandpa Hao brought a bowl of oil and put it aside, and several adults sat around.

I saw a head who kept kneading the late rice dough, kneading it slippery, kneading it smoothly, gradually pulling out a head, constantly stretching, stretching, and then kneading into a small ball, throwing it on the butcher's bench, and the rest of the people took a small ball and pressed it the butcher's stool, kneaded it, made it into a round and flat ball, and put it in a round dough woven by the slices resting on the bench to dry.

Late rice crackers are made.

At this time, the quiet countryside has fallen asleep, and the adults talk and joke very loudly. Although the gate was closed, the wind came in through the cracks, and it was cold. The mothers urged us to sleep several times, but we didn't agree. Grandpa Hao lit a fire in the brazier, and we sat around the brazier, warm.

Father pinched a "chicken" with the evening rice ball and handed it to us, we put the "chicken" into the fire to roast, the aroma is fragrant, when the "chicken" is a little yellow, we use a small bamboo branch to pull it out, I grabbed it with my hands, it was so hot, I quickly lost it, the "chicken" lay on the ground by the brazier and cried silently.

After a while, I picked up the "chicken" again, and when it was no longer hot, I broke off a "leg" and gave it to Hao Junqi, who ate it deliciously. I wrapped the "chicken head" in my mouth, it was so fragrant. We divided the whole chicken by two.

Next, one of us asked for a late rice ball, which we put in our hands and played with for a long time. I wanted to make it like a little mouse, with its tail and ears, but I couldn't pinch out the long and thinner whiskers, so I had to give up.

Hao Junqi pinched a pair of villains, vaguely recognizable as a man and a woman, facing each other, looking at each other.

"It's beautiful." I say.

"Kiki's hands are so skillful." The mother who was sitting next to her said.

"Thank you, Auntie." Hao Junqi was a little shy.

"That girl is Kiki." Mother said.

"Then that boy is me." I say.

"It's not. Not really. Hao Junqi waved her hand again and again.

"Don't talk nonsense." My mother reprimanded me.

"I'm kidding." I stuck out my tongue.

The late rice crackers are all ready. Everyone sat down to drink tea and rest. Hao Junqi's mother picked a few late rice crackers and cut them into slices, and Grandpa Hao burned the fire in the stove vigorously. The oil is already in the pan. You can eat fragrant fried late rice crackers right away. Somehow, my stomach felt very hungry at this time. You know, we've stayed up so long so that this moment has come.

When I slipped out of the small door to "Xiao Jie", Hao Junqi followed. The night was already deep and exceptionally silent. It was a night without moonlight and without stars. The wind has become much lighter. It's cold.

"Brother—"

"Hmm."

"Any idea why I'm pinching a pair of dolls?"

"Why?" The night breeze blew and I shuddered.

"Remember the eight words that flashed on the stone wall when the Optimus Pillar cracked?"

"Yes. Never leave and never give up, and always be together. ”

"But my brother will be leaving soon, so I thought of pinching two dolls for you to take with you, so that as long as you eat late rice crackers, you will think of these two dolls, and you will think of me when you think of this doll made of late rice. Although we are not together, as long as we always think of each other, it means that we are still together, and we have not separated or abandoned. "It was dark outside, and I couldn't see the expression on Hao Junqi's face.

I grabbed Hao Junqi's hands, and Hao Junqi's hands were cold. "Kiki, you're criticizing me and I'm going to forget about you, right? I won't forget. I don't have to eat late rice crackers to think of that doll, and I don't have to think of that doll to think of you. I'll always think of you. ”

"When you go to the school in the city, you will meet a lot of beautiful girls, and they all want to be your sisters, so that my brother will slowly forget about Kiki." Hao Junqi is still in that sad and sad tone.

"Nope. There are a lot of beautiful girls in the city school, but none of them can attract me, and they can't be my sister. I only have one sister, Kiki. ”

"Brother, you must always think of me," Hao Junqi clenched my hands in turn, "Miss me like Kiki misses you." ”

"I must always miss you."

"No one tells you good night before you go to bed, don't you can't sleep, because Kiki still says good night to you every night, but you can't hear you."

"I'd also say: Kiki, good night. By the way, it would be nice to have a communication tool where we could all listen to each other when we weren't together. ”

"If only there was something that could keep our voices alive, you could actually listen to me say goodnight before you went to bed. I'm afraid that after a long time, you won't even remember my voice. "Hao Junqi uses my imagination.

"If only there was something that could keep us as we were, I could take it out and look at it every day when I think of you." I continued to imagine, "But, Kiki, don't worry, I'll always remember your voice, I'll always remember the way you looked." ”