The time was just approaching, and this time was just after breakfast, and it was close to noon. At this time, Tangjiang is busy, the major shops open their doors early to welcome customers, and the market is also crowded and bustling, housewives stand in front of the small vendors to bargain, choosing the ingredients for lunch and evening, and the vendors are shouting loudly and boasting about their goods.

Compared with the noisy and noisy environment outside, the Li family in the southwest corner of the town, near the north bank of the river, seemed unusually quiet. The front yard and front hall were empty, and even my grandmother, who was supposed to be busy in the kitchen at this time, seemed to be going out.

Today is the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, for the town of Tangjiang, today is the last market of the year, and it will be the new year in a few days, and the New Year will open until the seventh day of the first month, so at this time the people around Tangjiang have gathered in the market, adults are shopping for the items needed for the New Year, and children are running there, frolicking, to see if there are any novel toys.

Walk through the front yard, through the main hall, through the winding corridor, to the back yard of the house.

In the backyard of the house, in the open space near the lake, knives, guns, swords, hammers and other weapons are still placed on the two weapon racks in the corner, but in the center of the clearing, there is an extra recliner today, and there is a pair of crutches next to the handle on the right side of the chair, and on the other side is a small coffee table, on which there are several small plates, and some small and delicate snacks are neatly placed inside, mung bean cake, peach crisp, and macaroon, which are some common snacks.

Although these things are very common snacks, they are all very exquisitely made, as if they are exquisite works of art, and it can be seen that the people who make these pastries are working hard to complete them.

Next to several small saucers, there is a side pot made of purple sand, which is shaped like a drum and is upright and thick. The teapot is placed on the coffee table, and the three pieces of the pot dripper spout, the spout, and the handle of the pot are all in a straight line. The whole pot looks to be well-proportioned, rounded, and timeless.

Below the spout is a purple sand cup full of tea, the cup does not have any patterns, the lines are very simple, but the overall look is simple and generous.

The tea in the cup should have just been filled, and green smoke rose from the mouth of the cup. The tea is pale yellow and crystal clear. Before you taste it, you can feel the fragrance of the teacup as soon as it reaches your lips.

On the recliner, I saw Li Yichen lying there on his side, holding a book in his hand and reading. Although Li Yichen was lying there, looking at his expression, he was still very focused on reading the book in his hand, as if he didn't listen to what was going on outside the window.

That Lu Tonglun is indeed extraordinary, after the three pairs of medicines, this Li Yichen can barely get out of bed and walk, although he still has to stop on crutches, but it is always much better than lying in bed all day.

After getting up in the morning, I saw that the sun came out today, and everyone in the family was going to go to the market to buy some New Year's goods, and even Li Xinyuan had to go there to see if there were any novel toys, so Li Yichen simply asked his family to help him to the backyard, lie here to read a book, and bask in the sun.

Although the winter sun does not make people feel hot, it brings people a warm feeling, but after reading a book under the sun for a long time, the eyes will still feel dim and have an astringent feeling.

Probably a little tired from reading, Li Yichen turned his body and let himself lie on the chair, picked up the book in his hand to cover his eyes, I don't know if he was closing his eyes to recuperate, or thinking about something.

"What kind of true qi does this black and white belong to? Chaos and the beginning of the opening, and then the heaven and earth turn into yin and yang, and yin and yang give birth to the five elements. If it is the Qi of Chaos, it is nothingness, a piece of nothingness, without any attributes. Why are these books not recording the characteristics of yin and yang, nor how they operate? ”

If you get closer, you can hear Li Yichen lying there, muttering to himself.

After hearing Lu Tonglun say that there was a vitality in his body that day, Li Yichen found that it was the white true qi in his body that contained the vitality that could repair his meridians.

After discovering the source of vitality, Li Yichen thought that if he let this white true qi continue to run along the meridians in his body, he might be able to heal the damaged meridians in his body.

When Li Yichen tried to separate the two true qis, he just used the white true qi to heal himself. But every time, these two true qi, black and white, are like a husband and wife in distress, going in and out together. As long as he was lucky, the position of the lower abdomen first came with a burning pain, and before Li Yichen could open his mouth to exhale in pain, the scorching heat of the fire suddenly turned into a biting cold.

It was as if the blood in his whole body had coagulated, which made him shiver.

Before Li Yichen could get used to it, the feeling turned into scorching heat again, and then a burst of cold, repeating itself and repeating it, alternating cycles.

It's like this every time, without exception, as long as he is lucky, he will be tormented in the two heavens of ice and fire, and every time Li Yichen will be tossed with half of his life.

Li Yichen has always suspected in his heart that these two true qi in his body are the legendary yin and yang qi, so he has been looking through a large number of books at home in the past few days, but he has not found a clear explanation.

Although Li Yichen now belongs to the middle of the family, his ancestors have also produced congenital masters, and he can be regarded as belonging to a family, and the collection of books in the family is still retained.

After rummaging through the books at home, Li Yichen found that the introduction and application of the five elements in these books were very detailed, and the yin and yang qi and chaos before the generation of the five elements true qi were only mentioned in passing, and there was no detailed explanation at all.

Some wrote: Tao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things;

Others wrote: The chaos is at the beginning, the universe is laid, the clear and light rise of the air is the sky, and the heavy turbidity of the air is the earth.

A little more detailed is just written: when heaven and earth first open, everything is chaos, which is infinite, and that yin and yang merge, and that yin and yang generate all things as taiji. Therefore, Wuji gives birth to Taiji, and Taiji gives birth to Liangyi.

"Is it because no one has ever cultivated the two qi of yin and yang, or is it due to historical reasons that some ancient inheritances have been lost?"

Li Yichen was lying on this recliner, wondering why none of these books recorded in detail how people cultivated before the appearance of the Five Elements True Qi.

"No matter how much it is, I'll read these books at home first, and if I still can't find them, then I'll go to the library of the college after the New Year to see if there are any records there. ”

After thinking about it for a long time, Li Yichen still didn't figure it out, and finally made up his mind to find the answer in the books first.

The sun slowly walked from east to west, Li Yichen stayed in the backyard, lying on a chair, tired of reading, walking along the lake with crutches, eating a small snack on the coffee table when he was hungry, drinking a cup of tea when he was thirsty, and the time passed slowly, all this seemed so peaceful.

When the sun was a little westerly, the silence was broken by a burst of words coming from the main hall, and the family who had gone out to the market had returned.

Hearing a voice coming from the main hall in front of him, Li Yichen picked up the crutches on the side of the chair and prepared to stand up and walk to the main hall.

As soon as he left the chair, he saw Li Xinyuan running over with something in his hand.

"Brother, why did you stand up?"

Seeing Li Yichen standing there, Li Xinyuan hurriedly ran a few steps, ran over, put the objects in his hand aside, and prepared to come over to help Li Yichen.

"Brother has been fine for a long time, but he has been lying down for a long time and wants to walk here. ”

Seeing that Li Xinyuan was about to support herself, Li Yichen hurriedly said that she had no problem, and deliberately took two steps forward on crutches to prove that her legs and feet were neat.

"Brother, what do you see I bought?"

Seeing that Li Yichen was indeed no problem, Li Xinyuan handed the things that were left next to him to Li Yichen's hands.

"Firecrackers, or firecrackers. ”

Seeing what Li Xinyuan handed over, Li Yichen recognized this firecracker at a glance, and also recognized that this firecracker Zhang bought there.

This is mainly due to the firecrackers Zhang's firecrackers are completely different from other people's firecrackers, other people's firecrackers are cut back from the mountain one by one to the sun to dry, and then take out the water to sell, when the fireworks are put in the fire to burn, after burning to a certain temperature, the bamboo makes a burst sound.

The firecrackers of the Zhang family are sawn into sections, and then some black soil is said to be made according to the ancestral recipe in the bamboo, and finally the mouth can be sealed with mulberry paper.

When this firecracker is fired, it is not only loud, but also brittle.

"Brother, there are so many people in the market today, there are crowds of people everywhere, and I can't squeeze through the crowd, so it took me a lot of effort to buy these firecrackers. ”

Seeing Li Yichen recognize the firecracker in his hand at a glance, Li Xinyuan began to tell what he saw and heard in the market today.

When you say a word, most of the time Li Xinyuan is talking, and Li Yichen is listening quietly next to him.

Time passed quickly in the siblings' chat, and the conversation ended when Grandma had made dinner ready to urge them to eat.

After dinner, the family chatted in the main hall for a while, and then went back to their rooms to rest.

Time passed day by day, and in a blink of an eye, it was the thirtieth day of the lunar month.

The thirtieth day of the lunar month is also called Chinese New Year's Eve, which evolved from the expulsion in ancient times.

The so-called "expulsion" refers to the fact that the ancients would use the method of beating drums to expel the "plague ghosts" on the day before the arrival of the new year, and later it slowly turned into a festival of family reunion.

On this day, no matter where you are, you'll be thinking of ways to get back home and join your family.

After having breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, Li Yichen still stayed in the backyard alone to read a book as a few days ago. The rest of the family was busy in front, preparing the reunion dinner in the evening and hungry for the items needed to worship the ancestors tomorrow.

Although the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve is the most important dinner of the year, basically every family's meal in Tangjiang Town is the same style, and the only difference may be taste.

Under normal circumstances, there will be nine dishes on the table at this meal, which represents the ninety-nine to one.

First of all, a white cut rooster, in the concept of Tangjiang people, the man is the biggest, and the male is the first, so in this grand festival, it is natural to slaughter a rooster, and the rooster also means the phoenix, representing good luck.

Then there is a small fried fish, which represents more than every year.

Stir-fried meat with celery is to hope that everyone can be more diligent in the new year;

A bowl of egg rolls represents this abundant wealth;

Stir-fried vegetables are to hope that children will grow up quickly after eating;

Then there are plum cabbage button meat, horseshoe meatballs, and fried raw miscellaneous.

There is also a dish with Tangjiang characteristics called fish cake, this dish first peels and bones the fish, then chops it into minced meat, puts the minced meat into the unique soybean flour of Tangjiang, adds eggs and beats it into a paste, and then adds salt to it according to your own taste, then heats the oil, and uses a spoon to make the pasty fish into a circle and put it in the oil pan to fry, and waits until the skin becomes golden brown and scoops up.

When the sun had just set halfway up the mountain, the sound of firecrackers was faintly heard in the distance, and it should be that other families in the town had begun to eat Chinese New Year's Eve.

Hearing the sound of firecrackers in the distance, Li Yichen picked up his crutches and began to walk in the direction of the main hall, he knew that the family was almost ready to eat.

Before Li Yichen reached the arch of the backyard, he saw Li Xinyuan running over, saying that the meal was ready, and asked him to come over to eat.

Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, so this reunion dinner will be moved to the main hall to eat.

When Li Yichen came to the main hall, he saw that two big red candles had been lit on the offering table in the main hall, and three sandalwood sticks were inserted in the center of the two candles.

In the main hall, my grandfather and grandmother sat on the upper seat, my mother and aunt sat on both sides of my grandparents, and my father and second uncle were not in the main hall.

Li Yichen knew that his father and uncle should light candles, burn incense, and set off firecrackers at the gate.

According to Tangjiang customs, before eating the reunion dinner, candles and incense should be lit on the kitchen stove to honor the god of the stove, candles and incense should be lit in the main hall to honor the ancestors, and finally at the gate to honor other gods, and when the firecrackers are finished, it means that the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner can begin.

Not long after Li Yichen heard the sound of firecrackers coming from the door of his house, he saw his father and uncle walking in from the front yard.

After the family is seated, the juniors first say some auspicious blessings to the elders, and the elders encourage the juniors.

In the sound of everyone's mutual blessings, the family finished the reunion dinner.

According to custom, on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, the family should gather around and observe the New Year together. However, due to the age of grandpa and grandma, and the fact that grandpa still needs to preside over the New Year's ancestor worship tomorrow as the eldest son-in-law, they went back to rest not long after the meal.

And Li Yichen was also driven back to his room by his parents to rest very early because his body had not yet recovered.

In the main hall, Li Chuanrong, Li Gan and Li Xinyuan were left there to keep the New Year.

In his sleep, Li Yichen was woken up by a sudden firecracker outside.

"It's a new year again!"

Hearing the sound of firecrackers outside, Li Yichen knew that it was the people in the town who were using firecrackers to welcome the arrival of the new year.