The novel tells the story of the last Gengzi year, the Boxers helped the Qing Dynasty to destroy the foreigners, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing, and the Queen Mother fled in a hurry, trapping the people in fire and water. Prime Minister Li was ordered to kill the Boxers, negotiate peace with envoys from various countries, and sign a series of treaties that humiliated the country, and the pace of foreign aggression stopped for a while. After a pale and yellow upheaval, the land of Jilu finally ushered in a peaceful scene.

A large river winds through the mountains, passes through Tianjin, crosses the Haihe River, and when it comes to the Jilu Plain, it meets with three other rivers and flows southward. It was winter, the river was covered with a thin layer of ice, glowing with white light, and the trees on the bank were covered with rime that looked like snow but not snow. The ancients believed that the mountains and rivers all have spirituality, and liked to compare the famous rivers and mountains to the admirable mountain gods and river immortals, such as the goddess of Wushan, the goddess of Luohe, since ancient times, these four rivers are called the Four Immortal River, and the place where the four rivers intersect, there is a village called the Four Immortal Village. The waterway here is accessible, the north leads to the capital, the south is connected to Suzhou and Hangzhou, and the products are abundant. Although it was repeatedly invaded by war, the land was fertile and the people were industrious, and they soon regained their vitality. Approaching the Chinese New Year, every household in the alley is busy pasting the words, tearing off the Spring Festival couplets of the old year, burning them, throwing them away, and the shredded pieces of paper rise to the sky with the wind, flying higher and higher, asking for the hope of prosperity in the New Year. Before the year of Gengzi has passed, and the year of Xin Chou is approaching, those who are busy plowing the fields of grain and fighting for success all year round in order to make a living, on the eve of the New Year, hope that God will bring good luck to them with this simple and pious ceremony. It is not so much that they burn pieces of paper as they burn secrets and wishes.

Sixian Village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, within a radius of ten miles, outside the village is an endless wheat field, there are sporadic firecrackers in the field, wisps of green smoke curling up from a deep house compound, and the Li family compound is organizing a wedding banquet.

The lord of the Li family compound is the well-known rich man Li Shanren, Li Shanren is the prime minister's clan relatives, originally from Huizhou, Jiangnan, and migrated here with Lord Li in the early years. Under the shadow of Lord Li, he traveled to and from Shanghai for the prime minister's yamen to handle military affairs, and also served as an official salt, private wine, silk tea, and livestock, all of which were involved. He treats people benevolently and righteously, often opens warehouses to help the poor, and is known as Li Shanren, but he is over forty years old and has no children. In the early autumn of last year, Li Shanren, who was over 40 years old, married the eldest lady of a distressed family as a concubine at the instigation of his wife, called Li Xiaoniang, respected his wife as his wife, and worked together in a remote house. Little Lady Li looks like a full moon, her eyes are like silver stars, she treats people with exquisite faces, just like a princess, and she is very well-behaved, and she doesn't like it in the Li Mansion. A year later, Mrs. Li gave birth to a boy, and the family was happy. Li Shanren named the child Xiang Gong, which means peace and stability. Li Shanren thanked God for his favor, and the New Year is coming, so he set up a feast in the courtyard of the Li family, feasted guests from all over the world, neighbors, entertained family servants, killed New Year's pigs to eat reunion dinner, and sang "New Year's Song": "Today twenty-eight, tomorrow twenty-nine, the day after tomorrow is thirty night, everyone closes the door, everyone is celebrating the New Year, Yidler feeds yo ho, feeds Le yo ho, everyone closes the door, New Year's ......" dozens of tables of banquets were set up in the courtyard, and they ate until the treetops on the moon.

The second watch has been knocked out, and the lights and candles in the Li Mansion are still high. Among the guests, the adults had dispersed after they had eaten and drunk, and only the naughty children refused to leave, clamoring to see the sacrifice to the god of the stove. Jilu customs, every year at midnight to sacrifice to the god of the stove, in order to entrust the good wishes of the New Year to ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters. The housekeeper brought the candy, and the family sat around the guest hall, and when Mrs. Li came, they would make sugar ingots, and the midnight sacrifice to the gods would come in handy. Mrs. Li saw that it was still early, so she tended to play with the baby in Mrs. Li's room. Li Xiaoniang is white-skinned and beautiful, married into the Li family for less than ten months, lived up to expectations, and gave birth to the Li family. Mrs. Li likes Mrs. Li very much, and her sisters are commensurate, and she always has to come to Mrs. Li's room when she has nothing to do, and talk to Mrs. Li, it is nothing more than the lord's mood and hobbies, living habits and the rules of the Li family, etc., seeing that the baby is cute, she has been in Mrs. Li's room for a long time, and she heard the second watch, so she got up and went to the stove room. It was cold, and she turned to the fire in the stove room for a while, and then washed her hands and came to the guest hall. Mrs. Li sat down, took a ball of sticky caramel from the sea bowl, kneaded it a few times in the palm of her hand, and pinched the caramel into the shape of an ingot, and placed it in the dustpan. Everyone learned to behave, respectfully pinched the sugar ingots, and carefully stacked them neatly in the dustpan.

In the courtyard, the sky ice wheel hangs high, the cold is pressing, the children in the neighborhood are still scurrying around in the yard, they can't eat sweets a few times a year, full of waiting for midnight to come, after sacrificing to the god of the stove, you can eat sugar ingots. Li Shanren wore a mink coat, exhaled white breath from his mouth, and coaxed the children to be happy in the yard with great interest, saying that after eating the sugar ingots sacrificed to the god of the stove, he could grow teeth in the coming year. The naïve child believed it and begged Li Shanren for a solution: "Eating sugar ingots for Grandpa Stove also makes Grandpa Stove grow teeth?" Li Shanren smiled from ear to ear, and continued to tease the child: "That's not it, to give Grandpa Stove Candy Ingot is to stick his mouth and prevent him from saying bad things about you in front of the Jade Emperor, if you are disobedient and Grandpa Stove says bad things, the Jade Emperor will arrest you." The children were not afraid, and forced their eyelids to fight and said, "What does the Jade Emperor look like, doesn't he look like a grandfather?" The children call Li Shanren grandpa, in fact, Li Shanren is not very old, but his beard is gray, and when he is honored as grandpa, he smiles and pulls up the child to play the game of eagle catching chickens in the yard.

Mrs. Li saw that the hour was not early, rested, Wu's mother brought warm water and asked Mrs. Li to wash her hands, Mrs. Li got up and came to the yard, and saw Li Shanren revolving around the child, and couldn't help muttering: "The boss is not serious, and he is not afraid of flashing his waist!" At this time, Mrs. Li had also gone downstairs, followed closely behind Mrs. Li, and bowed her hand and said, "Please master." The children dispersed in a hurry, Li Shanren opened his arms and pretended to be an eagle, and quickly grabbed the children and told them not to leave, they haven't eaten sugar ingots yet! The children gathered around again, pulling their clothes one by one, hiding behind him, like a dragon's tail thrown to the east and west, Li Shanren was busy and finally caught the leader: "Come, come, go eat sugar ingots with grandpa." With a smile on his face, he went to the stove with his wife. Little Lady Li hugged him and said, "Master, you don't come to the stove once a year, your feet are rusty, be careful and slow." Li Shanren was full of joy, and his family, housekeeper and others followed, and walked into the stove room in a crowd. The children also crept out of the stove and looked around