Shan Liang went down the mountain this time with the idea of accompanying his parents for the New Year, after all, he had been neglecting his parents for the first two years of retreat and cultivation, which made Shan Liang very unhappy, so this New Year's Shan Liang has been accompanying his parents throughout the whole process.

The twenty-third day of the lunar month, the small year in the traditional festival. If New Year's Day is the beginning of the New Year for Westerners, and the Spring Festival is the beginning of the New Year for Chinese people, then the New Year is the beginning of the Chinese New Year.

Whenever this happens, China falls into the brainless predictions of the stupid media and pessimistic economists in the West: factories are shut down, shops are closed, governments are shut down, the stock market is untradeable, rich people drag their families overseas, local people are eager to exchange currency for food, many families put up slogans at the door to express their demands, the streets are filled with the smell of gunpowder left by explosives, people have nothing to do, drink and play cards all day long, and teenagers and children go to the streets in droves to beg for money......

Then the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China will respond forcefully with the vision of caring for mentally handicapped children: You know a ball, that is called the New Year!

The main thing on this day is to sacrifice the stove and clean the house. The sacrificial stove is to worship the stove prince, it is said that every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the stove prince has to go to heaven to report the good and evil of the master's family, in order to prevent the stove prince from saying bad things about the master's house, there is also to smear the mouth of the stove prince with Kanto sugar, and his mouth is glued to not let him say bad things, in short, it is an extremely cumbersome thing, but later people lived in residential buildings, all worship was completely simplified, and even no longer invite the stove prince, only some older or particularly particular will retain some simple worship, Shan Liang's parents are one of them。

Cleaning the house is also known as sweeping the house, sweeping the house, etc., can be understood as the year-end cleaning, in ancient times, every household had to clean the environment, with green bamboo leaves and grapefruit leaves tied to the pole to clean the roof, ceiling, dust and dirt on the wall, said to sweep away the "poor luck", "bad luck", the coming year Qingji. In addition to sweeping the house, it is necessary to clean all kinds of utensils, dismantle and wash the bedding and curtains, sprinkle and sweep the Liulu courtyard, and dredge the nullah culvert.

The single father is to buy a new broom and tie it to the pole, the single beam is under the leadership of the single father to clean up the dust or cobwebs in the corners of each room, and the single mother is to prepare for the evening worship of the stove king, including making dumplings, making paper money and sacrificial dishes.

As the saying goes, men don't worship the moon, and women don't sacrifice to the stove, so the ceremony of worshipping the god of the stove is carried out by a single father with a single beam. In the evening, the father and son who finished sweeping the room came to a remote corner downstairs with the paper money, dumplings, a few dishes and the stove prince who touched the honey at the corner of his mouth after cleaning the room, and then burned the dumplings and vegetables together after the single mother had prepared the paper money, and the ceremony of sending the stove god was completed.

The next few days is the time to prepare for the New Year's goods, when Shan Liang was small, he was looking for relatives and friends who had a big pot stove at home to make a whole tofu, Shan Liang still remembered making tofu at a relative's house when he was a child, more than a dozen catties of beans were ground into a large bucket of soybean milk, soybean milk cooked in a large pot is a common breakfast soybean milk, at this time scoop out some plus sugar is a very good drink at that time, if you don't like to drink soy milk, you can also eat tofu brain, boiled soybean milk is added to the adjusted gypsum slurry and stirred evenly, soon after it is tofu brain, plus some common seasonings, a bowl of fragrant tofu brain is done, the taste is not worse than the tofu brain on the breakfast stall。 Wrap the tofu brain in a cloth wrap, cover it with a wooden board, and press it with a large stone to make tofu.

The most profound memory of Shan Liang is the firewood stove that has been burning when making tofu, throwing a few sweet potatoes on the place where the grass and wood ashes fall on the stove, often a pot of tofu is done, those sweet potatoes are baked, and the roasted sweet sweet potatoes are the most delicious food in winter.

The finished tofu is taken home for the next step of processing: fried tofu slices, salted tofu and stinky tofu, especially the homemade stinky tofu is different from the stinky tofu on the market, which often takes a long time to ferment, long hair, mold, drawing, etc., until the Spring Festival or even the Lantern Festival can be eaten normally, it is the best companion of baked cakes and steamed buns, which is equivalent to the current old godmother. It's just that with the rise of supermarkets and the disappearance of stoves, these childhood anecdotes of the New Year are gone.

Single father and mother preparing New Year's goods or accustomed to rushing to catch up with the big set, compared with the supermarket with complete goods, the rural big set of the year seems to be more New Year's flavor. The rural market at the end of the year is the most lively time of the year, selling chickens, ducks and fish, selling clothes, selling New Year's painting couplets, selling boiled meat materials, buying vegetables, etc., etc., the people who are preparing the New Year's goods are bustling with people, which is the best portrayal of rubbing shoulders.

Shan Liang, who accompanied his parents to the big gathering, looked at the crowded scene, listened to the bargaining between his parents and the vendors, his state of mind slowly changed from pure penance to the prosperity of the world, and began to learn to bargain with the vendors like his parents.

When Shan Liang was defeated again by the clever tongue of the trader and had to pay according to the original price, Shan Liang's father couldn't stand it anymore, so he pulled Shan Liang aside and whispered his experience, "Silly son, is it that your brain is rusty after staying in the mountains for a long time, just cut half of the bargain, na, there are not many star anises at home, buy some star anise according to this method." As he spoke, Shan Father pointed to the stall selling big ingredients on the side and said.

As if he had comprehended the spirit of Shan Father's bargaining, Shan Liang confidently came to the stall selling big ingredients and asked, "How is this star anise sold?"

The vendor saw that it was a young man and said enthusiastically: "Thirty yuan a catty, it's not that I sell and boast, the quality of my family's big ingredients is the best in this set, and the price is also the fairest, do you want to buy some?"

Thinking of Shan Father's teachings, Shan Liang said: "I'll buy some for fifteen yuan a catty." ”

The corner of the vendor's mouth twitched, as if he was being taken off by Shan Liang's counteroffer, and said: "The minimum is twenty-four yuan a catty." ”

"I'll buy some for twelve dollars a pound. ”

"Dude, I'll just give you a pound, I can't buy twelve yuan, if there is such a price on this set, I will give you all the ingredients in this stall!"

"Give me two pounds. ”

"Dude, you can tease me, don't look for trouble for the New Year, it's not good for anyone!" The vendor was already a little angry at this time, whether this product was here to buy big ingredients or find fault.

"That's right, I'm kidding you, I'll give you an early year for the New Year, and I'll have a pound of thirty yuan of anise. Shan Liang grinned, accentuating his tone at the thirty yuan octagon.

"Hey, buddy, you're really interesting, come on, I've sold it to you for twenty-four yuan a catty, you city people are really good at playing. At this time, the vendor already understood that Shan Liang was teasing him, and said with some tears and laughter, as the words fell, a pound of anise and a pound of good was handed to Shan Liang.

Shan Liang took the anise and took out thirty yuan and handed it to the vendor and said, "New Year's Day, just kidding, don't mind." After speaking, he turned around and left the stall, leaving only the vendor holding the money he was looking for for Shan Liang messy in the cold wind of winter, and finally spit out a sentence: "There are strange things every year, and there are many this year." ”