Duan Yun's hometown is in Hongqigou in Shiqiaozi Town, Benxi, Liaoning, where Duan Yun's uncle and grandfather's family still live.

In my memory, the last time Duan Yun went back to his hometown for the Chinese New Year was when he was in the third grade of elementary school, and he never went back since.

In the difficult years, Duan Yun's family, who had been helped by his old family many times, in that difficult period when the Chinese people were generally not full, his uncle and grandfather once sent several bags of sorghum rice and corn to Duan Yun's family twice a year, and it was precisely because of these grains that Duan Yun's family had a good life.

Over the years, my mother and my hometown have maintained correspondence, and this year I caught up with Duan Yun to return to the city to work in the factory, so Gao Xiuzhi decided to go back to her hometown to have a look.

Gao Xiuzhi brought some local specialties from Daxing this time, two bags of dried apricots, a bucket of sesame oil, if it weren't for too much luggage, Gao Xiuzhi would have brought more local specialties over.

However, for Duan Yun, he thinks these things are troublesome, in his opinion, money and food stamps are the most affordable, before leaving, he exchanged more than two hundred catties of food stamps on the black market, and he also brought a few hundred yuan in cash, there is so much money, enough for their family of three and the people in their hometown to have a good New Year.

After taking the train for two days and three nights, Duan Yun's family finally got off the train at Benxi Station.

As soon as he got off the train, Duan Yun felt the chill of the cold wind in front of him.

Although Daxing is also a northern city, it is always warmer than the northeast, but although it is very cold here, I am still a little excited to see the snow on the roof and platform.

Later, they took a bus and a donkey cart for a while, and finally arrived at their uncle's house near the setting of the sun.

"Xiaoyun is so tall, Xiaofang is now a big girl......"

Standing at the entrance of the village to greet Duan Yun's family of three, it was his uncle Gao Qingping.

Duan Yun's uncle Gao Qingping was a native farmer, burly and tall, although he was over sixty years old, his body still looked tough, and he was full of energy when he spoke.

Gao Qingping has two sons and three daughters, and now the children have all married, the two sons now work in the Benxi Iron and Steel Plant, and the daughters are also married, except for the eldest daughter who married in Mengjia Village, which is not far away, and the other two daughters are now also married to workers in the Benxi Iron and Steel Plant.

After receiving Gao Xiuzhi's telegram, Gao Qingping's family made preparations in advance.

Gao Qingping has a row of mud and straw houses in the village, the fence yard is very large, there is a reel well in the middle, there is a stone mill and a chicken coop made of mud and grass on the side of the courtyard, and the house is hung with corn, full of life.

Duan Yun's family was settled in a room on the east side, which had been cleaned up in advance, and the roof had just been pasted over the shed.

Pasting sheds is a relatively common decoration work in the rural areas of Northeast China in the 70s of the last century, and there are similarities with the current decoration of house roofs.

The house was built, but as soon as I looked up in the house, I saw that the beams of the house were not a thing, neither elegant nor hygienic, so all the people who could get by and loved to be clean would hang a shed, of course, the shed was naturally not a ceiling or something, besides, the countryside at that time could not afford this. Some people pulled a large piece of plastic sheeting in the house to use it as a roof to save trouble, while more people used sorghum stalks to smear yellow mud to hang the shed.

After hanging the shed, I found some waste newspapers and books and paper to paste up, and it became the so-called paste shed. The paste shed is a handicraft work, and it must not be sloppy. At that time, there were several kinds of people in the Northeast who were very popular: one master of ceremonies, two carpenters, three bricklayers, and four yin and yang, and this paste shed should be ranked fifth.

Gao Qingping has been widowed for many years, usually lives alone, and several children often take turns to take care of him.

In Duan Yun's view, the New Year's flavor in the countryside seems to be much stronger than that in the cities.

On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, on the second day when Duan Yun's family entered the village, his uncle and grandfather Gao Qingping began to slaughter New Year's pigs in the yard.

Slaughtering pigs is a very important activity in the rural areas of Northeast China, pigs must be slaughtered in the coldest days of the lunar month, mainly for easy storage, and the meat will be spoiled when the weather is slightly hot.

This year, pigs are the main source of meat for the Chinese New Year in the village.

Killing pigs is a laborious period, you need to ask neighbors to work together to complete, fat pigs are killed, will give some meat to the neighbors who help kill pigs, which makes the pig killing dishes more social attributes. Pig-killing dishes are used to the fullest, and meat, bones, offal, and even blood from all parts are important ingredients.

There is a famous dish in the pig killing dish is blood sausage, put a little salt water in a large basin, and then release the blood when killing the pig, stir the blood to prevent coagulation, add a little seasoning and then pour it into the casing. In addition to blood sausages, there are also blood tofu made from clotted blood clots, or steamed pig's blood directly to make a dish. Although blood is an auxiliary, no matter what version of the pig-killing dish, blood sausage is an indispensable delicacy, not to mention sauerkraut white meat blood sausage, separate steamed blood sausage, dipped in soy sauce and garlic, is also a delicious delicacy.

More advanced than killing pig stew is sauerkraut white meat, the white meat used is actually the pig neck of the trough meat, this piece of meat is the fattest and most tender piece of meat on the pig, this year people are generally short of oil and water, can not eat meat several times a year, and the smooth and tender trough meat in this dish is cut into almost transparent slices of meat, with the unique sauerkraut in the Northeast, it is addictive to eat.

Entering the wax moon, in addition to killing New Year's pigs, every family also has to wrap sticky bean buns, which is one of the staple foods that northerners like to eat. The black soil is rich in yellow rice, the yellow rice is washed well, rolled into powder, sieved and adjusted into noodles, warmed moderately on the hot kang head, and then wrapped into the cooked red bean paste, a bean bag is wrapped. Whether steamed or fried, it is very fragrant. In order to prevent drowsiness, the old man said "nonsense" while wrapping the bean bun, and there was a saying that "the winter bean bun talks about ghosts".

As for the wine, the local people use sorghum rice to exchange it for the brigade commune, two catties of sorghum can be exchanged for one catty of wine, if it is a particularly famous brigade for winemaking, this price code can be changed to three catties to five catties of sorghum for one catty of wine.

The village is filled with the sound of firecrackers, and the Chinese New Year is undoubtedly the happiest day for children.

Sister Duan Fang has been playing very well outside these days, wearing a bright red cotton jacket, with walnuts and other dried fruits in her pocket, dancing rubber bands with the girls in the village, and her uncle and grandfather also took out the ice car from the firewood room, every time Duan Fang went to the field to skate, she was always hit back and forth by a group of boys, and her little face was full of excitement.

Duan Yun also enjoyed the warm and happy days of the New Year in the village, but for Duan Yun, in addition to the New Year, the most important thing for Duan Yun to return to the Northeast this time was that he wanted to find his parents and girlfriend in his previous life......