Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

After Wang Zhou finished signing, Lin Heng collected the note and drove to the credit union.

When he came down today, he had planned to open another account specifically to store the money from the purchasing station and the canteen.

He made a lot of money this year and mixed it up with the money he earned, and he forgot where he spent it.

After opening the account, Lin Heng deposited the money into the passbook.

Turning around and walking back, the market on the street has come to an end now, everyone has finished leaving, and the stall owners have begun to pack up and prepare to go home for the New Year.

Lin Heng walked around to see if there was anything he could miss. Generally, prices would be much cheaper at this time.

But along the way, I didn’t see anything I particularly wanted to buy.

"Boss, do you want to buy a donkey head and donkey skin? I will sell it to you at a cheaper price."

As he drove to the middle of the bridge, an uncle shouted to him.

Lin Heng was looking at the other side, but when he heard the sound, he turned around and saw that the uncle had spread a tarp on the ground to sell donkey meat. There were still donkey heads, tails, half a donkey skin, and some bones left on the stall. and some meat.

Realizing that Lin Heng seemed to be interested in buying it, the uncle with his nose hair growing out quickly said: "This is my donkey. The day before yesterday, the donkey fell down the mountain and broke his leg, so I had to kill it and sell it for meat."

"There's only the last bit left. If you want it, I'll sell it to you cheaply. They say dragon meat is in the sky and donkey meat is on the ground. This is a good thing." The uncle kept selling.

Lin Heng stopped the car, walked over, took a look, and asked, "How much does the rest cost?"

He didn't have any doubts about the donkey he raised, but he was worried that it was a sick donkey. After looking at the eyes and mouth, he felt that it shouldn't be the case.

When the uncle heard this, he immediately beamed with joy: "It's thirty for the whole package. Even though I have a lot of bones, I weigh nearly a hundred kilograms."

The donkey meat was very clean. Except for the head, there were still spine bones and ribs. The four leg bones were gone. Adding the tail and the piece of donkey skin, the remaining ten kilograms of donkey meat was almost a hundred kilograms. .

But in this day and age, no one is interested in bones at all, and this thing cannot be sold.

"Okay, I bought it."

After thinking about it, Lin Heng bought them all. The total sum of these things was not very expensive.

In fact, he mainly wanted to buy donkey skin to make some donkey glue for Xiulan. Since it was not expensive, he bought it for one piece. Thirty cents per pound was not expensive at all.

"Okay, you are such a generous boss."

The uncle quickly agreed, picked up a snakeskin bag and started loading Lin Heng's things.

"Take out three of the ribs and put them separately." Lin Heng thought for a while and said.

"Okay." The uncle agreed quickly.

After loading, Lin Heng gave the money, went back and gave the three ribs to Uncle Gao, and then sent Wang Zhou home.

His home is not in the direction of Hongfeng Village, but it is not far away and only takes half an hour to go back and forth.

On the way back after seeing off the people, Lin Heng saw that all the vendors on the streets of Huangtan Town were gone and all the shops were closed.

Lin Heng went to the store to get the donkey heads and other things he bought, and also took back all the unsold fireworks in the store.

It was already three o'clock in the afternoon when we got home, and every house on the road was cleaning.

Xiulan saw that Lin Heng had a big snakeskin bag in the car when he came back. She tilted her head and said, "What did you buy again?"

"Donkey heads, donkey skins, donkey bones, and unsold fireworks from the store." Lin Heng laughed and said, "The donkey skins are made into donkey glue and are good for people."

Xiulan walked over, looked at the things, and asked, "Did it cost a lot of money?"

"Not much, just thirty."

"That's okay. I'll get the tools to help with it."

Xiulan went into the house and got the tools. The two of them first burned the head and tail of the donkey to remove the hair. It took an hour and a half just to clean them.

Finally, Lin Heng split the donkey's head into two halves, handed it to Xiulan and said, "We just have some marinade. Let's marinate the head and tail of the donkey."

Xiulan originally thought like this, carrying the things into the house to marinate them.

Lin Heng used boiling water to scald the donkey skin. After scalding, he used a steel-making dagger to shave off the hair and fat. Naturally, these two things cannot be used to make donkey glue.

The donkey skin was clean and still weighed ten pounds. Lin Heng broke it into pieces, put it in a pot, added high-strength white wine and started to simmer it over low heat.

The donkey meat was picked up and stored in the 'refrigerator' made by Lin Heng. The bones were naturally used to stew soup, but there were just a little too many.

Xiulan looked at the bones and said, "You can take some of those bones to your parents and eldest brother. Our family can't finish them all. My eldest brother and his friends brought some for us when they were making rice cakes in the afternoon."

Lin Heng nodded: "Okay, let's go together, and forget about the gifts we bought for them before."

"I want to say it too." Xiulan turned around and went into the house to get things. She bought clothes for her parents Caiyun, and her eldest brother bought some food and clothes for the children.

The two of them carried their things and went to the old house where their parents lived first. The second elder couldn't help but be curious when he saw that the two of them had carried so many things.

"What are you doing?" Father Lin asked helplessly.

"Lin Heng bought these donkey bones today. I couldn't finish eating and got some for you."

Xiulan first talked about the bones Lin Heng was carrying, and then placed the gifts she brought on the table: "These are the clothes Lin Heng and I bought for you when we went down to the city before. My parents and Caiyun are one of them." "

Mother Lin looked at the clothes and shook her head: "You kid, why are you buying clothes again? Lin Heng spends money indiscriminately, so why don't you spend money indiscriminately?"

Father Lin also said: "That's right, we don't go to town a few times a year, why do we need so many clothes?"

Lin Heng was too lazy to say more, and spread his hands and said: "Wear it, what else can I do? I bought it, did you burn it?"

Lin's father and mother were speechless when they heard this, and wanted to beat Lin Heng, the big boy.

Xiu Lan was gentler: "Lin Heng has money, you don't have to wear patched clothes all the time if you have clothes."

The two old people are too frugal. Their clothes and pants have seven or eight patches, but they still wear them, even though they have new clothes.

Seeing that his parents still wanted to nag, Lin Heng directly pulled Xiu Lan and Xiao Xia away. Only Cai Yun came from behind to say a word of thanks, and she didn't dare to interrupt just now.

After taking it from his father, he took it from his eldest brother. Sister-in-law Liu Juan looked at Xiu Lan and got a little restless. She pulled Xiu Lan and said all kinds of thanks.

She used to have a lot of opinions about Xiu Lan. Although she didn't tear her face, she always liked to make fun of her. But Xiu Lan is rich now, and she never ridicules her, and buys things for her children, which makes her face hot.

Lin Yue didn't know what to say, he just patted Lin Heng's shoulder and said thank you. There was no need for too many words between brothers.

After the two of them delivered the things and were about to leave, Liu Juan insisted on keeping them for dinner, even if she said that there was braised meat at home.

In the end, the two of them could only agree to have a meal in the evening. Xiaoxia played with Lin Wei and Lin Tao here, and Lin Heng went back from time to time to add fire and stir the donkey skin to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.

After dinner, the donkey skin had melted completely when he went back, but it was still a long time before it could be boiled into donkey-hide gelatin.

Lin Heng took out the pottery stove for boiling tea, lit the charcoal and slowly boiled the rest with the small iron pot he used to cook on the mountain.

He got up twice in the evening to add charcoal.

On the morning of the 31st day of the twelfth lunar month, when Lin Heng got up, the donkey-hide gelatin had reached the final stage, and now it was enough to pour out the black juice in the pot.

Lin Heng first poured out half of the donkey-hide gelatin and let it cool naturally. The remaining half was added with rock sugar, black sesame, raisins, crushed red dates, and walnuts and stirred evenly to make donkey-hide gelatin cake.

After cooling down, Lin Heng weighed it. Pure donkey-hide gelatin weighed one pound and two ounces, and donkey-hide gelatin cake weighed more than five pounds.

"Try one."

Lin Heng handed a piece of donkey-hide gelatin cake to Xiulan and Xiaoxia. He didn't feel tired when making this kind of thing, but felt very interesting. He felt that this was one of the pleasures of life.

"Delicious!" Xiulan nodded affirmatively and stretched out her hand to feed Lin Heng a bite.

"Sweet~" Xiaoxia's eyes also curved into small crescents.

Lin Heng's face was full of smiles. This was what he wanted to hear. He nodded and said, "It's OK as long as it tastes good. Don't take it out during the New Year."

"Of course, this is mine."

Xiulan nodded, first found a plastic bag to pack the donkey-hide gelatin and donkey-hide gelatin cake, and then put it in a wooden box and put it in the cabinet.

After packing, Xiulan said, "Let's go and see how the donkey head is braised."

The three of them went to the kitchen together. Now the fire in the marinade pot was naturally extinguished, but the donkey head and donkey tail soaked in the marinade for a night were very fragrant.

After it was fished out, a strong aroma of marinade came to the nose, and the bright red color was also very tempting.

"It's completely marinated."

Xiulan could separate the meat from the bones with a light tear of her hand, and she put it in the pot and tore off a large piece for Lin Heng.

The donkey skin was chewy, the donkey meat was delicate and soft, full of the aroma of marinade, and after a careful aftertaste, there was a fragrance of the donkey meat itself. Lin Heng could only say that it was worthy of being called the dragon meat in the sky and the donkey meat on the ground.

"I'll bring some to my parents for lunch later." Lin Heng gave a thumbs up.

"Okay."

Xiulan nodded, and then she tore some more, and the three of them ate some each, and then mixed some paste to start pasting couplets and door paintings.

Xiaoxia pulled the dog and asked curiously: "What are you doing?"

"This is the New Year."

Xiulan answered her while pasting couplets with Lin Heng.

After pasting couplets, door paintings, and upside-down blessing characters, Lin Heng finally hung up the big red lanterns, and a festive atmosphere suddenly came to his face.

Xiaoxia looked curiously, and then went into the house with Lin Heng. The main door of the house was also pasted with couplets, and each small door was pasted with a blessing character.

"It looks much more festive now."

Lin Heng nodded with satisfaction.

Xiulan had also prepared things, and said with a smile: "Let's go, let's go to our parents' place."

Xiaoxia insisted on taking her little Lai Fu with her. When they went there, everyone in the eldest brother's family had already arrived.

Lin Heng took some firecrackers for Xiaoxia and others to play with.

"Thank you, second dad!"

Lin Wei and others were so excited that they started to blow up a broken porcelain bowl in the yard, and also blew up a pile of soil and cow dung outside.

"Dad, you set off!"

Xiaoxia didn't dare to set off firecrackers, but she liked to hear the sound, especially the blasting of porcelain bowls.

Lin Heng was also bored, so he accompanied her to set off firecrackers. When the firecrackers went off, she laughed foolishly, but when she was asked to do it by herself, she kept shrinking back.

The most pitiful one was Lai Fu who followed her, who was frightened by the firecrackers.

Adults played cards for two days, and children played with cannons. This is the Chinese New Year, and it was very joyful.

"The reunion dinner is ready, serve the dishes!"

Following Lin's mother's shout, everyone got up to serve the dishes. This year's reunion dinner at noon on the 30th was much better than before. There were 12 dishes served at the beginning, and there were still several dishes such as pork legs, steamed meat, fish, and chicken that were not served.

The children were already ready, drooling at the dishes on the table, waiting for the adults to give the order to start.

Lin Heng felt a little emotional. When he was a child, he looked forward to the Chinese New Year because there were delicious foods at this time, and he could play with his friends to his heart's content. Even if he got into trouble, his parents would not beat him or scold him during this period.

In his memory, that was the most anticipated and beautiful time of the year.

When he grew up, he also looked forward to the Chinese New Year, but it was no longer for food and fun, but only at this time could he get together with his family and friends. Usually, he was always apart because of his busy schedule.

Father Lin lit the firecrackers and ran in with a smile. The reunion dinner began with the sound of firecrackers.

"Eat and drink!"

The adults raised their wine and the children raised their drinks. Everyone celebrated and was beaming with joy.

The children picked up the big pieces they liked to eat and put them into their mouths. Every time at this time, their parents would nag them to pay attention to etiquette, such as not lying on the table, not eating all the time, not always holding chopsticks in their hands, etc.

But today everyone was very happy, and no one said anything when the children kept eating. Mother Lin always liked to pick up some dishes for everyone, while Xiulan and Liu Juan always picked up dishes for their parents.

Lin Heng ate and drank with big mouthfuls and chatted casually.

His mother's cooking skills have improved, and the dishes on the table are all pretty good. Lin Heng's favorite is the fried dumplings, as well as the braised pork legs and donkey heads.

After a while, Lin's father got drunk and patted Lin Heng on the shoulder and said, "This year, our family is thanks to you. You have really become my pride. Now I have a lot of face in the village. I have lived a lifetime and finally raised my head."

"Dad, let's have another drink."

Lin Heng smiled and poured a glass for his father. Becoming the pride of his father was one of his childhood dreams, but dreams always fade when he grows up. It's good enough to support himself in a difficult world, let alone become the pride of his parents.

In his previous life, it was because of debt that his almost fifty-year-old father went to dig coal to help pay off the debt. Those things made him feel guilty and regretful day and night.

In this life, he finally became his father's pride through hard work. After a sip of wine, the strong liquor made his whole stomach burn, but Lin Heng felt that it was his heart that was burning more at this moment.

After drinking a glass with Lin Heng, Lin's father drank with Lin Yue again, saying some things from his heart.

Both Lin Heng and his brother thought his father was drunk, but he said he wasn't.

"Actually, there's no need to say so much. We are all a family. If we work together and work together, we will definitely make our lives better and better."

Lin Heng said with a smile, and he felt that he was a little tipsy.

"Brother, you are right. Let's work together."

Lin Yue nodded and drank the wine in one gulp.

After drinking this little wine, everyone stopped drinking, and after eating for a while, they wanted to eat.

Dumplings were also eaten at noon on New Year's Eve. The dumplings stuffed with pork and green onions made by Lin's mother were very popular, and everyone ate a big bowl.

"Let's go, let's set off firecrackers!"

After eating, everyone shouted.

There are not so many reasons in life, just be happy.