Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

After the dumplings are cooked, some are put on the plate and the rest are put on the curtain. Put a piece of firewood stick on one end of the curtain so that the dumpling soup can flow out along the seam of the curtain.

Naturally, there are two tables on the kang and on the floor in the room, and everyone is sitting around the table. As soon as Mrs. Chen saw that the dumplings were on the table, she quickly asked her daughters-in-law to sit down and eat. "Okay, the eldest daughter-in-law, the third daughter-in-law, all sit down and eat dumplings. This year's dumplings have a lot of meat in them, so they are guaranteed to be delicious."

Everyone sat down. Mr. Xue poured some clear sauce into the minced garlic and brought some vinegar. Anyone who liked it could make some for themselves. The family was chatting and laughing while eating the dumplings. "Well, these dumplings are good. They taste fresh and have a lot of meat." The old man nodded.

Jinghan picked up a dumpling and went to eat it. Unexpectedly, she bit something hard. He covered his mouth and spit out the contents. It was a copper coin. "Mom, I got the money."

Everyone laughed and said that Jinghan will definitely earn a lot of money next year. The dumplings made during the New Year are always stuffed with something, and whoever eats them will get good luck. For a time, everyone ate various things one after another, including copper coins, jujubes, and sugar. Anyone who ate them would be very happy.

After eating the dumplings, it happened to be midnight. Everyone picked up the table together, and then Mr. Xu and Ms. Chen sat on the Kang. Wen Han and his grandchildren all knelt on the ground and kowtowed to their grandparents, "Grandpa and grandma have a prosperous New Year. I wish my grandma a long and healthy life, and good fortune."

The old man and Mrs. Chen were sitting on the kang, looking at these grandchildren, they felt so beautiful. "Okay, get up, get up." The two people quickly took out the red envelopes they had prepared and handed one to each of them. There wasn't much money in the red envelope, just five copper coins.

The children came to the old couple one by one and accepted the red envelopes. Then they each took the red envelopes and sat aside happily.

After midnight, everyone was sleepy, so they went back to their houses to sleep. It is not allowed to sleep on a mattress on New Year's Eve. There is an old saying that if you sleep on the quilt on the 30th night, the hens at home will love to nest in the next year. So everyone didn't take off their clothes, just covered themselves with a small quilt and fell asleep.

On the morning of the first day of the new year, everyone got up later, but Mr. Xue and Mr. Zhu still got up very early. They lit a fire and cooked the dumplings. Before the dumplings were ready, Zhixin took a bunch of firecrackers and went out to light them. Today's firecrackers don't need to be as many as New Year's Eve, just a quick thought will do.

When the dumplings are out of the pot, almost everyone in the family gets up, puts on new clothes, and then everyone eats the dumplings together.

Ms. Chen looked at the children in her family. They all had new clothes on their bodies. They were all dressed up energetically. "Look, these children in our family are so handsome. The clothes they wear this year are also very attractive. They are really beautiful." Spiritual." Chen said with a smile. "Let's work hard this year and earn more money. The children are all grown up and it's time to dress up properly."

The old man listened and nodded, looking at Wenhan and Wencheng with great fondness. "Yes, look at how fast these two eldest grandsons have grown up in the blink of an eye. We should work hard for a few years, and in two years, the children will all be engaged and have wives."

Zhixin listened over there and smiled and said, "Father, mother, why are you so anxious? Wenhan is only thirteen this year, and Wencheng is only ten. We still have to rush."

"That's not what I said. This child grows up very fast. He is big in the blink of an eye. Let's prepare early. There are four kids in the family. Zhixin, you and Meilin have a heavy burden too." Mrs. Chen Sighed. Both Wencheng and Wenchang are now under the control of the boss. The boss's burden is much heavier. They will have to talk about marriage in the future and spend money later.

"Mom, let's not talk about this during the Chinese New Year. Don't worry, mom, Zhixin and I are still young, we will be fine if we work more. We will treat these two children from the second family as our own." Ms. Xue said at the Said aside. Ms. Chen did not agree to adopt the child to the third child's family, but Ms. Xue quite agreed. After all, she could not let the second child have no descendants. After all, Lao Er joined the army to replace Zhi Xin, so they should help Lao Er raise his child.

When Mrs. Chen saw that everyone had finished eating, she said to the children, "You kids, go out and play when it's time. On New Year's Day, people in the neighborhood go from house to house to pay New Year greetings. Just remember to come back for dinner in the afternoon. Listen. Are we there?"

The children agreed in unison, and then went out together. There are already people walking around outside. The first day of the new year is the time to say hello to each other. There are people walking around on every road in the village, all wearing new clothes and smiling on their faces. When they meet each other, they always say hello to each other.

The children naturally walked next to each other, and wherever they arrived, people would bring out melon seeds and candies to entertain them. It won't be long before the children's pockets will be filled with candies. During the Chinese New Year, children are the happiest people.

Jinghan took out a candy from her pocket and put it in her mouth. The sweet taste made her squint her eyes. It would be great if I could live like this every day in the future, Jinghan thought to herself.

The happy days seemed to pass faster, and in a blink of an eye, it was already the sixth day of the first lunar month. Zhide and Han returned to town on the morning of the third day of junior high school. It was very rare for them to stay at home for four days. Wenxing kept shouting to go home, and Han couldn't stay, so Chen didn't force them to stay. I brought them some strips of meat, several large packages of fried meatballs, fruits, etc. Han didn't pick and choose this time and took them all.

Zhiming and his wife did not leave, but stayed at home. Huixin got married on the eighth day of the lunar month. It was a busy time at home, and Mrs. Zhu had been helping out at home.

The rules here are that when a girl gets married, her parents' family must serve wine and entertain guests on the first day. On this day, it's just a wedding ceremony. Some of the things for setting up the banquet were prepared years ago, and others still need to be prepared. Mrs. Xue and Mrs. Zhu led Jingya and Jinghan to work together inside and outside. Jingwan and Jingxian were also helping.

"Sister-in-law, I think everything that needs to be fried is almost done. The meat and other things were cooked years ago. Just put it in tomorrow morning. Just ask a few wives to help tomorrow. We can do the cooking and other things." Zhu said while washing the fungus there.

"Well, what my mother means is that we don't need to hire a cook when we are busy at home. Your cooking skills are good, not worse than those of the chefs, and with a few helpers, it will be enough." Mrs. Xue was cleaning up there. As for cabbage, there are not many vegetables in this winter in the Northeast. If you want to hold a banquet, cabbage will be the protagonist. "Jinghan, please lead Jingwan and Jingxian to pickle some onions and garlic. We will use a lot tomorrow. Pick them out quickly so that they won't be useless by then."

"I know, Mom." Jinghan agreed. Her sister-in-law is about to get married, and Jinghan is reluctant to let her go. She and her sister-in-law get along very well. After her sister-in-law gets married, she won't be able to see each other often. "Mom, why do the Tao family want to get married in the first month? It would be better to wait a few more months."

"You little girl, what do you know? In the first month of the year, people have some oil and water in their stomachs. If you have a banquet like this, you will save a lot of food. The Tao family is quite calculating, but they don't know what their family will do the day after tomorrow. How about the banquet?" Ms. Xue didn't even look up and was busy explaining to Jinghan.

Only then did Jinghan realize that it was for this. If my sister-in-law marries into such a family, will her life be easy in the future? My sister-in-law is in poor health and has a weak temperament. If she meets a powerful mother-in-law, it will be really hard. Jinghan once again lamented that the fate of women in ancient times was so involuntary. After the Chinese New Year, I was already nine years old. Here, people usually start talking about getting married when they are fourteen or fifteen years old, and they get married when they are sixteen or seventeen. After this calculation, there are only five or six years left before we get married. What will be our destiny in the future? Jinghan felt a little confused.

"Sister Jinghan, what's wrong with you?" Jingwan asked strangely when she saw Jinghan didn't move there.

Jinghan came back to her senses and smiled, "Nothing, I just thought I wouldn't be able to see my sister-in-law often in the future." Forget it, what are you thinking about so much? Let’s talk about the future later, who knows what tomorrow will be like? Jinghan is relatively optimistic by nature. Anyway, she will take care of herself. First of all, she should make her family rich so that she can have better choices. "Come on, let's finish the work quickly, and then go and chat with my sister-in-law." As he said that, he picked up the garlic quickly and picked up the garlic quickly.

In the east room, Mrs. Chen was looking at Huixin's dowry carefully, and then putting everything into the box. Mrs. Chen started preparing a dowry for Huixin when she was ten years old, and she gradually added to it later. I bought a lot more before the new year, including some good things that Zhixiang brought back, and I also kept all the skins that Zhixiang hunted before the new year. In this way, Huixin's dowry alone would cost sixteen kilograms, which is quite a lot. When a girl from an ordinary family gets married, a dowry of eight to ten kilograms would be good.

Mrs. Chen also shed tears while packing her things. The daughter is the mother's heart, and now that her daughter is getting married, the mother feels very uncomfortable. Huixin had been weak since she was a child, so Chen spent a lot of time raising her daughter. Now that my daughter is about to get married, she doesn’t know what kind of life she will live in the future. As a mother, she wishes that her daughter would have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of her life, and that her husband and wife would live in harmony. The Tao family may not seem so easy to get along with. Will Huixin suffer hardship after marrying her? Mrs. Chen couldn't help but think wildly.

"Mom, what's wrong with you?" Huixin happened to come over and saw her mother crying.

Mrs. Chen wiped her eyes and smiled. "It's okay, I just remember what you were like when you were a child. Come and sit." Ms. Chen pulled her daughter to sit down. "Look, this is the dowry our family has prepared for you. There are sixteen dowries in total. We will get married in a glorious way the day after tomorrow. Huixin, from now on you have to learn to be tougher, endure what you should endure, and fight when you should. You don’t have to give in to certain things. You just need to remember that as long as you are devoted to your husband, everything else will be okay.”