Siheyuan: He Yuzhu’s Sunshine Farm

Chapter 200 Happy New Year's Eve

In the evening, Jia Zhang took out her pension money and prepared a table of dishes at Jia's house.

Follow Qin Huairu to Yi Zhonghai's home to ask Yi Zhonghai to have dinner.

"Zhong Hai. It's time to eat." Qin Huairu called out softly. This time Zhong Hai had eaten. You should know that Qin Huairu usually shouted out like this when he was about to borrow money from Yi Zhonghai. So when Qin Huairu called him, he would have Yi Zhonghai, who was still lying on the bed at home, suddenly became alert.

"Eat...?" Yi Zhonghai opened the door, looked at Qin Huairu who was smiling like a flower, and asked: "This morning, your mother-in-law and your son were prepared to fight to the death with me. Will something good happen now and ask me to eat?"

"Zhong Hai. This is your fault. What about my mother-in-law and my son? Aren't we a family? We are actually a family. This family has never been angry for so long.

Don't worry, you, my mother-in-law used money to buy the dishes on today's table, just to make amends for you.

We are all a family. You have been fired, so we should be in the same boat, and we should not be noisy. "

After hearing Qin Huairu's words, Yi Zhonghai showed a faint smile: "If you can think like this, that would be the best. We have lived together for so many years, and we still have to work together, and you don't have to Worry, if I have something to eat, you will never go hungry."

Then Qin Huairu also smiled and nodded, and then the two returned to Jia's house together.

After Yi Zhonghai entered Jia's house, Banggan quickly shouted enthusiastically: "Uncle Yi, you are here, sit down quickly, sit down quickly, I want to say sorry to you for what happened during the day, I am too young, please You must forgive.”

Seeing Banggeng's repeated apologies, the anger in Yi Zhonghai's heart dissipated instantly. After all, Yi Zhonghai still liked Banggeng very much. Even though Banggeng had lost his legs, Yi Zhonghai hoped that Banggian could get closer to him. , so that after Yi Zhonghai dies, at least there will be people who will sincerely cry for him.

This is Yi Zhonghai's greatest hope.

"Okay, just admit your mistake. Don't talk about the past. Let's take a look and come to eat!" Yi Zhonghai smiled and invited everyone to eat, and the group sat together.

Everyone started to eat. Today's food was quite good, including fish and meat. Banggeng acted very affectionately, pouring wine for Yi Zhonghai from time to time, and Uncle Yi shouted very affectionately.

After a while, Yi Zhonghai drank a little too much.

At this time, Mrs. Jia Zhang started to wink at Bangge, meaning that Banggeng should hurry up and tell her about her desire to open a video parlor. She received Mr. Jia Zhang’s wink. This Bangge He also nodded slightly, and then saw Banggan taking a bite of food and looking at Yi Zhonghai and said: "Uncle Yi, you see that you don't have a job for the time being, and you can live on your pension in the future. You know, we are a family of four. A pension of one hundred and fifty yuan is really a bit small."

"Yeah, I know it's a bit lacking, but I'm old now and if I want to find a job, it's really hard to find a job. I don't know what our family will do in the future. But for the time being, I can only endure it. ." After saying that, Yi Zhonghai sighed.

"Haha...!" Banggeng laughed: "Uncle Yi, actually we can do a little business."

"Small business?" Yi Zhonghai looked at Banggeng with a drunken face and said, "What kind of business do we do? We can't do any business. I actually thought about it, but I really didn't think about our family. Can do business.

Your mother and I have been working in factories all our lives, your grandma doesn't know anything, and your legs are not good. Hey, I really don't know what kind of business there is. "

"Uncle Yi, we can do the business that Silly Zhu does." Bangge looked at Yi Zhonghai's gentle guidance.

"Si Zhu's business?" Yi Zhonghai was stunned and said, "What business? Si Zhu does a lot of business."

"Video hall business." Banggeng said to Yi Zhonghai with a smile.

At this time, even though he was drunk, Yi Zhonghai showed a slightly shocked expression and said: "How is this possible in the video studio business? I don't have so much money."

Looking at Yi Zhonghai's shocked expression, Bangge laughed and said, "Uncle Yi, you are overthinking. In fact, it doesn't cost much to open a video studio."

"That's not right. The video room of He Yuzhu's family costs tens of thousands of yuan. The eldest and second son of the third uncle Yanbu Gui's family are in charge of one room. They whisper in the courtyard every day, My ears are calloused by the words, luxury, special spending, these Yanbugui will not talk nonsense."

Yi Zhonghai took a sip of wine and said!

"Hey!" Bangge laughed happily after hearing this, and then told Bangge about the video parlor he wanted to open. Bangge's video parlor does not require much money, and only needs a video recorder. A small color TV, dozens of benches and a venue are enough.

Silly Zhu sells tickets for five yuan a ticket, but he only sells tickets for one yuan a ticket. Along with his mother, grandmother, and Yi Zhonghai, they can also sell some melon seed cigarettes and the like inside.

Bangge told Yi Zhonghai that with less than [-] yuan, a video room can be opened, and after the video room is opened, it will definitely become the source of income for the family in the future.

At this moment, Yi Zhonghai's heart was moved by Bangge's words.

Yi Zhonghai nodded at this time and said: "If this is the case, this matter can really be done."

Just like that, Yi Zhonghai started running a video studio the day after tonight. This matter was quickly completed by Yi Zhonghai. After all, Yi Zhonghai still has a certain status in the street. of connections.

However, after Yi Zhonghai finished the matter in the video hall.

New Year's Eve has officially arrived for another year in these [-] cities.

Before I got up early in the morning, in the alley outside Nanluogu Lane, various vendors began to push wooden carts full of goods to sell on the street, but there were also handmade products, printed products, and men's favorites. Big cigarettes can be seen everywhere now.

Before the New Year, everyone went to the market to buy new year's goods!
  Many places still have this way of going to the market. On specific days, vendors will gather in one place! Then the adults take the children and go to the market to buy new year goods!
  Before the Spring Festival, there were several heavy snowfalls, which turned the current Sijiu City into a blanket of snow.

Children are the happiest when it snows. They play snowball fights, build snowmen, and hold the ice cart that their father made using horses, ropes, and ice skates. Several friends take turns pulling and sitting on the ice cart in the thick snow. Running in the ground, if there are friends around me, I can also grab two branches, sticks, etc., and slide around in the snow, my little face is red from the cold, in fact, my thick cotton coat is soaked with sweat . When conditions permit, parents will take their children to play in the ice rinks in Shichahai, Zizhuyuan, and Beihai.

During the Chinese New Year, He Yuzhu took Zhou Guoan and Zhou Guoping to the non-staple food store to purchase New Year goods. At that time, food stamps and meat stamps were still used, but they were no longer as difficult to obtain as they were in the [-]s and [-]s.

In the past, adults lived frugally and saved money, just waiting to use it during the New Year.    Meat and food are now abundant in Sijiu City.

Zhou Guoping and Zhou Guoan were still like when they were children. They bought several large bags of fruit bark, figs, malice, white rabbit, and big bubble gum at the grocery store. They were not polite to He Yuzhu at all.

In the evening of New Year's Eve, ancestor worship begins.

In the past, ancestor worship was done secretly, but now it is open to the public, and ancestor worship has become open and honest.

Ancestor worship at He Yuzhu's family is simple and ends with kowtows and bows. However, for a once wealthy family in the front yard, ancestor worship is very complicated. In the evening at their home, the elders in the family begin to decorate the table for ancestor worship at night.

They carried out a wooden box about [-] meters long and [-] centimeters wide, and first took out two portraits of Taizu from the box. The old lady said that they were called "shadows", which was an honorific name for the portraits of their ancestors. Both images were mounted on scrolls and hung on the north wall.

The painting shows an old man and an old woman. The old man is wearing an official uniform, and the old woman is wearing a female official's uniform. They are very graceful and luxurious.

Below the portrait is a long table. The wooden tablets taken out of the wooden box are arranged in order from the middle to both sides according to their seniority. These wooden tablets are each about [-] centimeters high and [-] centimeters wide. They are divided into two layers, inner and outer, inserted together. It says in regular small letters "Xian Kao so-and-so's position" and "Xian Kao so-and-so's position". There is a wooden socket below, rectangular and four centimeters high. When plugged in, it looks like a stone monument erected in a cemetery.

Place an Eight Immortals table in front of the table, cover it with a tablecloth, and place a copper incense burner in the frontmost position, which contains gray-white incense ash. After worshiping, insert the incense inside and let it continue to burn.

To the left and right of the incense burner are tin wax holders with bright red candles on them. Use tall plates to serve various dried and fresh fruits, arrange them in pairs on the left and right, and place them one by one.

At this time, the daughter-in-law will put a red dot on the center of the big steamed buns that have just come out of the pot, and stack them high, with a plate on each side. On the ground in front of the altar, a futon is placed for worshiping during sacrifices. After everything is ready, just before the reunion dinner in the evening, the whole family gathers together to hold an ancestor worship ceremony.

In the evening, freshly cooked chicken, duck, fish, and dumplings freshly baked are placed on the offering table. By now, the offering table is full and there is no space left. The abundance on the table is used to express filial piety to the ancestors.

At this time, the whole family has arrived, standing on both sides of the offering table, lighting red candles, and lighting all the finished incense sticks that have been opened, three for each person.

The room was instantly filled with smoke, the fragrance was fragrant, and there was a solemn atmosphere.

The grandchildren did not dare to express their anger. They looked at their elders and took turns to offer incense and kneel down one by one.

They lay on the futon, buried their heads deeply, then raised their heads, clasped their hands, and glanced at the memorial tablet. They repeated this three times before standing up, putting the incense in their hands into the incense burner, and then stood respectfully beside it.

In order of seniority and age, the elders go first and then the younger ones, and then they pay homage to their ancestors in turn. Under the instruction of the adults, we children continued to kneel and kowtow, and we did not relax until the adults pulled us up.

You must know that in the early days, ancestor worship required three kneels and nine kowtows, that is, kowtow three times, stand up, kneel down again, kowtow three times, and repeat this three times. This is the solemn etiquette of ancestor worship.

Later, it was simplified. When He Yuzhu was a child, he already knelt down and kowtowed three times.

After the whole family has paid their respects, the male host will say some auspicious words to the image tablet, such as wishing the ancestors a happy new year and asking the ancestors to protect the health of future generations. After the ceremony is over, the freshly cooked chicken, duck, and fish among the offerings placed on the table are brought to the New Year's Eve dinner table for the whole family and ancestors to enjoy together. Other dried and fresh fruits are kept until the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

After the "shadow" and tablets are used up, they are put back into the wooden box and will be taken out again next year.

This ancestor worship ceremony silently taught us children and planted the seeds of filial piety in our hearts.

Confucius said that "rituals cultivate virtue." The seemingly cumbersome ancestor worship ceremony is a typical representative of etiquette. It has a good social education function and makes us know how to be grateful and remember our origins, and drink water to remember the source. And adhering to ethics has also become our life principle.

While the family was worshiping their ancestors, He Yuzhu's family's reunion dinner was also being cooked.

The reunion dinner is the most sumptuous and exquisite event of the year, and every dish has a meaning. For example, there must be a braised carp on the table, because "fish" and "yu" are homophonic, which indicates "abundance every year."

Sixi meatballs are four large braised pork meatballs in a basin, symbolizing the four happy events of "luck, wealth, longevity and happiness".

A big bowl of braised pork belly, with alternating fat and lean meat, is delicious and fragrant, which means that the coming year will be prosperous.

A whole chicken is stewed in a casserole and served steaming hot. "Chicken" and "吉" have the same pronunciation, symbolizing "lucky celebration".

Roast mutton is made by simmering large pieces of mutton over low heat, taking them out and air-drying to remove the moisture, then frying them in a pan with sesame oil until browned, then putting them on a plate and sprinkling them with salt and pepper. It’s so delicious! Why use mutton? Because "sheep" is the same as "xiang" in ancient times, it means auspiciousness.

Placed in the center of the dining table is an eight-treasure hot pot. The ingredients in it include meat and vegetables, mainly clinker. The soup is boiled over charcoal fire, which means that the days ahead will be lively and joyful.

Vegetarian dishes must include mustard dumplings. This is a cold dish that can be eaten with wine as an appetizer. The main dishes in the north in winter are Chinese cabbage and radish, so choose good cabbage hearts, round pieces, and pour golden mustard juice on them. Rice vinegar and sesame oil can relieve greasiness. The color and shape are like gold ingots, and they taste good for good luck.

There is also a plate of "Xinxinmei" shredded radish, which is mixed with vinegar and sugar. It is bright red and juicy, sweet and sour, and tastes crunchy. It also prays for a colorful and prosperous life in the coming year and everything goes well.

The staple food of the New Year's Eve dinner is dumplings, which means "the alternation of the old and the new, the transition of the new year". The shape of the dumplings resembles small ingots, which also means getting rich in the new year and ingots rolling in. This big reunion dinner has something to say about everything, and it is full of people's expectations for a better life.

He Yuzhu was busy shopping and cooking many days in advance. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, He Yuzhu's whole family would start cooking the New Year's Eve dinner, washing vegetables, kneading noodles, cutting meat, and chopping stuffings. It was really full of laughter and joy.

When making dumplings, Grandma Li always fills them with her own hands, because whether the dumplings are delicious or not depends entirely on the fillings.

When making the dumplings, the whole family went to work, chatting and working around the Eight Immortals Table. We children also ran in and out excitedly, transporting the wrapped dumplings to the kitchen one after another.

When the food on the table is set in the evening, the children will be seated according to their age. Grandma Li will sit in the main seat facing north and south, followed by He Yuzhu, Li Xiuniang, Yu Haitang, He Yuzhu, and finally the children Zhou Guoping and Zhou Guoan.

When eating, Grandma Li uses her chopsticks first, and then everyone starts eating and drinking. Family rules must be followed.

(End of this chapter)