Mu Huaixi hasn't had such a lively New Year for a long time.

In fact, she was working alone outside, and apart from her colleagues and acquaintances, the loneliest time of the year was New Year's Eve.

But now she can celebrate the New Year with everyone in the military camp!

Ying Mingcheng had to be on duty on New Year's Eve and he already felt guilty about it. Then when he saw her "forcing" herself to look enthusiastic, he felt even more sour inside.

Mu Huaixi didn't feel lonely. She was really excited. After Ying Mingcheng left the house, she packed up, took out the pork and smelly hairtail from the empty vat in the yard, and went to Wang Hongxia's house.

Sister Hongxia's house was also very lively today. Children of all ages were chasing, playing, laughing and screaming in the yard, which was louder than setting off ten strings of firecrackers. But they were laughing and making noise but refused to leave the vicinity of the house. While playing, they would look into the yard, and then sniff with anticipation.

A stove was built in the yard where there was originally a vegetable garden. The fire was burning brightly. Sister Hongxia was roasting a pig's head on an iron rack. Several tables were set up next to the stove. Sisters-in-law Liu Qing, Ye Erling and others were busy at the tables. Some were chopping stuffing, some were washing radishes, and some were pinching their noses to clean up the stinky hairtail.

Mu Huaixi watched from afar, then hurried over, put down the things in his hands and went to help, "I'm late!"

"It's not too late, it's just that we ate too early in the morning."

"That's right, Xiao Mu doesn't have a child yet, so you should sleep as much as possible. When you have a child, you won't be able to sleep enough. If you want to take a nap during the day, your little ancestor will start crying loudly. Sigh."

"That's right. This morning, when the guard post was setting off firecrackers, my little boy got up in the dark. He couldn't put on his clothes and came to make trouble for me. I didn't even have enough sleep and he got woken up. This is really his own son!"

"Didn't you get enough sleep? What did you do last night~"

Mu Huaixi heard the topic gradually going off track, so he squatted beside the large basin on the table, wanting to help clean up the most troublesome ones, but was stopped by Erling.

"Doctor Mu," Ye Erling greeted her with a smile, "This hairtail bone is stuck in my house near the sea. I clean it up often, so you don't have to get involved."

“…”

"Doctor Mu, come and help me with the meat filling. Today's croquettes are big ones."

Hearing Liu Qing's call, she hurried over and stood still, only to find that he didn't want her to chop the stuffing, but to divide the whole meat into small pieces suitable for chopping the stuffing.

"Tell me if you are tired, and we will take turns." Mu Huaixi could only blame herself for coming late. In fact, she left home earlier than the agreed time. She didn't expect that others came earlier than her.

During the Chinese New Year, almost every household will make some fried food, but the stinky hairtail fish will ruin the whole pot of oil. So after Wen Ju and the female comrades at the table discussed that day, they decided to fry it together. This way, even if the oil was wasted, they would not feel so bad.

Sister Hongxia has a big iron pot at home, and she also knows how to build a stove, so Mu Huaixi and other families familiar with her made an appointment to come to her house together. After the warm stay, Mu Huaixi asked her to take a big bottle of oil back home. Since they were all together, the oil would naturally be divided equally.

What they are going to make today are fried meatballs, fried radish balls, fried tofu, and finally the mouth-watering yet disgusting stinky hairtail fish.

"I heard from Erling that hairtail is shiny and silver when it's first caught, and tastes fresh and sweet. Why is the one we got smelly? Did the supply and marketing cooperative get scammed?"

"Erling, you mean eating on the boat, right? We're so deep in the mountains, it's lucky we could even get it here! It's so old on the road, it must be stinky. But didn't Sister Yu say that we can just fry it or stew it, and it won't affect the taste."

"To be honest, I've never seen the sea in my life. Bringing this hairtail back home really scared me. It looks so long and has so many teeth. It's so fierce! This guy makes me worried. How can I eat it?"

"Otherwise, we have to look to Sister Yu. She is knowledgeable and enthusiastic. If she hadn't told us how to eat it, we would have to worry about this pile of stinky hairtail!"

"Yeah, if Hongxia hadn't said we could fry them together, I wouldn't want to waste the oil. I would have thought of burying this stinky stuff in the vegetable patch. After all, it can be used as fertilizer!"

"Erling is also great. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't know what to do with these old hairtail fish, don't you think?"

"But! Our families are all from different places, and it's fate that we're gathered here in this valley, don't you think?"

Mu Huaixi was silently cutting the meat and listening to the sisters-in-law chatting, nodding in his heart. The soldiers in this military camp also came from all over the north and south. They stayed in the mountains to defend the motherland, and the wives of the soldiers in the family compound also brought their families from their hometowns to the mountains to support their work.

"Bang!!!!"

As she was thinking this, she suddenly felt a sudden tremor under her feet, and the tables and chairs began to shake. It was as if thunder rolled over the valley, and after the loud bang, there was still an aftereffect, making her ears buzz.

"Wow!!!"

"Mother!!!"

The women in the yard were busy holding the table and picking up vegetables. The children playing outside the yard ran in crying and looking for their mothers. The sisters-in-law hurriedly took the children into their arms, caring for them like their darlings. For a moment, the whole yard was in chaos.

As one of the few people without children, Mu Huaixi could only hurriedly help put away the knives and pick up radishes. She even helped up a little boy who had fallen down in the yard. However, his face was covered with snot and tears from crying, and she couldn't recognize whose child he was.

When she fished out the blackened pig's head from the nearly falling apart stove, she saw Sister Yu hurried outside the yard, clinging to the bamboo fence and shouting inside, "Hongxia! Are you scared? Those are the big firecrackers the camp bought. We're going to set off fireworks tonight. I didn't expect them to be so loud!"

"Fireworks, let's set off fireworks!!" The child who was crying loudly just now clapped his hands happily again. As one child started to laugh, the others stopped crying and shouted "Fireworks, fire!" excitedly, forgetting the fright they had just suffered.

"Mom, what are fireworks?" There were also little kids with tears in their eyes who didn't understand what fireworks were and how they could make their older brothers and sisters so happy.

"Are there really going to be fireworks tonight?" Wang Hongxia dusted herself off and walked a few steps toward the wall expectantly, calling out to Sister Yu who was about to leave in a hurry.

"Yes," Sister Yu slapped her head, "Look, I'm so anxious I'm confused. Tonight after dinner, we'll set off fireworks by the lake. You can go to the mountains to watch, but don't go too close to the lake. Everyone should keep an eye on their children and don't run around."

After she finished speaking, she left in a hurry. The fireworks display was arranged too suddenly, and every household was informed.

"They really are going to set off fireworks! That sound just now was really powerful!"

"I haven't seen fireworks in years. I have to put out an extra changing mat for the kids tonight. They'll be so excited after watching the fireworks that they might wet the bed if they're not careful."

"Ouch! You reminded me, I haven't washed my soaked mat yet!"

The commotion in the yard gradually subsided. Only Mu Huaixi looked uneasily at the still shaking Chongshan not far away. With such a powerful force, was it really just fireworks?