Hua Hua's return made everyone in the Sheng family very happy. Of course, the happiest person was Sheng Xinhua.

After waking up in the morning, the little guy discovered the big tiger in the outer room. Now, he ignored everyone else, hugged Hua Hua's neck tightly, and wouldn't let go, insisting on being with Hua Hua.

Even Sheng Xinyu, who is only one year and four months old, was so happy to see Huahua that he danced with joy and insisted on touching her.

Zhou Qinglan was afraid that her youngest son, who was still clumsy, might hurt Hua Hua, so she just carried her son over, stroked him a couple of times, and then carried him away.

How could Sheng Xinyu possibly do anything? He was howling and asking for the cat, his arms and legs were also restless, kicking and thrashing about without stopping.

Seeing that she had no other choice, Zhou Qinglan had to put her youngest son down. Sheng Xinyu then ran very quickly to the tiger's side and sat down next to Huahua.

"Kitty," Sheng Xinyu murmured, stroking Hua Hua's belly.

"Brother, this isn't a cat, it's a tiger." Sheng Xinhua, being older and more knowledgeable, quickly corrected his younger brother.

"Tiger?" Sheng Xinyu's pronunciation wasn't quite standard either; he called a tiger "tiger."

“No, tiger.” Sheng Xinhua shook his head and continued to correct him. “Tiger.”

"Tiger, tiger." Sheng Xinyu nodded repeatedly, indicating that he understood.

The people in the outer room couldn't help but laugh when they saw the two brothers.

"Okay, let them play with Huahua, let's hurry up and cook."

Today is the 28th of the lunar month, and tomorrow is Chinese New Year. I need to hurry up and cook some meat during the day.

Zhang Shuzhen came out from the inner room and saw that the tiger and the two children were getting along well, so she smiled.

Chinese New Year is early this year, on the 29th of the lunar calendar. My family only steamed a few pots of steamed buns and such. We haven't even boiled the meat yet, and we haven't made anything else. We have to hurry.

When Zhou Qinglan saw that the two children refused to leave Huahua, she could only shake her head, quickly wash her face and get ready, and then cook with her mother-in-law.

On the kang in the west room, Sheng Xiping, who originally wanted to sleep in a little longer, resigned himself to getting up, dressing, and washing his face before starting to clean up the pig and deer on the ground.

The pig was gutted last night, and Hua Hua had already gutted the deer. All that's left is to skin them, debone them, and chop them up.

Following his mother's instructions, Sheng Xiping skinned and cleaned the pig and deer, chopped them into large pieces, and put them in a large basin for later use.

After cleaning up and preparing the meal, Zhang Shuzhen invited everyone to eat.

The two little guys, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu, refused to go inside to eat, insisting on staying with Huahua.

"You two, go eat first. Hua Hua should be home today. Play with her after you finish eating. If you don't behave, you won't be allowed to play with Hua Hua anymore."

Sheng Xiping realized this wouldn't do; he couldn't let the children have their way. So, his face darkened, and he scolded the two kids.

Sure enough, the two children were frightened by Sheng Xiping's change in expression. So they obediently washed their hands and went inside to eat.

After breakfast, Hua Hua moved to a different spot, running from the outer room to the west room, where she lay down on the ground next to the fire wall.

The two children, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu, are fascinated by tigers and never leave their side.

Sheng Xiping saw that he could only lay a few burlap sacks on the ground and take out the bearskin rug to lay on the ground, letting the two children play as they pleased.

These two are so fond of flowers that they don't go anywhere else, which is good because it saves them from causing trouble.

With Huahua to keep the two children occupied, Zhang Shuzhen and Zhou Qinglan were able to free up their hands and quickly busied themselves preparing food.

Some of the freshly butchered pork was reserved for mincing and stir-frying, while Sheng Xiping took the pig's head, shank, and trotters outside to singe off the pig hair with fire.

For some difficult-to-treat areas, you can either heat them up with a stove hook or burn some tar paper and drip it on them.

Ordinary families don't have access to asphalt to remove pig bristles, and these days, blowtorches are out of the question, so they can only resort to makeshift methods.

While Sheng Xiping and his brothers were busy outside preparing pig heads and pork knuckles, Zhou Qinglan and Zhang Shuzhen were busy preparing pig offal.

Once everything is ready, just throw it all into the pot and boil it.

Just then, Liu Yujiang and his brother brought over a lot of red beans, and Zhang Shuzhen said she wanted to make some red bean buns to save for the New Year.

So the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law picked out some more red beans, washed them clean, and cooked them into red bean paste in another pot.

Then I prepared the dough, chopped the meat filling and sauerkraut, and in the afternoon I made two batches of bean buns and two batches of sauerkraut-filled buns.

With the steamed buns I made earlier, I probably won't need to steam any more dry food for several days after the New Year.

After a busy day, there's no need to cook anything else for dinner. Sauerkraut buns or red bean buns are fine for a simple meal.

Hua Hua didn't go out all day, staying in the west room to coax the children. When the Sheng family came over to listen to the radio in the evening, Hua Hua didn't make a sound, and no one knew that Hua Hua had returned to the forest farm.

That night, Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu refused to go to sleep and insisted on staying with Huahua.

When Hua Hua saw this, she jumped onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and lay down at the end. The two children were delighted and lay down next to Hua Hua, falling asleep in no time.

"This flower, as soon as it came back, it started coaxing the children. How come it's so intelligent? I thought it wouldn't recognize our family after going back to the wild."

Zhou Qinglan took the small blanket and covered the two children with it. Looking at the two children in front of her, she smiled.

"It grew up in our family since it was a puppy, so we have a bond with it and know who treats it well."

Sheng Xiping lay down with his wife in his arms, reached out and pulled the light cord, plunging the room into darkness, with only the sound of Hua Hua snoring audible.

After a while, the noise subsided, probably because Huahua had fallen asleep.

The next day was the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, and it was Chinese New Year.

Early in the morning, the Sheng family got up, had a simple breakfast, and started getting busy.

Sheng Liancheng led his sons outside to tidy up the yard, clear the snow, chop firewood, erect lantern poles, and paste couplets.

Zhang Shuzhen, along with her daughter-in-law and daughter, were cooking all sorts of delicious dishes inside the house.

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