Chinese New Year
It started snowing here in December. The tiny snowflakes melted into water droplets before they even hit the ground. The severe cold suddenly hit. The school took care of the senior high school students and lit two stoves in the house. Although some students still got frostbite, everyone was grateful for this little warmth.
In winter, the nights are long and the days are short, and it is already dark at 5:30. When Xu Nian gets out of school at 8 o'clock, there is basically no one on the street except for day students, so Xu Hongqi always waits for a while.
Xu Nian and his deskmate came out arm in arm. Ling Shuang nudged Xu Nian's waist with her elbow and said, "Your brother is here early again. You are so lucky."
Xu Nian followed her gaze and looked forward, his face instantly full of smiles, "Hehe, unique, I can't envy you enough."
Ling Shuang pretended to be ruthless and pushed her wrist away, "Go quickly." After saying that, she turned around quickly.
Xu Nian didn't care about her and trotted straight to the back seat of the car, muttering, "Let's go home quickly, it's freezing!"
Nowadays, eating and studying have been moved to Xu Hongqi's house, mainly because the doors and windows are closed tightly in winter. After a long time, the smell in the house is unpleasant, so Xu Nian naturally moved his position again.
After half a year, she has already formed a good study habit. In the past, she would do the simple homework first and leave it to the end to complete. Now it is the other way around. She has more energy and learns more solidly.
The two of them sat at the two ends of a long wooden table, each writing their own work. Only when Xu Nian had almost finished writing would Xu Hongqi explain to her the questions she didn't understand. Otherwise, this girl would become dependent on him and would keep asking questions when she didn't understand something. Not only would it waste time over a long period of time, but she would also always lack confidence that what she wrote was correct.
After understanding the last difficult question, Xu Nian stood up and stretched her body. Thinking of the exam arrangements the teacher had mentioned, she told Xu Hongqi about it.
"Brother Hongqi, our teacher said the final exams will be held from January 22nd to 24th."
Xu Hongqi roughly calculated in his mind, "So late?"
Xu Nian said weakly: "Oh, by the way, when are you going to rest?"
"I guess it's around January 5th. Chinese New Year is early this year."
Xu Nian's eyes turned: "Hehe, then you just have time to make me something delicious."
Xu Hongqi leaned on the edge of the table with a relaxed body. "Not only do I have time to make you delicious food, I also have time to give you a few more exam papers."
“…”
She seemed to have lost all her strength and means.
Xu Hongqi did what he said and "served" Xu Nian wholeheartedly in January. No one knew where he got the channels, but there was meat to stew every day. Under the destruction of knowledge, Xu Nian even became a little rounder. When her deskmate said that she had gained weight, she didn't want to believe it at all and just comforted herself that winter is the season for gaining weight.
The three days of exams were the most relaxing three days for Xu Nian. After the exam, she was served with delicious food and drinks when she returned home. Xu Hongqi didn't mention studying and let her relax. But he was a bit mean. He always urged and forced her to study. She always wanted to be lazy, but he really didn't care about her. She lay in bed tossing and turning, and finally got up to recite "Selected Works of the Chairman" for a while before falling asleep.
After the exams, the winter vacation will be over. There are still two days until New Year's Eve. Xu Hongqi cleaned the house, except for Xu Nian's room. Her task on the first day of vacation was to give the room a thorough cleaning and put away the sheets, quilts and dirty clothes that needed to be washed.
During her break, Xu Hongqi went to her neighbor's house to ask for advice on how to make delicious dumplings. The dumplings they made on the winter solstice were terrible. After cooking a pot, they were a disaster. Neither of them could finish eating many of them.
Xu Nian was very particular about hygiene. She cleaned every corner of the room carefully and even folded the clean clothes in the closet again. By the time she finished cleaning, Xu Hongqi had also kneaded the dough and was waiting for it to rise. The color of the flour was not as white as Fuqiang flour, but it had a strong wheat aroma.
When Xu Hongqi saw her coming out, he arranged for her to pick leeks. Xu Nian was surprised: "Where can I get leeks at this time?"
"I bought it." After saying that, she went to the corridor to pick up the dirty clothes and quilt covers she had just packed, and went to the well to wash them.
The well water was warm, not too cold. Xu Nian was about to wash herself, but she hurriedly said, "Brother Hongqi, leave it there. I'll wash it myself."
Xu Hongqi didn't stop, "It's too heavy, you can't lift it."
This is the truth, the fabric is much heavier than usual after being soaked with water.
She went to the kitchen to find leeks, took a stool and sat next to Xu Hongqi.
Xu Hongqi turned around and said to her, "Go inside and pick them. Isn't it cold here?"
Xu Nian sniffed and said, "I'm just bored." Then he looked up at the sky and said, "Look, the weather is so nice today. I can get some calcium by basking in the sun outside."
After Xu Nian finished speaking, she started picking leeks. She did these small tasks very well, and her mouth was not idle either. She told Xu Hongqi the gossip in their class, such as who had a fight with whom again, and who said bad things about whom in the class.
When she talked about the secret love affair in the class, she became very excited. "You don't know, our teacher even planted a mole in the class. It turned out that the mole was a double agent. He didn't offend either side and even accepted the benefits of the boy he was dating."
"Guess what happened in the end?" she asked Xu Hongqi.
Xu Hongqi changed the water in the basin again and shook his head at Xu Nian when he had the chance.
Xu Nian looked smug. "I knew you wouldn't guess. Let me tell you, our class leader is incredibly cunning. She has more than one lackey under her. She heard the news from another lackey a long time ago. I heard the double agent was lectured for the entire morning, but there was no mention of a romantic relationship at all."
Xu Hongqi nodded to indicate that he understood. Xu Nian felt that the emotional value he provided was not as great as that of his deskmate, but since it was just a casual chat, she didn't mind it very much. However, she always felt that the older Xu Hongqi got, the less he talked. Could this be the legendary silence is golden? However, it seems that big guys are all taciturn.
She imagined all sorts of things and realized that there weren't many leeks and they were all picked quickly. She came to her senses and saw that her fingers were stained with green juice. She smelled it and found the smell was quite strong, so she ran to the kitchen to get a bamboo squeegee to wash the vegetables.
After she finished her work, Xu Hongqi had almost finished washing. The two of them discussed what fillings to make and how many dishes to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner. Thinking that they would have to go out for a walk at that time, they decided to make more food that could be stored. It would be hard work for the next two days, but it would be easy then.
The two of them made a lot of dumplings, which took a long time. They simply ate some to fill their stomachs. It was already late in the afternoon when they finished making all the dumplings. Xu Hongqi simply cooked a pot of dumplings right after they were done. The plump white dumplings floated in the boiling water without a single broken one, which was pleasing to the eye.
After eating it, Xu Nian squinted his eyes: "It smells so good, I'm really amazing."
Xu Hongqi said one after another, teasing her and said, "I think the dumplings you make are delicious too. From now on, I'll leave the job of making dumplings to you."
Xu Nian thought he was dreaming, so he ignored him and went to the kitchen to get another bowl. He poured a lot of vinegar into it and added a small drop of sesame oil. When he was about to bring it into the house, he called out, "Xu Hongqi, do you want vinegar?"
"want."
Xu Nian saw that there were no small bowls in the kitchen, so he found a clean old bowl, made a one-to-one replica, and carried two bowls of sauce into the house.
Seeing how much vinegar she had put in, Xu Hongqi said exaggeratedly, "Are you going to make the vinegar seller die of sourness?"
Xu Nian had already taken a small bite of the dumpling and slurped it down in the vinegar before eating half of it. After she slurped it down again and finished the whole dumpling, she said, "Just tell me if you can't finish it." After that, she poured half of the vinegar into her own bowl and put it down, "That's not much left now, is it?"
Xu Hongqi also dipped some dumplings in the vinegar and said, "I didn't know you were so jealous."
Xu Nian said while enjoying it: "Oh, I only do this when dipping dumplings. I can't eat it normally."
Xu Hongqi watched her take a bite and then drink it, and he could only keep his mouth shut in admiration.
——
People stay up all night on New Year's Eve. In previous years, the house was always lively. Thinking that it was Xu Nian's first time to spend the New Year away from home, Xu Hongqi planned to take her to see a movie, which would be her first entertainment and relaxation this year.
Xu Nian had actually been prepared for this, but before the two of them could say anything to each other, they heard the neighbor's children shouting that the army had arranged a movie screening at the big stage and asked them to go there early in the evening to reserve seats.
Now both of them kept silent. Xu Nian was a little excited, and it even reminded her of her electronic devices.
In the afternoon, while the sun was shining brightly, the two went to the bathhouse and had a good wash. After having their New Year's Eve dinner early, they quickly followed the crowd to the banquet table. They thought it was not too late, but in the end they had to stand at the back because they were so crowded. The movie was a new one that Xu Nian had never heard of. It was not the usual red film, but it had some funny parts and some people laughed so hard that they fell over.
Xu Nian was very happy at first, but as time went on and the night got deeper, she began to feel cold and she unconsciously shrank closer to Xu Hongqi.
Xu Hongqi was watching intently, but when he noticed Xu Nian's behavior, he lowered his head and asked in her ear, "Is it too cold?"
Xu Nian was about to say something stubborn, but a gust of wind blew over, and she shivered violently. "It's a bit cold."
"Then let's go home." Xu Hongqi covered her ears.
Xu Nian still wanted to see it, but was a little hesitant.
Xu Hongqi then said, "Let's go to the cinema on the third day of the Lunar New Year. I heard there will be a lot of snack stalls there this year."
After he said this, Xu Nian instantly lost interest in staying, and the two of them quietly left with their stools.
After arriving home, Xu Nian hurried to the stove to warm himself. Xu Hongqi put the stool away and put his hands on the fire. After both of them were warm, Xu Nian ran to his room and took out a martial arts novel.
"Hey, I've already prepared it. Let's read novels at home."
Xu Hongqi had never read the novel, but had only heard about it from others. He took it and flipped through it, and then he understood why so many people liked to read it. Compared with the filmed version, the plot of this one based on what he had read was more in line with his imagination.
Seeing him sit down with a book, Xu Nian went to get the peanuts and red dates that Xu's father had mailed to her. She also found a few small sweet potatoes that she had bought from someone else. She packed them all up and took them into the house. She filled the aluminum kettle half full of water, took out the brown sugar, red dates and red beans and put them into the kettle. This simple health tea was ready to be made.
Xu Hongqi was reading a book while watching her busy. At this moment, he felt lazy all over and didn't want to move at all. He didn't know whether he was really lazy or didn't want to ruin the moment.
Xu Nian tidied herself up and sat down comfortably. She took a thin blanket and covered her legs. Seeing that Xu Hongqi's pants were not dirty, she gave him half. She looked at him and herself, and instructed him to put the sweet potatoes and peanuts next to the fire.
He took the novel back and said, "Let's watch it together."
The stove made crackling sounds, and Xu Nian and Xu Hongqi completely entered the martial arts world in the novel. The gurgling kettle brought out the aroma of tea, and the sweet scent filled the room.
At this moment, Xu Hongqi felt that this was the best New Year he had ever had.
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