"Tian Tian! Are you home? I'm here to see you!" Just when Tian Tian was bored, Shen Lingling's voice sounded outside.
Tian Tian sat up smartly, stuffed the book into the cover, quickly put on her trousers, then jumped off the kang and went to open the door for Shen Lingling.
As soon as I opened the door, Shen Lingling was outside.
"Lingling!" Tian Tian hugged Shen Lingling, "Why are you here? Is it cold outside?"
"Aren't I here to play with you? You don't come to find me, and I have nothing to do at home, so I have to come to find you." Shen Lingling said unhappily.
She saw a basin of frozen pears on the kang, and the bedding on the kang was arranged by Tian Tian to look very comfortable and soft. She immediately said sourly, "You really know how to enjoy yourself. No wonder you don't come out. Even I, your good friend, have to step back."
"No, no!" Tian Tian smiled and pulled Shen Lingling to the kang. "You sit here. I'll get you some peanuts and snacks."
After saying that, he ran out.
"Bring two more girls here!" Shen Lingling shouted at Tiantian's back.
"I know!" Tian Tian's voice came from outside.
Not long after, Tian Tian came back with a bunch of food in her clothes pocket, including pine nuts, peanuts, and mustard, and she was holding a bunch of red apples in her hand.
This string of pearls was picked up by her and Tian Baobao when they went up the mountain in the autumn. After they came back, she asked Old Lady Tian and others to string them together and hang them on the door frame, saying that they could be kept for soaking in water and drinking in the winter.
But no one has ever eaten this thing. Tian Tian doesn't eat it because she tasted it and it was very bitter when she first picked it. She had a psychological trauma afterwards. Even though Lin Meiyu and the others said that this thing was already sweet, Tian Tian didn't want to try it.
To this day, their family still has many strings of this rosy girl.
"Eat quickly!" Tian Tian said as she put a pile of food on the kang.
Shen Lingling didn't bother to be polite with Tian Tian. She took off her shoes and got on the kang. She took the small quilt that Tian Tian had used to cover her legs and covered her own legs with it. She grabbed a handful of Mao Ke and started to knock on the kang.
While kowtowing, he gossiped with Tian Tian, saying that the man from that family went to the widow's house at the east end of the village again, but was caught in bed by his own wife, who scratched his face with several marks and made him afraid to go out. He also said that the mother-in-law of that family started to torture her daughter-in-law again, and that the wife of the next brigade had a quarrel with her husband, so the husband went out to drink late at night, and did not come back all night, and was found frozen to death in the snow the next day.
Tian Tian listened with great interest and was curious about where Shen Lingling knew all this gossip.
Although she knew that Shen Lingling's grandmother was a person who liked to listen to gossip, there were many things here that were obviously the kind that adults would not tell children, and generally speaking, Shen Lingling's grandmother would not take the initiative to tell Shen Lingling.
Thinking this in her heart, Tian Tian also asked.
Shen Lingling shrank her neck feeling a little guilty, and subconsciously looked out the window, but the window was covered with oil paper, and it was pitch black, so she couldn't see anything clearly.
She had no choice but to look away and whispered to Tian Tian: "Many of these things were not told to me by my grandma. I secretly heard her tell others. Don't tell anyone else, or my grandma will definitely beat me up if she finds out!"
Tian Tian nodded slightly and promised not to tell anyone else. She was only in the habit of listening to gossip, but not telling it to outsiders.
When the floor of Tian Tian's hut was covered with peanut skins and a few frozen pear cores, Shen Lingling stopped with a feeling of being unsatisfied.
Hearing the voices of Lin Meiyu and Chen Guihua outside, she knew that both families had returned from paying New Year's greetings. Now it was time for lunch. After saying goodbye to Tian Tian, Shen Lingling went to say hello to Lin Meiyu and the others, and then went home contentedly.
After Shen Lingling left, Tian Tian took a broom and swept the messy floor, then gathered all the melon seed shells and burned them in the kang hole.
"Sister! Candy!" Tian Baobao rushed in, put a candy on Tian Tian's kang, and ran away again in a hurry. Tian Tian didn't even have time to say a word to him.
She picked up the candy and saw that it was the candy bought by Old Mrs. Tian the day before yesterday. It should be their portion for today. Tian Baobao brought it to her.
"Not bad. You gave me the candy and didn't keep it for yourself. You deserve praise." Tian Tian threw the candy into her mouth. It happened that she and Shen Lingling had just had a little biting noise, and her mouth was now very bitter.
The red apple has been stored for quite some time. Although the apple itself has become sweet, its skin is still very bitter. The small opening connecting the skin and the apple is also bitter. Just now, the small opening went in and out of her mouth, and all the bitterness was in her mouth.
After sweeping the floor clean, Tian Tian went up to the kang and tidied up the messy quilt. Just now, when Shen Lingling mentioned something interesting, the two of them rolled around on the kang laughing, making the quilt a mess.
After cleaning up, Tian Tian went to the kitchen to find Lin Meiyu and the others. Lin Meiyu had been back for quite some time, and when Gu Yinghua went there, they had already heated up the leftovers from the morning.
They didn't eat fresh food, so they just cleaned up the leftovers and considered it a meal.
After dinner, Old Mrs. Tian began to prepare gifts for Lin Meiyu and Chen Guihua to take back to her parents' home tomorrow.
The pork that the brigade distributed when they slaughtered pigs before the Chinese New Year did not include pork fat. There was some pork belly left, and it was all frozen in a vat outside.
Old Mrs. Tian took out the pork belly, cut two strips of meat two fingers wide, about enough for one meal, and strung them together with straw ropes.
"Today, the two of you should each take a small piece of meat back to your parents' home. There are some pastries left in the cupboard, so each of you should take four egg cakes back." said Old Mrs. Tian.
"Mom! This is too much. Can you just give me some wild apples as a token of your appreciation?" Chen Guihua said somewhat unhappily when she saw that all the things Old Lady Tian took were good things.
Old Mrs. Tian had long been accustomed to Chen Guihua's behavior. After all, she had been married for more than a year or two. Every time during the Chinese New Year, she would go to her parents' home reluctantly and would stare at Old Mrs. Tian for fear that she had put too many things in there.
Old Mrs. Tian glared at Chen Guihua and said, "I'm telling you, I put all the things in the basket. You can't sneak them out tomorrow and go back to your parents' home empty-handed. My Tian family can't afford to lose face like this."
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