Chapter 113 It smells so good! Ji Fengnian was hiding in the crack in the wall...
Ji Fengnian hid in the wall crack until it was completely dark, and when he heard no more noise outside, he slowly crawled out of the crack.
The cracks in the wall never see sunlight and are covered with moss. These past few days, it has rained, and the moss has absorbed a lot of water. As soon as he went in, his coat was soaked. It had just started raining again, and although the drizzle didn't seem heavy, it soaked him from head to toe.
When he squeezed into the crack in the wall, the rough bricks tore his coat, which made him extremely irritable. He couldn't help but curse, "Don't wait until I see you next time! You'll be sorry!"
Ji Fengnian ripped off his wet, tattered coat, tossed it aside, and grumbled as he walked toward the park.
It was still raining, and Ji Fengnian's clothes and shoes were all wet. His hands and feet were numb from standing for so long, so he didn't feel cold at all. He was too lazy to find shelter from the rain and walked slowly down the road in his wet shoes.
Back in the shed under the arched bridge, Ji Fengnian discovered that the stray cats were gone. Enraged, he kicked the shed door wide open, yelling, "Ungrateful bastards!"
...
An Fusheng carried An Shisi and Ao Daiya upstairs to check their clothes.
Both of them were wearing down jackets. The outer fabric was waterproof and reflected light when wet, making them look wet, but the inside wasn't actually wet. It was just that An Shisi had been holding the cat and had stuffed it inside his jacket. The zipper couldn't be closed inside the jacket, so the front of the cat got wet from the rain.
An Fusheng helped him take off his wet clothes and change into clean ones, and then found An Shisi's coat for Ao Daiya to wear.
An Shisi said with a grin, "Little Sprout Brother has become me."
Children grow quickly, so when Wen's mother buys clothes, especially coats, for the children in the welfare home, she always buys them a size too big. An Fusheng dressed Ao Daiya in a mid-length down jacket from An Shisi, and apart from the sleeves being a little short, there was nothing wrong with it.
"Are your shoes wet?" An Fusheng asked.
Ao Daiya: "No." The shoes he was wearing today were super waterproof mid-calf leather boots.
"Alright, that's fine." An Fusheng patted Ao Daiya to indicate that he could go play by himself.
After taking care of the two children, An Fusheng looked for clothes for himself.
When he was chasing someone, he was only focused on catching them and didn't pay attention to where he was going. He dared to step into any puddle, which resulted in his shoes getting completely wet and the lower half of his pants getting wet as well. He simply went to take a shower.
He mainly felt that if he dragged it out a bit longer, Lou's mother might calm down.
It turns out he was delusional.
An Fusheng took a shower, changed his clothes, and dawdled downstairs. Unexpectedly, Lou's mother was still waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs with a broom. An Fusheng slowly pulled back the foot he had just stepped out, and said with an awkward rather than polite smile, "Lou's mother, what are you still doing here?"
An Shisi had short legs, so he had to look down and carefully watch the steps when he walked. He didn't see Lou Mama, and just as An Fusheng was calling for Lou Mama, he said, "Brother, my hands are a mess."
Lou Lan replied, "What nonsense! I'm just numb from the cold."
An Shisi readily corrected himself, saying, "Brother, my hands are numb from the cold."
An Fusheng: "..."
Lou Lan: "Get down!"
An Fusheng: "Oh."
An Fusheng had no choice but to accept his fate and go down to be beaten.
To his surprise, just as he reached Mrs. Lou's side, before she could even raise her broom, Grandpa suddenly appeared out of nowhere and dragged him away, saying, "You obediently come to my door after I'm going to hit you? Are you stupid?"
An Fusheng: It’s over…
Sure enough, Lou's mother's anger level instantly returned to what it was when he first came home. She picked up a broom and chased after him, yelling, "You dare to run away!"
An Fusheng didn't want to run away, but his grandfather dragged him around everywhere until the whole family knew he was going to be beaten. In the end, not only did he not escape, but he also got a few more beatings with a broom.
That's right, An Fusheng was convinced that if he hadn't run away, he would have gotten away with getting hit by the broom a few less times.
When it was time for dinner, Lou's mother was still angrily berating her grandfather. Her grandmother said that the child was grown up and that they should save face for him. Lou's mother then turned her anger towards her grandmother: "With his appearance, why did you say you would introduce him to a girlfriend? What would you do with an introduced girlfriend? Take her to raid bird nests?"
Grandma immediately fell silent.
...
Anfu was afraid that if Lou's mother saw the cats, she would have bad memories and would lose control and beat him, so after dinner he secretly moved all the cats to his room.
Stray cats are free-spirited and disdainful of humans, but humans have brought them to a warm place, made them a soft nest, and provided them with delicious food. The cats are instantly captivated and lie in the nest, feeling that freedom is no longer important.
Afu never expected to have so many companions one day. It went forward to greet them in a very friendly manner, but no cat paid any attention to it.
Afu came to Anfusheng's side, meowing pitifully, but unfortunately, humans and animals don't understand each other's joys and sorrows. Anfusheng asked, "Don't you like them? Oh, they're all friends, let's play together."
Afu: "..."
...
Lou Lan habitually checks on Wen Xinglan in An Fusheng's room before bed, but today, when she pushed open An Fusheng's door, she saw fluffy things all over the floor, and An Fusheng was even holding one and trying to stuff it into the closet. Lou Lan regretted not bringing a broom.
The next day, An Fusheng and An Shisi transported a carload of cats to the vet for vaccinations and deworming.
The next day was Lunar New Year's Eve, and the weather finally cleared up.
The night before, An Fusheng asked everyone to order dishes, and each family member ordered their favorite dishes. Early this morning, An Fusheng and Wen Yue drove their tricycle to buy ingredients.
Southerners value the freshness of vegetables, so even on New Year's Eve, the vegetable market remains open, albeit for only half a day. People must return home for the family reunion in the afternoon. On New Year's Eve, every household prepares a lot of dishes, and many families come to the vegetable market together, making it much busier than usual.
With a menu in hand, An Fusheng and Wen Yue quickly bought groceries, their goal clear. After purchasing the groceries, they also bought some fresh fruit. Then An Fusheng went home to cook.
The custom in this city is to eat the reunion dinner as early as possible on New Year's Eve. Of course, there's a limit to how early it should be; it has to be in the afternoon. So everyone tries to be the first family to set off firecrackers and eat their New Year's Eve dinner as soon as midnight strikes, as if this will ensure a better year for them. As for what to do if they get hungry again at night? Just have another meal! So much food has been prepared for 'dinner,' which is why everyone buys so much food during the New Year.
After returning from the market, Grandpa set up a table in the yard to write couplets and the character "福" (fortune). The children gathered around to watch and shower him with compliments, and even Wen Xinghe came down to play with them.
The whole family wore new clothes today, and the children even wore lion dance hats and scarves crocheted by their grandmother. With their new traditional Chinese clothes, they looked just like dolls from a Chinese New Year painting.
The couplet paper was bright red. Grandpa would write a character, and someone would pull him a little further away. After Grandpa finished writing, someone would automatically go up and carry the couplet to dry.
As soon as An Fusheng entered his house, he saw two people carrying couplets and another person holding a "Fu" character, swaying back and forth in the courtyard. He felt that everything in front of him was bustling with red.
However, everyone had a task today. An Fusheng and Wen Yue were in charge of cooking, while the grandparents and children wrote and pasted couplets. Wen's mother and Lou's mother decorated the house. The grandparents said that flowers should be placed in the house during the New Year so that flowers could bloom all the way in the coming year. Wen's mother and Lou's mother had bought a lot of flowers a few days ago, including orchids, daffodils, and holly. The most extravagant thing was that they also bought two huge kumquat trees online, the kind that are planted alive in flowerpots, and placed them at the front door. Right now, they are hanging red envelopes on the kumquat trees.
They returned from grocery shopping around nine o'clock. Time was of the essence, so An Fusheng and Wen Yue didn't dare to waste a moment and went to the kitchen to start cooking.
Around 11 o'clock, everyone else had finished their work, except for An Fusheng and Wen Yue who were still busy in the kitchen. However, the dishes were almost done. The cured pork trotters, which took the longest to cook, were also cooked after simmering for more than an hour. The aroma wafting from the kitchen was like bait, luring everyone into the kitchen one by one.
The cured pig's trotters were bought by An Fusheng from a student sponsored by Xu Sannian's mother before the Lunar New Year. They were from a black-haired pig that had been fed grains and vegetables for a year, so the meat was of very high quality. They were smoked with cypress branches and golden wood for more than a month until they turned golden yellow. When cooking them, the skin was first charred over a fire, then the charred skin was scraped off, the pig was washed clean, chopped into pieces, and no seasonings were added. They were simply put into a large pot and stewed with water, and the longer they stewed, the more fragrant they became.
An Fusheng forked a piece of cured meat from the pot and gave it to Wen Yue, saying, "Let's try it first."
Then he forked another piece for himself, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Bai Mangmang led his younger siblings in, saying, "Big brother, what are you eating? We want some too."
An Fusheng gave each of them a bowl, and put a lump of cured meat in each bowl. The lump on the chopsticks had just cooled down, which was perfect for Wen Xinglan.
An Fusheng didn't get to eat the cured pork. He thought of the New Year in Fushan Village, where the most important dish for every household was stewed cured pork. Usually, after the cured pork was cooked, the family would eat it piece by piece, and then slowly start making other dishes. An Fusheng's favorite food was pig's feet. His grandmother would always take out all the pig's feet for him. He wondered if his grandmother would have anyone to accompany her this New Year? And if anyone would eat the pig's feet at home?
...
As the weather gets colder, fewer people drink beverages, and there's not much useful trash in the roadside bins. During holidays, everyone drinks beverages, but the trash is just thrown into the community's bins. Outsiders aren't allowed in the community, so Ji Fengnian hasn't picked up any trash lately. Without trash, there's no money, and without money, there's no food. He hasn't eaten for two days.
His clothes were wet a couple of days ago, but he didn't notice it at the time. However, after wearing them for a while, he felt very cold. He wanted to take off his wet clothes to dry them, but they didn't dry and instead froze. So he had to keep wearing them to dry. Perhaps because he was used to being exposed to wind and rain outside, he didn't develop a fever.
The weather cleared up today, and Ji Fengnian dragged his hungry body out to find something to eat. With the Lunar New Year approaching, many food shops were closed, making it difficult to find anything to eat. Today was Lunar New Year's Eve, and almost no food shops were open. Ji Fengnian searched all morning but couldn't find anything to eat.
In reality, there was nothing there, so Ji Fengnian just imagined it in his mind. He recalled the things he had eaten, and all that came to mind were the various kinds of food he had snatched from the blind man when he was little.
As he pondered, Ji Fengnian seemed to actually smell the fragrance. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and exclaimed, "It smells so good!"
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