Chapter 053 Winter Snow is Coming



Chapter 053 Winter Snow is Coming

The snow came early and heavily.

In just a few hours, the yard was completely covered with snow, and the night was filled with white.

Wen Jiajia was awakened by the sound of breaking branches.

With a "crack", the old branches of the osmanthus tree outside the terrace were broken by the heavy snow, and the snow accumulated on the tree also fell down.

"What's that noise?"

Wen Jiajia woke up in a daze. When she was about to close her eyes, Wei Dai gently stroked her back and said, "Don't be afraid, it's the sound of branches being broken by the snow."

"Is the snow so heavy?" Wen Jiajia asked in a low voice, stretching her foot towards Wei Dai again.

Wei Dai hugged her tightly and said, "It's very big. You can make a snowman tomorrow."

"That's good." After a few seconds, Wen Jiajia fell asleep again, and her breathing became regular again.

Wei Dai was always amazed by her magical ability to fall asleep in a second. It took him more than ten minutes to feel sleepy and go on another date with Zhou Gong.

The next day, Wen Jiajia woke up early, but her temperature was low again. She tentatively stretched her arms out of the quilt, but quickly pulled them back.

There was no one around, and bursts of radio sounds came from outside the room.

When Wen Jiajia listened carefully to the news, she knew that Wei Dai was still at home.

"Wei Dai!" she shouted, "Is the snow thick?"

After a while, Wei Dai pushed the door open and walked in: "Are you awake? The snow is so thick, why don't you get up and take a look? It hasn't stopped yet."

As he spoke, he went to the window and rolled up the thatched curtain that had been hung up in autumn. The originally dark room instantly became bright.

Wen Jiajia covered her eyes and slowly adjusted to the light.

She pressed the cup tightly against her shoulders, moved her body to sit up against the back of the bed, and her eyes widened as she looked out the window: "Oh my god, the mountains opposite have turned white."

Everything from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain is white. You can never see this kind of scenery in my hometown.

Look at the yard again, the yard is also covered with snow, so white that it can reflect light!

The tops of the bathrooms and toilets were already covered with snow, at least half a decimeter thick.

Wei Dai rolled up the curtains, walked to the bedside and stretched out his hands, which were about to make trouble.

Wen Jiajia quickly lay down again, holding the quilt tightly against her, and looked at him vigilantly: "Don't even think about touching me."

This guy is so wicked. He always likes to put his hands on her neck, which often makes Wen Jiajia shiver and she wants to punch him twice.

Wei Dai's map was exposed by her, but he didn't look embarrassed at all. He pinched her cheek and said, "Get up and eat. We had glutinous rice balls again this morning."

She finally waited for the day off, and she didn’t want to get up early!

Wen Jiajia closed her eyes, covered her head with the quilt, and said, "Half an hour, let me sleep for another half an hour."

Half an hour is fine.

Wei Dai looked at his watch and saw that it was only eight o'clock, so he was in no hurry to get her up to eat.

Outside the room, the two children were thinking about tuning the frequency channel, but Wei Dai came out in time. Wen Chun immediately stopped and asked, "Uncle-in-law, is your aunt not up yet?" She smiled sweetly at Wei Dai.

"No, Chun'er, I have a task for you. Pay attention to the time and go and wake up your aunt to eat in half an hour." Wei Dai said, "Also, why did you leave the table before you finished your meal?"

There was still half a bowl of glutinous rice balls in the bowl on the table. Most people these days have been hungry, or even scared of being hungry, and they hate wasting food.

Wen Xuan ran to the door to play in the snow and said, "I don't want to eat anymore." She felt uncomfortable with her bloated stomach.

Wei Dai was a little surprised for a moment. It was rare that there was something that Wen Xuan didn't want to eat.

Wei Dai did not force the two children to eat sticky rice because they were indigestible. He went to the cabinet in the room and took out a box of medicine. When the two children saw what he was holding, they immediately came forward.

What is it? It is chicken gizzard powder.

It is the powder made from the gizzard shells. Every time we kill a chicken at home, we sell this stuff. When we need it, we have to go to the hospital to buy it.

Chicken gizzard powder aids digestion. Just put a spoonful into your mouth and drink some water.

Although Wen Jiajia and he both agreed that this thing tasted weird, the two children actually liked eating it quite a bit.

Not only that, they also like to eat maternal and child food which also aids digestion. I don’t know who they inherited this taste from.

The two girls screamed "Ah" and opened their mouths wide. Wei Dai scooped two spoonfuls of golden chicken powder into their mouths respectively, then covered them with lids and put them back.

With him going in and out like this, Wen Jiajia couldn't sleep at all.

Fortunately, she just wanted to stay in bed, and when Wei Dai put the chicken gizzard lining away and went out, Wen Jiajia asked him to take out the hot water bottle in the quilt and change the water.

Wei Dai let her do as she pleased. He filled it with hot water, put on a cotton cover, and tucked it back into the quilt.

"Ah, it's so comfortable and warm." Wen Jiajia wanted to roll around in the quilt.

Her quilt is too soft.

There was a straw mattress and a thick mattress under me, a heavy quilt weighing several kilograms on my body, and my pillow was also replaced with a cotton pillow. It felt like I was buried in a pile of cotton.

Half an hour passed quickly. Wen Jiajia kept asking for more, but was finally pulled out of bed by Wei Dai. He said, "Eat first, and then go to sleep if you still want to."

Wen Jiajia: “…” What she said, now that she was dressed neatly and her stomach was full, could she still go back to bed?

"Really? I'm not even allowed to sleep a little longer!" Wen Jiajia muttered as he got up, put on his crocheted slippers, put on his old cotton-padded jacket and went out.

Wen Jiajia felt that his cotton coat was more comfortable to wear than her own cotton jacket. It was long enough to cover her calves, and when she wore a sweater inside, she didn't feel cold at all when she was at home.

The key is that this piece of clothing is stain-resistant, no wonder Wei Dai said it only needs to be washed once a year.

Wei Dai cooked another bowl of glutinous rice balls and brought it to her.

Wen Jiajia had just brushed her teeth, and her nose was now red, as if she had put on blush.

"Is it meat dumplings?" Wen Jiajia asked, holding the hot bowl with her left hand and picking up the spoon with her right hand to scoop a dumpling into her mouth.

Wei Dai closed the door and sat opposite her. "The sesame dumplings were too sweet yesterday. I was afraid you couldn't eat them in the morning."

Wen Jiajia: "Yes, my hands were shaking and I put too much sugar in it." I felt sick after eating more than five.

The meat dumplings are also very good. Take a bite and you will find chopped meat filling inside.

The meat filling is actually a bit like the meat filling in fish balls, but a little sweeter.

Wei Dai also added cabbage when cooking.

The yellowish cabbage leaves have been cooked until they are soft and even rotten. They are quite refreshing when eaten with meat dumplings.

Wen Jiajia couldn't eat any more after eating eight, so she pushed the bowl in front of Wei Dai and said, "You can eat the remaining two."

...Is it really just these two that matter?

Wei Dai secretly complained that the three aunt and nephews all had the same character.

Wen Jiajia held her chin with her hands and looked at him with sparkling eyes: "This is my love for you~"

Hurry up and forget it, Wei Dai just felt like goosebumps were coming out all over his body.

After breakfast, Wen Jiajia wanted to play in the snow.

How thick is the snow in the yard? It's thick enough to cover my ankles and extend an inch beyond my feet.

The snow was just falling and still soft, making a crunching sound when you stepped on it.

Wen Jiajia changed her shoes and left a row of footprints in the yard. Her feet were almost frozen into ice before she hurried back into the house.

Wei Dai wanted to scold her again. How could it be possible that she complained about ice feet every day, yet she was walking around in the snow.

I dare to walk even in a pair of cloth shoes.

He couldn't stand it so he just shoveled the snow.

Wen Jiajia added: "Leave some for me. I want to make a snowman later."

"OK!"

Stay, I'll leave you a piece of land the size of your palm so you can build a miniature snowman, Wei Dai thought in his heart.

But Wen Jiajia moved too quickly. She put on her gloves, went to the two children's room, and pulled them out from where they were hiding and listening to the radio: "Come on, come on, don't you find such heavy snow strange? We don't see it easily in our hometown. Auntie will take you to build a snowman."

"Building a snowman?" Wen Chun wondered.

Wen Jiajia led them outside and said, "Yes. Why didn't the teacher at school tell you that?"

Wen Chun shook his head, "The teacher never taught us how to make a snowman."

Wen Jiajia: "Teachers don't teach this. It doesn't matter. I'll make one for you to see and then you'll be able to do it."

As he spoke, he rolled two snowballs, one big and one small, stacked them up, and then picked up dead branches and inserted them on both sides of the big snowball to serve as the snowman's hands.

Go to the kitchen to get some carrots and pick up some stones from the vegetable patch to serve as the snowman's eyes, nose, and mouth.

Finally, add a hat and the snowman is done. It looks silly.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan exclaimed "Wow!" and were really interested in this activity. They ran to the next door to find Xie Yi and his brother, saying that they wanted to build a snowman together.

When Wei Dai had almost shoveled all the snow in the yard, the snow stopped. Soon after, the sun came out and the temperature finally rose by a few degrees.

"Don't you need to join the team today?" Wen Jiajia asked him. "It's snowing so heavily. I'm afraid you will be asked to sweep the snow."

Wei Dai glanced at her helplessly: "Hey... stop talking nonsense."

Wen Jiajia laughed: "This is not a crow's mouth, anyone with a brain can figure it out, okay?"

With such heavy snow, of course we have to clear it.

Sure enough, Wei Dai was called away at almost ten o'clock, and the reason was indeed to sweep the snow. The army was so large that even the division commander had to sweep the snow at his own doorstep.

Wen Jiajia smiled and waved at him. When Wei Dai was almost at the door, he suddenly bent down, rolled up a snowball and threw it at her, hitting Wen Jiajia's head with snow.

Wen Jiajia was stunned for a moment, standing there in disbelief. After she came to her senses, she screamed in anger and shouted at him, "Wei Dai!"

Don't leave if you dare!

Wei Dai disappeared at the door, but his hearty laughter came in clearly.

Wen Jiajia touched her forehead and felt a handful of snow.

"Hmph—" she snorted heavily.

The snow made it inconvenient to go out. Wen Jiajia originally wanted to go to the nearby village to buy pig bones, but now she doesn't want to go anymore.

Pigs are slaughtered at the end of the year in my hometown and also in the local area.

The economy here is better than my hometown, and the living standards of rural people are higher than those in Fuyang, and even higher than those of commune members in my hometown.

Wen Jiajia heard this when she went to the village to buy soybeans some time ago. It was said that several nearby villages would slaughter pigs three times at the end of the year.

One is the winter solstice, one is the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, and the other is the twenty-fourth day of the eighth lunar month, which is the Little New Year.

In short, pigs are mostly slaughtered around these days, so if Wen Jiajia wants to buy pig bones, she should be able to.

She actually wanted to eat hot pot. Hot pot is the best food to eat in such cold weather.

"Oh!" Wen Jiajia sighed again.

I'm so hungry, I want to eat the butter pot bottom, I don't know when I can eat it again.

It is really unpleasant to have an appetite that is difficult to satisfy.

It was almost noon, and Wen Jiajia, who didn't want to eat glutinous rice balls anymore, steamed the rice.

After Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were ordered by her to make a snowman, they disappeared without a trace and no one knew where they went.

When Wen Jiajia was steaming rice, she was thinking that the winter solstice has passed, so should she smoke the meat and make bacon and sausage?

She originally thought the bacon and sausage made last year tasted good, but after eating the bacon given by Hao Qingying a while ago, she felt that "Xiao Lang is a stranger from now on."

What you make yourself is not even a bit better than what a professional chef makes!

At that time, Hao Qingying said that she could give her the meat and ingredients when the time came, and she would ask her father to help cook.

Wen Jiajia was thinking at this moment whether she should go and ask Hao Qingying next week when her family would start making these. Before starting, she would prepare the meat and seasonings.

In addition to making bacon and sausage, you also have to make tofu.

Now you have to make tofu yourself, there is no tofu shop here to help you make tofu.

As for buying it in the city? It's expensive and requires a ticket. Wen Jiajia is reluctant to spend the money.

Then there are the New Year's goods such as fried dough twists, shrimp slices, etc., which all need to be prepared.

As she thought about it, Wen Jiajia felt that she would be busy in the next month, and she had to set aside even her weekends to prepare New Year's goods.

But during the Chinese New Year, what we pursue is this kind of liveliness.

The rice was almost done, and it was already half past eleven.

Wen Jiajia started cooking. She had some meat left from the one she bought yesterday, so she reheated it in the meat stir-fry pan.

The meat is cooked, sliced ​​thinly, and stir-fried with bean paste, garlic sprouts, and chili peppers.

The garlic sprouts are grown in the yard, and the peppers are grown in wooden boxes in the room. They look quite red, but they are not actually very spicy.

As the temperature gradually dropped, some indispensable vegetables, such as chili peppers and green peppers, could no longer be grown outside, so Wei Dai built a few wooden boxes and placed them in the utility room to grow them.

Not to mention, it's growing quite well. If you eat a little sparingly, it'll be enough to last until the end of winter.

As for the bean paste, Wei Dai got it from his comrade-in-arms, and Wen Jiajia even gave him half a jar of waxberry wine as a return gift.

The bean paste is very fragrant, the fried pork is rosy in color, and even the soup is thick with red oil.

Wen Jiajia swallowed her saliva. Sichuan cuisine is the most attractive. No wonder there are Sichuan restaurants everywhere in the streets a few decades later.

The stir-fried meat is placed in the rice steamer to keep warm. In this weather, vegetables get cold very quickly, especially meat dishes. Once they get cold, they will form a layer of oil and become inedible.

Then I started to stir-fry the vegetables. It’s winter, and the only vegetables in the yard are cabbage and spinach.

She was frying spinach, which tasted best when it was cold. She pulled it up by the roots, removed the whiskers at the roots, and left the red roots.

This vegetable is also called parrot vegetable, which has the reputation of red-billed green parrot. However, a few decades later, many white-root spinach are sold in supermarkets. In fact, the red-root spinach tastes much better than the white-root spinach.

Put the fried spinach back into the rice steamer, wash the pot and boil water to use for making soup later.

"Why haven't you come back yet?"

Wen Jiajia looked outside the courtyard gate, feeling a little anxious.

It was almost twelve o'clock. It was okay that Wei Dai hadn't come back, but Wen Chun and Wen Xuan hadn't come back either.

She simply went to the door and looked towards the open space in the distance, but did not see the two children.

Next door, Shen Xunzhen was making dumplings. When he heard what Wen Jiajia was talking about, he stood up and said, "Oh, if you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have noticed that it's already 12 o'clock, and Xiaoyi and Xiaosheng haven't come back yet."

"These kids are really..."

Wen Jiajia frowned and ran to the door again.

She put her hands to her mouth and shouted: "Wen Chun - Wen Xuan -"

No one answered, so I called again, still no one answered.

I was worried, but not really. There wouldn't be any traffickers in the army. As for the rivers, they were all shallow, and the deeper parts were fenced off. I was just worried that the kids would play too much and get all sweaty, and when the wind blew, they would definitely get cool.

The footprints in the snow were messy, but if you look closely, you can see that they are basically heading towards the family building.

Wen Jiajia simply walked towards the courtyard. After walking for eight or nine minutes, she saw a group of children making snowmen and having snowball fights in the open space in front of the courtyard from a distance.

"Wen Chun Wen Xuan--" she shouted.

The two sisters were not called over, but their good friend Feifei was called over.

Feifei ran over panting and said, "Aunt Xuanxuan, Chun'er and Xuanxuan went upstairs to eat roasted sweet potatoes. I told them not to go up, but they insisted. The sweet potatoes at Xiaopang's are so choking and not tasty at all. Xiaopang's grandmother will be back soon, and she will definitely scold us if she sees us."

The little girl was angry and complained to Wen Jiajia.

Wen Jiajia breathed a sigh of relief: "Xiao Pang's house? What about Xiao Yi and his brother? Are they there too?"

"Yes, they are all here."

"Fei Fei, can you help me call Chun'er, Xuanxuan and Xiaoyi, and tell them that my aunt is calling them home for dinner, and Teacher Shen is also waiting for Xiaoyi and his brother to have dinner." As he said that, he took out two candies from his pocket and stuffed them into Feifei's pocket.

Feifei's eyes lit up and she smiled: "Sure!"

Ying Lao shouted loudly, then ran back, fearing that Wen Jiajia would change her mind.

It was so cold outside that Wen Jiajia didn't want to stay any longer and hurried home.

Wei Dai brought back some wood from the mountains a week ago. They were rotten wood covered with mycelium.

The rotten wood was placed in the utility room, and gradually, mushrooms began to grow out. Today, I saw that the mushrooms were ready to be picked and eaten.

Wen Jiajia picked five or six shiitake mushrooms and found that many shiitake mushrooms as big as her little finger had popped up, which showed that she would harvest more shiitake mushrooms soon.

Use mushrooms to cook a mushroom and pork soup. When the soup is almost cooked, Wen Jiajia hears the voices of two children coming from far away and near.

"Auntie, auntie, something bad has happened!"

Wen Chun ran in first, the strands of hair on his forehead were wet by the snow or sweat, and now stuck together.

Wen Jiajia came to the living room carrying soup: "What's wrong? Speak nicely."

Wen Chun panted: "Little Fatty vomited."

Wen Jiajia put down the soup and asked: "Why did Xiaopang vomit?"

Wen Chun shook his head, a confused look on his face: "I don't know, he suddenly vomited and couldn't even eat sweet potatoes."

"Is there anyone at the Fatty's house?"

"There are people here. Xuanxuan, Xiaoyi, Xiaosheng, and Feifei are all at Xiaopang's house."

Wen Jiajia: "...I'm asking if there are any adults at Xiaopang's house. Did Xiaopang's grandmother come back after you left?"

Wen Chun: "No. But Feifei and the others are still here. We came back first."

She was hungry and was in a hurry to go home for dinner.

Wen Jiajia didn't take it too seriously. Children vomit often. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan also vomited sometimes after eating too much or playing too much.

"Hurry up and wash your hands and eat." Wen Jiajia said, "From now on, you are not allowed to come back so late from playing, otherwise you will only be able to eat leftovers."

"Oh, good, good!"

The two children ran to the kitchen to wash their hands and then went to the table.

The cooked pork was still hot, and the fermented black bean sauce was so fragrant that their stomachs growled.

Wen Jiajia specially took a clean plate, scooped one-third of the re-cooked meat into the plate, and scooped another one-third of the spinach into the plate, and put the plate into the pot to keep it warm, so that she would not worry about the food getting cold when Wei Dai came back.

After playing around, the two children ate with extra relish.

Most of the bowl of rice was eaten up in a short while, as if there was still work waiting for them in the field.

Just after they finished washing the dishes after dinner, Wei Dai came back feeling cold. Wen Jiajia could feel the coldness when she got a little closer.

"Finished?" she asked.

Seeing Wei Dai stretching out his frozen red hands again, he quickly dodged to the side and slapped his hands away: "Hey, don't touch me." It was so cold.

Wei Dai smiled and said, "Can you help me cover it?"

"Go away." Wen Jiajia pushed him to the kitchen to wash his hands. "There's water in the pot, and the vegetables are in the pot too."

She wiped the table with a rag. After Wei Dai washed his hands, he came out with a plate of food and a bowl of rice.

While I was eating, I heard a noise at the door.

"Teacher Shen, Aunt Wenchun——"

Wen Jiajia was already in the house, and when she heard the voice coming out again, she asked, "Who is it?"

Wei Dai: “I don’t know.”

Wen Jiajia walked straight out. The person walking towards her house looked familiar, but she didn't know him. It was an old man.

"Uh, auntie, you are..."

"I'm Zude's grandmother!"

"Zu De is ..."

"It's Xiaopang." Xie Yi suddenly poked his head out of the house and asked the old lady curiously, "Grandma Xiaopang, is it Xiaopang who wants to talk to us about something? My mother is changing clothes for my brother."

Xiaopang's grandmother frowned and said, "What were you doing with my Xiaopang this morning? Why did he vomit?"

Xie Yi scratched his head and said, "I don't know. He vomited suddenly, so we ate sweet potatoes, bird eggs, and potatoes."

Wen Jiajia's expression immediately changed and said, "Could it be that the potatoes have sprouted and are poisoned?"

Then he asked Xie Yi, "Have you eaten?"

Xie Yi said hurriedly, "No! The sweet potatoes tasted terrible, so we just shared one. We didn't eat the eggs or potatoes... Feifei called us when the potatoes weren't even cooked yet."

Wen Jiajia felt slightly relieved.

The chubby grandma cried out "Ouch" and ran home quickly, apparently having thought of this possibility.

Wen Jiajia returned home and went to the two girls' room. They were lying on the bed, crossing their legs and listening to the radio.

"You are not allowed to eat potatoes outside from now on, do you understand?" Wen Jiajia said, "Xiao Pang vomited after eating potatoes. Potatoes are poisonous when they sprout."

"Xiaopang vomited after eating potatoes?" Wen Chun was puzzled.

Wen Jiajia said with a fierce look on her face: "Of course not. Didn't you just hear that Xiaopang's grandmother came to our house in anger?"

Wen Xuan sucked on the candy and shook her head: "The potatoes that Xiaopang ate didn't sprout. The teacher taught us not to eat potatoes with sprouts. I noticed it."

Wen Chun nodded: "Besides, Xiaopang vomited before eating the potatoes."

"Yes, I fell down while climbing a tree... No, that's not right. I vomited after I went upstairs."

Wen Jiajia was stunned for a moment: "Did you hit your head?"

Wen Chun: "No, he clearly fell and hit his knee. I saw it. His knee was bleeding. Later, Sister Feifei went home to get medicine for him to apply."

Wen Jiajia: "Fei Fei is a sister again?"

Wen Xuan looked at Wen Jiajia strangely: "Auntie, stupid, it's Sister Feifei, not Feifei. Sister Feifei is... your friend's daughter."

Wen Jiajia understood that the two children were talking about Gao Fei, Sister Hong's daughter.

That's strange, why did he vomit?

She said, "If you feel like vomiting or feel uncomfortable, you have to call Auntie, okay?"

“I know!”

The two children were immersed in the story of Journey to the West.

Continue read on readnovelmtl.com


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