It turned out that he had returned, and he handed over the black and red silk he had bought, the one or two ounces of candied dates given by his fifth sister-in-law, and the remaining two copper coins to Zhou.
Zhou praised Wulang, gave him a candied date, and took the copper coin back.
When Wulang saw Xia Daohua, he wanted to give her the candied dates to eat.
Xia Daohua glanced at the drooling Linghua, spread out the pine nuts in her palm for Wulang to see, and smiled and refused: "Eat it yourself! If you don't want to eat it, you can give it to Linghua. I still have this!"
Wulang looked at Linghua with eager eyes and gave her the candied dates.
Linghua was so happy that she smiled from ear to ear, and her two big round eyes narrowed into two crescents: "Brother, you are so nice!"
Grandpa Xia set up the lantern pole and led the children into the house.
Oil lamps were also lit in every room of the Xia family.
In fact, because of the rule of "brightness and splendor during the New Year", the Xia family's expenses in this regard during the first month of the lunar year are more than in a normal year.
At this moment, Zhou was gathering in the big kitchen with her daughters-in-law and several older grandchildren.
Zhou's face was full of joy as she directed her daughters-in-law to crush the pine nuts and sunflower seeds, cut the green and red silk into thin pieces, and cut the candied dates into fine dices.
Then mix these ingredients with brown sugar and sesame seeds, stir well, and make the filling for Yuanxiao.
She also personally packed the millet flour and glutinous rice flour that Erlang brought back into two large baskets.
A large bowl of Yuanxiao filling has now been kneaded into round little balls by the skillful daughters-in-law, all of which are almost the same size.
Then pour the fillings of these round "meatballs" into the basket.
He picked up the basket and shook it back and forth and left and right with extreme violence.
In her previous life, Xia Daohua had only seen the scene of making Yuanxiao on TV, but this time she finally saw the live version.
Soon, she noticed that Zhou was sweating.
After all, he is old, and no matter how strong his body is, he will inevitably feel tired after doing such physical work.
Zhou did not try to be stubborn and directly handed the basket to Jiang, who was closest to her at the moment.
Jiang happily took the basket, pinched the two ends of the basket, and shook it vigorously.
Layers of fine flour are wrapped on the Yuanxiao filling. The white and plump Yuanxiao roll around in the basket, looking lively and cute.
Soon, every Yuanxiao in the basket was rolled. Zhou picked them out with long chopsticks, put another layer of stuffing in, and called the third daughter-in-law to replace Jiang.
The job of shaking the basket requires both strength and some dexterity so as to prevent the Yuanxiao from falling out.
Several daughters-in-law took turns to shake the Yuanxiao, and then moved on to the next batch.
During this period, Xia Daohua still wanted to give it a try.
It turned out that she couldn't even lift the basket, let alone shake it!
This little body is really too weak!
The water in the big pot is boiling.
The first batch of Yuanxiao is ready.
The plump white Yuanxiao rolled along with the boiling water, and soon the clear water turned light white, and then became thicker and thicker.
The aroma of glutinous rice and stuffing gradually wafted into the air, and several children couldn't help but start chewing their fingers.
Zhou waved her hand and Madam Sun, Madam Wu and Madam Jiang went to set the table.
Liu and Cheng began to pick up the dishes.
Zhou personally took a long-handled wooden spoon and scooped the dumplings from the pot into bowls. Six dumplings were placed in each bowl, and a large spoonful of soup was poured over them. The bowls looked steaming hot and smelled fragrant, full of the flavor of home.
The children ran to the table and sat around it obediently. The older children helped to wipe the table, arrange the chopsticks, and get the side dishes.
Old Master Xia and his sons were already sitting at the table, waiting to eat Yuanxiao.
Soon, the first wave of cooked Yuanxiao was served.
Old Master Xia didn't pick up his chopsticks, as he wanted to wait for Zhou to eat together.
Mrs. Zhou didn't let Mr. Xia wait too long, and soon everyone was at the table.
Old Master Xia picked up a small wine cup, took a sip of the wine, and let out a "huh" sound because of the spiciness.
He put the wine glass down heavily, and it landed on the table with a loud "bang".
The room suddenly became quiet.
Mr. Xia's eyes were wet with emotion:
"Today is the Lantern Festival, and everyone is together happily eating Lantern Festival dumplings.
How wonderful it is to have days like this.
Although our old Xia family has split up, I sincerely hope that you brothers will not become alienated from each other. You can be more affectionate with each other in daily life and support each other when encountering difficulties.
Okay, I won’t say much, let’s all eat Yuanxiao!”
Zhou also said two sentences:
"After eating Yuanxiao, let's go to town to see the lanterns! I heard there's a lantern fair in town this year, and there will be floats parading through the streets!"
The children cheered: "Great!"
Everyone endured the heat and tried their best to eat the Yuanxiao faster.
Lihua, Meihua, Lanhua, Daohua, Juhua, Wulang, Liulang, Linghua, and Zaohua sat at a small square table. Hearing they could go see the lanterns that evening, the children couldn't contain their excitement. They wolfed down their Yuanxiao (Chinese rice dumplings) while laughing and chatting.
Xia Daohua didn't know why, but she felt her eyelids twitching wildly.
She quietly dipped her fingers in water and stroked it several times, but it didn't calm down.
Xia Daohua couldn't help but feel a little worried, feeling that this was not a good sign.
I'm not going to run into anything outrageous when I go to town later, am I? Could I be running into human traffickers?
Xia Daohua was shocked by this possibility.
The Xia family has quite a few children. If they really meet a kidnapper, I'm afraid they will be unable to take care of all of them!
She was thinking about how to prevent it when she heard a loud "bang".
When he came to his senses, he found that Liu Lang had choked on his Yuanxiao. The sound just now was Liu Lang knocking over his bowl.
The children at the same table were also startled. They were stunned for a moment, but now they came to their senses. Suddenly, there were gasps, cries, and shouts all around. It was a complete chaos!
Seeing Liu Lang choking and unable to breathe, struggling with his body bent, grabbing with his hands, and even his face changing, Xia Daohua suddenly forgot everything.
She rushed forward with a "whoosh", stood in a lunge stance, hugged Liu Lang from behind, placed Liu Lang on her front leg, put her hands around Liu Lang's body, clenched her fists from the front, and suddenly punched Liu Lang's abdomen with great force.
The Yuanxiao that was stuck in Liu Lang's throat, unable to go up or down, suddenly rushed out with a "bang".
Accompanied by a cough, snot and tears, Liu Lang couldn't help but burst into tears - he recovered his breath.
Xia Daohua couldn't help but wipe her forehead, which was wet and covered with water.
Alas, this little body is so weak.
I just did the Heimlich maneuver and ended up sweating all over myself!
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