The pageboy accompanying Ji Hengzhi was very good at reading people's expressions. He immediately noticed Ji Hengzhi's gaze and lowered his voice to remind him, "The separation between men and women is very important. You must be careful. The young lady and her husband are probably newly married, which is why they are acting like this in public."
“I didn’t say anything,” Ji Hengzhi retorted. “There are so many women in the world, I wouldn’t be interested in a married peasant girl.”
After saying that, he became sullen and said, "What's so fun about building a snowman? Let's go ice skating!"
The group left in a grand procession.
Meng Chijian knew perfectly well that his bluff and loud talk were meant for A-Mian's ears.
However, Ah Mian was so engrossed in creating a round, snowball-like body that she didn't notice this.
The next day, Meng Chijian made three pairs of ice skates in the shop.
Making this is actually very simple. All you need are two appropriately sized wooden boards, fix the iron bars to the bottom, and then tie them to the original shoe.
They all played with these when they were kids.
After securing A-Mian and Meng Jing's skates firmly with straps, they went to play on the ice at the dock. Only then did Meng Chijian put on his own skates.
Ouch!
"Ouch, ouch!"
Xiao Jing was holding Amian's hand when she fell, and they both fell down. Amian got up sheepishly and said, "I can't walk anymore."
"Look at me, it's very simple." Meng Jing knew how, but she was too small to be a handrail and couldn't control A Mian's fall, so she demonstrated it for her.
She twirled around Ah Mian twice, her movements light and graceful, prompting Ah Mian to praise her loudly and clap her hands vigorously: "Amazing!"
At this moment, Meng Chijian arrived and waved for Meng Jing to go play by herself, saying, "I'll teach her."
Amian stood up again, holding his shoulders with both hands. Meng Chijian encouraged her, "Don't be afraid, you won't fall now. Don't walk like you normally, you should feel like you're sliding."
There were quite a few people playing on the ice at that time, and the two of them moved along step by step like two clumsy ducks that had just learned to walk.
"Are you stupid? You won't learn that way. You have to fall a few more times, and you'll get it naturally." Ji Hengzhi watched from afar; he was an expert in ice skating.
Not to mention gliding, he can also do all sorts of difficult moves, such as spinning, jumping, and even standing on one leg.
He stepped off the stage and briefly demonstrated his skills, which indeed attracted a lot of attention.
"One more turn! One more turn!" The crowd, eager for a spectacle, shouted enthusiastically.
Ji Hengzhi thought to himself, "Am I a juggler?" He glanced over and saw the two men still waddling like ducks. He simply slid over and stopped in front of Meng Chijian: "How about we have a contest?"
As a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, Ji Hengzhi was not short, but he was slender. This was a disadvantage when fighting, but it was an advantage in ice skating due to his agility.
In this respect, Meng Chijian is definitely no match for him.
However, Meng Chijian replied expressionlessly, "I'm busy."
"What's the point of sliding so slowly?"
"Get out of the way."
Meng Chijian walked right past him. A-Mian stared at her feet, and every time she turned a corner, she cried out as if she was about to fall.
However, whenever she tightly closed her eyes, preparing to face the pain of falling onto the ice, a pair of large hands would firmly rest on her waist. Ah Mian opened her eyes, patted her chest, and looked up to see Meng Chijian staring intently at her.
Ah Mian didn't dare to look at him anymore. Her eyes darted away and her hands went numb. "Let me go. I can skate now. I can skate by myself."
"good."
After spinning around twice, A-Mian had already mastered the basics of gliding. Seeing that she had learned it, Xiao-Jing came over and pulled her around again.
The two played happily for most of the hour before taking off their skates and going back to the shop to drink water and eat sweet potatoes.
This is a rare period of leisure in the year. Before the end of the year, the blacksmith shop is delivering goods one after another, and there are few customers.
When Ah Mian learned that the laborers had gone downstream to dredge the river, a place that was quite far away, she decided not to travel there rashly in the snowy weather and gave up her idea of continuing to sell pork kidney soup.
This year has been a bountiful one for the farmers, and the village children have already started enjoying peanut and sesame candy. A-Mian didn't usually celebrate the New Year, so she didn't feel that this day was any different from any other. Instead, she started daydreaming: "Every household has to cook New Year's Eve dinner, which is such a hassle. If there were a restaurant that was open during the New Year and catered specifically for New Year's Eve dinners, the business might be very good."
Meng Chijian tried on a tiger-head hat and put it on her head: "You can earn money anytime, but you should be with your family during the New Year. Do you understand?"
Compared to A-Mian, he was much more enthusiastic about the Chinese New Year. Early in the morning, he was busy preparing for the holiday, as he still had very little savings this year. However, he managed everything meticulously within his limited budget.
They spent ten coins to buy twenty sheets of red paper. After cutting out the longer ones, they asked A-Mian to write the words on them and paste them on the door. The remaining paper was used to cut out some window decorations and make some small red envelopes that could hold one or two coins.
Ah Mian bought the new clothes and shoes herself, but he felt she still needed a cotton hat to protect her ears, so he took Ah Mian out to try on the new hat. Ah Mian protested, "I don't want to wear this kind; only children wear these."
Meng Chijian looked at the hats from left to right and thought they were very suitable, but felt that they were not very practical except for being good-looking. In the end, he spent sixty coins to buy two hats: a tiger-head hat and a light gray hat with ear flaps. The hats had ear flaps on both sides that hung down to cover the ears.
Next, I bought meat and sausage casings to make preserved meat, which cost several hundred coins.
In addition, I bought a pound of peanut candy, a bag of red dates, a large bag of walnuts, and some incense and offerings, which cost me a hundred coins. It was the first time that A-Mian went to pay respects to Meng's father and eldest brother. Meng Chijian said that he would also go back to Lujia Village with A-Mian on the second day of the Lunar New Year to pay respects to his mother.
He smoked the bacon and hung up the sausages, and all the preparations cost him only three hundred coins.
Twenty or thirty copper coins were set aside and put into small red envelopes, to be used as New Year's money.
Meng Jing was even more amazing. She took out a wooden box, and inside were the small firecrackers that she had picked up after setting off firecrackers at other people's happy occasions and shop openings throughout the year.
This way, you don't have to spend a single penny to take Ah Mian around to set off firecrackers.
However, her plan was immediately thwarted when Meng Chijian confiscated it, saying, "What if it gets in your eyes? If you want to play this, you can only play it when I'm with the two of you."
Meng Jing had always played like this before without any problems, but he thought that A Mian was always brave and would definitely go over to see what happened if the firecrackers didn't go off.
That evening, just as Meng Chijian was about to take the two of them to set off firecrackers, he suddenly heard a strange sound of footsteps.
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