The twenty-fifth day of the year.
Longshan Village.
Jiang's mother, aunt, younger sister-in-law, cousin's wife and others were dividing the sweet rice dumplings into mouse-sized dumplings and putting them in small white plastic bags. This way, they don't have to cut them when they want to eat them, which is much more convenient.
The dumplings were made not long ago and are still a little hot to the touch, but even though they are hot, you have to separate them quickly because once they cool down they have to be put in the refrigerator for quick freezing.
This step is critical. If you want to preserve the soft, glutinous and chewy texture of the sweet rice dumplings, you must put them in the refrigerator for quick freezing as soon as they cool down. Then you can take them out to thaw when you want to eat them. Then the sweet rice dumplings will be as soft, glutinous and chewy as when they were first made!
If you delay it for too long and the dough becomes hard, then if you put it in the refrigerator for quick freezing, the effect will not be achieved!
Jiang's mother and others don't understand the specific principles, but they have experience in this area.
As Jiang's mother divided the rice dumplings, she said, "When the rice dumplings are frozen solid, when you go back, get a foam box and put the rice dumplings in it. When you get home, put it in the refrigerator for quick freezing. When you want to eat it, take it out and thaw it. Then you can eat it the same way as it tastes now."
When my aunt Jiang Chunlian was at her parents' home, no one in the village had a refrigerator, so no one knew this little trick. Later, after she got married and moved out, she didn't come back very often, and she never came back during the Spring Festival, so she didn't know that the sweet rice dumplings could be preserved in this way to retain their original taste.
Hearing her sister-in-law's instructions, Jiang Chunlian nodded repeatedly to show that she understood!
Several people shared the rice together and soon divided it into small portions.
Besides, the weather is a bit cold now, so after the dumplings are divided, they are almost cooled down, so we put them in a freezer specially bought for freezing dumplings for quick freezing.
After making the sweet rice dumplings, Jiang's mother began to instruct everyone to make the gray water rice dumplings.
Because my aunt is going back to Shenzhen to celebrate the New Year tomorrow, I have to make all the dumplings today and let her take them back.
This year's ash water dumplings were made with sesame ash. Since no one in Longshan Village grows sesame seeds, Jiang's mother spent a lot of effort and used many connections to collect the sesame ash.
Only experienced people can make ash water dumplings with alkaline water, because the proportion of alkaline water is very particular. If the amount is too little, there will be no fresh fragrance. If the amount is too much, the alkaline taste will be too strong and have a bitter taste.
Only when the amount of alkaline water is right, the ash water dumplings will be fragrant and delicious enough that you can’t stop eating them.
In fact, many people in Longshan Village now make ash water dumplings instead of using ash as alkaline water. Instead, they directly use baking powder. This is convenient and quick, and it is easy to control the amount.
Of course, the main reason is that people are doing less farming these days. Twenty or thirty years ago, many people in the village grew beans and sesame seeds, and there were many pine trees on the mountains, so there was never a shortage of high-quality ash for making ash water dumplings.
But in the past ten years or so, very few people in the village have planted these things, and the pine trees on the mountain have been cut down, making it increasingly difficult to use good quality ash to make alkali water.
So, in order to save trouble, people gradually started using baking powder!
Sweet dumplings are made by machines, but gray water dumplings are made by hand.
Soak the glutinous rice in alkaline water, steam it in a pot, and then pour it into a round trough dug out with a huge stone (a large piece of wood was used in the past). Then, use a large wooden hammer to hammer it again and again until no rice grains can be seen. Only then is the process considered finished.
Playing this game requires a lot of physical strength and requires the technique of exerting force. People who have good physical strength and know how to use force can easily play dozens of gray water baskets a day, but ordinary people can't play even one well if they don't stop.
There are many men in the Jiang family, and Jiang's father and Jiang Fei are both masters. Beating a dozen people is like a piece of cake. Jiang Feng doesn't even have to do it. His cousin is just satisfying his desire to do it.
My cousin and his wife had never seen the scene of playing with the gray water, and they both watched it with great interest. My cousin's wife even kept taking videos with her mobile phone, especially when my cousin was on the stage, she recorded the whole process.
After all the gray water baskets were made, my cousin and his wife started selecting videos to post on WeChat Moments!
Seeing this, Jiang Feng also made a video and sent it to Huang Lingwei, asking, "Do you recognize what this is?"
Huang Lingwei: "Isn't this glutinous rice cake?"
Jiang Feng: "We call it Huishuizang here. It is similar to ciba, but the taste should be different. Do you want to try it?"
Huang Lingwei: "We'll talk about it when we have a chance. I envy you over there. Yesterday you slaughtered pigs, today you make rice dumplings, and tomorrow you offer sacrifices to the gods. There are different activities every day. It feels like the New Year. Unlike here, the New Year is more deserted than usual, but there is nothing else."
Jiang Feng: "This is the difference between rural areas and big cities. Although rural areas now don't have the same New Year atmosphere as before, it is still much better than big cities. At the end of the year, almost all migrant workers will come back to celebrate the New Year. Every household is preparing for the New Year, and there is indeed some New Year atmosphere."
Huang Lingwei: "I have never known what the New Year atmosphere is since I was a child."
Jiang Feng: "When you marry me, I will take you back to the countryside to celebrate the New Year, and then you will know what the New Year atmosphere is like!"
Huang Lingwei: “…”
Jiang Feng chatted with Huang Lingwei for more than an hour, but he never told her that he would go to Shenzhen on the fifth day of the first lunar month. He planned to give her a surprise secretly and take the opportunity to win her over.
After all, the relationship between the two has already reached a critical point, and no matter which side takes the initiative, it can easily break through that layer of window paper.
…
Because the aunt's family was going back tomorrow, Jiang's mother prepared a large table of food and wine in the evening, as a farewell to the aunt's family in advance!
While eating, Jiang Feng was struggling with a question in his mind, which was whether or not to use his wall-breaking ability to increase the ultimate marriage matching value between his aunt and uncle.
To be honest, based on the cheap uncle's attitude towards his aunt and his extramarital affair, Jiang Feng had always wanted to persuade his aunt to divorce him, and then find her an uncle who would be ten or a hundred times better to her.
But his cousin Cui Yuan had a pretty good attitude towards his mother's relatives. Jiang Feng really couldn't do something like persuading other people's parents to divorce.
Since he couldn't persuade his aunt to divorce, for the sake of her happiness, Jiang Feng should use his wall-breaking ability to increase the maximum marriage matching value between her and her uncle.
However, Jiang Feng felt unhappy if he did this.
It was not until this moment that Jiang Feng realized that even though he was a wall-hanger, he could not have everything he wanted.
After much consideration, for the sake of his aunt's happiness and for the sake of his cousin, Jiang Feng decided to use his wall-breaking ability on his aunt's marriage.
Originally, the marriage between my aunt and uncle was unsatisfactory, but after Jiang Feng used his wall-breaking ability, his maximum marriage matching value was raised to 69 points.
This score is naturally much lower than those of the clients that Jiang Feng had matchmade, but in reality it is already considered a good marriage, one in ten.
Because the wall-breaking ability improves the extreme marriage matching value rather than the current marriage matching value, there is no immediate effect, but it is like a gentle breeze and drizzle, moistening things silently, gradually improving the relationship between the couple.
…
The next day, after breakfast, my aunt and her family of three set off for home!
Then, Jiang Feng and his two siblings were busy arranging blind dates and house-sitting for the clients, because this wave of clients were all people who had returned from working in other provinces and had to go back to work after the Chinese New Year.
Therefore, this wave of clients are all pursuing quick marriages. It is common for them to go on blind dates on the first day, visit homes on the second day, and register for marriage on the third day. They all want to take advantage of the Spring Festival holiday to get their marriage done.
Therefore, Jiang Feng's two siblings, including his father and mother, were very busy in the next few days. Each of them had to arrange several blind dates and housekeeping every day.
In order to save time on blind dates, several couples are even arranged to go on blind dates nearby, with matchmakers interspersed between them.
I was busy until New Year's Eve, when I finally had some time to relax.
No matter how urgent the situation is, no one would choose to go on a blind date on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.
On New Year's Eve, different places have different customs. The custom in Longshan Village is to kill chickens and geese to worship ancestors, and the children take a bath and change into new clothes at noon, and they also put up Spring Festival couplets and hang lanterns.
New Year’s Eve dinner has become popular in recent years, and many celebrities have taken the lead in posting photos of their New Year’s Eve dinner.
In Longshan Village, the New Year’s Eve dinner is called the reunion dinner, and the dinner is not served in the evening like in other places. Instead, they start cooking after worshiping their ancestors at noon, and usually the reunion dinner can be eaten around 1 p.m.
There are many brothers and sisters in the countryside, so the reunion dinner is a hundred times more lively than in the city. Often, it is not just the family that eats together, but the family members eat together with their uncles and aunts.
Therefore, every New Year’s Eve, the most common scene in Longshan Village is moving a few tables together, and then dozens of people gather together to eat.
Especially those men who drink, they are not limited to eating at home, but will go around visiting relatives and friends with wine. Anyway, those who live nearby are basically cousins, so it doesn’t matter where they eat and drink.
They would sit and drink in whichever place was more lively and had a better drinking atmosphere.
In previous years, few people in the village would visit Jiang Feng's house to drink. After all, when people visit, they will also visit the family, and generally they will go to drink with those families who are good and hospitable.
This year, with Jiang Feng's strong rise, their family's status in the village has changed. When the reunion dinner was halfway through, those more active drinkers came to visit one after another.
Most of the customers who came to the restaurant brought wine with them. After greeting each other, they sat down and started drinking without any hesitation. The atmosphere suddenly became lively.
For this reunion dinner, the fast-paced families only eat with a few people, so it will naturally end hastily. However, most families will drink, and they will basically drink until three or four o'clock before finishing.
In fact, some families with a good atmosphere can even drink until the evening.
Of course, in addition to drinking, red envelopes for children are also indispensable.
At present, Jiang Feng's family has no children, so he gives red envelopes to the neighbors' children. The money he gives is not much, just 50 yuan each. If he gives red envelopes to all the neighbors' children, the total amount is only about one or two thousand yuan.
Actually, you don't have to give this red envelope, but Jiang Feng only needs big money now, not this little money. He thinks it is worthwhile to spend a little money to win the favor of his neighbors.