Chapter 175 Preparing for the New Year

A few days later, Secretary Zhao happily told Xia Juanjuan that Captain Li had been arrested.

Xia Juanjuan thanked Secretary Zhao. From now on, at least Shen Wanxue and Yang Qiushi would no longer be hated by that bastard.

However, Xia Juanjuan was still wondering who the person was who secretly wrote the letter to report the incident.

She didn't throw away the things she found in Shen Wanxue's house last time, but kept them in the space, thinking that she might be able to find out who did it by looking at the handwriting later.

There weren't many people in the village who could read, so the scope was actually very small. It was either those few people in the village or the educated youth. Xia Juanjuan suspected it was Fu Qingye, otherwise no one else had a grudge against her, so it would be fine if they wanted to frame Shen Wanxue, but they pointed the finger directly at her.

However, she had no evidence yet, and after all, this incident happened after Fu Qingye returned to the city. Even if she wanted to confront her face to face, she had no way.

This matter can only be put aside for the time being.

Fortunately, nothing happened afterwards.

Soon it was the end of the last month of the lunar calendar, and every household was preparing for the New Year.

Li Zhan was probably certain that he would not be able to come back, but Yan Haotian took annual leave, saying that he wanted to return to the village to celebrate the New Year.

This made Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru very happy, but they were also worried.

They only have one house in Xia Village. Where will Yan Haotian live when he comes back?

Xia Juanjuan's place is spacious and there are still two rooms in the guest room for living, but what's the big brother living in the house of his married sister?

Xia Juanjuan also felt that this matter was difficult to handle.

She had money, but no matter how rich she was, she couldn't build three more houses for Xia Shuangshan overnight.

Lin Yuru sighed, "Alas...your father and I have long discussed how to make more money and build two houses before the New Year, but unfortunately we still haven't caught up..."

Xia Juanjuan said, "Mom, if it really doesn't work, let my brother live with me. It's only a few days of vacation, so what if others gossip about him? Isn't he my brother?"

Since they met, Yan Haotian never mentioned the encounter with Xia Juanjuan in the black market, and Xia Juanjuan was sure that she would not mention it either.

Moreover, she had already made up her mind that even if Yan Haotian brought it up, she would play dumb and say that he had recognized the wrong person!

Lin Yuru had no choice but to look at Xia Shuangshan with some embarrassment.

Xia Shuangshan squatted on the ground for a long time before he said, "Let's stay at home. No matter how ugly the house is, it's still your brother's home, right? Let your mother come and live here, and your brother and I will live in Xia Village. Your brother will sleep on the bed, and I'll sleep on the floor. We'll start building the house in the spring of next year."

Xia Juanjuan knew that Xia Shuangshan was just concerned about his reputation, so she didn't say anything and smiled, "That's fine. Li Zhan won't come back this year, so I'll go home too and we'll have a reunion dinner at home."

Lin Yuru knew that the young lady was trying to save their face and didn't mind their shabby house, so she smiled and said, "Oh! Your father, I, your brother, and you, and six little kids, our little house won't be able to accommodate them all!"

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "If there's no room in the house, let's sit in the yard. There's coal burning in the stove, and we can chat while we sit by the fire and eat hot pot."

That's settled.

On the 26th day of the 11th lunar month, the commune slaughtered the large fat pigs weighing more than 150 kilograms raised in each village, and each family received about four or five kilograms of meat.

Xia Juanjuan got less, only two kilograms, after all, she didn't earn many work points all year.

However, Xia Juanjuan did not think much of it. She took out a few more pounds of meat from the space, in addition to two pounds of mutton and two large grass carps, and she said that she bought them from the supply and marketing cooperative in the town.

The temperature outside is below zero now, so the meat is hung outside to be preserved and used for hot pot after Yan Haotian returns.

As for grass carp, Xia Juanjuan sliced ​​the meat of one of the fish, then chopped it into pieces, added starch, seasoned it with salt, sugar, soy sauce, etc., and then beat it on the chopping board until the fish meat was stuck together. Then she boiled a pot of water, squeezed out the fish meat with the base of her hand, scooped it out with a spoon, and threw it into the boiling water to cook.

After a while, plump white fish balls floated to the surface of the water.

Xia Juanjuan took out the fish balls and saved them for later use in hot pot.

In addition, we make dumplings.

Stuffed with mushrooms, bamboo shoots and pork. The fat and lean meat are chopped into a puree in a ratio of 30:70 and mixed with mushrooms and bamboo shoots to make the filling. Because Yan Haotian has returned, no mixed flour is used, only white flour dumplings.

In addition, we steamed several pots of steamed buns with different fillings. Meat buns are eaten at home. Red bean buns, sugar buns, and red date buns are sweet, which are what the kids like.

As the year was coming to an end, there was no more masonry work to do outside, so Xia Shuangshan took the kids to the mountains to hunt. They didn't catch any big animals, but they did catch a wild rabbit and a wild pheasant.

It just so happens that wild rabbits can be braised, and wild pheasants can be directly boiled into chicken soup.

As for the soup base for the hot pot, Xia Juanjuan planned to use fish soup.

As for the vegetables for hot pot, there would be pork, mutton, fish balls, and the Merlin luncheon meat taken out from the space - she planned to deal with the packaging in advance and say that it was sent by Lizhan.

The vegetarian dishes include white radish, Chinese cabbage, potato chips, bamboo shoots, and previously dried wild mushrooms and black fungus that have been soaked.

In addition, Xia Juanjuan also used soybeans to grow a lot of bean sprouts and made tofu, which can be used for both hot pot and stir-fry.

As for the sesame sauce used as a dipping sauce, it was naturally sent from "Jingshi".

The preparations for the New Year were going on in an orderly manner. Because of Captain Li's incident last time, Li Jie helped out, and Xia Juanjuan also took out a big rabbit from the space and gave it to Zhou Qiuhe, saying that Xia Shuangshan had caught it in the mountains as a thank you gift.