After buying the TV, Lu Ting took his wife and children back to the military compound. Because the weather was cold, everyone huddled in the house to warm themselves by the fire, so at first few people knew that Lu Ting's family had bought a TV.
Lu Ting installed the TV and closed the door with the children at home to change the TV channels. Lu Yian wanted to go to the next door to ask the children to come to watch TV at home, but was finally stopped by Lu Yiming.
"During Chinese New Year, everyone is sitting at home warming themselves by the fire. If you go over now, they'll think you're asking for red envelopes."
"Brother, why do we have to watch the TV secretly when we bought it?"
Lu Yiming really wanted to pry open his brother's head. What did it mean to peek secretly? Who would leave the door open in this cold weather? Even though it wasn't snowing, it was already -5 degrees Celsius, colder than snow.
As long as they turned up the volume of the TV, the neighbors would naturally know that they bought a TV after a while. Lu Yiming was worried because he was afraid that a lot of people would come to their house and squeeze them so tightly that they would have no place to stand.
He understood his brother's feeling of showing off. No household in the entire military compound had a TV, so their family was considered to be at the forefront of fashion.
In fact, they don't need to advertise. As long as they pass by the corridor and hear the sound of TV programs coming from the house, they will definitely stop.
Once the people on this floor knew that their family bought a TV, he estimated that everyone in the entire compound would know, and then they would not even have a place to stand. Lu Yiming was now both happy and worried.
Su Yan is not interested in TV, and there are not many TV channels now. Instead of watching TV, she might as well go into the space and dig some shepherd's purse to make dumplings.
"Lu Ting, roll out the dough and make some dumpling wrappers first. Let the kids watch TV. I'll prepare the dumpling filling later."
"Want to have cabbage and pork dumplings tonight?"
"Eat shepherd's purse and pork dumplings."
Lu Yiming asked doubtfully, "Where did we get the shepherd's purse?"
Lu Ting felt a little guilty, his eyes flashed, "Your mother dried a lot of shepherd's purse, just watch TV and don't meddle in other people's business."
"Dried shepherd's purse, how come I don't know about it?"
"Your mother put it away. Why are you asking so many questions? Just eat it."
Su Yan smiled, walked into the bedroom, closed the door and slipped into the space. She took a basket and went to the field to dig half a basket of shepherd's purse, came back to wash it, blanch it and chop it into pieces. Then she took out a four-pound piece of pork belly and a three-pound piece of lean meat from the refrigerator and chopped them up.
Pour the chopped meat into a bowl, beat five or six eggs, add minced ginger, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, chicken essence, thirteen spices... and shepherd's purse and mix together.
Su Yan was busy preparing the dumpling filling in the space, while Lu Ting was kneading the dough and rolling out the dumpling wrappers outside.
I wonder how much shepherd's purse filling my wife will prepare? He can eat 70 shepherd's purse dumplings, the eldest can eat 40, the second and third can eat more than 20, and only my wife and daughters eat less, only about 10 at most.
They can eat two hundred dumplings in one meal. No matter what, just mix some more flour and roll out some dumpling wrappers. If there is not enough filling, you can soak some black fungus and vermicelli later. The vegetarian dumplings taste good too.
Lu Ting let the kneaded dough rise, and then started to roll out the dumpling wrappers. He rolled out a total of 300 dumpling wrappers. If he didn’t use them all, he could make them tomorrow.
After Lu Ting finished his work, he washed his hands and opened the door with his key. Just then, Su Yan came out of the space with a basin of dumpling stuffing.
"Lu Ting, go get some other dumpling fillings outside and bring this pot of shepherd's purse out later."
Lu Ting looked at the bowl full of dumpling filling and asked, "I only rolled out about 300 dumpling wrappers. Is that too much filling?"
"No, you can mix some more dough later. If there is any leftover stuffing, we can use it to make shepherd's purse buns. After dinner, we can steam the buns and save them for breakfast tomorrow."
It turned out that the remaining shepherd's purse and meat filling was to be used to make dumplings. Since he was going to make dumplings, he made some other fillings for the dumplings.
"Okay, then I'll mix some more flour and make some bun fillings with other flavors."
Su Yan put the stuffing bowl on the five-drawer cabinet in the room, and the two of them walked out of the room. As soon as they stepped into the living room, someone knocked on the door.
Without a second thought, Lu Yiming quickly opened the door and found a crowd of people standing outside. An old lady with yellow teeth said, "Oh, you bought a TV. I was wondering where the fighting sounds came from. It turns out they were coming from the TV."
Lu Yiming turned around and glared at his younger brother. The kid had turned up the volume of the TV to the maximum, fearing that passersby wouldn't hear it.
He replied somewhat awkwardly, "We came back from the city today and bought a TV."
"Can we come in and take a look?"
Lu Yiming turned around and looked at his parents. Lu Ting walked over and said, "Happy New Year, everyone. Come in and sit down!"
It was impossible for him to drive these neighbors out during the Chinese New Year. Buying a TV at home was a big happy occasion, so if they wanted to come and watch, they could do so.
Su Yan saw that people from every household on the same floor had come over. How would they seat themselves if 10 or 20 people came in?
It's Chinese New Year and we can't turn people away. If they want to come in, just come in! There are seven adults and eleven children. We don't have enough teacups at home, so we only prepare hot tea for the adults and let the children have sunflower seeds and peanuts.
"Come in and sit down first. I'll make you some tea. Yiming, go back to your room and get some sunflower seeds and peanuts."
With so many people around, she couldn't possibly give them candies, chocolates, biscuits, dried meats and fruits to eat, for fear of attracting those children to come to their house every day.
Saccharin is expensive, and if she put a lot of candy in the fruit bowl, the children would definitely fight over the candy in their house.
Melon seeds, peanuts, orchid beans, cat ears, other people’s fruit plates are all these local New Year’s goods, so she doesn’t ask for anything special.
Su Yan placed all the New Year's goods in the children's room so they could eat whenever they wanted. Lu Yiming, thinking that there were many people, put a pound of sunflower seeds, half a pound of broad beans, and two pounds of peanuts in the fruit plate.
Lu Ting watched his son carefully carry out a plate of New Year's goods piled up like a mountain, and the corners of his mouth twitched. What is this kid trying to do?
Su Yan felt a headache looking at the melon seeds and peanuts. She had to take care of the cleaning today, so she quickly took out the trash can in the room and placed it in front of the child.
"Your child is so sensible that he even brings us food." The old lady with yellow teeth smiled and grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the fruit plate and put them in her pocket.
Seeing this, the others stepped forward and grabbed a handful. It didn't matter whether it was peanuts, melon seeds, or beans, as long as it was edible.
Looking at the adults and children rushing to grab melon seeds, Su Yan regretted buying the TV. If there were so many people at home every day, it would definitely affect their future lives.
They were cracking melon seeds and peanuts, spitting the shells everywhere, staring at the TV with great interest, commenting on it, and it seemed that they would not leave for a while.
If these people don't leave, how are we going to eat these shepherd's purse dumplings tonight? Forget it, I'll make the dumplings later.
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