The sound of firecrackers on the bonfire signaled the official start of the Lunar New Year celebrations in Shanshui Village!
The lunch of the New Year's Eve dinner features a dish of rabbit with ginger and double peppers, which is fresh, fragrant, spicy but not numbing, and very appetizing. This dish is prepared for those who can handle spicy food and have a strong palate.
The other dish is braised rabbit meat, made with high-quality ingredients, prepared for children who cannot eat spicy food. Of course, adults who cannot eat spicy food can also eat it; they can sit at the children's table.
The staple food is cornbread, which is fluffy and soft. It is served with a large bowl of lamb bone and radish soup. The soup is rich and flavorful. On a cold winter day, a bite of fluffy cornbread and a sip of hot lamb bone soup, along with a big bite of rabbit meat, is incredibly satisfying!
The meals for the Zhao and Sun families were delivered separately in advance by a family they were on good terms with.
Fan Qian's family would have their New Year's Eve dinner at noon and then be taken back by Fan Sizhu. His family didn't contribute rabbits, eggs, or manpower. However, Wang Guifen was a native of Shanshui Village, and since it was the New Year, she wanted to maintain harmony, so she still prepared a large bowl of braised rabbit meat, a small pot of mutton bone and radish soup, and quite a few cornbread buns, ensuring that everyone would be full.
This year, forty men went out to work, and most of the Zhao, Sun, and Fan families couldn't go out, so there were about a hundred fewer people. In previous years, everyone stayed at home and lived their own lives, but this year they gathered together.
About three hundred people gathered in front of the study, filling the room and the surrounding area to capacity. The sounds of firecrackers, chatting, eating, and laughter gradually drifted into Fan Qian's room.
The three men, including Fan Dazhu, who were lying on the bed groaning with their broken legs, felt increasingly choked up as they listened.
"When will Sizhu be back?" Fan Dazhu asked through gritted teeth, his stomach churning with hunger.
He returned home after eating his fill of tofu rice yesterday, and didn't bring them any food!
If you say anything more to him, he'll quit and threaten not to cook for them.
Fan Erzhu was also hungry, but he was more resentful of his elder brother. He complained, unable to bear it any longer, "Brother, can you please stop hogging the food in the future?"
Yesterday you said that since we are Grandma's golden grandchildren, we would definitely get a share of the tofu rice at Uncle's house, but what happened? We didn't get to eat until almost the afternoon, starving!
Today is New Year's Day in the village, and we can't go out without rabbits. You're also short on eggs and unwilling to give them up. Let me tell you, if we still don't have anything to eat today, I'm not finished with you!
Fan Sanzhu's eyes darted around, and thinking of his father lying in the opposite room and his mother who had gone mad, he muttered, "If it doesn't work out, let's separate the family."
My second uncle's life got better and better after the family split up!
Perhaps his life will get better and better after the family splits up.
Fan Dazhu stared wide-eyed in disbelief, "With our parents still alive, what's the point of dividing the family property!"
They're becoming more and more unruly. It's all because of Second Uncle setting a bad example. If Second Uncle hadn't separated from the family and had devoted himself to his father, wouldn't his younger siblings have been just as well?
But now they're following suit, and he's losing more and more authority as the eldest brother.
"Our parents are here, but we can't even get enough to eat. What's the point of not sharing?" Fan Sanzhu said indifferently.
Fan Erzhu was also tempted. Before, his grandmother controlled the food supply, and now that she was gone, his elder brother had taken control of it. Life was still tough. It would be better if they all lived separately, so they could eat whenever they wanted and have a much more comfortable life.
"No, how can there be so little food, and so much land to cultivate? We can only survive if we work together. If we split up, not to mention the fields and forests, you won't have a place to live if you don't have a house."
As for pots, pans, and farm tools, where would you get the money to buy them?
"Alright, alright, I know you've been hungry these past few days. I promise I'll bring out food every day from now on, so you won't go hungry, okay?" Fan Dazhu reassured him in a somewhat impatient tone.
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