Chapter 112 Open-air toilets

Winter Solstice, also known as Sunanzhi, Winter Festival, and Yasui, has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only an important solar term among the 24 solar terms, but also a traditional festival for ancestor worship in China. Winter Solstice is one of the four seasons and eight festivals, and is regarded as a major festival in winter. In ancient times, people said that "Winter Solstice is as important as New Year".

The customs of the Winter Solstice vary in content and details depending on the region.

In southern China, there is a custom of worshipping ancestors and feasting on the winter solstice. In northern China, there is a custom of eating dumplings on the winter solstice every year.

In Bobai County, there is a custom of making rice dumplings to worship ancestors during the winter solstice.

This籺 is also called Poshuiguai or Luoshuigou, as shown below:

This is a very distinctive delicacy in Bobai County. Just like dumplings in the north, almost any woman who has been in the kitchen can make it.

Last night, after the family discussed the future paths of the two brothers Zhang Shouguo and Zhang Shoumin, Zhang's mother took out an appropriate amount of glutinous rice and sticky rice, soaked them, and ground them into powder using a stone mill early this morning.

Bring back the glutinous rice flour and sticky rice flour, take a part of them and add directly into boiling water to stir, knead this part of the powder into small pieces, and then put the small pieces into the pot and cook them with boiling water. These cooked small pieces are called "cooked pieces". Take out the "cooked pieces" and add appropriate amount of cold water to the raw rice powder and knead them vigorously until they are rubbed into rice flour that does not stick to your hands. This is considered a success.

The next step is to make the filling. Like dumplings, the filling actually comes in a variety of flavors, depending on your family’s financial situation or personal taste.

The main ingredients of the rice dumplings made by the Zhang family are eggs, pork and the indispensable garlic.

First fry the eggs into an omelet, then chop them with a knife, chop the garlic, and chop the half-fat and half-lean pork. Then heat the oil and stir-fry the pork. After the pork is fried to release the oil, add the chopped eggs and chopped garlic and continue to stir-fry. When it is almost done, add the appropriate amount of seasoning and stir-fry evenly before serving.

Then, we started to make the dumplings.

At this time, Zhang Xiuping was making dumplings with her two sisters-in-law and her mother.

It's not just the Zhang family that makes glutinous rice dumplings. Almost every household in Poxin Village makes glutinous rice dumplings.

The four of them worked together and quickly wrapped the rice dumplings.

At this time, brothers Zhang Shouguo and Zhang Shoumin, who had gone to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to inquire about the license for opening a store, also returned.

Zhang Xiuping asked quickly, "Big Brother, Second Brother, how did you go? Can you get the certificate to open a shop and do business?"

Zhang Shouguo shook his head and said, "I heard from the staff of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau that the leader of the bureau went to the county a few days ago to attend the first session of the Seventh People's Congress. The meeting just ended yesterday, and the leader has not returned yet. We have to wait until the leader returns to know whether this can be done."

Zhang Xiuping said, "Is that so? Then when you send me back the day after tomorrow, you can go and ask about it!"

Zhang Shouguo nodded and said, "This is the only way!"

Mother Zhang said, "Now that everyone is back, let's start cooking."

These words instantly focused everyone's attention on the rice dumplings. Seeing several bamboo lids filled with white rice dumplings, and recalling the unforgettable taste, everyone couldn't help swallowing their saliva. This thing can usually be eaten on the birthday of Guanyin and the winter solstice, and basically no one makes it at other times, so it is still very difficult to eat it.

Because the glutinous rice dumpling core is cooked, you can start eating it as long as you steam or boil the half-cooked glutinous rice dumpling skin.

So in less than ten minutes, everyone in the Zhang family was holding a large bowl. Except for the children, the adults' bowls were filled with at least five or six dumplings, and then they began to eat with great enjoyment.

Zhang Xiuping ate five in one go before putting down the bowl with a feeling of being unsatisfied.

"Xiuping, do you want more?"

"No, you guys eat it, I'm already very full!"

Zhang Zhenfa finished eating the six dumplings in the bowl, then filled up five more and continued to eat them in big mouthfuls.

For someone like him who often does physical work, his appetite is still very big. For such a big basket, those adults who don’t do much physical work may be completely full after eating five or six, but he has no pressure to eat ten or so.

Zhang Zhenfa is in his forties and can still eat so much. Zhang Shouguo and Zhang Shoumin, two young and strong men, can eat even more. The two brothers ate thirteen and fourteen respectively. Their appetites are really amazing.

Even Zhang Shoujun and Zhang Shoushan ate ten of them, and their fighting power was still quite good.

After eating and drinking, Zhang Xiuping felt like going to the toilet, a big one.

But when she thought of the dirty and smelly shit pool, Zhang Xiuping felt a little sick. After all, during the three days after she married to the Deng family, she had gone to the toilet in a clean bathroom without any odor. After enjoying that comfortable way of going to the toilet, it would be too difficult for her to go back to squat in such a disgusting shit pool.

After much thought, Zhang Xiuping didn't want to suffer that kind of pain again.

So she wanted to follow the men's example and go to the mountains to use the open-air toilet.

However, she definitely wouldn't dare to go up the mountain to defecate alone, and she would have to bring her two sisters with her.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xiuping went out to call the two little sisters.

…

An hour later.

The top of a hill.

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Zhang Xiuping and the other two looked around carefully and found that there was really no one here, so they looked at each other.

Ou Guofang blushed and said, "Sister Ping, do we really have to poop in a place like this?"

It was the first time for Zhang Xiuping to poop in the open air. She also blushed and said, "Afang, don't you think the air here is good? It's much more comfortable to poop here than in the shit lake. Anyway, I really don't want to smell that smell again, for fear that I will vomit out all the food I've eaten."

Ou Guohua said shyly: "Sister Ping is right, it is definitely a hundred times more comfortable to poop here than in the shit lake, but it is really embarrassing because everyone can see it!"

It was the first time for Zhang Xiuping to do such a thing, and her heart was pounding with nervousness. She said, "It's true that I'm not used to it here, but as long as there's no one else around, there's nothing to be shy about. I'm really anxious now. I'll go over there, and you guys can find a place by yourselves!"

After saying that, Zhang Xiuping walked to a relatively secluded piece of grass that she had spotted before, hit the surrounding grass with the stick in her hand, then took off her pants and began her first trip to an open-air toilet in her life.

When the Ou sisters saw that Sister Ping had started to take action, they no longer hesitated. They each chose a good place and began to try ways of defecating that they had never dared to think of before.

…

A few minutes later.

The three of them gathered together again with red faces.

Zhang Xiuping blushed and asked, "Afang, Ahua, how do you feel?"

Ou Guofang said with a strange look: "Very...very exciting, and very comfortable!"

Ou Guohua said somewhat embarrassedly: "Sister Ping, this...if someone saw what we excreted, how embarrassing would that be?"

Zhang Xiuping blinked her eyes and said, "Ah Hua, didn't you break off some branches and leaves to cover that thing?"

Ou Guohua woke up as if from a dream when she heard this. She quickly broke off a bunch of branches and leaves nearby, then rushed over to cover up the thing, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the three of them looked at each other, laughed and fled the crime scene.

(End of this chapter)