"An Ning, I'm going home this year. Is there anything you want me to bring back for you?" As soon as she entered the yard, Xu Hongxia walked towards the north room.
Shen Anning was cooking in the kitchen with her younger brother and sister. When she heard the sound, she quickly opened the curtain and said, "Here you are. Come in. I was just about to make dinner when you came. Let's eat together here."
"Why are you cooking dinner at this hour? If I had known you were going to make something delicious, I wouldn't have eaten at the educated youth camp."
Unlike the villagers, Shen Anning also eats three meals a day in winter, so dinner is naturally later than other families. "You know my three little ones, none of them can stand hunger. Anyway, there is enough food, and their growth is the most important thing."
"Then I came here by chance. Although I have already eaten, I am still a little hungry." Xu Hongxia came here often, and a lot of the food her family sent ended up in the mouths of An Xuan and Xixi, so the children of the Shen family were no longer surprised by her behavior.
"Aunt Hongxia, please sit next to me."
"Okay, Xixi, auntie will warm her hands first and then go to accompany you." She had just entered the door and was still feeling very cold. Xu Hongxia didn't want the little girl to get sick because of this.
The Chinese New Year is only seven or eight days away. Shen Anning has been preparing New Year's goods recently. Several people ate a lot at noon today, so she just made a simple dinner to feed their stomachs.
Because Xu Hongxia was there, Shen Anning happened to exchange a piece of tofu in Gengjiatun in the morning, and made fried cabbage with frozen tofu, spicy and sour potato shreds in the evening. The staple food was roasted sweet potatoes. When Shen Zixi went out to play in the afternoon, he smelled the sweet fragrance of other people's sweet potatoes and became greedy.
"Hey, An Xuan, put it down. Sister Hongxia is here, how can I ask you to do it? Take Xixi to wash her hands, and I will serve the dishes."
With Xu Hongxia around, the dinner table became more lively. She and Shen Zixi were three and five years old respectively, so there couldn't be more.
"Hey, An Ning, it's all cabbage and potatoes, why can't I make it taste like this?"
Shen Anning smiled. She was willing to add oil, and with the seasoning, it would definitely taste better than stir-frying. "Any dish will taste better if you add more oil, but we have limited meat and fish this year. Just be patient, it will be better in a few years."
"I hope so. Are you sure you don't have anything for me to take back?"
"All the things for home have been sent. Now only my aunt's family is in Beijing. I sent the mountain products back before it snowed. Hongxia, you are not short of money. You should send the things back before the road is closed. Don't bring so many things on the train. Two sets of clothes and a few dollars for food will be enough." There are many pickpockets on the train now, and they all work in gangs. Xu Hongxia is alone, so it's better to be careful.
"Yeah, you do make sense. Then I won't bring any money with me. My mom will definitely buy me a ticket when I get back. I'll be heartbroken if I lose it on the train. I earned all this money by working in the fields, cent by cent."
Xu Hongxia hasn't been home for three years. This time she went home to visit her family, and the vacation was a full twenty-four days, so even if no one was with her, she wanted to go back and enjoy the feeling of being pampered and cared for by her parents.
Shen Anning harvested a lot every year when she went up the mountain. She knew that Xu Hongxia was not very good at living, so she packed some mountain products for her, five kilograms of hazelnuts, two kilograms of chestnuts, and five kilograms of pine nuts.
"These are all fried. Please send them back together. Xixi and Anyu and Anxuan have eaten a lot of delicious food sent by their uncle and aunt in the past two years. Please thank them for me when you go back."
"Hehe, then I won't be polite with you. Don't worry, I will definitely bring it to you."
It was time to leave. Xu Hongxia felt a little reluctant to leave because she would not see Shen Zixi for a month. Before leaving, she hugged the little girl and kissed her for a long time, making her expressionless.
Not long after the Chinese New Year, Geng Yue came back from the county and gave Shen Anning some food produced by their food factory.
Shen Anning looked at the basket of food and said, "Yueyue, why did you bring so much for them? It's too much. Take half back for Guoqing later."
"Hey, don't move. I bought these for my brother and sister and Xixi. Besides, I work in a food factory. These are just a few dollars. Please don't be disgusted by them because they are defective."
"Okay, okay, come sit down. We can't see each other often since you went to work in the county."
Geng Yue looked at Shen An Ning, still a little embarrassed, "Um, An Ning, my family introduced me to a girl, do you think I should go?"
Shen Anning was stunned for a moment, then realized that Geng Yue would be twenty this year. At this age, she is considered an older girl in the countryside. "What about you? What do you think?"
"I don't know either. I'm a little confused. I'm not young anymore. My mom and my aunt both told me to go and see him first. If he's not a good person, forget it."
Shen Anning didn't know what to say. In her opinion, twenty years old was really young, but if she said that, Aunt Geng would probably have a problem with her. "Why don't you go meet her first and go on a blind date? Only if you're in love can you get married, right?"
Geng Yue met her blind date on the Lantern Festival. The man was also from the city and should be a nice person. Shen Anning saw him from a distance, carrying gifts to visit Geng's house.
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