After staying at the farm until the afternoon, Shen Anning took away ten kilograms of mutton, ten kilograms of pork belly, four pig's trotters, half a pair of ribs, and a pair of pig intestines. Although the price of meat has increased a bit in the past two years, it was the farm price, and it only cost her twenty yuan in total.
It was almost three o'clock when they got home. Seeing that there was still enough time, Shen Anning packed the package and prepared to go to the post office to send it out. Calculating the time, they should be able to receive it before the New Year.
There were four packages, and except for the one in Beijing which was closer, the others were all far away. The postage was more than 30 yuan, which made Sun Qianqian sigh.
"An Ning, you receive packages and remittances every month, but you also send a lot. You must have spent nearly a hundred dollars on postage this year, right?"
"There's nothing I can do, Sister Qianqian. My family lives so far away. Fortunately, they are usually small things, and they only come once a year. We have a lot of mountain products here in the Northeast, so we can let them taste some of the fresh products once a year."
After writing the address and affixing the stamps, Shen Anning pulled Sun Qianqian and said, "Sister Qianqian, this year the village has distributed less meat but more grain. Many families are reluctant to eat fine grains and want to exchange them for some money."
There is still a lot of rice and flour in the space, which are sold very cheaply in later generations. On the contrary, coarse grains are ridiculously expensive in later generations because the planting area has become smaller. Things are just sitting there anyway, so it is more convenient to cash them in.
When Sun Qianqian heard this, she was delighted!
"Sister An Ning, listen to me, I want all the fine grains I can get. One hundred kilograms is not too little, and five hundred kilograms is not too much." There are so many relatives at home, who doesn't want to make dumplings during the New Year!
Shen Anning took Sun Qianqian's hand and said, "Sister, I can't tell how much it is for now, but it's definitely not as much as 500 kilograms. Prepare the money first, and I'll ride my bike to deliver it to you in two days."
After agreeing on a time, Shen Anning rode his bike to the supply and marketing cooperative, looked around for a long time, and bought a pound of fried cakes.
However, when she returned home, her backpack was filled to the brim with boxes of snacks and pieces of cloth. In order not to arouse suspicion, Cao Jingheng did not dare to send clothes for the elderly, so she had to work hard these days to make some warm clothes and shoes for the grandparents.
When they got home, each person got two boxes of pastries and put them in their own cabinets. After eating their own, they couldn't ask others for theirs. This was the rule set early in the morning. Shen Zixi was a little smart and handed her share to Shen An Ning, "Aunt, put mine and yours together. Can you get it for me when I want to eat it?"
Shen An Ning stuffed the little guy into the quilt and said, "You, when it comes to eating, you are always so thoughtful. Remember to rinse your mouth after eating something sweet, okay? Otherwise, it will be so painful if you get worms in your teeth."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, auntie, I'm very good."
This year, because Shen An Ning wanted to clear out the stock, the clothes and things the family used were all upgraded. Three new cotton quilts were made. The quality of the replaced ones was still very good. Shen An Ning put a few patches on them and sent them to the old man in the cowshed. The doghouses of Dahei and Xiaohei also underwent a qualitative change.
On the night of New Year's Eve, Shen An Ning brought his grandparents over to have the New Year's Eve dinner as usual. This year was the last year that his grandparents would spend in Northeast China, so Shen An Ning made a very sumptuous meal. There were sweet and sour pork, blood sausage stewed with sauerkraut, sweet and sour spare ribs, chicken stewed with mushrooms, crystal pork elbow, meatballs with vegetables, braised hairtail, braised beef, braised lamb chops, and stir-fried large intestine. Ten dishes filled two kang tables. Considering the large number of dishes, Shen An Ning made corn cakes and porridge as the staple food. No matter how good the food was on ordinary days, everyone was always looking forward to this New Year's meal.
Grandpa Shen and Grandma Shen also came early today, took a bath, changed into new clothes, sat on the heated kang, hugged their great-granddaughter, and smiled from ear to ear. In the past few years of being sent down to the countryside, the Shen family only had the eldest brother who got married, and there were no other children except Xixi, so the grandpa and grandma’s favorite thing was to hold the youngest child in the family.
Grandpa Shen picked up the wine brewed by his granddaughter and said, "In the new year, our family is all happy. Let's have a toast. I hope everyone will be healthy in the next year."
Shen Anning and An Yu accompanied their grandparents to drink wine, while Xixi and An Xuan drank orange juice. They drank it in one gulp, and it was so cool that they were all very happy.
The whole family ate heartily with all the dishes on the table. They even finished all the dishes, such as sweet and sour spareribs, sweet and sour pork, lamb chops and beef, without leaving anything behind. An Yu ate five of the twenty corn cakes, Grandpa Shen ate three, and Grandma Shen, Shen Anning and Shen Anxuan each ate one. Xixi ate so much that she hardly touched the staple food and only ate a few bites with her two aunts.
After dinner, we cleaned up the dishes and sat in the kitchen, half lying on the kang, listening to the radio. Because traditional festivals are not allowed now, the Spring Festival couplets posted on the doors of every household are almost all red quotations, and the radio station is not as lively as before. Even on New Year's Eve, they still play some content from the newspaper.
Grandpa Shen squinted his eyes and listened. It was better than nothing. He had been away from the political circle for too long, and usually he could only learn about national affairs through the radio.
At night, after twelve o'clock, Shen An Ning sorted out the food that had been packed at the beginning and put it in a small backpack. There were many people in the cowshed, and Shen An Ning was afraid that there would not be enough food, so he packed three full lunch boxes. The braised beef and meatballs were all wrapped in oil paper, and the staple food was ordinary mixed flour buns and the corn cakes they had left over.
"Grandpa, these dishes are still hot. I just kept them warm in the pot."
Grandpa Shen took the backpack, smiled and said, "Those old guys are in for a treat tonight. The dishes cooked by my eldest granddaughter will probably make them salivate."
"Okay, An Ning, don't see me off. Your grandma and I will go over there, and we'll go back to bed later. You must be very tired after running around twice this late at night."
Shen Anning put the scarf on her grandparents and said, "Okay, walk slowly on the road."
Over in the cowshed, a few old guys were still awake. They were huddled around the stove to keep warm, waiting for the old couple Shen to bring them the New Year's Eve dinner, which had been agreed upon a few days ago.
In the past two years, because of the Shen family, although they had to work in the cowshed, the food was pretty good, at least they could eat until they were 70% full with every meal. If they had any major or minor illnesses, Shen An Ning would treat them, so everyone lived a pretty good life.
Seeing the two elders of the Shen family taking out delicious food one after another from the backpack like magic, the people who had lived a good life in the past had tears in their eyes. Such a rich variety of meat and vegetables was more than they had eaten in a year.
Old Master Cao doesn't do those empty things. He uses chopsticks very quickly. He is not old-fashioned. Whatever he eats is his. You should know that he didn't eat much at noon and at night. He was just waiting for this meal at night.
For a moment, no one was in the mood to chat, their mouths were full of grease, and this marked the end of the year.
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