The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar is the Mid-Autumn Festival.
This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, the whole family cannot get together, they can only look at the same moon and make the same wish.
On the fifth day of August, Shen Anning was preparing to make mooncakes at home. At the end of this month, the autumn harvest would begin. The weather this year was not very good, and the elderly people in the village speculated that the first heavy snow of this year would come early.
There happened to be some mooncake molds in the grocery store in the space, some round and some petal-shaped, with different patterns and words engraved inside. Shen An Ning took two of each. She didn't plan to make them very complicated. Today's batch was to be sent to her aunt, uncle and brother, so the most important thing was that they could be preserved for a long time.
Find pine nuts, walnut kernels, pumpkin seeds, cooked peanuts, red dates, black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, hazelnuts, and winter melon candy, mix everything together, add honey and a little white sugar, pour the fried flour in and stir evenly, divide into balls of similar size to make fillings. The mooncake skin is made of flour, butter, white sugar and eggs, wrapped up, pressed with a mold, and then baked in the oven.
Shen An Ning made a total of 100 mooncakes. On the afternoon of the day they were made, she wrapped them in oil paper, added some dried goods from the mountains, and candied fruits made from wild fruits. She sent 40 mooncakes to her aunt and uncle, 40 to her uncle and aunt, and 20 to her second brother.
There are still ten days left, and if nothing goes wrong they will all receive it before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Although the family members are scattered in four places, as long as everyone's hearts are connected, distance is never a problem.
Because it was not Mid-Autumn Festival yet, Shen Anning did not make any for her family this time. She only left a few for her younger brothers and sisters to try. She would make many different flavors for her family on Mid-Autumn Festival.
Seeing the twins eating so happily, Xixi also licked some of the mooncakes. It was obvious from their little expressions that they were enjoying it. She remembered that in later generations, due to the emergence of mooncakes with other fillings, people no longer liked to eat five-nut mooncakes. Because five-nut mooncakes contained a lot of things, they tasted greasy and not as delicious as other mooncakes. Unlike now, sugar and oil are rare, and people like sweeter things more.
That day, Shen An Ning was reading a book in the infirmary when several aunties from the village came to buy medicine. They said that the weather this year was a bit strange. In previous years, it was not as hot in the Northeast in September as it is this year. The temperature now is no different from that in midsummer. When Shen An Ning heard this, she packed the anti-heat medicine they wanted.
She thought that something must be wrong when things are abnormal. The weather this year is so abnormal, and the winter may be colder than in previous years. Those people in the cowshed barely survived last year by relying on the quilts and cotton clothes given by Shen An Ning. After thinking about it, Shen An Ning counted the cotton in the space. She had kept some of the cotton from the garment store in Beijing. In the past two years, she made some cotton jackets and trousers for her family, and gave some to the grandparents in the cowshed. Now there are only three big pockets left.
After thinking about it, she planted cotton on all the land in the courtyard. Before, she had enough food and clothing and did not think about the danger in times of peace. These plots of land had been empty all the time, and now she had to make good use of them.
In mid-to-late September, the autumn harvest began. The weather was so hot that the farmers in the village were afraid that the crops would dry up in the fields. The water level in the river had also dropped a lot compared to previous years. Fortunately, the crops were almost grown, so there would be no loss if they started harvesting now.
This time, Shen An Ning did not go to the fields. She was responsible for providing several nearby villages with herbs to relieve heat and medicine to relieve fatigue and joint pain. The children at home all went to school, and she was the only one left. She had to go up the mountain every day to collect herbs, prepare, grind, and mix medicines. These things were too complicated and too many. Just doing these things left her with no time for anything else.
Even the little girl Xixi could see how busy she was. She had been very well behaved during this period. Every day in the infirmary, as soon as Shen An Ning turned on the radio, she would learn to talk by herself. She would cry when she was tired or hungry, and she would coax herself to sleep, which made Shen An Ning feel very distressed.
Of the four educated youth who came in July, Shen Anning had known the female one for a long time, but had only noticed the two male ones during this autumn harvest.
It was also a coincidence that Xu Hongxia and the others were too tired from the autumn harvest these days, so they sent a few kilograms of mung beans and two kilograms of sugar to Shen Anning. They asked her to help them make a pot of mung bean soup at noon and send it over. It was not a big deal, so Shen Anning certainly would not refuse.
While delivering mung bean soup to Xu Hongxia and the others, Shen Anning observed two men carrying bundles of rice on the ridge of the field. Judging from their physique and pace, they were both trained men. They might not be soldiers, but they must have received special training.
Somewhat curious, Shen Anning asked, "Hey, Hongxia, are those two men also from our village? I don't think I've seen them much before."
"Oh, it's the two new male educated youth who are close to Cao Yu and the others. They go there to help the two young ladies every day, but they are not close to us. Even Liu Chengdu said that they just go to the educated youth site to sleep every day. Although we live together, we always feel a little out of place." Xu Hongxia was also a little helpless. She thought that when they came, they got along very well with the old educated youth, so now they don't get along well with the four new ones. They are a little uncomfortable and feel weird.
The speaker may not intend it, but the listener may take it seriously.
After so many years of precipitation, Shen Anning has a sense of vigilance. When she encounters people and things that threaten her, she will involuntarily pay attention.
After some inquiries, I found out that the two male educated youth, one named Li Haotian and the other named Yang Zhengcheng, were from Beijing, just like Cao Yu and the others.
The four people came from the same place and knew each other. Either it was arranged by relatives and friends and everyone was together, or... Shen An Ning had to think more about it.
After observing them for several days, perhaps because they were too busy with the autumn harvest, Shen An Ning did not find anything unusual. Every day, the two of them went to work and left work normally, and did not do anything they should not do.
The villagers were united, and all the rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes in the fields were harvested in mid-October. After nearly a month of hard work, everyone was exhausted and wanted to take a good rest at home when they were not busy. Shen Anning's courtyard was busy again, and many villagers came to her to exchange soybeans for wild wolfberries and red dates from the mountains.
It's quite lively with people coming and going every day.
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