With ten days left before the Chinese New Year, the village slaughtered the New Year pig. The educated youths at the village site enjoyed a hearty pig-slaughtering meal with the rest of the village, which somewhat appeased the urgency of the craving for meat!
After the pig was slaughtered, the educated youth group was distributed one pound and eight ounces of pork. Zhang Hongliang persuaded the team leader to buy another three pounds. Xie Sufang exchanged another pound with a large family that had more pork, and also exchanged two chickens with a village aunt. They were waiting to go to the big market to buy other things.
Five days before the Chinese New Year, it was time to go to the big market. Early in the morning before dawn, everyone in the educated youth point got up and prepared to go to the market. The market was in the next brigade, and it took nearly two hours to walk there. Everyone decided not to have breakfast and go to the market early to see if there was anything delicious.
There is only one big fair at the end of the year, and no tickets are required. You can imagine how many people there are. Even a small person like Wen Nuan will be squeezed out. In the end, Wen Nuan had no choice but to follow Xie Sufang and the others hand in hand with Liu Xiaoling. She and Liu Xiaoling only had one task today, which was to take care of themselves and not get lost.
Finally, the two of them could not bear the crowd any more, so they ran to the fried sugar cake stall, bought two fried sugar cakes, and ran to a more open place in the market to wait for other people who had rushed to buy them to come back. In the meantime, Wen Nuan made an excuse that he needed to go to the bathroom, ran to a secluded place and took out a leg of lamb, which weighed about ten pounds, and coaxed Liu Xiaoling by saying that he saw a big brother who had just arrived and was lucky enough to get it.
After waiting for more than three hours, the other members of the educated youth group finally squeezed out. Everyone took off their hats and scarves, sweating profusely. Of course, they also had a lot of stuff. Finally, they sorted out their things and grabbed a chicken, 3 catties of pork, 3 fish, 10 catties of melon seeds, and 5 catties of oil. Xie Sufang saw someone buying sticky rice dumplings and bought 18 of them. Zhang Hongliang also bought a big red paper to write a few blessing characters. Finally, Wen Nuan and Liu Xiaoling took out the lamb legs and were praised by everyone!
Although people nowadays are short of food and clothing due to the times, they still attach great importance to the Chinese New Year. They clean the house and sweep the floor, offer sacrifices to the kitchen god and steam buns. Smoke comes out of the chimneys in the village every day, and you can hear the occasional sound of firecrackers. The aunts, who have always been frugal, are willing to spend a few cents to buy a string of small firecrackers for the children to set off.
New Year's Eve finally arrived. The female educated youth got up early in the morning and started busying themselves in the kitchen, while the male educated youth fetched water, swept the yard, and pasted blessing stickers. At noon, they heated up the sticky rice dumplings bought from the market, ate a simple meal, and then eagerly waited for the New Year's Eve dinner in the evening!
The New Year's Eve dinner was very sumptuous, with a whole chicken, a sweet and sour fish, a pot of braised pork, a pot of mutton soup, a pot of fish stewed with tofu, a pot of spicy and sour shredded potatoes, a pot of cabbage, pork and vermicelli stew, and a large pot of sauerkraut pork dumplings. All the dishes were served in pots, and everyone ate until their stomachs were full.
After dinner, everyone gathered around the stove, heated it up, took out the wild chestnuts, melon seeds, and wild walnuts that had been fried in advance, and ate them while staying up all night.
It was 12 o'clock and the sound of firecrackers rang out in the village. Everyone at the educated youth site said "Happy New Year" to each other and went back to their beds, falling into sweet dreams accompanied by the sound of firecrackers. And 1974 officially arrived!
On the morning of the first day of the New Year, everyone slept until after 9 o'clock. After getting packed up, they went to the homes of the village chief and the team leader to pay New Year's greetings under the leadership of Zhang Hongliang. Then they strolled around the streets of the village and greeted the villagers they met.
The people at the educated youth site didn't need to visit relatives or anything, so things became quiet from the second day of the Chinese New Year. Everyone ate and drank, and time passed slowly.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there was another heavy snowfall, which lasted for more than half a month before the snow surfaced. In this way, we spent our days playing and having fun until mid-February.
All the snow on the ground has melted away, and there is no snow left on the mountain except in the shade.
The male educated youth have already started to cultivate the land with the strong laborers in the village, and the female educated youth have taken over the job of collecting firewood in the mountains to replenish the firewood that is quickly consumed during the winter.
At this time, Wen Nuan received the fourth letter from Wang Jianshe. Although Wang Jianshe said when he left that he would write a letter a week, for various reasons, Wen Nuan only received four letters. In the letter, Wang Jianshe said that he had to go on a mission again, which would probably take a month. He would file a marriage report when he came back. Wen Nuan's birthday was May 18th, so he would come back on Wen Nuan's birthday, and then get the marriage certificate and take Wen Nuan to join the army.
As the day got closer, Wen Nuan felt a sense of unreality in her heart. She had not had a boyfriend for 23 years in her previous life, and in this life, she had just turned 18 and would be married in less than three months.
Wen Nuan was silently melancholy for a while, then she adjusted her mood. Since it was what her heart desired, there was nothing to be afraid of!
After a winter of constantly applying beauty cream and eating and drinking regularly, Wen Nuan is now like a completely different person. She has become much fairer and more tender. What makes Wen Nuan happiest is that she has grown a lot taller. Now she is estimated to be over 1.6 meters tall. She finally looks like a young girl in her prime!
The people at the educated youth site stayed together all day and had not noticed any obvious changes in Wen Nuan. However, after he went out, he was teased by the villagers.
In March, work officially began. The female educated youth were assigned to pull weeds in the winter wheat fields. In fact, the weeds in the fields were not very big at that time, but in order to ensure sufficient nutrients for the winter wheat, the weeds had to be cleared away.
The grass is very tender and does not cut your hands, but it is very hard to pull it out. Your hands have to be close to the ground to pull it out, which can easily cause your hands to be worn out over time. Fortunately, I had previous experience, so it was no problem for me to wear gloves in advance.
Wild vegetables have also emerged at this time, and there are quite a lot of them in the wheat fields, so the women are weeding and picking wild vegetables at the same time. When they get off work, they can harvest a lot of fresh wild vegetables, so that people who have been eating dried vegetables for a whole winter can fill their stomachs with a few delicious wild vegetable soups.
Wen Nuan and several other female educated youth were grouped together. They were pulling weeds, picking wild vegetables, and chatting about the latest gossip in the village.
"These wild vegetables are so tender. I've been eating them for two or three days, but I still can't get enough!" Liu Xiaoling slurred her saliva, looked at Lin Yiman pitifully, and begged in a low voice: "Sister Yiman, can we make some wild vegetable dumplings for dinner?"
When Liu Xiaoling mentioned wild vegetable dumplings, the other women couldn't help but drool. Wen Nuan even felt itchy, "Yes, sisters, let's make wild vegetable dumplings!"
"Making dumplings, there is still some flour left, but no meat," Lin Yiman was also a little greedy, but this was the actual situation.
"Let's go back after work at noon and ask the male educated youth if they have meat coupons. If they don't, we can make some wild vegetables and eggs!" Xie Sufang also wanted to eat.
"Wild vegetable and egg ones are fine too!" Liu Xiaoling shouted.
"Then let's make wild vegetable and egg dishes tonight!"
“Yeah!”
"Then Sister Sufang, you and Sister Yiman should go back early this afternoon. Sister Xiaoling and I will pick the rest here!"
"Okay! A bunch of greedy little cats!"
"I'm just greedy! I'm just greedy!"
"Ha ha……"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
