Chapter 116 Winter Days (Parts 1-3)
As Guo's hot pot chicken business gradually took off, several other restaurants in the surrounding area followed suit and launched similar hot pot dishes.
However, because each shop's soup base tastes different, the shop's business didn't immediately decline.
Now that things have settled down, we can sell about fifteen or sixteen servings of hot pot chicken every day, so we don't have to worry too much about the chicken that we used to be in urgent need of.
Seeing that the shop no longer needed their help, Guo Baiwen and Chen Baoyue returned to Fucheng.
He's almost used up all the leave he got before, it's time for him to go back.
However, it's already agreed that Grandma Guo and the others will come together this year, and everyone will celebrate the New Year in the prefectural city.
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Lin'an Prefecture experienced its first snowfall of the year.
It snowed all night long, and when Guo Baiwen woke up in the morning, the yard was covered in white.
He glanced out the window at the snow still falling gently from the sky, and for a moment, he felt a rare urge to stay in bed and sleep a little longer.
Originally, she wanted to hunch her neck to block the cold wind from outside, but this movement woke up Chen Baoyue next to her.
Her eyes were still a little blurry as she looked at the sky, which was brighter than usual, and she was momentarily stunned. "Did we all sleep in late today?"
Why is the sky outside so bright?
Guo Baiwen had just found the warmest position and was looking at her with only his head sticking out, saying, "It's snowing."
"It's snowing?!"
Chen Baoyue sat up abruptly, grabbed a coat from the side, and went to the window to look outside. "Oh my god, will our fish that we keep outside freeze to death?"
It refers to the fish that Guo Baiwen, a classmate, brought when he visited a while ago.
Neither of them was very good at handling fish, and the fish were quite large. After delaying for a few days, there were still two large fish left to be kept in the water basin in the kitchen.
If there are any leftovers at home, I'll feed them some.
Guo Baiwen dared to say that he had been living a more comfortable life these past few days than he had.
“It shouldn’t be,” he turned over to look at Chen Baoyue. “The kitchen is warm, even if the stove isn’t lit at night, it’s still warmer than our room.”
Even if they really freeze to death, it's okay. "If they really can't make it, we can make a fish hot pot when we get up."
"You dare to kill a fish this time?"
Thinking of that slippery feel, Guo Baiwen choked up for a moment, but still nodded, "Practice makes perfect, maybe I can do it well this time."
"Never mind," Chen Baoyue said, starting to change her clothes. "I'll take the basin out and find a shopkeeper to help me deal with it."
"Give me some money for cooking, and I'll send it over when I've finished cooking."
Guo Baiwen was right. In this kind of weather, you really need to eat hot pot to feel warmer.
Now that Chen Baoyue was up, Guo Baiwen stretched and prepared to get out of his warm bed as well.
As usual, I had a bowl of egg tea in the morning, and heated up a few steamed buns I bought yesterday, which I ate with the tea.
The steamed buns bought yesterday included both meat and vegetables. Guo Baiwen put them all in the pan to heat up. Just as he was picking out the buns with his chopsticks, he heard the creaking sound of the door being pushed open outside.
Chen Baoyue returned from outside.
As he closed the door, he carefully clasped his hands together and breathed on them earnestly.
Watching the white steam billowing out from the opening of his mouth, and remembering that Guo Baiwen would be practicing calligraphy later, she said, "After you light the charcoal brazier in the room, you can start practicing calligraphy, my husband."
"Now that the weather is cold, I hope it won't be like last year, with so many chilblains appearing on my hands."
Chen Baoyue was referring to last winter when Guo Baiwen was so engrossed in practicing calligraphy that he forgot to notice the fire in the charcoal brazier had gone out, resulting in frostbite on both of his little fingers.
If you get chilblains once, they will reappear the following year if you get cold.
This isn't like other wounds that will heal after applying ointment and letting it rest for a few days.
Whether it grows on your hands or ears, chilblains are so painful and itchy that you can't help but want to scratch them.
"It's okay, I'll definitely keep an eye on the charcoal brazier this year and won't let the chilblains get back."
Guo Baiwen then brought the steamed buns and egg tea to the table, and the two sat down. "The restaurant next door will bring over the fish hot pot around noon."
“Perfect timing. If there’s any left over from lunch, I can go out and buy some groceries this afternoon so we can have another meal tonight.”
It saves me from having to use cold water to figure out what to cook in this cold weather.
Upon hearing this, Chen Baoyue laughed out loud, "That works too."
After having breakfast, the two went to the study together.
Charcoal and firewood are not cheap in the city, and now that it's cold, we can't do without them, so most people just light a charcoal brazier in one room to save as much as they can.
Seeing that the charcoal brazier was lit, Guo Baiwen changed into some old clothes and prepared to go to his desk to start practicing calligraphy.
Turning my head, I saw Chen Baoyue putting peeled garlic into an earthenware pot. "Why are you peeling so much garlic?"
“These are for making pickled garlic and minced garlic,” Chen Baoyue said, shaking a long string of garlic behind her. “They’ll be just what we need for the New Year.”
Grandma Guo loves to eat pickled garlic, and the family always uses up the minced garlic very quickly.
Since we have nothing to do right now, it's good to make a few extra to have on hand.
Anyway, the weather is cold now, so I'm not worried about this thing breaking.
"The room was cleaned up a few days ago. I plan to go out and take a look when the weather is nice in a few days, and buy some cotton to make two quilts."
Putting everything else aside, when guests come to visit, in addition to blankets, we should also prepare several charcoal braziers.
"Then I'll go out for a walk with you this afternoon."
"Aren't you going to study later?" Chen Baoyue turned to look at him.
"There's no end to what you can learn from books," Guo Baiwen said with a more relaxed attitude. He also believes that it's important to balance work and rest. "Being too tense all the time is not good. Besides, it's not good for you to be the only one handling all the household chores."
He glanced at the snow outside, which was gradually stopping. "This snow came so suddenly. I'm afraid the price of firewood and charcoal on the street will go up. I'll go out this afternoon and buy some more."
"It's always good to be prepared."
Firewood is expensive in winter, and the weather isn't even the coldest yet, so buying more to stock up can save you a lot of money.
Fortunately, the courtyard is now large enough that two side rooms have been specially set aside, one for storing firewood and the other for storing charcoal in winter.
Because they bought so much, the shop assistants even brought a cart to deliver it to their door.
It snowed last night, and the firewood and charcoal shops are doing booming business today.
They hurriedly pushed the cart over, helped unload the goods, and after checking the accounts to ensure there were no errors, they immediately pushed the cart back to finish delivering to other customers.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, a donkey cart from Xiuning County parked at the gate of the courtyard with practiced ease.
As soon as Guo Baiwen and Chen Baoyue welcomed their family members in, they turned around and saw Grandma Guo smiling broadly as she took two red strings out of her pocket.
Seeing this, Guo Xiaohua quickly held out her own red string and boasted, "Isn't it pretty? I made it myself with embroidery thread!"
It's really beautiful. I don't know what method Xiaohua used. At first glance, the red rope looks like several ropes tied together, but after rolling it around, you can see that there are patterns inside.
After the two received the red rope from Grandma Guo, they discovered that there was a gold bead in the very center of the red rope.
Guo Baiwen asked in disbelief, "Grandma, is this gold?"
"If it's not gold, what else could it be but copper?" Grandma Guo patted his hand in a rather unfriendly tone. "But these gold beads aren't heavy. I specially went to the jewelry shop to pick them out, intending to give them to you as your New Year's money this year."
"This, this is still too much of a waste."
No matter how light it is, gold is still gold.
These three gold beads together should weigh about half an ounce.
I wonder how long Grandma had been saving up that money in secret.
Guo Baiwen felt the money was burning his hands. "Grandma, you should take this money. It would be so nice to make yourself an earring or a ring."
Just a moment ago, Grandma Guo was quite envious when she saw the gold ring on the hand of the old lady at the tofu shop across the street.
"Grandma is rich, how come you don't know Grandma didn't buy this for herself?! This is for the three of you, wear it all together, that's what we wanted to look good!"
The hot pot chicken business did indeed earn her a lot of money. When she said this, Grandma Guo raised her sleeve, revealing the silver bracelet on her wrist.
“Look, I have one too, Grandma. Unlike what you said, I’m not reluctant to spend money.”
Seeing this, Guo Baiwen felt a little relieved. While helping the person walk towards the prepared room, he still said, "Since you've already bought it for yourself, why did you only buy a silver one and not a gold one?"
"I like it—why are you even interfering with your ***?"
"Okay, okay, I don't care, I don't care!"
Today is Lunar New Year's Eve, and tomorrow will be Lunar New Year's Day.
When Grandma Guo and her family came from Xiuning County, the couplets at the entrances of the shops and houses had already been changed. They just happened to be changing the couplets here.
Whether it was the county town or the prefectural city, the couplets were all written by Guo Baiwen himself. Chen Damu stood on a stool, smeared the cooked paste on the back of the couplets, and did not forget to ask Guo Xiaohua and Chen Zhonghua below to help check if they were pasted crookedly.
“You even wrote couplets for everyone in Guojia Village during the Spring Festival before.”
Grandma Guo remembers it clearly: although she said she wouldn't accept money, everyone who accepted the couplets also brought some gifts over.
“Yes,” Guo Baiwen said, putting away the remaining paste. “Actually, I wrote some this year as well.”
Then, before the Lunar New Year, they were sent to Guojia Village. "In addition to the couplets, there were also some 'Fu' characters, all written in the same number as before."
"Your Uncle Song originally thought we would go back to the village for the Spring Festival this year."
Guo Baiwen recalled the appearance of Village Chief Guo and couldn't help but laugh, "If I really go back, I can't escape drinking with him."
Village Chief Guo is good in every way, except that he likes to drink too much.
“I made a promise with Atao that she will come to live in Xiuning County next year.” Guo Xiaohua’s eyes were bright. “She still remembers the few embroidery techniques I taught her when I went back before, and she said she is also planning to come to the county town to learn embroidery.”
I didn't know that. "Did Madam Lin agree?"
"I learned it from you!" Guo Xiaohua proudly raised her head. "Now I do just as much embroidery work as Madam Lin every day!"
After studying it for a while, she has gradually come to appreciate the joy of embroidery.
It's the first day of the Lunar New Year. Traditionally, after changing the couplets, people go out to pay New Year's visits.
However, neither the Guo family nor the Chen family had any relatives in the prefectural city with whom they needed to visit. Guo Baiwen had only prepared some gifts for visiting his teacher or classmates to offer New Year's greetings in a few days.
So, during this rare Spring Festival, everyone huddled together to hibernate.
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