At Xiaojiu's insistence, her mother didn't light the stove for her. Only the room where her grandparents lived was heated with a kang (a heated brick bed), and her parents, brother, and she all had two quilts to cover themselves.
Xiao Jiu had her own room. As soon as her mother left, she went to sleep on the bunk bed in the space duty room.
The temperature here is consistently below 25 degrees Celsius, so there's no need for thick blankets at all; a light blanket is enough to sleep in all four seasons.
As soon as it was light, before seven o'clock, Xiao Jiu, having washed up, ran to her sister's place, calling out to Zhao Lingli as she ran.
"Mom, don't cook for me, I'm going to eat at the front!"
"This kid really doesn't treat himself like an outsider!"
Little Jiu chuckled, tossed her braids, and went to knock on the door. As soon as the door opened, her little face immediately lit up like a sunflower.
"Hi, Eighth Sister, good morning!"
Cuilan pulled her inside, saying, "I knew you were coming. My older sister got up early this morning and started preparing."
Because we came from the back door, we could smell the cooking fumes as soon as we entered the courtyard. In the kitchen, my eldest, second, and fourth sisters were busy rolling out dough, tending the fire, and deep-frying.
In another pot, the sticky, fragrant, and delicious hot and sour soup was ready.
The variety of dishes—vegetable dumplings, fried dough sticks, sugar cakes, and crispy fried dough twists—dazzled Xiao Jiu.
"Sisters, is this the standard for Chinese New Year? It's so lavish."
The eldest sister sent her second and eighth sisters out to set the table and get the bowls and chopsticks, and immediately pulled Xiao Jiu to her side.
"Quickly, while these are still fresh out of the pan, crispy and hot, you should put this whole bowl away, otherwise they'll get soggy and won't taste good when you bring them to school separately."
The older sister took out another bowl from the cupboard and, seeing that she hadn't put it away yet, urged her to hurry up.
"Hurry up, there's another pot here, you can't tell."
With a casual wave of his hand, Xiao Jiu made the basin disappear from sight. Using his mind, he poured the basin of fried food into a clean tea tray, and the empty basin quickly returned to the cutting board.
"Big sister, I've taken some food and some things with me,"
"It was all given to us by you. We just processed it a little. What do you mean by taking it and eating it?"
I was originally thinking of frying fish pieces, but I was afraid it would be too much. Anyway, it's almost Chinese New Year, so I'll fry some fish and shrimp for you during the New Year.
When you leave later, pack a bowl of fried leaves; they won't become soggy after they're fried and left to cool.
He picked up a piece and put it in Xiaojiu's mouth. She took a bite and it was crunchy. Because of the sesame seeds, it tasted especially delicious.
"It's so delicious! My grandma said that you steamed pumpkin cake, pumpkin buns, fried sweet potato balls and potato balls for them a few days ago."
"Yeah, I haven't eaten meat this week. Luckily, we have a lot of pumpkin and sweet potatoes at home. We usually don't want to fry them, but we fried a lot the other day."
Xiao Jiu looked outside and inhaled the aroma through his nose.
"Won't the neighbors smell it?"
There are no houses to their left, and only five or six meters away to their right. Oily food is easily smelled, and even when you come out of the kitchen, you'll still smell of cooking oil.
My second sister just walked in and pouted, "The old lady next door just came over with her grandson and granddaughter and started knocking on the door."
Xiao Jiu was very surprised, "They really came looking for us? How did you handle it?"
"What else can we do but send them away? They've already given her family three or four pounds of coarse grains this year. They've never had enough of taking advantage of us.
At first, she acted pitiful, but later she kept looking around aimlessly after entering the house.
Luckily, we know how to hide things, so she couldn't tell anything from the outside.
Later, he started spreading rumors in the village, and during that time, people kept climbing over the wall into his house.
"If it weren't for the Big Black family protecting us, our reputation might be even worse than it is now."
"Now when she comes to our house, she can't get any benefits."
Those who climbed over the wall got bitten terribly.
They reported us to the village, and brought people to search us, but they couldn't find anything.
"Without any evidence, the villagers are always gossiping about us behind our backs."
When the second sister said this, she gave the fourth sister a thumbs up. As soon as she left, Xiao Jiu asked.
"My fourth sister's secret can't be kept secret any longer, right?"
Cuihua nodded. "No one has said anything to my face, but I know it in my heart."
There's no way to stop those lazy, good-for-nothing people in the village who would give up all their dignity for a little food.
We appealed to higher authorities many times because of this. Later, when the village didn't care, we started letting the dogs bite and beating people with sticks.
You don't walk around the village, so you don't know how bad our reputation has become.
After all, we are not responsible for those who get bitten by dogs.
After many bites, one of them contracted rabies and died, and only then did things stop.
"Did Big Black bite you?"
Cuihua shook her head. "These bastards are always teasing cats and dogs. Who knows if they went to other villages to steal dogs and got bitten?"
After all, the Big Black family doesn't hang out with those mad dogs outside.
"Of all the bites, only this one got sick, so it might not necessarily be a problem with our family."
"So what if they come knocking on our door? Who can prove we have a dog?"
Unable to find their dog and injured, they left our house and couldn't swallow their anger, so they started throwing feces at our door and smashing our walls.
Later, your fourth sister stripped them naked and hung them on a tree, dealing with each one as they went. It wasn't until after the New Year that things finally calmed down.
Xiao Jiu was stunned. "Why didn't you mention this before? Why didn't you look for help when something this big happened?"
Cuiju shook her head. "We went to the commune, and they did give us a warning, went through the motions, but it was all for nothing."
In the end, didn't it all just fizzle out?
We later realized that relying on ourselves is better than relying on others.
Use your fists to strike them, find your target and hit them hard with one blow. That's the right way to do it.
Now, people in the village avoid us sisters whenever they see us.
Sister Cuilian also got up and came over to join in the fun. Hearing this, she looked at her second sister and sighed.
"Don't even mention it. Back in the fall, people were trying to arrange marriages for you, but after your reputation spread, nobody came knocking anymore. Aren't you afraid?"
"What's there to be afraid of? Will being afraid make you get married? You might even devalue yourself. If a woman marries the wrong man, she'd rather not marry at all."
Xiao Jiu suddenly thought of the Huang family and involuntarily looked at her eldest sister: "Did Huang Xin say anything?"
The older sister smiled and shook her head. "What could he say? With his circumstances, I'm already being generous by not looking down on him. How could he possibly look down on me?"
Sister Cuiju chimed in, "That's right. Ever since our eldest sister got engaged to him, his brother has been set up with quite a few families, hasn't he?"
Good families don't want him, and bad families don't want him either. He can't afford the corresponding dowry for those in the middle.
Neither of them wanted to sell the younger sister, but now it seems they've given up on that idea and are preparing to save up enough for a dowry before arranging the marriage.
The eldest sister found a son-in-law who would live with her family, so the Huang family didn't need to pay a bride price.
However, there's no rule about not asking for a bride price when getting married, unless the bride's family doesn't mind.
Otherwise, you'll have to prepare everything according to the woman's requirements, otherwise there's no point in continuing the marriage negotiations.
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