Chapter 225: Chinese New Year
After Wang Zhou signed, Lin Heng took the note and drove to the credit union.
When he came down today, he had already decided to open another account specifically to store the money from the purchasing station and the convenience store.
He made a lot this year, and after mixing it with his own earnings, he forgot where he spent it.
After opening the account, Lin Heng deposited the money into the passbook.
Turning around and walking back, the street market was already coming to an end. Everyone had left and the stall owners began to pack up and prepare to go home for the New Year.
Lin Heng walked around and looked around, trying to see if there was anything he could find a bargain on. Generally, prices would be much cheaper at this time.
But along the way, I didn't see anything special that I wanted to buy.
"Boss, would you like to buy a donkey head or donkey skin? I'll sell it to you at a lower price later."
As he drove to the middle of the bridge, an old man shouted at him.
Lin Heng was originally looking at the other side. When he heard the sound, he turned his head and saw that the uncle had spread a tarpaulin on the ground to sell donkey meat. There were still donkey heads and tails, half a donkey skin, some bones and some meat left on the stall.
Noticing that Lin Heng seemed to be interested in buying the donkey, the uncle, whose nose hair had grown out, said quickly, "This is my donkey. It fell down the mountain the day before yesterday and broke its leg. We can only kill it and sell its meat."
"There's only a little left. If you want it, I'll sell it to you at a low price. They say there's dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat on the ground. This is a good thing." The uncle kept selling.
Lin Heng stopped the car, walked over to take a look, and asked, "How much did the rest cost?"
He had no doubts about the donkey he raised, but he was afraid that it was a sick donkey. After looking at its eyes and mouth, he felt that it was probably not a sick donkey.
The uncle smiled happily when he heard it: "It's thirty for the whole package. Although I have a lot of bones, it still weighs nearly a hundred pounds."
The donkey meat was cleaned very cleanly. Except for the head, there were only the spine and ribs left. The four leg bones were gone. Together with the tail and the donkey skin, the remaining ten pounds of donkey meat weighed almost one hundred pounds.
However, people are not interested in bones these days, so this thing cannot be sold.
"Okay then, I'll buy it."
After thinking about it, Lin Heng decided to buy them all. The total amount of these things was not that expensive.
In fact, he mainly wanted to buy donkey skin to make some donkey glue for Xiulan. Since it was not expensive, he just bought it all at once. Thirty cents per pound was not expensive.
"Okay, you are such a generous boss."
The uncle quickly agreed, picked up a snakeskin bag and started to pack things for Lin Heng.
"Take out three ribs and put them separately." Lin Heng said after thinking for a while.
"Okay." The uncle agreed quickly.
After the packing was completed, Lin Heng gave the money, went back and gave the three ribs to Grandpa Gao, and then sent Wang Zhou home.
His home is not in the direction of Hongfeng Village, but it is not far away, only half an hour round trip.
When Lin Heng was walking back after sending the person off, all the vendors on the streets of Huangtan Town had left and all the shops were closed.
Lin Heng went to the store to pick up the donkey head and other things he had bought, and then took back all the unsold fireworks in the store.
It was already three o'clock in the afternoon when I got home, and every household on the road was cleaning.
Xiulan saw Lin Heng coming back from the car with a large snakeskin bag in it, and tilted her head and asked, "What did you buy again?"
"Donkey heads, donkey skins, donkey bones, and some unsold fireworks from the store." Lin Heng laughed and said, "This donkey skin can be boiled into donkey glue, which is good for people."
Xiulan walked over and looked at the things, and asked, "It cost a lot of money, didn't it?"
"Not much, just thirty."
"That's fine, I'll go get the tools to help you deal with it."
Xiulan went into the house and got the tools. The two of them first burned the donkey's head and tail to remove the hair. It took an hour and a half just to clean the two.
Finally, Lin Heng split the donkey's head in half, handed it to Xiulan and said, "We have some marinade ingredients, so let's marinate both the donkey's head and tail."
That’s what Xiulan was thinking originally, so she carried the food into the house to braise it.
Lin Heng used boiling water to scald the donkey skin, and then used a hundred-fold steel dagger to scrape off the hair and fat. Naturally, these two things could not be present when making donkey glue.
In addition to being clean, the donkey skin still weighed ten kilograms. Lin Heng broke it into pieces, put it in a pot, added strong liquor, and began to simmer it over a low heat.
The donkey meat was taken and stored in the "refrigerator" made by Lin Heng. The bones were naturally used to make soup, but there were a little too many of them.
Xiulan looked at the bones and said, "Take some of those bones to our parents and big brother. We can't finish them all. Big brother and his family brought some for us when they were making rice cakes this afternoon."
Lin Heng nodded: "Okay, then let's go together and take the gifts we bought for them."
"That's what I wanted to say." Xiulan turned and went into the house to get some things. She bought clothes for her parents Caiyun, and some food and clothes for the children in her eldest brother's family.
The two of them carried their things and went to the old house where their parents lived first. The two elders couldn't help but feel curious when they saw them carrying so many things.
"What are you doing?" Father Lin asked helplessly.
"Lin Heng bought these donkey bones today. I gave you some since you can't finish them."
Xiulan first talked about the bones that Lin Heng was holding, and then put her own gift on the table: "This is the clothes that Lin Heng and I bought for you when we went to the city before. There is one set for each of you, Mom, Dad, and Caiyun."
Mother Lin looked at the clothes and shook her head: "You kid, why are you buying clothes again? Lin Heng spends money recklessly, so why do you spend money recklessly too?"
Father Lin also said: "That's right, we don't go to town very often in a year, why do we need so many clothes?"
Lin Heng was too lazy to say more, and spread his hands and said, "Just wear it, what else can I do? I've already bought it, are you going to burn it?"
When Mr. and Mrs. Lin heard this, they were speechless and wanted to beat up their grown-up son Lin Heng.
Xiulan was more gentle: "Lin Heng is rich, you don't have to wear patched clothes anymore."
These two old people are too frugal. Their clothes and pants have seven or eight patches on them, but they still continue to wear them even though they have new clothes.
Seeing that his parents wanted to nag him, Lin Heng simply pulled Xiulan and Xiaoxia away. Only Caiyun said thank you from behind, and she didn't dare to interrupt.
After taking the things from her father, she took them from her eldest brother. Sister-in-law Liu Juan looked at Xiulan bringing the things and became a little restless. She pulled Xiulan and said all kinds of words of thanks.
She used to have a lot of grievances against Xiulan, and although they didn't get angry, she always liked to make fun of her. But now that Xiulan is rich, she never ridicules her, and even buys things for her children, which makes her feel embarrassed.
Lin Yue didn't know what to say, he just patted Lin Heng on the shoulder and said thank you heavily. There was no need for too many words between them as brothers.
After delivering the things, the two were about to leave, but Liu Juan insisted on keeping them for dinner, even though she had braised meat at home.
In the end, the two could only agree to have dinner in the evening. Xiaoxia played with Lin Wei, Lin Tao and others here, while Lin Heng went back from time to time to add fuel to the fire and stir the donkey skin to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.
After dinner, when I got home, the donkey skin had completely melted, but it would still take a long time before it could be boiled into donkey-hide gelatin.
Lin Heng took out the clay pot stove for boiling tea, lit the charcoal, and slowly boiled the rest in the small iron pot he used to cook in the mountains.
He also got up twice during the night to add charcoal.
On the morning of the 31st day of the twelfth lunar month, when Lin Heng got up, the donkey-hide gelatin had reached the final stage of cooking, and now all he had to do was pour out the black juice in the pot.
Lin Heng first poured out half of the donkey-hide gelatin and let it cool naturally. He then added rock sugar, black sesame seeds, raisins, chopped red dates, and walnuts to the remaining half and mixed them evenly to make donkey-hide gelatin cake.
After letting it cool down, Lin Heng weighed it and found that there were 1.2 jin of pure donkey-hide gelatin and 5 jin of donkey-hide gelatin cake.
"Try one."
Lin Heng handed a piece of donkey-hide gelatin cake to Xiulan and Xiaoxia respectively. He did not feel tired making this kind of thing. Instead, he found it very interesting. He felt that this was one of the joys of life.
"Delicious!" Xiulan nodded affirmatively and reached out to feed Lin Heng a bite.
"Sweet~" Xiaoxia's eyes curved into little crescents.
Lin Heng's face was full of smiles. This was what he wanted to hear. He nodded and said, "As long as it tastes good, don't take it out during the New Year."
"Of course, it's mine."
Xiulan nodded, first found a plastic bag to pack the donkey-hide gelatin and donkey-hide gelatin cakes, then put them into a wooden box and put it in the cabinet.
After finishing the preparation, Xiulan said, "Let's go and see how the donkey head is being braised."
The three of them went to the kitchen together. The fire in the marinade pot was naturally out, but the donkey heads and tails that had been soaked in the marinade for a night were extremely fragrant.
After taking it out, a rich aroma of the marinade hits your nose, and the bright red color is also very tempting.
“It’s completely rotten.”
Xiulan could separate the flesh and bones with just a gentle tear of her hands. She put it in the pot and tore off a large piece for Lin Heng.
The donkey skin is chewy, the donkey meat is tender, soft and full of the aroma of the marinade. If you taste it carefully, you can still smell the fragrance of the donkey meat itself. Lin Heng can only say that it is worthy of being called dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat on the earth.
"I'll bring some for my parents to have for lunch later." Lin Heng said with a thumbs up.
"good."
Xiulan nodded, then she tore off some more pieces, and each of the three people ate some, then she mixed some paste and started to paste the couplets on the door painting.
Xiaoxia pulled the dog and asked curiously: "What are you doing?"
“It’s Chinese New Year.”
Xiulan answered her while she and Lin Heng were pasting couplets.
After pasting the couplets, door paintings, and the upside-down Chinese character "Fu", Lin Heng finally hung up the big red lanterns, and a sense of joy immediately filled the air.
Xiaoxia looked at it curiously, and then went into the house with Lin Heng. There were couplets pasted on the main door, and a "Fu" character was pasted on each small door.
“It looks much more festive now.”
Lin Heng nodded with satisfaction.
Xiulan had already prepared her things and said with a smile, "Let's go to our parents' place."
Xiaoxia insisted on taking her little Laifu with her, and when they got there, all the people from her eldest brother's family had already arrived.
Lin Heng took some firecrackers for Xiaoxia and others to play with.
"Thank you, Second Dad!"
Lin Wei and his companions were so excited after getting the cannons that they started to blow up a broken porcelain bowl in the yard, and also blew up piles of dirt and cow dung outside.
"Dad, let it go!"
Xiaoxia doesn't dare to set off firecrackers, but she likes to listen to the sound, especially the frying of porcelain bowls.
Lin Heng was also bored, so he accompanied her in setting off firecrackers. She giggled when the firecrackers went off, but kept shrinking back when she was asked to do it on her own.
The most pitiful one was Lai Fu who was following her. He was frightened by the firecrackers.
Adults play cards for two days, and children play with cannons. This is the Chinese New Year, and it is very joyful.
"The reunion dinner is ready, serve the dishes!"
Following Lin's mother's call, everyone stood up to serve the dishes. This year's reunion dinner on New Year's Eve was much better than in the past. There were 12 dishes served at the beginning, and there were still several dishes such as pork legs, steamed meat, fish, chicken, etc. that had not been served yet.
The children are already ready, drooling at the food on the table, just waiting for the adults to give the order to start eating.
Lin Heng felt a little emotional. When he was a kid, he looked forward to the Chinese New Year because only during this time could he have delicious food and play with his friends to his heart's content. Even if he got into trouble, his parents would not beat or scold him during this period of time.
In my memory, that is the most anticipated and wonderful time of the year.
When I grew up, I also looked forward to the Chinese New Year, but no longer for food and fun, but because it was the only time I could get together with family and friends. Usually we were too busy to get together.
Father Lin lit the firecrackers and ran in with a smile, and the reunion dinner began amid the sound of firecrackers.
“Eat and drink!”
Adults raised their glasses of wine, children raised their drinks, and everyone celebrated together in a joyous mood.
The children pick out big chunks of their favorite food and put them into their mouths. Every time this happens, the parents will nag them to pay attention to etiquette, such as not lying on the table, not eating all the time, not always holding the chopsticks in their hands, etc.
But today everyone was very happy, and no one complained even though the children kept eating. Lin's mother always liked to pick some food for everyone, while Xiulan and Liu Juan always picked food for their parents.
Lin Hengze ate and drank with big mouthfuls and chatted casually.
His mother's cooking skills have improved, and the dishes on the table are all pretty good. Lin Heng's favorites are the fried dumplings, and the braised pork legs and donkey head.
After a while, Father Lin got drunk and patted Lin Heng on the shoulder and said, "This year our family is so successful thanks to you. You have really become my pride. Now I have a lot of face in the village. I have finally been able to hold my head high after living a lifetime."
"Dad, let's have a drink."
Lin Heng smiled and poured a glass for his father. Becoming his father's pride was one of his childhood dreams, but dreams always fade when he grows up. The world is difficult and he is lucky enough to be able to support himself, let alone become the pride of his parents.
In his previous life, debts forced his almost 50-year-old father to dig coal to help pay off the debts. Those things made him feel guilty and regretful day and night.
In this life, he finally became his father's pride through hard work. After taking a sip of wine, the strong liquor made his whole stomach burn, but Lin Heng felt that what was burning more at this moment was his heart.
After drinking a cup with Lin Heng, Lin's father drank with Lin Yue and talked about some of his inner thoughts.
Both Lin Heng and his brother thought that his father was drunk, but he said no.
"In fact, there is no need to say so much. We are all a family. If we work together and work together, we will definitely make our lives better and better."
Lin Heng said with a smile that he felt a little tipsy himself.
"Brother, you are right. Let's work together."
Lin Yue nodded and drank the wine in one gulp.
After finishing this little bit of wine, everyone stopped drinking and ate some food before eating.
We also ate dumplings at noon on New Year’s Eve. The dumplings stuffed with pork and green onions made by Lin’s mother were very popular, and everyone ate a big bowl.
"Let's go set off some fireworks!"
After the meal, everyone started shouting.
There is no why in life, just be happy.
(End of this chapter)
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