Chapter 149 Melon.
After Laba Festival comes the New Year.
After distributing the pork and making a delicious pig-killing meal, the New Year has truly arrived.
Cut the pork into thin slices, fry the fat to release the oil, and then add the lean meat into the pan and stir-fry over high heat.
There were no fresh peppers at this time of year, but fortunately Liu Qiaoyun had a pair of skillful hands and had already prepared jars of chopped peppers and pickled peppers. Now she threw the chopped peppers into the pot, added some chopped garlic, stir-fried them, and then added water to boil.
The simple method exudes an unusual fragrance, which drifts over Xiangjia Bay and blends with the aroma of food from other families, turning into a smoke bridge that stretches across the valley.
"It's time to eat!" Xiang Yao shouted outside the kitchen.
It has been raining and snowing recently. Last night, a pile of yellow soil slid down from the mountain on the side of the road, making the road from Nie's house to Liu Qiaoyun's residence extremely muddy. You will definitely get your feet covered in mud if you step on it.
Look, the weather has cleared up for once, and today several people at home are busy repairing the road. Fortunately, the distance is not long and the task is not heavy.
So the task of cooking was left to Xiang Yao.
There are not many fresh vegetables in winter, and most of them are homemade cured fish and cured meat. It is rare to eat fresh meat, especially such delicious and fresh meat. The family of four enjoyed it very much.
After dinner, those who were working continued to work, while Xiang Yao, after cleaning up the dishes, went out for a leisurely stroll.
The weather is fine, people still need to bask in the sun.
Just as she was walking out of the yard, Nie Baichuan called her.
Xiang Yao turned his head: "Hmm?"
Nie Baichuan was holding a hoe in one hand and warned, "It's windy outside, go back and put on another sweater before going out."
Xiang Yao puffed out her lips and said, "I'm already dressed like a ball!"
Nie Baichuan didn't say anything, just looked at her like that, until Xiang Yao felt that if she didn't go back to mend her clothes, this man would probably drop his hoe and come to dress her himself, so she made a face and quickly turned back to the house.
This year, the whole family has no shortage of sweaters to wear. Liu Qiaoyun has been knitting since the beginning of autumn. She is dexterous and can knit various patterns quickly. If she is given enough wool, she can knit several sets in a short time.
However, Xiang Yao has never liked wearing clothes made of this material. She always feels that it is a bit itchy even through an autumn shirt.
Before she got it, she usually wore a long-sleeved shirt inside and a large cotton-padded jacket that reached her calves outside in winter. By the time she was in high school, she almost never wore sweaters.
But since he didn't want to catch a cold, Xiang Yao had to put on the sweater obediently.
However, the clothes were slightly loose and quite comfortable to wear. She happily turned around in it and put the cotton jacket back on.
This time he was not caught when he went out. Xiang Yao smiled and walked towards Yang Xiaohong's house.
It's been a while since she's been to their gossip squad's base, and she really misses it! But she's the only one who hasn't been around much lately. She knows the others definitely get together more often.
That's how it is in the countryside. Families that are close to each other will get together every now and then to talk about family matters, no matter what.
When I arrived at Yang Xiaohong's house, as expected, He Yuezhi and Zhang Laidi were both there. They were sighing in unison, and I wonder what they were sighing about.
"We were just talking about this yesterday. You haven't been seen much lately, not even showing up on the day of the work point calculation. I'm afraid you might be pregnant!"
Xiang Yao didn't expect that she would be teased by everyone as soon as she sat down, and her face turned slightly red.
"What are you thinking! My period just ended a few days ago! How could I be pregnant?"
But she is no longer the same person she used to be! She has long been accustomed to the teasing of the aunties and she handles it calmly.
"Aunt Flo?" He Yuezhi suddenly realized, "Oh, it's just doing good deeds! You young people have come up with some new terms for it!"
"Doing good deeds" is the term used in Fengxian County to describe women's menstrual period. When Xiang Yao heard it, she thought this word was better, so festive!
She nodded quickly: "Yes, so don't make blind guesses!"
Yang Xiaohong poured a cup of hot tea and smiled when she heard this, "We're not just guessing. You and Baichuan have been married for so long, if you were pregnant quickly, you'd be showing by now!"
Xiang Yao finished the tea, thanked him, and shrugged: "That can't be helped. We really can't do that quickly."
She thought of the appearance of these people when she just entered the room and changed the subject: "What was it that made you sigh so long just now?"
Yang Xiaohong and the others looked at each other and said, "Hey, we just came back from Yuan Datou's house in Shanbei this morning. Those two people in the Yuan family are really inhuman!"
Xiang Yao exclaimed, "Ah!" and asked, "What's wrong?"
She knew that this Yuan Datou was not originally called that name. It was probably because his head was big since he was young, so people called him Datou. Over time, everyone forgot his real name and called him Yuan Datou and Yuan Datou all the time.
This guy doesn't have much presence in Xiangjiawan, but his wife Li Qiao is a well-known shrew. When she gets angry, she can put her hands on her hips and curse everyone from Team One to Team Six.
Yang Xiaohong sighed again, then said in a calm voice, "Yuan Datou's father died of freezing to death. It was snowing and icy every day the day before yesterday, and his family locked the door from the inside at night. Poor old man Yuan came back from outside to collect some firewood, but he couldn't even get through the door, so he huddled in the pigpen and froze to death!"
Xiang Yao widened his eyes and exclaimed: "Ah! How could this happen..."
He Yuezhi said, "You don't know. The Yuan family was arguing this morning. They didn't even know that Old Man Yuan hadn't returned home all night. They even said they thought he was still asleep in bed."
"If it weren't for the coincidence today, Yuan Datou's younger sister, Yuan Laohan's daughter Yuan Damei, would have gone back to her parents' home to bring food to her father. She didn't see Yuan Laohan come out, and she would have become suspicious. She didn't know when Yuan Laohan would be found..."
Xiang Yao frowned slightly and asked, "Didn't Old Man Yuan knock on the door when he came home at night? Could it be that the whole family couldn't hear his knocking?"
Zhang Lai Di said angrily, "Yuan Damei asked the same question today, and guess what? Yuan Datou and his wife both insisted that they were all sound asleep and didn't hear any knocking on the door!"
Xiang Yao: "Even if someone didn't hear it, it doesn't mean that the whole family didn't hear it, right?"
Yang Xiaohong said, "The young people in their family have gone to visit relatives, and only Old Man Yuan and Yuan Datou are at home. Now that I think about it, who would visit relatives like this before the New Year? Maybe they planned it in advance!"
Xiang Yao didn't quite agree with this speculation, but these aunts sometimes have their own unique way of thinking, so she didn't say much, just said: "Whether he knocked on the door or not has become a mystery."
He Yuezhi took a sip of tea and said, "It's really hard to say. The place where the Yuan family stored firewood was right next to the pigpen. It's possible that Old Man Yuan had just put the firewood away and hadn't even had time to reach the door when he was already dead."
Yang Xiaohong retorted, "But didn't Liu Laoliu's son Ah Sheng say that he heard a knock on the door last night? Not only did he hear the knock, he also heard Old Man Yuan shouting for someone to open the door!"
Coincidentally, Yuan Datou's family originally lived alone, and there were no other neighbors except Liu Laoliu's family who lived a little further away.
On this snowy day, the north wind was howling outside the house, drowning out any movement in the wind. Being so far away, and with the people inside the house separated by thick earthen walls, Liu Laoliu's family really couldn't hear any movement from Yuan Datou's family.
But when the team was slaughtering a pig, Liu Laoliu was given an extra piece of pig bones because he participated in the slaughter and put in a lot of effort. So the Liu family made a rare bone soup that day. It was so delicious that the children must have drank it until their stomachs were full.
Once you drink too much of this soup, no matter how cold it is outside, you will have to go outside if you have to pee urgently.
The little kid Asheng put on his clothes and went out to pee in a daze.
It just so happened that this was the time when Old Man Yuan was calling for someone to open the door. Ah Sheng heard it and didn't think much about it. After peeing, he hurried back to the house to sleep.
When this incident happened today, Yuan Damei pointed at her brother and sister-in-law and kept saying things like "If you do something this bad, Dad will come to you every night even if he dies." When the child Asheng heard this, he immediately became scared and pulled his mother to tell her about this incident in a low voice.
He has already given this testimony to Old Man Yuan, so Old Man Yuan won’t come to find him at night, right?
Little Ah Sheng thought so.
Xiang Yao pinched his palms, feeling his fists stiffen. "Since even the neighbors who were so far away heard it, the couple must be asleep, not dead. How could they not hear such a loud noise?"
Yang Xiaohong echoed, "That's right! This couple wouldn't believe a soul, and Damei naturally wouldn't believe it either. She went to argue with her brother and sister-in-law, demanding justice!"
He Yuezhi spat and said disdainfully, "I used to think Yuan Datou was just a bit confused and a bit too afraid of his wife, but generally speaking, he was a hardworking man. I didn't expect that toxic people can poison the whole family. Actually, neither of this couple is a good person!"
Xiang Yao asked, "Why would they treat Old Man Yuan like this?"
Zhang Laidi rolled his eyes, looking down on the Yuan family. "What else could it be? They just think Old Man Yuan is old and doesn't want to take care of him anymore. Their family relationships aren't very good to begin with, otherwise why would Yuan Damei go back to her parents' home to see her father so often? It's because she's worried that her brother and sister-in-law won't treat her father well."
Her family did not have a good relationship with Yuan Datou's family, and she had always disliked this family. But conversely, once people disliked a family, they would pay more attention to it, so she knew more than others.
"And then there's Yuan Datou's wife. When she was young, she was never very nice to her father-in-law. But old man Yuan had a good temper and always endured it. Now that she's been patient, she can't even have a hot meal every day. Every time it's dinner time, the couple sends him out to get firewood and pig grass. By the time he's done, the whole family's meal is gone. Haha, is this human nature?"
Xiang Yao nodded: "It was done by a beast."
She didn't expect that Yuan Datou's family was so disgusting. Just now, Yuan Datou's wife brought his son to deliver eggs, wanting his son to work with Nie Baichuan. Haha, fortunately he didn't agree. This is simply a house full of poisonous insects.
Don’t say that adults have no business whatsoever with the younger generation. If the younger generation has a conscience, will they feel at ease watching their grandfather go out to work at mealtime while their family enjoys their meal?
She said: "This kind of abnormal death should be reported to the police."
If no one reported it, she would report it.
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