Seeing Chen Jiandang's near-furious expression, Chen Shuning spread his hands innocently and said, "Look at you, how can you be so difficult to please? No matter what I say, it's wrong. So tell me, are you even a thing?"
"Of course I'm a thing, no, I'm not a thing... Oh dear, I..."
Chen Jiandang realized that no matter how he said it, it didn't seem right. Finally, he stomped his foot in anger and simply ignored Chen Shuning. He lowered his head and vented his resentment on the snow on the ground. His sullen little face made Chen Shuning, his unscrupulous older sister, burst into laughter again.
With Chen Shuning taking the lead, the others naturally stopped holding back, since the feeling of suppressing laughter is not as comfortable as laughing out loud.
Finally, He Chaoyang couldn't stand it anymore and gently patted Chen Shuning's arm, saying, "Alright, alright, how can you bully your younger brother like this? You're not behaving like a proper older sister."
Jian Dang got up early this morning to go to the back hill and got a small basket of Yangla canned fruit, saying that you like to eat that and he wanted to save it for an extra dish tonight.
People in those days didn't eat these things even during famines, so there were plenty of them in the bushes on the back hill, but it was a bit difficult to break them off the branches one by one.
She had only mentioned Yang Laguan casually when she saw him on the way up the mountain, but she didn't expect the kid to remember it and get up early to get it for her.
Chen Shuning instantly felt that she was not a good enough older sister, and she moved closer to Chen Jiandang with a guilty look on her face to apologize: "Okay, okay, don't be angry. It's all my fault. I won't tease you anymore."
"Come on, don't you love dried meat? I made a lot last night, I promise you can eat your fill this time."
Although Chen Jiandang was still a little angry, he couldn't resist the temptation of the food and reluctantly let Chen Shuning pull him into the house.
New Year's Eve dinner, New Year's Eve dinner, but the customs are different in different places. Chen Shuning and his group originally ate their New Year's Eve dinner in Beijing at around 5 pm.
In Heilongjiang Province, however, it's a proper New Year's Eve dinner, starting around 10 p.m. and continuing until 1 a.m. on the first day of the Lunar New Year – a proper New Year's Eve dinner.
Chen Shuning and the other two are all from Beijing. They decided to have their New Year's Eve dinner at 5 p.m. and then make dumplings at midnight, just in time to cook the dumplings to welcome the God of Wealth.
It saves us from being too busy eating New Year's Eve dinner, making dumplings, cooking dumplings, and welcoming the God of Wealth at night.
Unlike other villagers who celebrate the New Year with their entire families, where more people mean more work, they only have three people celebrating the New Year, so they can't manage to keep busy. Therefore, this arrangement is the most reasonable.
When the other educated youth in the backyard heard about Chen Shuning's arrangement, they also thought it was reasonable and followed suit.
Both Zhong Lingling and Liu Shumei's newlywed couples were celebrating their first New Year after marriage, so they each spent it alone. However, since their two families lived in the same house, they decided to have their New Year's Eve dinner together.
Gu Xinyi was alone. She was invited to celebrate the New Year with Wang Chunni and Xu Laidi. Zhang Tingting was the only one there. She didn't want to let others have the good things that Tian Mi bought. Although the old educated youth in the front yard invited her to celebrate with them, Zhang Tingting refused, saying that it was not good to leave the new house empty during the New Year and decided to celebrate alone.
Since she wanted to live alone, Dong Weiwei and the others who had invited her couldn't say anything and awkwardly returned to the old house, but they had a very bad impression of Zhang Tingting.
This is also the main reason why the group ostracized Zhang Tingting after she had to return to the old house – they felt she was ungrateful.
So the old educated youth in the front yard still ate their New Year's Eve dinner in the middle of the night according to the customs of Heilongjiang Province. Gu Xinyi and Wang Chunni also ate at around 5 a.m. according to Chen Shuning's idea, and cooked dumplings in the middle of the night.
If we need to eat dinner around 5 p.m., we have to start preparing the food at noon.
In Beijing, the New Year's Eve dinner is traditionally served with "four auspicious dishes," consisting of four cold dishes, four hot dishes, four soups, and four staple foods. Fish is an essential dish, symbolizing "abundance year after year." Additionally, Beijingers enjoy dumplings and rice cakes on the New Year's Eve dinner, representing reunion and happiness.
For the four cold dishes, Chen Shuning prepared braised beef, cold shredded cabbage and radish salad, deep-fried meatballs, and a plate of braised dishes made by Chen Shuning.
The most important of the four hot dishes was the fish. Although the fish provided by the village was a bit small, it was meant to symbolize prosperity. Chen Shuning braised it, which was meant to bring good fortune.
Braised pork belly is also a must, along with chicken stew with mushrooms and steamed pork ribs with rice flour.
Four soups would make things easier: a canned fruit soup, an egg drop soup, a beef and radish soup, and a seaweed and cabbage soup. There's no other way; resources are limited these days, so Chen Shuning's dishes were just to make up the numbers, and he couldn't be too picky.
Staple foods are even easier to find: rice, steamed buns, fried dough twists, and sticky rice cakes.
After working hard all day to prepare a table full of food, it's not even 5:30 yet, which is the perfect time to eat.
After sending Chen Jiandang out to set off firecrackers, Chen Shuning and his family could begin their New Year's Eve dinner.
He Chaoyang found a bottle of red wine from somewhere and placed it on the table. Together with the apple juice prepared by Chen Shuning, one was red and the other was yellow, and they looked quite pretty.
Chen Shuning also pays attention to color matching when cooking. Putting aside the taste, the presentation of this table of dishes is enough to make one's mouth water.
As the firecrackers lit by Chen Jiandang crackled and popped, Chen Shuning arrived at Qingshan Brigade, and his New Year's Eve dinner in this world officially began.
As soon as the firecrackers stopped, Wang Wenqi next door lit a string of firecrackers, and the food over there was ready.
Then came another burst of firecrackers, and the educated youth settlement instantly became lively.
For Chen Shuning, the long-lost festive atmosphere suddenly intensified.
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