HCB Chapter 140: Change of Years
Chapter 140: Change of Years
Shen Luming took three pills, ate one himself, and wanted to feed the remaining two to his parents. However, the adults, including Shen Zhiqiu and Li Jingshu, were outside the cave, braving the cold wind, setting up big pots and preparing the New Year's Eve dinner.
Shen Luming ran out, and a large area had been cleared outside the cave. The snow was very thick, about half a person's height.
From Xiao Luming's perspective, it seemed as if there was a semicircular wall outside the cave entrance, because the accumulated snow was enough to cover his head.
Li Jingshu was arranging for everyone to make dumplings stuffed with sour bamboo shoots and vermicelli, because the custom in Shenjia Village is to eat dumplings at noon on New Year's Eve, eat stir-fried dishes in the evening, and eat dumplings on New Year's Day.
Of course, don't think about eating your fill of dumplings, that's impossible. Each person is given ten dumplings, no matter if they are male, female, young or old. There is no more, and people really can't afford it.
The dumplings are filled with vegetarian fillings and no meat. All you can do is add a little lard for seasoning.
With so many people eating, if you put too much meat, we can't afford it. If you put too little meat, the meat flavor won't come out. It will be the same with or without it, so we might as well not put it in.
But with nearly 300 people, if each person had 10 dumplings, that would make 3,000 dumplings, which was really a lot. Some of them chopped pickled bamboo shoots, and some boiled yam vermicelli that had just been made two days ago, rinsed it with water, and then chopped it up.
Some women were mixing the cooked yam and kudzu root powder into dough, preparing to make dumpling skins.
When Shen Luming came, Li Jingshu was still outside the cave in the middle of winter, busy working with sweat on his nose.
Seeing his son, he quickly said, "What are you doing outside? Lulu, go back quickly, or you might catch a cold."
Shen Luming raised his little head: "Mom, squat down."
Li Jingshu didn't understand what was going on, so she squatted down anyway. Just as she was about to complain to her son about why he didn't wear a hat when he came out, a small hand stuffed something into his mouth.
After chewing it, I found it was a pine nut, which tasted delicious.
Li Jingshu felt so sweet in her heart that she quickly kissed her son on the face: "Thank you, son."
Shen Luming's face turned red, not sure if it was because of shyness or cold, and she quickly turned around to find Shen Zhiqiu.
Li Jingshu also followed and said, "Go back quickly. You don't even have a hat. You'll be freezing soon."
Shen Zhiqiu was not idle either. He was making catfish meatballs with a group of strong men. Ten dumplings were not enough to fill everyone up, and there was no way they would be left hungry during the New Year.
He thought that fish meat was the most abundant, and the fish in the vast underground river were almost inexhaustible for the mere 300 people of them.
I wanted to fill the rest of my stomach with fish, but I also had to separate it from the ten dishes I had in the evening and eat something different, so I thought of making fish balls.
Since other fish have many bones, Shen Zhiqiu chose catfish to make meatballs.
Wash the fish, remove the head, split the fish in half with a knife, remove the bones and set aside.
The fish meat was directly mashed into a paste with wooden sticks. The sound of strong laborers beating the fish meat with sticks could be heard everywhere.
Since there were no eggs, Shen Zhiqiu planned to add some kudzu powder instead of yam starch, after all, kudzu powder is more sticky.
Shen Zhiqiu was also busy, preparing the stuffing with the beaten fish meat. In fact, since they had nothing, they could only add some distilled liquor to remove the fishy smell, and some pine sugar and salt.
Add some water boiled with peppercorns, star anise and ginger. Since there wasn’t much ginger, I didn’t chop it up and put it in ground ginger. Look at how they spent the year. They had to plan everything they wanted.
He ate the pine nuts his son put into his mouth and joked, "Why are you so stingy? You only gave me one and I couldn't even taste it."
Shen Luming counted on his fingers and said, "I only have three. I'll eat one and my parents will eat two. My sister said we can still have ten. I have to give five to my sister, and I can give you one at most."
Shen Zhiqiu was amused by his son's serious look: "Okay, it smells good. I won't eat it now. You can eat it by yourself. I'll wait until your sister is done."
Li Jingshu also quickly pulled Shen Luming into the house and told him not to come out again, otherwise he would be cold during the New Year's Day and your sister would definitely not let you eat the candy she made.
This threat was more effective than any other words, and Shen Luming finally returned to the cave obediently.
The men and women at the entrance of the cave all had honest smiles on their faces, and there was a sense of satisfaction in their smiles.
Shen Zhiqiu was speechless. He said, "You have no home, no land, and you live in the wilderness. How can you be satisfied?"
In fact, he understood that life in ancient times was too hard, and people would be content if they were given a little hope.
In previous years, the villagers were honest and down-to-earth, working hard to grow their little bit of land. After paying various taxes, they were lucky if they had enough food left for the family, and that had to be whole grains. Any fine noodles had to be exchanged for money.
I want to eat some meat, but I have to buy less for the New Year and other festivals. I also have fish, so I go to the river to catch small fish.
Why are they small fish? They must have caught too many and had no money to buy meat for their feast.
In the past, farm work was too tiring. If you wanted to eat some meat, didn’t you just catch a fish, shoot a bird, or touch some loaches?
The fish in the river near Shenjia Village have been almost completely caught.
Eating fish like we do now was something we could never have imagined in the past. Even in Shen Zhiqiu's ancient memories, when he returned to the village to celebrate the New Year, his family never had ten dishes a year. It was good enough to have six dishes a year.
This was under the condition that he could open a private school and make money. Believe others, even if they only had four dishes during the Chinese New Year, it was impossible for all of them to have meat.
As for eating dumplings today as a festival, if Shen Youyou hadn't asked them to, and he agreed, they probably wouldn't have been willing to eat them.
At least when Shen Youyou suggested eating dumplings, the expressions of the ten old ladies including Grandma Hua seemed to be saying:
"What kind of dumplings are you going to eat? Just eat some steamed bread and fish stew. That would require a lot of kudzu root powder and yam. I can't afford it."
It was Shen Youyou who said, "How can we not eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year? Grandmas, do you know why we have to eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year? What do dumplings look like?"
Without waiting for the old ladies to speak, Shen Luming interrupted: "Sister, I know, it sounds like Brother Yuanbao's name, Yuanbao!"
Shen Youyou nodded to indicate that it was right: "Dumplings are also called 'Geng Sui Jiao Zi', which symbolizes the transition from the old to the new, and indicates good luck in the new year. And Lulu is right, dumplings look like ingots, and also mean 'bringing in wealth and treasure', symbolizing wealth and prosperity."
Seeing the grandmothers' hesitation, Shen Youyou continued:
"Besides, we have suffered so much this year because we have fled from famine. In order to go to a good place next year and live a rich and stable life, we must eat this dumpling for a good omen."
This sentence really touched everyone. Who doesn't hope to live a stable life in the future? Men and old men have no objection to it, and children and young boys and girls definitely want to eat it.
The women don’t care, they just do whatever the leader says, but we are the ones who can’t bear to do it.
But after Shen Youyou's persuasion, the old ladies gritted their teeth and decided to eat! In order to get a good omen, we ate dumplings, not only at noon on the 30th, but also on the morning of the first day.
There are more than a dozen young and strong women rolling out the dough, and the rolling pins in their hands are quickly rolling the dumpling skins. Dozens of women are busy making dumplings.
Big pots had already been set up outside.
Shen Zhiqiu had brought a few men with him and started putting meatballs into several large pots.
Except for himself, the balls made by other men were of all shapes, but they were not very round.
However, he couldn't make the meatballs for so many people by himself, so he just did what he could, it didn't matter if it was round or not, as long as it was edible.