With the roar of Old Lady Li, the Li family immediately became lively. Except for Wang Sufen who was in confinement, everyone else came out. Li Mingxi was holding two pheasants, while Li Mingnan and Li Mingbei were holding three or four fish each, standing at the door in a proud and confident manner.
Old Lady Li came out of the west room with her three-inch golden lotus feet, mumbling something. Guihua came out of the kitchen and reached out to take the food. Li Mingnan raised his hands and dodged for a while: "Sister-in-law, don't move. I have to let grandma take a look first. You said we caught so many fish, grandma should at least make us some dumplings, right?"
Normally, each member of the Li family was entitled to 4 taels of meat coupons per month, and since the Li family had a large population, they could have eaten dumplings at least once every two or three months. But since the bad harvest last year, they could not buy enough food and non-staple food with their food coupons, and now they were lucky enough to fill their stomachs with cabbage, potatoes, and corn.
Old lady Li opened the curtain and came out. Seeing Li Mingxi and the other two holding fish and chicken, she smiled so hard that her eyes were invisible. Just when she was about to praise her grandson, Li Mingbei came over with drooling, "Grandma, eat dumplings!"
Old Lady Li immediately stopped smiling and quickly grabbed the chicken and fish and handed them to Guihua. Seeing her three grandchildren looking dazed with empty hands, Old Lady Li rolled her eyes at them and said, "No meat!"
Li Mingnan and Li Mingbei immediately beat their chests and stamped their feet when they heard this: "You know, it would be better to bring back a stupid roe deer." Old Lady Li couldn't help but choke back: "That depends on who is stupider, you or the roe deer."
Li Mingbei scratched the back of his head and turned around to ask Li Mingxi, who had remained silent the whole time: "Second brother, does grandma mean that I am dumber than a roe deer?"
Li Mingxi glanced at him, then walked around him and hugged Old Lady Li's arm with a big smile on his face: "Grandma, I was the one who shot those pheasants. I'm telling you, I had just walked a few dozen meters up the mountain when these two pheasants came out from nowhere. Their wings were so frozen that they were falling down as they flew. I caught them without any effort."
Grandma Li smiled at her second grandson and said, "You are smart. You know to go up the mountain to have a look. It is not easy to see a pheasant in this snowy mountain." After touching the meat on the pheasant, Grandma Li smiled even more happily, "It is fatter than in autumn. I don't know where it is hiding for the winter, so it hasn't lost weight."
Li Mingxi nodded repeatedly: "Grandma is really smart. You can guess the trick just by looking at it. Grandma, you see, I killed a pheasant for my mother, which saved the life of our old hen. Can you give me two more when we make dumplings?"
"They are all greedy!" Old Mrs. Li looked at the two pheasants, then at the seven river fish, and stomped her feet with a determined heart: "No need to wait for making dumplings, we will have delicious food tonight." After saying that, she put on a thick cotton-padded jacket and a hat and went out.
Li Mingbei looked at his two brothers who were also confused, and quickly asked Guihua: "Sister-in-law, where is grandma?"
"Go get the meat!" Guihua said with a smile.
"We have meat at home?" The three boys looked at each other and then burst into cheers: "Great, we can eat meat!"
Old Mrs. Li walked around the yard and soon came back with a small piece of hard pork. There was a bit of heartache on her face: "I only hid a pound of pork. I was preparing to make dumplings for the New Year."
Passing the pork to Guihua, Old Lady Li instructed, "Stew the pork with the cabbage and add more potatoes. Eat the eight-treasure porridge and don't eat pancakes at night."
Being able to eat pork, Li Mingnan and Li Mingbei immediately forgot what Old Lady Li had said about them being stupid. They jumped for joy for a long time, then put on their hats and searched around the house for the pork that Old Lady Li had hidden.
Old Mrs. Li sneered: "I have hidden things all my life, and your grandfather never found them. You two kids want to find the pork I hid? Dream on!" As she spoke, she directed Li Mingdong to skewer the fish and chicken, and asked him to hang them under the eaves to prevent them from being taken away by rats.
The Li family had two large pots, one in the east and one in the west, both connected to the kang in the house. The eight-treasure porridge in the pot in the east had been cooked for more than two hours and was soft and sticky. In the large iron pot in the west, osmanthus was stir-frying fat meat, and soon the aroma of oil floated in the air, causing a series of saliva-swallowing sounds.
Guihua couldn't help but look back. Except for Li Mingdong, who was still standing at the door with Li Muwu, the other three guys were squatting in a row in the kitchen, staring at the meat in the pot with shining eyes. Guihua smiled and put the cabbage into the pot, turned around and served the eight-treasure porridge, rinsed the pot, and heated up the fish soup left over from lunch for Wang Sufen.
Although the fish soup tasted more delicious, the three boys knew the importance of it. It was for nourishing their mother, so no one looked at the fish soup. Instead, they all stared at the cabbage and potatoes that Guihua was stir-frying, trying to see where the fat was hidden, so that they could grab more pork quickly, fiercely and accurately when it was time to eat.
The meal was ready. Guihua first gave the fish soup and noodles to Wang Sufen, and then brought the dishes and eight-treasure porridge for the whole family to the table. Old Mrs. Li first picked up a piece of meat for Li Muwu, then coughed lightly and said, "Eat!"
In an instant, three pairs of chopsticks were stretched out at the same time, flying up and down, and quickly picking up the exposed meat. Li Mingbei stretched his neck to look at the bowls of his two brothers: "The second brother grabbed the most, with three pieces of meat."
Li Mingdong glanced at Guihua, stretched out his chopsticks and picked up four pieces of meat from below in an instant, which immediately shocked his three younger brothers.
"Sister-in-law, you are secretly hiding meat for brother again!" Li Mingbei wailed.
Li Mingdong gave Old Lady Li and Guihua a piece of meat each, looked at Mingbei with disdain, and coldly spat out three words: "Silly roe deer!"
"Grandma, my brother scolded me!" After being called a fool twice in one day, Li Mingbei couldn't help but complain to Grandma Li. Grandma Li looked at him, stuffed the fat slices in the bowl into her mouth, and smiled with great satisfaction. As for the fool who complained, if he didn't lower his head and take a look, the only two slices of pork in the bowl would be stolen immediately.
The laughter next door was mixed with roars and wails from time to time, and Zhenzhen was very happy to hear it. In her previous life of more than 20 years, her impression of family was nothing but cold empty houses and endless quarrels. But now, Zhenzhen finally experienced the legendary warmth of home.
****
The weather was getting colder and the New Year was getting closer, but there was still no news of food sales on the streets. Old Mrs. Li sat on the kang in the east room, holding Zhenzhen and complaining to Wang Sufen: "What happened in the past two years? We have meat coupons but no meat to buy, and we have grain coupons but no grain in the grain store. I think this year will be difficult."
Wang Sufen couldn't help but sigh: "Last night Mu Wu said he didn't know where to get the grain from, and he didn't know if it could be delivered before the New Year."
"I guess it's about the same." When Mrs. Li heard that there was some action, she immediately became more energetic: "At least we can let the people celebrate the New Year."
Touching Zhenzhen's little hand, Mrs. Li continued, "Fortunately, since Zhenzhen was born, we have been able to buy two bottles of milk every day. Your neighbor Aunt Wang's grandson was born at the beginning of the year. She said that the fresh milk from the milk station has been intermittent in the past few months and has never been supplied normally. It was better when our Zhenzhen was born."
Wang Sufen couldn't help but touch her nose and laughed awkwardly, "It's a pity that Zhenzhen doesn't like milk. She asked me to drink all the milk she brought back. It's such a waste."
"That's because you have good milk." Old Lady Li didn't feel bad about the money for the two bottles of milk: "Cow's milk can't feed a person as well as mother's milk. Just drink it steadily. Feeding Zhenzhen to me and making her white and plump is better than anything else." Holding Zhenzhen in her arms, Old Lady Li shook her gently: "Are you my eldest granddaughter?"
Zhenzhen: Hiccup…
"Hey, listen, I burped." Old Mrs. Li laughed as if she had discovered a new world. "Come on, burp again for grandma to hear."
Zhen Zhen tightly closed her mouth and shook her head firmly: ...hiccup...
Old lady Li laughed again. Zhen Zhen's face flushed with shame. She was just wondering if she should cry to divert Old lady Li's strange laughter when she heard someone outside shouting, "Grandma, hurry up, supplies are coming down the street."
Upon hearing this, Old Lady Li quickly stuffed Zhenzhen into Wang Sufen's arms, walked back to the house on her bound feet, took out the key from her waist, opened the box, took out the grain book and various receipts, and took out an embroidered handkerchief, opened it and found a stack of money inside.
Old Mrs. Li was so weak that she could not jog. The four brothers Li Mingdong and Guihua were the main force in shopping. Mingdong took the money, grain book and grain coupons and went straight to the grain store. Li Mingxi went straight to the butcher shop with the meat coupons. The two brothers Nanbei put a bag of non-staple food coupons and rushed out with baskets.
Old Lady Li was waiting at home, fidgeting, sometimes opening the door to look outside, sometimes sitting in Wang Sufen's room, but her words were obviously incoherent and she looked absent-minded. Wang Sufen had been the head of the household for more than 20 years, so she naturally knew what Old Lady Li was worried about, and hurriedly persuaded her, "Mu Wu is at the grain store, so we can definitely buy enough food; Ming Xi runs fast, so he will definitely be at the front of the line when he goes to buy meat."
"That's right." Old Mrs. Li nodded and stood up again: "I'll go take another look." Old Mrs. Li stood at the door and waited anxiously for more than two hours. Zhenzhen tried hard to restrain her sleepiness and silently counted the number of times the door was opened for her. Finally, when Old Mrs. Li opened the door for the fifty-eighth time, the four Li Mingdong brothers came back carrying rice bags and pushing a cart, talking and laughing.
"What did you buy?" Old Mrs. Li was very happy when she saw a large piece of pork in the car.
Li Mingdong put the rice bag in the corner, patted the dirt off his body and grinned, saying: "I sold two months' worth of food and two months' worth of meat to each family, and also bought one ounce of sesame oil, one and a half catties of sugar, one catty of salt, half a catty of peanuts and two ounces of melon seeds, as well as one ounce of sesame paste and one ounce of tea."
Mrs. Li nodded repeatedly and said with a smile, "Okay, move everything to the kitchen quickly, I'll lock it in the cabinet." As she spoke, she looked through the basket of sundries, which contained some peppercorns, star anise, alkaline noodles, etc. As for the dozen kilograms of Chinese cabbage in the car, since the Li family also grew a lot of it themselves, they didn't think it was that rare.
Li Mingbei put his things away and came over to say, "Grandma, I see the grocery store also has cakes and biscuits. Can you give me the snack ticket and some money so I can buy half a pound of biscuits?"
Mrs. Li thought about the remaining money at home and shook her head firmly: "Your sister is still young and can't eat biscuits and cakes. What's the point of buying that?"
"I can eat it!" Li Mingbei protested indignantly, "I'm only eight years old, still a lovely child, why should I have two cookies a day?"
Old Lady Li slapped Li Mingbei aside and said, "You wish! You're so old and still want to eat cookies? Go eat your sweet potatoes!"
With white flour and pork, this year would be better. Old Mrs. Li happily locked all the white rice and flour in the cabinet in the study, leaving only the miscellaneous grains such as corn flour, dried sweet potatoes, and sorghum flour outside.
After packing up her things, Old Lady Li turned around again and saw her little grandson following her like an eggplant hit by frost. She thought about finding something for him to do: "Go catch two more fish and bring them back."
"Forget it." Li Mingbei was smart for once. "Since my brother and I caught seven fish last time, many people have gone to the river to dig holes and fish every day. I noticed that no one has caught any fish in the past few days. I guess I was lucky those two times."
"Go ahead." Old Lady Li coaxed him patiently, "Just treat it as fun. No matter what you catch, I'll make you dumplings tomorrow, with pork and cabbage."
When Li Mingbei heard about the pork and cabbage dumplings, he immediately laughed: "Second brother, third brother, grandma said that we will make dumplings tomorrow after we catch some fish, pork and cabbage dumplings!"
Upon hearing this, Li Mingxi pushed his homework book forward, grabbed his cotton-padded jacket and ran out: "Why don't you hurry up and go."
Li Mingbei took three large pancakes from the pot, wrapped them in paper and put them in his arms. Before leaving, he turned back and promised: "I won't lie to you!"
"Go ahead, go ahead. I promise I won't cheat you." Old Mrs. Li happily sent her silly grandchildren away, and found a place to hide the meat. She only left a piece weighing about half a pound hanging under the beam, ready for making dumplings tomorrow.
The Yongcui River that runs through Beicha District is frozen solid. The thick ice layer is half a meter thick. A group of half-grown children are having a lot of fun skating, playing ice games, and sledding on it, and they seem to be unaware of the feeling of worry.
If it were usual, Li Mingbei would definitely rush over to play a game of Bingga, but today his mind was full of dumplings and he didn't even hear his friends calling him.
In winter, fishing requires digging a hole in the ice. To prevent people from falling in, the locals usually dig holes in a fixed area. Because there are many people fishing every day, the ice hole never freezes. Li Mingxi found a long stick and poked it twice, breaking the ice.
They opened three ice holes in succession, and the three brothers squatted beside them, some putting down fish baskets, some putting down fishing rods, and Li Mingxi even got a small net to catch fish in them.
After the three of them ate the pancake that Li Mingbei brought, they squatted on the ice and fished seriously. Time passed by, and the sun was about to set, but the three of them didn't see even a fish scale. Li Mingbei slapped the fishing rod in frustration: "Otherwise, let's get up at four o'clock tomorrow. I don't believe that we can't catch a fish."
Li Mingnan sighed, stretched out his hand to pull the fish basket up, and suddenly felt a heaviness in his hand. He laughed and said, "Hurry up and help me. There's a fish in the fish basket, and it's quite heavy. I guess it's a big fat fish."
Li Mingbei threw away the fishing rod and rushed over to help pull out the fish basket and threw it on the ice. Then a turtle weighing four or five pounds fell out of the fish basket, lying motionless and no one knew whether it was dead or alive.
Li Mingnan asked hesitantly, "Will we have dumplings to eat tomorrow if we catch the turtle?"
Li Mingbei nodded unconfidently: "It should be possible. This stew should be quite nutritious."
Hibernating turtle:…