Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 163 New Year

On New Year's Eve, the Song family got up early, and Lu Ming and Fu Nian were no exception. Their house had been built long ago, but Old Man Song insisted that they spend the New Year at home, so Lu Ming and Fu Nian did not move out immediately.

There are many people in the Song family this year, so the banquet is divided into two tables. Before the New Year, Song Dazhuang specially ordered a few live wild rabbits from the hunter in the village. They have been raising them in the backyard with spiritual spring water for more than half a month, just for this day to kill and eat the meat.

Song Dazhuang picked out the two fattest ones, slaughtered them and skinned them with a knife.

"Oh, this piece of rabbit skin is nice, it's snow-white, just right for making a rabbit fur cape for Yuanyuan."

Fu Nian knows how to nitrate leather, so let him take on this job.

Two rabbits, one is eaten cold, and the other is roasted directly. Song Amuo's new oven is bigger than the original one. It can not only be used to roast rabbits, but also roast suckling pigs.

Of course, we won’t be having roast suckling pig today. Instead, we’ll be having roast chicken wings and barbecued pork made by Amao Song, as well as the crispy pork belly that Song Chunlin has been craving for a long time.

The pork belly came from pigs raised at home, and a large piece of it was specially reserved.

Nearing noon, smoke rose from every household as they prepared for the New Year's Eve dinner.

Song Chunlin brought a group of children to paste window decorations and couplets on the doors and windows of his house, and also pasted new door gods on the front door. They not only pasted them on the Song family, but also on the doors of the workshop next door, Song Daha and Lu Ming's homes. All of them were pasted with festive decorations, and they also hung big red lanterns at the door.

"OK, it's done. Doesn't it look good?" Song Chunlin showed off to the group of kids behind him with some pride. Several kids also showed their support and flattered him. Song Chunlin was so proud that he almost raised his tail, if he had one.

Song Chunming pulled his sleeve and shouted, "Second brother, second brother, I want to paste the little rabbit!"

Song Chunxiao was not to be outdone: "Second brother, I want a little rabbit too."

Li Gensheng looked around and said nothing. Song Chunlin thought he was just embarrassed.

Holding down his brother who was about to tear his sleeves, Song Chunlin told them seriously: "This year is the Year of the Sheep, and the Year of the Rabbit has not yet arrived. We can't put up rabbit stickers."

Song Chunming was unhappy: "Why? You said the same thing last year, second brother."

Song Chunlin immediately counted on his fingers for him: "This year is the Sheep, next year is the Monkey, then the Rooster, the Dog, the Pig, the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, and finally the Rabbit. Count by yourself, how many years are left?"

Song Chunming counted on his fingers several times, muttering to himself as he counted, and finally found that it would take another eight years to get the little rabbit he had been dreaming of. That’s eight years!

Song Chunming was shocked: "Why? Why does it take so many years? Wuuwuwuwu, second brother, can we celebrate the Year of the Rabbit this year?"

Song Chunlin smiled and said, "That's fine. Don't eat the rabbits for the New Year's Eve dinner. After all, rabbits are so cute. How can you eat rabbits?"

"Ah?" Song Chunming was dumbfounded. He had never thought of this and his heart was immediately conflicted: "Then what should I do? Rabbits are cute, but Dad said they are delicious..." His voice gradually became smaller and he was obviously feeling guilty.

Song Chunxiao didn't understand a thing. He only heard his brother say that rabbits are delicious. The little foodie immediately forgot how cute those rabbits were, and the only thing left in his mind was that rabbits are delicious.

"Brother, rabbit, it's delicious!" Song Chunxiao hugged her brother's arm, blinking her eyes, as if she wanted to eat the rabbit right away.

Now Song Chunming is no longer worried. If his brother wants to eat it, then let him eat it. He will not celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, so when the Year of the Rabbit comes, he will just not eat rabbit.

Looking at the smiling little kids, Song Chunlin sighed, it's true that young people are easy to fool, a word of delicious food made them forget their purpose, if these two had a kindergarten diploma, they would not be fooled by him.

Li Gensheng on the side frowned, as if he was meeting Song Chunlin for the first time.

As people of the same age, Li Gensheng had played with Song Chunlin before when he was in his hometown. However, Song Chunlin at that time was not as lively as he is now, and he talked a lot more. The most obvious thing was his temperament. It felt like he was a completely opposite person from the previous Song Chunlin.

After everything in the house was decorated, the cooking began in the kitchen. This year's New Year's Eve dinner was of great significance to the Song family. Aunt Song tried her best to cook better. Even Zhou Ning, who was not very good at cooking, was assigned two stir-fry dishes. Chen Yuer was good at mixing cold dishes, so she was in charge of that. Song Qinshi left her daughter to Grandpa Song and cooked a few specialties herself. Song Dazhuang was in charge of watching the oven outside to prevent the meat from getting burnt.

Song Dahe is good at cutting, and he was cutting a fruit plate. The whole family was busy and lively, and even had some buns for lunch. It was not until the afternoon when Song Dazhuang smelled the aroma coming from the oven, opened the door and took a look, and found that everything was cooked. Only then did the New Year's Eve dinner officially begin.

Two large round tables were set up in the main hall, which were filled with delicacies. Steaming roasted rabbit and crispy pork belly were served on the table in plates, as well as a bubbling hot pot. There were not only hot stir-fried dishes on the table, but also a lot of sliced meats and freshly thawed seafood shells.

Chen Yuer looked at those things she had never seen before and couldn't help wondering in her heart that there were so many shrimps at this time of year, and some were so big. It was really rare.

Lu Ming couldn't see it, but Fu Nian saw the sliced meat and the more he looked at it, the less it looked like pork. Judging from the color, it looked more like horse meat or beef. He had seen the Song family's horses before, so it couldn't be those horses. The people in the Central Plains were not like the herdsmen on the grassland who would slaughter old horses for food, so it could only be beef.

Fu Nian naturally thought that this was someone's old cow, which was dragged to the government office for slaughter. He never thought that this was just the tip of the iceberg of the inventory in Song Chunlin's space.

Fu Nian had originally thought that the old beef would be too tough to chew and was ready to swallow it. However, as soon as he put the boiled beef in his mouth, he tasted something different.

"This meat tastes very different from pork." Lu Ming was the first to ask the question.

Song Dazhuang smiled and picked up another piece of food for him with chopsticks: "Come on, if it tastes good, eat more."

Having lived in the Song family for almost a year, Fu Nian and Lu Ming were both smart people. They immediately realized that this was the Song family's unspeakable secret, so they smiled and ate all the meat.

Song Chunlin sat at the children's table this year. Song Chunsheng, who had no children after getting married, also sat at this table with Zhou Ning. The two of them were the oldest, but they did not forget to take care of the two youngest while eating, boiling meat and picking vegetables for them.

Song Chunlin was afraid that Li Gensheng would not be able to relax, so he specially put a mountain of dishes into his bowl.

"Eat more. It's only for the next two days. When you start eating leftovers every day, no one will think it's delicious."

This New Year's Eve dinner lasted from day to night. Everyone held their round bellies and sat slumped in their chairs, refusing to move.

Everyone rested for a while before clearing away the dishes. The family took the food away and started making bread and dumplings.

The custom of making dumplings only came into being after they came to Beijing. In previous years, their family did not make them, but this year they have followed the local customs.

The fillings were prepared early in the morning. There are three kinds of fillings in total: leeks, shrimps and eggs, cabbage and pork, and the Spanish mackerel filling which is rarely seen here.

As a native of Beijing, it was the first time for Zhou Ning to hear of fish as a stuffing, and he immediately became curious.

Although Chen Yuer's name contains the word "Yu", she actually hates eating fish the most. Before she even started wrapping the dumplings, she could smell a fishy smell and couldn't help asking, "Will this fish filling taste fishy?"

Song Chunlin patted his chest and assured: "Don't worry, Second Aunt, these dumplings stuffed with Spanish mackerel will definitely not smell fishy. You will know after you try them. They are delicious."

Chen Yuer just smiled at this, and the rest of the Song family had the same expression. It was because they also doubted whether the fish buns would taste fishy.

Song Chunlin knew at a glance that they did not believe in him, but he was very confident because he followed the tutorial exactly. Not only did he use scallion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell, he also added a few drops of cooking wine. He had smelled the taste and it was definitely not fishy.

Although everyone was still skeptical, the dumplings were made very skillfully. Song Chunlin said that if copper coins were put inside the dumplings, the person who ate them would be blessed and have good luck in the coming year. The Song family thought it was interesting to make dumplings this way, so Aunt Song went out of her way to wash a handful of copper coins, scald them with boiling water, put them on the chopping board, and asked everyone to put them in.

Song Chunlin looked at the handful of copper coins with some embarrassment, thinking that with so many coins in his wallet, it would be strange if he didn't get to eat anything.

With the whole family joining in, the work was not tiring. It was not even midnight yet and the three large pots of dumplings had been filled with stuffing, and all the copper coins had been stuffed in. There was still a lot of dough left, and Amma Song said to save it for making pancakes tomorrow.

As it was approaching midnight, the younger ones could no longer open their eyes. Even Li Gensheng felt a little drowsy. Grandpa Song and Auntie Song were too old to hold on any longer, so Song Qinshi and Chen Yuer cooked the dumplings together.

Just after midnight, the first pot of dumplings came out of the pot. They were the ones with cabbage and pork filling that everyone liked. The little ones woke up immediately when they smelled the fragrance. Song Chunxiao was still squinting his eyes, but his little nose was moving as he sniffed the dumplings. Amma Song was so happy that she woke him up. When Song Chunxiao opened his eyes, he saw a large plate of dumplings, steaming on the table.

"Wow, dumplings!" Song Chunxiao kicked his short legs and struggled down from Grandpa Song's arms. He lay on the edge of the table, staring at the dumplings that had just come out of the pot.

Seeing how greedy he was, Auntie Song quickly picked up a piece and put it in the small bowl in front of him, and reminded him: "Let it cool before eating."

Song Chunxiao nodded in agreement but his hands did not stop moving. He held the small spoon and wanted to feed the dumplings into his mouth. If Song Chunming had not been quick, he would have burned his mouth.

"Brother, I'm hungry." The little boy tilted his head and looked at his brother pitifully, but his brother was unmoved. With a stern face, he blew the dumplings to cool them down for him before feeding them to him.

Seeing that there were dumplings to eat, Song Chunxiao stopped pretending to be pitiful. He bit off half of the dumpling in one bite, chewed it twice, and his face fell.

"Wow, wow, Xiaobao can't chew it."

Song Chunlin had a dark face and put his hand to his mouth, asking him to spit it out. Song Chunxiao lowered his head and spat out a copper coin.

Grandma Song smiled and said, "Oh, our little treasure is really amazing. He got good fortune with his first bite of the New Year. He will be healthy and full of blessings in the coming year."

Song Chunxiao was a little confused when listening to what Song A'mo said, but his grandfather praised him for being so capable, so the boy started laughing.

As everyone's bowls were filled with dumplings, some people gradually ate the dumplings with copper coins in them. As Song Chunlin thought, with so many dumplings wrapped with copper coins, only a few people would not be able to eat them.

After the last dumpling was eaten, everyone in the family, except the youngest Yuanyuan, ate the copper coin dumplings. Surprisingly, Song Daha ate the most. Song Dazhuang complained to him that it would be unreasonable if he didn't have a child this year.

Song Dahe was not afraid either, and embraced his wife openly: "Then I have to work hard today and try to add another person to the family next year." After saying that, Song Dahe did not forget to look at Song Chunsheng and raised his chin to his nephew:

"Chunsheng has to work hard too. You got married earlier than me, your uncle."

Chen Yuer knew what had been said when she heard it, and couldn't help pinching his waist and whispering in his ear: "Say less."

Song Daha also reacted and knew he was in the wrong, so he could only smile foolishly.

Song Chunsheng and Zhou Ning looked at each other. Song Chunsheng looked at the elders and spoke slowly: "Grandpa, little grandpa, Ning Ge'er and I are not planning to have children yet. We want to have another child in two years. Ning Ge'er and I are still young, so there is no rush."

After hearing what he said, Grandpa Song and Grandma Song knew that he was a man with his own ideas. Although they were anxious to have a great-grandson, what Song Chunsheng said made sense. When Zhou Ning first got married, he was so thin that they were afraid that the wind would blow him away, so they did not object to Song Chunsheng's proposal.

"It's good that you know what's going on. Take this opportunity to take care of your health with Ning Ge'er. Then you can give me a big, plump great-grandson. My life will be worth it."

Listening to the elders talking about her and her husband having children, Zhou Ning, who was young after all, lowered her head with red cheeks. Even Song Chunsheng's face had a faint pink color. He said "ok" embarrassedly.

After talking about his grandson, Grandpa Song turned around and looked at Song Dahe again: "Dahe, I know you two are newlyweds, but your health is more important. The blood clot in your head has just been cleared, so you have to be more careful on weekdays and don't work too hard. And Yu'er, you and your son have suffered a lot in the past two years. As for the child, your little father and I are not in a hurry. It's really good for you two to be healthy. If it doesn't work out, don't we still have Gensheng?"

Hearing what her father-in-law said, Chen Yuer lowered her head with red eyes.

Song A-Mo also spoke up: "Although you two have moved out, you still have to come home for dinner often, okay?"