Siheyuan: Five mouths waiting for food at the beginning

Twenty-four, clean the house

Didn’t Zhao Shanhe go to see Uncle Ma after get off work, so he didn’t participate. In fact, Zhao Shanhai and Daya and Erya finished the house in one day.

Twenty-five, make tofu,

26. Go Cut Meat

Twenty-seventh New Year chicken

The end of the year is approaching, and today is the day for everyone to receive their salary. Zhao Shanhe’s salary is still sent by the Finance Department.

Twenty-eight facial hair

Today is the last day of work. Everyone is no longer working. They are just cleaning and preparing to go home for the New Year after receiving their benefits. The benefit of the steel rolling mill is two kilograms of meat per person. Lao Li gave Zhao Shanhe five kilograms and a piece of pork fat.

The meat for several leaders is prepared in advance, and it is all fat meat. The workers need to line up to get it. If they go early, they can get the fat meat, but if they go late, they will only get the lean meat.

The Technology Department distributed several apples, which was an exclusive benefit for the department, and of course Zhao Shanhe got one too.

Zhao Shanhe found a sack, put his meat, as well as those of Qin Jingru and Zhao Shanhu, into it, and rode back on his bike. Zhao Shanhu and Qin Jingru had to wait until after get off work.

Moreover, Zhao Shanhe had to go to the Ministry of Industry to claim his benefits. Minister Wang had said at the beginning that he would have a share of the benefits of the Ministry of Industry. Besides, Zhao Shanhe was originally from the Ministry of Industry.

The welfare in the Ministry of Industry was similar to that in the steel rolling mill, also two kilograms of pork, but not more. He only got a small amount of rice in the Ministry of Industry. Pork was a hard currency in that era, and usually a person only had a few ounces of meat. However, the Ministry of Industry also distributed fruits and a Daqianmen rice bowl.

Twenty-nine steamed buns

However, Zhao Shanhe had completely rested, but Aunt Chen had not yet. She was in the department store and could not rest until noon on the 30th. She had to work during the New Year. The same was true for Zhao Shanhu, who had to work during the New Year. Qin Jingru and Daya steamed the steamed buns today.

As Aunt Chen is at the department store, we have arranged in advance for the New Year gifts, so he can just pick them up tomorrow.

But it was not the same for other people. The New Year was like a war. They had to line up in their big cotton-padded jackets in the early morning and waited for hours. When they came back, they found that their jackets were torn or their hair was messy. It was no different from a war.

On New Year's Eve, Zhao Shanhe went to the department store to pick up something. There were still a lot of people there, but it was only open until noon.

The things were just melon seeds, peanuts, cakes, candies, firecrackers, etc. Aunt Chen could have brought them back. He was mainly there to pick up the things left by Aunt Cheng. (Uncle Cheng’s wife, as mentioned above, was the head of the department store, and she was the one who usually took care of Aunt Chen.)

Arriving at Aunt Cheng's office, "Shanhe is here. Is everything ready? Remember to come to Aunt Cheng's house for dinner tomorrow."

Zhao Shanhe didn’t have a system, so he had to buy these gifts himself. They were all good wine and cigarettes, and he spent nearly two hundred yuan.

On the way home, Zhao Shanhe went to the pharmacy and bought some medicinal herbs, which were actually seasonings. At that time, some seasonings were still considered medicinal herbs and could only be bought in pharmacies. The main purpose of buying seasonings was to braise pig heads and pig trotters.

When Zhao Shanhe returned home, the couplets had already been posted on the door. The couplets were written by Yan Bugui and posted by his son. This was probably an early form of home service, mainly to earn writing fees.

Yan Bugui's fees were not expensive, just peanuts, melon seeds, candy, etc., and the better ones were a few cents. His family didn't buy these every year. By the 30th, he earned enough by writing Spring Festival couplets. I heard that the red paper and ink were all left over from the school's reporting activities. He really did not get poor if he didn't eat or drink well, but he would be poor if he didn't plan well.

After entering the house and putting down my things, I found that there were only a few women in the house. After asking, I found out that there was a meeting in the Central Courtyard. Shanhu and Shanhai had gone to the meeting.

Zhao Shanhe went to the Intermediate Court to see the situation. When he arrived at the Intermediate Court, Liu Haizhong was speaking with a manuscript in his hand.

What a mess, what I wrote is nonsense, a complete mess. That’s just the final words, I wish you all a happy Chinese New Year and all the best.

The next step is Yan Bugui. Yan Bugui’s speech is very simple. He means to wish everyone a happy New Year in advance and wishes everyone a happy Spring Festival, good health and all the best.

Yi Zhonghai's uncle was fired, so he didn't speak up.

Liu Haizhong was next. He thought that everyone should celebrate the New Year together. Tomorrow, we should hold a group party. Each household should contribute some peanuts and sunflower seeds, and then celebrate the New Year together. Then everyone agreed. It was actually good not to have to go door to door.

In fact, this idea was proposed by Yi Zhonghai. There are only two people in his family, him and his wife, and an old lady. This year, his status as an uncle was stripped, and he was afraid that no one would come to his family to wish him a happy new year, so he proposed this idea. It just happened to be what everyone wanted, killing two birds with one stone. In previous years, his family was very prosperous.

Yi Zhonghai also celebrated the New Year with the Jia family and Sha Zhu's family. Each family contributed something. In fact, the Jia family benefited the most because they had a large family and Sha Zhu was a chef, so they didn't have to cook and could eat delicious food. Of course they were happy about it.

Sha Zhu was also happy because he was spending the New Year with his sister Qin, so he brought all the New Year goods prepared by his family to the Jia family.

Yi Zhonghai proposed it, and of course he agreed. Shazhu was his old-age backup, and Banggeng was his old-age support partner and god-grandson. The deaf old lady was just a bonus.

Yesterday, which was the 29th, the neighborhood office also came to Zhao Shanhe's home with gifts to express their condolences, because his father was a martyr, and they sent him early New Year's greetings. There wasn't much, just meat and flour, and some peanuts and sunflower seeds.

This year can be said to be the fattest year. Zhao Shanhe's family had more than ten kilograms of meat (seven kilograms for Zhao Shanhe, two kilograms for Qin Jingru, two kilograms for Zhao Shanhu, and three kilograms for Aunt Chen), as well as pig heads and wild rabbits sent by his father-in-law's family. This year, Zhao Shanhe's family didn't even have to buy meat. It was different for other families. The workers all had two kilograms of meat, and it was estimated that it would be gone after eating on New Year's Eve.

Zhao Shanhe's family also has some defective cloth that Aunt Chen bought from the warehouse some time ago, enough for everyone to make a piece of clothing. In previous years, they had to wear patched clothes, but this year they finally don't have to.

The division of labor in Zhao Shanhe's family was very clear in the afternoon. Zhao Shanhe was responsible for braising the pig's head. In fact, he just added some seasonings. Zhao Shanhai was watching the fire, and Aunt Chen was responsible for boiling lard. The whole yard was filled with the fragrance of Zhao Shanhe's family.

It smelled so good, especially the braised pig's head and pig's trotters. The whole yard was filled with the smell of braised pork. It was only the afternoon and other families had not started preparing the New Year's Eve dinner yet. A group of children gathered in front of Zhao Shanhe's house. It was the New Year and Zhao Shanhe was happy. He generously gave each child two pieces of pork lard, of course only to those who said good things.

In fact, every child said nice words, including Banggeng. It is not shameful to say a few nice words for the sake of delicious lard residue.

After the meat is braised and the lard is cooked, everyone starts making dumplings. They make pork and green onions dumplings with some lard residue in them. They must taste delicious. Two of the dumplings even have coins in them.