Rebirth of Siheyuan: Starting from escaping famine in 42

It was New Year's Eve. After Li Qingfeng woke up, he took out his watch from under his pillow. He saw that it was not yet seven o'clock and it was still early.

He turned his head and saw Lirong still sleeping soundly beside him.

Li Qingfeng put on his clothes lightly, lit a cigarette, took some toilet paper, and went to the toilet to relieve himself.

After coming out, he went to the kitchen to boil some water so that he could wash up after Lirong woke up.

Li Qingfeng picked the millet and cooked it slowly over a low fire in the stove. He took out a book from the space and sat by the stove, reading while warming himself by the fire.

Less than half an hour later, Wu Lirong, who was lying on the kang in the room, closed her eyes and reached out to touch something nearby. However, she found nothing. She opened her eyes dazedly and murmured softly, "Brother Qingfeng."

Wu Lirong stretched, quickly put on her cotton coat and trousers, folded the quilt, left the house, and came to the kitchen. Seeing Li Qingfeng reading a book seriously, she whispered, "Brother Qingfeng, why did you get up so early?"

"Lirong, you're up! You're used to it." Li Qingfeng put down the book in his hand, helped her mix warm water, and then said: "Lirong, you wash up first! Prepare for dinner later."

"Okay, Brother Qingfeng." Wu Lirong first took the toothbrush and tooth mug to the yard to brush her teeth, and then went back to the kitchen to wash her face.

Li Qingfeng stirred the millet porridge and when it became sticky, he took the porridge down, put a pot of water in it and boiled four salted duck eggs. Then he walked to the stove, put four steamed buns on the steamer, lit a fire, and soon the steamed buns would be heated up.

While the steamed buns were heating up, Li Qingfeng skillfully fried a plate of scallion and egg pancakes and cut a small dish of pickles.

"Lirong, come and eat," Li Qingfeng brought the fried egg pancakes and shredded pickles and put them on the dining table.

After washing up, Wu Lirong walked into the kitchen and took a bowl to serve millet porridge to the two of them.

Li Qingfeng put the steamed buns on a plate, returned to the dining table, handed a bun to Lirong, and said, "Here, Lirong, eat more while it's still hot."

Wu Lirong said, "Brother Qingfeng, please help me break it apart! I only need to eat half of the bun."

"Okay!" Li Qingfeng broke the bun in half and handed it to her again.

After they had breakfast and washed the dishes, they had nothing to do, so they went back to the room, added some firewood to the kang, and lay on the kang, snuggling up to each other and reading.

The leisure time passed quickly, and before they knew it, it was noon. Li Qingfeng added some water to the millet porridge left over from the morning and heated it up. With the snacks, the two of them shared their lunch.

After lunch, Li Qingfeng took a backpack filled with food, while Wu Lirong in the house took a basket filled with two bags of snacks. After closing the doors and windows and locking the door, they held hands and walked towards their master's house.

Arriving at the master's house, they greeted the master. Li Qingfeng asked Lirong to chat with the master while he first pasted up couplets and stickers at the master's house. Then he carried a backpack into the kitchen to prepare the ingredients.

After a while, Li Qingfeng had just prepared the meat filling for making dumplings in the evening when he saw Li Rong enter the kitchen. He asked her, "Li Rong, why are you in the kitchen? Where is Master?"

"Master is out, and I don't know what he's doing." Wu Lirong washed her hands, came to Li Qingfeng, and asked, "Brother Qingfeng, what can I do for you?"

Li Qingfeng turned his head, smiled at her, and said, "Lirong, you just rest aside, I will do it myself."

Wu Lirong heard this, shook her head and said, "That won't work, Brother Qingfeng, find me something to do."

"Okay!" Li Qingfeng raised his head and thought for a moment, then said to her, "Lirong, blanch the chicken and duck that I prepared."

"Yes." Wu Lirong rolled up her sleeves, carried the processed chicken and duck to the big pot, blanched the chicken and duck in water in batches, and washed the blanched chicken and duck with warm water.

He went to the chopping board again and cut the ingredients for cooking, such as onions, ginger, garlic, and dried chili peppers. He put them all in the bowl for Brother Qingfeng to use in cooking later.

Li Qingfeng prepared another bowl of meat filling and stuffed it between the chopped eggplants until he had stuffed four eggplants in total.

Li Qingfeng heated up the oil in a pan and began to fry eggplant boxes, meatballs, vegetarian meatballs, and sweet potato sticks, while Wu Lirong helped to sort the fried foods and put them into bowls.

The two of them cooperated very well, one frying and the other scooping. After about an hour, they had fried all the things they had requested. There were four pots of fried food in total, which were placed on the chopping board one by one.

Then Li Qingfeng let the oil in the big pot cool down, and poured it into the oil tank, leaving only a little oil in the pot. When the oil is hot, add the scallions, ginger, garlic, and dried chilies and stir-fry until fragrant. Then add star anise and other spices, add the chicken pieces, and stir-fry for five or six minutes. Then add soy sauce, white wine, and sugar, stir-fry for a while, add warm water, cover the pot, and add salt to adjust the taste when it is almost cooked.

While the chicken was stewing, Li Qingfeng heated the stew on the stove, cut it into small pieces, put the chopped pork belly directly into the pot without putting any oil in it, stir-fry the fat in the meat, add onion, ginger, garlic, rock sugar, dried chili peppers, star anise, and white wine, stir-fry evenly, then add oil and soy sauce to color it, bring it into warm water, and add salt to taste when it is almost cooked.

For this year's New Year's Eve dinner, Li Qingfeng did not stir-fry much, but ordered four fried dishes, namely, a stewed goose, stewed chicken with mushrooms, braised pork, pork rib soup, fried eggplant boxes, fried meatballs, fried vegetarian balls, fried sweet potato, fried tofu with scallions, and fried peanuts.

There are ten dishes in total, symbolizing perfection.

The food was ready and served on the dining table. After Li Qingfeng and Wu Lirong made a cover of dumplings, they went to call their master to have the New Year's Eve dinner. They also lit a string of firecrackers in the yard.

Wu Lirong took the bottle and poured wine for Brother Qingfeng and Master.

After Li Qingfeng toasted with a glass of wine, he asked his master, "Master, are you out this afternoon?"

"Well, I went out for a walk, what's the matter?" Quanfu replied and continued to drink and eat.

Li Qingfeng shook his head and said with a smile: "Master, it's nothing, just asking casually."

After they finished a bottle of wine and were almost done with the New Year's Eve dinner, Wu Lirong got up to make dumplings.

Li Qingfeng handed out a cigarette, lit it for his master and himself, and then said, "Master, on the second day of the Chinese New Year, I will go back to Li Rong's parents' home with her. You can cook something for yourself that day!"

Quanfu nodded, indicating that he understood.

After eating the dumplings, Na Quanfu smoked a cigarette before going back to rest.

After her master left, Wu Lirong accompanied Li Qingfeng to keep watch. After midnight, Wu Lirong cooked dumplings in the kitchen while Li Qingfeng went outside with a string of firecrackers, lit a cigarette, and used the cigarette butt to light the firecrackers.

"Crackling."

The sound of firecrackers was unusually loud in the quiet night. As the firecrackers sounded here, firecrackers rang out one after another in the city, like a symphony.

After the firecrackers were set off, the two men finished their dumplings and went back to the house to sleep. They didn't keep watch in the middle of the night. Wouldn't it be nice to sleep with his wife in his arms?