The Pentium Era - South to North

The four people sat and chatted. After a while, Chen Yaqin's father and grandfather were called to help. Grandpa sat in front of the stove to add firewood and stuffed the firewood one by one into the stove. The father held a knife. , chopping a piece of dark ribs.

After it was chopped, Chen Yaqin’s mother took it to wash, then put it on a plate. When she brought it back, there were two pots on the wood stove. The one on the outside was used for cooking and cooking, and the one on the inside had a steamer sitting on it. , Chen Yaqin’s mother put the plate of dark ribs into the steamer.

There is also a tiled platform in the kitchen. On the platform is a gas stove, with two casseroles sitting on the two burners above. It seems that all the stoves in the house have been put to use today.

Chen Yaqin's family knew that Chen Yaqin had to work overtime yesterday and could not go home, so she could only come back today, so she simply ate yesterday. Meaning, today's meal was prepared for the eve dinner, and with the addition of Meng Ping, it became even more important. There was a lot of fanfare.

Several old people were busy, while Chen Yaqin and Meng Ping continued to sit and warm themselves by the fire. Meng Ping asked, don't we need to go over and help?

Chen Yaqin smiled and shook her head: "No need, there is no need for five people to prepare a dinner. If we go there, it will only cause chaos."

Meng Ping nodded and continued to eat his fennel beans. A plate of fennel beans was almost finished by him. Chen Yaqin smiled and said, this stuff makes your stomach bloated. Eat less, otherwise you won't be able to eat dinner.

Meng Ping said okay and then put the plate down.

Meng Ping saw his aunt busy in the kitchen and asked Chen Yaqin, why did he see your aunt but not your uncle?

"My uncle is dead." Chen Yaqin said.

Meng Ping said sorry quickly, and Chen Yaqin smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, he has been dead for more than ten years. My aunt's son, my brother, is in the army again. He only comes back to visit relatives every two or three years. My aunt thinks she is alone." It was too lonely to live in my own home, so I came to live in ours.”

Meng Ping nodded, understanding.

"You're the only one in your family. You don't have any younger brothers or sisters?"

Meng Ping asked, feeling strange in his heart that at Chen Yaqin's age and living in a rural area, she shouldn't be an only child.

"What are you doing, checking your household registration?" Chen Yaqin asked with a smile, but she continued: "No, my mother was in poor health when she was young. She couldn't give birth to one of me."

"No, I can't tell. It doesn't look very good."

"Why not? I mean, when I was young, this person was still weird. As my mother got older, her health got better and better. She often said that it was God's rule that she could only have someone like me. Child." Chen Yaqin smiled.

Meng Ping couldn't continue to eat fennel beans, and Meng Ping always felt that he had no where to go. He held a poker in his hand, and while talking to Chen Yaqin, he kept using the poker to stir the fire in the brazier, not to stir up the fire, but to stir up the fire. It's purely for fun.

Chen Yaqin looked at him and chuckled. Meng Ping asked curiously, "Why are you laughing?"

"Don't you know that children who play with fire during the day wet the bed at night?"

Chen Yaqin asked, Meng Ping also laughed, and put down the tongs embarrassedly. After a while, he couldn't help but pick it up again. Only then did he think of it and looked at Chen Yaqin.

Chen Yaqin smiled and said: "Let's play, let's play. Anyway, you just sleep for one night. It doesn't matter if you pee. You won't sleep again tomorrow."

It was getting dark outside, and the dishes had begun to be served over there. After a while, an Eight Immortals table was filled with dishes and plates.

Chen Yaqin's mother invited them to come over for dinner. Chen Yaqin stood up and led Meng Ping to the stairs to wash his hands. Before going back to the hall, on the Eight Immortals table, there was a pig's head in the middle, with fish, shrimp and chicken on the side, surrounded by ten sumptuous dishes. Several dishes.

Chen Yaqin's father asked Meng Ping to sit on the upper seat facing the door, but Meng Ping refused no matter what. In the end, his grandparents sat on the upper seat. Meng Ping and Chen Yaqin sat on the left, and her mother and aunt sat opposite them. Chen Yaqin's father sat alone. People, sitting with their backs to the door.

The wine is already warm and served in a thermos so it doesn't get cold.

Chen Yaqin carried the thermos bottle and walked around the table, adding wine to Wanli in front of each of them. Even her grandmother, mother and aunt each poured half a bowl of wine. The three men, naturally Full.

After pouring the wine, Chen Yaqin shouted: "I'll take it apart, I'll take it apart."

Meng Ping didn't know what she was going to take apart, so she saw her mother hand her a knife. It turned out that she was going to take apart the pig's head.

Chen Yaqin took a pig tooth alveolar bone and a large piece of meat, put it in front of Meng Ping, and said to him, I'll give you this walnut meat.

Meng Ping picked it up and took a bite, leaving a fragrant aroma in his mouth. The pig's head had been salted and steamed to a pulp in a steamer. Meng Ping couldn't help but exclaim, "This is too delicious."

Everyone else at the table laughed.

Chen Yaqin took it apart while she was doing it. By the time she finished taking it apart, most of the pig's head had been divided.

She also sat down and began to eat the pork head.

After Meng Ping finished eating, Chen Yaqin brought him another piece. Meng Ping then thought that he was too busy eating the pig head meat and did not toast to everyone. He quickly raised the wine bowl and toasted his grandfather and grandma first.

After a round of toasts, and just as she sat down, Chen Yaqin took another piece of the dark ribs that her father was chopping in front of her and gave them to Meng Ping. She told him that this is our Shaoxing specialty, the sauced pork ribs. Try it quickly. taste.

Only then did Meng Ping realize that the dark ribs were marinated in soy sauce and dried in the sun.

Meng Ping took a bite and found it to be indescribably delicious. It tasted very similar to sauce duck, but the meat was chewier and more fragrant than sauce duck.

"It's delicious, it's delicious." Meng Ping kept nodding.

This whole night, he didn't even know how many times he had to nod his head to express his praise. There were so many delicious things that he couldn't even compare them to see which one was more delicious than the other.

Anyway, it’s delicious.

After this meal, Meng Ping was full, and Chen Yaqin asked him if he wanted to continue warming himself by the fire or go outside for a walk.

Meng Ping said quickly: "I need to go for a walk. I'm eating so much that I can't even sit down."

Chen Yaqin said okay, then I will accompany you for a walk.

The two of them walked out of the courtyard and passed by the drying area. Chen Yaqin took him, not towards the brightly lit village, but towards the dark outside of the village. Someone called them from behind, and when they turned around, it was Chen Yaqin's father who chased him out. , he seemed to know that they were going out of the village, so he caught up with a flashlight and gave it to them.

On the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the moon in the sky had only a thin and shallow bend, but this place was far away from the city, and the stars were huge, so the earth was not dark. The two people walked in the dark for a while. adapted.

The environment here was familiar to Chen Yaqin. She had a flashlight in her hand, but she didn't turn it on.

Not far from the village, the two people came to an unknown small river. Shaoxing is a water town. There are such crisscrossing rivers everywhere in the region, like capillaries, distributed between villages, towns and fields.

They saw a small stone pier by the river. There was a awning boat tied to the pier, and the roof of the canopy had been folded to one side. Meng Ping was very interested and asked Chen Yaqin, could he sit on it?

"Of course." Chen Yaqin said.

When the two people walked down, the boat was shaking more than Meng Ping imagined. If it weren't for Chen Yaqin holding the bow, Meng Ping would almost fall down in the cabin. Chen Yaqin and Meng Ping said, "Sit down, just sit down." .

Meng Ping sat down, and sure enough, after the center of gravity was lowered, the boat was no longer as rocking as before.

After Chen Yaqin saw that Meng Ping was seated, she untied the cable, got on the boat lightly, and sat down face to face with Meng Ping.

She picked up the oar in the cabin and started rowing. The boat immediately left the dock and headed forward.

"Is it okay if we just row other people's boats away?" Meng Ping asked.

"What does it matter? We can just paddle back later." Chen Yaqin said.

…

At night, Meng Ping slept in Chen Yaqin's room, and Chen Yaqin went next door to sleep with her aunt.

Chen Yaqin led Meng Ping to brush her teeth and wash her face in the bathroom at the head of the corridor on the second floor. As soon as Meng Ping returned to the room, Chen Yaqin followed with half a basin of cold water and a hot water bottle. She and Meng Ping explain:

"Soak your feet to make yourself comfortable."

Meng Ping quickly said thank you!

"When you finish washing, the water will stay in the basin. No need to pour it. I will pour it again tomorrow morning." Chen Yaqin warned.

Meng Ping said yes.

"Also, if you sleep in tomorrow morning, I will call you so you don't have to get up too early." Chen Yaqin smiled and said, "We won't go back until tomorrow afternoon."

Meng Ping said okay, I understand.

Both of them were silent. After a while, Chen Yaqin whispered: "Then I went to sleep?"

Meng Ping nodded and said yes.

Chen Yaqin opened the door and went out, closing the door gently. Meng Ping heard her walking to the next door and heard the sound of the door next door and her aunt's voice.

Meng Ping brought the washbasin to the bed, added hot water, sat on the bed and washed his feet. After washing, he saw Chen Yaqin bringing it as a footcloth for him. It was a new towel with a paper label on it. Meng Ping did not tear it off, so Meng Ping had no use for it. Instead, he moved his feet alternately and wiped his feet dry on his trousers.

Meng Ping put his feet into his shoes, picked up the foot-washing water on the floor, walked to the bathroom at the end of the corridor, poured out the water in the basin, swung the basin with water, and then came back with the empty basin. .

Meng Ping took off his clothes and pants and sat on the bed. He was surprised to find that Chen Yaqin had stuffed a hot water bottle into the bed at some point. The whole bed was warm. Meng Ping's heart moved and he felt warm.

Meng Ping sat blankly on the bed and looked around. Chen Yaqin's room was very plain and elegant, even a little too plain. There were no celebrity posters on the walls like most girls' rooms.

It was getting late, and the night in the countryside was extremely quiet. Meng Ping could hear one or two dogs barking in the distance. The barking was so incomprehensible that it was embarrassed to continue barking.

Meng Ping also heard the sound of his grandfather coughing upstairs, and the faint sound of Chen Yaqin and her aunt talking quietly from next door.

I don't know if it was the energy from the night's drinking or something else, but Meng Ping felt slightly dizzy.

He turned off the light and lay down. He smelled a faint fragrance on the pillow. This fragrance was Chen Yaqin's.

This night, Meng Ping slept deeply. He felt as if he was rocking on the awning boat in front, and he soon fell into sleep.

This dream should not be broken.

Thank you Feng Qingyang and Muren for your monthly votes! Thanks for all the votes and reading! I wish you all a happy life!