New Year's Eve is coming soon. The so-called New Year's Eve, the most important thing is the New Year's Eve dinner. In the morning, Li Ran casually cooked some rice cakes, plus two fried eggs per person. The eggs were eggs laid by his own chickens. After hastily eating breakfast, Li Ran will be busy with today's New Year's Eve dinner. First of all, the chicken and meat killed yesterday should be boiled in a pot. In fact, there is another way to steam them in a steamer, and the taste will be better than boiled. However, if it is boiled, it will produce a delicious soup. This soup is very delicious and refreshing when used in cooking. Li Ran likes it very much, so he chose to cook it in a pot.

The chicken and meat have to be boiled in the pot for about two hours before they are fully cooked, and they are very soft and rotten, suitable for children and the elderly. Put the chicken, meat and soup in separate pots, and save them for the New Year's Eve dinner. The next thing is to pick up the rice, which is to make the New Year's Eve dinner. Put the pre-soaked rice and water in the pot and cook it. Steamed in a steamer, it is the New Year's Eve dinner. There was still some rice left in the pot, and it was boiled into porridge. At noon today, the family dealt with it again in this way.

Besides, Ji Nan, he also has his own things to do. After breakfast in the morning, Ji Nan went to the pond at home. For the New Year, there must be fish, no matter how big or small, there must be fish, which symbolizes surplus every year, and life will be better in the coming year. This is in Jijia Village, Li Ran Jinan's family has a pond with fish, and some villagers from the village come to the house to ask if they can sell fish. At the beginning, there were not many people, but as the year approached, more and more people came to ask about it. Later, Ji Nan and Li Ran discussed with each other. It would be more convenient to wait for their family to catch all the fish on New Year's Eve, and then the villagers who wanted to buy fish would go to the pond to buy them.

No, when Ji Nan arrived at the pond, there were already many people waiting to buy fish. Ji Nan took the fishing tools and went to the paddy field to catch fish. A few men who were waiting to buy fish also volunteered to help. The paddy field is not big, the water inside is not deep, and there are not many fish. A few people quickly cleaned up the fish, and several baskets were lined up in front of the house where Uncle Jiang lived, each containing a dozen or twenty fish, and they kept wagging their tails, bringing out some fish. Drops of water splashed on the person who was next to the person. All the fish in the paddy field are here, there are a total of 180 fish. After these fish are sold, it is afraid that Huibin Restaurant will not be able to supply fresh fish for a long time.

Ji Nan set up a small table and a small stool next to the baskets containing fish. On the table was a basin for money and a scale for weighing fish later. Ji Nan sat down on a small stool and told everyone to line up to start selling fish. There were quite a few people who came, and it took a few minutes for the villagers to discuss and line up. The line was quite long.

After queuing up, they began to sell fish. Fu Lang, who was at the front of the line, had been choosing among several baskets for a long time before he picked his favorite and asked Ji Nan to weigh it for him. The people in the row behind this husband kept wandering in several baskets while he was picking fish, and discussed with the people behind him, which fish was the best, and which one he would buy when the time came. fish. The ones at the back were talking quietly with others, and were a little worried that the people in front would pick up all the good fish and leave them with bad ones, blaming themselves for being too intrepid just now, not ranking first. front seat.

In this gap, several villagers went home smiling with the fish they bought. The villagers who were still queuing up were a little jealous and asked those who had bought the fish. More or less, okay? This is because they are afraid that all the fish will be sold out and they will not be able to buy them. The villagers who bought the fish also stopped happily and answered the questioners one by one. After hearing that there were still a lot of fish and they were all very good, they were completely relieved and quietly lined up , Counting how many people are in front of you before you can reach yourself.

And at this time, standing in the middle of the line at the back, there was an old man in his forties who suddenly said in a joking tone: "The fish sold by Ji Nan's family is really expensive. It's almost as much as the usual price of a catty of meat." He didn't wait for the people around him to come back, and said to himself: "This time Ji Nan Li Ran is obviously a member of our village, and he sells the fish raised in his own house to us. It's so expensive, and they don't know how to take care of the villagers, not to mention that their family has made a lot of money this year, so they still want to earn our hard-earned money, which is really heartless."

The people next to him looked at each other for a while after hearing his words. Those who were deep-minded and kind-hearted didn't say anything, but those who had been secretly jealous of Ji Nan's Li Ran's family and those who had broken mouths all echoed, saying that it was indeed very expensive, saying that making money against conscience, Regardless of the friendship of the same village.

These voices are not too loud, but they are definitely not too small. In this courtyard full of discussions, they can just be heard by everyone. He was queuing up in front, and Lizheng, who was about to be his turn, was a little unhappy when he heard this. He stood up from his seat and came to the husband who had just spoken first, with a stern look on his face. , said in a very stern tone: "What nonsense are you talking about here? The couple, Ji Nan and Li Ran, would rather suffer a loss and sell the fish to our villagers, and even lower the price than usual. You're still not satisfied, you're still provoking, if you don't want to buy it, go back, don't be so cheap and act like a good boy. Hmph, I really don't know what it means." Li was talking and looked at the person who just agreed with him warningly.

This husband was a little scared when he heard Lizheng's words, but he looked at the people around him and thought of some people's agreement just now, so he boldly said: "What I said is the truth! This catty of fish sold for ten dollars." Five cents, isn't it killing people? Fortunately, this is a person from our village!"

"You,,," Li Zheng was so angry that he didn't know what to say for a moment, and he had never seen such a thick-skinned person . After the New Year's Eve, the price of goods has risen a lot, even the meat has risen from the previous 22 Wen to the current more than 30 Wen, not to mention the scarce fresh fish in Pingyang Town, which is sold at a higher price in the market. Pork is also expensive. The fish raised by Ji Nan's family sells for 20 Wen a catty, which is more than 10 Wen cheaper than in the market. Hmph, since it's too expensive, don't eat it, and no one forces him to buy it, some people buy this fish.

At this time, Ji Nan had already got up from the small stool in front and came to Li Zheng's side, his face was calm and not very good-looking. Ji Nan's temper was cold and blunt, and he directly opened his mouth to drive away this husband: "Since you think it's expensive, then don't buy it, please go out." After saying this, Ji Nan went back to the front, looking calmly The villagers who lined up said: "Everyone knows that the fish raised in my pond are specially sold to the Huibin restaurant in Pingyang Town, but when the New Year comes, someone in the village comes to ask if my fish is sold? He Xiaoran thought that everyone was from the same village, so he pushed away Huibin Restaurant, and sold the rest of the fish to the villagers. Thinking that it would not be easy for everyone to make money, he specially lowered the price It's almost half of it. But I didn't expect that there are still people who are not satisfied with such a concession in my family, and they are making irresponsible remarks here. Now let me put it here. Some people want to buy this fish. If you don't want to buy it, just let me go, otherwise , don't blame me for disregarding the friendship of the same village." As he spoke, Ji Nan looked at the husband who had just provoked trouble with his dark eyes.

After hearing what Ji Nan said, everyone else echoed. It is said that Ji Nan and his wife have a conscience, they miss the people in the village, and they would rather suffer a loss for themselves... At this time, those people with bad intentions thought of the price of the fish in the town. At this time, those villagers who had just been instigated by that husband all stood up to squeeze him out and run on him with words. The husband from before was dumbfounded. In fact, he also knew that the fish sold at Jinan's house was cheaper than the ones in the town. It's just that he felt uncomfortable and jealous when he saw Jinan making money with a basin. Then you can make a lot of money. And he knew that there must be someone who thought the same as him, so he wanted to take advantage of everyone's feelings to squeeze Jinan. It would be even better if the price of fish could be lowered. This is suffering from a disease called not looking good at others.

However, now he is dumbfounded, obviously he didn't expect everyone to betray him so simply. He was kicked out of here in embarrassment, and when he returned home, his own man knew what had happened, and was told again, and then his man rushed to the town to buy fish, fearing that he would be done buying fish if he went late. After all, it's Chinese New Year, and almost every household has to buy fish, so it must be in short supply. When his man bought a fish from the town, he was scolded again, because the fish bought in the town was not only not as fresh as Ji Nan's, but also much more expensive, costing so much money , can you not be angry!

After this little twists and turns, everyone lined up to buy fish calmly. Until noon, almost everyone in the village bought fish from Jinan, and Jinan took the rest of the fish home.

Ji Nan held a basket in his hand, which contained fourteen alive and kicking fish, and they were all quite heavy. One hundred and eighty fish were sold, and only so many were left. Jijia Village is not very big, with only fifty or sixty households, but some people will buy two because they see the fish is cheap. Of course, the fish they buy are not very big. The big fish in Jinan's family weighed five or six catties, but the small ones only weighed one or two catties. The villagers generally bought smaller fish, and the rest were larger, and none of the five or six catties were sold. Go out, but there are not many fish weighing five or six catties, only five or six.

Li Ran asked Ji Nan to have lunch, and went to put the fish in the basket into the big water tank at home. There are so many fish, it must be impossible to eat them all in a while, and they can be kept in the water tank for a long time. for a while. After Jin Nan had finished eating, Li Ran fished out a few fish from the water tank, put two in his mouth with dried rice, and asked Jin Nan to drive an ox cart to give to Ji Hai, and the other three fish, Li Ran gave to Zhang Guihua, Grandma Ji and Grandma Li each gave one to their families, although they both bought fish themselves.

Ji Hai's house is not very far from Ji's village, and Ji Nan came back very quickly in a bullock cart. After returning from Ji Hai's house, Ji Nan rested for a while, took a hoe, and took Xiao Yuan and Uncle Zhang to the graves of their dead relatives. This is also a custom in Pingyang Town. During the Chinese New Year, the juniors have to go to the graves of their dead relatives, and the husband who married into the house cannot go. This so-called visit to the grave is actually to pull grass and pile mud on the graves of the deceased relatives to prevent the graves from being submerged and collapsed by the grass, and to send them paper money. The three of them went to Ji Nan's relatives first, and then to Uncle Zhang's relatives.

It was already three o'clock in the afternoon when they came back from visiting the grave. Li Ran hurriedly asked their third brother to take a bath. During the time they went to the grave, Li Ran had already boiled two large pots of hot water for the three of them to use. The Chinese New Year is also a small custom here, which means that after washing off the dust and bad luck of the old year, the next year will be better, and only after taking a bath can one wear the new clothes of the new year.

After they take a bath, Li Ran will not take a bath for now. He will not have time to take a bath until after the New Year's Eve dinner at night. Li Ran started preparing for tonight's New Year's Eve dinner, because the earlier the better for the New Year's Eve dinner here, almost everyone started preparing for the New Year's Eve dinner around three o'clock.

The ingredients for the New Year's Eve dinner, Li Ran, have already been washed and prepared, just waiting to be cooked. Ji Nan helped Li Ran to light the fire. Li Ran poured oil into the pot, heated it and sautéed dried chili, ginger, garlic and onion, then poured the soaked dried shiitake mushrooms into the water, and when the shiitake mushrooms were cooked, tore them into pieces. Pour the chicken into it and stir-fry several times, and a dried shiitake mushroom chicken will be ready. It smells very fragrant. Doing the meat according to this aspect.

Then I made the indispensable braised pork, sweet and sour pork ribs, stir-fried pork slices, stir-fried cabbage, braised lion head, boiled fish fillets, radish rib soup and homemade hot pot. In fact, the so-called homemade hot pot is actually the hot pot soup that Li Ran prepared earlier, and then mixed with cabbage, sliced ​​radishes and potatoes, thinly sliced ​​meat, fish fillets, and Li Ran's fried meatballs and fishballs , Li Ran made mung bean sprouts by himself, cooked like this, it's almost like eating hot pot. Originally, Li Ran wanted to make instant boiled dishes, but there were no suitable tools at home, so he could only make do with it.

After Li Ran finished all these, the rice steamed in the pot would have already been cooked. Let's put it on the dining table in the main room together, and arrange the dishes and chopsticks. Li Ran was washing the pot, while Ji Nan was lighting candles and incense. Candles were lit on both sides of the dining table, and three sticks of incense were placed on each side of the gate of the yard, the gate of the main room, and the gate of the kitchen. After finishing these, Li Ran had already washed the pot. Ji Nan went to the yard to set off firecrackers. After the firecrackers were set off, they served the table and waited quietly for five minutes before they could start eating. This was to worship ancestors and gods. It is said that on the night of the New Year, the ancestors and gods will return, so let them eat first.

Although there are not many kinds of dishes for the New Year's Eve dinner, they are very good and the portions are very good. The family of four are satisfied and their mouths are full of oil. He also took out the mountain wine that was left over from the beginning, and even Xiao Yuan, a child, was allowed to drink such a small glass.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, Ji Nan helped Li Ran clean up the mess on the dinner table. After tidying up, Li Ran went to take a shower and put on the new clothes prepared for the New Year. Then Ji Nan went to the yard to set off fireworks, because the family had made some money this year and their lives were going well, so Ji Nan and Li Ran bought fireworks and set them off to celebrate this year's good luck.

After the fireworks were set off, Li Ran took out the melon seeds and preserved fruit snacks and other snacks prepared at home, and prepared to start watching the new year. Uncle Zhang was getting old, so he went back to his room to sleep after half of the guard, and Xiao Yuan also fell asleep a long time ago. Only Ji Nan and Xiao Ran have finished watching the old age.

The author has something to say: Thank you, Shi Yin, for throwing Lei Lei