Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

On New Year's Eve, the whole yard is brightly lit, and even the houses with no one around are lit with lights or candles.

In the dining room, as many as a dozen candles and lard lamps were lit, illuminating the whole room. The whole family sat around the table to eat New Year's Eve dinner together, including several cold dishes and several hot dishes.

Vegetables include fish, meat and chicken.

The fish were brought out by farmers in the river north of the back mountain. They dug a hole in the ice and put a net in. After a few days of work, they could harvest something. Most of them were crucian carp, so this fish was

Fish soup, stewed with tofu.

The meat came from the pigs that were newly killed in Zhuangzi on the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month. As a scholar, Xia Ru naturally got a lot.

Put them together in a pot and cook them, and then process them when you eat them, stir-fry them, or make them cold.

The chicken was a free-range chicken fed with wheat bran in the yard. Xia Yuan took a bite. It must be an old chicken that was declining. It was very old. It must have been raised for a long time. The meat was a bit raw and tasted chewy.

In addition to these dishes, there are also some snacks brought back from the capital, but these things are just for filling the stomach. If you really want to be full, you have to wait until the dumplings at midnight.

Yes, it is also necessary to eat dumplings on New Year's Eve in the Ming Dynasty, or there is a custom of eating dumplings. Dumplings and Jiao have the same pronunciation. On New Year's Eve, the turn of two years, when we say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, dumplings have a special meaning, so we take the word "Jiaozi".

meaning.

Of course, there was no television in Ming Dynasty, and the Spring Festival Gala could not be watched, so New Year’s Eve dumplings had not yet fallen into the embarrassing status of later generations.

The three words "making dumplings and smashing them" will not be hated by countless people. However, eating dumplings in the Ming Dynasty paid more attention to it. The emphasis was on making the dumplings at the end of the year and eating them at midnight.

After nearly an hour of the New Year's Eve dinner, Xia Shu and Zhao Yuerong left the table first to make dumplings and smash them in the kitchen, while Xia Zhu and Xia Chen had already gone wild with a bag of firecrackers.

Xia Ru was drunk and sat on his seat, chattering to Xia Yuan: "I'm happy, I'm so happy, Brother Yuan, I told your aunt this morning that I passed the exam.

Hey, at first your aunt was dissatisfied that I spent all day studying in my room, and said that because of my reputation as a scholar, I could be exempted from taxes and corvee. She was so happy in her heart that she insisted on taking the examination.

After failing the exam twice in a row, she always said that I was not qualified for the exam, and studying all day long was a waste of time. I would rather spend more time talking to her. I was angry and argued with her many times.

She also had several disagreements with me."

"Humph." Xia Ru laughed happily, "But now that I have passed the examination, I feel proud and proud. I killed her dignity in front of the grave, and I also told her,

You misjudged me at first. My study all day long was not in vain. Now I am lifting people. I am lifting people.

I have endless leisure every day. I no longer read any books. My husband can talk to you every day and talk to you a lot, but you can’t.”

At this point, Xia Ru choked up and couldn't speak anymore. Then he wiped the tears with his sleeves desperately, not wanting the tears gathered in his eyes to fall down the corners of his eyes.

"I can't cry. I've already passed the exam. Why should I cry? It's just a joke for her to see. This is something to feel proud of. Yes, feel proud!"

Xia Yuan looked at him silently, then turned to look at the yard, and then said: "Uncle, let's go out and set off fireworks."

"Okay, let's set off fireworks!"

After saying that, Xia Ru suddenly stood up, wiped his tears with his sleeves, and walked towards the courtyard first.

Xia Yuan followed silently, and then shouted in the courtyard, "Xiao Qizi, quickly bring Shu Niang out to watch the fireworks together."

Soon, the two girls clapped the flour on their hands and ran out of the kitchen. Seeing this, Xia Ru quickly wiped a handful of flour on his face with his sleeve and sniffed hard.

Xia Yuan dragged out a large wooden box from the main room, took out all the fireworks inside, and placed them one by one in the open space in front of the courtyard.

The fireworks he received from Zhu Houzhao were of various types, such as combined firecrackers, thousand-flower bombs, flash cannons, and three-level waves.

At this time, the sky in the distance was also lit up, and clusters of fireworks exploded in the sky.

These fireworks all come from the north, which is the direction of the capital. Perhaps it is because the nights in this era are very dark, or perhaps because there are not too tall buildings and the view is not blocked.

Or perhaps these two conditions are met, so that fireworks set off dozens of miles away can be seen.

These fireworks come in large and small sizes. The small ones are almost blurry and cannot be seen unless you look carefully. What you can see are the big ones.

Xia Yuan estimated that it was set off in the palace or in the homes of nobles in the capital. In this era, there was a very large fireworks stand, which was a collection of fireworks. How huge was it? It was as high as three or four meters. If you look at it from a close distance, , when the cannon blasted up, the whole sky was bright.

And standing at such a distance, you can only see a group of fireworks exploding, even vaguely, which is not interesting.

But the fireworks that the people of Xiajiazhuang watch every New Year's Eve are basically the ones from the capital, but they are lucky this year.

After placing the fireworks boxes one by one, Xia Yuan greeted, "Everyone, step back, everyone, step back, I'm going to start lighting the fires."

As he was talking, he heard the sound of footsteps not far away. He turned around and saw two small red lanterns swaying. When the two lanterns got closer, he saw clearly that they were the two Xia Zhu brothers.

Xia Yuan joked: "Hey, you two have pretty good noses. You know that fireworks are going to be set off and you come back by smelling them?"

"No, we saw the fireworks in the capital in the north, remembered that there were some at home, and then ran back to set off the fireworks."

"Yeah, let's set off fireworks."

Xia Chen nodded and sniffed hard, and coincidentally, Xia Ru also sniffed at this moment. The little kid turned his head and looked over, and then he laughed happily, "Hey, dad, you are also a snot kid." .”

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Soon, the little kid paid the price for his words.

He was hit twice on the head and kicked twice on the buttocks. Xia Chen held his head with one hand and his buttocks with the other hand, pursed his lips, sobbed and wiped away tears.

He felt extremely wronged. His elder brother would tease him when he had a runny nose and call him a snot baby. His father, who had a runny nose, would be beaten if he said he was a snot baby.

Xia Yuan sighed quietly, why bother?

He took out the fire folder from his arms and handed it to Xia Su next to him, "Here, I'll let you light the fire. Remember, run as soon as you light it. Don't get blown up."

"Um."

Xia Zuke nodded heavily, took the fireworks, blew them up, and then eagerly stepped forward and pointed the fireworks at the fuse of one of the fireworks boxes. Hearing a sizzling sound and sparks flying, he seemed to be going crazy.

ran away.

Then there was a popping sound, and a ball of flame shot out from the box, soared into the sky, and then exploded in the air with a popping sound, lighting up the night sky here.
Chapter completed!