The Snail Spirit Travels to the 1970s

Tian Tian slept very soundly. It felt like she had not slept for long when she was woken up by Lin Meiyu.

She drowsily sat up with her eyes closed, "What time is it now?"

"It's past eleven o'clock. We have finished wrapping the dumplings. Your grandma and second aunt are cooking them over there now. We will eat after they finish cooking. Your dad is going to set off firecrackers soon. Your two younger brothers have also gone out. Do you want to go out and take a look?" Lin Meiyu covered Tian Tian with a quilt and asked gently.

Hearing about going out to set off firecrackers, Tian Tian nodded, sat on the kang to wake up for a while, then put on his clothes and went out to watch them set off firecrackers. As expected, Tian Lisong, Tian Baobao and the other two were all in the yard, and a long string of firecrackers was lined up outside the gate.

Tian Lisong was holding a stick with sparks in his hand. When he saw Tian Tian coming out, he shouted, "Tiantian, cover your ears. Don't get scared. Dad is going to set off firecrackers!"

Tian Tian obediently covered her ears and moved back a little further away from the string of firecrackers.

Tian Lisong took a fire stick and lit the firecrackers, then quickly ran under the eaves. Tian Baobao and Tian Zhuo also ran back excitedly.

Just as they stood up, there was a crackling sound outside the door. Even though Tian Tian covered her ears and had prepared herself mentally, she was still startled.

Hearing the sound of firecrackers outside, Tian Baobao and Tian Zhuo screamed excitedly, and Tian Lisong also laughed. Hearing their voices, Tian Tian also became a little excited and laughed with everyone.

Tian Lisong bought a string of small firecrackers. The firecrackers were not long and soon all the firecrackers were set off. Although Tian Baobao and Tian Zhuo were a little unsatisfied, they were both very happy.

"Okay, we've finished setting off the firecrackers, let's go inside quickly, it's too cold outside! Don't freeze to death!" Tian Lisong said.

It was really cold outside today. Tian Tian stood outside for a while and felt that her hands and feet were frozen.

So as soon as the firecrackers were set off, she ran into the house without Tian Lisong saying anything.

The food was all ready. A large table was placed on the floor of the east room. The table was full, with a plate of dumplings in each of the four corners. Chen Guihua and Lin Meiyu were still cooking in the room.

Old Mrs. Tian brought a plate of dumplings and placed it in front of the Chairman. On it were some wild pears and wild apples that she had picked this autumn. Old Mrs. Tian specially picked out the good-looking ones to offer.

"Come here! After worshiping the Chairman's statue, we can have the New Year's Eve dinner!" Old Mrs. Tian called to Tian Tian.

Tian Tian felt a little strange and awkward. Although she was a spirit, she had grown up in the wild and had never worshipped anyone. Besides, the Chairman had not died yet.

Although she felt a little strange, Tian Tian remembered that it had been like this for the past few years. It was more serious in the first few years, with three meals a day. Now it is considered better.

She didn't say anything and went to worship obediently with Tian Baobao and the others. She also said a few words from Old Lady Tian's quotations. After worshipping, she sat down at the table and waited for dinner.

Lin Meiyu and the others cooked all the dumplings in no time, then put them on plates and brought them to the table.

"Hurry up! The dumplings are cooked. Let's eat quickly." Lin Meiyu said.

While all the dumplings were being served on the table, Old Mrs. Tian, ​​who was sitting on the edge of the kang, was the first to pick up a piece with her chopsticks, and then everyone started to eat.

Tian Tian looked at the dumplings that exuded the aroma of white flour, picked up one with chopsticks, took a bite, and found that it was filled with shredded radish, which was sweet and fresh. Coupled with the dumpling skin with a strong flour aroma, her eyes lit up, and she dipped it in a little garlic sauce and stuffed the whole dumpling into her mouth.

Then she ate a dumpling from another plate. This dumpling was filled with sauerkraut and pork. The pork was made with the lard that she brought back that day. Except for putting two of them in the pot to enhance the flavor every time she stir-fried the cabbage, Grandma Tian kept the rest until today.

"Eat a pig's trotter and scratch a money rake. You will make a lot of money this year!" Tian Tian had just swallowed the dumplings in her mouth when Old Lady Tian picked up a piece of pig's trotter for Tian Tian, ​​and then picked up a piece for everyone at the table. The whole plate of pig's trotters was gone.

Tian Tian looked at the soft and chewy stewed pig's trotter, dipped it in garlic sauce and put it in her mouth. Her trotter was the tip of the hoof, with a large piece of pig skin and soft tendons attached to it. It really fits the saying that it falls apart as soon as you put it in your mouth.

It’s a pity that there are too few pig’s trotters and there are too many people in the family, so each person can only get one piece.

There weren't actually many dishes tonight, just that they were a little richer than what we usually eat. Most of them were vegetarian dishes, including pork skin jelly made with pig skin and pig trotters, fried dried skin vegetables, scrambled eggs with black fungus, and gourd skin vegetables. The meat dishes included fried pork belly and stewed pig trotters, and the staple food was dumplings.

Although there are many dishes, the portion of each dish is not large and can be eaten in one or two bites. Now I have eaten a lot of the dishes on the plate.

But this is because their family is well-off, so the New Year's Eve dinner is so sumptuous. If it were a normal family, they might only have dumplings for the New Year. Some families don't even have white flour, so they can't even have dumplings.

Also, her family stayed up tonight like they did tonight, and all the lights in the house were on. I don't know how much the electricity bill was for this night. Old Mrs. Tian usually would never turn on the lights unless it was absolutely necessary, and she was so extravagant today because she was staying up to see the New Year in.

There is nothing to say about those who live in houses without electricity. Even during Chinese New Year, people still go to bed when it gets dark. Those who have electricity only turn on the lights until seven or eight o'clock at most, and then turn them off and go to bed.

It is estimated that there are only a few houses in the entire team that still have lights on.

Tian Tian put a piece of gourd peel into her bowl with chopsticks, raised her head and glanced at Tian Lisong secretly. She didn't know whether her family was well-off because Tian Lisong worked as an accountant in the brigade. If so, being a village cadre would be too lucrative.

"Tiantian! Eat dumplings!" Lin Meiyu put a few more dumplings into Tian Tian's small plate. Tian Tian came to her senses and saw that most of the dishes on the table were gone. If she didn't eat faster, she would have nothing to eat. She quickly lowered her head and ate up everything on the small plate, then added a few more dumplings into the bowl and ate quickly with her head down.

We ate the dumplings until we were half full, and then everyone drank a bowl of hot dumpling soup, which made us just barely full.

The family brought all the dishes on the table to the kitchen and quickly went back to their rooms to sleep.