fake god

In the small city of Jiaojiang, the winter solstice is definitely a big festival that can be compared with the Spring Festival.Other festivals can be modified with the word "pass", such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Double Ninth Festival, and the Spring Festival, but the word "do" should be used for the winter solstice, which is enough to prove that the local people attach great importance to this festival.One week before the winter solstice, the hostesses of the family will start to prepare the "nine large bowls" for worshiping ancestors during the winter solstice. The statues and tablets placed in the alcove should also be carefully removed, and the children will clean them respectfully. , Waiting for the arrival of the big day of the winter solstice.

The winter solstice on the north bank is more particular than that on the south bank. One day in advance, the most prestigious mayor of the town will personally go to the north mountain to fetch water.This water is called Changliu water, and a special ceremony will be held before the water is drawn to express gratitude to the god of mountains and water.The retrieved water will be enshrined in the Buddhist temple in their small town on the North Shore for people to wash their hands during the winter solstice sacrifice the next day.

Lu Ping had to attend class for the water-drawing ceremony the day before, so he couldn't make it in time; but the winter solstice was on holiday the next day, so he had a whole day to watch the ceremony.

Lu Ping told his parents in advance that Shen Yuze would spend this winter solstice with them.Of course, Lu's father and Lu's mother had no objection, and An An also welcomed her with both hands and feet.

Lu Ping asked: "By the way, what time does the winter sacrifice ceremony start this year? I will inform Shen Yuze to let him arrive earlier."

"Every year the ceremony starts before dawn. How can he catch up with him when he comes from the south bank?" Father Lu said bluntly, "Anyway, you have class the day before, so let Xiao Shen come to live with us directly after class."

Lu Ping: "But our guest bedroom has become a utility room now, where does he sleep when he comes?"

"Sleeping in your room, of course." Lu's mother felt that he was talking stupidly. "The bed in your room is 1.5 meters wide. You two boys will definitely be able to sleep if you squeeze together."

Lu Ping fell silent.

Although...but... well, Lu Ping thought desperately, anyway, it's not the first time they slept on the same bed.

Lu Ping relayed this matter to Shen Yuze. Shen Yuze didn't expect to have such "benefits" if he celebrated his birthday early.

For him, his birthday has very complicated meanings.That not only means that he has entered adulthood in the legal sense, but also means that he can finally take control of his life.In the past, he planned to obtain his share of property from the trust organization early, then persuade his mother to divorce, and then take her to leave the country... If Deng Hong insisted on not leaving, then he would go abroad to study alone.In short, he wants to leave, he wants to leave the swamp of the Shen family, the farther the better.

But since he met Lu Ping, those utilitarian thoughts gradually faded away, and he began to look forward to his birthday like a 17-year-old ordinary boy.

On that day, there will be gifts, blessings, and Lu Ping by his side.

This will be the most anticipated birthday in his 18 years of life.

……

The day before the winter solstice, there was another freezing rain in Jiaojiang.The rain was not heavy, and it fell on the leaves, then rolled down along the veins, fell into the river network, and finally flowed into the sea along the river.

The weather was wet and cold, but fortunately, the heater was turned on in the car in advance, and it was very warm.

Lu Ping and Shen Yuze got into the car, and the wheels rolled towards the north bank.

Crossing the familiar bridge across the river and crossing the long embankment on the north bank, there are fewer and fewer commercial buildings and more and more pedestrians on the road.The air on the North Shore is filled with an indescribably sweet aroma, which is a mixture of brown sugar and glutinous rice.

The car is parked at the entrance of the Lujia alley, not because the driver is lazy, but because the car can’t go in. Looking into the alley from the entrance of the alley, the ground is spotlessly cleaned, and there are altars and braziers at the door of every house. The old people at the alley saw motor vehicles Approaching, I immediately greeted him, chirping in the local dialect: "The car can't go in, you have to cross the dragon at the gate!"

So the two had no choice but to get out of the car. Shen Yuze asked the driver to go back to the South Bank and pick him up tomorrow night, and then walked there with Lu Ping.

When they walked to the gate of Lu's house, they happened to meet an old lady coming out of Lu's house. She was holding a bag of things in her left hand and money in her right hand, and she was about to stuff it into Lu's mother's arms.

Lu's mother refused to accept the money: "No need, no need, we are all neighbors, and we should help each other during the winter solstice!"

The aunt and Lu's mother pushed back and forth for a while, seeing that Lu's mother really refused to accept the money, they could only say thank you countless times before leaving.

Before leaving, she greeted Lu Ping with a smile: "Pingping, are you out of school? Is this your classmate? She looks pretty handsome!"

Lu Ping greeted her, pointed to Shen Yuze and introduced to her: "He is from the north. I was afraid that he would be too lonely to do the winter solstice alone, so I took him home."

"It's very good." The aunt turned to Shen Yuze and told him in very difficult Mandarin, "The Lu family's winter solstice circle is the best in town, little classmate, you have something to eat!"

For the upcoming winter solstice, Lu's parents and mothers didn't go out of the stall today. They were busy at home cleaning and preparing the ancestor meal for the next day.Because the Lu family has its own small courtyard, the table for ancestor worship is not placed on the road like other homes, but in the yard.

An An was wiping the fruit offering carefully with a small square towel, when she saw Shen Yuze coming, her eyes lit up, and she immediately ran over sweetly.

"Brother Shen!" The little girl hugged his waist, coquettishly, "Brother said, you want to celebrate the winter solstice with our family, right?"

"Hmm." Shen Yuze bent down and picked her up, "It's the first time I'do the winter solstice". Can An An tell me about your habits here?"

The little girl was worried that she had nothing to talk about with Brother Shen, and when Shen Yuze asked her something, she said it all.The north bank pays more attention to the winter solstice than the south bank, and pays more attention to it. The annual winter ceremony is very complicated for adults, but for children, it is a rare good day to set off firecrackers and eat winter solstice circles.

That's right, you don't eat dumplings during the winter solstice in Jiaojiang, but you have to eat "winter solstice circles".

People in Jiaojiang love to eat all kinds of glutinous food. Winter Solstice Balls are glutinous rice balls.Although Jiaojiang is a small town, the customs are different from east to west, north to south, and even the winter solstice circle has its own appearance.

It is also made of glutinous rice. Some of them are as small as beans. After cooking, they are fried with lard, vegetables and seafood to make a dish; some are as big as fists and wrapped in dried tofu. , shiitake mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, radishes, and pork, steamed in a pan; there is also a kind called Leiyuan, which is as big as a table tennis ball. After cooking, it needs to be rolled in fried brown sugar powder and soybean powder. A few laps, so that the whole body is covered with powdered sugar...

An An's favorite is the last kind of sweet Renyuan.

"Okay, your saliva is about to flow down." Lu Ping couldn't see it, and hugged An An from Shen Yuze's arms.

An An embarrassedly wiped the corners of her mouth, and sure enough, she touched the wet saliva.

The aunt who came to the door just now came to her house to borrow glutinous rice flour. Her glutinous rice flour was damp and unusable, and the store closed early, so she had to come to Lu's house for help.Who doesn't know that the Lu family is in the embedded cake business, and the most important thing in the family is all kinds of japonica rice and glutinous rice. Mother Lu didn't ask for money, so she filled a bag full for her family.

Shen Yuze asked very interestedly: "So are you going to eat Leiyuan tonight?"

"Don't eat it today." Lu's mother shook her head, "Leiyuan is for tomorrow morning, and eating it on the day of the winter solstice will make you happy."

Lu Ping's stomach was growling with hunger, and he hurriedly asked, "Then what's for dinner tonight?"

Generally speaking, if you eat "nine bowls" (some places eat eight bowls) on the day of the winter solstice, you will have a simpler dinner the day before.But even if it's just a bowl of ordinary noodles, Lu Ping is still growing, and he has already digested the little thing he ate at noon.

When Mother Lu heard what he said, she didn't answer directly. She just smiled and said, "It just so happened that you came back. We just finished cooking, and we'll wait for you to come back to cook. Take Xiao Shen to wash your hands, and you can eat after washing." gone."

They quickly put down their schoolbags and took their sister to wash their hands.

The little girl is short, and she has to step on a small stool when she washes her hands. She just finished wiping the fruit offering table, and her hands are covered with dust. Lu Ping helped her foam her hands, and even cleaned the crevices of her fingers before putting them away. she goes.

"Brother, you are so annoying!" An An complained, and deliberately put her wet hands on her brother's clothes to dry them, and then scurried away.

Shen Yuze smiled and watched the two brothers and sisters fight.

Lu Ping asked why he was laughing.

Shen Yuze stretched out his hand in front of him, and said deliberately: "I don't know how to wash my hands either, so you can wash it for me, I don't think you are annoying."

"I think you're annoying!" Lu Ping was so disgusted that he threw a handful of water and splashed it on Shen Yuze's body. Fortunately, Shen Yuze hid in time to prevent the water from splashing on him.

An An is seven years old this year, and the two of them are exactly seven years old together.

By the time these two nerds, who were exactly seven years old together, came out of the bathroom, dinner was already steaming on the table.

It wasn't the noodles that Lu Ping had expected, nor the soup and dishes that are common for hospitality, but...a whole three plates of dumplings.

At this time, Lu's father happened to come out of the kitchen, holding the fourth plate of dumplings in his hand.The dumplings are white and fat, and they are pushed and squeezed together on the porcelain plate, and they are crowded together lively, warming this freezing rainy night.

After seeing the dumplings, Lu Ping was stunned, and Shen Yuze next to him was also stunned.

Papa Lu wiped his hands on the apron embarrassingly, and asked his son to translate his words for him.

"My dad said...Although we eat leiyuan here during the winter solstice, I'm worried that you won't be used to eating dumplings. He heard that people in the imperial capital eat dumplings every year. He was afraid that you would be homesick, so he specially asked my mother to make them for you. Dumplings."

"..."

"My dad also said that there is no seafood in the dumplings, they are just ordinary pork, cabbage and vegetarian three delicacies. Oh, he said that when you came to the house last time, you seemed to like to eat lychee sandwich meat. I also made it today, and it is still on the stove. It’s simmering. It’s such a cold day, let’s eat the dumplings later.”

"..." Shen Yuze looked at the four big plates of dumplings on the dining table, and then at Lu's father and Lu's mother who showed simple smiles, with mixed feelings in his heart.

When I was in the Shen family, there was no custom of eating dumplings during festivals.During the holidays, chefs are busy in the kitchen all day, and a large table of delicacies from mountains and seas is set up for a family feast, but few people will really finish the meal.Every time everyone in the family gets together, either the atmosphere is oppressive and no one speaks, or they just ridicule each other, and it ends with Shen Guoning throwing chopsticks.

Shen Yuze does not look forward to the festival like his peers, because it represents endless quarrels, a depressing atmosphere, and seeing annoying people.

But in Lu's house, next to this table of steaming dumplings, he felt the warmth of a festival for the first time.

"Thank you." Apart from these two words, Shen Yuze didn't know what other words he could use to express the complexity in his heart, "Thank you, uncle and aunt, for making dumplings for me. In fact, you don't need to accommodate me."

"Okay, let's be polite with us." Lu Ping raised his chin, motioning for him to move the stool by himself, "Sit down quickly, you can't even move your eyes away if you don't see An An staring at the dumpling."

An An shouted shyly, "Brother!"

The family of four and Shen Yuze, a non-staff member, sat down around the dining table.

Lu's mother took care of everything from making the stuffing to rolling the dumplings. Although she is self-effacing and not good at making dumplings, in Shen Yuze's opinion, this is definitely the most delicious dumpling he has ever eaten in his life.

……

There were nearly [-] dumplings. I thought there were too many dumplings, but I didn't expect that they were almost finished.

"There are only eight left, don't keep them overnight." Lu's mother looked at the plate and said to her lover, "You three men, each of you will divide into two, and An An and I will eat one more each. Let's finish our efforts. "

Lu Ping's face was wrinkled, and he scratched his neck with his hand, indicating that he had eaten up to his throat: "I can't eat pork anymore, I want to eat vegetarian food."

"It's all mixed together, how can you tell?" Mother Lu didn't care what her son said, and gave them a few dumplings.

An An worked hard to eat her own dumpling, Lu Ping let out a long sigh, and started to attack the last two in his bowl.

He was lucky, the first dumpling was vegetarian.After eating two bites, he picked up the second one.

It's a pity that the goddess of luck didn't stay by his side all the time. After biting open the second dumpling, it turned out to be meat!

At this time, the shortcomings of not having a dog at home are revealed-if you have a dog, you can quietly throw the dumplings that you can't finish, and naturally the dog will help clean up.It's a pity that his family doesn't have a dog, but he has a younger sister...

Lu Ping's eyes aimed at An'an.

An An immediately reached out to cover her bowl, and raised her hand to report: "Mom! Brother can't finish his dumplings, so he wants to stuff them for me!"

"!!!" Lu Ping was shocked, "Who said that, I didn't even move my chopsticks."

Lu's mother: "Pingping, how old are you, and you still bully your sister?"

Lu Ping pretended to be wronged: "I really don't have one, and you are listening to this Tianzhu girl talking nonsense again."

The two brothers and sisters were chattering, when suddenly a pair of chopsticks stretched out from the side and picked up the leftover dumplings in Lu Ping's bowl.

Lu Ping looked up along the pair of chopsticks, and saw that Shen Yuze picked up the dumpling naturally and brought it to his mouth.

Lu Ping blushed: "...that's what I bitten."

Shen Yuze replied calmly: "Well, I don't dislike it."

Lu Ping: "..."

The strange thing is that, except for Lu Ping himself, the other Lu family members at the table didn't think there was anything wrong with Shen Yuze's behavior. Instead, they all felt that Shen Yuze was too fond of Lu Ping, and even ate all the food he couldn't eat for him.

What kind of relationship friends would do this kind of thing so naturally.

……

After eating the dumplings, Lu's father and mother went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Lu Ping carefully wiped the table with a rag, and brought out a stack of golden paper.

When seeing the paper, An An's little mouth pouted: "Why do you have to fold gold paper again!"

"Don't you usually like to take handicraft classes at school? It's better to do it at home than to do it at school." Lu Ping gave one-third of the gold paper to his younger sister, "This is yours, hurry up and finish it, or you won't be able to finish it if you don't." sleep."

An'an let out a long voice, "Hey~~~", and the ponytail shook listlessly.

Shen Yuze looked at it strangely, picked up a piece of gold paper and played with it in his hand: "What is this stacking? Is it for Jidong?"

"Yes, we will worship our ancestors during the winter solstice, so we have to fold the gold paper." Lu Ping flexibly folded the gold paper back and forth as he spoke, and in just a few words, a square piece of gold paper was folded. Folded into gold ingots. "When the ancestors are worshiped tomorrow, the gold ingots will be taken and burned, so that the ancestors in the sky can receive them."

Shen Yuze asked: "Can I stack it?"

"Do you want to stack them? It's a bit boring, and you will rub your hands full of gold."

"Well, it feels quite interesting."

Seeing that Shen Yuze really wanted to stack gold ingots, Lu Ping simply dragged a chair and sat beside him.

"Follow me, fold in half first." Lu Ping picked up a piece of gold paper and folded both sides in half first.

Shen Yuze followed his instruction and folded the gold paper in half neatly.

"Then fold the narrow side diagonally." Lu Ping took another step.

Shen Yuze also followed suit.

"Turn it over again." Lu Ping taught seriously.

"It's turned over." Shen Yuze studied hard.

The young man's fingers were long and slender, his skin was like jade, and the golden colored paper was twirling and rolling at his fingertips, his posture was extremely elegant.

...However, the gold ingots he folded were crooked and ugly.

On the North Shore, even kindergarten children can fold a beautiful gold ingot, but!Shen Yuze!Actually!Can't fold it! !

Lu Ping was dumbfounded. He didn't understand why Shen Yuze's stacked steps were correct, but in the end he stacked up an ugly mass of [beep——]?

However, the instigator spread his palms innocently, showing the ugly [beep——] in all directions, and asked Lu Ping, "Is this all right?"

Lu Ping was expressionless: "Do you think what you stacked and what I stacked are the same thing?"

"Well," Shen Yuze compared carefully, "There is a slight gap."

Lu Ping: "...There is more than a slight gap!"

Lu Ping almost got started directly, and taught Shen Yuze to fold, but Shen Yuze stacked more and more slowly. He obviously looked serious enough to overcome some scientific research problem, but the actual finished product was a mess.

He sighed deeply: "Forget it, forget it, don't fold it."

"Does Pingping think I'm causing you trouble?" Shen Yuze blinked his eyelashes lightly, and looked at him with those deep eyes—this guy always knows which trick Lu Ping likes the most.

Lu Ping immediately disarmed and surrendered: "No, it's not." He racked his brains to come up with an excuse, "It's like this. In fact, when we fold gold ingots, we are not just playing origami, but we are combining the blessings to our ancestors with our own. Wishes are stacked together."

As he said that, Lu Ping picked up a piece of gold paper, and while quickly stacking gold ingots, he muttered: "Ancestors of the Lu family, I hope you live comfortably in heaven; please bless your descendants, Lu Ping, to make progress in their studies and get into the ideal exam." university."

Lu Ping did not lie completely. In the local area, no one would buy finished gold ingots for ancestors. They were all folded by their own family members;The work of stacking gold ingots has always been left to the most beloved descendants or new daughter-in-law in the family.

Not only Lu Ping is making a wish, but An An is also making a wish.

An An's wish is in line with her age: "Grandpa and grandma in the sky, please bless An An that she has endless dresses to wear every day, and candy that can't be eaten every day."

Lu Ping reminded him: "Ni Tianzhu, if you eat sweets again, you will get rotten teeth!"

"Hmph." An An said proudly, "The wish is for grandparents, not for you."

The brothers and sisters were busy arguing and didn't notice that Shen Yuze took another piece of gold paper silently and folded it seriously.

This time, Shen Yuze wrote very slowly and carefully, straightening the lines every step of the way, so as not to make any mistakes.As he folded, he muttered something in a low voice.

With his unremitting efforts, a round gold ingot was born in his hands.

Lu Ping was both surprised and delighted: "Hey, you actually succeeded in stacking!"

Shen Yuze smiled, and put the gold ingot into the stack of papers that Lu Ping and the others had folded.

Lu Ping asked: "You were also making a wish just now, weren't you? What wish did you make?"

"Can wishes be spoken?"

"Of course." Lu Ping asked impatiently, "Didn't I say it just now?"

He was really curious what Shen Yuze would wish for.In Lu Ping's eyes, Shen Yuze already has a lot. He has a smart mind, a perfect appearance, and a lot of money. The only regret is that the family relationship is too complicated. What wish would he make? Will he wish for family harmony?

"My wish is——" Shen Yuze paused for a second, he stared into Lu Ping's eyes, and said softly, "——if there are gods, then let the wishes of those around me come true."