Chapter 14 New Year’s Eve

It was already dark after the consultation. The Wang family repeatedly invited Su Huai to stay and celebrate the New Year, but Su Huai insisted on going home.

“Xiao Yuan is still at home, watching the stove and waiting for me.” Su Huai felt a little warm in his heart after saying this. It seemed that this was the first time since he came to Shihe Village that he didn’t have to be alone on New Year’s Eve…

With such a mood, his pace of returning home was also much faster. When he was about to reach the entrance of the alley, Su Huai was stopped by a man in gray clothes with lowered eyebrows and submissive eyes.

“What are you doing here?” His low voice echoed in the alley, and the lingering sound was also unfriendly. The sky became darker and darker, just like Su Huai’s gloomy face at this time.

*

When Su Huai came back, he seemed to be in a bad mood. His appearance of keeping strangers away made Lu Yuan, who was holding forceps as a weapon, a little discouraged.

 After taking two deep breaths, Lu Yuan walked forward:

“Um… Brother Su, are you… okay?”

Pooh! Lu Yuan, you are such a coward! Aren’t you here to call him out? What’s the point of this kind of caring?

Su Huai glanced at him, and his ferocious eyes immediately suppressed all of Lu Yuan’s momentum: “I’ll go cook, wait obediently.” After saying that, he went straight to the kitchen with his head down, and he knew not to vent his anger on others.

It seems that today is not a good time to call him out. Anyway, it’s New Year’s Day, so let him go for the time being!

Lu Yuan curled his lips, put the forceps back into the house, and went to the kitchen again. He was just in time to see Su Huai taking out a steamed bun from the steamer, and then staring at a steamer in a daze.

“What is this?” Su Huai picked up a steamed bun with bean filling and frowned a little with disdain.  It was a little hedgehog. Probably because it was not wrapped properly, the black bean paste leaked out of the bun skin, making the white skin dirty. And the hedgehog’s spines didn’t stand up for some reason, but instead stuck to its body limply, as if it had scabies.

Lu Yuan suddenly didn’t want to admit that he made that thing. He coughed twice and said in a gentle way: “That… don’t you think he looks like a hedgehog?”

“…” Staring at the dirty bun for a long time, it seemed that he could see a flower. Su Huai was stunned, and the hedgehog in his hand was snatched away by Lu Yuan.

“Forget it! You look sarcastic!” Snorting, Lu Yuan took a bite of the bun.

He has to say… it’s… really unpalatable.

 “What is this?” Su Huai withdrew his hand, and Lu Yuan failed to grab the steamer. Su Huai picked up a little rabbit, took a bite, and said vaguely: “A mouse?”

“Ahem…” Lu Yuan’s face turned black after being choked by the steamed bun. He went to grab the steamed bun. Su Huai stuffed the whole steamed bun into his mouth, freed his hand to grab Lu Yuan’s wrist, then put the steamed bun aside, and freed his hand to touch Lu Yuan’s face.

“You…” Lu Yuan was shocked. He opened his mouth and couldn’t hold the steamed bun in his mouth. Su Huai pushed it directly, and most of the steamed bun was stuffed into Lu Yuan’s mouth.

“Don’t waste food!”

“Mmm…”

“It’s so dirty!” Su Huai wiped the bean filling off Lu Yuan’s face with his hand, and wiped his lips full of steamed bun residue.

“Mmm…” Lu Yuan’s face was red, and he didn’t know whether he was choked or angry.  But Su Huai’s face seemed not as stiff as before.

When Lu Yuan finally swallowed the steamed bun, Su Huai had already started making dumplings. The filling was pickled pork meat. It looked crystal clear and had a fresh sour smell. It was a bit tempting. Lu Yuan was embarras sed to watch and followed to help. Although he didn’t know how to make dumplings, he knew how to wrap dumplings. The two of them rolled the dough and wrapped it, and they worked harmoniously.

When they were almost done, Su Huai left a pile of dough for Lu Yuan to work on and went to cook.

The carp had its bones removed, but the scales were not scraped. It was directly cut open and laid flat. The fish head and tail were slightly cut and stood up. The oil was heated in the pan, the fish was fried, and it was served in golden yellow.  Then he used a large pot to boil the sauce, which had a strong sweet and sour taste. He took the sauce out of the pot and poured it over the burnt carp. The bright brown soup flowed over the burnt carp, making a sizzling sound and overflowing with fragrance. Lu Yuan was stunned and couldn’t help swallowing his saliva.

“Brother Su, what kind of fish is this!” After wrapping the last crooked dumpling quickly, Lu Yuan hurried over and took the opportunity to help carry the plate. He smelled it again and again. The sour taste made him hungry. Recently, he really has no resistance to sour things. This New Year’s Eve dinner is sour fish and dumplings stuffed with sauerkraut, which is exactly what he wants. Thinking about it, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but smile ostentatiously.

“This is called fried carpin sweet sour sauce, which is a famous dish in the town restaurant. It’s troublesome to make. Today is the New Year, so you can get it for free.” The plate was pushed into Lu Yuan’s hand. Su Huai turned around and was busy boiling water to prepare dumplings.

 After Lu Yuan had cleaned the table and put the fish on the table, Su Huai took out two long eggplants from the pickle jar in the yard and brought them in on a plate. The long eggplants were stuffed with coriander and minced garlic, sprinkled with salt and marinated in the jar. They could be taken out as needed. The eggplants were cool and had a garlic aroma, perfect for drinking.

Finally, he went out to pick up dumplings and brewed medicinal wine. He asked Lu Yuan to bring them into the house. After Su Huai set off firecrackers at the gate of the yard, he followed him into the house.

The charcoal fire in the house was burning vigorously, and the swaying candlelight reflected a warm and cozy room. Su Huai washed his hands and turned around to see Lu Yuan sitting cross-legged on the earthen kang, staring at the food and waiting hard.

For some reason, Su Huai wanted to laugh at this moment.

 The kang was warm, the aroma of food and wine filled the air, the crackling of charcoal fire filled the ears, and the noise of firecrackers outside the house was loud. Su Huai looked out from the wooden lattice window and could vaguely see the light of day. Turning around, he saw Lu Yuan, who was eating vigorously. The sour and crispy dishes were obviously very much to his liking. His furry head was facing him without even raising his face.

Medicinal wine was poured into the pottery cup, making a smooth sound. Lu Yuan suddenly raised his eyes, curved his shiny little mouth, and laughed out loud: “Brother Su, I want some too!”

Looking at the pottery cup pushed by Lu Yuan, Su Huai frowned: “This is medicinal wine, which can drive away the cold, cure diseases and ward off evil spirits. You can drink a sip, drink less.” He poured a small half cup. Su Huai was still frightened by Lu Yuan’s behavior after drinking last time.

“Medicinal wine?” Lu Yuan shook the wine glass, obviously very dissatisfied with the little wine.

 “You don’t know medicinal wine?” Su Huai was stunned. Drinking medicinal wine during the New Year is a custom, just like setting off firecrackers on New Year’s Eve. How could anyone not know about it? Seeing that Lu Yuan didn’t seem to be lying, Su Huai frowned even more tightly.

Lu Yuan’s hand holding the wine glass froze slightly, and then he realized that he seemed a little timid. He quickly lowered his head: “I… Although I came here since I was a child, my hometown is not here, and I have never celebrated the New Year here… So I don’t know anything.”

This body originally looks different from the villagers, and the hair color alone is very strange. Lu Yuan’s statement is also reasonable.  But it does sound a bit pitiful that he has never celebrated the New Year. He is a stranger with no relatives, but clumsy, delicate, and looks like he has never suffered. He is handsome, and also a fugitive who committed incest…

Su Huai’s face darkened slightly, and he couldn’t help but have some unpleasant associations. He drank half a cup of wine and said lightly: “The scars on your body have almost recovered. After the fifteenth, I will send you to the town to find a job.”

Just throw away this hot potato!

Su Huai still didn’t say the last sentence.

“Ah! Thank you, Brother Su! Then I can pay you back quickly!” Lu Yuan didn’t hear the mystery in his words at all. He only thought about going to the town to make money, paying off Su Huai, and maybe saving some money to buy a lamb to raise. When the lamb produces milk, he can sell it to the newborn babies in the village. This is a big business!

 The more he thought about it, the smoother it became. Lu Yuan drank the medicinal wine with a smile, and his body was warm from drinking it: “By the way! Brother Su! You brewed this wine by yourself! You are a first-class cook and you are also good at brewing wine. Haha, if you didn’t say you were a doctor, I would definitely think you were a cook!”

“…” Su Huai didn’t answer this time, but just drank a few more glasses of wine silently.

After a full meal, Su Huai cleaned up the dishes and kept up the new year by lighting the red lanterns in the yard. When he entered the house again, he found that Lu Yuan’s face was ruddy and he fell asleep on the earthen kang.

 Walking over, he could faintly smell the alcohol in Lu Yuan’s breath. He was holding his coat, smacking his lips, and mumbling drunkenly: “A bamboo basket costs one penny… One hundred and fifty pennies can buy a lamb… It’s so hard… Hehe… Go to the town to work and you can make more money… Then buy a lamb…”

The peak of his eyebrows twitched, Su Huai bent down and pushed Lu Yuan: “Get up and wipe your face before going to sleep.”

“Hmm…” Impatiently pushing Su Huai’s hand away, Lu Yuan muttered: “Mom, don’t bother me! Let me sleep for a while…”

His movement froze. Su Huai was silent again: “Who is mom?”

“Hmm… so annoying…” After rolling a few more times, Lu Yuan scratched his neck, his collar a little messy: “I have to go to work tomorrow, I have an operation… Mom, don’t worry about me!”

Su Huai’s face was completely dark, his eyes followed Lu Yuan’s exposed neck and looked down. He vaguely saw a light red mark in the slightly open collar. Su Huai hesitated for a moment, and then reached out to tear Lu Yuan’s clothes…

On the slightly pale chest, there was a red mark as big as the belly of a finger, in an oblong shape, which was a bit like the name he gave him. But this is not the key point, the key point is that this color of birthmark means that this person, this tall and slender man, is a little ger! Or a little ger who has lost his virginity!

“Who… are you?”

“I told you to stop annoying me! You don’t even recognize your son!” Lu Yuan grabbed Su Huai’s wrist in annoyance, and then roared drunkenly, before suddenly opening his eyes.

 When their eyes met, Lu Yuan was stunned, and Su Huai was also stunned.

“Brother Su… why did you touch me?”