New Year’s Eve.

　　There was a layer of snow on the ground in the Li family’s yard, and on the branches of the osmanthus trees planted in the flower bed. It looked very beautiful from a distance.

　　Li Da was wearing a sheepskin waistcoat, a new purple quilted jacket and a cashmere hat. He came out of the house and saw the snow falling non-stop. He couldn’t help but sigh: “The snow is heavy. The crops will be good next year with enough rain and snow. But the snow keeps falling. I hope the roofs of our village won’t be crushed by the snow.”

　　”It shouldn’t happen, Dad. This is the capital city. Maybe it didn’t snow in our Xiping Village. Even if it did, there are people in the village to help look after it. If it snows heavily, they will definitely help clean it up.” Gu Zhao came out and said to his father.

　　Li Da nodded, “That’s true. The second brother also has me as his elder brother in his eyes now.”

　　Gu Zhao walked back to the corridor to the kitchen in front to have a look. Li Da took a broom and began to sweep the snow. Gu Zhao saw it and said, “Dad, it’s okay if you don’t sweep it. It won’t get in the way if you walk back to the corridor.”

　　”I had nothing to do, so I picked this job. The more I sweep the snow, the warmer it gets. It’s more comfortable than staying indoors. It makes me feel more energetic.”

　　Gu Zhao didn’t say anything, just told his father to be careful not to get cold. He and Zhou Zhou had been playing together for a while last night, and he didn’t have to go to work, so he let Zhou Zhou sleep in the house for a while. He went to get breakfast and gave red envelopes to Lan Mama and Fang Liu.

　　As soon as they walked out of the second door, Mother Lan had already packed up breakfast. When she saw the master coming out, she bowed and said, “Hello, master. Breakfast is ready. You said you would send it later.”

　　”I’ll bring the food over. There’s nothing to do in the morning. You and Master Fang should go back early to celebrate the New Year and come back on the third day of the New Year.” Gu Zhao gave the two of them red envelopes, half a tael of silver each. This was arranged by Zhou Zhou.

　　Mother Lan took the red envelope but did not open it. Instead, she picked up the food box and said, “I prepared too much today. The master can’t take it all. Let me do it.”

　　Fang Liu also took the food box from Gu Zhao.

　　Gu Zhao let the two of them go. There were two large five-layer food boxes, and no one knew what food Mother Lan had prepared.

　　After breakfast, Mother Lan and Fang Liu bowed and went home.

　　Gu Zhao opened the food box and saw that the plates and bowls were all laid out, including eight-treasure rice porridge, millet porridge, fried dumplings, stewed egg custard, and milk-flavored steamed buns – goat milk contributed by the family’s ewes, as well as petal-shaped jujube paste cakes, red bean paste cakes, pea yellow cakes, and so on.

　　The salty ones include sesame oil pickles, crispy small yellow croaker, and meat patties.

　　Oh boy, there’s also a bowl of roasted lamb.

　　I don’t know what time Lan’s mother got up in the morning to cook. He really has no idea how to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner. This meal in the morning is enough to last their family until noon.

　　”Dad, Zhou Zhou, meal is ready.” After Gu Zhao set the table, he went into the inner room.

　　Li Zhouzhou washed up early and played with Fubao on the bed. It was nothing important, so he listened to her husband. When he heard that it was time for dinner, he went downstairs.

　　”Good morning, Fu Fu.”

　　”Fu Fu howl.” Fu Bao nodded and imitated his father.

　　Gu Zhao kissed his son on the cheek and said, “Let’s go eat~”

　　”This rice is beef~”

　　Fubao can eat complementary food now. Eight-treasure porridge contains beans and peanuts, so it is not suitable for Fubao. Millet porridge made with rice oil is very suitable. There are also small steamed buns with milk flavor. Gu Zhao pinched a piece for his son and let Fubao hold it in his mouth and eat it with a few grains of rice.

　　”So many?” Li Da came in after brushing off the snow on his hat outside. He took off his hat and leather vest and hung them on the clothes hanger at the door. The stove in the main room was warm enough.

　　Li Zhouzhou served porridge to his father, “This is for the whole morning and lunch. I will prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner in the afternoon. You can’t make do with this.”

　　”It’s very sumptuous. In previous years in the village, there were not so many different arrangements of bowls and plates.” Li Da sat down and took the bowl of porridge. He took a small mouthful of porridge, not a lot. With a smile on his face, he teased Fu Bao sitting across from him, “What do you want to eat, Fu Fu?”

　　”Yeah yeah~^[1]he is calling for his grandpa ‘Yéyé’” Fubao smiled at his grandfather with his teeth showing.

　　Gu Zhao broke off a piece of the steamed bun with a milky flavor and handed it to his son. Fubao held the bun in his hand and ate it with his teeth. The adults fed him a mouthful of porridge, and after drinking it, he held the bun in his hand and ground it with his teeth like a little squirrel.

　　”Dad, do you miss the village? The New Year is coming soon, and you mentioned the village a few days ago.” Gu Zhao fed his son porridge.

　　Li Da drank a mouthful of porridge, picked up the bowl of roasted mutton with chopsticks, and said, “Yes, I used to go back every year when I was in the prefecture and county, but it was just like that when I went back alone. Now I am fine.”

　　His son, grandson, and son-in-law are all in Beijing, so why would he go back to the village? He has lived in the countryside for half his life, and when the New Year comes, isn’t this what he thinks about?

　　Gu Zhao said, “We will definitely have a chance to go back as a family in the future, when Fubao is older.”

　　”That’s right, but don’t leave Fu Fu alone.”

　　Fubao was grinding steamed buns with his teeth. When he heard his grandfather calling him Fufu, he looked at his grandfather with round eyes. Li Da smiled and said, “Eat, eat. Grandpa praised Fufu for eating delicious food.”

　　Gu Zhao picked up a small bun for Zhou Zhou and said, “This one is filled with red bean paste, and the bun with folds on top is filled with mutton.”

　　Li Zhouzhou likes sweet things, so he passed the mutton-stuffed buns on the plate to his husband.

　　The buns were no bigger than Fu Bao’s palm. Gu Zhao ate one in two bites and said, “The mutton doesn’t smell stinky. The meat is pretty good. Let’s have a hot pot for the New Year’s Eve dinner, cut a few plates of mutton slices, and make a big bone soup base.”

　　”Sure.” Li Zhouzhou finished eating the red bean paste bun and picked up a mutton bun. After tasting it, it really didn’t have much fishy smell. He said, “I have four more sheep’s feet. I’ll stew them with the duck later.”

　　Li Da agreed immediately.

　　The family chatted while eating breakfast, all they talked about were gossips, and what they were going to have for the New Year’s Eve dinner. After they finished eating, the husband and wife cleaned up the dishes, leaving only one plate of steamed buns, and two plates of sweet snacks with mixed flavors on the table, so they could have a bite when they were free, and they didn’t have to worry about them getting cold.

　　After washing the dishes, Li Zhouzhou began to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner. He slowly tidied up, killing ducks and washing sheep’s hooves. Li Da went to help, while Gu Zhao stayed to look after Fubao and played with his son’s wooden toys of lamb and chicken.

　　In the kitchen, the fire was burning brightly, and it was quite warm and not cold at all.

　　Li Zhouzhou put the washed and disassembled duck in. There was a stove at the back with the whole duck. He thought it should look good when he sold it. When he first came to the prefecture from the village, he found that the people in the prefecture were very skillful in using utensils to eat and drink. Now that he has come to Beijing, he knows from the table of food that Mother Lan prepared in the morning that it has to look good when it is sold.

　　Even Mother Lan said that she was not a real cook, but had only learned a few tricks.

　　Li Zhouzhou wanted to try braising the whole duck, so he kept the stove on low heat for fear that it would fall apart. But when the time came, the whole duck looked a bit ugly, but the one that was braised separately had a beautiful glossy color, and was tender and chewy.

　　The braised duck cannot be served immediately. It needs to be soaked in the marinade for a while to get the flavor.

　　Li Zhouzhou chopped the stuffing and started making dumplings. The sauerkraut pork flavor could also be put into the pot for hotpot in the evening. There were also sliced ​​mutton, fried pork meatballs, fried chicken nuggets, cabbage, and frozen tofu. These were easy to prepare, just need to be washed and cut.

　　Gu Zhao came over from time to time, secretly tasted a bite, and said, “Dad is holding Fubao.” He pinched the freshly fried meatballs and put them to Zhou Zhou’s mouth first. After seeing Zhou Zhou eat it, he took some for himself.

　　”Mmm, delicious.”

　　My husband is still like a child, Li Zhouzhou thought with a smile in his eyes.

　　”Let me try the braised duck.” Gu Zhao lifted the lid of the pot and took a look. “A whole duck?”

　　”I originally thought that a whole fish would look neater, but it didn’t look good after braising. When I first started cooking, I thought that I couldn’t just braise the whole fish, I had to cut it into pieces to see if I could put the pieces together to make it look complete.”

　　Gu Zhao heard this and said, “That’s great, it’s a New Year gift box.”

　　”Just like a snack box.” Li Zhouzhou’s eyes lit up and said, “I thought of it. I ordered a wooden food box and put duck wings, duck necks, and duck legs in it, just like different flavors of snacks, all in one box.”

　　Gu Zhao: “The Li Ji signboard can be printed on the lid of the wooden box.”

　　He knew Zhou Zhou wanted to go for the mid-range market. It was unrealistic to sell the price too high, and it would attract attention. A duck can’t be sold for more than 10 taels, right? That’s expensive. But if he put it in a box and made it look prettier, it wouldn’t be too much to sell it for half a tael or one tael.

　　The money for making the lunch boxes always has to be paid by the diners.

　　”This way, each dish has its own flavor and is cooked to the best possible temperature.”

　　Xiao Gu flattered him, “Zhou Zhou is really smart, wife, give me a hug~”

　　”My hands are greasy.” Li Zhouzhou indicated that his husband was now taller than him.

　　Xiao Gu: “My hands are clean, let me hold the hug.” He hugged his wife tightly.

　　The two of them did not feel bored while chatting and working. When it came to their family sending New Year gifts to Lord Shi, they had to remind Second Brother Yan. The two families should send the invitations on the same day, or Second Brother Yan could send it a day earlier than them.

　　The snow stopped in the afternoon. Gu Zhao took a look and felt that this year should be a good one.

　　Farmers want snow, but they are afraid that it will continue to snow. If it snows too much, it will be a disaster.

　　Everything should be done in moderation.

　　It was dark in the evening, the lights were on in the main hall, and the food was ready, but there was no rush. He wished his father and father a happy new year first.