Chapter 28: Lantern Festival Dinner

Wei Dai stayed in the mountains for half a month. After completing a difficult task, his leader finally approved his vacation.

It’s just that he has asked for leave too frequently in the past six months, and it’s foreseeable that he will have a hard time asking for leave in the next two or three years.

He took the train yesterday afternoon and arrived in the city at four in the morning. He then took a bus for more than two hours and arrived in the county town at sunrise.

At this moment, the state-owned restaurant is already open for business. Hot steamed buns are placed in baskets at the door, and waiters are standing guard at the door. Some people buy steamed buns and eat them while walking out, some people pack them up to take away, and some people with more time get a bowl of clear soup after buying them and eat slowly in the restaurant.

Wei Dai came to the hotel to borrow Lao Bai’s car. It was not easy to go home in the past two days.

Old Bai was not surprised at his arrival. He came to the door, smoking a cigarette, and said, “Your wife said a few days ago that you would be back today. I kept looking out the window and saw you.”

“Have you eaten? Do you want to have a bite before leaving?” Lao Bai asked, pointing at the steamed bun cage.

Wei Dai said, “I’m in a hurry and want to borrow your car for two days. I’m leaving the day after tomorrow and I’ll return it to you then.”

He picked up his luggage and said, “I won’t eat here. I’ll buy some buns and go home to eat.”

“Okay, I have nothing to do these two days, you can use the car.” Lao Bai coughed twice due to the smoke and joked, “You are in such a hurry to go home, you must be missing your wife.”

Wei Dai did not refute and smiled: “That’s nonsense, if you and your wife haven’t seen each other for so long, how can you not miss them?”

As he said that, he went and bought eight big buns.

Seeing that he was eager to go home, Lao Bai didn’t talk much. He pushed the cart to him and waved goodbye to let him leave.

Wei Dai rode hard all the way and soon arrived in Fuyang.

Wen Jiajia had already gotten up and was cooking millet porridge in the pot.

Yesterday, she asked Zhang Xiuli, her neighbor, to help her look after the house, and she paid her some money for it. When she was about to leave, she found that Aunt Zhang had millet, so she exchanged half a pound of millet with her to make porridge for the next two days.

In Wen Jiajia’s opinion, millet porridge^[1]is a dish made from millet grains, which are cooked in water or milk until they resemble porridge. is much more delicious than simple white rice porridge.

After cooking the porridge and feeding the chickens, Wen Jiajia stood absent-mindedly at the door, looking towards the village entrance.

She had a premonition, a strange premonition, that Wei Dai would appear soon.

Wei Dai appeared when Wen Jiajia turned around and wanted to go back to the main room.

The early spring breeze in the south is gentle, blowing the willow trees by the river, and the drooping willow branches ripple on the water.

Just in a gust of wind, Wei Dai appeared in her sight. Wen Jiajia suddenly widened her eyes, waved at him, and smiled brightly.

“Wei Dai!” she shouted, “I just thought you were coming.”

Wei Dai parked the cart, ran in quickly, wrapped Wen Jiajia in his arms, hugged her, and kissed her: “I missed you so much.”

Wen Jiajia was flustered by him but was afraid of being seen, so she hurriedly pulled him into the house and asked, “Have you eaten?”

Wei Dai’s eyes were glued to her, and he lifted the oil-paper bag in his hand and shook it: “No, I bought eight buns in the county town and want to share them with you.”

The breakfast was very rich.

There was millet porridge, bamboo shoots and pork buns, pickled radishes given by Aunt Zhang next door, and greasy salted duck eggs.

It’s the season for eating bamboo shoots recently.

Oh, it shouldn’t be said that the season for eating bamboo shoots begins in mid-winter. The bamboo shoot season lasts until early summer.

In winter, it’s winter bamboo shoots, which are also the locals’ favorite bamboo shoots.

Locals like to cut it into shreds and make various fillings, wrap them in buns, dumplings, or rice cakes and rice slices, and then pair them with meat or pickled vegetables. The taste is delicious.

It can not only be used as stuffing, but also for stir-frying.

Cut into shredded vermicelli and stir-fry with pork belly, shredded carrots, and garlic sprouts. It is delicious whether eaten with rice or alone.

Another way is to slice and stir-fry. Wen Jiajia is used to stir-frying it in a sour and spicy way, which goes especially well with rice. In her family’s winter, this dish is always on the table four or five days a week.

As for spring bamboo shoots, it is not the peak season yet. We have to wait until next month for them to sprout one after another, and we can’t eat them all even if we eat them all over the mountains and fields.

Even Wen Jiajia’s backyard has bamboo shoots sprouting, after all, there is a bamboo forest next to her backyard.

The bamboo shoots we eat now are spring bamboo shoots.

The bamboo shoots were probably blanched and very sweet. There wasn’t much meat, but the amount was just right. The oil and water were enough to bring out the freshness of the bamboo shoots and eliminate the astringency, but it wasn’t too greasy.

Wen Jiajia’s face relaxed as she ate. She drank a mouthful of porridge to moisten her mouth and said with a smile, “This must be the stuffing that Lao Bai prepared. I can tell right away when I eat it. It’s much more delicious than the one prepared by his apprentice.”

Wei Dai had a spirit of not admitting defeat: “I will also make dumplings for you when we get to our new home. There are also a lot of bamboo shoots near the army.”

Wen Jiajia was speechless. Is this even worth a comparison?

“The East is Red” sounded on time, and everyone who was supposed to go to work went to work.

Ever since Wen Jiajia knew she was going to leave, she has not gone to work and has become an idler that the villagers envy.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan didn’t go to school either. They were having a great time recently and could sleep in and get up whenever they wanted.

There was more to eat. Because they were leaving, they did not forbid the two sisters from eating some things at home that were difficult to carry, such as peach cakes and French cakes.

It was almost eight o’clock when Wen Jiajia and Wei Dai had already prepared another wave of things, and they finally woke up after getting enough sleep.

“Uncle Wei?” Wen Chun stood on the threshold with one foot, rubbing her eyes, as if she had not yet woken up.

Wei Dai corrected her: “You should call me uncle.”

Wen Chun smiled and said in a clear voice: “Uncle-in-law!”

Wei Dai couldn’t help but walk up to her, touch her head, and braid her hair.

The sun slowly climbed up the hillside, and the light penetrated through the patio.

Maybe it was because it rained every now and then in the past few days, and the abundant rain washed away the dust. I looked up through the patio and saw a clear blue sky without a cloud in sight.

Without floating clouds blocking the view, the sunlight can shine brightly on the ground, making the main room much brighter.

After helping Wen Chun tie her hair, Wei Dai helped Wen Xuan.

These two girls really need fairness.

Their fairness is that if the elder sister eats a bun, the younger sister must also have one, and it must be the same kind of stuffing. If the elder sister has a red headband, the younger sister must also have a red headband.

If the elder sister has her uncle-in-law tie her hair, but the younger sister doesn’t… the usually lively and smart girl will stare at you with tears in her eyes and shed tears.

It feels like she has suffered a great injustice.

Wei Dai certainly couldn’t make such a mistake, so he helped Wen Xuan get her hair done before she even opened her mouth.

Wen Xuan was indeed very satisfied, raising her chin like a little peacock.

Wei Dai thought that it would be better to have only one child in the future, otherwise it would take too much time to fetch water every day… Wait, he paused and couldn’t help but look at Wen Jiajia.

Wen Jiajia was cleaning the main room. She noticed his gaze and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Wei Dai hesitated, his eyes fixed on her belly.

It took Wen Jiajia several seconds to react, and she almost rolled her eyes in anger.

“What’s that look? Forget it. I don’t have any children.”

Speaking of this, she was actually happy.

I am in my prime years, in the prime of my youth, so it’s okay for me to be troubled by two children. After all, they are just over three years old, and there will be nothing to worry about if I put them in a nursery or a children’s education class.

But if a young child came, Wen Jiajia couldn’t even imagine how devastated she would be.

Wei Dai breathed a sigh of relief, unable to tell whether he was disappointed or relieved.

Everyone around him has become a father, and some of his comrades-in-arms are fathers of three children. Sometimes he misses them a lot.

But Jia Jia is still too young, and it may not be appropriate for her to get pregnant at this age.

After returning to the army, he went to the doctor to ask about pregnancy. The doctor said that his wife was not yet at the best age for pregnancy and it would be best to wait another three years.

Another thing is that he will soon leave for the army, with so much luggage, and he has to look after two children. It is no exaggeration to say that the journey is difficult.

She said she was still pregnant… Wei Dai shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

Seeing that he didn’t say anything, Wen Jiajia smiled and snorted twice: “Are you too confident in yourself?”

Wei Dai was choked. How could he respond to this?

Could he possibly say: I am indeed quite confident.

Because there were two children present, this topic was tacitly moved away.

After packing the luggage, it was time to tidy up.

Wen Jiajia is leaving this time, and no one knows when she will come back next time.

Fortunately, the original owner’s father had no brothers, so even if Wen Jiajia’s household registration was moved away, the house would still belong to her family.

If she had uncles, that might not be the case.

Wen Jiajia had a hunch that this house might be demolished in a few decades, and she would be one of the people to be compensated.

After all, Qianjin Commune is close to the county seat and will be considered the county seat’s radiation zone in the future.

Fuyang and the commune are only a few steps away. In addition, Fuyang has beautiful scenery. Not only is there a huge wild peach forest, but there is also a huge ancient tomb next to it.

If the leaders decades later fail to see the tourism value of this land, they must be crazy.

So, she has to keep this house well.

If possible, she would hire someone to renovate the house every few years.

Wei Dai and Wen Jiajia swept the floor together, and then focused on cleaning the kitchen.

The kitchen cabinets were moved to the backyard. Wei Dai rolled up his sleeves and poured water on the empty cabinets, while Wen Jiajia scrubbed them vigorously with a bamboo pot brush. In order to clean more thoroughly, she also made foam with soap and poured the foamy water into the cabinets.

After cleaning, the cabinet, which was originally slightly black, showed its true color.

The simple, most natural original color of wood, if you smell it up close you can smell the unique wood fragrance.

Wei Dai said, “When parents made this cabinet, they must have used good materials.”

Wen Jiajia was a little confused at first, and then she realized that the “parents” he was referring to were the original owner’s parents.

“Yeah, yeah.” Wen Jiajia nodded.

Not only were the cabinets made with great care, but the entire house was also built with great care.

Standing in the main hall and looking up, you can see that the beams of the ceiling are made of huge logs that require one to open one’s arms to embrace them.

The supporting pillars are also very thick, not much different from those in the temple.

This kind of wood can only be obtained in this era. Decades later, if you cut it one day, you will be thrown into prison the next day, and your three generations will never have the chance to take the civil service exam.

Oh no, it’s hard to do now. It is said that if you want to build a house now, you have to collect wood several years in advance, otherwise, you can’t build it.

There are three cabinets in the house, and it took the two of them more than an hour to finish cleaning them.

The sun was high in the sky at this moment, and it was quite scorching.

Wen Jiajia took off her coat, sat on the bench, and fanned herself hard.

Wei Dai said, “You take a rest, I’ll go clean the stove.”