Entering the twelfth lunar month, it is the coldest time of the year.
They have no air conditioning or heating, not even briquettes or coal. They rely on wearing cotton-padded jackets and burning firewood for heating.
Fortunately, they were next to a mountain, and the third and fourth uncles had stored a lot of firewood after the autumn harvest.
This year they all had extra income, and they did not carry firewood to sell in the town like in previous years. They kept it all for themselves, and also gave a lot to Lu Xu's family.
In winter, many people who came to Lu Xu's house to learn embroidery from Yuan Manniang also went to Lu Xu to pick up firewood. At this time, there was a pile of firewood piled up in his backyard, but he was too cold to reach out and even went out to carry firewood. Do some psychological work.
Their Lu Rui is different. He is wearing a new cotton-padded jacket made this year, like a little fur ball, jumping around the yard. He is full of energy. From the moment he opens his eyes in the morning to the time he closes his eyes to sleep, he does not move for a moment. He runs here and there, his hands and feet are warm, and he will be sweating after a while.
Yuan Manniang thought his clothes were dirty, so she used old clothes to make three smocks for him, which were enough to wear.
Lu Xu called him, "Rui'er, go grab a piece of wood."
Lu Rui: "Wood!"
Lu Xu: "Yes, find a big one that can withstand burning."
The little ball bumped to the backyard, and used his feet to pull down the firewood from the short pile of wood. His strength was limited, and all he could pull were branches. He compared the ones he pulled down and saw that none of them could withstand the burning. Looking back at my brother, the yard was empty.
Lu Rui ran back two steps, then thought about it and ran back again. He walked around behind the pile of wood and pushed hard. The pile of firewood tilted a little but did not fall.
He gathered his strength and used the same energy as when he bumped into other children in the village. He bumped his shoulder against the pile of firewood, held in his breath, kicked on the ground, pushed...crash.
A corner of the firewood pile collapsed.
Lu Rui went around, picked up the largest piece of firewood that fell, and dragged it back with both hands.
Lu Xu heard the noise, opened the curtain, and saw his Lu Rui dragging back a piece of wood about ten centimeters in diameter with both hands, sticking his butt out, his feet slipping, and using all his energy to suck milk.
Lu Xu: "Come over here and push!"
Lu Rui looked back at him.
Lu Xu gestured to him, "Turn around and push sideways here."
Lu Rui let go, looked down at the wood and thought for a moment, walked around to the side, raised his foot and kicked it.
The wood moved.
Rolled forward a foot.
Lu Rui chased after him, bent down and pushed with his butt, and the wood moved again.
He said "Hey" happily, chuckled at Lu Xu with bright eyes, and started rolling logs all over the yard.
Well, if you kick his ball and break it, you will find another toy!
Lu Xu wrapped up her clothes and resigned herself to carrying firewood.
Passing by Lu Rui, Lu Xu stepped on the piece of wood and checked that there were no thorns on it. He used a hatchet to smooth out the uneven edges, and then gave it to Lu Rui to play with.
"You don't mind the cold, let me touch my paws." Lu Xu put the small ball under his arm and grabbed Lu Rui's little hand from his little sleeve. Oh, it was white and clean, soft and warm. Look at the sleeves, there is a layer of soil!
Lu Xule was shocked, "You are quite smart and know how to push with sleeves on your back."
Lu Rui smiled at him and showed him her little paws. Lu Xu patted his butt and helped him straighten his hat, "Let's play."
Lu Rui was playing with rolling wood. When he saw Lu Xu going to collect firewood again, he came over to pick it up. He didn't know who he learned it from. He put his hands behind his back and kicked and pulled like a little old man. He didn't take a fancy to the selection for a long time. , ran to play with him again.
Lu Xu's hands were so cold from the cold that he finished two bundles and carried them back. One bundle was put by Yuan Manniang at the door, and the other bundle was carried back to her house.
The girl who was doing embroidery in Yuan Man's mother's house saw a figure flashing through the window. She looked out from the crack of the door and saw Lu Xu putting firewood on the fire. Lu Xu turned his head and met her eyes. The little girl blushed.
Lu Xu just heard the sound and glanced subconsciously, without seeing clearly whether there was anyone behind the door. From the corner of his eye, he first saw Lu Rui pushing the wood and running out of the door. He put down the wood and hurriedly chased after him.
"Come back! Don't go out!"
He quickly ran over, picked up Lu Rui, and kicked the wood back. "There are kidnappers out there. If you go out, you won't be able to come back."
Lu Rui didn't believe it. He often followed La Yue to the grocery store, and Xiao Nai yelled loudly, "No!"
"I said yes." Lu Xu picked him up, closed the door, carried firewood and returned to the house.
Lu Zhou went to Yan Junqi's place to study, and Han Lu took him to the grocery store to play in the twelfth lunar month. The responsibility of looking after the children fell on him. Lu Xu brought Lu Rui into the house, found some scrap paper and rolled it into a ball, "Here, Brother, let’s play football with you.”
Lu Rui was very coaxing. Once he heard that Lu Xu was playing with him, he stopped being stingy and wanted to go out. Le Taotao picked up the paper ball thrown by Lu Xu, kicked it twice, and picked it up and gave it to Lu Xu.
Lu Xu threw it out and he picked it up and had a great time.
While Lu Xu was repenting for treating his younger brother like a puppy, he put the small clay pot on the brazier with hot water. When the water was hot, he took off Lu Rui's sleeved overshirt and threw it aside. He grabbed the person and wiped his face and hands, "You My sister’s birthday is coming soon. What should we cook? What do you want to eat? "
Lu Rui frowned: "Snow!"
"Snow?" Lu Xu looked up, it was really snowing outside!
The little girl learning embroidery also hurried back before the snow fell. Lu Xuan sent Twelve Moon back, and Lu Xu went to Yan Junqi's place to pick up Lu Zhou. After that, the whole family stopped going out.
When the snow stopped, it happened to be the birthday of the twelfth lunar month. There was already more than a foot of snow outside, and the whole world was white and spotless.
Lu Xu opened the door in the morning, stepped on the snow to do stretching exercises, and threw Lu Zhou and Lu Rui into the snowdrift one by one.
Lu Rui looked confused and punched a hole in the snow, then started crawling all over the yard with a smile.
Yuan Manniang was combing her pigtails for the twelfth lunar month. When she heard the noise and opened the window, she saw that Lu Rui had turned into a snowman, playing with snow while throwing snow.
Yuan Manniang said angrily: "Lu Rui! Are your clothes wet?"
The smiles of the three brothers froze. Lu Xu and Lu Zhou quickly picked up Lu Rui and sent it to Yuan Manniang. As expected, Lu Rui got slapped on the butt again.
Lu Rui was not afraid. Yuan Manniang was gentle. He was still wearing thick cotton pants, so the beating was not painful or itchy at all, and he even wanted to play in the snow.
Seeing that Lu Rui was about to complain, Lu Xu turned around and ran away.
He first went to check the chickens and pigs, and put some wind-proof straw on the chicken pens and pig pens. In the twelfth lunar month, he put on a new smock, tied a new headband, and didn't wear a hat and ran to him.
The little girl blinked her eyes, and Lu Xu praised, "Whose little girl is this pretty?"
Lu Yue blushed and started to laugh.
Lu Xu tugged at her pigtails and whispered, "Follow me."
La Yue blinked and followed Lu Xu into his room quietly. Lu Xu dug out a small red cloth bag from the box. La Yue opened it and found that it was full of copper coins.
The little girl's eyes lit up, "That's a lot of money!"
Lu Xu: "The pocket money I gave you will be given to you every birthday from now on, and I will save it for personal use."
Gifts are so simple and crude!
If it weren't for the fact that La Yue was too young and the most popular thing in the village was copper coins, Lu Xu would have wanted to give her some money.
La Yue, who was just six years old, still didn't understand what private money was. Such a package was an astronomical amount to her. She counted and counted, and the more she counted, the less she knew how to spend it.
Lu Xu touched her head and said, "Let's go, brother will make you a cake!"
Lu Xu led La Yue to the kitchen like the wind.
Without milk and an oven, it was impossible to make a serious cake. What Lu Xu wanted to do was actually make cakes.
Steam the pumpkin, boil the red beans, blanch the spinach, squeeze out the spinach juice, mix one-third of the brown sugar water with the noodles, one-third of the spinach juice with the noodles, and the remaining one-third with rice noodles and flour, Lu Xu mixes the noodles well, Place them one by one in a basin to rise.
Lu Yue looked at each one curiously. Lu Xu was mysterious and asked her to guard the fire and take advantage of the cooking time to move the ladder up to the house to clear the snow.
The roof of his house hasn't had time to replace the tiles, and it is now thatched. If there is too much snow, the roof will collapse.
Lu Xu went up carefully and asked Lu Zhou to pass him a broom to sweep away the snow, remove the wet thatch, and add a layer of dry straw.
Stuff it in layer by layer and press upward.
Lu Rui was curious, and looked under him. Lu Xu didn't see him, so he threw it down. The straw rubbed his head and flew down, covering him with snow slag. Lu Rui covered his head with an "ah" sound, making December giggle. .
Lu Xu lowered his head and looked down. Lu Rui had already run into the clean snowdrift to play with the snow. He only saw Lu Zhou bending down to pick up old thatch and throw it all together, ready to be dried in the sun and burned for the New Year.
They will burn old things on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, which means that they will be free from illness and disaster in the coming year. The higher the fire, the more auspicious. The unused old baskets and old mats, old clothes and farm tools, all saved together from the house cleaning before, are kept on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. burn.
Lu Xu repaired the roof, washed her hands, and returned to the kitchen to look at the dough.
The noodles were not puffed up enough, so Lu Xu first put the pumpkin in a porcelain basin and mashed it into pumpkin puree, then took out the boiled red beans, mixed them with honey, mashed half into bean paste, and kept the other half.
He gave Lu Zhou a small hammer and asked Lu Zhou to smash walnuts.
Yuan Manniang was helping wash the preserved fruits and couldn't help but look here curiously.
When the dough was ready, Lu Xu put them into the cold water pot one by one and started steaming.
The steamed cakes are white, red or green, fluffy, soft and beautiful.
They thought they were about to eat, but unexpectedly Lu Xu carefully dug out the cakes from the porcelain basin one by one, and used a knife to cut each portion of the cake horizontally into three round slices to use as a cake base.
A layer of brown sugar cake was used as the base. Lu Xu asked La Yue to choose whether to put pumpkin or red beans on top. La Yue thought about it and decided on pumpkin.
Lu Xu spread a layer of pumpkin puree and asked La Yue to choose another piece of hair cake. Now La Yue understood, she pointed at the white one, Lu Xu put the white hair cake, and followed La Yue's instructions to place a layer of honey beans. The twelfth lunar month is happy, red, yellow, green, each layer is what she wants to eat, layer by layer, so beautiful!
Lu Xu put the last piece of spinach cake on top, sprinkled it with chopped walnuts, sesame seeds and preserved fruits, and pressed six red dates on it.
"The cake is ready. Happy sixth birthday to our little princess of the twelfth lunar month!"
La Yue looked at the cake, then at Lu Xu, then at the cake, then at Lu Xu. She was so happy that she didn't know what to say.
"Wait a minute!" Lu Xu found a small red candle, which was half used before.
Lu Xu did not put it on the cake, but lit it and placed it in front of the cake, asking the twelfth lunar month to make a wish in the direction of the cake. "If you have any wish, just think about it silently. When you have thought about it, blow out the candles, and your wish will come true next year."
Twelfth Moon didn't know how to make wishes at all, so she looked at her brother and mother blankly.
Lu Zhou understood quickly this time. He explained: "It's like making a wish to the gods in the temple."
"Ah!" La Yue understood!
She went to the temple with her grandma and aunts!
She closed her little hands, stared at the candle like adults, and muttered piously.
Lu Xu listened carefully and found that the twelfth lunar month was actually talking about his hometown. He also silently talked about the members of his family, their names and where they lived. He asked the gods to bless their family to be prosperous, free from illness and disaster, with good weather, a good harvest in the coming year, and good health for their brothers and sisters. Good marriage...
The more Lu Xu listened, the happier she became. She tried her best to suppress her laughter, and was so amused by her nondescript wish.
Lu Rui waited and waited. He couldn't eat until the wax dripped down.
He couldn't help but pat his brother and pull his sister, "Eat!"
Only then did Twelfth Moon notice that she had been talking for too long. He quickly recited "make a fortune", puffed up his cheeks and blew on the candle.
As the fine smoke from the candle dispersed, Lu Zhou said, "The gods will be too busy to make so many wishes."
La Yue was confused: "Huh? But that's what grandma said."
Yuan Manniang said: "If the gods are busy, dad will bless the twelfth lunar month when he hears it."
Lu Rui pulled the twelfth moon and kept shouting, "Sister, eat! Sister, eat! Rui Rui, eat!"
The whole family talked about their own things and became a lively and chaotic mess. Lu Xu held La Yue's little hand and picked up the knife with her, "Here, let's cut the cake!"
The author has something to say:
Lu Xu: Go home and be a good brother who dotes on your younger brothers and sisters.
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