60s: I have a store

Chapter 313 Beginning of Winter
When it was time for dinner, the steel plant's broadcast began as scheduled.

When the people at the steel plant heard the broadcast praising Zhou Yimin again, they were a little numb as they had no idea how many times this had happened.

It is difficult for Zhou Yimin to keep a low profile.

Zhou Dafu quickly congratulated him: "Congratulations, Uncle Sixteen! I guess you'll be promoted soon."

"What are you thinking about?" Zhou Yimin rolled his eyes.

It doesn't matter to him whether he gets promoted or not.

Unexpectedly, an old man also came over.

When Zhou Yimin saw the uncle, he asked, "Uncle, is there something you want to talk to me about?"

"Yimin, I want to buy some meat from you." The old man was a little embarrassed to speak.

Zhou Yimin was a little surprised. The old man should not be short of food, but since it was the first time the old man asked, he was embarrassed to refuse: "Uncle, how much meat do you want to buy?"

"About 20 to 30 kilograms." The old man answered truthfully.

The beginning of winter is coming in two days, and the three uncles in charge want to organize the entire courtyard to make dumplings together, but the money for the meat will be paid by the three uncles in charge.

In the north, the main customs of the Beginning of Winter include eating dumplings, taking tonic food and winter swimming. The reason for eating dumplings is that they resemble ears, and people believe that eating them will protect their ears from freezing in winter.

To nourish the body in winter is to take a rest on the day of the Beginning of Winter and reward the family for their hard work. Usually chickens and sheep are slaughtered or other nutritional supplements are given. Winter swimming is a way to exercise and welcome the arrival of winter.

Zhou Yimin was a little curious: "Uncle, why do you want to buy so much meat?"

"It's the beginning of winter in two days! The three of us uncles want to contribute money to buy some meat and organize everyone in the compound to make dumplings together so that we can have some fun together." An uncle explained.

When Zhou Yimin heard this, he realized that this was the case and said directly, "Okay, I'll take it back after get off work today."

"Okay! Then I'll trouble you, Yimin." An old man.

When it was time to get off work, Zhou Yimin left on time as usual.

However, Wu Tian also hurriedly rode his bicycle to the address given by Zhou Yimin. It was not far from the steel plant and he arrived there quickly.

Seeing that the door was closed, there was nothing I could do but knock.

After knocking for several minutes, the door was finally opened.

Dapeng looked at Wu Tian, ​​a man he did not recognize, and asked, "Comrade, who are you looking for?"

"It's Zhou Yimin. Section Chief Zhou asked me to come." Wu Tian explained quickly.

When Dapeng heard that it was Zhou Yimin who called him, he asked, "Comrade, why did Yimin call you over?"

"I want to buy ten kilograms of pork." Wu Tian replied quickly.

The current purchase price of pork is one yuan per catty. Ten yuan is just enough to buy ten catties, which is enough to complete this month's task.

Although Dapeng was a little surprised, he didn't ask much. He just turned around and went back. After a while, he came out with ten kilograms of pork.

"Ten pounds of pork here is no more, no less!"

Wu Tian took out ten yuan and handed it over. After taking the ten kilograms of pork, he hurriedly expressed his gratitude.

After getting the meat, if it wasn't already the end of get off work, Wu Tian would probably have rushed back to the factory to complete the task.

On the way home from get off work, Zhou Yimin went directly to the store and bought 30 kilograms of pork, a few kilograms of mutton and some mutton bones.

When we returned to the courtyard with a lot of stuff in our car, the old man and his friends were already waiting. When they saw Zhou Yimin coming back, they hurried forward to greet him. The old man was a little surprised: "Yimin, we don't seem to have bought so many things?"

It’s not that they can’t afford it. Nowadays, many people can’t buy meat even if they have money.

"An old man asked me to buy these 30 kilograms of pork, and the remaining 5 kilograms of mutton and mutton bones were sponsored by me for this event," Zhou Yimin explained.

"We can't let all three of you contribute, so I'll contribute a little too."

The three uncles were sure there would be no problem, but I didn’t expect there would be an unexpected surprise.

Two days passed quickly, and the courtyard became lively as soon as the morning came.

When the children heard that there were dumplings to eat, they got up early and said they wanted to eat dumplings.

The adults started making dumplings and everyone joined in. The courtyard had not been so lively for a long time.

Zhou Yimin had originally planned to take a rest today as it was the beginning of winter and sleep in, but it seemed his wish was dashed. It was so noisy outside that he couldn't fall asleep even if he wanted to, so he had to get up.

When I opened the door and walked out, I saw women gathered around two octagonal tables. One was responsible for rolling out the dough, and the other two were using the freshly rolled dumpling skins to make dumplings.

This is only the case in the North. In the South, whether it is for making dumplings or wontons, the dough is bought from outside and people don't roll it out themselves.

I guess only people in the north know how to make dumpling skins step by step, starting from flour.

This time there are dumplings with three kinds of fillings: pork and green onion, leek and egg, and pork and three fresh fillings.

An old man saw Zhou Yimin coming out and greeted him, "Yimin, you just got up?"

Zhou Yimin has lived in the courtyard for such a long time, and the old man is quite familiar with Zhou Yimin's daily routine.

"Yes! Uncle, you get up so early to make dumplings?" Zhou Yimin asked?

He knew that if you make dumplings in the north, you must start with flour, and the process takes quite a while. It’s only a little before eight o’clock now, so they must have gotten up at five or six to start preparing!
I only saw an old lady skillfully pinching the dough into even pieces, then using a rolling pin to roll it into a thin outer layer and thick inner layer, and then passing it on to the next step.

Widow Ma took the dumpling skin in the palm of her hand, put various fillings in the middle, folded the dumpling skin in half, and pinched the edges.

It takes less than thirty seconds to wrap a dumpling, but this time we have to wrap a lot of dumplings, so the task is heavier. However, the people present did not complain, but instead enjoyed it.

You know, we haven’t eaten dumplings for a long time since the food shortage began.

In order to make these dumplings, the entire courtyard used up all the white flour of this month. There was no other way as everyone didn't have much white flour, so they could only accumulate a little to make a lot.

As for the meat, fortunately Zhou Yimin helped with the procurement and also sponsored some mutton and mutton bones, which were just right for making soup.

You should know that drinking a bowl of mutton soup at the beginning of winter is a traditional custom in the north, which helps to nourish the stomach and drive away the cold.

Seeing how easy it was to make dumplings, Zhou Yimin couldn't help but want to give it a try. He tried making a few, but found that it was not as easy as it looked and there was still a certain degree of difficulty.

However, when Widow Ma saw this, she told Zhou Yimin some of the tricks, and only then did he learn how to make dumplings.

Zhou Yimin was a southerner in his previous life and didn’t know how to make dumplings, so he found it interesting to learn.

The children were laughing and playing nearby. Seeing the carefree children, Zhou Yimin was in a good mood. He immediately went back to the house, took out some candies, and shared them with the children.

When the children saw that there was candy, they wanted to go forward to get it, but Zhou Yimin asked everyone to line up and come one by one to get it. Only then did the children line up.

Every household has at least two or three children. There are so many households in the entire courtyard, and there are about thirty or forty children in total.

(End of this chapter)