Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 292 New Year’s Eve Fireworks
On the New Year’s Eve reunion dinner, all members of the Qu family, young and old, regardless of gender, gathered together to eat, drink and chat happily, creating a very lively atmosphere.

After dinner, Qu Shaoyang and Qu Jiang worked together to print and fold some paper for burning, then went out to find an intersection to burn it.

Jiang Chunfu led the family's long-term workers to heat up the pot and start frying melon seeds, pine nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts and other nuts to be eaten by guests and family members during the New Year.

The melon seeds are grown by themselves. The Qu family now owns thousands of acres of land. They not only plant a few acres of sunflowers, but also intercrop some soybeans in the fields.

In autumn, we picked a lot of sunflower seeds and saved them for eating during the New Year.

Maoer Mountain is located in a mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest belt, with many red pines and hazel trees in the mountain.

The family members would take time out to go to the woods to pick pine cones and hazelnuts, and keep some for their own consumption.

As for chestnuts, they are not produced locally, so Qu Jiang bought them from Andong.

It is simple to stir-fry melon seeds. Don’t overheat the pan too much. Stir-fry over slow heat evenly. Taste it when it is almost done to make sure it is not burnt.

Pine nuts and hazelnuts, etc., require technology.

It is usually fried with cleaned sand so that it is heated evenly and tastes better when fried.

When the pine nuts and hazelnuts are fried, scoop them out directly with a colander, so that the sand can be drained out.

While the pine nuts and hazelnut shells are still hot right out of the pot, sprinkle cold water on them.

The alternation of cold and heat will easily crack the pine nut and hazelnut shells, making them convenient to eat.

After all kinds of nuts are fried, put them in a winnowing basket or wooden trough and spread them out to cool.

Afterwards, they were all put into cloth bags, some were kept at home, and the rest were placed in a large vat outside.

Roasted nuts are rich in oil and will easily go rancid if placed in a warm place, but it will be fine if they are frozen outside.

Put it in a large jar, cover it with a lid, and put a big stone on top, so you don't have to worry about mice getting in and stealing the food.

Whenever the food at home is gone, just take it back.

While they were busy frying various nuts here, Xingjia called a few people to help chop the meat.

We are going to make dumplings in the evening. With so many people at home, we will need a lot of meat.

The man is strong, so chopping the meat is not difficult for him. He just chops it up quickly with a few clanging sounds.

The men chopped the meat and vegetables, while the women kneaded the dough.

Then they lit a dozen lamps in the main hall, and everyone, regardless of gender, who knew how to make dumplings, got to work.

Everyone gathered together, talking and laughing, and they didn't feel tired at all. They quickly wrapped up a lot of food.

On New Year’s Eve, no one can sleep and must stay up until midnight.

In order to avoid feeling sleepy, Qu Shaoyang specially asked someone to prepare a few baskets of frozen pears, so that anyone who felt sleepy could take one and eat it.

After the dumplings are wrapped, they are taken out and frozen first. Then the women go to rest and the men gather together to play cards and chess, or eat melon seeds and chat.

At the beginning of the midnight, people started to set off firecrackers outside, and the Qu family also started to distribute paper, set off firecrackers, and cook dumplings.

Little Gensuo, who is just over one year old, was particularly excited tonight. He stayed up with the adults until midnight without crying or making a fuss.

When firecrackers were being set off outside, Chen Xiuyun was afraid that the child would be frightened by the noise, so she covered her son's ears.

As a result, they were not afraid at all. Instead, they were extremely curious and had to go out and see.

This kid has grown up now. He just raises his legs and runs. Don’t look at his short legs, he runs quite fast.

Bai Zhi almost failed to catch him, but Bai Wei came to help. She finally held Gensuo, dressed him, and took him out to watch the firecrackers.

"Little brat, you've finally learned how to join in the fun.

Come, Dad will hold you, so that your uncle can lead them to set off some fireworks."

Qu Shaoyang saw Gensuo and quickly picked up his son. Just then, Qu Jiang and Jiang Chunfu and others were lighting fireworks.

I saw a beam of white light rushing up into the sky, and then countless colorful spots of light exploded in the air. These fireworks were brought back by Chen Yunzhe and his team from Fengtian. It was said that they were made by some old shop, and the fireworks were quite good.

If Chen Yunzhe and the others didn’t have connections, they wouldn’t have been able to snatch it at all, as it was all taken by the dignitaries in the city.

"Wow! So beautiful."

Chen Xiuyun also came out to join in the fun. She looked up at the beautiful fireworks exploding continuously in the sky and couldn't help but exclaim.

"Wow, wonderful wine." The little baby in Qu Shaoyang's arms also uttered a few words, imitating his mother.

This kid started speaking quite early, but his pronunciation is not standard and some words are not clear.

This is a normal phenomenon and it will get better as the child grows older.

"Do you like it? If you like it, ask your uncle to buy more for you next year."

Qu Shaoyang held his son in one hand and his arm around his wife's shoulders with the other, and smiled.

As they were talking, the Liu family next door and the Chen family in front also lit up fireworks one after another.

Fireworks of all colors exploded in the sky, illuminating the area like daylight.

The people living nearby heard the noise, and many of them came out to see what was happening.

"Hey, look at how nicely they are celebrating the New Year, with beautiful fireworks.

This thing must cost a lot of money, right?
Spending so much money just to hear the noise and see the excitement is really a waste of money. "

“What you said is true. I just don’t have money. If I had money, I would do the same.

How beautiful it is! Isn’t the purpose of New Year to be happy and auspicious?

Besides, don't you see who put this up? Do they need this little money?

Rich people celebrate the New Year just for fun, you don’t understand.”

The three families set off fireworks for quarter of an hour. By the end, the necks of the people who were craning their necks to watch the show were sore.

The dumplings are cooked now, so we can save the remaining fireworks and set them off on the Lantern Festival. Let’s go back to the house and eat dumplings first.

"Eat as much as you want. Today we made three kinds of stuffing. Eat whatever you want. Try them all and see which tastes best."

When the steaming dumplings were served on the table, Qu Shaoyang waved his hand, signaling everyone not to be restrained and to eat however they wanted.

The winter in Northeast China is too cold and there are few fresh vegetables, so most of the dumplings on New Year’s Eve are filled with cabbage or radish, and very few are filled with sauerkraut.

In previous years, the Qu family always had pork, cabbage and radish filling.

This year is different. There are three kinds of fillings: pork and cabbage filling, beef and radish filling, and lamb and green onion filling.

Ingots, wheat ears, and lace are wrapped in three different ways and can be distinguished at a glance.

Qu Shaoyang has this kind of personality. He never treats himself or others badly when it comes to food.

If this happened at other landlords' homes, when making dumplings on New Year's Eve, the host would eat white flour, and it would be good enough if the farmhands could eat buckwheat flour.

Not to mention the filling, which is definitely more vegetables than meat.

Qu Shaoyang didn't care about that. Everyone celebrated the New Year together and ate white flour dumplings.

What's more, there is a lot of meat in the stuffing, and when you bite it open, there is a meat egg inside.

The dumplings are so fresh, eat two of them plain to taste them first, then dip them in garlic sauce.

This garlic sauce must be pounded with a garlic mortar, and a little water must be added to it. It is very spicy and tastes strong enough.

You can add some vinegar and sesame oil to the garlic sauce, and it would be even better if there was chili oil.

Add a dish of sauce, dip the dumplings in it, and enjoy it. It is so delicious.

(End of this chapter)