Chapter 48: The First Snowfall

The first snow fell towards the end of November.

For two months, Lu Qingjiu filled almost every corner of his house with food, and he didn't forget to ask Zhu Miaomiao to send him a pile of his favourite kind of jelly candies. Zhu Miaomiao had planned to come back for the Lantern Festival, but after hearing Lu Qingjiu say that Shuifu Village would be closed by snow, he had to wait until next year.

Overnight, Shuifu Village was covered in snow, the branches and the ground were all white and the whole world turned into a beautiful pure white.

Lu Qingjiu built a pot of charcoal in the house and moved Xiao Hua, Xiao Hei and the little fox's nest into the house, where the three little creatures, dressed in clothes cut by Lu Qingjiu, lazily warmed themselves in a pile next to the charcoal. In the summer Xiao Hua's belly was the coolest, but in the winter it was the little fox who was the most popular, especially with his pink belly, which was so warm in his arms that Yin Xun gave up his Xiao Hua and reached out for the little fox. The little fox was tucked directly into his duvet, so that when he went out to do his work he would occasionally see a bewildered fox's head emerge from the collar of his shirt, and Yin Xun would reach out and push it back in.

Xiao Hua, seeing this scene, angrily accused Yin Xun of being heartless, saying that it was obvious that Yin Xun had promised to take him with him all the time during the summer, but now that it was cold, he had betrayed himself and thrown himself into the arms of the little fox.

Lu Qingjiu didn't bother with their feud, so he let them be.

As the weather gets colder, it's natural to want to eat something warming, so Lu Qingjiu started making stews all the time, such as chicken and duck stew, the best of which is the Cong Long meat brought back by Bai Yuehu. The skinned Cong Long looks just like a sheep, but if I had to say it, the meat is more fatty and tender, and the soup made from the bones is so rich and fragrant that it warms up your body when you go out in the morning. A portion of Lu Qingjiu's meat is stewed with sesame curd and leek blossoms, making it aromatic and tender, without the fishy taste of lamb, much to Lu Qingjiu's liking.

After the snow fell, the temperature started to drop and Lu Qingjiu had to put on a thick down jacket.

Winter is probably the most uncomfortable season for Lu Qingjiu, as Shuifu Village is not heated, so the only way to keep warm is to put more charcoal pots in the house. To prevent this from happening, Lu Qingjiu has to open the windows a little to keep the air inside, even if it is cold outside.

Lu Qingjiu wrapped himself up in a ball when it was cold. He was cold in the summer, but in winter he couldn't stand it, and his hands and feet were cold almost from head to toe.

As winter was about to start, Bai Yuehu collected all the vegetables in the field and dragged back more than two hundred pounds of sweet potatoes from the field, which there was no room for at home, so they were simply piled up in the cellar and a tarpaulin was put on top to keep the snow out.

Sweet potatoes are delicious steamed with rice, cooked into soft sweet potato porridge, or, for a bit of trouble, fried with flour.

Sweet potato cakes are similar to pumpkin cakes in that they are made by kneading sweet potatoes and flour together, then pressing them into cakes and frying them in a frying pan at a low temperature. The sweet potato cakes are crispy on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside, and are served with pickled vegetables and curd, so you can eat several of them without getting bored.

Lu Qingjiu was worried that the chickens would be affected by the cold weather, but Bai Yuehu said not to worry about the chickens, as they were strong enough that they would not be affected by the cold temperatures, so Lu Qingjiu was relieved.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun went up to the mountains to pick some wild oranges before it got too cold.

The orange trees have lost their leaves, but the branches are covered with golden oranges, which look poetic as they are covered with a thin layer of white snow because of the light snow last night. Lu Qingjiu took a bamboo pole and put the oranges in his basket. The oranges are very sour, but they are very good for canning and you don't need to use them to soak in water.

Yin Xun tasted one and his face scrunched up in sourness.

Yin Xun thought Lu Qingjiu was going to eat it too and was waiting for a good show, but Lu Qingjiu casually stuffed the orange into his pocket and laughed, "I'll bring one back to Bai Yuehu."

Yin Xun: "" Lu Qingjiu, you are really bad.

The two of them loaded up the oranges and headed back down the hill. Compared to normal days, Shuifu Village was much quieter after the winter. There were no villagers on the way and the village was quiet, as if everyone had disappeared overnight. Lu Qingjiu's nose was red from the cold and he tried to cover it with his hands, but they were also cold, so he had no choice but to give up.

When Lu Qingjiu entered the yard, he saw Bai Yuehu cleaning the ice from the ground.

"Bai Yuehu, Bai Yuehu." Lu Qingjiu ran over to him and took the oranges out of his pocket and handed them to him, "The oranges we picked on the mountain, try them.

Bai Yuehu looked at Lu Qingjiu, took the orange, peeled it and split it in half, and as usual, shoved one half into his mouth.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun stood by and looked at him curiously, but Bai Yuehu looked unmoved and said, "What are you looking at me for?"

"Is it good?" Lu Qingjiu asks him.

Bai Yuehu said, "It's not bad."

"Is it sour?" Lu Qingjiu is now beginning to doubt Bai Yuehu's palate.

"It's okay." Bai Yuehu looked calm, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." It looked like Bai Yuehu wasn't going to give him any of the feedback he'd imagined, and Lu Qingjiu, a little disappointed, said, "Then you keep sweeping while I go back and take care of the oranges."

"Go ahead." Bai Yuehu said.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun turned around and went into the house, but they didn't notice that Bai Yuehu had let go of the shovel he had been holding to dispose of the ice and it fell out of his hand and broke into pieces. Bai Yuehu looked at the shovel and then at the half of the orange he had left in his hand, and silently walked over to the chicken pen and threw the orange into it.

This is probably the first time since the chickens were born that they have tasted food shared by Bai Yuehu

Little did Lu Qingjiu know that his sour oranges were doing tons of damage to Bai Yuehu. He peeled them in the house and boiled them in water with sugar, then put them in a glass jar to preserve them and scoop them out with a spoon when it was time to eat them.

When the oranges were done, it was also dark. In winter the daylight lasts only about nine or ten hours, the mornings are late and the evenings are early.

For dinner, we had a soup pot made from Cong Long's stew, set over a charcoal fire and steaming hot, with a small selection of vegetables, just cabbage and bean sprouts, but plenty of meat and a variety of flavours. Lu Qingjiu also brined a chicken, the family's fighting chicken, which was so tender and fatty that a bite into the brine was salty and tender, and you could suck on the bones and taste the chicken's unique flavour.

Lu Qingjiu huddled in a ball and ate the cabbage scalded in the bone broth. I must say that the bone broth and the cabbage were a perfect match, the taste of the vegetables became fresh and sweet, and another sip of the soup warmed up the body.

This dish is so blissful on a winter's day that even Yin Xun shaved a few more bowls of rice than usual, not to mention Bai Yuehu.

After eating, it was almost nine o'clock in the evening and it was snowing again, so Lu Qingjiu asked Yin Xun if he wanted to spend the night at his house. But Yin Xun shook his head, saying that he had to go home today.

"The incense and candles in the Buddha's niche have not been added, and the candle flame in the niche is going to go out if we don't go back." Yin Xun replied thus.

This being the case, Lu Qingjiu did not force the issue.

After Yin Xun had left, Bai Yuehu cleared the table and went to the kitchen to clean the dishes. When he returned to the house, he saw Lu Qingjiu leaning back in his chair and dozing.

The burning charcoal pot, which warmed the room, gave off a glow that gilded Lu Qingjiu's cheeks with a faint red, his lips were a little more luscious than usual, and his whole body looked warm, like the winter sun.

Bai Yuehu did not say anything and walked slowly to Lu Qingjiu's side. He dropped his head and his gaze fell on the corner of Lu Qingjiu's lips, where they curved in a slight curve, as if to tell Bai Yuehu that Lu Qingjiu felt comfortable at this moment, that he was intoxicated by the pleasant temperature.

Lu Qingjiu's eyelashes twitched a little as he noticed someone approaching him, then he opened his eyes, his black eyes at first a little slack, only gradually coming into focus when he saw Bai Yuehu standing beside him, and he muttered, his voice soft and sleepy: "Did I fall asleep? "

Bai Yuehu said, "Well."

"Ah so comfortable." Lu Qingjiu shook his head to clear it, and after a good dinner and this warm temperature in the house, before he knew it he was asleep.

"Go to bed in the bedroom." Bai Yuehu said, "Be careful of getting sick." Humans are fragile creatures, and a single illness can take their lives.

"Well, good." Lu Qingjiu stood up, his mouth still yawning, he remembered something and said, "By the way, the oranges I gave you this afternoon were made into tins, I'll get you some to try"

Bai Yuehu's expression freezes for a moment, but he quickly returns to normal and says, "No need."

Lu Qingjiu: "Ah," he froze for a moment, a bit confused, "really don't want it"

Bai Yuehu said, "No, I'm full."

Lu Qingjiu: ""He was frozen, not expecting to hear Bai Yuehu suddenly say he was full in such a situation.

Lu Qingjiu: "I'm so full"

Bai Yuehu: "Yes." His tone was so sure, but it made Lu Qingjiu suspicious, Bai Yuehu hadn't eaten much this evening, it was so different from his usual level.

When Lu Qingjiu realised why Bai Yuehu had rejected the tinned oranges, he finally couldn't help but smile: "The tinned food is not sour and sweet."

Bai Yuehu doesn't say anything and just looks at him.

Lu Qingjiu coughed awkwardly at Bai Yuehu's look, "Ahem, I was just joking with you.

Bai Yuehu looked puzzled and said lightly, "It's quite funny."

Lu Qingjiu: ""Brother, I'm sorry, he won't dare to do it again.

In the end, Lu Qingjiu went to the kitchen and poured Bai Yuehu a bowl of oranges, which had been boiled in sugar water, diluting the sourness and combining perfectly with the sugar, making it a good after-dinner dessert. Bai Yuehu tasted it to make sure it wasn't the same kind of sour orange as the afternoon, and then slowly ate the whole bowl.

After eating, Lu Qingjiu went back to his bedroom to rest.

It was so cold that bathing in a bathroom without a bathing bar became a torture, Lu Qingjiu was sweating when picking oranges today, and although she was afraid of the cold, she gritted her teeth and took a bath.

Lu Qingjiu added a few coals to his charcoal pot to make the fire burn a little brighter, but felt it was a drop in the bucket and he was still cold.

Does Lu Qingjiu remember winter in Shuifu Village being this cold? Lu Qingjiu wraps himself up in a ball on his bed and closes his eyes. In his mind's eye, however, all that remains of the winter in Shuifu Village is his grandmother's hot stew and the moonlight that falls in the courtyard, illuminating the snow.

Lu Qingjiu didn't sleep too well, probably only three or four hours, when the extinguished charcoal fire woke him from his dream. He couldn't really sleep, so he got dressed and went to the kitchen, ready to make breakfast, thinking it might be better to move.

Bai Yuehu appeared behind Lu Qingjiu at some point, and by the time Lu Qingjiu saw him, he seemed to have been standing in the doorway for a long time.

"Can't sleep?" Bai Yuehu asks him.

"Hmm." Lu Qingjiu nodded.

"Nightmares," Bai Yuehu asks again.

"No." Lu Qingjiu laughed, "It's too cold."

Bai Yuehu tilted his head slightly at that, he couldn't feel ordinary temperature changes so he couldn't understand what it was like for Lu Qingjiu to be woken up by the cold, but he thought it wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

"I'd better clean out the kang." Lu Qingjiu was a little tired and yawned, "I don't know how we'll get through this winter otherwise."

The kang is in his grandmother's room, and Lu Qingjiu has kept it in the same state as his grandmother's room, which is a kind of nostalgia.

It's only the beginning of winter and he can't stand the cold. When December comes and he doesn't use the bed again, he's really afraid he'll freeze to death alive.

Bai Yuehu said, "I'll do it, which room?"

Lu Qingjiu tried to resist but heard Bai Yuehu say, "You have to touch the cold water."

Lu Qingjiu shivered when she heard the word "cold water", although she had a water heater at home, it was too cold to raise the temperature of the water, so it was really ineffective. So now Lu Qingjiu tries to stay out of the water as much as possible.

"All right, then, please." Lu Qingjiu didn't push it any further, "It's that room on the southeast corner."

Bai Yuehu nodded, went to get a towel and broom and cleaned the room.

Lu Qingjiu cooked a large pot of mash and egg dumplings in the kitchen, both home-made, in which he cracked five eggs and spooned in two spoons of brown sugar.

It was snowing heavily outside, and Yin Xun had come without an umbrella, leaving a thin layer of snow on his head and shoulders. When he came in and saw Bai Yuehu cleaning the house, he said, "Why are you suddenly thinking of cleaning the house?"

Lu Qingjiu explained that he was too cold and wanted to use a hot bed, but Yin Xun said, "Do you have enough charcoal?

Lu Qingjiu said, "There doesn't seem to be enough, let's go to the town and buy some more."

Yin Xun said, "Okay."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Bai Yuehu, come and eat."

Lu Qingjiu ate a small bowl of the soup dumplings, which were made of glutinous rice, soft, sweet and very filling.

But if you want to burn a bed, you don't have enough charcoal. But if you want to burn a bed, you don't have enough charcoal at home and you have to go to the town to buy some.

The look on Lu Qingjiu's face was so sad that Yin Xun rubbed his nose, "I'll go, but you can stay at home."

Lu Qingjiu said, "You can drive."

"No," Yin Xun says. Yin Xun says, "But it doesn't matter if I don't know how, because the minivan can drive itself anyway."

Lu Qingjiu was still a little uneasy about this, but just as he was thinking that he should go with Yin Xun, Bai Yuehu, who was next to him, spoke up and said, "I'll go with Yin Xun." He probably knew what Lu Qingjiu was worried about and added, "I have a driving licence."

Lu Qingjiu was shocked: "Really? You still have a driving licence?"

Bai Yuehu.

Lu Qingjiu wondered, "When did you learn how to do that? You don't have an identity card or an account, do you?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Of course I have, otherwise I would be a black person." He said it with such frankness that for a moment Lu Qingjiu felt as if it was so.

So Lu Qingjiu didn't dwell on the matter any further and sent Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun to the town to buy charcoal, but before he left, Yin Xun looked at Lu Qingjiu and said something that he didn't want to say, Lu Qingjiu thought he was afraid of being alone with Bai Yuehu and was about to say something to comfort him, but then he heard Yin Xun whispering. "Where is the money for the wine and the charcoal?"

Lu Qingjiu: ""I'm sorry, he had forgotten that he was in control of the family's finances, while the mountain god and fox spirit in his family were so poor they couldn't even afford to eat small dumplings

Lu Qingjiu took out his own card and placed it in Yin Xun's hand, telling him his PIN number in the process.

Yin Xun held the card tightly in his hand and told Lu Qingjiu that he would protect the card with his life, even if he lost his own, and would return it safely.

Lu Qingjiu: "But you're already dead, so where's the life in that?"

Yin Xun: "" He was actually speechless.

With their cards in hand, Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu got into the minivan and Lu Qingjiu watched them disappear at the end of the village. It was the first time Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu had gone to town together and Lu Qingjiu, watching them leave, had the mixed feeling of being a mother sending her son away from home.

Lu Qingjiu was happy that his son had finally grown up, but at the same time he was worried that he might encounter some difficulties that he could not solve. Lu Qingjiu suddenly remembered something and called Yin Xun, asking him to buy a mobile phone and a mobile phone card for Bai Yuehu when he bought the charcoal.

Lu Qingjiu sent the two away and returned to the house, adding charcoal to the charcoal pot and then placing cut-up sweet potato strips next to it, intending to roast them slowly.

The sweet potato fries become al dente when they are baked and dried, so you can chew them for a long time, making them a nice little snack to pass the time. With less to do in the winter, most of the time is spent at home watching TV and surfing the internet, Lu Qingjiu has been tidying up the Tao Bao shop.

As soon as the announcement was made, the internet wailed. The effectiveness of the hair regrowth water from the shop "Little Village" was obvious to all, with almost no bad reviews, and many people even showed comparison photos of their own hair regrowth before. However, although the effect of the hair growth water is very good, but the production is too small, only a hundred bottles per month, and the boss will not increase the goods after the robbery, originally everyone wanted to grab the next month's hair growth water, but who knows the boss actually stopped doing it!

"Oh boss, please, I was hoping to grow my hair back for a blind date in the New Year."

"Boss sell some more, I'm counting on your hair growth water for a living."

"Boss Boss"

Lu Qingjiu casually clicked on a few dialog boxes and saw all the comments of this kind.

Lu Qingjiu simply closed the chat app and did not look at it any further.

When Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu left for town, Lu Qingjiu was too lazy to cook and made do with a meal of noodles. After eating a simple meal, he went back to make his grandmother's bed with thick bedding and heated up the kang.

Lu Qingjiu was eager to lie down after the bed was heated up, and a long, comfortable sigh escaped his lips as he felt the warmth of the blanket.

The little fox cub followed, nestling right next to his head, and Lu Qingjiu stroked its little head and said, "Come on, take a nap together, they'll be back when they wake up."

The little fox licks Lu Qingjiu's fingers and coils his body into a ball.

Wrapped in the heat, Lu Qingjiu fell into a deep sleep; he hadn't rested well last night and was now almost asleep on his pillow until he heard Yin Xun's voice calling him faintly, "Qingjiu, Qingjiu where are you? We're back."

Lu Qingjiu opened his eyes in a daze and answered, "I am here."

There was a creak as if someone had pushed in the door and a pair of cold hands touched his forehead, Lu Qingjiu saw Bai Yuehu's face in a daze and he said vaguely, " Bai Yuehu I am so hot."

Author's Note: Fixed two bugs: the reason why Yin Xun needs to go back and the location of the sweet potato pile

Lu Qingjiu: It's hot!

Bai Yuehu: You seem to be ripe for the picking.

Lu Qingjiu: Yes

Bai Yuehu: Since it's cooked, it's ready to eat, right?

Lu Qingjiu: Well