Meng Yan's Transformation

According to the custom of the Great Northern Wilderness, a rooster is slaughtered on the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, which means good luck. In ancient times, chickens raised at home were auspicious birds in people's minds. As the saying goes, "On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, chickens are slaughtered and go to the market." Therefore, on the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, every household in the Great Northern Wilderness will slaughter a rooster at home and eat it during the New Year, which means: good luck.

On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, early in the morning, the villagers brought red and colored paper to Zhan Yu's house to ask Yunqing to write Spring Festival couplets and cut "hanging money". Zi'an helped Yunqing to fill the inkstone, then folded the big red paper brought by the villagers again and again, and then cut it into the appropriate length and width with scissors, and then put it on the Eight Immortals table and wrote with a brush. After writing each couplet, Zi'an took the paper off the table and put it on the kang mat to dry. While drying, he read the content of the couplet. After the upper and lower couplets and the horizontal scroll were written and dried, Zi'an folded a couplet together and told the person who asked to write the couplet whether this couplet should be posted on the main door, the house door, or the warehouse door. There are many illiterate villagers in the village. If they are not told clearly over and over again, some people really put "Fat Pigs Full of the Pen" and "Golden Chickens Full of the Pen" on the lintel of the house where people live, which should be posted on the pigpen and chicken rack, which caused a joke. It is said that some people confuse this type of horizontal banner with the horizontal banner "Long Live Our Ancestors" that is used to worship their ancestors. I don't know whether it is true or made up by people to make jokes.

After Yunqing finishes writing the Spring Festival couplets, she also adds "hanging money" to the static couplets, so that the couplets will be elegant and lively. They are pasted under the horizontal scroll of the Spring Festival couplets. Generally, one horizontal scroll is matched with three "hanging money". "Hanging money" is a kind of paper-cutting. Like slogans, it is made of colored paper and cut with scissors or carved with a carving knife. The patterns of "hanging money" have words, mostly simple Chinese characters such as "happiness", "blessings" and "wealth", as well as animal and plant patterns such as magpies climbing plum trees, bats, butterflies, bamboos, and fish. Regardless of Chinese characters or animal and plant patterns, they are connected by diamond blocks around them, and "ears" shaped like water drops are cut out below.

After seeing off a group of villagers, Zhan Yu sharpened his knife to kill the chicken, and Yun Qing boiled a pot of water to remove the chicken feathers. Zhan Yu called Zhan Ziqiang to help catch the chicken, but no one responded after a long time. "Where did this kid go? It seems that I didn't hit him hard enough yesterday!" Zhan Yu said as he went into the house to look for Zhan Ziqiang, but found that Zhan Ziqiang and Meng Yan were missing.

The morning light quietly seeped into the dark sky. The red sun had not yet risen, and the sky was just beginning to glow with a faint yellow light, as if soft lights were gently dancing in the clouds... Zhan Ziqiang took the bird-catching tools, and Xiao Mengyan and "Huang Heihu" set off to the back mountain. "Huang Heihu" was the dog Cuihua gave to Mengyan. Because of its yellow and black fur, Zhan Ziqiang named it "Huang Heihu". When he first arrived at the back mountain, Ziqiang led "Huang Heihu" to catch a wild rabbit and a pheasant. Ziqiang also set many traps on the snow. So he took Xiao Mengyan and "Huang Heihu" to a small earth slope, cleared a piece of open space from the snow, found a short wooden stick and carefully propped up a large flat basket, tied a long rope to the short wooden stick, and sprinkled some millet on it. Zhan Ziqiang, Xiao Mengyan, and "Huang Heihu" hid behind a thorn bush and waited patiently. After a while, Xiao Mengyan said impatiently: "Why haven't the birds come yet?" Ziqiang said: "Xiaoyan, don't be anxious, 'you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry'. The birds will come, wait a little longer." After a while, a bird flew to the flat basket, looked around, and found that there was no danger, so it tentatively walked under the flat basket, ate a few grains of millet, and found that there was no danger, so it flapped its wings and flew to inform its companions. After a while, the bird led many birds to fly over to eat millet. "Wow, there are so many birds!" Xiao Mengyan shouted with joy and excitement. "Shhh_" Ziqiang said, "Xiaoyan, keep your voice down, don't scare the birds away." Mengyan was quiet, and more and more birds came. "Brother Ziqiang, brother Ziqiang, pull it quickly!" Mengyan urged. "Wait a minute, if you pull it now, the birds will fly away, but if you pull it when they ignore everything and rush to eat, you can catch a lot of birds." After a while, Ziqiang pulled the rope tied to the short wooden stick and caught a lot of birds. Ziqiang collected the birds and went to pick up the clamp, which was full of birds.

Ziqiang and Mengyan returned with a full load of "Yellow Black Tiger".

"Where have you two been? And you still remember to come back? Are you itching again and want a beating?" Zhan Yu looked at Ziqiang and said unhappily.

"Brother Ziqiang, what's wrong with you?" Meng Yan exclaimed. Ziqiang's face was pale, twisted in pain, and beads of sweat were dripping from his forehead...

Yunqing touched Ziqiang's forehead and found it was frighteningly hot. She hurriedly pulled Ziqiang onto the kang. Bright red blood was oozing from Ziqiang's back. She took off Ziqiang's coat and saw that his bloody back was becoming more and more red and swollen.

Yesterday, because Ziqiang stopped the production team leader from killing "Marshal Black Peng", he was taken home and beaten by Zhan Yu. Zhan Yu hit Ziqiang on the back with a pine board with burrs, and his flesh and blood flew everywhere. It was horrible to see. Yunqing went to stop him, but was slapped in the face by Zhan Yu. Yunqing's eyes went black and she fell to the ground...

Yunqing woke up and took advantage of Zhanyu's sleep to clean Ziqiang's wounds and pull out many splinters from them. Ziqiang refused to eat and just sat in the corner with Mengyan, who was so scared that she cried.

"Zhan Yu, please go check on Ziqiang. He has a high fever!" Yun Qing said to Zhan Yu.

"Don't bother with him. Let him suffer a little, and he will get into less trouble in the future. If you bother with him again, I will break your legs!" Zhan Yu answered Yun Qing viciously.

Yunqing stayed by Ziqiang's side, wiping his sweat and applying a wet towel to his forehead. Ziqiang's limbs were shaking and his face was covered with thick dust. He had no expression but endless sadness. It seemed as if one could see the helplessness and pain in Ziqiang's heart. His face was pale without a trace of blood, and he had lost his former vitality. As Ziqiang's body became hotter and hotter, his breathing became difficult. The whole room seemed to be squeezing him. He pulled himself and rolled himself into a ball like a baby, hiding under the quilt, still shivering. The high fever made Ziqiang talk nonsense, and soon he fell into a coma...