Rebirth of Siheyuan: Starting from escaping famine in 42

A few days later, it was the 29th day.

Just like last year, Li Qingfeng led his younger brother Li Qingshan to clean the house inside and out.

At night, Li Qingfeng ran to the black market and sold some of the food, vegetables, and fruits in the space to the black market boss.

一个黑市李青峰交易了2000斤掺着玉米芯的棒子面、500斤白面、1000斤红薯、1000斤土豆，一头整猪、鸡鸭鹅的蛋各200斤、苹果200斤、橘子200斤，李青峰连续跑了四个黑市。

These materials brought Li Qingfeng a lot of money. A total of 40 boxes of treasures were traded, and there were only 4 boxes of large and small yellow croakers. Most of them, Li Qingfeng wanted, were jadeite raw stones or jade ornaments to upgrade the space.

The next morning, New Year’s Eve.

Li Qingfeng and his brother got up early, changed into new cotton-padded jackets and trousers, washed up, had breakfast, and offered sacrifices to their mother.

At noon, the two of them ate something casually, handed their lunch over to the goods, cleaned up and locked the door.

The two men carried the prepared chickens, ducks, fish, meat, rabbits, cigarettes and wine, locked the door and walked towards the master's house.

When they arrived at the master's house, Li Qingfeng and his brother greeted the master, and then took his younger brother into the kitchen to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner.

Li Qingfeng first processed the chicken, duck, fish and meat, while his younger brother Li Qingshan processed the vegetables and chopped the meat.

This year's New Year's Eve dinner is richer than ever before.

The New Year’s Eve dinner prepared by Li Qingfeng consisted of 12 dishes in total, six meat dishes, four vegetarian dishes, and two soups.

The meat dishes include chicken stewed with mushrooms, spicy rabbit, braised lamb, braised spare ribs, braised pork, and fish-flavored shredded pork.

The vegetarian dishes include spicy and sour shredded potatoes, three fresh vegetables, mapo tofu, and salted peanuts.

The soups are tomato and egg soup, vegetable and tofu soup.

Li Qingfeng worked for three or four hours before he finished preparing all the dishes. The two brothers brought the dishes to the table. Li Qingfeng asked his younger brother to call the chef to come for dinner, and he sat on a chair, lit a cigarette and took a break.

Li Qingfeng watched his brother lead the master into the restaurant, then he stood up and took two wine glasses from the cupboard, placed them in front of himself and the master, filled them with wine, and said to the master with a smile, "Master, you pick up your chopsticks first and come and taste whether my cooking skills have declined."

Quanfu picked up the chopsticks and said, "Okay, I'll try it." Then he took a bite of the Mapo Tofu, chewed it twice, nodded and said, "Not bad, keep up the good work, Qingshan, don't drink, eat more food."

"Got it, Master." Li Qingshan nodded in response, then picked up the chopsticks and started eating in big mouthfuls.

Li Qingfeng raised his glass and said to his master: "Master, I'd like to offer you a toast to thank you for your help to us brothers over the past two years." After that, he drank the two taels of white wine in the glass in one gulp.

After finishing his drink, Quanfu said to Li Qingfeng, "Qingfeng, I have done very little to help you. This is all due to your own efforts."

Li Qingfeng picked up the bottle, filled his master and himself with wine, and said, "That's different. If you hadn't accepted me as your apprentice, who knows what I would do."

Quanfu took a sip of wine, ate a piece of braised pork, and then said, "Haha! It will be better in the future." After that, he picked up a piece of rabbit meat with chopsticks, put it in his mouth and chewed it twice, and then said, "Qingfeng, eat the food quickly, otherwise it will get cold and it will not taste good."

"Yeah!" Li Qingfeng took a bite of the braised pork, drank wine with his master, and listened to his master telling stories about the past. It was quite lively for a while.

When the New Year's Eve dinner was almost over, Li Qingfeng led his younger brother Li Qingshan to kowtow three times to the master and said words of New Year's greetings.

Na Quanfu happily took out two red envelopes and handed them to Li Qingshan and Li Qingfeng respectively, and also gave words of encouragement to the two brothers.

Afterwards, Li Qingfeng and his younger brother started kneading dough, rolling out dough, and making dumplings on the chopping board.

The dumplings were made with leeks and pork. The two brothers ate about a hundred of them. After the water in the pot boiled, they put all the dumplings in. The water was stirred with cold water and after it boiled three times, Li Qingfeng served a plate of dumplings and his younger brother Li Qingshan took one plate away.

When he got to the last plate of dumplings, he said, "Qingshan, this is the last plate. No need to come over. You and the chef can eat first."

"Oh!" Li Qingshan nodded in response. The dumplings were quite hot when they were first served, but Li Qingshan didn't mind the heat. He ate one dumpling in one bite and soon finished the whole plate of dumplings.

Li Qingfeng picked a head of garlic, carried the last plate of dumplings, and returned to the dining table. Seeing that his brother had already eaten a plate of dumplings, he said to his brother: "Qingshan, the dumplings are so hot, eat slowly, be careful not to burn your stomach."

Li Qingshan picked up a dumpling, let out a breath, and stuffed the dumpling directly into his mouth, saying vaguely: "Brother, it's okay."

Li Qingfeng shook his head and ignored him. He turned to his master and asked, "Master, do you eat garlic?"

Quanfu ate the dumplings, shook his head and said, "No, just eat it by yourself."

After the three of them finished eating the dumplings, Li Qingfeng led his younger brother Li Qingshan to carry the leftovers from the table to the chopping board, cleaned up the place, washed the dishes, smoked a cigarette with the master, and then let the master go to sleep and rest.

After the master went back to the room to sleep, Li Qingfeng poured a cup of tea, took out a basic book on antique identification from his backpack and started reading.

Li Qingshan had finished reading the little things he had brought. Now that he had nothing to do, he asked his elder brother, "Brother, are you still reading the book on identifying antiques?"

Li Qingfeng lowered his head to read the book, and replied without raising his head: "Yes! Qingshan, what's wrong?"

Li Qingshan approached his eldest brother and said, "Brother, I have finished reading all the books I brought with me. Do you have any other books? Let me see them."

Li Qingfeng still didn't look up and replied: "The books are all in the backpack, just go find what you want to read."

"Oh!" Li Qingshan nodded in response, then picked up his eldest brother's backpack and started rummaging through it, picking up a book to pass the time.

I don't know how long it took, Li Qingfeng stood up and stretched, went out to the toilet to flush the water, went back to the room to check the time, it was past twelve o'clock, and said to his brother: "Qingshan, it's past twelve o'clock, do you still want to eat dumplings?"

Li Qingshan didn't feel hungry, so he shook his head and said, "Brother, I'm not hungry, so I won't eat."

"Okay, it's getting late, so let's go to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow to go out for New Year's greetings." Li Qingfeng closed the kitchen door and went into the side room with his brother to sleep.

Early the next morning.

Li Qingfeng got up early. As soon as he opened the door, a gust of cold wind blew over. He shivered subconsciously and tightened his cotton jacket.

He went into the kitchen, washed his hands and face, then kneaded the dough and started making dumplings. The dumplings he made were just enough for the master and his two brothers.

When the dumplings were almost cooked, he left the kitchen and called his master and younger brother.

Li Qingfeng quickly finished his dumplings, said hello to his master, ignored his brother, and went out alone to pay New Year's greetings.