Chapter 488 Laba Festival

On the seventh and eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the beggar froze to death.

Don’t be greedy, little kids, it’s the New Year after Laba.

The time soon came to the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. After dinner today, the others, under the command of Mother Han, soaked all the red beans, walnut kernels, hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts, and red dates that should be soaked and dried that would be used tomorrow morning. Before stir-frying, stir-fry the lilies and lotus seeds she specially bought this year.

After seeing Lily and Lianzi, the second sister Han laughed and joked with the Yun sisters, saying that they had never had such Laba porridge at such an old age, but the Yun sisters turned around and pulled the first sister Han off.

The next day, when Han Li came back from practicing boxing and feeding birds with his dog, the yard was already filled with a strong aroma of porridge.

Today’s Laba porridge was made by Mother Han herself who got up early. She used rice, millet, corn dregs, and sorghum rice combined with various hard materials and fruits prepared in advance yesterday. The porridge was put in in sections to make today’s porridge both beautiful and delicious.

There is no psychological burden at all when praising his mother, Han Li, nor is he even the slightest bit broken.

As soon as Han Li started, the Han sisters and the Yun sisters rushed over. Mother Han was very happy after eating this meal.

After breakfast, Han Li and the Yun sisters sent their families to work. They watched the family walk away at the street gate. Before they could turn around and go back to the house, they saw a jeep driving into Mianhua Hutong.

Han Li nodded at the two sisters, and they turned back to the house to prepare tea.

This time it was not just Gong Jianglong who came next to Mr. Liu, but also a middle-aged woman in her forties with a medium height, a friendly face, and high energy who got off the bus.

"Brother Gong is here."

"Brother Han, do you know that we are coming at this time?"

"Haha, I don't have that ability. I just sent my family to work, and I happened to see your car coming. Who is this aunt?"

"It's my fault that I forgot to introduce you, Brother Han, this is Aunt Liu."

Gong Jianglong looked at the neighbors gathered around him and stopped talking at this point. Han Li immediately understood what was going on with him.

"Aunt Liu, Brother Gong, it's cold outside. Let's sit inside and talk."

The three of them sat down in the room. After the Yun sisters made tea, put away the nuts and went out, Gong Jianglong introduced Aunt Liu again.

This Aunt Liu comes from the idiom capital of Ji Province, where the Wa Palace is located at the junction of the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan.

In the winter of 1939, Aunt Liu, who had just turned 12 years old, walked over mountains and ridges in deep snow and broke through the Japanese blockade to deliver important information to the troops.

Ever since Han Li issued the list of needs, Aunt Liu has been busy with all the trivial matters.

(I want to describe this in more detail but don’t dare to write, so let’s leave it at that and talk about it when I have the chance.)

Aunt Liu always had a smile on her face and was very kind when she spoke, giving people a very kind feeling.

The three of them just said something that was not convenient to say outside, and left together without even taking a sip of tea. In the words of Aunt Liu, time was tight, the task was heavy, and she still had a lot of things to do. Rush back as soon as possible.

The Haizi in Han Li's mouth is Shichahai, which is divided into Qianhai, Houhai, and Xihai. The place where he gets up early every day to practice boxing and martial arts is near the Qianhai Pier (called Wulongting Pier in later generations).

This time Gong Jianglong drove Han Li to the west of Houhai, which was not too far from their home, and stopped at the entrance of a courtyard.

"Xiao Han, we are here."

After saying this, Aunt Liu got out of the car first. Han Li followed and looked at the surrounding situation.

This is an independent courtyard with one entrance. It looks well-preserved from the outside. The door opens to the south. This is the most common Ruyi door in Sijiu City that can be installed without grade.

Just outside this courtyard is the seaside. This place is a good location for enjoying the cool air in the summer or skating in the winter. Of course, it is also a great place to get some peace and quiet in the midst of the hustle and bustle, and to cultivate your sentiments.

Aunt Liu opened the street door with the key, and Han Li and Gong Jianglong quickly followed.

The interior of the courtyard has a 3*3*3*2.5 layout, which means that there are three main rooms, east and west wing rooms, and half of the south room is used as a street door. The screen wall is inlaid on the wall of the east wing. However, this screen wall has been smashed so much that its original appearance is no longer visible.

The exterior of the doors and windows are dilapidated, but it is not difficult to tell that the place has been cleaned and maintained recently. At least the glass has been repaired. Both the inside and outside of the yard are cleaned very clean. There is also a faucet in the northeast corner of the yard.

The south room is empty. There is a lot of firewood and charcoal piled up in the east wing. There is a huge medicine cabinet in the west wing. There are also various medicinal materials next to it. There are also medicine grinders, copper pestles and mortars, small guillotines, and small guillotines for processing medicinal materials. Saws, files, and mortars are all available here.

In the main room on the north side are stoves, medical pots, tables and chairs, beds, kettles, tea cups, and a small bookshelf next to it.

There are many books on the bookshelf, many of which are foreign books. However, these foreign books are all stamped with the seal of Friendship Store, which shows that these books are not only readable, but also have no problem with their origin.

Aunt Liu took them around each room and finally asked Han Li for his opinion and what was missing.

What can Han Li say? It took her a few days to not only get all the medicinal materials and equipment, but she also found a quiet courtyard not far from her home.

"Aunt Liu, the neighbors here live very scattered, and the smell of medicine will be blown away by the wind in the lake. It's not far from my home, and it doesn't take long to walk here every day. As long as the types and quantities of medicinal materials are fine, I can start brewing here at any time."

"That's good. I'll leave you a phone number. If you have any questions, just call me. Generally, I answer this call."

After leaving her phone number and the keys here, Aunt Liu called Gong Jianglong and left in a hurry.

Han Li watched the jeep go away, locked the gate of the courtyard again, and went home slowly.

When he got home, he told the two sisters about the situation, and then took them to recognize the door, so as to avoid being unable to find him in case of any emergency.

Han Li went home again, and waited until lunch before returning to the courtyard to light the stove and boil water for himself to make a cup of tea, and then began to make preliminary processing of the medicinal materials.

Han Li first picked out all the medicinal materials for his three-body practice, and then worked on the medicinal materials that were actually used in these "stretching pain relief ointment"

Although the medicine grinder, copper pestle, small guillotine, small saw, steel file, and mortar were all decorations for Han Li, he was careful and used these tools to process the medicinal materials twice, so that they were stained with many medicinal residues and traces of use.

After the cover-up, Han Li used the decomposition ability to quickly process the remaining medicinal materials.

For a period of time, Han Li practiced boxing and martial arts every morning.

After breakfast and sending his family to work, he came here to refine medicine, went home for lunch at noon, came here in the afternoon, and went back in the evening, which felt a bit like working from nine to five.

However, his job couldn't be easier. In the first few days, Sister Yun would accompany him.

Later, Han Li felt sorry for them running back and forth in such a cold weather, so he didn't let them follow, but the two talking crows came in handy at this time.

They had one on each side, and let the crows send messages back and forth if they had anything to say.

Most of the telephone calls in this era need to be transferred, and the straight-line distance between these two places is very close, so the speed of the crows' message is not slower than that of the phone call, but the number of words cannot be too many. If there are too many, you need to write a note for the crows to hold. The two sisters said with a smile after playing for a day.

"Others use wild geese to convey their feelings, but we use crows to convey our feelings."

When Han Li was boiling the plaster, he adjusted the flame most of the time, and then he sat by the lake holding an enamel cup and fishing without feeling cold.

Although there were more air force times, it was a rare pleasure to catch a fish occasionally.

Such days soon came to February 3, 1975, Jiayin year, Dingchou month, Gengchen day, and the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.

This was also the fifteenth day that Han Li took over the boiling of plasters. Originally, he planned to call Aunt Liu after finishing today.

But unexpectedly, when Han Li was doing the final filling in the house that afternoon, Aunt Liu had already arrived at the scene with a smile.

This time, she did not look for Gong Jianglong who was beside Old Liu. Someone else drove her.

"Aunt Liu, you are here."

"Haha, I just happened to pass by today and came to take a look. Xiao Han, are these the 'stretching pain relief ointment' that I made this time?"

"Well, all the ointments made this time are here, but my ability is limited and I can only operate two pots at a time, so this is the only amount I can make in the past half month."

"Xiao Han, don't be modest. As far as I know, there are very few people who can make such a difficult recipe and operate two pots at the same time. You are still young now, and you will definitely do a lot in the future."

"Aunt Liu, you are praised."

Han Li chatted with Aunt Liu while speeding up the filling of the jar.

Soon, all the ointments were filled. After Han Li and the driver carefully moved them to the car, Han Li took out the key on the door and handed it to Aunt Liu.

"Aunt Liu, now the task is completed. Here is the key to the door. Please keep it."

Aunt Liu looked at the key in Han Li's hand, not only did she not reach out to take it, but she smiled and said.

"Xiao Han, are you going to the Northeast next year?"

"Yes, you must go back before the spring ploughing in the village."

"I heard from Mr. Liu that you don't like going back to work in Sijiucheng and want to contribute more to the country's construction of a new countryside. This view is good. Young people should have such a spirit of not fearing hardship, but it is a waste to put talents in the lower levels.

How about this, when you want to go back to work in Sijiucheng, just call me. It's hard to say for key units and government agencies, but I can help you fight for general units."

"Aunt Liu, thank you in advance. I will definitely ask when I need it."

"That's right. You keep the key here first. Everyone's family is busy before the New Year. I won't delay you and your family from celebrating the New Year. But after the New Year, before you go to the countryside, I would like to ask you to make another batch of ointment. After all, this ointment is not convenient for others to pass through."

Faced with such a request, Han Li certainly said that the more the better, because the medicinal materials needed for the three-body style are too difficult. Now it would be best if someone is willing to help him share the burden, not to mention that there is also the thing of favor.

Thanks: Nicholas IV for the reward: 500 points.

Thanks: wemju for the reward: 100 points.