Chapter Twenty-Two New Year

  "Wei Zi, how's it going? Are all the preparations for Chinese New Year ready?" "Aunt Wang, everything is fine, don't worry. With so many of us young folks around, we won't forget anything."

  "That's good, Auntie can rest assured." Aunt Wang would come to visit Yang Wei and the others every few days, and naturally, Yang Wei wouldn't let her return empty-handed. These past few days, he had given her over a dozen kilograms of wild boar meat, all carefully selected from the fattest parts.

  "Weizi, where did you get the wild boar meat from? If there's not enough, Auntie won't want it."

  "Auntie, just take it. We caught a small wild boar in the forest a few days ago, weighing over 100 catties."

  "That's great, that's great! Weizi, you're good people with good fortune! It seems your mother is blessing you from heaven!"

  Aunt Wang is not the kind of person who can talk eloquently, so she's also not good at spreading rumors. This is also why Yang Wei's mother is willing to socialize with her. And since Yang Wei came over, among the people he interacts with in the village, apart from his little friends, it's just Aunt Wang. So, Yang Wei is also very willing to help Aunt Wang out a bit.

  In the days before the year, Yang Wei and his little friends had something to do. With more prey, they naturally needed to be processed, but they didn't want the villagers to know, so they also wanted to avoid those weird relatives. What to do? Selling out, there was no place to go, making cured meat, but they didn't have that skill. So Yang Wei thought of a way, which was to stuff intestines, he still knew how to do it. However, the pig's intestines weren't many, so not much meat could be used. The excess meat was all simmered in oil, then sprinkled with salt and stir-fried again. Fresh and delicious fried dried meat slices were finally made. These days, his little friends hadn't been idle, the two pots in the house had never stopped. Each of them took action, and this time they all practiced their skills.

  To store the meat slices, Yang Wei and his friends went into the woods again to cut down some wood and made a simple shed. They hung the meat slices inside the shed. If they wanted to eat, they could just pick one off and eat it directly without even needing to heat it up.

  The two small wolves picked up by Yingzi also opened their eyes. With so much meat to eat, they wouldn't starve to death. Although these little wolves should drink milk, isn't the meat soup just as good? Wolves are carnivores after all. Even though they're still young and might have stomach problems, the light meat soup is actually better than milk. Yang Wei and the others couldn't compare how well the little wolves were growing, but they felt that they were very strong. On New Year's Eve, they started running around everywhere, occasionally pulling people's shoes all over the place. At this point, they could only drag one shoe in their mouths as they walked.

  It is expected that next year these two little wolves will soon be running around with shoes in their mouths. Both of the little wolves have a gray coat, and Yingzi gave them two names: one is called Little Gray, and the other is called Little White. Speaking of Little White, it's quite interesting - just because there was a patch of white fur on one of its paws, Yingzi gave it the name Little White. Little White would be very pleased if it could understand human language; otherwise, it would certainly be unhappy, since it's also gray like Little Gray.

  "Yang Wei, tonight is New Year's Eve, tell us a story." It was New Year's Eve, and the little friends were wrapping dumplings under the bright red candles, Yingzi and Yang Wei were being playful.

  The candle was bought in a small shop in the village, now there are already small shops in the village, which were opened by villagers who had made a fortune of tens of thousands. Those businessmen would never forget to make money at any time. The villager who opened this shop used to be a businessman too, but he fled to this village due to war and chaos. Now that the country has stabilized, he naturally thought about ways to make money again. When he found out that there was no small shop in this village yet, and villagers needed to go all the way to the distant town to buy things, he opened up this small shop. This small shop can be said to be small but complete with everything.

  There is oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, and even Western-style matches, wine, cloth, candles, and other goods. Of course, there are also kitchen utensils, such as knives, pots, bowls, and basins, although not many in number, but very complete. Even ink, brushes, and some pencils are for sale. This pen is for sale, and of course, paper is also for sale, but the most common ones are white paper and red paper for writing couplets. However, Yang Wei won't be writing couplets this year because his mother passed away this year, so he needs to wear mourning clothes. It can be seen that this businessman still has some money in hand.

  Naturally, the news about this small shop was also told to Yang Wei and others by Wang Auntie. To be sure, they would never go into the village unless it was absolutely necessary, even if it was just a visit to the village chief's home.

  When Yang Wei took his little friends to a small store, he bought back the only few pieces of white cloth woven by individuals in the store and naturally also bought some needles and threads. Yang Wei did this to make underwear for all his little friends to wear. This was white cloth, so it couldn't be made into outerwear. The fabric for outerwear, Yang Wei also entrusted the shop owner to buy a few pieces back next year. In fact, the little friends were not in a hurry to make clothes, mainly because they didn't want to go out now, and even if they went out, it was just to the forest or by the river.

  "Well, since you all want to hear a story, today is New Year's Day, so I'll tell a story about the year. It's said that in ancient times, on this day every year, a strange beast would come to the village, and this beast was called 'Nian'..."

  "This year, it was just killed by this great hero." Yang Wei finished the last sentence lightly, looking at the pile of companions in front of him who were lying down, with a smile in his eyes. It's good, although he crossed over, having these little friends is not bad either. Let's all grow up together vigorously.

  Although Yang Wei didn't believe that at 12 o'clock on New Year's Eve, the heavenly gate in the sky would open, and as long as you made a wish when the gate was open, God would grant your wish. Yang Wei still unconsciously expressed his own wish, which was to grow up happily and healthily with his friends, and to have no illness or disaster next year.

  Yang Wei in the past would always set off firecrackers at midnight, and also cook dumplings. But now, he didn't hear any firecracker sounds from the village at midnight, so naturally he wouldn't dare to do it either. He was just idly adding hay to the stove, making the room warm, so his little friends wouldn't freeze.