Chapter 217 I am most afraid of my willingness
The winter solstice of 1993 came with a biting cold wind.

On this day, Aunt Zhang got up early and was busy. She first boiled fish soup in the fish meal shop of the No. 1 Middle School in the city, prepared flour and seasonings, and went to the vegetable market to buy cuttlefish, pork, leeks and green onions needed for making buckwheat dumplings in the evening. After doing all this, she walked home, dressed Xiaoxiao, combed her hair, and told her children who were dressed neatly and hurried to go out to go home early in the evening. Finally, she called Zhang Qiulan and asked her to bring her grandson back to her parents' home early every day to celebrate the winter solstice.

It was not until this time that Aunt Zhang finished the first phase of her work on the Winter Solstice. She changed her clothes and walked towards the fish meal shop while starting to think about some things about celebrating the Winter Solstice as a family tonight.

In fact, it stands to reason that the Zhang family now has no worries about food and clothing, and has long lived the kind of rich life that they could not even dream of before. But sometimes Mother Zhang always feels empty in her heart. Compared to the poor days before, the five children are no longer as close as they were when they were young. They all have their own ideas, except for the young one who is still ignorant. Everyone has his or her own expectations. The house is always deserted, and it is not easy for the family to sit down and have a good meal.

Yunqi is uncontrollable. He is good at talking, but he is also very impressive when it comes to getting things done. No one can find fault with him no matter what he does. When he comes home at night, his first words are often: "Mom, I ate out."

As for Qiulan, a daughter who is married off is like water spilled out. She rarely went home to begin with. Now that she has become a boss, she can't even count on him. She can't even go to her parents' home. But she asks Niu Fen to bring her clothes and health products worth hundreds or thousands of dollars to her home every now and then.

The remaining two daughters are playful and spend all day surrounded by snacks, which is a worry. Chunlan is good, on the other hand. She is sensible and motivated since she was young and doesn't like to play. She studies hard at school and helps her run the fish meal shop after school.

What worries Aunt Zhang the most is Yunfeng.

Yunfeng is now a busy man in his career. He spends most of his time at the fish meal shop in No. 2 Middle School and has dinner there. Recently, he has been planning to open a third fish meal shop in No. 6 Middle School and is already preparing to recruit people to rent a storefront for decoration.

Seeing her eldest son working day and night and ignoring her marriage, Mother Zhang felt an indescribable sadness in her heart.

She knew about the good things between Yunfeng and Xiaonan.

Originally, she was very happy. Xiaonan was a perfect girl. She was a government-paid teacher, and she was a good person with a kind heart. There was absolutely no one else like her in the entire Longwan Town. Aunt Zhang was very satisfied. However, as time went on, she noticed something was wrong. The relationship between the two girls had not made any progress, let alone talk about marriage. Yunfeng was always reluctant to mention this to her. Recently, she hadn't seen him come to the No. 1 Middle School in the city to meet Xiaonan and talk about their relationship.

Aunt Zhang is so anxious!

Seeing that the end of the year was approaching, the eldest son was heading straight for 25 years old. All the young men of his age in the village were married and had children. Although he was already old enough and had Xiaonan in his heart, he had no intention of getting married.

This has become a source of worry for Zhang's mother.

If she continued to endure this, sooner or later, her son would miss out on important matters of his life! So, recently she had been thinking that no matter what, this matter should be settled and explained.

As it happens, today is the winter solstice, so she can call Xiaonan home to have a good chat. So when she went out this morning, Zhang's mother took Zhang Yunfeng by the hand and told him, "Schools don't have a holiday on the winter solstice. Xiaonan will be lonely at school. Ask her to come home to eat buckwheat dumplings together in the evening."

Zhang Yunfeng said "hmm" twice, then went out with his bag, which was considered as an agreement.

However, when he came back in the evening, Zhang Yunfeng was still the same as when he went out in the morning, carrying his bag alone, but his face was a little more frosted by the winter wind.

This made Zhang Ma very disappointed, and she asked, "Where's Xiaonan?"

Zhang Yunfeng said tiredly, "No, she's staying at her second uncle's house."

Aunt Zhang remained silent.

After a long while, she sighed and went back to the kitchen, and started chopping the meat with "bang bang bang bang" sounds.

At that time, Zhang Yunqi was sitting in the living room, playing Super Mario with Xiaoxiao on the Subor computer learning machine. His mother's voice was quite loud, and he heard it all. He found that since Zhang Guorui came to Jiangchuan to talk to his eldest brother Zhang Yunfeng last time, his eldest brother and Zhang Xiaonan's contact seemed to be less warm than before. As far as he could remember, Zhang Xiaonan hadn't come to the house for dinner for a long time.

In fact, he also gave his eldest brother some extra advice that time. What was that? People have to fulfill themselves.

The eldest brother actually listened to him and plunged into the business of selling fish meal without any intention of turning back. He was busy with his career at the No. 2 Middle School all day long. The two brothers could only see each other when they returned home at night and went out in the morning. The eldest brother was a taciturn person. Apart from telling him about some problems in the fish meal shop, he kept all his emotional troubles to himself.

What is the situation between the eldest brother and Zhang Xiaonan now? Zhang Yunqi really doesn't know, and there is one thing he can't understand. If it was when the family was poor in the past, he really didn't deserve her. He could only swallow his anger when Zhang Guorui complained about him. However, now, Zhang Xiaonan is a government-sponsored teacher and the niece of the deputy director of the Education Bureau. Is she really so precious? His family is not bad! I really don't understand what the eldest brother is so entangled about. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, forget it. He looked at his mother's expression. If it goes on like this, he's afraid that she will get angry and hurt her body. This matter that has been entangled for so long, whether it's good or not, really should have a break.

The buckwheat dumplings eaten on the night of the winter solstice are particularly lively.

Eldest sister Zhang Qiulan and her family of three all came. The two little kids, Xiaoxiao and Tiantian, were making a lot of noise. Mother Zhang, who had been angry with eldest brother Zhang Yunfeng earlier, put her worries aside and just kept holding her grandson with a smile on her face.

Zhang Yunqi hadn't eaten the buckwheat dumplings made by his mother for a long time. He ate two big bowls of them dipped in chili and aged vinegar. They were very delicious and made him feel warm all over.

This thing is a specialty of his hometown, and it is not available on the market. After graduating from technical secondary school in his previous life, he settled in Lijin City, the provincial capital. Every Spring Festival when he returns to his hometown, there are four foods that he must eat: Jiangchuan Qifengdu fish powder, Fengyang jar meat, Jiangchuan roast chicken, and buckwheat dumplings made by his mother.

The first three are all well-known specialties of Jiangchuan City, but these things can be bought on the market. Only the buckwheat rice dumplings made by my mother are the only one in the world, and they have the unique taste of home in the world.

******
The first morning after the winter solstice is windless.

Zhang Yunqi went to school as usual.

The sunlight on the road was very thin, the sky was gray, and the leaden clouds hanging above were like iron hammers. The dry grass on the street was stained with white frost. The sparrows with nowhere to find food were huddled under the eaves, chirping non-stop because of hunger. On the bicycles that were passing through were students like dumplings.

Zhang Yunqi is the same as them.

The winter schedule had already been changed. When Zhang Yunqi arrived at the classroom half an hour later, it was still early for class. He brought four servings of Zhangji Qifengdu fish meal, ate one bowl himself, and fed the rest to Wang Xiaokai, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Yang Wei. These three little fools went to the game hall every day. At the end of the month, their living expenses were not enough, so they squatted in the cafeteria every day to eat the big pot meals and were hungry without breakfast.

Wang Xiaokai, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Yang Wei were all there. The four brothers gathered at the back of the classroom to eat fish noodles. This stuff was fresh and spicy, and it was very delicious to eat in such a cold weather.

While I was eating noodles, classmates started to arrive one after another.

When Li Yufei entered the room, Zhang Yunqi saw Liu Zicheng following behind her. Liu Zicheng was holding two cardboard boxes with the words "Longjingyuan" written on the outside. They seemed quite heavy, and there was some reluctance on his face.

Many classmates were watching this scene. Wang Xiaokai waved and called Li Yufei, saying, "What are you carrying with you two boxes?"

Li Yufei tilted her head, revealing a fair face, like a porcelain doll that had just been painted with glaze, with a smile dancing in her eyes: "Our Longjingyuan canned food tastes very good. We want to try selling it at the entrance of the school cafeteria at noon."

******
Ps. Brewing climax...

(End of this chapter)