Chronicle of the 70s

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it’s already the fifteenth day of the lunar new year. Sister Xing rushed back a couple of days earlier, and now she’s in the kitchen preparing the Yuanxiao Festival meal with Leng Qing.

Mr. Xun had given everyone a heads up a few days ago; since his granddaughter had a cesarean delivery, she needed time to recover. Additionally, with the cold weather, repeatedly going in and out to see the baby wasn’t good for the child, so he decided to cancel the full-month celebration. Instead, he planned to invite just a few close relations for a simple shared meal.

However, the number of guests exceeded expectations: the Lu family, including Lu Xun and his family of three; Mr. Lu and Lu’s mother came personally; Qin Shen, the great-grandfather, was also there; and so were Qin Zhen and his family of three, Li Huan and her husband Da Heiniu, and Xu Wu’s men, Mr. Xun, the An family. Having no choice, they simply heated up the floral hall and set up three tables.

Although it’s now 1982, grain, meat, and vegetables are still rationed. During the New Year, Qin Xi bought a pig from the countryside. With so many men who loved to eat meat, nearly every meal consumed two jin of meat, leaving not much leftover. Stir-frying a few dishes would have been enough to celebrate, but now with three tables to serve, things were getting a bit tight.

Fortunately, Xu Wu sent over two sheep and twenty chickens and ducks during the new year, specifically for Li Xianglu’s postpartum recovery. There was still one sheep left.

Li Xianglu, wearing a thick cotton padded jacket, woolen hat, and a thick scarf, saw the heap of raw ingredients, and decisively instructed Sister Xing to cut the meat from the lamb’s leg, stir-fry it with cumin, and stew the rest with spices to make a big plate of hand-grabbed meat, to serve as the main dish. Other dishes, like sauerkraut with white meat and potato braised pork, would round out the meal nicely.

Consequently, the full-month feast turned into a lamb banquet. With most of the guests being men, steaming large flower buns paired with lamb meat and a bowl of fresh lamb soup made the meal beyond critique.

After a group of people feasted and drank their fill, the women went to see the baby before taking their leave.

Li Xianglu had a bowl of lamb soup with hardly any added salt and then took the towel passed by Qin Xi to wipe off her sweat and said, "All the lamb is gone?"

Qin Xi nodded and replied: "Of course, thirty people came. Finishing one sheep is nothing."