The heavy snow began to melt on the second day, and it continued to melt for several days. There was still some snow that had not melted in the cool corners, and became hard and dusty.

The snow on the mud house is the first to melt. During the day, it falls along the eaves and hits the ground. Within half a day, a small depression will be formed.

The water in the potholes splashed out, split into pieces, and flowed into the yard. When you walk on it, there will be a thick layer of mud on the soles of your shoes.

In the evening, the snow on the roof stopped flowing and became frozen. When I got up the next day, the eaves were covered with long ice skates.

There was a short child who was playing with it by poking it off with a stick. The taller child jumped on the spot, reached out to pick it off, put it in his mouth, and screamed loudly when it was cold.

Adults are happy for children to be able to get the ice skates down, so that the sun won't bask in them, and the ice skates will loosen and fall on their heads, which is not a good look.

The sun comes out, then melts, flowing into the yard, flowing onto the dirt road, flowing along the small ditch into the big river ditch, flowing into the crop fields, watering the wheat seedlings.

There are also strings of wet water marks running down the trunks of the poplar forest, which are darker in color than the surrounding dried bark.

Every walking villager walked through muddy roads, with a thick layer of mud under their soles. When they reached a dry place, they quickly stamped their feet, swung them back and forth, and rubbed the soles of their shoes against the poplar tree a few times.

The Chinese New Year is still half a month away, and the children are most looking forward to it, wearing new clothes, eating meat, and picking up firecrackers.

The adults are also looking forward to it, and have already begun to prepare the things they need for the New Year. When they think of Yang Lei while they are busy, they can't help but sigh.

My old lady will scold me and tell me what to do about those annoying things during the Chinese New Year. Don’t worry, she will definitely wake up.

Then, there was laughter.

The yard at the east end next to the river beach is much bleak compared to the busy and bustling scene in the village.

But it's very clean, and everything is tidied up in an orderly manner. It's just that it lacks a bit of popularity, which makes it look desolate.

Yang Yulan asked her sister Bai Ge to go to her father's house. She would stay here alone without someone to take care of her.

Bai Ge didn't want to, she wanted to wait for Zhang Guoquan to come back. Zhang Guoquan said that he must let her wait for him, and he would definitely come back. Bai Ge believed that Guo Quan was innocent, so she would wait and wait.

The New Year is coming soon, and she actually wants to slow down the time. If it goes slower, she is afraid that Zhang Guoquan will not be able to come back before the New Year.

But time didn't seem to want to listen to her at all. As the days passed and the New Year was so close, she felt more anxious than anyone else.

She no longer counted on her fingers, she was afraid that time would slip through her fingers.

She was afraid and had no choice. Yang Lei did not wake up. Only when Yang Lei woke up could Guo Quan be cleared of suspicion. She would tidy up the house every day. When Guo Quan came back, he could not let him see a useless and messy home.

After cleaning up her home, she would go to the door of Yang Lei's house every day to take a look.

The door was closed and locked, and she returned to the yard disappointed. The next day, she went to the door of Yang Lei's house full of hope to have a look.

The Chinese New Year is really coming, no matter how reluctant she is.

That day, Old Monster Yang and his family came to the yard to persuade Bai Ge to go back, but Bai Ge was very stubborn and refused to go back.

Old Monster Yang was very angry and scolded her for being infatuated. She was still his daughter and he couldn't ignore her.

Tired of scolding, Old Monster Yang shook his head, sighed, and muttered to himself, what kind of evil had he done to bring such a disaster to the Old Yang family.

Baige didn't defend herself, she knew it was useless.

Rumors had already spread in the village that it was Zhang Guoquan who did it. Otherwise, why would the police have detained him for so many days and not released him back?

It is said that the murder weapon used to hit Yang Lei was the bloody stone that was found in the cellar of his house. It was obvious that he had a guilty conscience, so he hid the stone.

The motive for the crime was also found out. Da Jinya ran away. Yang Lei failed to help him and Zhang Guoquan continued to reclaim the wasteland. He was holding a grudge. He must have started a fight after arguing, and accidentally killed someone.

He found it on the river beach closest to his home, and even took Yang Lei to the town clinic in a pretentious manner. Isn't this just a thief calling to catch the thief?

Yang Yulan went to argue that she hid the stone, and Bai Ge also went to argue that the machine had been repaired, but they didn't want to hear it at all. They only wanted to hear what they wanted to hear.

Passed from word to word, it finally reached Bai Ge. This girl Yaoyao is really awesome. If she can take the initiative to return the money, she must be having an affair with Zhang Guoquan.

Bai Ge stopped arguing.

It was the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, 1986.

It was too cold that night, the crescent moon hung high, the withered treetops cut the cold night into pieces, and the white doves had no sleep all night.

The bed is very cold, the tears on my face are even colder, but my heart is still warm. Isn't there still one day left?

An hour later, a minute later, or a second later doesn't count as New Year, Guo Quan will be back in time.

On the morning of New Year's Eve, she recalled what her mother would usually prepare, and sat in front of the stove to start making something with limited ingredients.

Aunt Wang gave her oil, which she used to fry the meatballs, but they were not fried well and were very dark.

In a basket of steamed buns, only the top ones can be seen, and they are a bit yellow in color.

Seeing that it was noon, even the bright yellow meatballs on the top layer should have been illuminated by the sun.

The oil in the pot boiled less, and the firewood in the stove gradually became less and less. She just looked at it, lost in thought for no reason.

First, the courtyard door was opened, and she thought it was Aunt Wang.

Then there were heavy footsteps behind me. It was definitely Aunt Wang because she was so fat.

Bai Ge didn't look back. She was afraid that Aunt Wang would see the tears on her face and sit down again. She would say reassuring words to her, saying that Zhang Guoquan must be unjust and would come back after the New Year. She didn't want to hear it.

The more uncomfortable it is to listen.

"Aunt Wang, you don't have to bring me food, I can't eat so much." She didn't look back, but wiped her face with her hands.

Aunt Wang didn't say anything either. It stands to reason that in the past few days, Aunt Wang would have put things on the chopping board regardless, and then sat there talking to her.

Why didn’t Aunt Wang speak this time?

She wiped the tears on her face hard again. Aunt Wang meant well, but it was not polite to do so, so she turned around to look.

The sunshine today is quite good and warm.

Under the sun was the man she had longed for day and night, and he came back unexpectedly. Hey, how could it happen? He said he would come back, and he would definitely come back.

That is, he has lost a lot of weight.

Under the sun, Zhang Guoquan's face looked blurry, but she was sure that it was Zhang Guoquan. During countless dark nights, while he was sleeping, she stroked and outlined his face with her fingers over and over again.

It was absolutely unmistakable. Even though her eyes were blurred by the tears, she was still sure that he was her man.

Yang Guanlian moved the shadow in front of her, and Zhang Guoquan walked towards her.

He hugged Bai Ge tightly, and Bai Ge stroked his face with her hands. She was afraid of forgetting the outline of Guo Quan's face.

Zhang Guoquan could feel that Bai Ge's hands were much rougher. It was so hard for her to be alone during this period of time.

Zhang Guoquan ate a lot of fried meatballs. For him, even if the meatballs were dark, he thought they were the best delicacy in the world.

Bai Ge continued to fry the meatballs, and this time she became much more skilled. She looked at the pots of burnt meatballs piled in the steamed bun basket, smiling, but she always laughed and cried.

After finishing lunch, Zhang Guoquan stretched out with satisfaction. Bai Ge's eyes never left his body for a second from beginning to end.

The sun was just right, Zhang Guoquan moved out the table and placed it in the yard, took out the door couplets he had cut before and started writing.

I turned the square red paper around, and first wrote a big word "spring" on it. After I finished writing, I stood back to admire it, but I kept shaking my head.

The white pigeon said: "It looks good."

Zhang Guoquan smiled and said: "I will use it to practice my pen first."

Then he wrote the word "福" again, and the white pigeon still said it looked good.

After writing several pieces in a row, he found the feeling, took out the two long door couplets, pondered for a while, and then wrote them.

The first red couplet: Spring is full of flowers in the world,

The second red couplet: Fulin Xiaoyuan is always safe in all seasons.

Bai Ge read it out and suddenly exclaimed: "Well, it's very agreeable. It still needs to be approved. I should write farewell to the old year and welcome the new year."
Chapter completed!