Dumplings, homophonically "jiaozǐ," carried beautiful meanings in the traditional culture of the Flower-Growing Land: the passing of old into new, festive reunion, and good fortune.
But in the hearts of northerners, especially people from Eastern Mountain, dumplings held an even more special place.
Later generations even made up a joke: Eastern Mountain people ate dumplings on New Year's Eve, dumplings on the first day of the new year, and dumplings every day from the second and third all the way to the fifteenth.
There were even stories about wives from elsewhere visiting Eastern Mountain for the first time, only for their mothers-in-law to serve dumplings without a single stir-fried dish.
In truth, those were all rumors. Dumplings were indeed the highest-standard courtesy Eastern Mountain people offered guests, but there were other dishes on the New Year's Eve table too. Otherwise, what were the men of the household supposed to drink with?
So on New Year's Eve, all the wives of the Li family crowded into the kitchen to cook.
If Han Chunmei and her daughter had still felt somewhat out of place when everyone gathered for the first time last year, then this year, Han Chunmei and Fu Yiruo had interacted often enough that things had naturally become easier between them.
Wu Juying was in charge of directing; Fu Guiru and Han Chunmei were the main cooks; Wen Leyu, Li Juan, Li Ying, and Fu Yiruo served as little apprentice helpers. They bustled about amid laughter and chatter, so harmonious they could hardly be more so.
As for the men of the Li family, they did not enter the kitchen today, because they had a more important mission—setting off firecrackers!
Fireworks were not banned on New Year's Eve in 1988. From the moment darkness began to fall, the clatter and