After the autumn harvest, Wu Jin began to organize people to clean up the weeds. They also did deep plowing and fertilized the soil in preparation for the coming year.
After finishing this round of farming, there wasn’t much farm work left. Everyone began to wait for the arrival of the winter snow.
As the days passed, it began to snow soon. Animals chose to hibernate in the winter, and people would also become lazy in the winter. After winter, the troublemakers in the village, such as Yu Yan and Yao Nian, seemed to be too lazy to stir up trouble.
Yu Bing was in charge of many things and often wasn’t in the village. Yu Yan couldn’t find an opportunity to do anything.
On the other hand, Yao Nian had taken more than a month to recover from the heavy cold due to the cold weather. After recovering, he had lost a lot of weight and had become a little frail. However, he still maintained his good looks and aloofness. His tall and thin appearance made some people feel that he had the refined look of a scholar, giving some girls a good impression of him.
Yao Nian’s appearance caught Yu Yan’s eye. Ever since their heartfelt conversation under the osmanthus tree, the two of them could occasionally feel an indescribable feeling when their gazes met again.
The intellectuals in the dormitory building also saw clearly that Yu Bing had no feelings for Yao Nian. Otherwise, she would have visited Yao Nian when he was sick. In order to maintain his affectionate image, Yao Nian could only say that Yu Bing was dissatisfied with the arranged marriage.
After the country established a new regime, it advocated free love. Most of the time, so-called arranged marriages were just the one-sided wishes of parents, or an offhand remark.
The young people who were educated with modern values didn’t have a good impression of arranged marriages. If Yu Bing and Yao Nian were in love with each other, no one would say anything. But now, it was obvious that they weren’t. Everyone had a better impression of Yu Bing, who dared to resist an arranged marriage!
Gradually, no one took the arranged marriage seriously anymore.
All year round, this was the period when people in rural areas had the most free time.
At the end of December, after the village handed over the pigs according to the weight stipulated by the country, there were still five left. After the butcher in the village killed the pigs, he distributed them to each family to start making cured meat. The difference between making cured meat and smoked meat here was that there was no smoke when making cured meat. As long as it was marinated and dried in the courtyard, it could be eaten.
Xiao Sheng’s culinary skills were terrible, so in the past, he had always gone to the Wu family to ask Grandma Wu for help. After tasting Yu Bing’s cooking this year, he invited Yu Bing to help at home. Yu Bing naturally wouldn’t refuse such a small favor.
After Yu Bing marinated the meat, she looked up from the window and saw Xiao Li grabbing the snow in the courtyard to build a snowman.
Yu Bing sighed and turned to look at Xiao Sheng. “Does Xiao Li usually stay at home alone? Every time I come, I find her working at home.”
Xiao Sheng paused and said slowly, “Yes, she’s usually alone at home.”
When Yu Bing heard this, her heart ached for this eight-year-old child. She washed her hands and ran out of the kitchen, then grabbed a handful of snow and quietly approached Xiao Li.
Xiao Li stopped building the snowman and turned to look in Yu Bing’s direction. She smiled and shouted, “Sister Yu Bing.”
Yu Bing stepped on the snow heavily. She smiled mischeviously and said, “Hmph, it’s useless even if you hear my voice. You can’t stop my sneak attack!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Yu Bing placed the snow in her hand on Xiao Li’s neck. The cold and soft feeling made Xiao Li’s neck itch. She laughed loudly and sat down on the snow.
Then, Yu Bing quickly helped her up and pinched the tip of Xiao Li’s nose. There was mirth in her friendly voice as she said, “Come, let’s work together to build a snowman, okay?”
Xiao Li nodded happily. Her brothers usually accompanied her, and Wang Xia would occasionally come over to play. Only Yu Bing and Jiang Chun would come to chat with Xiao Li from time to time.
Xiao Li sighed as she built the snowman. “Sister Yu Bing, ever since you came, I feel that my brother’s culinary skills have improved a lot.”
After all, Xiao Sheng often helped out. After watching so much, his culinary skills more or less improved.
Yu Bing couldn’t help but think of the bowl of rabbit meat and burst out laughing.
Xiao Sheng walked out of the kitchen and pretended to try to scare her as he said, “Xiao Li, you’re getting bolder and bolder. You even dare to make up stories about your brother!”