On the afternoon of the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, a fine snow began to fall from the sky. In less than an hour, the entire Yangjiazhuang was covered in a blanket of white. The roofs, the branches, the roads, and even the distant mountains were blanketed with snow.
The entire village stood silent and still.
The people in the village were busy at home preparing New Year's food, or just enjoying good food and drinks while resting. In the freezing weather, no one wanted to come out and face the cold.
At the Xiao Family, He Fangfang was busy in the kitchen with Xiao Qin and Xiao Xiu.
The kitchen of the Xiao Family was just a mud-brick house with a stove inside and a cabinet made from old wooden boards.
The cabinet for holding bowls and chopsticks was made from old wooden boards that Xiao Yuan had scavenged, polished, painted, and nailed together.
