The pig had been butchered and the puffed rice candy was made. Since they had acorn jelly, they decided not to make soybean tofu. With that, the bulk of the New Year preparations were finished. All that remained were miscellaneous chores like washing and cleaning.
By the time the bedsheets were all washed and the house was scrubbed clean inside and out, it was already the twenty-ninth of the twelfth lunar month. The morning sky was gloomy, without a trace of sunlight. Before it was even time for the noon meal, thick flakes of snow began to fall from the sky.
Juhua stood in the doorway, watching the snowflakes dance and swirl in the sky, feeling an indescribable joy.
