Chapter 72: 大年三十 [Chinese New Year's Eve]

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On New Year's Eve, before dawn, the sound of firecrackers rang out from outside. Zhong Ziqi, who disturbed by it, was so incessantly irritable. He tossed and turned as he found it hard to fall asleep.

Zhao Zheng'an had no choice but to keep appease him, "It will be fine in a while, just for a while."

Zhong Ziqi was a bit grumpy, probably due to his poor appetite these days, but he was able to restrain himself from venting his emotions at Zhao Zheng'an. He knew in his heart that, if he was having a hard time, how could Zhao Zheng'an have a good time either?

Zhao Zheng'an already did all the laundry, cooking and housekeeping everyday, although Zhong Ziqi felt that he would not have any problems taking over the duties of the house, he himself however could not stand Zhao Zheng'an being abruptly frightened and alarmed, as if he was afraid something would happen to him.Zhong Ziqi was speechless, so he let him be, to toss from side to side. The point was Zhao Zheng'an still had to go to the town to work on their business after he had finished tormenting himself on the matter of housekeeping. Zhong Ziqi noticed that Zhao Zheng'an had lost a lot of weight.It was just that his body was strong and muscular that it wasn't obvious, but he was his bedside man, the one who knew him best, so how could he not be able to feel it (realize it)? So there was no way he could do any kind of unreasonable thing.

A few moments later, the sound of the firecrackers from outside, as expected, came to an end. Zhong Ziqi finally breathed a sigh of relief and lay back down again with Zhao Zheng'an to sleep.

Not long after dawn, another sound of firecrackers came again, Zhong Ziqi was speechless. He then simply planned to get up with Zhao Zheng'an.

"You lie down again for a while. Wait until I've made the food, you can get up after that." Zhao Zheng'an said softly, then he got up from the bed and put on his outer clothes.

"I'll get up too. I can't sleep again anyway."

Zhao Zheng'an shook his head as he tied his buttons: "It's cold, you can get up after I've warmed up the house."

The temperature in the house had already dropped after the night. It was so cold that it made a person shiver. No one ever wanted to leave the warmth of the quilt if possible.

"All right then."

Zhong Ziqi nodded, he couldn't do anything even if he got up, 'So let's just keep lying down ba!', Zhong Ziqi thought lazily.

Zhao Zheng'an dressed well and walked out. The cold temperature forced him to shiver. He walked briskly all the way into the kitchen. Today was New Year's Eve, they would be eating four kinds of meals later so this morning meal could be the simpler one.

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Zhao Zheng'an turned on the stove and boiled a pot of hot water to wash his face before he started to cook. He didn't have much of an appetite in the morning, so he boiled a pot of porridge and put some eggs in it.

When the meal was ready, Zhao Zheng'an went to call Zhong Ziqi to get up. Zhong Ziqi stretched out his body and went to wash up, feeling deeply that this kind of life as the rice weevil (figurative for sponger) would make people become more and more lazy.

After eating, Zhao Zheng'an started to work. He first made a pot of paste and brought out the rhyming couplet, the door gods and the paper cutting that he had bought, while Zhong Ziqi was responsible for brushing the paste on it, on the other side, Zhao Zheng'an was responsible for putting the rhyming couplets on the wall.

He also bought two large red lanterns, as they lived in a remote area with no light around them. It looked dead and dull, so that was why he bought it.

"Hey, a little to the left .... a little more to the right ...," Zhong Ziqi directed Zhao Zheng'an on where to hang the lanterns.

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