In the following days, Mu Lianrong would come over or send someone over every day to keep an eye on her and prevent her from doing heavy work.

Even for three meals a day, they are only allowed to use their mouths, not their hands.

Xiao Yunying is an unrestrained and free-spirited person. If you make her work all the time, she will feel tired and want to slack off.

If you leave her idle all the time, she'll get bored and feel stifled.

After lunch, I strolled around the yard twice, then went back inside and sat at my desk, where I began drawing various patterns for clothing, including embroidery designs and some cartoon characters.

Zhang and Wang sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) behind her, making her new cotton-padded clothes and trousers, and chatting with her.

Xiao Yunying drew a few pictures, put down her pen and said, "Sister-in-law, today is the 25th. Shouldn't we put up Spring Festival couplets tomorrow or the day after?"

According to the custom of Donglin City, Spring Festival couplets should be pasted up close to the end of the year. By this time, those who are supposed to return have returned, and the auspicious wishes of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new, as well as good fortune and prosperity, will not exclude those who have not yet returned.

Zhang, embroidering the flowers on her sleeve, said, "Don't bother with this. Mother said we'll make paste to apply the plaster the day after tomorrow. We'll have your older brother come and apply it for you then."

Xiao Yunying spread out the papers to dry: "Alright, I'll save myself the trouble."

Luo Xin, who was playing with building blocks at the round table, asked, "Mom, what are Spring Festival couplets?"

"The Spring Festival couplets are the couplets your brothers wrote on red paper a few days ago. They are all pasted up during the New Year to bring joy and good fortune."

"Why do we put up Spring Festival couplets during the Chinese New Year? Who made it so?"

Xiao Yunying's mind went blank. Oh my god, this question stumped her.

As far as she knows, people in ancient times before the Ming Dynasty did not paste Spring Festival couplets. The Spring Festival couplets we have now evolved from "peach charms".

Peach charms are a long-standing Han Chinese folk custom.

Ancient people believed that peach wood could ward off evil spirits. When bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new, they would write the names of the two door gods, "Shen Tu" and "Yu Lei," on peach wood boards, or draw their images on paper and hang, inlay, or paste them on the door, intending to pray for blessings and ward off disasters.

These were the earliest peach wood charms. Later, they gradually evolved into auspicious couplets carved on peach wood and nailed to both sides of the gate on the 29th of the lunar month. They were hung for one year and replaced with new ones on the 29th of the following year.

Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day" describes the New Year's scene, and the line "always replacing the old peachwood charms with new ones" refers to these peachwood charms.

Historically, when Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, established his capital in Nanjing, he issued an edict on New Year's Eve to celebrate the establishment of the dynasty, requiring all officials and commoners to paste a Spring Festival couplet on their doors.

It was he who, overnight, popularized the custom of "writing peach wood charms" into posting Spring Festival couplets, which had been extended from the official court and wealthy families to the homes of ordinary people.

Nowadays, people use stickers to make couplets for convenience and aesthetics.

In her memory, she only knew that Spring Festival couplets were pasted up during the Chinese New Year, but she didn't know why they were pasted up or what the story behind them was.

I don't know if it's because the papermaking technology of this unheard-of Yi Kingdom is quite advanced, but we use red paper to paste Spring Festival couplets during the New Year, and we've never seen peach wood charms.

If you ask her about the origin of Spring Festival couplets, she really can't tell you. After all, she doesn't know if it's a historical event, so she can't just say anything.

Luo Xin waited for a while, but didn't receive a reply from her mother: "Mother, don't you know?"

Xiao Yunying readily admitted, "I really didn't know that. It's a custom passed down from our ancestors, meant to bring good luck. Everyone else puts them up, so we'll put them up too."

Luo Xin fiddled with the building blocks: "So it turns out Mom doesn't know everything after all."

Xiao Yunying: ...I'm not a god, of course I don't know everything.

She decided to shift the blame: "If Xin'er is curious, she can ask her older brothers. They've read a lot of books and should know."

"Okay, Xin'er will ask her brother in a bit."

Wang cut the thread on her cotton-padded trousers: "Why don't you put up the couplets on the 29th? Maybe the children's father will come back..."

Zhang nudged her with her elbow, gave a look to the little girl playing with building blocks at the round table, and shook her head to signal her not to say it in front of the child.

Wang silently slapped herself in frustration, wondering why she had to bring up such a sore subject again.

Xiao Yunying was looking at the blueprints on the table with her head tilted to the side, pretending not to have heard clearly. She turned around and said, "Huh? I was stunned. What did you say, Second Sister-in-law?"

Zhang cut the embroidery thread and said, "Your second sister-in-law said the cotton-padded trousers are finished and the cotton-padded coat is embroidered. Come and try them on to see if they fit."

Xiao Yunying went over and tried it on: "It fits quite well."

Wang circled around her and said, "Yunying, is this the style of clothing you saw in the city? It looks really good on you."

The new cotton-padded coat was made by Xiao Yunying's two sisters-in-law, who drew up the pattern. It incorporated her favorite traditional Chinese style elements and was much more "trendy" than the usual cotton-padded coat styles.

Xiao Yunying spread her arms to show off her cotton-padded coat: "Don't you think it looks a little strange?"

Zhang straightened her clothes: "No, it looks great on you."

Luo Xin put down the building blocks and said, "Mother is beautiful, she looks good in anything."

Xiao Yunying smiled and touched the little girl's chubby face: "After the New Year, Mother will design some beautiful clothes for you, so you can look as beautiful as Mother."

The three-year-old girl has already started to care about her appearance, and said with a sweet smile, "Mommy is so good."

Xiao Yunying changed back into her new cotton-padded clothes and trousers, folded them neatly, and placed them aside.

Zhang was tidying up her needlework: "Why take it off? Wear it, it looks so good."

"I want to keep it to wear on Chinese New Year's Day."

Wang said, "There's no time to make it now. How about I make another set for you and do it after the New Year?"

At the end of the year, everyone is busy with various things for the New Year celebrations and has no time to do needlework.

"Two sets are enough. If I don't go out, my clothes won't get dirty so quickly, so I don't need to change them often. After washing them, I can hang them by the stove overnight to dry them."

Wang said, "You made it too thin. We still have cotton at home, so we can make two thicker sets."

"Now we don't have to go out all the time. We have a stove at home, and thick cotton clothes are too hot. Thinner clothes are just right for wearing at home."

In this world, even at home, you can't just wander around in your underwear.

Regardless of whether the children are her own or not, as long as there are people around, she cannot be improperly dressed.

Unless you live alone and are sure no one can see you, you can wear whatever you want.

She had considered making a cotton vest or something, but wearing it directly over an inner garment would look out of place, so she decided to make the cotton coat thinner.

"We've finished making your cotton-padded coat. We're going back to help Mom tidy up the house. We'll come over to cook for you tonight."

Xiao Yunying said, "Sister-in-law, wait for me a moment."

She went to the room where the original owner's things were kept, and took all the cotton cloth and two bolts of brocade that Cheng Yue had given her from the trunk: "I don't do needlework anymore, so there's no use keeping them. Sister-in-law, take these back. Use the cotton and linen cloth to make clothes, and the brocade to embroider handkerchiefs. You can sew the quilt covers I taught you, or make bibs."