Chapter 38 New Year's Eve

At night, Li Fu sat at the table, continuing to carve what he was doing, while Chu Ran was making the bed. He paused and turned to look at Li Fu who was sitting at the table.

"I heard that Concubine Xi has been practicing some kind of dance in the palace recently. She said she wanted to use this dance to please the emperor at the New Year's Eve banquet."

"Yeah." Li Fu still kept his head down, looking very focused, as if his mind was not at all on what Chu Ran was talking about.

Chu Ran simply stopped what he was doing, walked over to Li Fu and sat down.

"Do you think her plan can succeed?"

Li Fu said calmly: "How would I know?"

"What do you think?"

Li Fu: “I can’t guess.”

Chu Ran tilted his head, looked at Li Fu, and said seriously: "You have to guess."

Li Fu raised his head and thought for a moment, then lowered his head again, his dark and thick eyelashes blocking his deep and dark eyes, "I guess, it shouldn't be possible."

Chu Ran's serious expression immediately relaxed. He stood up, stretched his waist, and said with a smile, "I don't think so either. Okay, stop carving. Your eyes are all blinded by carving. Come up and go to sleep."

During the previous Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Fu was allowed to attend the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet, but because of what happened at the palace banquet, the emperor issued an edict that Li Fu was not allowed to attend any palace banquets in the future.

Chu Ran thought that this might not be a bad thing.

Li Fu was not loved by the old emperor anyway, and it would be better if the old emperor forgot about him, so that Li Fu could still survive in the palace. But if Li Fu kept messing around in front of the old emperor, not to mention that other princes would bully Li Fu, the old emperor would be so partial to him that he would be punished frequently, right?

Li Fu would be safer if he stayed away from the old emperor and those princes.

Besides this, what made Chu Ran happy was that they could spend this year's New Year's Eve together.

Chu Ran is a person who pays great attention to rituals. Just like eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival and watching the moon together as a family, during the Chinese New Year, window decorations and couplets must be pasted, and firecrackers must be set off.

However, the rules in the palace are very strict. The masters can set off firecrackers, but the servants are not allowed to.

But it doesn’t matter, there are other things you can do besides setting off firecrackers.

When Chu Ran was on duty at Qiluan Palace on weekdays, he would ask the palace maids to teach him how to cut paper-cuts.

After Chu Ran learned it, he went back to teach others.

But the old lady used the excuse that she was old and had poor eyesight, so she refused to learn. Li Fu was very fast at learning other things, but he couldn't learn to cut paper-cuts. The paper-cuts were crooked and it was hard to tell what they were. Only Uncle Xing cut beautiful and neat paper-cuts. Chu Ran couldn't help but sigh, Uncle Xing is really an all-rounder! He can do everything!

Among the four of them, only Chu Ran and Li Fu could read, but Chu Ran thought of his own calligraphy that looked like a dog paddling, and decided to hand this difficult task to Li Fu.

Li Fu's handwriting isn't very beautiful, but it's much better than Chu Ran's.

Li Dingning was quite merciful. As he had to attend a palace banquet in the evening, he allowed Chu Ran not to go with him, so Chu Ran also got half a day off.

Chu Ran went to receive the food that Concubine Li had given to the servants. After receiving it, Chu Ran returned to his own residence.

From a distance, Chu Ran heard noisy voices coming from the yard.

"Oh, my family told us that window paper-cuts should be pasted straight to look good. Look, you pasted it crookedly. Paste it again."

"And this couplet, one is high and the other is low. OK, OK, let's do it this way."

Chu Ran entered the yard, and Li Fu stood on a stool and pasted window decorations dipped in batter on the windows.

Xing Ji had already finished pasting the couplets on the door and was getting down from the stool, rubbing his fingertips, which had been dyed red by the red paper.

As for Zhao Zhongyi, he stood in the corridor, raised his head, and ordered the two men to do their work just by talking, as if he was giving orders.

Chu Ran watched from a distance, and for the first time he felt a sense of reality as if his heart was filled.

"Xiao Linzi is back."

Zhao Zhongyi turned his head to look at Chu Ran who was walking towards them, and his eyes quickly fell on the food Chu Ran was carrying.

"Show us what delicious food you brought back."

"No hurry, let's watch it while we eat."

Chu Ran walked into the house, put the food on the table, then went out and saw Li Fu stepping on the stool again, preparing to post the second one.

Li Fu was young and not as tall as Chu Ran, so he had some difficulty in pasting the window grilles. Chu Ran stepped forward and helped him smooth out the grilles, then clamped Li Fu's waist with both hands and lifted him down from the stool.

“It’s well pasted.”

Chu Ran looked at the neat window grilles on the window, glanced sideways at Li Fu, and praised him.

The corners of Li Fu's lips involuntarily curled up a little, as if he was smiling triumphantly.

Chu Ran lit a charcoal fire in the house, put out the food on the table, and also prepared the bowls and chopsticks in advance.

When everything was ready, Chu Ran shouted to the three people who were busy outside:

"Wash your hands and come in to eat!"

When the three heard that dinner was ready, they rushed into the house at the speed of reincarnation.

"Here, this is your bowl."

Chu Ran stood and distributed bowls and chopsticks to the other three people at the table. Each of them held a bowl and a pair of chopsticks.

After distributing the dishes, Chu Ran suddenly thought of something, so he said, "Wait, let me get something first."

Chu Ran crawled under the bed and took out the pot of wine that he had hidden underneath.

He doesn't like drinking white wine, but at this moment today, Chu Ran feels that he must drink it with some wine.

He put the drinks on the table and poured wine for each person.

"Let's raise a toast together and celebrate the festival!"

Zhao Zhongyi frowned, "How long has this wine been stored? Is it still drinkable?"

"It won't kill you anyway."

"How dare you talk to us, you little bastard? You don't know how to respect the elderly and love the young."

"Don't talk nonsense." Chu Ran said, "Hurry up and raise your glass."

Zhao Zhongyi sighed and shook his head helplessly. Li Fu and Xing Ji, on the other hand, gave Chu Ran face and stood up with their wine glasses raised.

Chu Ran coughed dryly, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he shouted happily: "Happy New Year! Come on! Cheers!"

He clinked his glass towards the three people, and then Chu Ran drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.

He looked up and saw that everyone was staring at him. Chu Ran urged, "Don't look at me! Drink the wine in the glass! Hurry up, hurry up!"

Under Chu Ran's repeated urging, Xing Ji first imitated Chu Ran and drank up the wine in the glass.

When Li Fu was about to drink, Chu Ran waved his hands and said, "You are still young, drink less."

After instructing Li Fu, Chu Ran looked at Zhao Zhongyi again and said, "You are older now, so just drink a sip as a token of your appreciation."

Although Zhao Zhongyi looked at Chu Ran as if he were an idiot, he still cooperated and took a sip in front of Chu Ran.

Chu Ran's face flushed with joy as he announced, "Now, we can eat!"

The chopsticks moved quickly.

After a day's work, several people were already starving, and they ate ravenously. Of course, except for Zhao Zhongyi, he did nothing all day and relied entirely on his mouth to command others. But even so, he ate no less than the others.

Halfway through the meal, it suddenly started snowing outside.