Ah Chou didn't understand what "蝶蝶" and "鸳鸯" meant, but she knew what "世生世世" and "日晨暮暮" meant, not to mention the obvious words "欢乐欢喜". Ah Chou blushed immediately. She looked at the fiery red couplet in front of her and felt her heart warm. She let Zhong Mingwei hug her from behind and put his chin on her shoulder. The man's breath was right beside her ear. The hot breath made Ah Chou's ears red.
"Do you like it?" Zhong Mingwei asked softly with his mouth close to Achou's ear.
"How can there be such Spring Festival couplets? You are such a rude person..." Ah Chou blushed and said shyly, avoiding the man's lips and tongue while lowering her head and whispering. "What you have doesn't look like a Spring Festival couplet. It looks more like..."
"What does it look like?" Zhong Mingwei asked softly.
It looks like the couplets people put up during weddings.
But Ah Chou couldn't say such words. Ah Chou was too shy. She turned around and threw herself into the man's arms. She rubbed against him. She said coquettishly, "Can I not tell you? Can you please stop asking?"
"Okay, but I have to ask for some benefits..." Zhong Mingwei said softly, while lowering his head and covering Ah Chou's red lips.
…
Zhong Mingwei wrote Spring Festival couplets for the main door, the side room, the outer hall, and the kitchen, as well as several pairs of big characters for "Fu". His handwriting was really good. Even though Ah Chou didn't know any calligraphy, he still thought men's handwriting was beautiful. But such beautiful handwriting had never been written on red paper, let alone Spring Festival couplets. While writing the character for "Fu", Zhong Mingwei sighed in his heart. To be honest, this was the first Spring Festival he had ever celebrated, the first real Spring Festival, and the first Spring Festival he had celebrated with his little girl.
He didn't have to go to the palace before dawn to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager and his father, nor did he have to go to the ancestral temple to offer sacrifices, nor did he have to kowtow before the spirit of Empress Zhenxian, nor did he have to worry about gifts for the Empress Dowager and his father, and he didn't have to watch the singing and dancing that he had long been tired of and eat cold imperial meals in the huge Hall of Supreme Harmony.
At this moment, he and Achou were just like an ordinary young couple, happily preparing to stay up all night to celebrate the New Year.
He was writing Spring Festival couplets on the small table, while Ah Chou was sitting cross-legged on the side, cutting paper-cuts. The sunlight shone through the window paper, and the whole place was filled with warmth and peace.
"You can also cut paper?" Zhong Mingwei was surprised when he saw Achou holding the scissors and cutting the paper flexibly.
"Yes," Ah Chou looked at Zhong Mingwei with a smile, "Generally, people who can do embroidery can also do paper cutting. If you do more embroidery patterns, you will naturally learn it."
"Then what are you cutting?" Zhong Mingwei asked Achou, pointing at the paper-cut she was cutting.
"You'll know in a moment." Achou whispered, while lowering his head and continuing to cut the paper carefully.
"Okay," finally finished cutting, Ah Chou put down the scissors, gently unfolded the paper-cut, and handed it to Zhong Mingwei, while gently asking, "Do you recognize what this pattern is?"
"This is..." Zhong Mingwei looked at the pair of smiling eyes, round heads and round brains of the man and woman on the paper-cut, and said hesitantly, "The Two Immortals of Harmony and Unity?"
"You recognize it?" Ah Chou's face suddenly turned red all the way to his neck, and he muttered softly, "I thought you grown men didn't understand these things at all..."
"Why are you cutting out the two gods of harmony and unity?" Zhong Mingwei smiled and held Ah Chou in his arms. He leaned over and kissed Ah Chou's blushing cheek, and asked with a smile, "I heard that people cut out the word "Fu" when cutting out window paper-cuts, or cut out the word "San Yang Kai Tai" or "Zhu Bao Ping An" or something like that. Why are you cutting out the two gods of harmony and unity?"
"You are allowed to write such an embarrassing couplet, but I am not allowed to cut out a pair of Hehe and Erxian?" Ah Chou was dissatisfied and looked at Zhong Mingwei with a pout. However, he was still embarrassed. Looking at the Hehe and Erxian on his palm, he whispered, "How about... I won't paste this one. I will cut out a house full of gold and jade..."
"No, let's put this one on. I like the two immortals of harmony and unity the most," Zhong Mingwei said, pointing at them and smilingly said to Ah Chou, "Girl, look, this man looks like me, and this woman looks like you."
"Bah! Not at all, I'm much prettier than her," Ah Chou refused, but couldn't help laughing. She put her arms around the man's neck, bit his chin twice, and chuckled, "But when we get old, it might be like this. You can't despise me then."
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