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December 27th of the Lunar Calendar.
Farewelling the old and welcoming the new, the hope for a better year has always been the simplest and most common aspiration among the people of Huaxia.
With only a few days left until the Chinese New Year, perhaps due to the particularly numerous major events of ’08, the festive atmosphere on the street corners as the year came to a close was even richer than in previous years.
Flower markets had sprung up in Licheng Square starting from the 25th, and by mid-morning, Xu Qingfan was driving a tricycle with five girls who had gathered, including Wu Lingyu who had returned from Hong Kong, to stroll through Flower Street.
In the past, going to the flower market was always with the adults, but this was the first time they were accompanied by friends rather than parents, and the girls felt an inexplicable sense of novelty.
Even though it wasn’t evening yet, Licheng Square was still packed with people. Trees around the square were adorned with festive red lanterns, and broadcasts of cheerful songs like "Joyous Year After Year" filled the air.
[You hear the gongs and drums, sending off the old year with their sound~]
[You see the crowd, each person merrily continuous in their joy~]
After locking the tricycle’s rear wheel with a chain, Xu Qingfan spun his keyring and led the way.
"Let’s go, let’s see what we can buy to decorate our home!"
"Brother Qingfan, should we buy kumquats?" Lin Wanning, holding hands with Zhang Yiyi, jogged up to walk shoulder to shoulder with Xu Qingfan.
"Brother Fan, let’s take a photo here!" Xiao Ruawen, Wu Lingyu, and Xia Xiaoxiao ran to the mascot of the Ox Year not far away and waved at them.
Xu Qingfan and Lin Wanning looked at each other and smiled, "Let’s go take a photo too."
"Sure!"
"Boys, smile a bit, don’t just hang your hands there, you could do a peace sign!" With the help of enthusiastic citizens, they successfully captured a photo of the six of them on such a special day.
"Thank you very much," Xu Qingfan jogged forward to retrieve the camera and when he checked the photos, he was surprised to find they had turned out quite well.
"Brother Qingfan, let me have a look!"
"Brother Fan, how did it turn out? Are we going to take more pictures?"
"Have a look for yourself." Xu Qingfan turned the screen to show them.
"Wow~ Not bad!"
"This photo looks great!"
The six of them in the photo had natural and confident smiles, an innocence yet untouched by society’s trials, matching their youthful exuberance.
"Let’s go, let’s go inside and have a look around!" He slung the camera back around his neck and, placing his hands on Lin Wanning’s shoulders, pushed the girl forward to walk.
"Brother Qingfan, I want to buy a pinwheel!"
"We’ll buy it when we leave."
"Brother Fan, should we buy a peach tree?"
"If you want to buy it, pick it up, but we’ll wait until we leave; it’s too big. Let’s go buy some door god stickers first!"
The couplets and the word "fu" were usually handwritten by Xu Qingfan, but he wasn’t an art student and really couldn’t draw door gods.
The five girls were like thrifty and virtuous housewives, patiently comparing prices at different stalls.
"Five bucks!"
"Girl, nobody haggles like you, cutting the price by more than half!"
"Auntie, this pattern isn’t clear, it’s neither an ox nor a horse, who would normally buy it? Give us a discount, and we’ll buy other stuff here too." Wu Lingyu calmly negotiated with the stall owner, her presence anything but weak.
What had caught Lin Wanning’s eye was a sticker in the shop with the pattern of a fox and the words ’Peace and Joy’ emblazoned across it.
"Alright, alright, auntie will sell it to you at a discount just because you’re students, it’s all good paper!" The stall owner relented helplessly with a wave of her hand.
"Hehe~"
Once Xu Qingfan had paid and they had left the stall, the other girls crowded around Wu Lingyu like stars around the moon.
"Yu, you’re just too good!"
"Yeah, I always feel nervous when I try to bargain."
"Yu, awesome!"
Wu Lingyu smiled shyly, head bowed, and said, "It’s no big deal, I learned it when I went grocery shopping with my aunt."
Wu Lingyu had once witnessed Yao Jiping’s great bargaining method while accompanying her to the market. The young girl was amazed and since then, had consciously started to imitate her aunt’s haggling tone and technique.
"Yu, you have such skills and you didn’t share with us, you have to teach us when we get back!"
"Yeah, I don’t know how to bargain at all; every time the seller agrees I feel like I’m at a loss!"
Xu Qingfan ruffled the girl’s hair. Wu Lingyu usually seemed timid, but he was pleasantly surprised to see such a confident side to her and felt quite reassured.
"Anything else we need to buy? We still have to do some cleaning and cook later."
"We haven’t bought the red envelopes yet!" Xia Xiaoxiao reminded them.
"Why do we need to buy red envelopes?" Xu Qingfan asked instinctively.
"To hang them on the mandarin tree, duh, Brother Qingfan, you’re so clueless!" Lin Wanning rarely had a chance to be smarter than Xu Qingfan and proudly patted him on the head.
"Oh, oh, oh, right, my bad!"
After Wu Lingyu struck another bargain for both the kumquats and the peach blossom, Xu Qingfan drove the tricycle and they all returned home with their spoils.
"Wishing you prosperity~"
"The God of Wealth is coming, the God of Wealth is coming, take two quick steps~"
"Echoing through Lingxiao Palace~"
```
On the way back, five girls leaned against the tricycle, taking turns humming three different New Year’s songs.
After getting back to the secret base and unloading everything, Xu Qingfan took the three-wheeler next door to return it to the neighbor auntie.
"Thank you, Auntie!"
"No problem, no problem, just come and ask if you need anything next time."
"Okay~" Xu Qingfan responded with a smile.
Back at home, the girls were all waiting for him in the living room.
"First let’s clean up, then put up the couplets. You three take care of the living room; Yiyi and Wanning handle the yard," Xu Qingfan clapped his hands to assign tasks to everyone, "I’ll go to the kitchen to hurriedly cook the chicken for worship, let’s get started!"
With Xu Qingfan’s directions, the house quickly bustled with activity.
In Hong Kong, people worship deities at home before New Year’s Day, offering a hastily-cooked rooster, fatty pork, apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, jujubes—five kinds of fruits in different colors, and also placing raw rice in the rooster’s bowl, with jujubes spread flat on top of the rice.
Xu Qingfan roughly remembered that the deity worshipped before New Year’s Day was the Tai Sui, since the people of Lingnan had so many gods that nearly every day someone could be found worshiping at home.
He boiled a pot of water in the kitchen, quickly cooked the rooster and the pork belly, and then cooled them down with cold water, setting them aside for the upcoming worship.
The worshiped rooster wasn’t wasted—half would be used for braised chicken and the other half for soup, while the pork belly was reserved for making Mei Cai Kou Rou (steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens).
"Ah!" Just as he was busily working in the kitchen, a startled cry from Lin Wanning suddenly came from outside.
Xu Qingfan didn’t even have time to put down the spatula and rushed out with it in hand.
"What happened?" he asked, seeing that nothing serious had occurred, and he finally relaxed.
"Pfft~Hahaha!" Xiao Ruawen was the first to walk over, then covered her stomach, pointing at the paper cutout on the glass window and laughing nonstop.
Xu Qingfan felt confused, but upon closer inspection, he realized Lin Wanning had mistakenly placed the character for "joy" (’乐’) on top when pasting the ’Peace and Joy’ (平安喜乐) cutout.
"Brother Qing Fan, I didn’t do it on purpose," said Lin Wanning, with the remaining three cutouts in her hand, poking her fingers together in careful concern.
Xu Qingfan sighed. He had originally thought such mishaps were exclusive to clear-eyed college students, yet Lin Wanning proved herself equally adept.
Three minutes later.
The original character for "joy" was removed by Xu Qingfan, who then properly pasted the three characters for "Peace and Joy."
"Give me joy!" holding the camera in his hand, he shouted to Lin Wanning inside the glass.
The girl placed her head where the character for "joy" should have been and gave a naive, hearty smile, showing off her even, white teeth.
"Goose goose goose!" The four girls standing behind Xu Qingfan, looking at the absurd scene in the camera, laughed out loud.
Lin Wanning ran out from the living room again, looking like she had done something wrong, and shyly stuck out her tongue.
"This is perfect, having Wanning’s photo is the real joy!" Xu Qingfan pinched one side of her face with his hand and turned the photo around to show it to her.
"Hehe~ it looks good!"
Xu Qingfan went upstairs to print the photo in color with the printer and put it up again.
All six of them surrounded the photo, laughing incessantly, admiring Xu Qingfan’s whimsical idea.
"Brother Qing Fan is amazing!" Lin Wanning inexplicably felt a sense of achievement.
"If you had pasted ’Prosperity and Wealth’ (恭喜发财) wrong, then... then we would have to stick your wallet up there!" Xu Qingfan teased, grabbing her hair.
"Wuu~ no way."
"Hahaha..."
The New Year cleaning ritual in Hong Kong is not complete until everything is spotless.
Therefore, for lunch, Xu Qingfan simply made stir-fried pork with green peppers and served it over noodles. After finishing the noodles, everyone got back to cleaning.
Nearing four o’clock in the afternoon, the six of them, exhausted, collapsed onto the sofa in the living room.
"Finally done~" looking at the house that seemed as good as new, all five girls showed excitement that outshone their fatigue.
"We still need to put on the quilt covers!" Xu Qingfan reminded.
"Ao ao ao~ Brother Qing Fan, I don’t want to move anymore, can you help us with it?" Lin Wanning whined softly from where she lay on Zhang Yiyi’s thigh.
"Brother, please."
Wu Lingyu tried to get up to put on the quilt covers, but Xiao Ruawen hugged her like a pillow, preventing her from moving.
Xu Qingfan hated putting on quilt covers more than anything, and yet he had been hoping to enlist the girls’ help. Instead, they completely turned the tables on him.
"Get up and put on the quilt covers. Go upstairs and take a nap after. When you wake up, it’ll be time for the New Year’s Eve dinner!" Xu Qingfan enticed them with the promise.
"Alright~" They were indeed tired, having cleaned without a break since skipping their nap at noon, and the idea of lying on a freshly made bed was undoubtedly comfortable!.
He had already prepared all the dishes for the New Year’s Eve dinner, and the soup was simmering in the kitchen. Only some simple steaming and boiling were left, which could be done in half an hour just before dinner.
All six of them went up to the third floor, and under Xu Qingfan’s supervision, they put on the four duvet covers. The next second, they crawled into their beds and fell asleep, not moving an inch.
Xu Qingfan suddenly missed his childhood a little. When times were tough, all six of them sometimes slept under one big quilt, and he also really wanted to snuggle and sleep with the girls!
"Brother Fan, help pull the curtains!"
"Brother Qing Fan, don’t forget the air conditioner!"
Today’s temperature was 26 degrees, but sleeping with just a quilt and the air conditioner turned on was more comfortable.
Xu Qingfan shook his head, drew the curtains for them, set the air conditioner to twenty-four degrees, then closed the door and returned to his own bedroom.
After setting an alarm for five o’clock, he too went to sleep.
