Couplets

Today was New Year's Eve.

Ye Shuang and the others got up early and busied themselves with putting up the spring couplets. Generally speaking, couplets are put up on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, just before New Year's Eve, because New Year's Eve itself is reserved for preparing the family reunion dinner, leaving little time for couplets.

But for Ye Shuang, since they were going directly to the Chen family's house for the reunion dinner later that evening, it didn't really matter if they put up the couplets on New Year's Eve.

"Ah Ye, the size isn't right," Chen Qin said, standing at the door. She noticed that the couplets in her hands were a bit off, slightly too big.

"Hmm?" Ye Shuang took a look and saw that they were indeed a little too large, folding over at the corner of the wall.

Bai Yuyou and Tang Keke were also looking at the spot. After all, the dimensions for the couplets had been measured beforehand, so there shouldn't have been any issues.

"Keke, Yuyou, I remember you two were the ones who measured this space, right?" Ye Shuang asked after a moment of thought.

Bai Yuyou and Tang Keke exchanged a glance.

"Keke measured it," Bai Yuyou answered immediately.

"You sold me out so fast?!" Tang Keke instantly felt guilty. She had used an electronic tape measure and hadn't carefully double-checked it, having been a bit lazy at the time.

My eyes are as good as a ruler!

That was roughly what had happened.

"..." Ye Shuang didn't mean to blame the two girls. He just pondered how to handle it. If they went down to the supermarket to buy new ones now, they still had plenty of time, but they might not find the right size.

Chen Qin peeled off the couplet in her hand. "Ah Ye, should we go buy a new pair?"

Ye Shuang seemed to think of something. He walked over to the storage cabinet in the living room and took out a roll of paper.

"Eh?" Seeing this, Chen Qin thought Ye Shuang had prepared backups. "Couplets in another size?"

"No, this is Ten Thousand Year Red," Ye Shuang said. "Red on the outside, white on the inside. It's the common rice paper material used for writing couplets."

Ye Shuang then walked to the door, measured the space slightly with a ruler, and cut the rice paper into two new pieces.

"Brother, are you going to write the couplets yourself?" Tang Keke stood to the side. Even Bai Yuyou watched curiously, her face almost pressed against the paper.

But the next second, Ye Shuang tapped her nose with his finger. Bai Yuyou covered her nose and blinked her beautiful eyes adorably.

"I'm not exactly great at writing these either. It's just that last time I was scrolling through short videos and saw other people writing their own couplets, my hands got itchy and I bought a brush and rice paper set for nine-ninety," Ye Shuang smiled. He often bought strange little gadgets.

"Isn't it quite meaningful to write them ourselves?"

"Oh, oh?"

Ye Shuang picked up the ink-dipped brush, thought for a moment, and wrote [People prosper, family prospers, everything prospers] on one piece. His brush calligraphy was actually quite decent, definitely falling into the not bad category.

"You guys do the rest," Ye Shuang said. He didn't plan on writing everything by himself.

"Oh? Let this lady have a go!" Chen Qin was eager to try. After looking at the couplet Ye Shuang had written, she picked up the brush and wrote [Wealth comes, fortune comes, good luck comes]. Compared to Ye Shuang, Chen Qin had excellent brush calligraphy, and her writing looked quite grand.

"Hmm... we still have the horizontal scroll and the Fu character for fortune. Do you two want to try?" Ye Shuang looked at Bai Yuyou and Tang Keke.

"Ah?" Tang Keke thought of her usual messy caterpillar handwriting and couldn't help but scratch her head. Bai Yuyou, on the other hand, chose to take the brush from Chen Qin's hand, and stood in front of the table to start writing.

Bai Yuyou had never practiced brush calligraphy, and even her grip on the pen was incorrect. However, neither Ye Shuang nor Chen Qin said a word; they merely watched with a smile.

The girl directly wrote the characters [Auspicious Star Shining High], and then drew a vivid, adorable chibi dolphin in the bottom right corner.

"Mhm." Bai Yuyou looked very satisfied. After all, she would be very happy to see a little dolphin on the couplet every day when she came home.

"Yuyou, you can't just draw things like that on the horizontal scroll, right?" Tang Keke watched. After all, household couplets weren't supposed to have weird patterns on them.

Hearing this, Bai Yuyou stiffened, then turned to look at Ye Shuang and Chen Qin.

"Is that so? But I actually think this little dolphin is quite cute," Ye Shuang smiled warmly. Chen Qin beside him also took a look, then picked up the brush and added a little kitten in the bottom left corner.

"Here, let's add the piggy-cat Yi Wan."

"Meow?" Yi Wan, standing on the table, stretched out a paw, seemingly wanting to touch the ink.

"Retract the paw."

In the end, because Tang Keke didn't want to write, Ye Shuang filled in a Fu character. Before long, they were pasted on the front door.

[Auspicious Star Shining High]

[People prosper, family prospers, everything prospers]

[Wealth comes, fortune comes, good luck comes]

Looking at the couplets with their different fonts, and even the cat and dolphin, Ye Shuang felt a trace of warmth. Couplets represent hopes for beautiful things; the actual content isn't that important. What has always been important is the yearning for and effort put into life.

"Brother, should we take a picture?" Tang Keke asked.

She had even brought her Polaroid camera. Seeing this, Ye Shuang became interested and called Bai Yuyou and Chen Qin over.

"Yi Wan, we need that guy Yi Wan too."

"He's too fat." Finally, Chen Qin walked out holding Yi Wan. Yi Wan had gotten much fatter; in Chen Qin's arms, he looked like an oversized plush toy.

"Alright, just stand here and don't move."

With a few clicks, Tang Keke took a picture of the three of them. The result was great: three people and one cat, as if preserving this beautiful moment on a small piece of paper.

The once fragile, pale-faced girl, and the palm-sized kitten, both seemed to have transformed at this moment.

"Keke, are you just going to be the photographer? Join us," Ye Shuang asked Keke as he looked at the gradually clearing Polaroid photo in his hand.

"I won't join, it's a family photo after all," Tang Keke giggled.

But the next second, she found her arm being pulled by Bai Yuyou. The girl said very seriously,

"Keke is family too."

Tang Keke froze upon hearing this, then slowly looked away. "Ah..."

"Keke is indeed a part of our family," Ye Shuang smiled. "No need to feel like an outsider."

"Alright." Tang Keke immediately felt shy, her face blushing red.

However, because Keke's phone didn't have a timer function, Ye Shuang chose to use his own phone this time. After finding a stand, he set the timer on his phone and placed it there.

Ye Shuang and Chen Qin stood on the left and right respectively, with Keke and Bai Yuyou in the middle.

"3... 2... 1, cheese."

"Meow!" Yi Wan, who had been held up by the arms by Chen Qin, struggled a bit, feeling uncomfortable due to the weight burden.

Seeing this, everyone's expressions became a bit chaotic, but the phone snapped the picture at exactly this moment.

The flustered appearance of Ye Shuang and the others was thus preserved forever.

"Click."

Afterward, this photo was also printed out and pinned to the refrigerator with a magnet.

Sometimes, imperfection is also a kind of perfection.