Isn't This Gulping It Down Like an Ox

Chapter 68

Slowly lowering her head, staring at the red paper in front of her, a faint light flickered in her cold eyes.

Gu Ran stood beside the young girl, his eyes full of curiosity.

Ye Zhenzhen carefully observed the dimensions of the red paper, unlike a certain someone who was purely brewing a mood.

She silently calculated the proportion and spacing of each character in her heart, so that the couplets would be written elegantly and beautifully, rather than in messy cursive.

"Are you brewing a mood too?"

The young girl's composure wasn't quite there yet. Hearing Gu Ran's cheeky voice, she almost broke her concentration.

Giving him a bashful eye-roll, Ye Zhenzhen gently exhaled, then lowered her head, her brush dancing over the red paper like flying catkins.

Her pale, slender wrist was flexible and steady, every stroke an elegant glide, leaving ink on the red paper, drawing one graceful Chinese character after another.

Gu Ran's mind, however, wasn't on this. He silently gazed at the young girl's soft hands holding the brush, his thoughts unconsciously wandering.

These fair, pinkish little hands hold the brush so smoothly. I wonder if they'd be just as silky smooth holding a joystick.

At this thought, Gu Ran nodded slightly, pondering about buying her some hand cream to start maintaining them early.

Otherwise, what if she couldn't smoothly handle a joystick in the future?

As the saying goes, a brother can give you a hand, but a sister can hold you...

No matter what kind of sister, at least she'd be an understanding older sister.

"What are you thinking about now? Your smile is so..."

Having finished two pieces of calligraphy, Ye Zhenzhen straightened up, turning to see the smile on his face, unconsciously showing a look of disgust.

"Ahem, I'm just thinking about what delicious food we're having tonight."

Hearing this, Gu Ran quickly reined in his thoughts, pretending to be serious as he covered his mouth and coughed lightly.

Ye Zhenzhen didn't believe a single punctuation mark of that, but she was already used to him being like this.

She patted the characters she had just written and handed them over, saying, "Here, big sister just finished writing these. They're all blessings for you. Go paste them at the head of your bed."

"Yes, yes, yes."

Gu Ran nodded repeatedly, coaxing the girl into writing a few more before going to the door to paste them up.

...

Half an hour later, inside and outside the house, there was noticeably a different atmosphere.

Looking at the black characters on the red background of the spring couplets, he nodded in satisfaction, but the girl beside him felt a bit shy.

She gently kicked him with her foot and said bashfully, "Why... why did you paste all the ones I wrote?"

"Because you write beautifully."

Gu Ran shrugged, his nonchalant tone making the girl grit her teeth in frustration.

Uncle Gu had already bought spring couplets, but this guy pasted all the ones she wrote instead. This... this was so embarrassing...

The shy girl could already foresee Gu Xiangcheng's astonished expression when he saw the couplets; it would truly be mortifying!

"It's fine, it's fine. Come on, let's go out and buy some things."

Seeing the girl's red cheeks, Gu Ran naturally understood her maidenly shyness, but it obviously wasn't a big deal.

How great was it to use handwritten spring couplets? The commemorative value was maxed out. Wasn't it much better than those cookie-cutter machine-printed fonts?

It was just that Old Gu hadn't realized it yet.

He could guarantee that if Old Gu saw this year's spring couplets, the family would never need to buy another pair in the future, because someone would contract out the whole job.

Now that Old Gu was getting older, he had started learning from the old political commissar, practicing calligraphy in his office whenever he had free time. He had studied this art quite deeply; he could even write the character for Fortune in countless different ways!

If he caught hold of a platform to show off, Gu Xiangcheng would definitely display his skills to the fullest.

...

...

As the night grew darker, the sky outside remained colorful, illuminated by fireworks bursting endlessly in the air.

Gu Ran sat in the living room, drinking tea with Gu Xiangcheng, occasionally turning his head to look out the window, silently calculating how low the visibility would be when they went out tomorrow morning.

Not having a firework ban was simply awesome!

"It's fine, no rush. After we eat, we'll call her and her mother, and our family of four can go down and set some off too."

Seeing him constantly looking out the window, Gu Xiangcheng thought he was getting anxious, still treating him like a kid, and couldn't help but console him.

Hearing this, Gu Ran nodded gently without arguing, continuing to enjoy the firework show that would last all night.

This kind of display, one family setting off a few here, another setting off a few there, certainly wasn't as spectacular as the organized firework shows in the city square in terms of viewing experience.

But right now, it had a touch of worldly warmth that those grand shows lacked. It was the lights of thousands of homes; beneath every bursting firework was a thriving family.

Having finished helping out in the kitchen, Ye Zhenzhen walked out with her hands behind her back. She saw Gu Ran leaning against the sofa, staring out the window like an old master.

His lazy, twilight-years demeanor was even more pronounced than Gu Xiangcheng beside him.

Her pretty brows furrowed, and she instinctively wanted to kick his calf, but noticing Gu Xiangcheng sitting nearby drinking tea and watching TV, she stopped herself.

"Come, Zhenzhen, come watch TV."

Just as she glared at a certain someone, she heard Gu Xiangcheng call out to her, and the young girl quickly nodded obediently.

"Okay, Uncle."

Reaching out her small hands, she somewhat nervously held the tea Gu Xiangcheng poured for her, occasionally glancing at Gu Ran, preparing to copy the way he drank.

Because she had never even seen Gu Xiangcheng's method of drinking Kung Fu tea or his tea set before.

Especially seeing Gu Xiangcheng's whole process of washing the tea, pouring the tea, and tasting the tea, it was dazzling, and she couldn't remember the steps at all.

Afraid of making a fool of herself by messing up, she held the teacup tightly with both hands, taking tiny sips, only daring to slightly moisten her lips, terrified that she wouldn't know how to ask for a refill if she finished it.

As for asking Gu Xiangcheng to pour her more tea, she didn't quite dare.

Ever since she found out Gu Xiangcheng was a deputy bureau chief, she always felt a vague sense of unease.

Especially when facing Old Gu alone, she was terrified of doing something wrong and lowering his opinion of her.

But Gu Xiangcheng clearly didn't know what the young girl beside him was thinking. On the contrary, the more he looked at Ye Zhenzhen, the more he liked her.

He pulled her into chatting about everything under the sun, while the reserved girl smiled nervously, feeling physically and mentally exhausted.

She couldn't figure out how that guy Gu Ran managed to get along so well with her mother, looking even closer to her than she was!

Finally, Ye Zhenzhen, who had been keeping an eye on the boy, saw him drink his tea.

The young girl rubbed her hands together, her eyes wide open, ready to seriously learn exactly how to elegantly drink this kind of Kung Fu tea that could be downed in one gulp.

She couldn't understand Old Gu's routine, so she could only copy Gu Ran's.

She didn't believe that Gu Ran, at his young age, could drink it more smoothly than Uncle Gu.

Her beautiful eyes fixed on Gu Ran, only to see him pick up his small cup with one hand, reach past the tea tray with the other, and directly grab the teapot.

He downed the water in his cup in one gulp, immediately poured another cup, and drank cup after cup until his thirst was quenched. Then, he put down the teapot and refilled it with water.

Ye Zhenzhen: "???"

Wasn't this just guzzling it down like a cow?!