The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book) - 243

 

| TBBOTOF | 243

In the west, Tang Xu began braising meat in the latter half of the day.

Pork trotters, pig head, pork shoulder, and pork offal were all simmering in the pot, and the fragrant aroma drifted far across the courtyard.

Next door, however, his neighbors didn’t have time to feel envious this time, as their own kids were clamoring for meat at home.

Tang Xu’s children were begging to eat meat too, but since the meat in the pot wasn’t ready yet, he gave them meatballs and rings instead.

Preparations for the upcoming events were always busy, and Tang Xu had spent the past couple of days mostly in the kitchen. He originally thought he could clean up the house a bit, but now he realized there wasn’t much time left.

“Brother, do you need help cleaning up your room?” Tang Yang poked his head in from outside, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, looking ready to work.

Tang Xu turned to look at him and laughed. “What, you’re going to help me clean up?”

Tang Yang immediately grinned and chuckled, “Yeah! Brother Xi and I just finished tidying up the study, and since you’ve been so busy these past two days, you haven’t had time to clean up. We’ll help you out.”

“Sure, just dust the ceiling and wipe down the surfaces,” Tang Xu replied. He and Wei Dong both liked to keep things clean, so they regularly tidied up, and the room wasn’t messy.

Tang Yang nodded and asked, “What about the kids’ room? How should we clean it?”

“Just wipe and wash their usual toys, then dust the room. No need to clean the ceiling; your brother-in-law already did that recently.” Tang Xu really didn’t have much time, and he was glad he’d already washed the bed linens and covers in advance; otherwise, he’d be overwhelmed.

“What’s your brother-in-law up to?”

“He’s re-pasting the window paper in a few rooms, and Old Sun even wrote some couplets for us to put up tomorrow,” Tang Yang replied with a cheerful smile. “Brother, Old Sun’s handwriting is beautiful! He said that in a while, he’ll prepare some practice sheets so Brother Xi and I can practice together.”

Tang Xu raised an eyebrow—now that was good news.

“Alright, you two go get the cleaning done.”

Tang Yang responded with a happy nod and let the curtain fall back down.

Tang Xu let out a breath, looked around the messy kitchen, and couldn’t help but sigh again.

Time to start tidying up.

By nightfall, the meat was finally braised to perfection, and Tang Xu was so exhausted that he didn’t even feel like opening his mouth to take a sip of water.

He skipped dinner altogether and collapsed into bed, fast asleep.

In the courtyard, Wang Cuicui fished all the braised meat out of the pot and placed it in a large basin. Wei Dong had already split the pig head in half; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been enough space to cook everything in one pot.

“Where’s Xu Ge’er?” she asked, noticing Tang Xu had disappeared just as the meat was being pulled out.

Tang Li came over to pick up the basin and said, “My brother was exhausted from cleaning up the kitchen, so he went to lie down for a bit. Auntie, why don’t we slice up the meat for dinner? Those three little ones are practically howling with hunger.”

Wang Cuicui chuckled and nodded, “Alright then, go call your dad and the others. It’s time to eat.”

Tang Xu had steamed mantou and made porridge earlier in the kitchen, intending for everyone to have a meal as soon as the braised meat was ready.

With dinner prepared, Wei Dong went inside to wake Tang Xu. Seeing him fast asleep on the kang, he bent down to remove Tang Xu’s shoes and outer robe, then gently covered him with the quilt before slipping out of the room.

In the main room, the whole family, young and old, gathered around two tables. When they saw only Wei Dong coming in, Tang Erhu asked, “Where’s Xu Ge’er?”

“He’s asleep. Let’s eat first; we’ll leave some for him so he can eat when he wakes up,” Wei Dong replied.

Wang Cuicui handed him a pair of chopsticks and muttered, “These past couple of days really wore Xu Ge’er out. He’s been working since before dawn. I can see he’s even lost weight.”

"The whole family depends on him for meals, so of course he's exhausted. Later, make sure he wakes up to eat something before going back to sleep; it’s hard to rest well on an empty stomach," Tang Erhu said to Wei Dong.

Wei Dong nodded in agreement.

By the time Tang Xu woke up and opened his eyes, it was already late the next morning. The courtyard and rooms were decorated with freshly pasted couplets and “fu” characters, and Wang Cuicui had even helped the kids cut red paper decorations for the windows.

At a glance, he noticed the red paper cutouts on the window. Wang Cuicui’s handiwork was impressive, with intricate characters embedded in the designs. She’d done paper cutting before, but none were as detailed as these.

"Awake?" Wei Dong walked in from outside, holding two more red paper cutouts with a “fu” character in the center.

Seeing Tang Xu sit up and start dressing, Wei Dong placed the cutouts aside, grabbed some paste, and brushed it on the window before pressing one of the cutouts in place.

Watching him, the corner of Tang Xu’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch in amusement.

“Why are you putting up window decorations in here?”

Wei Dong chuckled, bent down to kiss his cheek, and then replied, “Your eldest son said these look nice and asked me to put them up in this room.”

Tang Xu nodded and glanced at the “fu” character cutouts on the windows. “Auntie’s skills are good enough to sell!”

“She got up early to cut quite a few, and Ah Li and Ze’er helped her,” Wei Dong said, wiping the corner of Tang Xu’s eye with his hand. 

Tang Xu blinked, rubbed his eyes, and hurried off to wash up.

After he finished washing, he returned to the room and saw that Wei Dong had already folded the bedding on the kang. He was holding scissors, carefully cutting red paper.

His movements were a bit clumsy, with the scissors opening and closing slowly as he cautiously maneuvered over a large sheet of red paper, clearly afraid of cutting it crooked.

Seeing him so focused, Tang Xu couldn’t help but chuckle. “Let me do it.”

Wei Dong quickly handed him the scissors. “Isn’t it better to give money directly? Why do we have to wrap it in red paper?”

In their household, there were many family members and even more younger ones. They all needed to have their lucky money wrapped in red paper. 

Previously, it had been Tang Xu who cut the paper himself. It had looked easy when he watched, but now that he was trying it himself, he realized it wasn’t that simple.

Even with the creases already made in the red paper, following them to cut still resulted in crooked lines.

After cutting crookedly three times, the once-confident man was feeling disheartened.

Tang Xu sat across from him, first unfolding the red paper to examine the creases Wei Dong had made. The size of the rectangular sections was correct, so he began to cut.

Unlike Wei Dong, who attempted to cut the entire sheet at once, Tang Xu folded the paper and cut it in layers. He then unfolded the cut pieces into long strips, stacking them one by one before cutting along the creases.

After several repetitions, a collection of palm-sized rectangular red papers lay scattered across the kang table.

Wei Dong watched silently from the side, his expression gradually shifting to one of realization.

Once all the cutting was finished, he said, “These intricate tasks are better suited for you.” He then picked up the bowl of paste that had been set aside and used a small stick to apply glue to the red paper.

Tang Xu smiled, turning to retrieve the prepared silver coins and cleaned copper coins from the drawer of the kang cabinet.

“Let’s wrap red envelopes for Grandma, Grandpa, and the two elders. The leftover coins can go to the little ones,” he said, looking up at Wei Dong.

Wei Dong nodded. “You decide what to do.”

Tang Xu smiled with his lips pressed together and glanced at the red paper Wei Dong had glued. Although he hadn’t cut well, at least he hadn’t made a mess with the paste; everything was nice and tidy.

The two worked together, one gluing the red envelopes and the other filling them with silver coins, and before long, they had filled a small basket with envelopes.

“Is there really this much?” Wei Dong raised his eyebrows in surprise as he noticed there were at least thirty little red envelopes in the basket.

Tang Xu chuckled, “Each one has just a few coins inside. It doesn’t change the total amount, but having more of them makes it feel special.”

Who doesn't understands the joy of opening red envelopes?

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