Bang!
Dense fireworks blossomed in the night, drawing everyone in the room to turn and look out the window.
This round of fireworks no longer took merely floral shapes; all manner of animals appeared, with oxen and tigers being the most common. After all, before New Year's Eve was the Year of the Earthly Branch Chou Ox, while the first day of the first lunar month would be the Year of the Heavenly Stem Geng Tiger.
Strange-looking tigers raced through the Night Veil—some with multiple heads, some with scorpion tails, some winged, some horned—playing and hunting the clumsy Golden Oxen that had likewise been formed from fireworks. They tore the oxen to pieces, scattering starlight across the sky. Dragons, snakes, dogs, rabbits, and other zodiac animals flickered in and out among the nebulae, watching the lively spectacle.
When the first Golden Ox began running through the night sky, shaking its head, Poseidon shrieked and rushed outside, looking as though she wanted to climb into the heavens herself. More than a dozen mansion maids hurried after her, terrified that the little ancestor might get carried away and slip beyond the mansion gates.
Taking advantage of that time, Zheng Qing quickly began stuffing New Year's money into red envelopes.
After the initial pang of pain, he made up his mind—since Beauty Su had mentioned "perfection," her New Year's money could only be ten jade coins; then, one level down, Poseidon would get nine, as a bribe to the Nine Luminaries who governed the fortunes and calamities of the mortal world; the remaining forty-odd maids would each receive one jade coin, grandly named "wholehearted devotion."
"Sister Man gets eight. She's the mansion's chief steward, so she has to be well-rounded in every respect." Su Shijun, wrapped in a fur cloak and reclining nearby,