The calendar was truly a magical thing.
Just days ago, rain and snow had fallen nonstop, and the damp chill could have frozen an old dog to death.
Yet on New Year's Eve, the sky suddenly cleared, and it grew so warm that people wanted to shed their padded jackets and wear just two light layers.
After breakfast, Yang Ge stood on a stool outside his courtyard gate, holding a red-paper couplet smeared with paste. He asked Fang Ke, who had come over first thing that morning to cadge breakfast, "Is it straight?"
Fang Ke said, "Move the bottom left a little. A little more... straight!"
Yang Ge pasted up the couplet, jumped off the stool, and stepped back to look before moving the stool beneath the lintel.
Fang Ke handed him the horizontal inscription. Yang Ge held it against the lintel. "Straight?"
Fang Ke said, "Straight!"
Yang Ge pasted it up, jumped off the stool, and clapped his hands. "All done!"
Just then, the neighboring gate opened. Bare-faced and carrying her little medicine chest, Xie Yunzhi stepped outside. Seeing Yang Ge admiring his couplets, she followed his gaze to his gate: "The five blessings ever visit a virtuous family; the lucky stars forever shine upon a peaceful home. May all things go as wished."
She couldn't help smiling.
She had seen plenty of people whose ambitions outstripped their abilities, whose hearts aspired higher than the heavens.
But someone who truly possessed the ability to bring peace to the people and help the world, yet still lived with such homely warmth-her neighbor was the only one she had ever met.
Yang Ge greeted Xie Yunzhi with a cheerful smile. "Miss Xie, still making house calls on New Year's Eve?"
Xie Yunzhi nodded with a smile. "Not really house calls. Just