USWHC -Chapter 127 Happy New Year (Part 7)

“What on earth did you write?” The courtyard gate suddenly rattled as if someone was trying to kick it down. “Are you trying to bring disaster to the whole village?!”

The shrill shouting echoed throughout the yard. Zhu Jie peeked through the crack of the door and saw that Old Madam Ji and the others all looked startled and hurried to open the door.

Hehe, the fun is about to begin! Zhu Jie hid under the window, sneaking a mischievous grin.

The moment Old Madam Ji opened the door, she nearly got hit on the forehead by a cane. Angrily, she spat out, “Who is it? Can’t people even celebrate the New Year in peace?”

But in the next instant, upon seeing who it was, she unconsciously stopped her scream and put on an obedient smile. “Confucius! What brings you here?”

It turned out the visitor wasn’t some fearsome monster at all, but a hunched old man who looked extremely elderly—probably in his eighties or nineties. And yet, Old Madam Ji seemed to fear him?

“Who’s that? Mom looks really scared of him!” Zhu Jie whispered to Ji Yi.

“The old scholar from the east end of the village,” Ji Yi said.

“An old scholar? I thought the village head had come!” Zhu Jie immediately scoffed and shrugged.

Ji Yi, however, spoke very seriously: “He’s already the most educated person in our village. Everyone respects him highly. When he speaks, it carries more weight than our village head!”

Zhu Jie didn’t feel the slightest respect. Instead, she slapped Ji Yi’s shoulder hard and said seriously, “Don’t worry. You’ll definitely be more successful than him one day!”

Hearing this, Ji Yi genuinely laughed. Why did she always say things like this? What did she mean?

Meanwhile, the real commotion was outside the gate. As soon as the old scholar started yelling, villagers began gathering, drawn by the news. It was almost New Year, and everyone had been busy preparing meals, but now all had put down their work. Clearly, something interesting was happening—they treated it like watching a Spring Festival gala!

Of course, Old Madam Ji wasn’t planning to have people come over to her house for New Year’s greetings before the festival. But seeing the old scholar standing there, indignantly puffing his cheeks and glaring, she couldn’t help feeling a little anxious.

“Confucius, what did we do wrong at our house to make you so angry?” Old Madam Ji tried to speak respectfully to the old scholar.

But the old scholar swung his cane directly, giving her a bump on the head—completely unreserved. From afar, Zhu Jie watched, feeling delighted!

“Has your family gone mad? Posting couplets like this?” The old scholar jumped up and down in anger. “Are you jealous because our village is doing well? Not happy in your heart?”

“Couplets? What’s wrong with the couplets?” Hearing this, the Ji family all looked at the couplets Zhu Jie had just written.

“Fu… Fu…” They only recognized the character for “Fu” (blessing). But that character was correct, wasn’t it?

Then the old scholar croaked, hoarsely reading aloud: “Fortune never comes in pairs; misfortune never comes alone!”

“Sigh, why are you cursing people?” Old Madam Ji immediately frowned. “Old scholar, I respect your knowledge of characters, but you can’t come to my door on New Year’s calling out curse words!”

Although the old scholar spoke in a refined way, everyone understood him perfectly. These were old sayings—certainly not nice words!

But the old scholar was even angrier than Old Madam Ji. He used his cane to repeatedly hit the Spring Festival couplets on the doorframe, shouting: “You wrote this on your own door! Didn’t you see it?”

At this, the Ji family’s jaws dropped. Wait… this was what they had posted on the door?

Old Madam Ji angrily turned to Ji Mei and yelled: “Didn’t you say it was written well? How did it end up being such vulgar words?”

Even now, she didn’t dare say anything too taboo. After all, it was New Year’s! Many characters are taboo. But the most tragic part? The absolute worst taboo words were already on their door.

“I—I told you I didn’t recognize them!” Ji Mei said, almost in tears. How many times had this happened? Why did she always fall into Zhu Jie’s trap?