Mrs. Chen stood up and took out some silver, placing it in front of Zhixin, "Take this money, and see what you can buy tomorrow."
Zhixin didn't refuse; he pocketed the silver. "Mother, I'm going to chop some firewood. It will get busy when New Year's approaches, and there will be no time to chop. Also, it's inauspicious to wield an axe during the first month of the New Year, so I should stock up now." Saying this, he went outside.
Mrs. Xue was sitting on the bed helping to organize the items one by one, and then Mrs. Chen put them inside the suite of the east room, to be used when the time came.
As New Year approached, the days passed by in a flurry of busy activities. The cleaning of the houses, pasting of window paper, steaming of steamed buns, and simmering of meat commenced. Jinghan naturally kept busy with these tasks, happy every day. After all, who wouldn't be happy during the New Year?
