The almanac hanging on the wall suddenly started speaking in human language. If an ordinary person had heard this, they would probably have fainted from fright. But Xiao Nanzhu had never been afraid of such things since childhood. Although he was startled at this moment, his reaction wasn’t overly dramatic. He almost instinctively took a step back, and after confirming that it was indeed the carp child spirit on the calendar speaking to him, he finally opened his mouth in disbelief:

“Ah, so calendars now come with voice calling features…”

“…”

The Little New Year spirit on the calendar was already sulking, and upon hearing Xiao Nanzhu’s comment, immediately puffed up his cheeks in displeasure. He had originally thought that, like previous years, he could sleep through everything without having to deal with anything. Who knew that right before midnight when his shift ended, he would be disturbed by this fellow called Xiao Nanzhu. Calendar spirits like them, who only worked one day a year, were spoiled due to their low work intensity, and those toward the year’s end were increasingly lazy, one more than the next. The Little New Year spirit, in charge of Little New Year’s Eve, was a prime example of this.

After all, isn’t the New Year all about red envelopes, reunion dinners, and warm beds? The spirits of Laba Festival and Beginning of Spring from the previous days had gotten through their days so simply, so why was he so unlucky when it was his turn?

Thinking about this, his chubby face that should have been beaming with joy wrinkled up. Little New Year wanted his precious red carp to splash another faceful of pond water at this guy, but seeing how tall and big Xiao Nanzhu was, he didn’t quite dare to misbehave. Xiao Nanzhu, who still hadn’t figured out what was happening, had been somewhat tipsy, but now he was half-sobered up. He instinctively wanted to reach out and check what was wrong with the old almanac left by the old lady, but in the next second, a vividly drawn chubby boy holding a big red carp, with his bare bottom showing, emerged from the almanac in a dazzling golden light.

“Hey, hey! If you have something to say, say it quickly! Don’t dawdle! I only have about twenty minutes left! What is it? Asking about fortune, fate, zodiac signs, or dream interpretation?”

The pretty chubby boy who looked like a golden child started trying to chat with Xiao Nanzhu as soon as he landed. With his red belly-covering cloth and red carp in his arms, he looked quite festive and cute. But Xiao Nanzhu, having just witnessed the almanac speaking and now seeing the calendar spirit come to life, had the hair on the back of his neck standing up and couldn’t utter a word. The carp child spirit seemed accustomed to humans being dumbfounded when first seeing him, and just touched his double chin, muttering to himself:

“Fine, fine, since you called me out, I shouldn’t leave empty-handed. Let me calculate something for you, after all, it’s a workday and I can’t just slack off… You’re a Monkey, and your zodiac year is coming up. Oh my, next year’s luck doesn’t look good. Let me see, today you should avoid bathing, avoid making fire…”

The chubby boy’s mutterings brought Xiao Nanzhu back to his senses. He pinched the bridge of his nose, desperately wanting to confirm whether what he was seeing was just a hallucination from drinking too much. After all, the education he had received for the past twenty-something years told him that all of this was unscientific and shouldn’t be happening. Just then, he suddenly smelled something unpleasant.

“What’s that smell… grilled squid?”

Sniffing his nose and muttering to himself, Xiao Nanzhu, usually quite sharp-witted, now had a brain that seemed rusted. After speaking, he turned to look at the carp child spirit beside him. The Little New Year spirit, also sniffing the air, first thought along with him for a moment, then suddenly changed his expression and shouted:

“Ahhh!! Squid your head!! Didn’t I tell you not to make fire?! Fire!! There’s a fire!!!”

Screaming in panic, Little New Year dropped the red carp he was holding, grabbed Xiao Nanzhu’s pant leg, and rushed toward the kitchen. Suddenly remembering that he had boiled water earlier, Xiao Nanzhu snapped back to reality and followed the carp child spirit into the kitchen.

Rushing in, he discovered that the water in the thermos had almost boiled dry, the gas stove was on fire, the entire kitchen was filled with an acrid smoke, and flames had spread across a large area of the floor. Seeing this, Xiao Nanzhu quickly covered his nose and mouth, yanked down the nearby curtain, and immediately smothered the rising flames. When sparks landed on him, he quickly brushed them off, while Little New Year, following closely behind, somehow produced a basin, filled it with water, and shakily poured it over the large cluster of flames on the floor, extinguishing them.

“Whew… whew… that was close… I’m exhausted…”

Wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, Little New Year had helped Xiao Nanzhu put out the fire, and his white, chubby face was smudged with soot. He usually stayed in the almanac, only working one day a year, so his stamina was predictably poor. Xiao Nanzhu, still feeling apprehensive, also breathed a sigh of relief, but as he turned to look at the half-burned kitchen, he wore a somewhat puzzled expression.

If it hadn’t been for this chubby boy who mysteriously appeared in his home, he might have simply fallen asleep in the living room. He hadn’t expected that the liquefied gas in the kitchen would deteriorate so much from long disuse. And if he, having drunk quite a bit, had fallen asleep during such a large fire, then this 2027, which was about to end in a few days… would have truly been the end of his life.

Thinking about this, he felt a sense of gratitude for having survived the disaster. Now completely sober, Xiao Nanzhu didn’t want to delve too deeply into who this chubby boy from the almanac really was, after all, the kid had saved his life. Little New Year, who had just helped out, naturally hadn’t expected Xiao Nanzhu to accept his existence so quickly, and was still wiping his dirty face with his small hands. In the next moment, as if suddenly remembering something, his eyes widened, and he ran back to the living room with bare feet.

“Hey, hey, hey, why are you running? Aren’t your bare feet cold?”

Following the chubby boy who was running outside, Xiao Nanzhu felt like he had suddenly become a father, somewhat worried as he watched this big chubby kid running around. But when he chased the kid out, intending to find him a pair of cotton slippers to wear, he saw the little rascal crouching beside the sofa, staring intently at the red carp lying on the floor with its eyes rolled back, tears about to fall from his eyes.

Xiao Nanzhu: “…”

“Little Red… Little Red… Little Red is dead… Waaaah…”

Tears fell like they cost nothing. In his hurry to help Xiao Nanzhu put out the fire, this foolish child had thrown his precious carp and run to the kitchen, forgetting that fish can’t survive long out of water. By the time he remembered that his poor red carp was still lying on the living room floor gasping for air, this red carp, originally symbolizing abundance year after year, had tragically passed away.

Covering his eyes with his hands and crying “wuwu,” Little New Year had lost his precious red carp and was naturally very heartbroken. After bringing him a small stool to sit on and finding him a pair of large cotton slippers, Xiao Nanzhu watched the chubby boy cry until he almost had hiccups. After a while, rather impatiently, he pinched the boy’s cheek and said:

“Alright, alright, don’t cry anymore. When daylight comes, uncle will buy you another one, okay? If you like carp, we’ll buy carp. If you like grass carp, we’ll buy grass carp. If you like softshell turtle, we’ll buy softshell turtle…”

His tone was like that of a big bad wolf who eats children. Xiao Nanzhu, who had been so agitated this evening that he was nearly going crazy, hadn’t even had time to clean up the messy kitchen before sitting down to console Little New Year, who was mourning the loss of his beloved fish. Normally, he probably would have lost patience and resorted to hitting the child, but since it was the New Year and this chubby boy had desperately saved him, Xiao Nanzhu unusually restrained his temper and acted as a caring uncle. Little New Year, whose eyes were already red from crying, upon hearing Xiao Nanzhu’s nonsensical words, began to cry even more sorrowfully.

“What do you mean when daylight comes? Wuwu… It’s too late… It’s all your fault… It’s all your fault wuwu… My Little Red… wuwu…”

“Hey, how is it my fault? Little Red obviously had bad luck…”

“It is your fault!! It is your fault!! Wuwu!”

“Fine, fine… my fault, my fault…”

Once children start crying, they tend to cry more fiercely the more you try to comfort them. Xiao Nanzhu, whose head was throbbing from the crying, was almost ready to get down on his knees and beg, but ultimately couldn’t get the chubby boy to smile through his tears. He was still wondering if he could get this little ancestor to explain how he had predicted the fire and why he had appeared here, but Little New Year was so busy crying that he clearly didn’t want much communication. Xiao Nanzhu realized he had no choice, thinking that perhaps he should keep this mysterious chubby boy at his place to see if he could extract some information later. After all, a small child couldn’t run away. With this in mind, he stood up and said to Little New Year, who was sitting on the small stool:

“There’s not much food at home, but I have some black sesame paste. Can I make you some?”

Little New Year just cried without responding to him. Xiao Nanzhu put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and went straight to prepare the black sesame paste for the little ancestor. Before entering the kitchen, he glanced at the wall clock, which showed that it was about to strike midnight in one minute. Xiao Nanzhu didn’t pay much attention, entered the kitchen, and boiled another pot of water. This time he waited by the induction cooker, so it took a bit longer, but when he came out after about ten minutes of preparation, the previously nonchalant Xiao Nanzhu was surprised to find that there was no one by the sofa outside.

The chubby boy was gone, and the red carp was gone too.

He hadn’t heard any sound of the security door being opened, and a child couldn’t possibly have run out in the middle of the night…

His heart suddenly felt cold. Xiao Nanzhu put down the small porcelain bowl and quickly ran to the old almanac hanging on the wall. He didn’t know what was driving him, but everything that night had an inexplicable strangeness. Coincidentally, when Xiao Nanzhu ran to the old almanac and looked at it, the first thing he saw was the festive and cute carp child spirit drawn on it, currently showing his bare bottom to him, and in his arms… a dead fish.

Xiao Nanzhu: “…………”