When Xiao Yunying arrived, there weren't many people in the shop: "Sister Cheng Yue."

Cheng Yue put down the ledger: "What brings you here today? Is the new house finished?"

"Yes, the roof beam will be raised at noon tomorrow. After that, we'll have a feast. I'll cook for you myself, so remember to come to my house for dinner!"

Cheng Yue pondered what gift to bring tomorrow: "Congratulations! I understand. I'll be there on time."

"Have you prepared everything I requested?"

"It's all done. I had the embroiderer rush the work for you."

"Then I'll have my brother drive an oxcart over tomorrow morning to pick you up on the way."

"Sure."

"Will this interfere with your shop's business?"

"It's alright, we have our men here."

"It's settled then. I'm off now; I need to go to the butcher shop to order some meat."

Xiao Yunying went straight to the market and ordered two pigs from the butcher stall.

"Does the young lady want two pigs?"

"Yes, we're hosting a housewarming party for the villagers tomorrow."

There are more than 30 households with the surname Xiao in the village alone, and the whole village has more than 400 people. She doesn't know how many people will come, so it's always good to buy more meat.

In reality, people of average means only invite close relatives and neighbors when building a new house for good luck; very few can afford to invite the whole village for a meal.

But her father said he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of hosting a housewarming party so that she could ease the tension with the villagers. He said that they had plenty of radishes, potatoes, and cabbages at home, which were all planted in the fields after the wheat harvest, enough to feed the whole village.

Xiao Yunying thought it made sense. If the greenhouse vegetable business developed in the future, she wouldn't be able to handle it all by herself. She would need to ask for help, and it would be good to ease the tension between them.

There aren't many people in the village who are truly evil to the core. The fact that they distanced themselves from the original owner in the past was partly due to the original owner's own reasons.

Since you've already invited them, don't be stingy and serve only potatoes and cabbage, things that every household has. People will just think she's cheap and won't enjoy the meal.

In addition, her father said that the purpose of the housewarming party was to bring good fortune and prosperity to the new home, so she was happy to spend some money to hold a good party for good luck.

"Then I'll fight my way out for you early tomorrow morning."

"Could I have some more spare ribs, pig's trotters, and offal?"

"How much, young lady?"

"I'll take fifty catties of pork ribs, twenty pig trotters, and ten whole sets of pig offal."

These things are cheap, and it's easy to cut and plate them after braising.

"I only slaughtered two pigs today, so I don't have that many pig trotters and offal. How about this, let me talk to the butchers around here and I'll get you all the ones for tomorrow."

"Thank you very much, brother."

Because the whole pig has bones, the meat cannot be weighed separately, so the price will be a middle value. Xiao Yunying paid a deposit of two taels of silver, and the other stall owners said that the money would be calculated after the pig was slaughtered and weighed the next day.

Xiao Yunying bought some fatty pork for seasoning, went to a shop that specializes in selling liquor, asked if they could deliver, and bought twenty jars of ten-jin (5 kg) liquor, which was said to be the strongest liquor.

The liquor here is made by naturally fermenting grains with yeast, without distillation, and has an alcohol content of at most around 20 degrees.

After paying the money and giving her family's address, Xiao Yunying went to the Chen residence with a servant.

After knocking on the door, the old woman guarding it recognized the young lady who had been seen coming and going with her eldest and youngest sons several times. Upon learning that she had come to invite the eldest son to dinner, she kindly said:

"Give me the invitation, young lady, and I'll go and inform them."

"Ah... I didn't prepare any invitations."

She forgot that wealthy families had a custom that inviters needed to prepare invitations.

It's just that Chen Yuancheng is too approachable; when you're with him, you completely forget that he's the son of a wealthy family, making you forget all those rules.

"Don't worry, young lady, I'll go and inform them right away."

After waiting for a short while, Ling Qi came out and invited Xiao Yunying in.

As they walked, realizing they weren't heading towards the kitchen, Xiao Yunying asked, "This isn't the way to the kitchen, Ling Qi, where are you taking me?"

“Miss Xiao is too kind. My young master doesn’t live in the kitchen, so naturally I will take you to the courtyard where he lives.”

"Yes, that's right."

Xiao Yunying mentally called herself an idiot; Chen Yuancheng was the young master of the Chen family, not the cook of the Chen family.

"Where did Miss Xiao get the apples she gave me yesterday? They were delicious."

"I picked them from the western hill in the village."

“My young master said that the apples Miss Xiao sent tasted excellent. If they were sold, they could fetch a lot of money. Do you have any more, Miss? If you want to sell them, you can send them to the Chen residence.”

"There aren't many left. I want to keep them for my family to eat, so I don't plan to sell them. If your young master likes them, I'll bring some more next time."

Following Ling Qi through a maze of turns, Xiao Yunying entered a courtyard and read the words on the plaque.

"Late night residence".

Chen Yuancheng walked over: "Yun Ying, what are you looking at?"

Did you name the signboard?

"I named it."

"It sounds nice, why was it named this?"

Simple, yet evocative.

Chen Yuancheng looked somewhat forlorn: "When I was a child, I was not in good health and could not leave the yard at will. My favorite thing to do was to go out at night to look at the stars and the moon, so I named my yard 'Late Residence'."

Oh dear, you've asked about something that makes them unhappy.

What should we do now? Should we comfort him or casually move on and talk about something else?