As she spoke, Zhang Yufeng sighed, "Look, your child is almost a month old. Of your three aunts, only the heartless one on the kang is home. The other two are not here, so the baby won't have anyone to respect him."

"Heartless" is a colloquialism, but it actually means someone who can't handle things.

According to local custom, when celebrating a baby's one-month birthday, both the aunt and uncle give the child red envelopes.

The child has three uncles, but three aunts—one lives in another city, one is missing, and the other is still young—so Zhang Yufeng feels a bit regretful.

Wang Tianxiao smiled and said it was fine; Xiaozhu could just make a symbolic representation.

My younger sister, Wang Xiaomei, lives in Lancheng, which is 400-500 kilometers away from Qingcheng. It would take a whole day to get there by car.

Because the route is almost entirely mountainous, it is extremely dangerous, especially after snowfall in winter, when traffic accidents are very common, with multiple vehicles falling into valleys every year.

Therefore, there are very few buses running between Lancheng and Qingcheng in winter.

Also, he hasn't seen his younger sister since his rebirth.

In those days, there were no telephones or the internet, and people mainly relied on writing letters to communicate with distant places. Wang Xiaolan was unaware of the birth of her child, so she naturally couldn't go home.

The second younger sister, Wang Xiaolan, is another issue altogether.

Wang Tianxiao also had a headache when it came to his younger sister.

Wang Xiaolan was the kind of girl who was deeply poisoned by the literary and artistic ideas of the 1980s. She felt that being arranged to marry a certain person by her family and repeating the story of her parents for the rest of her life was a disgrace to her life.

So, she left her hometown at the age of sixteen to make her way in the world on her own.

From then on, apart from sending back a few letters each year, her family had no idea where she was.

Wang Tianxiao naturally didn't know this in his previous life; he only found out later that she was now working in the south.

Wang Xiaolan never really made a name for herself. She was over forty and still single. I heard she was a freelance writer.

But Wang Tianxiao didn't know what works he wrote.

At this stage, no one else knows Wang Xiaolan's whereabouts, but Wang Tianxiao knows she definitely won't be coming back.

Thinking of this, Wang Tianxiao felt a pang of sorrow for his mother.

She is unaware that after her death, Wang Xiaolan did not return in time to attend her funeral, and it was not until six months later that she returned.

Life is full of regrets.

Fortunately, she had already passed away by then, so she no longer needed to worry about it.

Wang Tianxiao felt that it was about time, so he left the pit-dwelling courtyard and returned to the mountains.

He hadn't expected to be able to talk to his mother to this extent, so it was an unexpected bonus.

He has already hired some people to help out, but there are still some families he doesn't know well. He plans to bring Wang Tianxin along tomorrow. Although Tianxin is young, he is very familiar with the team and knows at least every family.

In fact, these kinds of celebrations in rural areas are just a matter of reciprocity.

If my family has something to do, your family can come over and do chores; if your family has something to do, our family will come over and do chores for you.

The person who does the work for you doesn't need to give you a gift.

If a family has poor interpersonal relationships, it can be very awkward, as they can't find many people to do the work for them.

Also, because a banquet requires a lot of tables, chairs, bowls, plates, and utensils, these all need to be brought from the home of the person handling the arrangements. If you don't have connections, you won't be able to gather all the necessary items for the banquet.

Wang Tianxiao doesn't need to worry too much about this.

There are dozens of families within five generations of the Wang family. If you just randomly pull them together, you can gather all the people who can do the work for you.

Generally, for a full-month celebration like this, people from the husband's family within five generations and the wife's family within three generations are invited, along with some close neighbors, friends, classmates, and so on.

Honestly, I've been using a source-switching app to read and follow my favorite books lately. It offers various source switching options and different reading voices. The .huanyuanapp works on both Android and Apple devices.

Small households typically have around a hundred people, while large families often have two or three hundred.

If you don't do it, fine; but if you do, you have to invite people from all sides. If you miss someone from any side, people will criticize you for a long time, and resentment will often build up.

Not long after Wang Tianxiao left, Wang Tianyi returned from town and told Zhang Yufeng that he had spoken with the fifth son and would persuade the second son to let the family handle the arrangements together so that others wouldn't laugh at them.

Zhang Yufeng told him that Wang Tianxiao had already come and briefly explained what she had said that evening to Wang Tianyi, instructing him not to say anything inappropriate at the banquet to avoid causing unnecessary conflict.

After thinking for a moment, he asked Wang Tianyi to tell Wang Tianren to keep his wife in check. He was fine with everyone else, but he was most worried that the hanged ghost might not know his place.

Wang Tianyi knew that some things were inappropriate for his mother to say, so he agreed.

After leaving the cave dwelling, they knocked on the door of the third brother's house.

.

That evening, Wang Tianxiao and Li Yali discussed in detail who they would invite from the bride's family.

List the names and have Li Guanping invite them on your behalf.

He wasn't familiar with many of them, but according to custom, the most honored guests were those from his wife's family, who were referred to as "invited guests."

For example, a child's aunt or similar person is referred to as a "major guest".

Although there is only a one-word difference between "inviting guests" and "offering a grand banquet," the seating arrangements are completely different.

There are rules for a banquet served in a continuous stream.

It's usually five tables per session.

Each table, excluding infants and toddlers, should be filled with twelve people, meaning one round consists of sixty people.

So, when setting up the tables, a table will be placed in the middle of the banquet hall first, which is called the seat of honor. Only the most respected person in the host family can sit in this seat.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!