Old Lady Lu frowned and said, "Today is a happy occasion, and the guests are all from the mansion. Since the concubine can't come, you don't have to offer them tea."
Bai Wanyi smiled and said, "As the mistress, I am here to marry you. Shouldn't the concubine offer tea to me, the mistress?"
Old Lady Lu thought she was talking about Lu Yan's father's concubines, but she didn't expect that she was asking about Qi Jing. She said, "When Concubine Qi offered you tea, that was your own business, not related to you."
"How could that be?" Bai Wanyi didn't believe it at all. Shouldn't the aunt serve tea in public?
Lu Yan looked at Bai Wanyi, and only now did he realize the difference between the daughter of a noble family and the one from a humble family. In terms of rules and etiquette, the difference was really more than a little bit.
He tightened his grip and explained to Bai Wanyi again: "Indeed, Auntie shouldn't come to an occasion like today, so she will come to serve you tea after we return to the courtyard."
Second Aunt sneered, "We are all proper masters here. What is a concubine? She is just a plaything. She can only enter through the side door. Asking her to serve you tea in public on such an occasion is giving her face. Is she worthy of it?"
Bai Wanyi finally believed what Old Lady Lu said. She smiled softly and said, "I'm not asking her to serve me tea right now, but there are some things about yesterday's wedding banquet that need to be made clear in public."
Lu Yan was puzzled: "What else is going on at the wedding banquet?"
Bai Wanyi pretended to smile proudly: "Call the people over and you'll find out."
Old Madam Lu also wanted to know about yesterday's wedding banquet. Apart from anything else, the ladies of honor had dispersed early from the two banquets in the inner house. She didn't know why, so she asked someone to call Qi Jing.
After a while, Qi Jing came over and stood up after greeting according to the rules, but heard Bai Wanyi scolding her: "Such a big mistake happened at the banquet, why don't you kneel down!"
Qi Jing raised her eyes to look at Lu Yan, and seeing his evasive gaze, she knew that no matter what happened, he would not make excuses for her.
Qi Jing was quick and decisive. She lifted her skirt and knelt down again. "I wonder what flaws Madam is talking about?"
Bai Wanyi only knew of one mistake, which was that the generals were given a burning knife, but there must be other mistakes. She lowered her eyes and looked at Qi Jing: "What mistakes are there? As the head of the family, don't you know? Do you need me to tell you? If you really don't know, you can forget about this position as the head of the family."
Qi Jing didn't want to be a housekeeper at all. A good cook cannot cook without rice. Who would be willing to manage an empty shell?
She immediately took off a bunch of keys from her waist and said, "I am incompetent as a housekeeper and am willing to hand over my power. Here are the keys to the various storerooms. I will deliver the cards and account books to Madam's room later."
Before Bai Wanyi could even make a move, he had already gained the power of stewardship. All the preparations he had made all morning were like a punch on cotton.
She was stunned for a moment, not daring to believe Qi Jing was so kind. "Don't think you'll be alright if you voluntarily hand over your stewardship. You still have to ask the questions you need to ask. Tell me exactly what happened."
Qi Jing believed that she did not make any mistakes at yesterday's banquet. If she did, it must be a problem somewhere else. Since Bai Wanyi did not say where the mistake was, she explained every arrangement, the banquet dishes, and why it was arranged that way.
Each table at this banquet is expected to have 24 dishes, 6 kinds of tea, 8 kinds of dim sum, and 5 kinds of wine.
The dishes are slightly adjusted according to the guests at each table.
Qi Jing described the dishes at several banquets one by one.
The guests entertained by Old Lady Lu were all elderly ladies and relatives from the family. The dishes served were mostly soft and easy to digest, with a total of twenty dishes per table.
The four dishes that were removed were all overly greasy, spicy, and hard foods, and the drinks used were all fruit wine.
The ladies in the inner house served sweet dishes and avoided greasy food. The dishes on each table were adjusted according to the tastes of the ladies, so there were eighteen dishes in the inner house, and the dishes and drinks on each table were different.
In the outer courtyard, there are three dining tables.
In the room where the princes and dignitaries were entertained, all twenty-four dishes were served, and the wine, drinks and snacks were also served in the most complete form. The only difference was that the women in the inner courtyard all had a bowl of bird's nest porridge, but the princes did not have this prepared.
The civil servants in the courtyard have twenty dishes, and the outer courtyard has eighteen dishes, all of which are adjusted according to their needs.
Especially in the outer courtyard, which was full of military officers, they served snacks to go with wine, and added whole roasted pigs and roasted lamb legs, which were not available in the inner courtyard, to satisfy their habit of eating large pieces of meat and drinking large bowls of wine.
A lot of staple food has also been prepared to ensure that everyone can eat well.
After listening to Qi Jing's arrangements, Old Lady Lu and several elders nodded and said: It's very thoughtful, the arrangements are detailed and appropriate, and most importantly, it really saves money.
Putting aside other things, how much silver is a bowl of bird's nest? If all the hundred tables in the inner and outer courtyards were filled with bird's nest, how much silver would be wasted? Do those crude generals know the benefits of bird's nest? Would they be patient enough to eat a bowl of it? And then throw it away. Isn't that a waste?
Some people even wondered whether they should follow this method when hosting banquets at home in the future, so as to save money and make the food suit everyone's taste.
Bai Wanyi hadn't expected a banquet to have so many complexities. With a cold face, she said, "Is it appropriate for you to categorize people into different levels like this? If you're going to serve, you should serve everything."
Qi Jing glanced at Lu Yan. Regardless of whether he helped to take the blame or not, she still had to say what needed to be said: "The dishes prepared for the banquets have all been confirmed with the Marquis, and the Marquis has also agreed."
Facing everyone's gaze, Lu Yan could only nod: "Yes."
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