We had dinner in the Lotus Courtyard.
Qi Xianguan sent out invitations in the name of a teacher, inviting the village chief, clan leader, and Old Man Liu's family to come to the new house for a housewarming party.
With so many people to feed, the number of people brought by the Qi family was totally insufficient, so they went to the county restaurant to invite a chef the day before.
In the afternoon, a coachman was sent to pick up the people, and the chef also prepared the ingredients and brought a young apprentice.
The kitchen in Lianyuan is very large, with three stoves burning at the same time. In the evening, waves of tempting meat aroma waft out from the yard, and blow along the wind to every household in the village. Just smelling the aroma makes children drool.
Jinhua couldn't wait any longer. She went out to look around several times, but saw that her grandparents and parents hadn't left yet. Her little face was filled with anxiety.
"Mother, will there be no meat if we go too late?" Jinhua asked nervously.
Just now she and her friends were playing at the village well, but they saw the Qi family’s carriage pulling a whole pig past.
Mrs. Qiu was changing her son's clothes. The little guy was very tough. He was at the age when he was crawling around everywhere. In a blink of an eye, the bib in front of him was extremely dirty.
Today we are going to Lianyuan, which is not a villager's home, so we have to clean up the place so as not to make the distinguished guest feel disrespectful when seeing us.
She had to take care of the younger ones as well as the older ones. She couldn't even find Liu Zhong's clothes. There were only two boxes in the room, and they were just circling around the room waiting for her to find them. Now that her daughter was urging her like this, the gentle Qiu couldn't help but complain:
"Why are you in such a hurry, you greedy cat? Normally, we have meat every three to five days at home. Why are you so petty?"
Jinhua immediately slumped her shoulders, sighed, and muttered, "How can the meat cooked at home be the same as the meat cooked by the chef in the county restaurant?"
Si Niang said that the meat they had eaten in the restaurant in the city before didn't taste like meat at all. It was so delicious that it seemed like clouds in the sky and made people feel like they were floating.
Jinhua thought to herself that Si Niang must be bragging, there was no such thing as meat as white as clouds in the world.
I raised my nose, and the smell coming from the Lotus Courtyard was so fragrant!
When Liu Zhongqiu and his wife walked out of the room holding Damao, they saw their daughter standing at the gate, looking in the direction of the lotus courtyard and swallowing her saliva. It was so pitiful and funny.
Old Man Liu and Miss Zhang both put on brand new padded jackets, which were made of cotton cloth that Liu Fei had bought from the provincial capital earlier.
He had originally planned to wear it during the New Year, but today the nobleman from the Lotus Courtyard was having a dinner party, and Old Man Liu didn't want to embarrass the third son, so he took out the new clothes and put them on in advance.
Clothes make the man. After changing into these clothes, the whole person looks much more neat and energetic.
Zhang looked at the old man and smiled secretly.
"What are you laughing at?" Old Man Liu asked in a gloomy tone.
Zhang's eyes sparkled as she said, "Look at your new clothes. You don't look that old anymore."
When Old Man Liu heard this, he looked at his wife's sparkling eyes and blushed for the first time in his life. He coughed twice and came to the yard and asked loudly, "Have you cleaned up the old house?"
He responded hurriedly from inside the room: "Coming, coming!"
When Jin Bao, who was shy and had his hair combed, came out, Liu Zhong laughed out loud, "Our Jin Bao looks like a young master now!"
Jinhua approached her father unyieldingly and asked, "What about me?"
She was wearing a new pink coat, which was made by Mrs. Qiu based on the pink rabbit fur coat that Si Niang had worn. The little girl looked very pretty and adorable in it.
Liu Zhong patted his daughter's head and said, "She looks beautiful, like a daughter from a rich family."
"I don't want to be a rich girl." Jinhua hugged her mother and said happily, "I want to be the greedy cat of Old Liu's family!"
After saying that, she quickly made a face and ran away to avoid being slapped on the butt by Qiu.
Everyone in the room was amused by her and Qiu's face was full of helpless doting.
At this time, Si Niang shouted loudly from outside the door: "Sister Jinhua!"
It was Qin Yao and her daughter who came. Fearing that Old Man Liu and the others would feel uncomfortable, Qin Yao specially brought Si Niang to pick them up and take them to the Lotus Courtyard together.
The three boys in the family had already followed Awang to find Liu Ji.
Seeing Qin Yao coming to pick them up, He responded loudly, and the whole family from the old house hurried out.
Zhang was holding a basket of steaming sugar-roasted chestnuts in her hands. "Yao Niang, do you mind if we give this to Master Qi and Mr. Gongliang?"
It was also Qin Yao's sudden inspiration. Last year they ate roasted chestnuts, so this year they wanted to raise the difficulty and roast the chestnuts with sugar. Zhang took the opportunity to carry back a lot of chestnuts while cleaning the vegetable fields, and roasted them freshly this afternoon.
A full bamboo basket, which contains all the food fried today.
Qin Yao lifted the gauze and took a look. Thinking of the sweet and sticky sugar-roasted chestnuts, she couldn't help but swallow her saliva secretly and nodded repeatedly, "Okay, okay, this is a good thing, you can't buy it in the city."
Zhang couldn't help laughing when she saw Qin Yao's little move, and told Si Niang: "Come back home to get it, I've left some for you brothers and sisters."
Si Niang was admiring Sister Jinhua's clothes. She was startled when she heard the words and exclaimed, "I didn't want to eat it."
Glancing at her mother's eyes glued to the bamboo basket, she quickly realized, "Yeah, I want to eat. Thank you, grandma!"
"Good child." Zhang looked at the little girl lovingly. This chubby little girl was so adorable.
Thinking back to the time when Qin Yao had not come, and the brothers and sisters who were like little beggars, Zhang felt filled with emotion.
In the past, they could not even imagine that they, as small farmers, could actually attend a banquet hosted by a great scholar.
Along the way, Qin Yao kept telling everyone in the old house not to be nervous and to just treat it as a normal meeting with the village chief and patriarch.
But it seemed that this did not work. Even the noisy Da Mao felt the tense atmosphere of his family and became much more well-behaved.
On the contrary, the two children, Jinhua and Jinbao, did not have so many distracting thoughts in their minds. They were only thinking about the food at the banquet, their eyes were full of anticipation, and they were not at all stage fright.
We arrived at the Lotus Courtyard. Lights were on inside and outside the courtyard, illuminating the entire place.
Shitou and two servants saw the visitors and led Qin Yao and others in.
After entering the courtyard, Old Man Liu and others saw the rockery and flowing water and could not believe that this was the old house that was previously covered with weeds.
Arriving at the spacious hall, the whole house was covered with wooden floors, which were waxed and so shiny that one could see one's reflection.
For a moment, everyone in the old house stood at the door of the hall, and they were afraid to take a step forward, not knowing whether to go in or back out.
Qin Yao walked ahead, and everyone followed her slowly. In just a few steps, it felt like several hours had passed.
The banquet was set up in the backyard, and the front hall was mainly used for reception, which was completely different from the rules of farmers where people set up the table casually and reserve seats at the table by themselves.
But this was a simplified version of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" made by Qi Xianguan after consulting Qin Yao.
Fortunately, the village chief and clan leader arrived first, and were chatting with Gong Liangliao about the customs and people of the village in all seasons, accompanied by Liu Ji. (End of this chapter)
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