Chapter 42: Celebration Feast 3/3

They made a total of eight dishes in one go, and the banquet was quite decent, with many guests invited. The closer relatives, such as Jin Xiaoye’s maternal relatives and Li Laogen’s two younger brothers’ families, were invited with their entire families, while some more distant relatives were invited with the head of their household.

There were too many people to accommodate in their house.

The neighboring Yao family, who were also distant relatives, had lent their tables, chairs, benches, and even pots, pans, and tableware to them. Now that the Yao family couldn’t cook, Jin Xiaoye invited them to have lunch at their house.

Jin Moli didn’t want to go to the Jin family’s house for lunch. In her previous life, Jin Xiaoye had always lived better than her, which made her very unhappy, and in this life, she hoped that Jin Xiaoye would not be as good as her in every aspect.

But Jin Xiaoye’s life was getting better and better.

And she always felt like Jin Xiaoye had deliberately cheated her out of her happiness, but it didn’t seem to be the case, which made her even more upset.

But Jin Moli didn’t want to go, but her two children did.

Seeing her two children drooling while looking in the direction of the Jin family’s house, Jin Moli began to tidy herself up.

Yao Zhenfu had a lover in the county, which had embarrassed Yao Zhenfu and made Jin Moli very ashamed.

She hadn’t wanted to go out for some time!

But she had to go out this time, so she decided to dress up nicely.

Jin Moli had a lot of dowry items, and although most of them had been taken away by Yao Zhenfu to spend, she still kept some for herself.

Because she thought Yao Zhenfu would become a wealthy man in the future, she wasn’t frugal with her spending.

This was evident from her purchase of two flowers from Jin Xiaoye’s house, which indicated her spendthrifty nature.

With such a transformation, she looked very beautiful, and her body was also infused with the fragrance of the duck egg powder.

Wearing both flowers on her head, Jin Moli walked out of the door and saw Yao Zhenfu, who was wearing his best clothes and had meticulously combed his hair.

Yao Zhenfu’s thoughts were exactly the same as Jin Moli’s. He didn’t really want to go to the Jin family’s house to drink, but he felt that if he didn’t go, he would seem afraid of Li Qingzhi…

In the end, Yao Zhenfu decided to go.

Although he had been laughed at for having a lover, it wasn’t a big deal!

A man who doesn’t have romantic experiences in his youth is not a true man!

He’s a scholar, and he’s going to take the imperial examination in the future. He’s much more formidable than Li Qingzhi. Why should he be afraid of Li Qingzhi?

Today, Yao’s mother has been helping out at Yao’s house. According to the customs here, when someone hosts a banquet, neighbors should pitch in to help. She’s old and not in good health, and she’s so tired that she can’t even straighten her back. Then she turns her head and sees her son and daughter-in-law coming over all dressed up, and she feels angry.

Such chores should be done by her son and daughter-in-law, not by her, an old lady!

But Yao’s mother didn’t dare to get angry with her son and daughter-in-law, so she could only hold it in.

The dishes were already being served, and people sat down one after another, praising the food as they ate: “The Li family is really generous!”

“So much meat!”

“Jin Dajiang’s cooking skills are really good!”

…

However, while praising the food, they also felt that Li Qingzhi and Jin Xiaoye were a bit extravagant with their spending: “Building houses and hosting banquets, Li Qingzhi’s earnings from copying books before and Jin Xiaoye’s earnings from rowing boats during this time, I’m afraid they’ve all been spent, right?”

“Young people just don’t know how to manage their money. How can they spend money like this? Saving money to buy land for their eldest and second son is the right thing to do.”

“Yeah! They were even stewing meat for the workers every day when they were building the house.”

…

Of course, some people stated the facts: “Jin Xiaoye is not a spendthrift. They might be so generous because they have money on hand.”

Yao Zhenfu had been listening to the conversations around him and couldn’t help but interject, “Li Qingzhi only copied books for a couple of months, and Jin Xiaoye only paddles a boat. At most, they earn five or six taels of silver per month… Now that they’re spending so much, they must be pretending to be wealthy.”

Upon hearing Yao Zhenfu’s remarks, the person who had previously suggested that Jin Xiaoye might have money fell silent.

Yao Zhenfu was quite satisfied with the situation. He took a sip of rice wine and began picking out pieces of meat to eat. Since he had stopped going to the county to study and was eating the same food as his parents at home, he felt that his stomach lacked something.

He was determined to eat more of the meat from the Li family.

After no one at Yao Zhenfu’s table spoke for a while, they overheard Li Laogen from the neighboring table loudly saying, “My Ah Qing is very knowledgeable and knows a lot of things!”

“Today, when we went to the county to buy meat, the young master of the Zhu family saw my Ah Qing and was very polite. He even invited my Ah Qing to attend a poetry gathering at the Hong family.”

“My Ah Qing didn’t want to go at first, but after several requests, he agreed.”

Li Laogen’s speech was accompanied by flying spittle, and he even stood up, looking excited.

Li Laogen used to enjoy gambling, but recently he changed and started boasting. Today, after going to the county, he had a lot of new material to talk about, so naturally, he had to boast to his heart’s content.

The villagers listened with admiration. Li Qingzhi was actually going to the Hong family in the county to attend a poetry gathering… This was really amazing!

They were envious, but Jin Moli and Yao Zhenfu felt more and more annoyed as they listened.

Yao Zhenfu couldn’t hold back any longer, “This is simply nonsense!”

His voice was loud, and Li Laogen, upon hearing it, became unhappy, “Who are you saying is talking nonsense?”

“You!” Yao Zhenfu said, “Li Qingzhi couldn’t even recite the Three-Character Classic a few months ago. His knowledge is similar to mine when I was ten… If he’s considered knowledgeable like this, what does that make me?”

Li Laogen was a little confused, “What’s the Three-Character Classic?”

Yao Zhenfu became even more disdainful and said, “And as for the Hong family’s poetry gathering, it’s not something anyone can attend! The Hong family is a scholarly family, and they carefully select their invited guests… Even Zhu Xunmiao can’t go, let alone Li Qingzhi!”

Yao Zhenfu felt that Li Laogen was completely making things up. After all, even Zhu Xunmiao couldn’t attend the Hong family’s poetry gathering.

Was there such a thing? Li Laogen looked a little uneasy and turned to look at Li Qingzhi.

Li Qingzhi had told him about attending the poetry gathering, but was it possible that Li Qingzhi was also boasting?

Yao Zhenfu noticed Li Laogen’s unease and became even more smug.

Just then, a servant boy arrived carrying a brand new package. “Is Mr. Li Qingzhi staying here?”

The servant boy looked around and immediately saw Li Qingzhi, then ran over to him. “Mr. Li, my young master will wear a moon-white outfit tomorrow to attend the Hong family’s poetry gathering. He wants you to wear the same, so he has prepared a set for you too. Tomorrow, you can both wear the same clothes to the gathering.”