novelraw Chapter 292 Letting the Guests Go Hungry
Chapter 292 Letting the Guests Go Hungry
Chapter 292 Letting the guests go home hungry
Gu Tang didn't want to argue with her, so she said, "Are you praising me, sister-in-law? It's a pity that I'm naturally beautiful and don't wear any makeup. If you want to be more beautiful, you'll have to go back to the drawing board."
Ms. Yu was illiterate and didn't know what "re-scraping" meant. She asked blankly, "What is re-scraping? Will re-scraping make me beautiful?"
The table was filled with men and women, all from the same village. Since there were more men than women today, it would be a waste for several women to occupy a table. So, the stingy Gu Liansheng arranged for men and women to sit together.
When the others at the table heard this, some, like Ms. Yu, didn't understand, while others understood but remained silent.
Looking around at everyone, and seeing that no one could answer her question, Madam Yu persistently asked Gu Tang.
"What did you mean by that? I don't understand."
Don't understand? That's right!
Gu Tang blinked, her face sincere: "I was just praising you. You're a beauty too if you dress up nicely!"
These words struck a chord with Madam Yu, and her pretty, round face lit up with joy: "You're just like your father! You know how to sweet-talk people!"
Gu Tang: ...
Gu Tang: ? ? ?
No, sister-in-law! Something doesn't sound right about what you're saying!
The more Gu Tang thought about it, the stranger it seemed. She wanted to ask more questions, but her third uncle glared at her, forbidding her from asking any further.
It’s over.
Gu Tang became even more curious.
"Oh! The groom is out!" Madam Yu suddenly said, looking towards the east wing.
Her words drew everyone's attention to the east wing.
Seeing everyone's curiosity, Madam Yu whispered, "Did you all see what happened when we were bowing just now?"
Everyone shook their heads and no one came to look.
Gu Tang and the others were at Gu Tianbao's house. The others, like Uncle San, stayed at home to keep warm by the fire because it was too cold, and no one came out to watch the excitement.
If you catch a cold because of a lively event, that would be a big problem!
Getting sick in the dead of winter could be fatal at any moment; it's simply not worth it.
Yu looked smug, as if to say, "You've all missed a great show," which made everyone's hearts flutter.
Gu Tang was more curious than anyone else. She praised Yu Shi, "Good sister-in-law, we know you're amazing. Nothing can be hidden from your eyes. Stop keeping us in suspense and tell us about it."
Yu loved to hear compliments, and when Gu Tang praised her, she blurted out everything.
"You wouldn't believe how many funny things happened during the ceremony. First, our young master said his parents were seriously ill, so he wouldn't let them come out to receive the greetings, and only told Madam Qian to bow to the empty seat."
After the ceremony, the young master asked Madam Qian to go to the west room to serve tea to the old couple. But as luck would have it, Madam Feng wet the bed!
Our young master then asked Madam Qian to serve them, but to everyone's surprise, Madam Qian was quite formidable. She refused to lift a finger and declared in front of everyone that she would not serve the old couple today, nor tomorrow, and would never serve them again.
If you push her too far, she'll pack her dowry, take the divorce papers, and leave! What can you say? She's already been married once; she's not a virgin anymore. She's thick-skinned and doesn't care what people say!
Oh open!
That's great!
Gu Tang secretly gave a thumbs up, then asked, "So far, it seems my uncle hasn't been able to argue with my sister-in-law. Are we just going to let this go like this?"
"We can only let it go. Otherwise, if Madam Qian really leaves, who will he marry next? Madam Qian brought her dowry with her, she's very confident!"
As the two were talking, Gu Tang caught a glimpse of Gu Liansheng walking towards the shed.
He secretly kicked Yu's foot lightly and winked at her, signaling that Gu Liansheng had arrived.
Yu may not be good at anything else, but he is certainly an expert in this area.
Gu Tang kicked and blinked, and she instantly understood. She immediately changed the subject to the family reunion banquet on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.
"...I heard they sent out invitations? Why didn't they send one to my family? I was hoping to attend the banquet."
"Many relatives didn't send invitations because it's too cold. The host is suffering, and you who come to eat the feast are suffering too."
My dad said that's enough for this year, just the gesture is fine. Next year, for my grandfather's birthday, we'll hire a theatrical troupe to come and make it a real celebration!
Madam Yu loved listening to opera, and immediately laughed. But before she could speak, Gu Liansheng's voice suddenly came from beside her.
"What a coincidence, the day before my third uncle's birthday is my father's birthday."
Everyone was stunned for a moment upon hearing this.
Few outsiders knew about this; only the Gu family knew the truth.
But Gu Tang was an exception; she was an outsider and didn't know anything about it.
She ignored Gu Liansheng's words and looked at her third uncle instead: "Master, is that so? I never heard anyone mention it when we were at home."
These words were directed at Gu Liansheng.
This was also a rebuttal to Gu Liansheng.
Grandpa Gu's birthday is very close to that of his brother. He celebrates his birthday at home every year, but he never mentions it.
Unfortunately, Gu Liansheng wasn't very bright and couldn't understand the meaning behind Gu Tang's words.
He glanced at Ah Gou with envy, noticing that Ah Gou's clothes and accessories were a hundred times better than those of his wealthy classmates, and his eyes turned red with envy!
If he wore such expensive clothes, those classmates who looked down on him would definitely bow down and fawn over him!
Unfortunately, such wealth fell into the hands of the second son's family!
God is unfair!
Thinking of all this, Gu Liansheng stared intently at Gu Tang and even coerced her in public: "You are a filial son. Since you hired an opera troupe for your third uncle, you should treat everyone equally and hire one for the family as well, so that we can have a proper celebration!"
These words truly refreshed Gu Tang's understanding.
She said, "I am indeed filial. The third uncle you mentioned is my grandfather, so of course I have to be filial to him. As for outsiders, I don't want to be involved with them. Everyone has their own father, so who wants to be filial? You think you can just hand it over to someone else? Heh, there's no such thing as a free lunch!"
Gu Liansheng blushed, finally understanding the meaning behind Gu Tang's words, and instantly became angry.
Seeing this, the Third Uncle slammed his hand on the table, reminding Gu Liansheng, "The time has come, let's start the feast quickly. Lianshan said you had someone calculate the time for the feast, so don't miss the auspicious time."
Meeting his third uncle's gaze, Gu Liansheng felt as if cold water had been poured over his head, instantly sobering him up.
Today is my special day, I shouldn't be making a fuss.
After calming herself down, she turned and left, ignoring her third uncle.
The crowd was annoyed by his rude attitude and began to whisper among themselves.
Uncle San sighed. With such an attitude towards life, even if he had a high talent for studying, it would be useless. He would not achieve great things or become an official.
Even if he manages to become an official, he won't have a good ending.
Yu was rather timid with scholars; when Gu Liansheng was here just now, she didn't dare to say a word.
Now that Gu Liansheng was gone, she came back to life and secretly gave Gu Tang a thumbs up, praising Gu Tang for being amazing!
Not long after Gu Liansheng left, three women carrying trays came out of the kitchen to serve dishes.
Gu Pingan tugged at Gu Tang's sleeve, a hint of excitement flashing across his face: "They're here! The food's here!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the woman carrying the tray stopped and gestured for everyone to take the food off the tray and place it on the table. Two elderly women were the first to get up and place the food on the table.
Gu Tang picked up her chopsticks, eager to try the dish. She couldn't let Gu Liansheng outdo her on the seventh day of the new year.
Once the dishes were laid out, Third Uncle originally intended to invite everyone to start eating.
He glanced at the dishes on the table and immediately froze.
What are all these things?!
There were three dishes on the table: stir-fried pickled vegetables, boiled shredded radish, and stir-fried cabbage.
Is this a banquet?
Third Uncle subconsciously glanced at everyone. Apart from the dumbfounded Gu Tang, the others were quite accepting. They had eaten far worse meals before and could tolerate it.
Others might accept it, but Gu Tang couldn't.
She gave up the lively atmosphere at Gu Baoshan's house and endured the cold to sit in the thatched shed to eat the feast, only to be served three vegetarian dishes that had no oil at all!
She's not a rabbit!
She doesn't eat vegetarian food!
Ah Gou and Gu Ping'an, who were beside her, both knew her and knew that Gu Tang wouldn't eat these three dishes.
Gu Pingan reassured her softly, "The food has only just started to be served. Please wait a moment, there will definitely be meat later!"
Ah Gou nodded in agreement: "Yes, let's wait and see."
What family wouldn't serve meat dishes at a wedding?
The two were full of confidence!
Gu Tang didn't speak, but she had a bad feeling.
Soon, the remaining dishes were served one by one: cold pickled cabbage salad, stir-fried pickled cabbage, cold mushroom salad, stir-fried mushrooms...
As the dishes were served one by one, even the monks lamented that the vegetarian dishes should at least have some oil added!
If you don't even add oil, that's not stir-frying, that's boiling vegetables!
The ninth dish had already been served, and Gu Tang had resigned herself to her fate. She casually picked up some mushrooms and ate them, but didn't touch anything else.
"Why aren't you eating, girl?" Madam Yu glanced at Gu Tang and was puzzled to find that she had barely touched her chopsticks.
Gu Tang didn't hide anything, and said with a blank face, "I even braved the snow to come here, I thought there would be meat."
Yu Ren agreed with this: "That's what I think too. I heard that when your uncle married into the Wei family and when your father married your mother, the banquet was the best in the village. They served three main dishes: roast chicken, roast fish, and mutton soup!"
Normally, your uncle dresses and eats quite decently, and today he didn't even host a large feast. It shouldn't be like this. I don't know how your uncle handles things; he's so unreliable!
As they were talking, another dish arrived.
When the soup was served, Madam Yu was delighted: "I was just saying there was no meat, and now you've brought me a bowl of meat soup!"
Gu Tang was also happy. She took a sniff, thinking she would smell the aroma of meat, but... she did smell the aroma of meat, but it was mostly a fishy and pungent smell!
This soup is made with pork. Before cooking, it was neither fried nor stir-fried. It was simply cut into small pieces, added to water, and simmered. Once cooked, it was ladled into a bowl and served on the table.
The pigs here are not the improved pigs of later generations, nor are they castrated. They are not fed grains, but rather a variety of miscellaneous things, including some dirty items.
Pigs raised like this won't taste very good.
Furthermore, without any seasoning to remove the fishy smell, and using water-fed pig directly, Gu Tang simply couldn't stomach the meat.
It doesn't have to be meat... a vegetarian diet is fine too!
Gu Tang twirled her chopsticks, picked up a little more mushroom, and put it in her mouth. Then she paused; the food had gone cold…
"What's wrong?" Ah Gou asked quickly when he saw that she looked strange.
Gu Tang shook her head, not saying the food was cold, but just sighed, "Gu Liansheng is really something!"
He arranged this banquet, which was quite an eye-opener for me.
Gu Tang didn't touch the bowl of meat soup, nor did A Gou. Gu Ping'an and Third Uncle took a bite, but then stopped eating.
The remaining broth was completely devoured by the others.
After we finished eating, they started serving the flatbread.
This time, it was Madam Yu's turn to be dumbfounded: "Only ten dishes! There are eleven people crammed into this table! And each person can't even get a single dish?!"
The woman who came to distribute the cakes had a long face. Upon hearing what Yu said, she couldn't help but pour out her grievances:
"Master Tongsheng's family didn't prepare anything, so we put together some dishes ourselves, and that's how we managed to put together ten dishes."
If we don't come up with something, we probably won't even have eight dishes. The same goes for these flatbreads; they're only half the size we usually eat, one for each person, no more!
"What the hell? This isn't enough to fill your stomach?!" Yu was dumbfounded.
A banquet that doesn't even feed the guests properly?!
Good heavens! This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this!
Upon learning of this, not only was Madam Yu excited, but everyone began to whisper among themselves, their faces revealing their dissatisfaction and contempt.
Gu Tang hadn't planned to take the pancakes, but when they were given to her, she accepted them anyway.
She barely ate anything, just filled her stomach with some flatbread, and planned to have a proper meal when she got back.
After finishing the pancakes, everyone got up one by one and walked home without looking back, not one of them staying to talk to Gu Liansheng.
Gu Tang and his group were the first to leave. After seeing them get up and go back, the others also got up and left.
In the east wing, Madam Qian already knew about the banquet arrangements and was furious.
Why is Gu Liansheng different from before?
When he came to see me before, he spent money lavishly and wasn't stingy at all. How come he put on such a splendid feast today?!
After all the guests outside had left, Madam Qian couldn't help but come out from the east wing and go to the main room to settle accounts with Gu Liansheng!
Gu Liansheng was feeding Madam Feng in the west room at that moment.
After Qian came, she didn't care whether the old couple would be angry. She directly told them about the banquet and scolded Gu Liansheng for making her lose face. She said that she would have no face to see people in the village in the future.
Since Madam Feng was unable to speak, she could only worry anxiously after learning about this, and there was nothing she could do.
Master Gu was indeed eloquent, but the first thing he did was rebuke Madam Qian: "You ill-mannered thing! How can a woman speak to her husband like that?! Is this how your Qian family taught you!"
Unfazed by Old Master Gu, Madam Qian rolled her eyes at him and said, "Yes, yes, I'm ill-mannered. I can't do something like letting a guest go home hungry."
You're well-mannered and have a good family background, that's why you did such a thing. I'm not as good as your family!
"You!" Old Master Gu was so angry that his face turned pale, and his chest ached again.
Gu Liansheng was in a terrible predicament. He couldn't afford to offend Madam Qian, as he still wanted her dowry.
The old man couldn't be allowed to get too angry, otherwise, if he died from anger, outsiders would start talking.
He patiently persuaded Qian, "Go back to your room first. I'll explain later after I've finished feeding Mother..."
Ms. Qian was unwilling, but after scanning the room, she found the old couple extremely annoying and felt angry whenever she saw them!
After a moment of silence, he reluctantly went out.