novelraw Chapter 305 The Banquet, Concealing the News of Death
Chapter 305 The Banquet, Concealing the News of Death
Chapter 305 The Banquet, Concealing the News of Death
Around 9 AM, Gu Liu arrived, braving the wind and snow.
Gu Lianshan was waiting at the courtyard gate early in the morning. When he saw the person coming, he hurriedly and warmly invited him to go to the main room for tea and to see if the meat dishes he had prepared were feasible.
They had grown up playing together since childhood, so Gu Liu didn't stand on ceremony with him and followed Gu Lianshan into the house.
There were two stoves burning inside, making it much warmer than Gu Liu's house.
But Gu Liu didn't notice this. As soon as he entered the room, he was shocked by the various kinds of meat piled on the floor and gasped.
"You...you told me you were only going to set up five tables? If that's five tables, you've prepared way too much meat!"
He looked at Gu Lianshan with an expression that seemed to say, "Are you tired of living?"
It's hard to say.
Gu Lianshan, however, looked smug: "Life is much better at home this year. We have plenty of meat to eat, so this feast must be lavish."
Their lives have undergone a complete transformation.
Besides, all this meat was a gift from Gu Sanlang; he didn't spend any money to buy it himself.
"Leaving aside the other meats, this dwarf sheep alone must have cost a lot of money. You're really willing to spend that much!"
Gu Liuchong gave him a thumbs up.
Gu Lianshan didn't hide anything from him and simply told the truth: "I didn't buy this meat, that's why I'm willing to part with it. If I had bought it, you would only have gotten a bone to gnaw on!"
Gu Liu understood immediately and pointed outside: "Was it bought by your nephew?"
"That's right, he bought all of these."
Gu Liu looked on with envy. It was worth it to have this nephew; he would never lack meat in the future!
Gu Lianshan poured a cup of tea and handed it over, continuing to show off: "Try it, this tea is said to cost one tael of silver per tael, it's very expensive!"
"Oh my! Really?" Gu Liu raised his hands to take the teacup, looking at the green tea in it with surprise and doubt.
"Of course it's true!" Gu Lianshan said with certainty. "Try it. It's just the right size to eat right now. If you like it, I'll pack some for you later. We can take it out to serve guests during the New Year. That would be very impressive!"
Gu Liu grinned from ear to ear: "How can we accept something so valuable?"
With that, he downed the entire bowl of tea in one gulp.
"How's it going?"
Gu Liu smacked his lips: "Delicious!"
"Since you like it, then it's settled. I'll pack some for you to take home and use for entertaining guests during the New Year."
"This...this is too precious..."
"What do you mean by valuable or not valuable? It's not like I paid for it. You really don't want it?"
Gu Liu: ...Good heavens! Looks like this was sent by that Gu Sanlang again!
"want!"
Why not? He could also benefit from his brother's good fortune and taste the tea served by the wealthy.
After drinking tea, the two carried all the meat to the kitchen.
The meat has thawed, making it much easier to cut or chop.
Uncle San and Gu Ping'an were both in the kitchen, peeling garlic. They had already peeled almost a bowlful.
After Gu Liu came in, he told the grandfather and grandson to go back inside and warm themselves by the fire, saying he could take care of things here.
It's only five tables; he can manage it all by himself.
Back inside the house, Uncle San didn't rest either. He rummaged through the house and found a long bench. He counted the number and realized it was clearly not enough, so he had to borrow some from the village.
There's also a table.
The table used for the banquet is an eight-immortal table. There is only one in the family, and four more need to be borrowed from the village.
These people had already made arrangements with familiar families beforehand, so they could just go and move them now.
Gu Lianshan led Ah Gou to each house to move tables, while Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an went to each house to borrow stools.
One table requires four benches, so five tables would require twenty benches.
There are only four benches at home, so we need to borrow sixteen more to make use of them.
The benches were made of heavy solid wood, and Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an could only carry one at a time.
If they keep going like this, they'll both be exhausted after a few more tries.
After thinking for a while, the siblings decided to take out the sled from the backyard, put it on the snow, and pull it along. They put the borrowed stools on the sled, which could pull six stools at a time, and only needed three trips.
When the two sisters returned after their last trip, quite a few people had already come to the courtyard to offer gifts.
Gu Tang also spotted Gu Liansheng in the crowd.
Gu Liansheng's appearance here was quite unexpected, so she went to ask her father.
"Did you post a message over there?"
If we don't send an invitation, given Gu Liansheng's stingy nature, he definitely won't come over to offer gifts on his own initiative.
Faced with Gu Tang's doubts, Gu Lianshan nodded readily: "On the day of his wedding banquet, your father gave him ten copper coins as a gift! Today, as we hold our family reunion banquet, he has to give me back those ten copper coins!"
Gu Tang: ...You're even stingier than Gu Liansheng!
The third uncle was still keeping track of the gifts, with the clan elders and patriarchs sitting next to him. They were chatting and laughing, and the atmosphere was very lively.
When it was Gu Liansheng's turn to offer his greetings, the atmosphere suddenly changed.
Apart from the third uncle, all the clan elders and patriarchs had dark faces.
Gu Liansheng seemed oblivious to everything, and after exchanging greetings, he left as if nothing had happened.
Gu Tang was incredibly curious, so she took the teapot to refill the tea for the clan elders and glanced at the gift ledger, and was immediately stunned.
After adding more tea, she put down the teapot, found her father, pulled him aside, and told him what happened.
"Only half of your ten copper coins have returned."
Gu Lianshan looked bewildered: "Half back? What do you mean?"
"I just glanced at the gift ledger, and my uncle only gave five copper coins!"
"What the hell?! Five copper coins?!" Gu Lianshan exclaimed incredulously. "Doesn't he have any shame? I gave him ten copper coins that day! Good heavens, and he just swept away half of them?"
Growing increasingly angry, Gu Lianshan went to look through the gift ledger.
Over the years, Gu Lianshan has maintained a good relationship with the villagers. Today, the minimum gift he brings is twenty copper coins.
But Gu Liansheng was an exception.
He really did give a gift of five copper coins!
Gu Lianshan was so angry!
He started muttering curses under his breath.
The clan chief, who was nearby, heard him muttering curses. He immediately glared at him, put down his teacup, and quietly scolded him, "You're not allowed to cause trouble today!"
Gu Lianshan took a deep breath: "No more fuss, I won't argue with an idiot!"
After paying five copper coins, Gu Liansheng returned home, carrying several packets of medicine. Hearing the commotion, Madam Qian, hiding in the east wing, quietly opened a crack in the window and watched Gu Liansheng enter the main room, her face pale, shivering slightly.
With trembling lips, she closed the window and sat on the couch, her heart pounding with fear.
Last night, Gu Liansheng took the chicken soup noodles to the west room, while she waited anxiously in the east wing, hoping he would come out and say that the old man had died.
After waiting for about an hour, Gu Liansheng returned as if nothing had happened, saying that the old man was extremely angry with her and did not want her to go to the main room again.
She also said that the old man was ill and shouldn't get angry, and for the sake of his health, she should try not to go to the main room in the future.
After hearing those words, Ms. Qian felt a chill run down her spine!
The old man is dead!
She saw it with her own eyes! She even tested it with her own hand; the person was definitely not breathing!
What is Gu Liansheng trying to do?!
Why conceal the old man's death?
Ms. Qian was completely baffled. She couldn't sleep all night, thinking about it all night long. By dawn, she seemed to know why.
In February of the following year, Gu Liansheng was going to take the imperial examination.
If news of the old man's death were to break now, Gu Liansheng would have to observe three years of mourning!
It is said that in preparation for next year's imperial examination, Gu Liansheng spent money to find out who the examiners would be and bought articles that catered to the examiners' preferences to imitate, striving to pass the examination and become a scholar next year.
Now everything is ready, and we're just waiting for the competition to begin next February. If his father dies at this crucial moment, all of Gu Liansheng's previous efforts and money will be wasted!
Three years later, everything will start all over again.
Is Gu Liansheng willing to start all over again?
As it stands, he is unwilling.
If they were unwilling, then they could only conceal the old man's death...
Since it's cold now, we'll move Madam Feng to the east room and put her in another place. We'll extinguish the stove in the west room and open the window. In just one night, her body will freeze into ice.
A corpse frozen into ice blocks will not rot or smell even if left indoors for one or two months.
We will announce the old man's death after the exams in February.
It was still cold then, so the corpse wouldn't smell. As long as no one saw the old man's body, no one should suspect anything.
Qian's guess was not much different from what Gu Liansheng was thinking; that was indeed his plan.
Once inside the main room, he instinctively moved away from the west room and didn't even glance in that direction, but went straight to the east room.
Mrs. Feng has now moved back to the east room.
When she saw her son return, Feng's eyes were bloodshot, and she kept replaying in her mind the tearful plea of her son kneeling in front of her last night.
My son has sacrificed so much for next year's imperial examination, and this time he has finally gotten his chance.
But right at this critical moment, the old man died of anger!
Her son knelt before her and asked, if she were in his position and had to choose, what would she choose?
Although she couldn't speak, what she was thinking about at the time was indeed the imperial examination.
She herself had made the same choice, and after her son gave her his decision, she fell silent, which was considered an acceptance of his choice.
However, the image of the old man's death remained stuck in her mind. Whenever she closed her eyes, the image of his death would immediately appear before her, haunting her.
And so, she stared at the roof beams, enduring the torment all night.
“Mother…” Gu Liansheng knelt down in front of Madam Feng again and begged, “Please get some sleep. Now that my father is gone, you are all I have left.”
I know you're angry, but don't worry, when our son comes back from his exams, the first thing he'll do is kill Qian Shi and make her go down to apologize to my father!
Why did the old man suddenly die?
Without a doubt, it must have been because Madam Qian had scolded the old man earlier, which caused him to die of anger.
If it weren't for the imperial examination next year, he would have killed Qian long ago!
Feng couldn't bear to hear the name "Qian Shi." She couldn't control her facial expression; she could only stare wide-eyed and groan as she tried to tell her son.
Madam Qian knew that the old man was dead!
She knows everything! There's no way to hide it!
Unfortunately, Gu Liansheng couldn't understand what Madam Feng was trying to say, and thought she was just cursing Madam Qian.
"Mother, please take good care of yourself. Once your son passes the imperial examination and becomes a scholar, you will be able to hold your head high in pride!"
After saying that, he got up and walked outside: "I just went to Doctor Gu's house and bought some medicine to nourish your body. I'll go and brew it now and feed it to you later."
Feng was still calling after him, but Gu Liansheng ignored her and went out of the room to brew medicine in the kitchen.
He clumsily lit the stove, found the pot for decocting medicine, opened a packet of the medicine he had brought back, poured it into the pot, added water, and decocted it.
He got the medicine from Doctor Gu's house after leaving his third uncle's house.
It's not a tonic at all; it's a calming and sleep-inducing medicine.
He told Doctor Gu that his elderly parents often had trouble sleeping, so he wanted to get some calming and sleep-aiding medicine to brew for them.
Without much thought, Doctor Gu grabbed a few packets for him.
Looking at the flames in the stove, Gu Liansheng was in a daze, but he couldn't help feeling fortunate.
Fortunately, Gu Zhier was gone, and fortunately, his son and daughter were not around, which made it easy for him to conceal the news of the old man's death.
There are only two months left until the imperial examination. After the exam, he will definitely give the old man a grand funeral!
……
Gu Lianshan had scheduled the banquet for the evening. After 3:45 PM, all the villagers who had received invitations came over and sat down at the table.
Gu Lianshan had tidied up all three main rooms, placing two tables in the west room, two tables in the central room, and one table in the east room, and lighting two stoves in each room to ensure that there was no coldness inside.
It was much warmer than at home, so the villagers had no choice but to swallow their pride and come over early to sit down.
The third uncle was extremely pleased with this, as it was an affirmation of the host family's handling of the matter and showed that the host family had done a good job.
Now that everyone is here, let's start the meal ahead of schedule.
Gu Liu had already made all the preparations. He called over two people to help him, and the two stoves were used to cook together. Soon, the dishes were served.
There were eight people at the table. Gu Lianshan ordered twelve dishes, each in a large portion. It would be enough for eight people, or even five or six more!
A considerable amount of wine was served, all of it being Qingjiu (a type of Chinese liquor). Gu Tang was responsible for using a spoon to scoop the wine from the jars into wine pots, then serving one pot per table, constantly refilling their wine.
Five jars of wine were brought out in total, one jar per table, and they were all eaten up in the end.
Everyone blushed. Chief Gu quickly stood up and said that no one was allowed to eat anymore. He told them to quickly bring out flatbread and vegetables to eat, lest they drink too much and pass out on the roadside on their way back.
If you get drunk and pass out on the roadside in winter, you'll freeze to death in no time!
Upon hearing the words "freezing to death," Gu Liansheng's face, which was slightly flushed from the alcohol, quickly turned pale, and his somewhat dazed mind instantly returned to reality.
He silently picked at the meat and vegetables to eat, and when some people left the table, he mingled with the crowd and followed them home.
By the end of the 5-7 PM hour, the courtyard, which had been noisy all day, finally quieted down.
Gu Lianshan and Agou were both drunk today; they had been forced to drink a lot during the meal.
Today, the two of them are the main characters, so they welcome everyone who comes and eat as much as they want, especially Gu Lianshan, who is eating to his heart's content today!
Of the two, he was the most drunk, and he's already asleep in bed.
Ah Gou was still holding on, continuing to follow Gu Tang.
When Gu Tang walked, he followed; when Gu Tang stopped, he stopped.
Utterly speechless!
This made Uncle San keep looking this way.