"Master Chen, please come inside, please come inside!"
"Mrs. Liu, come this way. Mrs. Wang and the others came just now, and they were enjoying the flowers in the yard with my wife!"
Today is the birthday of Cheng Zhijie's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Sun of Suguo. However, Duke Lu's mansion did not have any big events. The main ones were a few close colleagues of Cheng Zhijie and their relatives from the Cheng family and the Sun family.
Don't look at the novel. Cheng Zhijie's family was poor when he was young, and he had a blind old mother, so he sold private salt.
But that's not the case at all.
Cheng Zhijie's great-grandfather and grandfather were high-ranking officials in the Northern Qi Dynasty. One was the Sima of Yanzhou and the other was the Sima of Jinzhou.
By the time his father came to power, the world was already under the rule of the Great Sui Dynasty, but his father was still the great Zhongzheng of Jeju.
So it can be said that it is a proper official family.
The Sun family might be a little worse off, but Sun's father was also the magistrate of a county, and could be considered a lady from an official family.
"Today is my sister's birthday after all. My brother-in-law is the Duke of Lu, so why don't I throw a big party for my sister?"
The speaker was a cousin of the Sun family. She was married to a branch of the Fanyang Lu family, and she looked down upon her sister, thinking that she was married to a martial artist.
It's just unimaginable that this warrior would later follow Li Shimin to conquer Chang'an, and his status would also rise, becoming the Duke of Lu of the Tang Dynasty.
Although on the surface, it seems that Duke Lu is not as good as the Lu family who is the most popular among the five surnames and seven, but he is many times stronger than her side branch.
It happened that on her birthday last month, the family had a big party, so she couldn't help but feel a little proud.
"Sister, I was joking. In fact, there is no need to celebrate a birthday. Originally, we just invited family and friends to come over for a meal and a small gathering."
"Sister, you can't say that. We women, our time is fleeting. Every year we get older, and we can't make contributions like their men. Aren't we just going to spend our lives pointing to our husband's children?"
As he spoke, he raised his orchid finger: "Hey, for my birthday last month, my Cheng'er went to Dongyue to buy me a ring. I said no, no, no, but he still insisted on going. What do you think of us as mothers? Yes, I can’t shake their filial piety at all!”
"That's what my sister said!" Mrs. Sun said with some envy: "Your adult son entered the governor's office at a young age and worked with the governor. I guess he has a secure future. Unlike the gangster in our family who can do three things It’s better if he doesn’t get beaten by his father.”
The other Sun sisters also laughed. Cheng Chumo and his brothers had done a lot of mischief in Chang'an, but today was Sun's birthday, so they all just said good things about the child to comfort her.
Seeing that she had the upper hand, Sun's cousin became even more proud and spoke more arrogantly.
But among the women in the Sun family, except for the Sun family, her husband's family had the highest status. The Sun family didn't speak, and the other women couldn't do anything to her.
"Ladies and ladies, you can take your seats!"
While we were chatting, servants came to invite us.
"Hey, everything is good in Chang'an, but the food is a bit lacking. Sisters, if you have the opportunity to visit our Fanyang, I will definitely treat you to try our delicious food. Now many Dongyue people have come to Fanyang to open restaurants, and the dishes are delicious. There are so many of them, I’m sure you’ve never tasted them before.”
Everyone sat down at the table, and then the first dish was served, and most of them were confused.
"What's this?"
"I've never seen it before..."
"It's so crystal clear, it does look good."
Cheng Zhijie's face was also bright. Today's dishes were all prepared by Li Shimin, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji's chefs.
I don’t know where his Majesty’s royal chef and the two princes’ chefs learned their skills, so that the dishes they make are both beautiful and delicious.
Look, just this first crystal skin jelly shocked many visitors.
"Sister, this dish..."
Sun's cousin, sitting next to her, asked with some confusion.
"I heard it's called Crystal Skin Jelly. It's the Emperor's favor. I asked the palace cook to make it today."
As she said that, she picked up a piece. There were crushed peanuts and flower petals in the transparent jelly. In terms of appearance, it was definitely a top-notch snack.
Dip it into the prepared dipping sauce and it tastes great!
Just this one dish was like a slap in the face. No matter how arrogant Cousin Sun was, she would never think that she could compare to the dishes made by these royal chefs.
Fortunately, she kept her mouth shut, and the next few dishes were more amazing than the last.
These cooks learned how to cook, and Tang Ping went back once and brought back several good pots for them.
The current batch of royal chefs trained by Xiao Luo all have one or two special dishes.
After all, involution is everywhere. If you cook for the emperor and princes, but you still can't be a little cook, then where will you put your face in the future?
Visitors can also see from this the favor His Majesty the Tang Dynasty had for Duke Cheng Zhijie of the State of Lu.
After the meal, everyone moved to the backyard. In the afternoon, a theater troupe was invited to sing and play leaf opera.
But first, several of Sun's sons gathered around.
First, the youngest son Cheng Chubi presented a handkerchief. This little guy was only five years old, and he found a colorful handkerchief from nowhere.
Ms. Sun and a group of sisters laughed so hard that Ms. Sun touched her youngest son's head: "Chu Bi, thank you!"
Then the second son, Cheng Chumo, presented a beaded flower, which was quite satisfactory. The children in the Cheng family were all about the same, and their monthly income was just that little, so the gift was naturally not something expensive.
But of course Sun was very satisfied and thanked her second son with a smile.
The last one to come up was naturally the eldest, Cheng Chumo. As a result, Cheng Chumo didn't bring out the gift first, but instead took his two younger brothers and sang a happy birthday song to Mr. Sun.
No one at this time had ever heard of such a funny song, but seeing the seriousness with which the three brothers sang, and being touched by their filial piety, they nodded repeatedly.
Mrs. Sun even had tears in her eyes and said repeatedly: "Okay, okay, happy mom, happy birthday. As long as you two are good, mom will be happy every day."
"Mom, I gave this to you!" Cheng Chumo took out the box from his sleeve, but he still kept it in mind: "Mom, you should wait until you get back to your room to open it."
Mrs. Sun knew that her eldest son was usually the most naughty and needed face. After thinking about it, this gift was probably just an ordinary object. He was afraid of losing face, so he asked himself to go back to his room to see it again.
Just as he was about to nod in agreement, the cousin next to him said: "You are so serious, Chumo. Everyone sees your filial piety. Even if you send a stone, your mother will be very happy. What can you hide?" Hidden? Or is there some kind of rare treasure inside? Let’s open it up and open our eyes!”
After saying that, the agent wanted to take the box from Sun's hand. Sun wanted to hide, but it turned out that the lid of the box was originally a gift.
Although the cousin did not get the box, the lid of the box was still opened.
