Traveling to the ancient harem

Chapter 188: All the prepared food was eaten up

The fourth day of the first lunar month.

Today is the day when the Huang family receives the three ladies' families to pay New Year's greetings. The Huang family has prepared a small banquet to entertain the relatives and friends.

Chen got up early in the morning to arrange today's banquet. She planned for ten tables. She calculated that six tables would be enough, but preparing a few more tables was just to be on the safe side.

The small kitchen in Furong Garden was also very busy. Lu Dou and the cooks she brought with her were working overtime to bake snacks, which would be used for the guests coming today. In addition, they braised a few large pig heads, which would also be the cold dishes for today's banquet. The cups, plates, and bowls used in the banquet were all porcelain produced by Huangye Kiln and designed by Huang Ye himself. They were novel in style, spotlessly white, and looked very refreshing.

"Sister Ye." The first person to come over was Qiu Yun'er. She went to pay New Year's greetings to the elders first and received several big red envelopes. Then she came to Huang Ye's garden. Today was Sister Ye's last day in the mansion before entering the palace. It would not be easy for her to see her in the future.

"Xiao Yun'er, sit in the house." Huang Ye invited her into the house to warm up by the fire. It was dry and cold outside today, and there was even wind.

After entering the house, Qiu Yun'er took off her cloak and handed it to the maid. Hongdou brought the snacks and tea over and placed them on the small table next to her. She picked up a biscuit and put it in her mouth: "It's delicious. Sister Ye, you will enter the palace tomorrow, and I won't be able to eat such delicious snacks."

Seeing her depressed, Huang Ye felt sad too. Last night, she couldn't sleep when she thought about leaving her family and that it would be difficult to see them again. She tossed and turned all night. When she woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror, she felt that she had dark circles under her eyes.

"In the future...if you and second brother get together, we will be a family. What do your family members think?" Huang Ye couldn't let herself be upset, she had to say something happy.

Speaking of this, Qiu Yun'er was a little shy: "They all like my second brother very much..." Looking at the expression on her face, it seemed as if she was just about to ask their family to come and propose marriage as soon as possible.

"After I enter the palace, my family will ask a matchmaker to come and propose marriage. However, you are still young, and it will take two years before the marriage." Huang Ye held her hand and said, "My second brother is a careless person. You should be more tolerant after the marriage." Huang Ye felt that she was not Hongger's sister, but more like his mother, who worried about him.

Qiu Yun'er nodded shyly. Before she could say anything, a dozen girls of about their age came in. Huang Ye saw that they were the eleven people who came to her flower party. Shi Yaoyao didn't come because she couldn't go out, but Huang Ye felt that no matter how thick-skinned she was, she would be embarrassed to come.

More than a dozen young girls chatted at the same time and presented their gifts to Huang Ye. This could be considered as making a good relationship. No one could predict what would happen in the future. Having a lady from the palace as a friend, maybe she could lend a hand when something went wrong because of today's face.

As for Shi Yaoyao, the young ladies despised her. Who would dare to make friends with her when she could even frame her own friends? In the past two days, as all the concubines returned home, news of what happened in Chuxiu Palace slowly spread out.

Chen was dumbfounded by the endless stream of guests entering the mansion. The ten tables of food she had prepared for lunch and dinner would probably be all gone by noon. When did the Huang family become so popular?

She asked these uninvited ladies to sit down. Most of them came from families with higher official positions than Father Huang. Chen greeted them with a smile. Seeing that they tried every means to bring the topic to Hong Ge'er, Chen realized that it was her youngest son who caused the trouble.

Chen quickly stated that their brother Hong was in the process of getting married, and both families were very satisfied, so they were waiting to come after the twelfth lunar month to formally propose marriage. The ladies who came were not disappointed, as they had come here to try their luck. The young lady of the Huang family did not have a banquet when she entered the palace, and today she came to the Huang Mansion under the pretext of paying New Year's greetings, which was also considered as their family's congratulations. No one could predict what was going on in the palace, and no one knew how far anyone could go. It was much better to have the favor of coming here to congratulate her today than to have no favor at all.

At noon, there were twenty tables of male guests in the front yard and female guests in the back yard. The cold-mixed pork head was served three times to each table, and all the dishes prepared in the evening were eaten up. Chen was very worried. After everything was eaten, what would she feed the guests in the evening? It seemed that no one wanted to leave early, and she couldn't tell the guests that she would not provide dinner in the evening.

The guests present: they ate the most delicious pork head they had ever eaten in their lives, twice-cooked pork that they had never eaten before, sweet and sour fish, and the spicy and crispy orchid beans. Even the vegetables were a hundred times more delicious than what they usually ate. They wanted them to leave early, what was he thinking? They must finish their meal before leaving. If they were not embarrassed, they would like to come again tomorrow to pay New Year's greetings.

Even those ladies who usually valued face more than anything else stayed without paying attention. It was not their concern that there was not enough food. Why didn't they know before that the food in the Huang Mansion was delicious and the snacks were even more delicious? They really wanted to bring some back home for their children to try.

After dinner, Huang Ye was chatting with a group of little girls when she saw Baozhu come in and say that the lady wanted to see her about something. She stood up and apologized to the people in the garden, letting them continue playing. She followed Baozhu to the yard where Chen usually handled affairs.

Chen saw Huang Ye coming in as if she saw hope. She had just asked the old lady, who asked her to think of a solution. What solution could she come up with? Ye'er had always been a person with ideas, so maybe she could come up with a solution.

"Ye'er, all the meat and vegetables prepared by the mansion today have been eaten up. What should we do with so many people in the evening? Even if we want to go out to buy food now, there is nowhere to buy it. Today is the fourth day of the New Year, and there is no food for sale outside." This is a matter of face. The Huang Mansion cannot even provide food for the people who come to the mansion to pay New Year's greetings. It will be so embarrassing if news gets out.