The evening meal was held in Bailuyuan. Shen Nanxun and his brothers-in-law sat at a table in the middle of the east wing. The female family members and their children sat at two tables in the west wing.
There were so many people today, and Lu Fenghe's small kitchen couldn't make meals for more than a dozen people in a short time, even if it tried its best.
In addition to the stewed ham with winter bamboo shoots, hollow meatballs, stewed pigeon with gastrodia ham, eight-treasure tofu, stewed cabbage with taro, and a pot of clear porridge that had been prepared in the small kitchen earlier.
The big kitchen also brought pork, white sliced pork, fried mushrooms and pine mushrooms, and a pot of braised pork rice.
It was not convenient for Lu Fenghe to work hard to entertain, so the task of greeting everyone at the table naturally fell to Lu Fenghe's sister-in-law, Mrs. He, the Fourth Lady of Lu.
"Second sister-in-law, you must try this piece of white meat. It tastes better if it is slightly dipped in some sauce. After eating it last time, I asked Lady He to give me a recipe and went back to try it. Several times, it’s always a little bit off.”
Mrs. Lu took a piece as instructed and nodded, "It's really good. The fat and thin texture are refreshing and not greasy."
"This dish is better made by He Niang's cook from the north."
The female family members are all on their own side, so naturally no one is outside, and the scene is very harmonious.
The children got along well with each other. In the afternoon, Brother Gou took three cousins and one cousin for a walk around the yard. The five children soon started playing together.
Lu Silang brought his two children, a brother and a sister. The brother was the eldest of the children, over six years old, and he took good care of his younger siblings.
Brother Bao is the youngest among several children. He usually eats half of the food by himself, and has to be chased and fed some more. Now he is sitting at the same table with his brothers and sisters, and he sees that they only serve soup and pick up vegetables. And there are people around you waiting on you, so why should someone feed it to your mouth?
So Brother Bao also pushed Cuizhi's hand to feed the soup and held the spoon himself, "Brother Bao can eat it himself."
Cuizhi looked at Brother Lao and glanced at the other brothers around her with some embarrassment before she understood what was going on.
"But my maid forgot that I already know how to eat by myself. Please wait a minute, don't get burned."
Cuizhi knew how much Brother Bao could eat, so she spread the vegetables and Brother Bao ate, and even used more meat and vegetables than usual.
The atmosphere at Lang Jun's side was different. Shen Nanxun didn't have much contact with them, and he was still not familiar with them, let alone getting close to them.
Shen Nanxun was in a one-on-one relationship, and the Eighth Lang, who had a close personal relationship with him, was not around. After three rounds of drinking, Shen Nanxun gradually became unable to resist.
Lu Silang was the one who started this matter, "Da Lang, although you are the eldest son, when you enter the house, you are my sister-in-law. You are a petty little spoiler. There is no reason to come all the way to suffer injustice."
"Nonsense, Sister He is so arrogant. Xiao Shi couldn't be more considerate." Lu Erlang retorted to his younger brother.
"No, she is just a waiter." This is what Lu Jiulang said.
Lu Sanlang patted Lu Jiulang on the shoulder, "Xiao Shi is very well-behaved, you recruit her every day."
Before the engagement, Shen Nanxun met Lu Fenghe only a few times, but they were not exactly the same as what his brothers-in-law said.
The first time I saw Lu Fenghe, she was enjoying the cool weather and mixing incense with her friends, looking bright and beautiful.
The second time was in Mrs. Lu's study. Lu Fenghe was boiling water and ordering tea. His wrists were slender, and in a short time, the water was all over the place. He was gentle and quiet.
The third time was in Lu Balang's study. I was probably used to going in and out, so I opened the door and rushed to the desk, "Brother, my grandfather punished me to write again." Smart and charming.,
Lu Jiulang turned to look at Shen Nanxun, "Sister-in-law, tell me, is Xiao Shi full of evil thoughts?"
Shen Nanxun raised his glass to Lu Jiulang, "Mother He is very good."
"Humph, you have all been coaxed by Xiao Shi."
Brother Lu filled Shen Nanxun's glass of wine, "A daughter from the Lu family will always be a daughter from the Lu family. There is no such thing as a married woman in the Lu family."
Brother Lu looked around the room and said, "I have to send a boatload of materials to Sister He."
Shen Nanxun immediately had an idea. Fortunately, only four of them came. If all nine brothers-in-law came, what a Shura field it would be.
The children ran around in the yard after they finished using it. Sister Zhen giggled as she listened to the laughter of her brothers and sisters in the house.
Different from the liveliness of Bailu Garden, Shanfutang was deserted.
Mrs. Chen had already dropped two tea cups. As soon as she got up in the afternoon, the concierge sent word that Mrs. Lu's wife was here.
Mrs. Chen originally wanted to ask Nanny Zhang to go to the front yard to greet her, but Lin Qian stopped her.
"Aunt, when you asked grandma to go to the front yard to greet the Lu family, didn't you give face to Bailuyuan? Didn't you do it in vain before?"
In the eyes of women from small families such as Chen's Lin Qian, when a woman gets married, she goes to her husband's family to make a living. Whether her life is good or not depends entirely on her mother-in-law's eyes.
It was indeed true for Mrs. Chen. The old princess took special care of her, and everything went smoothly for her since she married into the Shen family.
Lin Qian's mother and Chen's cousin are not.
Grandma Lin Qian is a stingy person, and her family is relatively productive. Not to mention maids, even the mother-in-law can’t bear to use a few more. Lin Qian’s mother-in-law does no less work than the mothers-in-law, but she can pick some light jobs. .
When Lin Qian was young, Lin Qianniang was rubbed to death. However, Lin Qianniang had only one sister. The Lin family quickly married a new bride, and Lin Qian's life was not easy.
When she went to her maternal grandfather's house, Lin Qian's maternal grandfather only stayed with Lin Qian for a few days and then sent her back without even preparing a decent gift for Lin Qian.
Mrs. Chen really couldn't stand it, so she took great care of Lin Qian. When the Shen family stayed in Kyoto for a long time due to Shen Li's frequent medical consultations, Mrs. Chen brought along her cousin Lin Qian, who was thousands of miles away.
In their understanding, when a woman gets married, she has to make a living under her mother-in-law, and pleasing her mother-in-law is more important than serving her husband.
In fact, Lu Fenghe met their expectations and was indeed quite flattering to Mrs. Chen.
It's just that Lu Fenghe's original intention to please Chen was far from what they had in mind.
Lu Fenghe is not good at cooking, but he is good at making dim sum. He always comes with freshly made dim sum every now and then.
Chen just casually asked what he wanted to eat, and Lu Fenghe would bring it the next day at the latest.
Mrs. Chen is quite old, and her boudoir family does not have much money to buy bright clothes for her. Mrs. Chen prefers red, purple and other colors, especially luxurious and bright materials such as gold and carved silk.
Every season, the Lu family sends materials to Lu Fenghe, and Lu Fenghe always invites everyone in the house to pick them.
Most of the gorgeous materials were picked out by Chen and Lin Qian. Even the materials that Lu Fenghe wanted to keep, as long as Lin Qian wanted them and Chen asked, Lu Fenghe would give them up.
One time Lu Fenghe was wearing a jiaocheng jacket, and Ms. Chen said she should never wear this material that was neither green nor white in the future. It made her eyes blind. From then on, Lu Fenghe wore red and yellow clothes every time he greeted her.
The reason why Lu Fenghe is like this to Chen and Lin Qian is that, firstly, the upbringing of the Lu family prevents her from doing anything disobeying her elders; secondly, for her, it is just a trivial matter, there is no need to worry about it, and the most important thing is, that She is Shen Nanxun's mother.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I'm probably a fool. I originally wanted to set the time, but ended up posting it directly. Ah, this...