Chapter 84.2

Translated by Aviana

Not paying heed to the varied reactions of villagers that day, Yang Tiezhu and Yang Tiegen sent out invitations to all the villagers to their housewarming banquet not long after.

It was customary in Luoxia village for the new house owners to invite all their close ones and the villagers for the banquet.

But of course, the invitees would naturally also have to bring some gifts for the host as a gesture of reciprocity, which usually consisted of eggs, a basket of fresh vegetables, and likes for the most part. Needless to say, no host would be petty enough to place emphasis on who brought what. The main intention for organizing such a banquet was to just liven up the occasion.

To make the banquet more special, Yang Tiezhu specially brought home a pig head to serve a nice dish. Surely, a lot of people will turn up for the banquet this time.

His heavily pregnant wife and few women folk in the house would certainly find it difficult to cook a sumptuous feast for all the guests. Considering the situation, he decided to summon a catering team who held expertise in cooking at banquets from outside.

The catering team was a group of people who earned some side income by preparing a feast for the households who couldn’t spare time to do so. By origin, they too hailed from the countryside. During the busy farming season, they would work on farms, while at other times, they would work as caterers.

Yang Tiezhu explained to the catering team the situation — vegetables, and meat would be made readily available to them. The final price was set for 2 silver tales. He further asked them to bring a few more helpers to serve as servers.

Yang Tiezhu’s additional demand didn’t seem an issue to the catering team’s leader. Didn’t they just have to bring a few extra people? They had plenty of hands. Usually for demanding tasks such as this, the family members of the group would also join in to lend them a hand.

The catering team came early the day before the banquet to do some prep work —cleaning the ingredients, processing the meat, chopping the vegetables, and preparing the batter for fried dishes—to make the cooking easier the next day.

With the catering team joining in, Yao-shi, Yang-shi, and Zhou-shi who initially had come to help found themselves free. Their presence was therefore reduced to just supervising from the sidelines as they leisurely chit-chatted trivialities.

Early in the morning the next day, a few youngsters from the village, who had a good relationship with both Yang Tiezhu and Yang Tiegen, knocked on their doors to lend a hand.

Soon, they all began helping the two families by borrowing the chairs and tables from neighbors. In passing, even the cutleries such as bowls, chopsticks, and the likes were also borrowed and passed on to the kitchen wash to wash them. The chairs and tables were laid out across the yard. To make up for the lack of space in the Yang Tiezhu’s yard, a stretch of tables and chairs were also arranged in the open space outside the courtyard. Similarly, Yang Tiegen’s courtyard was also filled with rows of tables and chairs. When the space was still not enough, the open area outside the latter’s house was also used, bringing about a spectacular sight to the beholders as they formed a long stretch of tables and chairs adjoining the rows of tables placed outside the Yang Tiezhu’s courtyard.

As the sun reached its peak, villagers began to show up slowly.

They were all bedecked with beaming smiles, as a string of various congratulatory words left their lips.

They applauded the two brothers for being capable enough to build a new house with pleasantries and niceties. Amid such a happy occasion, those in the know would surely not utter any unpleasant remarks and dampen the occasion.

Yang Tiezhu and Yang Tiegen, accompanied by Xia Dacheng, greeted each and every one cordially. Lin Qingwan, due to her big belly, could only avoid the huge bustling crowd outside, as she sat silently in her room until the crowd quietened down. When it was more or less the right time, she intended to go and greet the guests.

Yao Shi and Yang Shi, along with Zhou Shi had their hands tied as they busily guided the catering team and made arrangements for the people to sit.

Waiting till everyone had more or less settled down, Yang Tiezhu and Yang Tiegen went and lit a string of firecrackers by the entrance gate before serving the guests.

For this time’s banquet, Yang Tiezhu filled the menu with an array of sumptuous dishes: chicken, duck meat, fish, and the special pig head. The catering team’s cooking skills seemed to be sterling, as all the dishes that were served looked extremely rich and delicious, whetting one’s appetite.

The shocking exclamation and gasps in everyone’s minds at the Yang brother’s generosity didn’t seem to pose a hindrance to their chopsticks from getting busy. It wasn’t easy for the rural people to enjoy meat. Thus, when they finally had an opportunity to feast upon such a generous meat dish, naturally they had to enjoy it to the fullest.

Once Yang Tiezhu and Yang Tiegen courteously asked everyone to dig in, they made their way to the main table to accompany the guests.

Seated at and around the main table were a few of the village’s virtuous and venerable elders, and a few close relatives.

These close relatives included Yang-shi and Second Yang laoyezi’s family, but Yang laoyezi’s family was not included among the ranks.

“Should the Yang jia’s people be invited?” This topic was actually quite seriously discussed by Yang Tiezhu, Lin Qingwan, and others. In the end, it was unanimously vetoed by everyone. Should they come, they would be treated as fellow villagers, or else they would ignore them.

Usually, villagers wouldn’t go personally to invite everyone. Once the matter of the banquet has been spread around the villages, those who wanted to come would come. But of course, the respected elders in the village such as Clan Elder Yang and Village Chief needed to be personally invited. As for the elders in the family, they would come on the initiative to lend a hand when a junior was hosting a banquet.

Since those members of the Yang family didn’t come, they intended to let them be. Anyways everyone in the village had a sense of judgment in favor of them.

And naturally, so, a few of the guests did notice this bit. More than half of the village attended the banquet, but the people who actually ought to present hadn’t come. Nonetheless, not a word of it or anything related to that wasn’t mentioned, as everyone was aware of the dispute in the family, and no one would be ignorant enough to bring such matters to another happy event.

Guests and hosts, alike, had a great time. By the time the guests had their fill and dispersed, it was already well past noon.

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