Today, the Yue family was celebrating the seventieth birthday of the Yue family patriarch.
As the saying goes, seventy years of life is a rarity since ancient times.
The Yue family's birthday celebration was quite grand, with not only the aristocratic families of the capital and business partners, but also relatives from the collateral branches of the Yue family coming to offer their birthday wishes and congratulations.
The invitations for the banquet had been sent out for 12 o'clock noon, and guests would typically arrive an hour to half an hour in advance.
The collateral branches of the Yue family, in order to show their attentiveness and to highlight the status of the host family, would usually arrive quite early.
Their stated reason was to help out, but in reality, it was more to show the other families of the capital and those in the business world that they were indeed members of the Yue family.
The in-laws of the Yue family would also arrive relatively early, for reasons similar to those of the collateral branches.
When aristocratic families intermarry, benefits are often prioritized.
Xia Qingtian woke up early. After breakfast, she was coaxed by the Yue family patriarch to take another nap. When she woke up, it was already close to 10 o'clock.
Although the guests had not yet arrived, the collateral branches and in-laws of the Yue family had.
On the other side, Xia Shang was not good at dealing with people and had been resting in the guest room. Er Ya only wanted to follow Xia Shang around and did not come out to join the fun.
It was only after Xia Qingtian came out that she asked a servant to send two plates of pastries to the guest room for Xia Shang and Er Ya to try.
As Er Ya ate the sweet pastries, she praised Xia Qingtian to Xia Shang.
Hearing Er Ya praise Xia Qingtian, Xia Shang also curved his lips into a somewhat sinister smile, but he was satisfied in his heart.
He also thought Qingtian was very good.
Meanwhile, the Yue family was still very lively. Xia Qingtian first found Yue Cheng Dong: "Eldest Uncle, do you need my help?"
"Qingtian, you're awake?" Yue Cheng Dong casually placed a few pieces of high-quality chocolate in Xia Qingtian's palm: "There's nothing here for you to work hard on. Eat some chocolate to sweeten your mouth, and go play somewhere else, be good."
"Uh... okay." Xia Qingtian replied, tore open a piece of chocolate, threw it into her mouth, and then placed the other chocolates into the smallest retro-style pearl handbag she had chosen to match her藕粉色 (lotus root pink) dress.
Seeing that there was indeed nothing she could help Yue Cheng Dong with, Xia Qingtian then went around to the front courtyard to direct Yue Cheng Feng, who was making the final adjustments to the garden decorations: "Little Uncle, do you need my help?"
"Qingtian, are you okay?" Yue Cheng Feng was not feeling well today. The hangover was truly unbearable, but thankfully, after waking up early, he had drunk the hangover soup prepared by the butler, and he could still manage today.
"I'm fine." As if to prove that she was healthy enough to help, Xia Qingtian even spun around in front of Yue Cheng Feng, her lotus root pink skirt swirling, looking playful and cute.
Seeing Xia Qingtian like this, Yue Cheng Feng felt his headache lessen considerably. He smiled and said, "It's good that you're okay. There's a very important guest today, and I want to introduce them to you."
"Okay." Xia Qingtian nodded and asked, "Then... about the help..."
"Here's this for you." Yue Cheng Feng grabbed a handful of sour and sweet fruit candies he had pocketed that morning to suppress his dry heaves and handed them to Xia Qingtian: "There's nothing here for you to work hard on. Eat some candy to whet your appetite and sweeten your mouth, and go play somewhere else, be good."
"Uh... okay." Xia Qingtian heard him, tore open another piece of fruit candy, and put it in her mouth. The fruit's acidity made her squint, and the subsequent sweetness made her lips curl into a smile. She pushed the candy to the other side of her teeth with her tongue, her cheek puffing out into a round shape, looking very cute.
Then, she stuffed the remaining fruit candies into her small bag. With this handful of candies in the bag, Xia Qingtian couldn't tell if she was attending her maternal grandfather's birthday banquet or participating in a Halloween candy-collecting event.
Seeing Yue Cheng Feng busy directing the arrangements again, and realizing there really wasn't anything she could help with, Xia Qingtian turned and ambled towards the colonnade on the other side.
Before reaching the colonnade, Xia Qingtian heard a deliberately lowered female voice.
"That wench Wen Jiu is too meddlesome, actually interfering with me! Just you wait! If I weren't afraid of causing trouble for the Yu family, I'd definitely find someone to cripple her!"
Hearing Wen Jiu's name, Xia Qingtian's heart clenched, and she immediately stopped.
"What's the use of saying this now?" Next, a male voice, which Xia Qingtian vaguely felt was familiar, replied: "Mom, Grandpa said not to provoke Wen Jiu now. She's clearly here to cause trouble for the capital's aristocratic families. We don't need to lift a finger; someone will deal with her!"
"Then you just got beaten for nothing?" The woman's voice was full of grievance and resentment: "If your father and I hadn't rushed there early, that wench would have crippled you! I only have you as my son. If anything were to happen to you, how... how could I live!"
"Enough, you sound like you're mourning the dead." The man's voice was annoyed: "Anyway, I'm already crippled. My father can't even stand to look at me."
"Don't talk nonsense! We have to believe in medicine!" The woman gritted her teeth: "It's all that wretched woman surnamed Xia, and that useless Yu Lin Wan. She was supposed to take good care of you, but instead, she let that wench surnamed Xia injure your reproductive organs."
"Just you wait. Once this passes, I will definitely not let them off!"
Hearing the words "surnamed Xia," Xia Qingtian's eyes narrowed dangerously.
Although there was no evidence, she was certain that "surnamed Xia" referred to her!
As for "reproductive organs"...
Xia Qingtian recalled carefully and immediately remembered the greasy fat man she had incapacitated in Yu Lin Wan's office back then.
At that time, she had used the "Three Days Golden Martial God Card," which not only enhanced her martial prowess and senses but also increased her aggression, directly turning the person into a eunuch.
What? Did that scumbag fatty also have a connection to the Yue family?
As Xia Qingtian was guessing, she heard the male voice say: "Mom, let's not talk about this for now. After all, you're considered part of the Yue family, even if it's a collateral branch, you still have some say. Why has no one come to greet us since we've been here for so long?"
"This... maybe, maybe the Yue family is too busy right now. Forget it, let's go over ourselves." The woman complained: "The Yue family is really getting worse every year. If you ask me, the position of the Yue family head should have been passed to your maternal grandfather back then! He was the most outstanding of that generation in the Yue family, but the previous Yue family head, that old fossil, insisted that your maternal grandfather was too aggressive. It's just excuses. In the end, it's favoritism towards his eldest son, and looking down on his second son!"
"Look at the Yue family's current state, it proves that favoritism leads to no good end! Truly..."
The woman babbled on, her footsteps growing closer.
Xia Qingtian looked around and jumped out of the colonnade, crouching behind a decorative rock.
After the two of them walked away, Xia Qingtian peeked out, looked at their retreating backs, and her brows furrowed.