“When ……”
Song Lin was about to answer subconsciously, and just as he said one word, he was interrupted by Song Wangyue.
“You checked very clearly, Gu Yi really didn’t used to look like this, it just became so when he got pimples later. However, this doesn’t seem to have much to do with you.”
Not expecting her to snatch the words, Duke Qi froze for a moment, then laughed out loud, “Of course it has nothing to do with me, I’m just curious, doesn’t the Gu family have a doctor, how could they still let this little fiancé of yours fall with pox marks?”
Song Wan Yue looked at him with a smirk, “I see you are not here for dinner today, you are here to investigate our family, right? I would like to ask if we have stolen or broken the law to make you come to investigate us on such a big day as my maternal great-grandfather’s birth anniversary?”
The Duke of Qi was not annoyed and laughed again, “Old man, this great-granddaughter of yours is quite something, to think that I have nothing to say to you in response to your question.”
The old gentleman also sensed that the Duke of Qi’s purpose today was not pure, and the smile on his face faded for a few moments.
He defended Song Wangyue, “Yue’er is young and does not know how to inflect her words, so please don’t bother with her, come, come, come, drink, drink.”
The old gentleman lifted his glass of wine.
The Duke of Qi also lifted it up and drank it down in one go, tilting his head the moment he swept his gaze over all the people at the table.
“Three.”
When the old gentleman put down his glass, Song Wangyue extended three fingers towards him.
The old gentleman was unsure.
“I just made a promise to my grandmother to supervise your drinking, and I can only drink three glasses at most.”
The old gentleman looked at the empty glass and tried to negotiate, “Yue’er ah ……”
“No.”
Song Wan Yue shook her little head, “Too much wine is bad for your health, I still want my maternal great grandfather to live a long life.”
“Okay, okay, grand great grandfather wants to live a long life, no wine, drink tea.”
The old gentleman put down his glass of wine and gestured to his underlings to replace it with hot tea, the old gentleman picked it up and took a sip.
The smile on the Duke of Qi’s face could not be maintained. The word “tea” meant to him that he was being sent off. If he wanted to save face, he should not be sitting here.
“Old man, Mr. Wen is here.”
Xu Liang reported from the doorway.
The Duke of Qi exhaled a breath.
The old gentleman frowned slightly, he used to think that Wen Zhong was a smart man and knew that he didn’t like him he shouldn’t move forward, it seems that he was wrong.
“Let him in.”
Xu Liang opened the curtain and Wen Zhong walked in, entering and bowing with a respectful expression, “Wen Zhong wishes his grandfather good health and a long life.”
In front of so many people the old gentleman did not want to embarrass him, and nodded slightly, “There are many guests today, so you can help to greet them outside.”
Xu Yan was sitting here drinking, yet he was asked to greet them outside, it was clear who was near and who was far, but Wen Zhong was not jealous, his voice even carried a bit of joy, “Wen Zhong understands, I will go out to greet them.”
“Mm.”
Wen Zhong retreated, and the moment he walked outside, he glanced back towards the house, his gaze was all eerily cold.
Inside the house, the Duke of Qi knew that staying any longer was just asking for trouble, so he rose, “Since the old man cannot drink, I will no longer be here to join in the fun.”
“I am truly sorry for the Duke of China.”
“Where, where, it is my lack of consideration.”
“Yan’er, you see the Duke of State out and help your second uncle greet the guests outside.”
Xu Yan answered and got up Song Qi Guogong to go out.
When the sound of their footsteps disappeared in the courtyard, Song Wan Yue got up and walked over to the old gentleman, gesturing for the underlings to give her the wine jug, she filled the old gentleman’s cup and placed it back in front of him, “There is one thing I haven’t told you the truth about, that person should be at the Duke of Qi’s residence.”
The old gentleman looked at her haughtily, “You mean ……?”
Song Wangyue nodded, “He might have sensed it and that’s why he’s desperate to catch one of our leverage.”
“Then what are we waiting for ……”
What the old gentleman couldn’t tolerate was someone who cheated on his studies, let alone the fact that he was now topping up, which was heavenly cruelty to a true scholar.
“We don’t know how they did it, there’s no way to do it, the only way would be if someone could get close enough to him to figure it out, but that’s simply not possible.”
“But if we don’t get someone out, Song Si might be in danger in the future, after all, if he can do harm once, he can do it twice.”
“They wouldn’t dare.”
Duke Ding’s voice was deep, “Everyone knows that Song Si is Yao’er’s fiancé, they have to weigh their hands if they want to do it.”
“It’s because of this relationship that they would be more likely to turn against Song Si, after all, your two houses have always been at odds because of what happened back then.”
“So, we can’t be so passive, we have to find a chance to uncover the person.”
Hearing that someone was going against Song Si, Song Lin was very anxious and wanted to intervene several times, but did not know how to ask. He quietly moved his body closer to Gu Yi and lowered his voice, “Yi’er, do you know who they are talking about that is against Si’er?”
Gu Yi shook his head with a “bewildered” face, “I don’t know.”
……
The people here today are all officials, unlike the ordinary people who are paddling and shouting, the people do not drink too much except for pleasantries, lest they make a fool of themselves and become a joke to their colleagues.
When he saw that most of them had put down their chopsticks and were ready to get up, Mr. Er walked into the room with a smile on his face, “Today is my father’s birthday, thank you all for coming, next is the last item of the day, eating cake.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the crowd started to talk, on the one hand they were amazed, eating a cake on his birthday was something they had never done before, and on the other hand they speculated on what kind of cake they would be eating.
The second gentleman waved his hand and first two stout underlings carried a huge table over, while later, the same four or five stout underlings carried something else over, covered with a red cloth so that it was impossible to see what it was, and gently placed it on the table.
The crowd stretched their necks.
The second gentleman did not lift it immediately, but raised his voice and said, “Wait a moment, my father will be here soon.”
With those words, the old gentleman appeared in the crowd’s sight, beside him was the Duke of Ding, behind him were Xu Yan and Song Lin, and then behind them were Xu Cotoneaster, Song Wan Yue and Gu Yi.
As for the eldest gentleman, they had long heard from the second gentleman that he was ill, and some officials even went to visit the eldest gentleman and saw with their own eyes that his breath was weak and his face flushed, and that he was not lightly ill.
The old gentleman walked over to the table and lifted the red cloth with his own hands, and a huge cake box appeared in front of the crowd.
The curiosity of the crowd was instantly piqued.
Uncle Xu brought up four pairs of scissors, one for Mr. Lao, one for Mr. Er, one for Xu Yan and one for Xu Cotoneaster.
The old gentleman nodded, and the four of them moved in unison to slowly cut open the box along the four sides, presenting the huge cake to the crowd.
There was a moment of silence in the courtyard, followed by an exclamation of surprise.
The old gentleman put down his scissors and raised his voice with a full smile, “Everyone, this is a birthday cake made for me by my maternal great-granddaughter, with seven layers in total, each layer representing an age group, meaning step by step, a long life.”