Although her heart ached, Zhou Ping did not dare to secretly reserve any of these things. After all, Mo Beihan had brought them over, and Fang Ling was watching nearby. She did not dare.

They made the fish soup in the courtyard. It filled two large pots. They cut the fish into small pieces and put them into the pots, then added plenty of tofu and mushroom and boiled it into a soup.

Then they made a pot of pepper soup.

They added cubes of meat and tofu, and beat in some eggs. Then they threw in some bean sprouts and some minced cabbage.

In these times, people were not too particular. It would taste good as long as there was meat inside, and it was seasoned.

Gu Qingyao had taken the bean sprouts from her inters.p.a.ce. Gu Yunshen placed them by the side and said they had prepared them earlier.

Bean sprouts were rare in the middle of winter.

Noon drew near and the aroma drifting through the Gu house grew stronger. More and more people came to join in the fun.

When they saw Gu Qingyao's clothes, they were green with envy.

“These clothes are so pretty! They must have been very expensive!”

“Smell that aroma from the kitchen and look at that set of clothes. I heard that Mo Beihan prepared all these. Tsk, it's grander than other people's weddings!”

“Over the past few years, that fellow Mo Beihan made a lot of money outside! There are still two young children in the family, but they managed to spend so much money on the engagement? Wouldn't it be better to just get married straight away? Isn't this such a waste?”

Times were bad. Although many people were honest, many of them were also easily jealous.

Anyone would be envious and jealous of how Mo Beihan honored Gu Qingyao.

“She's a girl from a landlord family, she's not worthy of Mo Beihan. Her younger aunt was just chased out of her in-laws' home two days ago!”

“I heard they didn't even want the child!”

“Mo Beihan has a good job outside and comes from a good background. What a pity!”

“Tsk tsk tsk! All of you are jealous! I wonder who used to object to Mo Beihan because he had the heavy burden of raising two nephews.”

Everyone fell silent!

Lunch began at midday. The two tables of dishes were ready. Gu Jinye and the other cousins went to bring out the dishes. There were many people standing in the courtyard. Everyone stared as dish after dish of meat was brought out. Their eyes almost fell out of their heads and they started to salivate.

Especially the children. They were really drooling!

Mo Beihan had provided the chicken, fish, pork and eggs. To Fang Ling and Zhou Ping, cooking had been easy. All they had to do was turn them into dishes.

The braised chicken, the braised rabbit and a large platter of pork braised with vermicelli…

They were all main dishes!

“I want to eat meat!”

“I want to eat meat!”

Many of the children could not help but shout.

When had they ever seen so many meat dishes?

When they were playing in the courtyard just now, they had already been attracted by the aroma drifting from the Gu kitchen. They had waited so long to eat, and now when they saw the meat going past, they could not stand it any longer.

But this was not a wedding banquet. This was a family meal and they had only invited their relatives and close friends. There were only two tables.

They looked and saw that the guests at the two tables were not just anybody.

This was the first time they witnessed the Gu family's capabilities. In the past, they had a.s.sumed that these landlords had been completely crushed!

Now they saw the Gu family's sons and grandsons…

Gu Qingyao appeared at that moment and said to the children with a smile, “You must be hungry! Come and have some fish soup.”

In these times, bowls and chopsticks were not provided at banquets. The guests would bring these themselves. They had already explained what would happen, so everyone who came knew there would be food, and had brought their own bowls and chopsticks.

Gu Qingyao smilingly brought the children over and lifted the lids of the pots to serve the fish soup.