How to eat pineapple buns on the immigration ship

Chapter 287 The Li Family Dinner ①

On the same night that Kagawa and others successfully (this is debatable) made cheese, the Li family held a banquet at their mansion.

Those invited were all prominent figures in the Third Fleet, ranging from escort ship captains to heads of agricultural departments, from private business owners to presidents of listed companies.

After all, the Li family was one of the few noble families in the Third Fleet recognized by the Twelve Fleets. In addition, the Li family mainly engaged in agricultural production and transportation, which were closely related to the main business of the Third Fleet. Although the noble title was just a name, everyone was willing to do the honor of getting close to the Li family, both out of courtesy and reason.

Of course, the hottest topic right now isn't these big businesses, but rather ancient food. As luck would have it, the son of the Li family patriarch, Daolin Li, named Aino Li, is a member of the "Tongue Tip Club," the highly popular ancient food club at the Agricultural University Affiliated High School, part of the Third Fleet. Because of this connection, everyone was much more enthusiastic about Daolin and his wife than usual, even bringing along their children who usually stay home during summer vacation, under the pretext of "showing them the ways of the social scene," hoping for a chance to bond with the Li family's young master.

However, they underestimated Aino's unwillingness to act according to his family's wishes.

Nancy, holding a fruit cake similar to the one featured in the "A Bite of China" magazine, muttered to herself in a corner of the venue.

Nancy's family was originally part of the Li family, but she rarely emphasized this point. Her family members were mostly engaged in engineering businesses that had little to do with agriculture. If it weren't for the fact that the class officers always read out the students' full names when taking attendance, how would those gluttons in Class 8, whose minds were usually half occupied by ancient delicacies, remember that Nancy's full name was Nancy Li?

Therefore, as a member of the Li family, she was naturally dragged to the party venue by her family to make up the numbers for the younger generation.

Nancy couldn't stand this kind of socializing, so shortly after the party started, she smuggled some of her favorite ancient delicacies and ran to a corner of the venue to observe the crowd.

It's not that Nancy is bad at handling social situations. On the contrary, as a well-known social butterfly in Class 8, Nancy was pushed out to deal with the verbal battles between adults from a young age because her family didn't like attending such events. She has long been very adept at these situations, which is in stark contrast to a certain unnamed young master of the Li family.

The reason she fled so far away this time was ultimately because of Aino.

Many of the invited guests, who brought their children with them, were somewhat disappointed when they learned that Aino was staying at Xiang's house for the school's outdoor study tour. However, when they learned that the Li family also had another daughter who was studying in Class 8 of the first year of high school at the Agricultural University Affiliated High School, everyone cheered up again.

Even if you don't get to meet Aino in person, asking the Li family's daughter about Class 8 of Grade 1 or the legendary president of the Tongue Club would still be a worthwhile experience!
Driven by this "even if there's no fish or shrimp, it's still okay" mentality, the younger relatives brought by the guests almost immediately set their sights on Nancy. Nancy, who is very sensitive to others' gazes, could easily guess the reason behind this. Thus, the scene at the beginning where she hid in a corner with the cake unfolded.

At that moment, she was gazing at the people gathered in the center of the banquet hall from afar.
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Center of the hall.

The representatives from various families, led by Daolin Li, the head of the Li family, were exchanging pleasantries and chatting about everyday matters around Xiang Weiguo, the president of the recently popular Yuexiang Group.

"Mr. Xiang, my son hasn't caused any trouble over there, has he? That guy is usually very unruly."

Daolin laughed.

"Not at all, Ai Nuo is usually very well-behaved. I should thank him and the other classmates for helping me discipline my increasingly energetic daughter. After all, she spends most of her time at school, and sometimes we parents, to use an old-fashioned term, are just helpless."

Xiang Weiguo spoke politely, with a mixture of humility and pride. Anyone with eyes could see that he was praising his eldest daughter highly.

After all, this was a long-awaited contact with the information turbulence of the Third Fleet, and even an information turbulence from before the Third World War in the Common Era. Although this was kept secret from the public, many of the family and company executives present had their own sources of information. In addition, Captain Noah intentionally let some rumors out, so the previously unknown eldest daughter of the Xiang family had now become a figure mentioned in the weekly meetings of various companies and groups. Fortunately, she came from a family like the Xiang family, which was involved in both business and politics. If she were from an ordinary background, everyone would probably be fighting tooth and nail for her future, or the government would have taken the lead and isolated her as a key protected individual.

Xiang Weiguo was also a little nervous at this moment.

He was genuinely taken aback when he received the invitation to the Li family's banquet last night.

Although Yuexiang Group often has business dealings with the Li family's businesses, most of their exchanges are at the work level. When they occasionally interact with Daolin, they chat politely about their children, which makes Xiang Weiguo feel somewhat flattered.

Receiving an invitation to the Li family banquet was completely unexpected for him and his wife.

Finally, Xiang Weiguo realized that the Li family's real intention was not what it seemed; what they really wanted to contact was Xiangchuan, and the real reason was the first episode of "A Bite of China," which had just aired.

This food documentary sparked a wave of ancient culture that swept through almost every communication venue in the Third Fleet—homes, offices, streets, the internet… Wherever there was communication, there was an over 80% chance that the topic would be "A Bite of China."

It should be noted that the previous "Draft Adjustment of Agricultural Product Production Ratio" only had a 40% to 50% chance of being approved.

It's a foregone conclusion that ancient food culture will inevitably have an impact on the Third Fleet in the future. As a result, large companies and families, led by the Li family, will certainly hope to be the first to get the most delicious piece of the cake that will be presented to them in the future.

One of the strategies in the recently released Thirty-Six Stratagems is: "To capture the thief, first capture the king."

So they set their sights on the source of everything: Kagawa.

This led to the dinner.

The night before, Mr. and Mrs. Xiang Weiguo thought it over and over, and finally decided not to bring their children to participate.

Lin Minzhi believes that even if Xiang Chuan is not brought, Xiang Xue, who runs the live broadcast room, and Xiang Qi, the most popular student council president at the Agricultural University, will naturally be targeted by them. They might even steer the conversation towards the children's future romantic relationships, turning a perfectly good dinner into a matchmaking event for the Xiang family's children.

To avoid all this nonsense, the couple didn't even tell Xiangxue and Xiangchuan about the dinner party, and only mentioned it briefly to Xiangqi, who had some social experience.

At the banquet, as expected, several company executives subtly expressed their desire to marry into the Xiang family. Xiang Weiguo immediately refused without hesitation, stating that he would not interfere in his children's future romantic relationships.

After seeing off several groups of self-recommending company executives, Xiang Weiguo finally met the host of the dinner, Daolin Li.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

It's really hard work to fend off some unwanted suitors for my daughter!