After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 1111: Sea Reef Wedding
At the end of March, in late spring, the weather is sunny and warm, and the flowers and trees are flourishing.

Haijiao finally brought his fiancée Zhuang Minyi home, completing a major event in his life.

The Hai family banquet had 22 tables, set up in the front yard, cross yard, main yard and side yard, to entertain the male and female guests who came to congratulate. The front yard invited Haijiao's superiors and colleagues and his long-time friends and peers, the west cross yard invited the old students of Wumen who were close friends of the Hai family, the main yard entertained the female guests from relatives and friends, and the young unmarried girls gathered in the small side yard where Haitang lived, setting up two tables.

Haitang grew up in the northwest, and most of her close friends were daughters of military families, and she rarely interacted with the daughters and granddaughters of Wu's old family. Today, she was not only the host, but also had to entertain Zhou Xuejun and Wu Qiong who came out of the palace to congratulate their friends, and introduce the two parties to each other, so the burden on her shoulders was quite heavy.

Fortunately, Zhou Xuejun and Wu Qiong were both good-tempered girls, and the daughters of the Wu family who came to the Hai family with their elders to attend the wedding banquet were mostly from scholarly and official families, and were calm, dignified and polite. At first, when everyone was still unfamiliar, it was a little awkward, but then Haitang introduced everyone to each other and started a conversation, and the atmosphere soon became lively.

The daughters of the Wu family knew that their fathers, grandfathers, and uncles had received great favors from the Zhenguo Mansion when they were exiled to the northwest. Now that they met the daughter of the Zhou family, they naturally had a good impression of her. After getting to know her, they found that Zhou Xuejun was not as rough and straightforward as they thought. Instead, she was well-read, well-informed, and her talent was no less than that of the daughters of a scholarly family like them. They liked her even more. The two sides quickly became familiar with each other, talking and laughing. Zhou Xuejun also did not forget to pull Wu Qiong into the conversation, and the latter also made many new friends.

In fact, Wu Qiong should have been more familiar with these girls from the Wu family, given her background. Unfortunately, she had been living under someone else's roof since she was born, and had hardly ever met her old friends. Her biological mother's reputation was not very good when she was alive, so how could she recognize any girls from the Wu family? Even her cousin Wu Ke was not familiar with her grandfather's old friends. But today, she unexpectedly met these girls of the same age at the Hai family's wedding banquet, and she felt that everyone was kind and friendly. Obviously, they did not hate the Wu family because of their fathers and grandfathers' demotion and exile, and were more willing to make friends with her. How could she not be happy? Compared to Zhou Xuejun, who was only keen on talking to new friends about the new books she had read recently, she quickly made an agreement with them to attend some gatherings in the future, go shopping together, or keep in touch with them by letter.

Zhou Xuejun had to wait a few more years before her wedding. She lived in the Cining Palace and had little chance to go out. But Wu Qiong would soon marry the King of Kang and move into the King of Kang's mansion. She would have plenty of time to go out and meet friends. She had made an appointment with her new friends, which would only delay her for two or three months at most. But the benefits that this network could bring her were immeasurable. Wu Qiong had quickly made up her mind that once she got familiar with these new friends, she would introduce them to her soon-to-be-married sister-in-law Zhang Yingfeng, so that her cousin, the heir to the Wu family, could quickly re-manage the network left by his grandfather.

Seeing old friends and new friends chatting happily, Haitang, the host, finally breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly took the time to eat something to fill her stomach, apologized to everyone, went to the main courtyard to check on her grandmother and second aunt, and personally sent some hot and fresh snacks to the new room so that her sister-in-law Zhuang Minyi could quietly fill up, and then returned to her own courtyard.

Halfway through, Zhou Wenjun met her with another young daughter-in-law and walked into the door of the side yard together.

When Haitang was following her grandmother Ma to greet guests just now, she remembered someone introducing the young daughter-in-law as the wife of her brother's colleague in the Imperial Guard. Somehow, she and Zhou Wenjun got along well, and before the banquet was halfway through, the two of them were already as close as old friends.

Most of the female guests in the main courtyard were wives and concubines of various families, the youngest of whom was in his thirties or forties. Zhou Wenjun and the young wife were both newly married and felt uncomfortable among the middle-aged women. Mrs. Zhou Si discussed with Ma and sent them to the girls' table. After all, not long ago, Zhou Wenjun and the young wife were still girls in the boudoir and were close friends with the girls at the table.

Zhou Wenjun brought his new friend over, said hello, talked to his sister, cousin, and best friend, and also pulled Haitang to talk about the farewell to Peng Yuqi a few days ago. At that time, Haitang also went outside the city gate, talked with Peng Yuqi, and sent her off, and then went back to the city with Zhou Wenjun. Now thinking back, both of them couldn't help but sigh. Zhou Xuejun and Wu Qiong were still in the palace at the time, and they didn't catch up to see him off. They felt deeply regretful and pulled Zhou Wenjun and Haitang to ask many details.

During this time, some people mentioned that Wu Qiong's wedding was coming up soon, and everyone congratulated her. Some people were curious about the personality of today's bride, Zhuang Minyi. Some people heard that Haitang's cousin Hai Baozhu would also be getting married soon, and her husband was also a Jinyiwei soldier, so they congratulated her, which attracted the young wife who came with Zhou Wenjun to look at her a few more times and started chatting with her.

For today's wedding banquet, the Hai family did not forget to send an invitation to the third branch of the Zhou family, but for some reason, when Zhou Ma came to the banquet with her husband, she also brought her nephew Ma Lusheng and his wife. Ma had hesitated at first, wondering whether to invite Ma Lusheng and his wife, but in the end she gave up the idea because she did not like their temperament and personality. She did not expect that the eldest sister would bring them directly. They were all legitimate relatives, and since they had come to congratulate her, Ma naturally had no reason to drive them away, so she had to welcome them into her home and arrange for them to sit at the table for the banquet.

Haitang didn't know how Ma Lusheng behaved in the front yard, but Ma Lusheng's wife, who was originally sitting at the end of the guests' table in the main courtyard, would occasionally peek into the side yard, and several times wanted to send some wine and snacks, as if she wanted to show her face in front of Zhou Xuejun. Fortunately, the sisters Ma and Zhou Ma were both smart and knew that the marriage of the heir of the Hai family was a major event today, and they couldn't let their nephew from their mother's family make a fool of himself in front of so many guests, so they kept a close eye on him and ordered Mother Li to keep a close eye on Ma Lusheng's wife to prevent her from causing trouble during the banquet. Therefore, although Ma Lusheng's wife was restless and wanted to go to the side yard several times, she was stopped and persuaded to go back after just two steps.

Ma and Zhou Ma heard the report from the front yard that Ma Lusheng had not caused any trouble except drinking a few cups too much, and the two sisters secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as their nephew behaved himself and his niece-in-law did not cause trouble, their family would not be looked down upon!
While Ma and Zhou Ma were busy socializing with others, they also had to look after their husbands and grandchildren in the front yard, and keep an eye on a few restless people. The banquet was extremely busy.

After the banquet, Ma, her husband, children and grandchildren saw off the other guests. Turning back, she saw her elder sister Zhou Ma still sitting there, and she couldn't help but slump down across from her, looking tired.

"It's finally over!" Ma sighed, "We haven't had a banquet in our family for many years. Today, we only had one day, but I couldn't stand it anymore. Time is merciless. I'm not young anymore."

Madam Zhou chuckled, "Your granddaughter-in-law is already married, and you'll have a great-grandson in less than two years. What are you still talking about when you were young?"

Ma smiled when she heard this, but she looked towards the east wing with some concern: "I don't know what's wrong with Baoshun and Minyi. Baoshun seemed to have drunk a lot just now..."

The two sisters looked at each other, both eager to make a move.