Traveling to Daliang Kingdom starts from falling into the water

With another child, there were countless more things to talk about. A dinner was finished in a cacophony of nonsensical conversation between the father and son, and they still wanted to continue chatting.
I've seen fathers who dote on their children, but I've never seen a silly dad who hugs his son so tightly as soon as he gets home that he doesn't want to let go, acting like he's just returned from a long trip.

Zhou Banxia didn't think she had the patience, but since Mai Qing had just finished preparing the gift lists for several families she was going to give gifts to, she decided to take care of her own business first.

“…Wife, other gifts aren’t urgent, but the gift for your nephew’s 100th day celebration needs to be sent before the middle or late part of this month, or it will be too late.”

"I know." Zhou Banxia looked up at him, as expected, and even did exercises with the child. "I just don't know if my father will go to Beijing."

My father originally said that since my uncle wasn't home, he and my mother were going to the capital, and he would come back with my aunt and others after Tuan Ge'er's 100-day celebration.

It will coincide with Yuan Ge'er's 100th day. Now that your father is away, I don't know if my father can put down the wheat harvest in peace. Let's wait and see what my father says in a couple of days.

If he wants to go to the capital with my mother, we will take the gifts with him. If he feels he can't go, then we will have to trouble Uncle Changqing and Aunt Lan to come to the capital.

Furthermore, we'll have to see what Aunt says in her reply. In her recent letter, Aunt implied that the Gao family has been keeping a low profile since the Seventh Miss entered the Prince's residence.

At this critical juncture, if Auntie doesn't want to hold a grand 100-day celebration for Tuan Ge'er, a reply should be arriving soon. Auntie will likely discuss the arrangements with me in advance.

Gu Wenxuan nodded in agreement, but then remembered that Zhou Banxia might not be able to see it, so he couldn't stop using both hands at the same time and looked up.

really!

His wife was still buried in the gift list!

“That makes sense. A 100-day celebration is different from a third-day celebration. A third-day celebration is not allowed, but a 100-day celebration can wait until the first birthday. The husband will definitely be home by then.”

"Then let's talk about our Yuan-ge'er—"

"No way!" Gu Wenxuan knew what Zhou Banxia meant before she could finish speaking. "This isn't the capital. Do you need money to treat a few tables to a banquet?"

You're such a hypocrite!

"What do you do with all that money? You just spend it on your son. You even want to save money on his 100th day celebration. You dare to try saving it and see if you become a laughing stock."

It's still a month or so until now, and just today when I arrived in town, quite a few people have already asked me when our son will turn 100 days old. If you don't celebrate, your husband will be too ashamed to show his face in public."

Zhou Banxia suppressed a laugh and turned around. "It's not that bad. What I mean is that we'll still do it, but we'll try not to be extravagant. How could we not consider your dignity?"

But then again, Yuan-ge's father, if you put it that way, with so many people asking about it, how many tables will we need for our son's 100-day celebration?"

How many tables?

Gu Wenxuan paused in his rubbing of his son's calf, and couldn't help but chuckle, "Just considering the favors we have from our parents, we can't fit them all at less than ten tables."

You're saying you don't want to have a big 100-day celebration for your child. The number of uninvited guests that day will exceed your expectations, and having 20 tables to seat them will already be a lot.

I plan to have twenty-two tables, so good things come in pairs. Forget about the opera troupe, we won't hire one. Son, when you turn one, Daddy will hire an opera troupe to make it a big celebration, okay?

"..."

Zhou Banxia was speechless.

Are you alright?
Should I hire someone to set up the stage in advance and make preparations? Should I say you're always keeping up with the trends, or do you just have money to burn?
"It would be more appropriate to invite an opera troupe to celebrate your passing the imperial examination."

"Can passing the imperial examination compare to my son's first birthday? You should know that a person only turns one year old in their life. What does passing the imperial examination mean, right, son?"
Passing the imperial examination is perfectly normal. A new batch of successful candidates is produced every three years; there aren't that many. What's there to celebrate? It's not like it's the only one, right?

You're just talking nonsense!
Too lazy to listen to his fallacies, Zhou Banxia decisively withdrew her gaze, turned around and continued with her own work, hoping to make a decision sooner so that she could send the gift out as soon as possible.

For example, the congratulatory gift prepared for Uncle Xu's eldest son is a long way away. It would be more convenient and safer to send it to Zhoujia Village as soon as possible, and then send it away together with Aunt Xu's gift.

This is not the kind of favor that is sent out around the appointed time. There are many similar favors that are sent to people who live far away. Right now, there is a stack of prepared gift lists.

correct!

“Yuan Ge’er’s father, stop for a moment.” With that, Zhou Banxia waved his hand. “The favor you owe your grandmaster is a wedding gift for your grandmaster’s grandson.”

This is a gift list that my cousin-in-law gave to them, which I obtained by sending someone to get it. Please check it against our gift list and see if there are any changes needed..."

Gu Wenxuan, carrying his son, was just about to reach Zhou Banxia when he heard her ask him to check if there were any changes needed. Before Zhou Banxia could finish speaking, he immediately took two steps back.

You're joking!
You're asking me about such complicated interpersonal relationships!

Besides, the gift list has already been prepared. It will definitely pass through your hands first, then through Aunt Lan's hands, and finally back to your hands. It will definitely make sense both emotionally and logically. Would your man fall for it?
"...What are you doing, like it says here? We've already come this far, come and take a look. Look, my cousin-in-law prepared a painting, and I've replaced it with a box of ink sticks. Does that seem like a meager gift?"

"will not!"

"Hurry up, what are you dawdling for?"

"If I said I wanted to take our son to pee first, you definitely wouldn't believe me," Gu Wenxuan said with a laugh, holding the child close to his wife's side and craning his neck. "Very good, very thoughtful."

"You finished reading it so quickly?"

"Yes, your man can read ten lines at a glance. It's not a lie; it's all thanks to my wife for aligning these two gift lists. Now it's crystal clear. Wow, so many!"

Just pretend!

Zhou Banxia smiled and said, "What do you mean by 'a lot'? Don't you see how generous the families in Jiangnan are with the third-day celebrations for our Yuan-ge'er? It's a prosperous place there, so they naturally give generous gifts."

This is only slightly more than your grandmaster's illegitimate grandchildren. When your grandmaster's eldest grandson got married, his cousin's wife sent even more congratulatory gifts.

In my cousin's words, when it comes to the generation of your master's grandson, you and your fellow disciples basically only have family ties with his eldest grandson.

Your grandmaster's other grandsons were only given gifts according to whether they were born of the principal wife or a concubine, regardless of who among your grandmaster's other grandsons had more contact with you or had a better relationship with you.

"I have heard Senior Brother Qian mention this before. According to him, it was because our grandmaster saw so many of his disciples and grand-disciples that he didn't want to burden them with their poor families, so he set up this rule."

Whenever there are holidays or festivals, if his disciples or grand-disciples come to visit, and he himself is out visiting friends and not at home, he only needs to see his eldest son or eldest grandson.

That means we don't need to pay attention to the others. I guess besides what Senior Brother Qian mentioned, Grandmaster probably has many sons. Surely one of his sons or grandsons must have been doing something to his disciple that he found out about.

To avoid being overwhelmed by having too many children and grandchildren, he simply prioritized the eldest son and grandson, ensuring no one could supersede him. This way, if his other children or grandchildren came to him with problems, his teacher and the others could easily handle them. (End of Chapter)