The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Feast
Granny Mo cooked for two days.
By the evening of the second day, every table in the house had been pushed together in the main hall to make one long board, and every lamp was lit.
Steward Qin stood at the door with his ring of keys.
He had been told three times to sit, and had refused three times.
"Qin," Biyan said at last. "Sit down. That is not a request."
"Minister, it is not the custom."
"It is a custom now. I made it this morning."
The old man blinked.
Then, with great dignity, he sat at the right hand of the head of the table, and the laundry maid cried again.
There were twenty-three servants, one wife, one minister, a Grand Secretary's daughter in a clean coat, and a thin young man in an apprentice's gray who had come up from the river town that morning and did not know where to put his hands.
Xiuwen introduced him to Zhiruo with a blush that covered her to the hairline.
He bowed so low that he nearly hit the soup.
"He will be good to you," Zhiruo told her quietly.
"He had better," said Xiuwen. "Or I will send you after him."
The food kept coming.
Whole fish in red sauce, braised pork in glossy cubes, a duck stuffed with lotus seed, dumplings with three kinds of filling, and a great bowl of the ginger soup, steaming at the center.
Granny Mo carried them out in relays and refused all help.
She had her ladle tucked in her belt.
When the last dish was set down, Biyan got to her feet.
The chatter died.
She wore a plain blue gown, not crimson, and her hair hung in a simple tail down her back with no pins in it.
She looked around the long table at every face.
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