Chapter 266: Huge Family
"You're back. Come, sit down. We'll go to the wine cellar to drink in the afternoon."
Seeing Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan coming back, Xiang Yuanzhang closed the account book, took off his glasses, and greeted Du Ruo happily.
It was just like when Xiang Yuanyuan went to Du Ruo's house. At that time, Xiang Yuanyuan was the protagonist and no one paid attention to Du Ruo. But when they arrived at Xiang's house, Du Ruo became the protagonist and Xiang Yuanyuan was a nobody.
"Well, that's fine, but will it delay Grandpa from handling things?"
Du Ruo nodded. There was still a lot of wine that he had not tasted last time. It seemed that he would continue drinking this time. However, Du Ruo was a little worried because the party would be held the day after tomorrow. The Xiang family would probably be very busy.
"It's okay, just don't get drunk."
Xiang Yuanzhang smiled. Such family gatherings are generally held every year, and they are familiar with all the procedures.
After lunch, Xiang Yuanzhang took Du Ruo to the wine cellar again in the afternoon, and Xiang Yuanyuan was asked by his mother to help.
"This portion is to be taken out and consumed at the party."
When they arrived at the wine cellar, they found that it had changed a lot from the last time Du Ruo came here. A lot of wine had been piled up on the open space.
Xiang Yuanzhang pointed at some small jars and spoke to Du Ruo.
"These will be shipped out and sold in the next few days, and then a large amount of new wine will be brewed and stored. You can also try to brew medicinal wine by then."
Xiang Yuanzhang then gestured in the air, covering about a quarter of the entire wine cellar.
In addition to calculating dividends, the Xiang family’s annual meeting also determines next year’s sales and purchases some medicinal materials for the next year.
All the wines that pass through the Xiang family wine cellar are made with the Xiang family's special secret recipe and are sold to a specific group of people. These wines are not available to ordinary people and are rarely circulated on the market.
These are the foundation of the Xiang family. Of course, there are some medicinal liquors circulating on the market, but those are all produced in large quantities by other medicinal liquor factories. They are held by the family and will also distribute dividends at this gathering.
"Tomorrow I'll let Yuanyuan introduce you to the family business. Even if you don't participate in the management, you should at least be familiar with it."
Xiang Yuanzhang slowly introduced some industries to Du Ruo, and finally brought a lot of wine like last time for Du Ruo to taste, while Xiang Yuanzhang continued to explain to Du Ruo on the side.
This time, because the Duruo Three Flowers and Five Qi made my spirit more concentrated, I didn't almost overdo it like the first time.
At night, Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan went to the pharmacy. This time, Du Ruo got to know all the medicinal materials again and comprehensively.
Du Ruo was particularly attentive in learning the medicinal materials related to his alchemy.
The next morning, Du Ruo got up and meditated.
But before long, the usually quiet Xiang family yard began to become lively.
Many cars were parked outside the yard, and then many young people came in to help with the work in the yard.
"This is the eldest cousin, this is the third cousin, that's the fourth cousin, the seventh cousin, the tenth cousin, the eleventh cousin... and over there are the younger cousins."
Xiang Yuanyuan brought Du Ruo to the yard, and then began to introduce people to Du Ruo, introducing one to her at a time.
The Xiang family is a large family with many branches. In fact, Xiang Yuanyuan only introduced some main figures, all of whom are direct descendants of the branches.
"I don't really know the others, I just feel familiar. As for the younger ones, they are basically my juniors. They change so fast that I can't recognize them all. Anyway, if they say hello, just nod your head."
When saying this, Xiang Yuanyuan leaned close to Du Ruo's ear and spoke in a very low voice.
However, Du Ruo was speechless. There were forty or fifty people in the yard now, men and women, big and small. It was no wonder that Xiang Yuanyuan was unwilling to come back to attend the annual meeting. With Xiang Yuanyuan's carefree personality, it would probably be a headache just to see them.
"Ninth sister, you brought your brother-in-law back and didn't come sit with me for a while, what's wrong? Are you afraid that we, the brothers, will bully your brother-in-law? Hello, brother-in-law, my name is Xiangwen, and we must have a good drink later."
Just as Xiang Yuanyuan was introducing Du Ruo, many people in the yard were looking at the two of them. At this time, the cousin Xiang Yuanyuan mentioned came over, joked with Xiang Yuanyuan, and then stretched out his hand to shake hands with Du Ruo with a smile on his face.
My eldest cousin was about 45 or 46 years old. He wore a pair of glasses, was gentle and refined, and was dressed quite elegantly. He looked more like a civil servant than a businessman.
"Hello, Brother Wen, drinking is fine, do you need my help?"
Du Ruo is not familiar with these people. In fact, he is similar to Xiang Yuanyuan. He is not socially anxious, but he really doesn't like dealing with people, especially those who are not familiar to him but are related to him.
"No need, just let the little ones do it. You and Ninth Sister haven't had breakfast yet, right? The chef we brought with us is already preparing it, and you'll have breakfast soon."
Xiangwen smiled, and his words were not too polite, as if he was as calm as the owner. After he finished speaking, he turned around and went back to direct the younger ones to put up the awning in the yard.
"Ninth sister, you brought your brother-in-law back without even calling me brother. Brother-in-law, I am Xiangwu. When did you come back?"
As soon as the eldest cousin left, the third cousin came over and greeted the two of them. Xiangwu was fat, but not tall, and he looked even older than Xiangwen.
...As soon as Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan showed up, people came to say hello one after another. After saying "I care" to Xiang Yuanyuan, they started talking to Du Ruo.
However, everyone's attitude was pretty good. At least no one gave Du Ruo a cold shoulder on the surface.
Du Ruo also understood that the names of the male descendants of these fortune tellers should be based on Wencheng, Wude, Liyi, Lianxiao and the like, which are quite easy to remember.
However, there were fewer women coming. Only some unmarried cousins came, and no married women came.
Du Ruo had been taking Xiang Yuanyuan to meet these cousins all morning. Even though Du Ruo had amazing control over his body, his face almost froze from fake smile.
It is indeed different when there are more people. These people do everything by themselves. No matter if they are the people in power in the company outside, they will still be ordered around and move things around when they return to the family.
However, no one would come to command Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan.
With more people working together, work can be done faster. A canopy was set up in the yard, and many tables and chairs were arranged in an orderly manner.
In the hall, there was an altar at the top, and a large table was placed on the original empty space in the middle, with tables and chairs lined up in rows below.
It can be said that except for the places where medicinal materials are stored and the wine cellar, other places are being arranged by people, creating a busy and lively scene.
"How is it? Have you experienced the atmosphere of a big family? This is only part of it. Some uncles and great-uncle will come tomorrow.
Apart from our family, all other branches are prosperous, and some even have great grandfathers, with five generations living under one roof. However, the great grandfather will not come. There will be hundreds of people having dinner tomorrow, and these are just some of the main members. "
After meeting countless people, Xiang Yuanyuan took Du Ruo out of the yard with a wry smile on her face.
"I understand. Fortunately, this kind of gathering only happens once a year."
Du Ruo felt numb, and at the same time was glad that his family was not so complicated. If there were more gatherings like this, even someone with his level of cultivation would be overwhelmed.
"Hehe, actually, it's because it's the first time they meet you, so more people will greet you. You don't have to ignore them. How about we go to the wine cellar to drink? The wine cellar is a restricted area for those people, and they won't go in."
Xiang Yuanyuan smiled, took Du Ruo's arm, and made a suggestion.
She knew that Du Ruo didn't like such occasions, but she still communicated with these people patiently. In fact, for Du Ruo now, she could completely ignore these people's face and just keep a cold face and not say a word.
But Du Ruo still communicated with these people with a fake smile, which touched Xiang Yuanyuan somewhat.
"Uh, forget it."
After thinking about it, Du Ruo shook his head. However, it seemed a bit boring to just stay there, so Du Ruo looked around and saw a pile of soil used to seal wine jars in a corner outside the yard. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he said to Xiang Yuanyuan:
"Would you like to build a furnace with me and make pills together?"
"Okay!"
Yuanyuan agreed with everything Du Ruo said. Not to mention building a furnace to make elixirs, she wouldn't even have an objection to playing in the mud.
Then... Du Ruo took Xiang Yuanyuan to an open space near the wall and used mud and some materials to build a stove similar to the one Wang Ping built in the Taoist temple in Qingcheng Mountain.
A group of people were busy in the yard, while outside the yard, Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan were building a strange-looking stove with their hands covered in mud.
Of course, the actions of the two could not be hidden from the eyes of others. Although others looked at the two of them with strange eyes, no one was tactless enough to point fingers at them.
On the contrary, when Xiang Wen saw Du Ruo starting to bake the stove with firewood, he specially asked someone to build a awning for the stove.
In this way, while the yard was busy, Du Ruo outside the yard began to try to make alchemy for the first time.
The Xiang family has sufficient reserves of medicinal materials, at least some common ones are not lacking. It can be said that except for some regulated medicinal materials that cannot be found here, there is no shortage of artificially bred substitutes.
Xiang Yuanyuan helped Du Ruo, while Du Ruo started to refine the medicine outside.
"Brother-in-law, what are you doing?"
Xiangwu came over, stretched out his hands to warm them by the fire, and asked Du Ruo with a curious look on his face.
"Refine the elixir. This furnace is refining the Dragon and Phoenix Double Joy Pill."
Du Ruo took a ceramic bowl from the hot charcoal fire from the furnace with empty hands. Inside the bowl was refined honey. He then poured the honey into two piles of ground medicinal powder, one pile was black and the other was brown.
"Hiss~Dragon and Phoenix Double Joy Pill?"
Xiangwu gritted his teeth in surprise as he watched Du Ruo take the bowl out from the charcoal fire with his bare hands.
The key point is that when this ceramic bowl was placed on the ground, it made a "hissing" sound and directly burned a piece of grass on the ground black.
Recommend a book, a rare fan fiction of Joy of Life, it has 700,000 words and is ready to be sold. If you are interested, go and have a look~~
(End of this chapter)
