So what if I traveled through time? I'll continue to roll in another place

The morning's games and entertainment came to an end, and as it was approaching lunch time, Madam Gongshun asked all the ladies to take their seats.

The lunch was held under the largest hanging flower gauze tent, next to which were several extremely lush Koelreuteria trees, which cast a cool shade. The tent was filled with a lot of ice and jasmine for fragrance, so it was very cool to sit under it.

As there were many guests, the marquis's wife arranged for each person to sit next to a small table. The maids would bring small portions of delicious food to the table one by one. After the guests had tasted all the food, they would change the dish to the next one according to the rhythm.

There were many people attending the flower-viewing banquet, and Xiao Yueshan had no chance to meet anyone who was not in Madam Yu's social circle. After he sat down, he discovered that Jiang Saiyu - now the daughter of Minister Meng, Meng Yufu - was also invited.

Although it is a gathering of women, there is a strict hierarchy.

The seats at the banquet were arranged in an order of honor from left to right. The seated person was Shu Rongxue, the wife of Prince Chu Yuanming of Jin and the daughter of Duke Qi. The second seat was occupied by Chu Yiwei, the daughter of Emperor Gaozu and Concubine Jiang. The third seat was occupied by Chu Yuxuan, the wife of Shou Junchou, a second-rank general of Dingyuan and the eldest princess of Zhichun. The fourth seat was the host of the banquet, the wife of Marquis Gongshun and Princess Qingjia Kong Xiping.

Then came Princess Xunzhen, the wife of the Minister of Personnel, Wu Shuyi, Marquis Anguo, the wife of the Minister of Guanglu Temple, Liu Ying, and then the wife of the Minister of Revenue, Meng Zhengcheng, Chen Yaqin, and the wives and daughters of the ministers of rites, war, punishment, and works. The wife of Gao Mao, the commander-in-chief and the second-rank dragon and tiger general, did not come.

Here, a man's official position is a woman's face. Xiao Zheng was a fourth-rank official, so Madam Yu's seat was not very high up. Xiao Yuerong sat with her mother before she got married.

Zhou Yao was of the seventh rank, and Qiu Shunci married Tang Shuyi, a doctor of the Five Classics in the Hanlin Academy, who was of the eighth rank. Xiao Yueshan and the other person basically sat at the very end.

Xiao Yueshan was happy and relaxed. At the end, he could avoid socializing with the nobles and enjoy the delicious food of the Gongshun Marquis' Mansion.

After everyone was seated, Madam Kong began to announce, "The lotus flowers are blooming in the green waves, and you can enjoy the whole day to escape the heat. The lotus flowers in the palace are in full bloom, and we invite you all to come and escape the heat and cool down. If we are not treating you well, please forgive us, Princess, the eldest princess, the eldest princess, and all the ladies and young ladies. The lotus flowers are refreshing, and you can enjoy yourself to your heart's content!"

Mrs. Kong took the lead in raising her glass to greet the Princess of Jin and the Grand Princess. The female relatives at the table also raised their glasses, and the banquet officially began.

As the banquet was held in the same tent, Xiao Yueshan and his subordinates had no right to speak or toast and could only silently serve as the background for the conversation of the superiors.

Fortunately, there are many distinguished guests today, and the dishes on the table are particularly exquisite and refreshing.

Crisp Langgan, Bijian Soup, Crisp Qiongye, Anxiang Soup, Sour Red Lotus Root, and the seasonal Sophora japonica leaf soup are all refreshing dishes suitable for midsummer.

The main dishes include Braised Shark's Fin, Eight Treasure Gourd Duck, Braised Purple Caper, Sea Cucumber Hot Pot, Bird's Nest and Assorted Shredded Chicken, and other expensive dishes that require a lot of time and effort and test the craftsmanship.

Because Marquis Gongshun was a Yueyun noble, there were many Yueyun specialty dishes on the table, such as various grilled fish, shrimp, meat and mushrooms smeared with mint leaves and hot and sour sauce.

People never tire of fine food and delicious delicacies. Although Xiao Yueshan couldn't tell the names of every dish, many of them were very different from modern dishes in terms of ingredients and cooking methods, and the taste was also different.

But anyone with a good palate can taste the carefulness with which the ingredients are matched and the cooking is done.

In addition to the dishes, there are also several desserts served one after another, such as sugar ice snow cold yuanzi, lactose real snow, lotus and plum small pastry mountain, etc.

Xiao Yueshan never stopped eating. If she hadn't considered Mrs. Yu's dignity, she wouldn't have eaten too much of anything. She really wanted to finish every dish.

When she first learned that many ladies spent money to buy tickets to the banquet at the Gongshun Marquis's mansion in order to enter the upper class society, she was a little confused. Now that she saw this banquet, Xiao Yueshan thought that it was worth it even if she paid to come in and eat.

The people at the top were talking openly, and she listened with her ears perked up while eating her food.

After listening for a while, it turned out that the reason why today's banquet could be held in such a grand manner was because the wife of Minister Meng of the Ministry of Revenue asked Madam Kong, the Marquis of Gongshun, to introduce the Grand Princess of Xinzhen, Chu Yiwe.

Mrs. Meng wants to betroth her daughter Meng Yufu to Chu Yiwei's younger brother, Prince Rui Chu Yuanhong, but she must first ask the Grand Princess to take a look at them.

If Chu Yiwei, the elder sister of Prince Rui, nodded, and there happened to be Princess Shu Rongxue of Prince Jin as a witness, the emperor was still young, and all matters concerning the royal family were handled by Prince Jin. With the good advice of Princess Jin, the marriage could be granted in the name of the emperor.

Several top ladies of the royal family have arrived, plus the wives of the six ministers, most of the top ladies in the capital have come.

The wives of minor officials would like to bring their daughters to this banquet to see the world. If they can win the favor of the nobles, maybe their daughters can find a good marriage.

Madam Kong, the Marquis of Gongshun, knew how to kill two birds with one stone. In addition to the money and gifts given to her by the shopkeepers at the trade fair, the invitations to the wives of the minor officials who wanted to enter the fair also inevitably gave her benefits. If Madam Yu was not an old friend of hers, it would really not matter whether the Xiao family invited her or not.

Capturing pain points, leveraging advantages, integrating resources, building platforms, targeted commissions, and forward payments, this set of skills was mastered by Lady Gongshun.

Not knowing whether Madam Kong, the Marquis of Gongshun, was a time traveler, Xiao Yueshan admired her advanced event planning and operation capabilities.

In her early years, the Grand Princess of Xinzhen, Chu Yiwei, fell in love with the then top scholar Zhu Zhongjin, and was arranged to marry him by the late emperor. Unexpectedly, not long after the wedding, her husband died of an acute illness, and the princess has been a widow ever since, unwilling to remarry.

His mother, Concubine Jiang, died during childbirth, and Prince Rui Chu Yuanhong was raised by his elder sister. Therefore, Chu Yiwei had a great say in Prince Rui's marriage, and even Chu Yuanming had to give in to his younger sister.

Madam Meng was determined to send Meng Yufu to the Prince Rui's Palace to be the princess, and today she dressed Meng Yufu extremely grandly.

Meng Yufu wore a tea-red straight-collared, wide-sleeved cape embroidered with hundreds of butterflies flying through flowers, and an ivory-white horse-faced skirt with flowers and birds. The embroidery on the dress was extremely delicate, and even the flowers and birds embroidered on the hem of the skirt were mixed with silver thread, which sparkled like waves when she walked.

There was a huge gold filigree and gem-studded black bird pattern in the center of the front of her hair, and a gold filigree butterfly hairpin was inserted diagonally behind her hair. Even though Xiao Yueshan was far away from her, she could still see the gold filigree and gem-studded tassels on the hairpin dazzling her eyes as she smiled sweetly.

"As expected, my dad is in charge of money. He has gold and silver all over his body." Xiao Yueshan complained secretly while eating delicious dishes.

When half of the dishes were served, the table gradually became lively, and the ladies sitting next to each other began to toast and chat quietly.

The conversation between the people sitting at the top could not be heard clearly, and Xiao Yueshan also started to greet the ladies around her.

Before he could say a few words, the mother behind some lady in the upper seat shouted, "Is Miss Xiao from the Zhou family here?"