Chapter 441: The Young Elders' Banquet

“Well, it’s not good to argue in front of guests!” Liu Xiang sighed in his heart and decided to play the peacemaker.

“Is our little sailor back!” Liu Xiang deliberately shouted, already at the gangway entrance of the deck. Sure enough, hearing the guest’s voice, both Qian Shuixie and Qian Duoduo fell silent.

Then Liu Xiang saw the annoyed Qian Shuixie still fuming, and Qian Duoduo with a “I can’t explain it to you” expression. It seemed the uncle and niece were still holding in their anger. Just as he was about to ease the atmosphere—

“Hello, Teacher Liu!” A few more people followed from behind. It was Lin Ziqi, Zhang Yunmi, and their group of “female sailors.” A few years ago, when Liu Xiang was still a homebody in Lingao, he had also taught at Fangcaodi. Little Lin, Little Zhang, and these other first-generation underage members had taken his comprehensive liberal arts class—yes, you read that right, a Ph.D. in engineering teaching a comprehensive course on literature, history, geography, and politics, with 96 class hours scheduled for a semester… This was a large part of the reason why Liu Xiang applied for an external post. After all, waking up earlier than the chickens every day for morning self-study, getting off work later than the dogs for evening self-study, and staying up later than a cat to grade homework—what a terrible life to continue.

Hearing Little Zhang and Little Lin greet Liu Xiang, Qian Duoduo also pouted and greeted, “Hello, Uncle Liu.” When Liu Xiang was teaching, Duoduo was still the king of the kids in the kindergarten class. She certainly couldn’t call him Teacher Liu. Besides, Liu Xiang used to come to the Flying Cloud to participate in activities, so Duoduo’s impression of him was naturally “the uncle who often comes to play at home.”

“Good, good! You’re all good!” Liu Xiang responded enthusiastically, welcoming everyone onto the deck.

“Oh my, I haven’t seen you in a few years. You’ve all grown up!” Liu Xiang’s eyes swept over Zhang Yunmi several times. “Especially our Duoduo. She’s already a wise and mighty captain!” He took a step back with an exaggerated expression and saluted. “I salute you! Elder Captain Qian Duoduo! The small step you have taken is a great step for the young generation of the Senate!”

Unexpectedly, Qian Duoduo returned the salute very seriously. “I salute you! Liu… Elder!”

Hearing Liu Xiang’s words, Qian Shuixie pouted to express his dissatisfaction, but said nothing more. He walked towards the communication equipment, preparing to report their safe return to Qian Shuiting and the others.

The two who followed in were also familiar to Liu Xiang. Zhong Xiaoying, Dr. Zhong’s “daughter,” was well-known in the Elder circle. Everyone was waiting for the day when the sanctimonious Dr. Zhong would extend his sinful hand… As for Sonia, Liu Xiang had also participated in that auction, so he naturally recognized her. Qian Shuixie had just said that after the female sailor team went out to sea once a week, they would have a dinner party on the Flying Cloud. Liu Xiang also greeted these two and asked them to sit down.

Zhong Xiaoying fidgeted for a while before sitting down—after all, she had received a maid’s education. Although she was the adopted daughter of an Elder, she always felt inferior in front of her superiors. Sonia, on the other hand, sat down immediately upon hearing the greeting and began to organize the documents in her hand. God knows what this naturalist had recorded again.

As soon as they sat down, Qian Duoduo, who felt she had been “recognized,” began to excitedly recount her “epic voyage” of the day. She started from how she had a brainwave to go to the other side of the strait, how she held a temporary Elder meeting, how she commanded with composure, and went on to talk about how she carefully navigated the waters of the Juhua Islands, which were full of shoals and hidden channels, on the return trip, and took the opportunity to pay her respects to the naval battle relics. Of course, she was sensible enough not to mention a word about being severely criticized by Qian Shuixie after returning. Liu Xiang, on the other hand, was sweating inwardly as he listened. The degree to which a naughty child courted death was indeed linearly related to the resources they could control for courting death…

While Qian Duoduo was narrating, Zhong Xiaoying kept making excuses for her, such as the large number of patrol boats in the strait recently, the good sea conditions recently, and the fact that she had specifically called the radar station to ask about the weather. Little Lin, on the other hand, kept chiming in, making the atmosphere even more lively. Sonia would occasionally add some details, such as when they passed a certain location, the thing on the starboard side was a submerged reef and not an island, and what kind of seabirds were resting on the sandbar at the entrance of the Juhua Islands. Only Little Zhang sat on the sofa with a smile on her face, sipping her Limu Mountain oolong tea without interrupting, as if she were the one who had come to listen to the story.

When Qian Duoduo was about to finish her story, Qian Xuanhuang came over and said that the master had a “temporary expanded meeting” today and could not come back for dinner. The mistress also had to attend the meeting today… In short, both Qian Shuiting and his wife were working overtime today. The Zhou Weisen family had been on business trips for various tasks for the past few days. Zheng Shangjie was of course far away in Guangzhou. So today’s welcome banquet was hosted by Qian Shuixie alone. To express his apologies, Qian Shuixie had already gone to the kitchen to cook personally. Secondly, Liu Xiang’s little girl had woken up. Guo Ling’er asked if she should bring the child over for the young masters to see.

It was really not easy to sort out the relationships from Qian Xuanhuang’s various forms of address. Because she was a maid shared by three families, she had different forms of address for the six masters. She called Qian Shuiting “master,” Qian Shuixie “sir,” and Zhou Weisen had specially approved her to call him “Big Brother Zhou.” The two mistresses were addressed by their surnames. It was not good to call them “first master” and “second master,” and “first mistress” and “second mistress” were more likely to cause misunderstanding—later, when Zheng Shangjie was away from Lingao for a long time, she directly called Ai Beibei “mistress.” As for Mendoza, according to Mendoza’s own insistence, she should be called “miss,” but on the one hand, several masters strongly opposed it, and on the other hand, Qian Xuanhuang herself felt that Duoduo was the real young lady. In the end, a compromise was reached to call Mendoza by her name directly. When they first came to the Flying Cloud Club to participate in activities, everyone lamented that Qian Xuanhuang’s level of addressing people was already on par with the head maids of the Jia family mansion.

Qian Shuixie personally cooked. Liu Xiang felt that the bigger reason was that he didn’t want to watch Qian Duoduo brag in the living room. Maybe he would get angry if he listened too long, so it was better to vent his anger on the ingredients in the kitchen. As for the baby, as soon as Qian Duoduo heard that there was a baby to hold and pinch, she immediately expressed her excitement and said that she had to see it right away. Liu Xiang also smiled and nodded, asking Qian Xuanhuang to call Guo Ling’er over.

The little baby was not afraid of strangers and didn’t cry no matter who held her. Several girls, including Sonia, took turns holding her and teasing her. Zhong Xiaoying, however, looked on with envy—speaking of which, Zhong Xiaoying and Guo Ling’er were from the same batch—and held her for a long time. Sonia, on the other hand, looked at the baby with a “let me study what’s different about a yellow-skinned baby” look, which made Liu Xiang particularly unhappy. Little Lin really liked to tease children and made the baby, who had been smiling sweetly at strangers, laugh out loud. When Zhang Yunmi took the baby, the baby, for some reason, was particularly attached to her. First, she patted Little Zhang’s shoulder hard, then she squinted her eyes and giggled at Little Zhang for a long time, which made Zhang Yunmi stunned. In the end, the baby clung to Zhang Yunmi and refused to come down. Qian Duoduo tried to snatch her several times, but the baby just buried herself in Zhang Yunmi’s arms and refused to let go, which made Qian Duoduo’s mouth pout high. In the end, it was Liu Xiang who had to tear the baby away from Zhang Yunmi, and it took a lot of coaxing before she would let Duoduo hold her.

“Uncle Liu, I want to kiss her, why does she keep hiding!” Duoduo seemed determined to regain some dignity.

“Of course! My little treasure has to be taught from a young age not to let people kiss her casually!” Liu Xiang deliberately teased Duoduo.

“I want to kiss, I want to kiss, I want to kiss!” Qian Duoduo suddenly had a childish tantrum. “Be good, give sister a kiss! Just one kiss!”

“Uncle Liu! Tell the baby to stop wriggling, I want to kiss her little mouth!”

The baby thinks you’re playing with her! How can she stop! Liu Xiang was so pestered in the end that he had to give Qian Duoduo a trick. He told her to pucker her lips and blink at the little baby. Sure enough, after looking at Duoduo for a while, the baby thought that this small lump of red meat was for her to eat, and she bit on Qian Duoduo’s lips. This made Qian Duoduo overjoyed.

Qian Xuanhuang had been the de facto “First Secretary of the Flying Cloud Club” for many years. She had finished setting the table without anyone noticing and had somehow pushed out a high chair for the little baby—probably original equipment from the yacht. After settling the baby, everyone sat down to eat.

Qian Shuixie came over with the last main course, which was wine-braised bone-in lamb chops. This was a rare treat—the area controlled by the Senate did not produce wine grapes, and 99% of the wine imported from Europe had turned into vinegar. And the main ingredient of this dish, lamb chops, was something that had to be pre-ordered. Putting aside the taste, just the preparation of the ingredients showed the importance they attached to Liu Xiang.

“This is a rare thing. Where did this wine come from? One in a million?” Liu Xiang asked in surprise.

“It’s a long story! Come!” Qian Shuixie first poured a glass of wine for Liu Xiang and himself. Qian Duoduo then took the bottle and filled the glasses of Little Zhang and Little Lin. Then Zhong Xiaoying poured a glass for herself and Sonia. With Sonia, the foreign horse who understood English, present, saying “For the senatus!” would feel all kinds of awkward. In the time Qian Shuixie stood up with his glass, his mind spun countless circles. The final toast became “For our common ideal!”

The few Elders and young Elders naturally said this toast without hesitation. Zhong Xiaoying, as an “adopted daughter,” naturally followed suit. Sonia, however, was silent, just standing up and raising her glass in a gesture. But after one sip of the wine, Sonia’s eyes lit up. “There is such a mellow and sweet wine! In New Spain… no, even in Iberia, there is no good wine with such a taste!” Sonia almost screamed.

“Of course! We have the best brewing technology in the world!” Qian Duoduo was very proud.

Liu Xiang took a sip. It was indeed a very good sweet wine, and it had a very refreshing taste even without being chilled. Wait, this taste is a bit familiar!