Chapter 1453: The Gu Family Visits as Guests 1

Sheng Family.

"Zhang Ma, have the guest rooms been tidied up?" Shi Youxuan paced through the house early in the morning, checking everywhere, her expression rarely so serious.

Zhang Ma smiled and said, "Don't worry, Madam, they have been tidied up according to your instructions."

Zhang Ma is seventy-two years old this year; she has more white hair than black on her head, but it is still combed as meticulously as ever, and she is full of vitality.

She wanted to retire to her hometown when she turned seventy, but Shi Youxuan would not let her go.

She just let her live in the house, managing things when she was able, and promised to provide for her until the end of her life when she could no longer manage things.

Zhang Ma has no children; she does have a few nephews and nieces, but they only give her some money during holidays, and those younger generations only think of her when they are in trouble, while the relatives who live prosperous lives never think of such an elder.

This cannot be blamed entirely on them; Zhang Ma has worked for the Sheng Family since she was young, and Sheng Hanyu was basically raised by her own hands, so she became estranged from her own relatives instead.

Usually, Zhang Ma no longer handles the small matters in the house, but today there are important guests coming, and she does not feel at ease letting others do the work, nor does Shi Youxuan.

Therefore, for this visit from the Gu Family, all the arrangements from top to bottom were handled by Zhang Ma personally, which put Shi Youxuan much more at ease.

The guest rooms are fully equipped; if other guests were coming, nothing would need to be added, but since the Gu Family is coming this time, Shi Youxuan had people add a row of bookshelves and placed many rare editions on them.

Those books were part of the collection from when the old master was still alive; a portion was destroyed when the Study caught fire back then, and the others were kept in other places by the old master, so they were preserved.

When the family property was divided back then, Sheng Yukai only had his eyes on the assets and did not care for these books at all.

So these books ended up in Sheng Hanyu's hands, but he did not read them, and Shi Youxuan could not understand them either, so they just kept them as a memento, never expecting they would be used today, decades later.

The current old master and old mistress of the Sheng Family, Sheng Jiang and Wang Yinghao, returned yesterday!

Originally, Sheng Hanyu wanted to send a car to pick them up, but the elderly couple said it was unnecessary, and Gu Zhihao drove them back himself.

Gu Zhihao is now a Village Chief, and with Sheng Hanyu's help, the village has been developed with very unique characteristics!

Originally, Sheng Hanyu's plan was to help him turn the village into an overall Resort, and that was indeed how it started, but later on, it "changed flavor."

The Resort has become a Meishi Cun known far and wide.

People come to the village for vacation not just to admire the beautiful scenery of the mountain village, but most importantly to taste the food at "Cunzhang Jia."

"Cunzhang Jia" is a large restaurant run collectively by the village; the head chef is the Village Chief, and the kitchen helpers are all people from the village.

Although he does not take on apprentices with great fanfare, he does give pointers to the kitchen helpers; the Village Chief has superb culinary skills, and he uses only fresh vegetables grown in the village, as well as pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese raised in the village without feed.

The "Meishi Cun" became an instant hit.

Gu Zhihao truly achieved what he had promised back then: the young people have all returned from the outside.

They can earn several, or even over ten times more money back home in the village than they could working outside, so who would still go out to work!

The children of the neighbor, Lao Huang, also returned, and the family cleared up their past grievances and lived in harmony.

The villagers are grateful for Gu Zhihao's kindness, and he does not take all the credit for himself, telling everyone that the good life they have now is all thanks to the great help from the Chairman of Dingsheng Group behind the scenes.

The famous "Dingsheng Group" is not known by everyone in the village, especially the elderly.

But after the Village Chief explained that the elderly couple living in his own home were the parents of the Chairman of Dingsheng Group, everyone knew.

The benefactor's parents were in the village, and the old man and old woman who were usually approachable and mingled with them were actually so capable and had raised such a good son; the elderly couple received very high courtesy in the village, and when it was learned yesterday that they were leaving, almost the entire village came to see them off!

No one came empty-handed; everyone brought gifts, and the trunk was almost too full to hold them.

Sheng Jiang explained again that they were only going back because they had guests at home and would be back in two days at most, telling everyone there was no need for such a grand gesture.

But no one listened to him, and local specialties kept being stuffed into the car; in order to ensure their own gifts had a "place" in the car, villagers who had been on good terms for a long time almost started fighting!

In the end, there was no other way, so Gu Zhihao drove the pickup truck used for hauling goods in the village and brought Sheng Jiang and his wife back.

When Sheng Hanyu and his wife saw the car full of local specialties, they were startled; why so many?

They could not finish eating all this.

Gu Zhihao smiled and said, "This is all the villagers' heartfelt intentions; I couldn't refuse anyone's, so I brought them all. It doesn't matter if you can't finish them; I'll help you make them into cured meat and dried vegetables, which you can give to others."

A good idea, so it was decided.

Gu Zhihao sent the elderly couple back, but he did not leave; he was the one in charge of the cooking today.

The Gu Family arrived.

Except for Gu Yuxin, who was at school and could not come, the grandparents, father, and mother all came!

They received a very warm welcome at the Sheng Family.

Shi Youxuan did not use servants; she did it herself, serving tea and water for the guests.

The layout of the Sheng Family made the Gu Family secretly breathe a sigh of relief; the Sheng Family are the richest in Jiangzhou, yet they did not decorate their home to be magnificent and luxuriously extravagant.

The house is decorated with a grand atmosphere and is also very warm.

Famous calligraphy and paintings hang on the walls, and the furniture in the house is expensive, yet not flashy at all.

The Sheng family members are also easygoing and do not show off their family's superiority everywhere.

While the Gu Family was observing the Sheng family members, Sheng Hanyu and his wife were also observing the Gu Family calmly!

Before the Gu Family arrived, they were also a little worried, worried that this family of "old scholars" would speak too profoundly and they would not understand.

But it was completely overthinking.

The Gu Family did not quote classics when they spoke; it was just like a normal chat, and the two families talked happily, with a very good atmosphere.

Since the two families sat together to talk because the children of the two families were dating, the topic naturally revolved around the two children!

First, Principal Gu spoke very highly of Zichen!

He praised Zichen for having nothing but merits—low-key and not flashy, tolerant and kind, positive and optimistic, and most importantly, he could cook, and the food was simply delicious; to be able to raise such an excellent child, the family must have put in a lot of effort.

Besides Zichen, there was also Shi Ran.

For such children, one would be enough to make them laugh in their dreams, but their family had two.

Principal Gu, a dignified educator of his generation, was now humbly asking Sheng Jiang and his wife for "parenting tips."

Sheng Jiang instinctively wanted to brag, but was poked quietly by his wife, so the words he was about to say were swallowed back, and he unwillingly told the truth: "Educating the children is all the daughter-in-law's credit; we weren't convinced at first, but later when we saw she had taught Ranran very well, we let go of the rest."

Shi Youxuan had lived half her life and never knew what it meant to be modest.

If it were in front of others, she would definitely admit it with confidence; it wasn't a lie, so there was no need to be modest!