Chapter 1565

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

In the blink of an eye the banquet dispersed, and this Full Moon Banquet came to a satisfactory conclusion.

After Wang Erhai saw off all the guests, he and his own brothers Wang Dashan and Wang Xiaohua, as well as Du Xiaojuan and Li Xiulan, together sorted through the gifts the guests had brought today.

The red envelopes were packed in a large eco-friendly cloth bag, a full half-bag's worth.

The other precious gifts were simply too numerous to count.

"Erhai, regarding those guests today — who gave how much in red envelopes, who gave what gifts — you'd best record it all carefully, especially those friends with business dealings; when they hold events in the future you must return the favor, and the amount absolutely cannot be less than what they gave now!"

Du Xiaojuan so instructed Wang Erhai.

Wang Erhai nodded:

"Eldest Sister-in-law, I know. I already had my in-laws register it all long ago; it's all written in the notebook. When those friends hold events later, we'll just check the notebook and know exactly how much to give."

Du Xiaojuan then said:

"These reciprocal gift-giving obligations, to tell the truth, are a damned nuisance. I didn't want to do it at all — do it poorly and you offend people — so that's why I didn't throw a Full Moon Banquet for Xiao Jin!"

Wang Erhai gave a wry smile:

"I've got no choice either. A man in the jianghu — his fate isn't his own."

Actually he didn't want to do it either; with today's scale, to be honest, he'd been run ragged long ago — even pulling an all-nighter at work wouldn't be this exhausting.

But that's not the most critical part. The most critical part is that quite a few business friends gave gifts of substantial weight; these debts of gratitude he'll have to repay one by one later, and the psychological burden they bring is actually even more unbearable than the physical exhaustion.

Wang Dashan, however, said:

"Second Brother, what do you mean 'fate isn't your own'? This time you put on such a grand show — you've earned plenty of face. If our old man were still alive, he'd have yet another thing to boast about!"

Du Xiaojuan, however, said:

"If your father were still here, he'd boast my ass. He'd probably be extremely displeased and turn around to curse you bloody!"

"Huh?" Wang Dashan was baffled. "Why would he curse me? Impossible!"

Du Xiaojuan then said:

"The granddaughter gets a Full Moon Banquet but the grandson doesn't — with his preference-for-sons-over-daughters mindset, wouldn't that just explode on the spot?"

Wang Dashan then said:

"It was you who said not to do it back then. I never said not to!"

Du Xiaojuan couldn't be bothered to argue with him and turned to Wang Erhai instead:

"Erhai, we're leaving tonight. You take good care of your wife and that adorable little niece of ours!"

Wang Erhai was surprised:

"Leaving this fast? Not staying another night?"

Du Xiaojuan, however, said:

"No. We're heading down to Guangzhou tonight, staying a night at our place there, then catching a flight first thing tomorrow morning, flying back to continue our self-driving tour and keep filming videos!"

Wang Erhai nodded:

"Then be careful on the road. That villa of yours in Guangzhou — it's been ages since you stayed there. Going back for a bit is a good idea."

As for Wang Xiaohua, he also planned to head back to town in a bit.

Mainly because Zhang Yueran had given birth, plus Zhang Yueran's parents had also moved in to stay, so Wang Erhai's house had become very crowded; him staying another night would already be rather inconvenient.

Time flew to the next morning.

Wang Erhai rose early and went to work at Liguo Mountain as usual.

While handling Liguo Mountain's affairs, he also kept track of Shenghai Building Materials' progress and his own Yuju Real Estate's progress.

Now the project in Shangang Town had officially broken ground, and the residential complex's name had long been decided — it would be called "Shangang Garden".

The complex wasn't large — Phase One had just 9 buildings. If sales went well, they'd continue developing Phase Two; if not, there'd likely only be this one phase.

All procedures were already cleared, the construction crew had already moved in, and the materials side had long since been connected with Shenghai Building Materials.

The project was advancing in full swing.

The leaders at Shangang Town Government had issued instructions saying it'd be best to cap the structures before Spring Festival this year and then start pre-sales.

Because during Spring Festival, the most migrant workers return to their hometowns; they could take advantage of that window to run a wave of advertising and hype, so as to sell the units better.

These suggestions had been accepted by Zhang Sheng's side, and Wang Erhai's side had no objections either.

Niu Chunsheng's side, represented by company rep Liu Yong, also expressed their view — he had no objections either.

So now the Shangang Garden project was proceeding in full swing.

Suddenly one day, Wang Erhai got off work and came back, sat on the sofa resting and scrolling on his phone for a while, when he came across a Moments post from Niu Chunsheng:

Obituary

My husband Niu Chunsheng, today unfortunately passed away, aged 52. All his life he was diligent and honest, warm to others, devoted to his family, sincere with friends, and poured his heart and soul into his work, deeply respected by relatives, friends, and neighbors.

The funeral procession is scheduled for tomorrow morning (April 26, 2018); this is merely to inform all relatives and friends.

Tearfully announced, please be informed. Grateful for everyone's care during his life, eternally thankful.

Family members in tears.

April 25, 2018

Seeing this Moments post, Wang Erhai was completely stunned.

He absolutely never expected that Niu Chunsheng had actually passed away!

He'd still been thinking that in a few days when he had time, he'd bring his daughter to visit Niu Chunsheng again!

Never expected that we would already be separated by life and death, with no such opportunity again.

The last trip to Guangzhou to visit him actually became the final farewell.

Wang Erhai hurriedly dialed Niu Chunsheng's phone; it connected, and Lin Xiaofang answered.

"Hello, Wang Erhai, what do you want?"

Lin Xiaofang was still crying.

"Aunt Xiaofang, I just saw Moments, condolences..."

"Mm, thank you for your concern." Lin Xiaofang replied while sobbing.

"That, Uncle Chunsheng's farewell ceremony, where will it be held? I'll go tomorrow to see Uncle Chunsheng off one last time." Wang Erhai's mood was somewhat complex.

Niu Chunsheng was not only his matchmaker, but the matchmaker for their entire Wang family clan, so this final farewell ceremony, he absolutely had to attend!

Lin Xiaofang originally planned to refuse Wang Erhai's arrival, because she had no good impression of the Wang family people in her heart, but then she thought that tomorrow she would probably be too busy to handle it alone; she still had to look after her son, and her daughter Niu Linxin couldn't shoulder the responsibility yet, so she still needed some acquaintances to help, but her maternal home's people certainly couldn't come help, and Niu Chunsheng was an only son, his parents had long ago passed away, he didn't even have cousins, there was even more no one who could come help.

After thinking it over, only the three Wang brothers were the younger generation relatively close to Niu Chunsheng, so in the end she agreed:

"Tomorrow's farewell ceremony will be held at the funeral home; can you come a bit early? I'm afraid I won't be able to manage when the time comes."

Wang Erhai agreed without a second thought:

"Okay, Aunt Xiaofang, I'll come over early tomorrow morning."

Wang Erhai hung up Lin Xiaofang's phone, then hurriedly called Wang Dashan:

"Big Brother, Uncle Chunsheng passed away, did you know?"

From the other end of the phone came Wang Dashan's heavy voice:

"Know. We're buying plane tickets to fly back; no matter what, we have to go see Uncle Chunsheng off one last time tomorrow morning."