Chapter 29: "A very cheeky birthday party"

Several days later, the fated day of Ye Gu's birthday has arrived.

Under the direction of Granny Liu early in the morning, Ling Yue changed out of her usual wear and puts on a light blue dress prearranged for her. Embroidered with an orchid flower of the same color on the skirt, her silky black hair matched her perfectly. Bright and lively, she looked absolutely gorgeous right now.

And under Ling Yue's repeated insistence, her mother (Ye Huang Yu) can only yield and promise to attend the birthday feast. Despite her reluctance, this mother was forcibly redressed into a new outfit and applied a thin coat of cosmetic makeup.

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By the time Ling Yue got the first glimpse of her mother's new look, she completely popped her eyes.

In her view, mother's aura had improved drastically over this period since she brought the monkey wine home, and with today's dress up, her mother's unblemished white skin became the focal point. If Ling Yue had to make a comparison, her mother was like a white orchid, beautiful yet not tacky.

As Granny Liu watched the mother and daughter pair, this old granny couldn't resist breaking out into tears for she was too emotional right now. For many years now this loyal old woman has been worried for the two, constantly afraid something might happen to the young miss. But everything's changed now.

In the end, the heavens didn't abandon this mother and daughter pair. Granny Liu mutters to herself inside.

Pulling her mother along with one hand, Ling Yue and Little Squeak came out to the main hall of the estate to attend the birthday event.

As a result of the house master's birthday, every member of the Ye family had dressed themselves up for today. Aligned with gold colored birthday sheets along the walls and doors, the word "life" was etched into every one of them to showcase the joyous occasion. Not only that, red lanterns were hung high into the air and over ninety-nine banquet tables were set in the courtyard to match the meaning of longevity. As the opera team danced and performed on stage, the entire manor was bristling with life.

Today's main host Ye Gu looked perfect for the role. Dressed in a heavy birthday gown, his eyes radiated light as he greeted the arriving guests at the door.

The courtyard was lively too with laughter and chitchat, but as soon as Ling Yue and her mother arrived, the whole place quieted down.

As natural born beauties, the two easily captivated everyone's attention as they walked in.

"Those two are... when did Autumn Maple Town produce such symbolic characters?"

"It's Miss Third Lady of the Ye house and her daughter. How unexpected for those two to attend today's feast."

"Are you saying that famous one from back then? Then that young girl beside her must be the one from the Hong Household..."

The gossiping from the guests would more or less drift over to the daughter and mother pair. Just when Ling Yue wanted to get closer to listen, Ye Huang Yu's(mother) face instantly turned pale and pulls her daughter back. Making a fierce face, this scorned woman glared daggers of murder at the loudmouth guests.

Hurrying to silent themselves, these guests knew better than to talk about this while in the Ye family's residence. While they are here, anything related to that family or even words that sounded similar mustn't be mentioned.

"Third sister, you've come... Ling Yue is also here, wonderful!" Seeing the mother and daughter coming over, Ye Huang Yun (big uncle) nods continuously in approval.

Although Ye Gu didn't chime in at this time, but the corner of the old man's eye would occasionally peak over to sneak a look.

"Oh, no wonder the magpie was singing unceasingly this morning when I woke up, so its third elder sister who has come." Ye Huang Cheng led the other members of the fourth house over.

(In case anyone forget. The guy is born from the fourth wife so they are called the fourth house.)

Including Ye Qing and the other four children of their house, they are all dressed neatly in their new outfits. As the sore loser walks over, this brat didn't forget to give a ruthless glare at Ling Yue.

Coming in front of his father Ye Gu, Ye Huang Cheng respectfully makes a greeting gesture while holding a gift box in hand.

"Father, child has brought over the entire family today to give our birthday wishes." At that, he presents the gift box.

As Ye Gu flips open the lid to the red silken box, what came into view was a fist sized Yuan Iron bar. The surface was smooth and a silvery sheen made it look exceptionally beautiful for a piece of metal.

"Yuan Iron of fifty percent purity?" Delighted, Ye Gu's mouth instantly curved into a broad grin. This piece of Yuan Iron presented by Ye Huang Cheng was the first piece in the family's long years of operation that has reached this level of purity.

If the Ye Household can constantly produce Yuan iron of this quality, then wouldn't that mean their family status just grown once again? What a great news for a birthday present.

"Yes father, this piece of Yuan Iron was only possible after child tasked the ore masters to work at it for three days and three nights." Ye Huang Cheng's face was full of pride as he explained. Compared to this present, the gifts presented by the other brothers became insignificant.

For a moment, the glory of the feast was completely robbed away by the fourth house.

"Third elder sister, where's your present? Today is father's birthday. It can't be that you came empty-handed while everyone else prepared a gift?"

Ye Huang Cheng's sudden question sent everyone's focus over to Ye Huang Yu.

Gift...

Ye Huang Yu was persuaded by her daughter to attend, so in such a rush, she honestly didn't bring a gift.

"Fourth uncle really likes to joke, of course mother has prepared a gift. This pot of wine here is what my mother got for grandfather's birthday." Ling Yue then cleverly brought out a wine jar made of jade.

Ling Yue's little call of "grandfather" didn't mean anything special to her, but to Ye Gu, it was the sweetest thing he heard in a long time that it nearly made his old heart melt.

Though unnoticed by everyone else, Ling Yue did catch sight of a suspicious watery gloss growing out of the old gramps eye when he turned to rub the corner of his eye.

"Very good, very good. Ling Yue is so filial, knowing grandfather likes to drink wine." Ye Gu hurries to accept the jug of wine.

This wasn't a mistake for Ling Yue because she did in fact do her research prior to coming. For her easy to come by grandfather, Ye Gu didn't have any specific preferences, only a strong liking for alcohol and weapons.

For that reason alone, the Ye family specially built a wine cellar in the manor and a treasure room for the old man's collection.

"Just a pot of wine. It can't be one of those from town is it?" Ye Huang Cheng sounded very unhappy over the gift. To him, the wine was worth at most two and a half silver tops. Compared to his Yuan Iron bar that cost countless human and material resources to produce, his gift should be the heart of the show when its worth over dozens of gold.

Before the voice of the jealous man could come to an end, Ye Gu had already popped the seal on the wine.

Translucent with a slightly yellowish shade, the aroma was so pungent and strong that once it hit everyone's nose, the guests were salivating in no time at all.

No matter who it was in the courtyard right now, they all gulped with a strong urge of wanting a taste. How can they not? Even a fool can tell this jar of wine from the Third Miss wasn't a simple gift.

"This is... Is it the legendary hundred-year monkey wine?" Ye Gu's eye were shining by now. Compared to a second ago, this old man didn't look anything like a house master, only an old drunkard that just got the greatest wine in the world.

"That's right, it's the hundred-year monkey wine. For grandfather's birthday, mother had gone into the mountains to search for this and could only locate this one jar." Not blinking in the slightest when spouting nonsense, Ling Yue brought the duration of the trip up to three months to match Ye Huang Cheng's three day for the iron bar.

In truth, this so called hundred-year monkey wine was the result of Ling Yue's effort in refining and purifying the three jars of hundred fruit monkey wine she got before.

A regular monkey fruit wine was hard to come by as it was, let's not mention how rare it must be to locate a hundred-year monkey wine.

"Congratulations to old Ye housemaster. Hundred-year monkey wine is great for longevity and will greatly contribute to one's cultivation. Such a rare treasure, even King Xia in the capital may not have a chance to taste this fine wine. What a great fortune." The local restaurant bosses among the guests hurried to come forward with their congratulatory words.

"Good, very good. This gift is the best present I received today." Hearing the repeated praises coming his way, Ye Gu's face looked absolutely superb and his gaze towards Ling Yue and her mother was softer and kinder than ever before.