Everyone found their seats and sat down in an orderly manner. Servers rushed out to start pouring wine into glasses for the guests and serve the starter course.
The quartet started playing their cellos and violins, serenading the guests who barely paid them any attention with lovely music.
Alix's eyes were moving around as she sought out the relatives that she had been told to avoid. One of them was Zhang Mixi, a nineteen year idol trainee who was wearing heavy make-up, jewelry and had blue hair. He was a member of the third family.
He stood out like a sore thumb among the Zhang's because of his unique look. She couldn't help wondering if he was on the list because of this.
It certainly wasn't his choice of profession because Zhang Bo was an actor and he was from the first branch of the family.
From him, her curious eyes travelled to Yin Miao, the wife of the eldest son of the second branch's leader Zhang Changpu. She was his third wife, apparently and she was twenty five years younger than her husband. She was also his former secretary and he married her after he divorced his second wife.
Well, given the circumstances under which they got married, it was not much of a surprise that she was not popular in the family.
"Hey." Caishen whispered to her and squeezed her hand.
She looked at him and smiled.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
She nodded and hoped that he bought it because she was still very much nervous. Alix was very aware of her status as a light drinker so she didn't plan to touch the wine.
She pushed the wine glass to the side and picked up a bottle of water.
Caishen's hand pulled it from hers and he opened it for, even going ahead to pour the water into a glass for her.
Caishen, being the most likely head of the first branch of the Zhang family had more than a few years on him. His health status was also a major source of curiosity. Naturally, this made his wife a source of curiosity.
Some wondered if she was worthy of being his wife. Other's studied her looks from her skin to her hair and a few occasionally looked at her hands while trying to be stealthy about it.
So, when Caishen opened the bottle of water for her and poured it for her into a glass, many people noticed.
One of the women on the third table rolled her eyes and scoffed. Was Caishen trying to prove that he dotted on his wife?
Zhang Yating, the first son of Zhang Changpu and his first ex-wife was another relative who thought what Caishen had done was ridiculous. At the end of the day, Caishen was crippled so that wife of his was only with him for the money. It didn't make sense that a beautiful woman like that would be with him otherwise.
"Stop looking at her." Zhang Yating's wife pinched his thigh and whispered to him.
She was the kind of wife who kept a very tight grip on her husband otherwise he would inherit the wondering eye like his father.
She had done everything possible to safe guard her marriage including getting rid of all female secretaries and personal assistants. Even the help around their house were all men. Her husband was mostly surrounded by men at all times.
She secretly sneered at Alix and thought, so what if she was pretty, she was from an unfit background. The only good thing about her were her looks. Other than that, she was not that special.
Alix, of course felt the eyes on her but acted as if she didn't.. She smiled sweetly at Caishen and in a low voice, said, "Thank you hubby."
He waved his hand and called one of the servers over.
"Bring my wife your best fresh fruit juice and take the wine away." he ordered.
He had noticed that she rarely drank wine in public or private. In fact, she did not seem to like alcoholic beverages. Even on their movie date, she took just one small sip and didn't touch it for the rest of the night.
He didn't want her to force herself to drink just because everyone else was doing it.
"The second family would like to pay their respects to the first elder." a loud male voice said.
Caishen and Alix turned their eyes forward. The speaker was the head of the second branch of the Zhang family, Zhang Sensen.
Inside of this dining hall were about forty seven people and about fifteen of them stood up in an orderly manner and they bowed.
"We greet the first elder." they said with lowered heads.
"Wow!!" Alix screamed in her mind. It was if she had been transported to ancient times in a movie or a novel. In a way, she also likened it to a mafia family set up. There was always a main family in charge and other branches headed by other members of the same family.
The second branch took their seats and the third branch stood up.
Similarly, they paid their respects to elder Zhang.
Elder Zhang smiled with fondness at his relatives and invited his secretary over. The secretary had a briefcase which was opened immediately.
"I am so glad to see that our Zhang family is still flourishing and standing as strong as ever. Just as it has been said by our ancestors, a strong tree with firm roots will withstand all external forces.
We the old ones may be the strong body of tree for now but you, our younger generation are the roots. You must dig deeper than us and become stronger than us. When you become the tree eventually, you should be the tallest ones in the forest."
Alix was lost___, completely confused by the tree analogies the elder was using. What did he mean?
"As it has always been done, I would like to invite you all to come for your red packets."
Alix's tilted her head forward and Caishen tugged her back slowly.
"Your juice is here." he told her.
One by one, different relatives came over and elder Zhang who remained sitting handed each of them something in an large sized sealed red envelope.
"System, how much money is in the envelopes?" A curious Alix asked.
"It's not all money." The system answered.
"Eh!" she responded, shock in her mind. Red envelopes were usually stuffed with money. She had been expecting to hear impressive amounts of money, like fifty thousand yuan or more.
The highest amount of money she had ever received in a red envelope was two hundred yuan on her birthday from her father when her mother was still alive.
She thought the Zhang elder was handing out more than that because theirs was a wealthy family. To assume that it was two hundred yuan was too little. One hundred thousand would be too much but fifty thousand was a good number
But if it wasn't all money then what was it?