Chapter 376 - 205: Spendthrift Women
The entire Su family was on the up and up. What was there to be unhappy about!
Master Su even had a rare glass of wine with Su Chen. He held his grandson’s hand and recounted many stories from the past, telling of the various hardships the family had once faced. Overcome with emotion, the old man even shed a few tears.
He was immediately chided by Su Chen’s grandmother. She scolded him for crying on such a happy occasion, saying he was far too old to be blubbering like that, which left Master Su utterly stunned.
The people at Su Chen’s table weren’t drinking much, so they finished their meal quite quickly. They were done in about half an hour, while the adjacent table was just getting into the swing of things, its occupants happily downing one glass after another.
"Grandpa, why don’t you, Grandma, Second Aunt, and the others head back to rest? I have no idea how long Dad and his group will be," Su Chen suggested, noticing the fatigue on his grandfather’s face.
Master Su glanced at his wife, who nodded in agreement. He then turned back to Su Chen and said, "Alright. When you get old, your stamina just isn’t what it used to be."
The trip from their old home to Wudu had taken over an hour today. The elderly couple wasn’t in the best of health to begin with, so sitting for that long was bound to be tiring.
’Besides, there’s nothing for Grandpa to do here but sit around. He’d be much better off resting at home.’
Su Chen immediately arranged for Su Yan to take his grandparents, Second Aunt, and Third Aunt back to Shunshan Prefecture.
After all, the house in Shunshan Prefecture had plenty of space—five bedrooms and three bathrooms, just enough to accommodate the dozen or so members of the Su family.
After his grandfather and the others left, his second and third uncles joined the drinking fray. Yin Shan asked Su Chen if he wanted to have a drink, but when Su Chen shook his head, Yin Shan didn’t bring it up again.
He went back to drinking with Su Chen’s father and two uncles.
The other association leaders were tactful enough not to make things awkward for themselves by trying to persuade him. After all, they had seen Chairman Yin himself make the offer, only to be refused outright.
After a quick word with the others, Su Chen led Yin Zheng to the restaurant’s lounge area, which offered a perfect view of the nocturnal scenery along the banks of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers.
The ever-attentive Manager Li brought them a serving of still-warm snow fungus soup.
"Yin Zheng, why are there so many people over there?" Su Chen asked, looking through the window at a brilliantly lit, crowded spot on the bank of the Jialing River. Since it was facing away from them, he couldn’t quite make out what it was.
Yin Zheng glanced over and said with a smile, "That’s Hongya Cave. It’s always packed with the most tourists, no matter the time of day."
"These days, a lot of people joke that tourism in Wudu has two seasons: peak season and *super*-peak season. The only difference is whether or not they have to close the bridges to traffic."
Su Chen had long heard of the famous Hongya Cave. As embarrassing as it was to admit, despite being a Wudu native, he had never once been there.
It wasn’t just Hongya Cave; there were many famous attractions in Wudu he’d never visited. He hadn’t even been to the White Crane Ridge Underwater Museum back in his hometown of Fuzhou, which was less than a kilometer from his house.
’It’s strange,’ he thought. ’Whenever I travel, I always want to visit the local tourist spots, but I can never muster any interest in the ones in my own hometown.’
However, it was just a passing thought, and Su Chen soon put it out of his mind.
The dinner lasted until ten o’clock that night. Yin Shan and his companions were seasoned veterans of such occasions; although they stumbled a bit as they walked, their minds were still perfectly clear.
As for Su Zhuyun and his two brothers, they weren’t completely drunk, just a little groggy. Being Su Chen’s elders, Yin Shan and the other association leaders hadn’t dared to ply them with too much alcohol. What would they do if it caused a health problem?
They had carefully controlled the amount of alcohol, bringing the three brothers right to the verge of being drunk without pushing them over. Besides, they were drinking Maotai, so it wouldn’t be too hard on their bodies.
After exchanging a few pleasantries with Yin Shan and seeing the group off, Su Chen returned to the private room. He found his mother, Chen Shufen, handing out hot towels to Su Zhuyun and his two brothers.
"Dad, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, can you guys walk? Do you need me to get someone to help you downstairs?"
"No need. Manager Li just brought us some sobering tea. We’ll be fine after a short rest!" Su Zhuyun said, removing the hot towel from his face.
Su Chen nodded and was about to go settle the bill, but Chen Shufen stopped him before he could take a single step.
"Xiaochen, wait. Take a look at all this. What should we do with it?"
"This?" Su Chen followed his mother’s gaze to a stool in the corner of the room, where several exquisitely wrapped gift boxes were piled.
"Yes. They’re gifts from Chairman Yin and the other association leaders!" Chen Shufen said, picking up the most beautifully wrapped box from the top of the pile. "This one is from Chairman Yin."
Su Chen took the box and opened it. Inside was a Zisha clay teapot set and a canister of tea leaves.
Unfortunately, Su Chen didn’t know much about Zisha teapots, but he knew one thing: a gift from someone with Yin Shan’s status was bound to be incredibly valuable.
"Just keep it. Dad should drink more tea from now on. That way, he won’t be clueless about tea etiquette when he’s out socializing," Su Chen said teasingly.
’After tonight, plenty of business tycoons will be inviting Su Zhuyun out for tea. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for him to learn a little in advance.’
Su Chen briefly inspected the other gifts and was somewhat surprised. Most of them were for women—watches, designer handbags, and the like. It seemed they were trying to win favor by going through the wives.