Chapter 36: The Reception Banquet

Chapter 36: The Reception Banquet

At night, Ding Xiang Restaurant.

In the spacious setup hall, there were about ten tables, but only a few assistants directly under the General Judge of Criminals and the constables under Zhao Wuwei occupied four tables in the corner.

At the round table, Sun Shaozong was the only one sitting alone at the seat of the host. His majestic figure swayed in the candlelight and it gave a sense of rustle in the air when looked at.

It would be weird if the atmosphere of the banquet could get fun and noisy!

"Boss!"

A short and strong constable put his head over to Zhao Wuwei's ear and said nervously, "Look at this scene today, Sun Shaozong may not be able to establish himself in the Yamen, we..."

"What kind of nonsense is this, shut your mouth!"

Zhao Wuwei gave a sharp reprimand, but his heart was actually clanged like fifteen buckets in a single well. He thought that the worst thing was that the high-ranking officials won’t give him face. Unexpectedly, even the petty official in each division and department had disappeared too.

Even if the former Prefectural Judge and the Minister of the Department Liu were “incompatible like fire and water” from the beginning, he didn't see the following officials siding a party and forming an alliance.

Maybe... Did he really stand on the wrong side?!

Zhao Wuwei has some regrets, but he recalls Sun Shaozong's words during the day, how dare he be half-hearted?

Besides, he's already here. Wouldn't leaving halfway make him be on bad terms on both sides?

The rest of them also think so.

One by one, they looked at the platter in front of them hungrily, but they just wanted to swallow a few kilograms of regret pills.

At this moment, a young servant hurried to the main table, leaned himself forward to Sun Shaozong's ear, and whispered a few words. Sun Shaozong immediately stood up and said with a smile, "Ladies and Gentlemen, a distinguished guest came uninvited, and how about going out with me to meet him?"

When they heard this, they all thought that he had asked for ”external assistance.”

Although the reception banquet was usually an internal gathering, they were not supposed to invite outsiders to the party. But it would be nice if such an embarrassing scene could be solved. Who cares if it was an outsider or an insider?!

So all the constables and assistants hurriedly followed Sun Shaozong with smiles on their faces to welcome the ”uninvited” distinguished guest.

.

Originally, they thought they were either generals or descendants of nobility and ministers with close connections with the Emperor, who had an old relationship with the Sun family. Unexpectedly, outside the gate, they saw a middle-aged civil servant with a red robe and a jade belt, and four beams and golden crowns sitting on the four-lift official sedan chair!

The people were amazed when they saw the middle-aged civil official get off the sedan chair, laughing and bowing, "My dear brother, I didn't expect you and I would work together in the Yamen in the future. Although I haven't taken over the post yet, I can't wait for you to drink a few cups of welcome wine with you!"

Work together in the same Yamen?

Some wise people had already heard some clues from these words, and immediately his face was full of ecstasy.

Jia Yucun waved his hand, looked around at these green-colored attired officials on the table, and suddenly asked in a loud voice, "Who prepared this reception banquet today?"

With this sound, the Flower Parlor was so quiet that the needles could be heard falling!

After a while, a man stood up in a cold sweat on the side seat and said in a trembling voice, "It’s... It's me... the Evaluation Inspector Zhou Da of the Criminal Department had prepared it."

The inspector was just a junior official. Let alone the Prefectural Magistrate, even Sun Shaozong could easily crush him!

Had it not been for the unity of the civil servants, he would never have dared to get involved in such a thing. But who would have thought that a Prefectural Chief Officer would jump out of the way to support Sun Shaozong?!

Zhou Da really regretted that his intestines had turned green at this time.

"Since you are responsible for preparing the reception banquet, let’s not talk about you not waiting here early. How could you even make a mistake about the time?!" The more Jia Yucun said, the more gloomy his face became. At last, he hit the table and shouted, "Are you going to be this careless when you deal with human life cases?"

Putong!

Zhou Da knelt to the ground straightly and opened his mouth, crying out, "Your Excellency, I'm really..."

"Zhou Da!"

County Magistrate Lin Delu got up and cut off Zhou Da's words, "How do you do things?! You made all your colleagues in the Yamen almost miss Lord Sun's reception banquet!"

The key point of his words was the word ”Yamen's colleagues,” which meant to remind Zhou Da that if he told the truth, he would offend all his colleagues, higher and lower in rank!

If Zhou Da had an official rank of seven or eight grades, he might not be afraid of this, but too bad that he’s just an unworthy low-ranking official.

After weighing it up, he could only say, "Please forgive me, Prefectural Chief Officer. I was confused for a while, so I made such careless mistakes."

"Hmph!"

Jia Yucun gave a cold snort, and Zhou Da got three shudders. Just as he thought that a great disaster was coming, Sun Shaozong laughed and said, "Brother Yucun, after all, this is a private banquet, and it's not an important business. I think we can spare him this time. How about just punishing him for three cups of alcohol?"

When Zhou Da heard the speech, he was only moved to thank him repeatedly.

Who knows, when the three cups of wine were placed in front of him, there were actually three bronze statues full of wine that weighed a kilo and a half. It was not the usual low-alcohol rice wine, but the authentic liquor, Baijiu!

Zhou Da's face suddenly changed color, but under the gaze of Jia Yucun and Sun Shaozong, how would he dare to refuse?

He had to hold his nose and pour down the three liquors one by one.

After drinking this one kilo and a half of alcohol, he staggered his steps and still wanted to greet. Unexpectedly, he stooped down and went directly under the table. His mouth was all muddy and murmured a few times, and then there was no more movement after that.

"Serve the dishes and lay out the wines!"

In complete silence, Sun Shaozong shouted.

The wine and dishes were put on the table like flowing water. Everyone seemed ”happy” when they toasted their glasses like they had a good relationship, but no one dared to look at Zhou Da even slightly.