Chapter Thirty-Two Birthday Cake

  Su Xiaofan cleared his throat and shouted loudly at the busy crowd: "Who's in charge here?"

  An old man, who looked about the same age as the village chief, stood up from directing a few maids to wash vegetables in the kitchen and said to Su Xiaofan at the door: "I am the steward of this mansion, I don't know who you are, miss?"

  "Sheng Shu, this is the young master's childhood bride, Su Xiaofan." The house servant who brought Su Xiaofan over looked at the old man with a hint of respect and introduced her.

  "Ah, so it's the young mistress who has arrived. I apologize for my mistake earlier. The dishes are almost ready, come take a look and see if anything is missing." Xiao Sheng walked over upon hearing that she was Su Xiao Fan, pointed to the various ingredients placed in disarray around the kitchen, then looked at the servant standing beside her with a serious expression: "From now on, after marrying into the household, you will also address her as Young Mistress. Don't call her 'young bride' anymore, go tell everyone that from now on, when seeing Miss Su, they should address her as Young Mistress."

  "Yes." The house servant replied respectfully and then turned around and walked out.

  Su Xiaofan smiled faintly at Xiao Sheng, then stepped forward and walked in slowly. After scanning the crowd inside, she said to him: "Uncle Sheng, can you ask those who are not involved to leave first? Just keep a few people who were originally working in the kitchen to help out."

  Xiao Sheng saw that when he spoke to himself, his attitude was just right, neither humble nor arrogant, and his impression of him improved slightly. He then smiled and said to the people in the house: "You all go down first and help outside."

  "Yes." The people who were originally serving in each room and were temporarily called to the kitchen to help, all got up and walked out upon hearing this.

  Su Xiaofan looked at the remaining five or six people, and after arranging tasks for them, she walked to Xiao Sheng's side and asked for some things that were not prepared in the kitchen.

  Xiao Sheng listened and left with some doubts, although he didn't know what specific purpose she had, since the old master said to let her handle it, he just followed her arrangements.

  After a brief understanding, Su Xiaofan found that the three people in the kitchen seemed to be quite skilled in cooking. He casually told them about the dishes he wanted to make and the methods of preparation. They basically listened and then started preparing quickly.

  Originally, the old master had called her to prepare for his birthday banquet. Everyone still had some dissatisfaction with this. Every year, the old master's birthday banquet was prepared by the three chefs in the kitchen. The dishes they made were also famous far and near in this poor mountain village. Many people looked forward to this day every year, as long as they sent a small gift, they could eat delicious food that they didn't have the chance to eat normally.

  However, after gaining a deeper understanding, the few people began to obey her sincerely and started preparing various delicacies for the birthday banquet according to her instructions.

  Xiao Sheng brought over those things Su Xiaofan wanted.

  Su Xiaofan seriously made a large basin, and began to beat eggs on the side. Without an egg beater, she temporarily asked the male chef in the kitchen to make a simple one with iron wire. Today, she is preparing to make a super-large cake, also called the housekeeper to prepare a wide wooden board, and then put the cake directly on it, and use the table to lift it out.

  The people beside her were watching her busy with this and that, but they didn't know what she was doing. Also because everyone's work in their hands wasn't finished yet, no one went to ask her. When everything was ready and they started preparing to serve the dishes, everyone turned around and saw Su Xiaofan carving flowers on a very large round pastry.

  "What is Young Madam doing?" A little maid finally couldn't help it and curiously approached to ask.

  Su Xiaofan straightened her waist and took a glance at the prepared items: "Birthday cake, you guys put the side dishes on first, maybe someone has already arrived, this will be the last one."

  "Birth cake?" The little maid furrowed her brow and walked back to everyone's place, as if asking was the same as not asking. It seemed that she had never heard of such a thing before.

  "Ah... finally done." Su Xiaofan threw away the things in her hand, satisfied with the cake in front of her. Doing this alone was a massive undertaking, what with steaming the cake and making the buttercream, it had exhausted her.

  "Little Madam, are you ready? The old master said that if it's almost done, you can go out first. It's almost time to start the banquet." Xiao Sheng walked in and took a look at the huge pastry in front of Su Xiaofan, his face showing surprise.

  Su Xiaofan turned around and said to him, "Yeah, it's about time."

  Then he walked to the front of the six people, handed over some dishes that they needed to prepare later, and also explained the handling method of the cake for a while. After finishing speaking, he followed Xiao Sheng out.

  As she walked down the long corridor, Su Xiaofan became increasingly puzzled and couldn't help but ask Xiao Sheng beside her: "Uncle Sheng, this village chief's house seems to be very wealthy, why would he live in such a poor mountainous area?"

  "Hehe, although many young people in the village have already run to outside towns to work and make money, there are also many people who have gone out from the old master's house. However, it is said that since hundreds of years ago, the old master's family has always lived in this place, perhaps with a particularly strong affection for this place. The old master often says that after his death, the young master will return to take over his position and continue to serve as the village head, and future generations will also continue to live in this place." Xiao Sheng remembered that when he was young and came to the Xiao family to work, he had asked the old master about this question. At that time, the old master had just taken over the house and replied vaguely, "This place is very special."

  But even after living here for most of my life, I still can't see what's special about this place. Apart from being particularly poor and people loving to run outside, it's just a very barren mountain village.

  "Is that so?" Su Xiaofan looked around, and apart from the maids and servants who were busy serving dishes, there was no one else in the mansion. She wondered what kind of people lived in such a large mansion.

  "We're here." Xiao Sheng stepped aside and let Su Xiaofan enter by herself.

  Today's birthday banquet is the same as in previous years, set up in the flower garden of the mansion. It's also good that the weather on this day every year seems to be fine, and it has never rained on the day of the birthday banquet, always sunny and good weather.

  Su Xiaofan saw Xiao Yimeng sitting next to the village chief with a gloomy face from afar, while several young men beside him seemed to be talking about something very funny at the moment, one of them even exaggeratedly holding his belly in laughter.

  "Little treasure, what's wrong?" Su Xiao Fan walked over and patted the shoulder of Xiao Yi Mo, softly inquiring.

  "Hmmph..."

  A laughing young man spat out all the tea he was drinking when he heard Su Xiaofan's voice.