From Wage Slave to Tycoon novel Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Birthday Banquet

"Bro~ I figured you’d be in here. Uncle told me to come get you. It’s getting late, and you need to go downstairs and greet the relatives!"

Su Chen, who had just been dozing off, heard the voice by his ear and opened his eyes with a sigh of resignation.

Looking at the grinning Su Qingya before him, Su Chen felt like punching her.

The past two days had been exhausting for Su Chen; he’d barely had any proper rest.

He was constantly busy, running up and down, either driving out to buy things or going somewhere to pick someone up.

Fortunately, the birthday banquet was fully catered, so the family didn’t have to buy groceries or drinks. Otherwise, Su Chen’s legs would have given out.

"Sigh, you’re really something else, you little troll!" As the eldest grandson of the Su family, Su Chen had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of greeting the relatives.

As soon as he went downstairs, he saw the entire courtyard bustling with activity. The tables were already set up, and the folks who had arrived early were playing mahjong with friends they knew.

A few years ago, the neighbors would have all pitched in to help. It was nothing like now, where everything was catered and they didn’t have to worry about a thing.

Before Su Chen could take in the lively scene, a firm hand clapped him on the shoulder.

"Su Chen, you punk! When did you get back!"

Su Chen turned to see a round, middle-aged man, no taller than about five-foot-seven, grinning at him.

"Hey, Second Uncle, when did you get here? How come I didn’t see you earlier? Here, have a smoke!" Su Chen quickly pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered it to him.

His Second Uncle was amused by this and laughed as he took a cigarette. "Didn’t see me? I’ve been here for ages! I walked around a few times and couldn’t find you. It wasn’t until I asked your dad that I found out you were upstairs sleeping."

"Hehe, well, you know how it’s been the last couple of days. I haven’t been resting well, so I was just taking a little nap."

"Right. Well, you go on and greet the relatives. We can talk later."

"Alright."

With a quick word, Su Chen headed into the crowd. For relatives he recognized, he would go over to say a few words, offer a cigarette as a simple gesture, and then tell them to find a seat.

But there were even more relatives Su Chen didn’t recognize, which was awkward. He didn’t know how to address them and could only go along with whatever they wanted to talk about.

Some would introduce themselves right away, saying it had been a long time since they’d seen Su Chen and that they remembered when he was "only this tall," gesturing as they spoke.

They made him relive all the mischievous things he did as a child.

After going through this enough times, Su Chen’s skin had thickened. He’d walk up to any older person, address them as an elder, and pull them into some small talk.

’Aiya, this is killing me. If I’d known it would be this exhausting, I never would have agreed to Dad’s proposal.’ As noon approached, Su Chen finally had a rare moment of free time.

Rural birthday banquets were usually very simple. The uncles in the family had originally wanted to hire a band or something to sing and liven things up.

But in the end, his grandfather put his foot down, saying there was no need to waste money like that. Su Chen’s father and uncles argued for a while but ultimately lost to the old man.

There was no need for any major ceremonies; Su Zhuyun would just go up as a representative to say a few words, and that would be it.

"Welcome, friends and relatives, near and far. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend my..."

Watching Su Zhuyun giving the speech not far away, Su Chen felt a complex mix of emotions. ’Perhaps years from now, I’ll be standing in that same spot, saying the same things.’

...

"Ah, finally, it’s time to eat!" After waiting through two rounds of guests, Su Chen finally got a seat at a table.

Seeing the braised tiger-skin pork knuckle on the table, Su Chen swallowed hard several times. This was his all-time favorite banquet dish, especially the skin. One bite was pure satisfaction!

Seeing that everyone had started eating, Su Chen also picked up his chopsticks and reached them sinfully toward the pork knuckle.

The moment the soft, springy pork skin entered his mouth, his mind was flooded with childhood memories.

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