Tonight's dinner at the Li family home carried a strong Dongshan flavor—not only were all the dishes hometown fare, but the men and women also ate at separate tables.
Decades later, plenty of people vilified separate tables for men and women as "women not being allowed at the table." But anyone with a brain should know better—when you ate at a restaurant, would you dare offend the cook? Was your brain full of water? Would you eat with any peace of mind?
If you did not let the women who cooked sit down to eat, then never mind anything else—could the seasoning in those dishes possibly be right?
Besides, the dining tables in ordinary homes were not like restaurant tables that could seat a dozen people. A couple of visiting families would be enough to leave no room.
Li Ye's family did have a big table, but Wu Juying, Chen Jinhua, and the others had no desire to sit with Li Zhongfa and his lot.
When men drank, they not only shouted and carried on, but the things they discussed were on a completely different wavelength from women's conversations. Men liked talking business, brotherhood, and affairs of state. Women liked gossiping, talking about their children, and chatting about the Zhang family's troubles and the Li family's gossip. So unless a woman enjoyed a drink or two, no one wanted to share a table with the men.
Even Li Ye preferred hanging around the "children's table." After all, everyone at Grandpa Li Zhongfa's table had to be addressed as "Uncle." Once he went over there, he could hardly make a whole group of uncles pour him tea and serve him drinks, could he?
All eight classmates happened to be gathered today, along with a bunch of children. Their table was far