Lunch was the real reunion dinner. Although people kept coming over to offer New Year greetings, with the arrival of Li Anguo's and Li Xia's families, another table had been set up in Li Jianguo's house.
In previous years, lunch on New Year's Day had actually been a simple meal, perhaps dumplings left over from breakfast, or dishes left over from the reunion dinner the night before.
But since this counted as the proper reunion now, they prepared another whole table of food, and the kaluga sturgeon meat won unanimous praise.
That was mainly because Li Long had offered his elder sister-in-law Liang Yuemei some "pointers" while she was cooking the fish. This fish would not taste particularly good stewed the way Liang Yuemei cooked crucian carp; a garlic or spicy preparation worked better.
Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang, and the others had already come over that morning. They arrived at different times, but eventually sat down together and planned to gather that evening.
According to Xie Yundong, he was the oldest, so any gathering ought to be at his house.
Tao Daqiang argued that he had been working with Li Long the longest, so Li Long's first meal outside his own home over the New Year ought to be at his house.
Liang Dacheng and Jia Weidong said nothing, feeling that they had no say in the matter.
After all, they had started working with Li Long relatively late, so they simply smiled and watched the two argue.
In the end, neither would give way, so they decided to let Li Long choose. Li Long actually hated being asked to settle things they could not resolve themselves. Either choice would be awkward and risk offending someone, so he smiled and said:
"Why make it so complicated? Just play finger guessing