Our country is the most particular about dignity and order.
In a family, the status of parents and children can never be equated. In a unit, there is always a distinction between leaders and ordinary employees.
Even illiterate people understand this. This was true even in the "most egalitarian" years when "working people were the masters of the country".
Therefore, in all our social activities, we always follow etiquette.
The same goes for the seating arrangements. Whenever seniors, juniors and seniors gather together, they must sit in the traditional order.
Specific to private wedding events, due to the large number of people invited, there are both relatives and friends among the guests, and it is impossible to seat them in a unified order. The only option is to have separate seats and seat them in units of tables. Usually they are divided into VIP seats, new seats, and new seats.
There are four types of banquets: banquets with relatives, banquets with close relatives, and banquets with friends.
Needless to say, the details of how to arrange seats are very trivial and complicated. Even if you make a comprehensive consideration and make an overall arrangement, it is difficult not to make mistakes.
The most prone to problems are the VIP seats, which are commonly known as the "guest seats" and "chief seats". This is why the disputes between the Hong and Xu families happened.
VIP seats actually do not just refer to one table, but are roughly divided into two types.
The first type is mainly a special courtesy for a happy event. For example, the man and the woman's parents must personally accompany the wedding.
For example, entertaining wedding guests invited by two families, such as marrying a wife, seeing off a wife, marrying an official guest, seeing off an official guest, etc.
In the past, it also included children who pulled hijabs and gold and silver kettles. Just like today's usual witnesses, introducers, masters of ceremonies, best men, bridesmaids, and children who pull the bride's veil.
The second type is mainly those who are invited by the family to hold high-ranking official positions, have merit and fame, and are celebrities.
This not only requires setting up a separate banquet, but also arranging the tables and seats according to the rank, fame and social prestige. The family also has to accompany the family, and arrange people of equal social status and status to sit at the same table.
According to the original arrangement, there were actually four VIP seats for the Hong family.
At the first table were Hong, Xu's parents, the groom and the bride, Chang Xianzhang, Gu Lingye, the Xu family's "aunt" and Xu Xiaojun.
At the second seat were Yuntai and his wife, Shou Jingfang, Director Song and his wife, and several important leaders from Chongwen District.
At the third table were Mr. and Mrs. Hong Yanzheng, Director Chang and his wife, He Jiefu, Mr. Shan, Wang Hanping, Lao Su and Yu Wanyu.
At the fourth seat, Hong Yanwu and Chen Liquan were accompanied by three "Hai Bangzi", Song Guofu, Song Pingping, Yang Weifan, Zhou Manna, and Su Xiaoming.
Then down there are the seats for newlyweds, close relatives, and friends.
As for what differences the Xu family has?
Daqing can be summed up in three words, snobbish.
First of all, Xu Bingquan and his wife not only believed that the two district leaders should sit in the first seat no matter what, they also wanted the Hong family to arrange "connections with superiors" to this seat.
In addition, they thought that although the Yuntai couple and Shou Jingfang were the closest relatives of the Hong family, the Yuntai couple were taciturn and too rustic, just two farmers. The Shou Jingfang attitude was aloof and just a medicine master.
In comparison, the social status gap between the secretary of the district catering company, the director of the district health bureau, and the deputy director of the Chongwen branch is too big, and even if he tries his best, he cannot be with her well.
Therefore, they hope to arrange only leading cadres of the same level from the Hong family to sit at this seat, including famous actors and other literary and artistic workers.
Even the two of them didn't even care much about their "bridal wife" and insisted on arranging for the "aunt" to attend the wedding banquet. This is called killing the donkey.
Of course Hong Lucheng was not happy about it. He argued with reason, saying that it was disrespectful and hurt feelings.
However, Xu Bingquan believed that Hong Lucheng's persistence was a failure to adapt to the past and could not keep up with the social situation.
Think about it, how can people with completely different values convince each other?
So even though Wang Yunlin wanted to make peace on the side, the situation was still deadlocked, and she was already feeling a bit red-faced.
It has to be said that fortunately Li Fu has good eyesight.
One is that he rushed over in time when he saw something was wrong. After finding out what was going on, he quickly comforted him and then tried to persuade him separately.
The second is that he had already seen some signs.
He found that Yuntai and his wife, Shou Jingfang and the officials were uncomfortable sitting together, and the grandson brought by Mr. Chang and his wife kept making troubles looking for his mother.
After weighing all the circumstances together, he advised Hong Lucheng to simply give in.
It's just the last step. It's not cost-effective for two in-laws to have a dispute at this time. It's better to let the matter rest and let him negotiate and try to adjust the seat again. It's not even more reasonable.
Then he turned around and Li Fu discussed with Xu Bingquan again.
First, let me explain first that the person who borrowed the car for the Hong family was Yang Weifan, a famous actor with teacher-level treatment and a disciple of high-ranking cadres. His identity is supposed to be enough, but he is a friend of Hong Yanwu, who belongs to the younger generation, and it is not easy to talk to the elders.
Sit together.
Second, let me explain again that Director Chang is here with a family of five. In addition, literary and artistic workers also have their own circles, and most of them are lesbians. It would not be appropriate to accompany the second seat.
Therefore, it is possible to transfer seats. However, due to the relationship between the Hong family, the only people who can accompany the first seat are Director Song and his wife, who are both department and bureau-level cadres with the district leaders, and He Jiefu.
As for the second seat, no one from the Hong family would accompany them, so the leading cadres known to the Xu family could only sit on their own.
In response, Xu Bingquan and his wife agreed after thinking about it.
Because even though they failed to achieve their goal of being on the same page as the higher class, the Hong family finally gave in. This was a facial victory.
Moreover, the lack of someone from the Hong family to sit at the second seat proves that the Xu family has the advantage in terms of social relations.
Thinking about it again, I still have the upper hand against the junior high-ranking official. After all, the other party is also a junior. When the people arrive, when the banquet starts and toasts are held, they have a good chat, and they may not be able to get close to each other.
In this way, the two families finally reached an agreement, and with Li Fu's help, the seats were adjusted again.
In the end, it became the first Xihong, Xu's parents, the groom and the bride, two district leaders, Director Song and his wife, and He Jiefu.
The second seat is occupied by some leading cadres in the Xu family's social circle.
The third seat, Yuntai's family, accompanied Director Chang's family.
At the fourth table were Hong Yanzheng and his wife as companions, Shou Zheng, Lin Su, Mr. Shan, Wang Hanping, Lao Su and Yu Wanyu.
The fifth seat was occupied by Hong Yanwu, Chen Liquan, the three "Hai Bangzi", Song Guofu, Song Pingping, Yang Weifan, Zhou Manna, and Su Xiaoming.
But who would have thought that after Xu Bingquan and his wife spent a lot of time looking for things and were satisfied, the result of rearranging the seats was not as good as they imagined. In turn, it made them blush.
What does it mean to be trapped in a cocoon? What does it mean to be clever but be misled by your cleverness? Everything is wrong.