Your Great-Aunt Has Arrived! Kneel and Pay Your Respects, Youngsters

At twenty-seven, Zhang Tao's life took a complete turn. The military took over his carbon fiber company in its entirety, depositing 220 million yuan into his account and making him a deputy department-level official. But the biggest shock came from love: his girlfriend, Kong Lingjun, was the eldest legitimate daughter of the Qufu Kong family, of the Ling generation. It was only when Zhang Tao went to Qufu to meet her family for the first time that he truly understood what it meant to have seniority weigh on you. White-haired village elders called his girlfriend “Auntie,” women carrying babies called her “Grand-Grandaunt,” and even toddlers who had only just learned to walk had to call her “Great-Great-Grandaunt.” As her future husband, Zhang Tao benefited from her status, surrounded by “grandnephews” and “great-grandnephews” who took turns toasting him. They followed the traditional rites for the proposal, betrothal, and wedding. Afterward, life settled into a quiet routine. Zhang Tao worked as a chief engineer in Xi'an, and Kong Lingjun moved there with him. But whenever something important happened in the Kong family, they always returned to Qufu. At funerals, she was the eldest daughter of the senior branch; at celebratory banquets, she sat at the head of the table as the highest-ranking “Grand-Grandaunt.” Watching his wife, barely in her twenties, receive respectful greetings as Grand-Grandaunt from villagers young and old, Zhang Tao often thought she carried even more clout than his deputy department-level post.