Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982

No matter how much Father Ye and Mother Ye tried to persuade them, Secretary Chen's family insisted on going home for dinner. They didn't want to insist either, especially since building a house recently consumed a lot of rice and grain. Saving a bit would be good.

After Secretary Chen's family left, the house became lively. A group of unruly children didn't care about the adults and stretched their necks, looking at the tea cakes and canned oranges in the basket.

They had eaten tea cakes before—sweet and chewy. Taking a bite and filling their mouths. But they hadn't had a chance to eat canned oranges. Their family was poor, and their parents couldn't afford to buy them canned food.

Ye Yaodong patted the heads of his two oldest nephews. "Stop drooling. It's time to eat."

Ye Chenghai tilted his head and asked, "Uncle, can we have the tea cakes and canned oranges after we finish eating?"

"You're already full from eating rice. Can you still eat them?"

The group of children vigorously nodded and said in unison, "Of course we can."

"Then go ahead and eat!"

He didn't think it was a big deal. Since they wanted to eat, they could have tea cakes and canned oranges after finishing their meal. However, Mother Ye disagreed. She glared at him and said, "Canned food is expensive. Don't let the children waste it. Put it away for now. In two months, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, we can include them in the gift package to make it look better."

If it weren't for the fear of the canned food expiring by the time Chinese New Year came around, Mother Ye would have wanted to save them for Chinese New Year so they would look more presentable and prestigious.

Ye Chenghu looked at them with longing eyes and weakly said, "Dad... I want to eat the canned oranges..."

"Your grandma doesn't allow it!"

Ye Yaodong shrugged helplessly. Since his mother had control over the items, there was nothing he could do. He did want to give the children a chance to eat.

Mother Ye lightly poked Ye Chenghu's forehead with her index finger. "Always thinking about eating. We're about to have dinner. No one is allowed to eat them. We'll save them for gifting."

She locked the canned food and cigarettes in the cabinet, leaving only the tea cakes on the table. "After dinner, I'll give you all the tea cakes. As for the cigarettes and alcohol, I'll ask later if they can be exchanged for money. They are too valuable, and we can't afford them."

Everyone had no objections. Eldest Sister-in-law Ye and Second Sister-in-law Ye felt relieved after hearing this. They thought that Mother Ye would directly give these gifts to the third household since Ye Yaodong was the one who saved lives.

However, what they didn't expect was that as soon as everyone went back to their rooms, Mother Ye secretly went to Ye Yaodong's room. She took the money from selling the gifts to the town and handed it over to Lin Xiuqing.

She was afraid that there wouldn't be time during the day, so as soon as they finished dinner, she hurriedly took the money to the large store in town. It took her two hours back and forth, and by the time she returned, it was already dark outside.

Lin Xiuqing looked surprised at the money in Mother Ye's hand. "Why is Mother giving this to me?"

Mother Ye whispered, "Shh, they came to thank Yaodong, and these gifts should be given to you. I thought since the whole family was there, it's better to give them to you now. Otherwise, someone might feel uncomfortable."

"But we haven't separated yet, so these things..."

"It's true that we haven't separated, but doesn't each family keep their own money? They came to thank Yaodong, not us. These gifts are for him. You keep it. Your father and I have worked hard all our lives for you. What's yours is yours."

Ye Yaodong stood by, tightly pursing his lips, and felt that his mother was quite clever. Even rural women had wisdom and knew how to balance things in the family.

"You keep it. After the houses are finished, you'll have plenty of places to spend the money." After stuffing the money into Lin Xiuqing's hand, she looked at Ye Yaodong and couldn't help but say, "Be more diligent in the future and don't fool around all the time with your friends..."

"Huh? Why are you calling it fooling around? Who doesn't have a few friends? Even you have a group of friends who call you to go sea digging every day."

"Just a word from me, and you're talking back. My friends tell me to do something proper, while your friends only call you to play and drink."

"That's not true. Didn't we go to catch eels yesterday afternoon? You even ate them. And didn't we go to sea recently? We just made a few hundred yuan. Did you forget already? Besides, they also came to help us with the construction of our house. We don't play and drink every day."

Mother Ye was speechless...

The rascal became serious, so how could she argue with him?

She glared at him and said, "Wake up early tomorrow and work!"

"I got it."

After Mother Ye left, Lin Xiuqing counted the money in her hand. "Mom said Maotai is sold for 12 yuan per bottle, and Zhonghua cigarettes for 1 yuan per pack. She said the repurchase price is slightly cheaper."

"Normal. It's a give-and-take. They also need to make a profit. Otherwise, why would they repurchase?"

"Well, I'll keep it then." It was a substantial income, and she was quite happy. Lately, she has been receiving money quite frequently!

"Let's go to sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow to work."

"You're quite concerned, aren't you?"

"Of course. Isn't that our house?"

In the middle of summer, building a house was a sweaty task. The sweat dripped like water, and their clothes were so wet they could be wrung out. Running a big boat was a bit lonely, but it was still better than moving stones and carrying gravel, which was exhausting.

Ye Yaodong had just finished carrying a load of stones and sat down to have a tea break. He rubbed his sore shoulders and decided to take off his damp shirt. However, he noticed that his shoulders were red from the weight of the shoulder pole.

He couldn't help but shed a tear of self-pity. Did the heavens throw him back to age 25 to make up for the hardships he missed out on in his youth?

Lin Xiuqing happened to be pushing a gray cart over and saw it. She whispered, "I'll apply camellia oil to it at night, and it will be fine."

He raised an eyebrow, about to say something, but then he saw Lin Jishang from his memories walking towards their construction site with two unfamiliar middle-aged men, swaggering.

"Is Uncle Ye here? Is this Third Uncle Ye's house?"

Just yesterday, Secretary Chen had warned him, and he didn't expect them to come so soon.

Ye Yaodong furrowed his brows, stood up, and hung his shirt over his shoulder. He walked up to them and looked down at them. "Lin Jishang? What do you want?"

The three of them instinctively took a step back and couldn't help but curse in their hearts. Why did they do that? So what if he's tall?

"Hehe, I wanted to talk to Uncle Ye about something."

"If you have something to say, you can tell me!"

At this moment, Ye Yaohua also noticed the commotion and walked over. "What's going on, Ah Dong?"

Lin Jishang?

He instantly thought of what Secretary Chen had mentioned yesterday evening. Did they want to buy this piece of land?

"They're looking for Dad," Ye Yaodong said, then turned to the three of them. "The houses being built here are for the three of us brothers. If you have something to say, just say it. Don't interrupt our work."

"It's like this, my cousin wants to buy this piece of land from you and wants to discuss it with you."

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. "Can't you see that we've already laid the foundation? We've hired so many workers and transported so much stone and yellow soil. You want to buy it, so it? Then what have we been working on during this time? How much sweat have we shed carrying all these stones?"

How much sweat did he shed when he carried loads of stones?

Without offering more money or giving some benefits, they just casually say they want to buy it’s theirs? What nonsense!

(end of this chapter)

***

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