Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Picking Corn

Lin Xiuqing watched his movements and quickly asked, “Where are you taking your son?”

“Nowhere special, just going to help Grandma pick corn.”

“Are we picking all of it, or just a little? Should I come help?”

Ye Yaodong looked back at the elderly woman, who was only carrying a basket, “Just a little bit. Didn’t we say yesterday that we should keep it for our own consumption and tell Grandma not to sell it? We’ll just pick a few and come back. You go on with your work.”

Seeing him being unusually helpful, Ye’s mother spoke pleasantly, “Pick a bit more today, and don’t peel them. We can cook them with the husks in the evening for your father and the others to take as snacks when they’re out at sea.”

“Then we should take a sack to carry them, maybe bring back around twenty.”

“Pick some cucumbers too for Dad and the others to take to sea?” Ye’s sister-in-law added.

“Got it.”

After the elderly woman got the sack ready, Ye Yaodong carried his son and walked with her towards the village entrance, which was in the opposite direction from the seaside.

The elderly woman walked slowly, and he matched her pace, leisurely looking around. Along the way, they saw women weaving nets by their doorsteps and children running and jumping about everywhere.

Their seven children were running down from the nearby earthen slope. His young son, whom he was carrying, saw everyone there and happily shouted, “Brothers! Sisters!”

“Ah, Dad, why are you here? Where are you going?”

Ye Chenghu spotted his father and younger brother and quickly called out, but wasn’t watching his step. He slipped and fell, sliding on his bottom right to his father’s feet.

But he didn’t cry, just yelped a couple of times, stood up, and patted his bottom, “Ow, that really hurt, good thing it was just my bottom.”

Ye Yaodong’s mouth twitched – what a tough kid!

The elderly woman stepped forward and patted his bottom, “Walk slower and watch where you’re going, ah you~ There’s a hole now, hurry back and have your mother patch it up.”

“Ah, no need! Mom will beat me. I want Grandma to patch it for me. Dad, where are you and Grandma going?”

“To pick corn and cucumbers!”

“Ooh~ I want to go too!”

“I want to go too!”

“We want to go too!” One by one, they excitedly expressed their desire to join.

“Your bottom is showing and you don’t want to go home first to patch up your pants?”

“No need, I want to pick corn and cucumbers first, I’ll patch it up when we get back.” After saying this, he ran towards the village entrance, not caring about the hole in his pants, not even bothering to cover it.

The others also whooped and ran ahead excitedly.

“Slow down, be careful not to fall…” the elderly woman called out worriedly from behind.

“Whether it’s one or a group, it’s all the same to me,” Ye Yaodong said indifferently. “Don’t worry about them, just be careful yourself and don’t fall.”

“Dad, hurry up, hurry up, brother ran away.”

Ye Yaodong patted his young son’s bottom, who couldn’t even speak clearly but wanted to play with them, “What’s the rush? We’ll catch up soon.”

The three mu of land across the road at the village entrance used to be a weedy slope, which his grandfather had cultivated bit by bit when he was alive.

After his grandfather passed away, his father helped the elderly woman farm it, and the elderly woman couldn’t stay idle either. She helped with the farming and would come check twice a day, worried that things might get stolen.

“Don’t pick randomly, don’t pick the unripe ones,” Ye Yaodong quickly stopped the children when he saw them starting to pick corn.

“Oh, we know how to pick! The silk at the end of the corn should be black before picking, right? We know that!” The oldest, Ye Chenghai, who was twelve, replied.

The children disappeared into the corn stalks, and the youngest, Ye Chengyang, also struggled to get down. Ye Yaodong put him down to play by himself and took the sack from the elderly woman for Ye Chenghai to fill.

“That’s enough, just pick twenty stalks first. Each of you pick three, that’s plenty. Don’t pick too many, we’ll come back tomorrow morning.”

“Ah, we’re not picking more?” Ye Chenghai looked disappointedly at the two corns in his hands, realizing he could only pick one more.

“We’ll pick a few each day to eat, that’s enough. If we pick them all, your Grandma will sell them, and you won’t have any to eat.”

“Then never mind, let’s just pick a few each day.”

With many people helping, they finished picking quickly. The elderly woman had also picked a basket full of cucumbers, some big and some small – the small ones were fist-sized, while the big ones were as large as rolling pins, all ripe.

Ye Yaodong shouldered the small sack of corn and took the basket from the elderly woman, “I’ll carry these, you walk slowly.”

Then looking at the group of children, “Is everyone out? One, two, three, four, five, six… where’s the last one? Who? Where’s Ye Chenghu?”

“Ye Chenghu!” he called out loudly into the corn field.

“I’m here, Dad!” Ye Chenghu responded from the upper slope, holding corn, then walked down with corn in his arms.

Ye Yaodong looked at the corn cobs he was carrying in his pulled-up shirt, “Picked from up there?”

“Child, why did you pick from someone else’s field?” the elderly woman looked at the road and said quietly.

“Ah, isn’t all the corn ours?”

“Only this area is ours!”

Ye Chenghu scratched his head, “I thought all the corn here was ours!”

Ye Yaodong put down the basket and cheerfully threw the corn from his arms into the sack, “It’s fine, as long as no one saw. When your dad was young, he also thought the whole hillside was ours and picked freely!”

The elderly woman quietly advised, “Don’t pick from others’ fields next time, you’ll get scolded if caught.”

“Not just scolded, you’ll get chased all over the mountain!”

“Dad, you’ve been chased before?”

“Mountains and seas, your old man has done all the mischief there is to do. Let’s go, time to head back.” Ye Yaodong shouldered the corn again.

“Wait, where’s Yangyang!” The elderly woman grabbed Ye Yaodong, who was about to leave.

“Oh right! Almost forgot about that little guy!”

He looked around but couldn’t see his youngest son, so he had the children look for him while he put down the things.

“These little ones are tiny but can really run, where did he hide?”

“He’s here, Third Uncle! Yangyang is sitting on the ground eating a cucumber!”

Ye Yaodong walked towards the voice and saw his young son sitting on the ground, head tilted back, holding a cucumber bigger than his face, looking innocently at everyone.

The cucumber was still on the vine, and he had already started eating it before it was picked, fortunately finding one that grew low enough for him to reach.

“Why are you hiding here eating secretly?”

“Dad!”

Ye Chengyang tried to lift the cucumber to give to his father, but lacking strength, he dropped it as soon as he raised it. The cucumber still attached to the vine swung back and hit his forehead. He lost his balance and fell flat on his back…

“Hahaha~”

“Hahaha~ Silly~”

The children gleefully laughed at his misfortune without mercy!

Ye Yaodong couldn’t help but smile as he watched his youngest son, who neither cried nor made a fuss, roll over and crawl up using all four limbs.

“You’re covered in dirt, you’re filthy. You and your brother are both going to get scolded when we get back.”