Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Lending a Hand

“Dad, melon! Melon!” Ye Chengyang hugged his father’s leg and called out.

“What frog are you? Just croaking away, all you know is eating!” Ye Yaodong looked disapprovingly at the mud prints left on his leg from the child’s touch, while picking the half-eaten cucumber for him, “Take it home and wash it before eating, otherwise there might be bugs inside.”

Only after recounting heads and confirming everyone was present did he head back, surrounded by the children.

Just as they reached their doorstep, neighbor Chen’s wife looked at him curiously, “Dongzi, you’re not out playing today? Even helping your grandmother pick corn?”

“Mm!”

Why ask when she had seen them leave? Her eyes had followed him from the doorway until his silhouette disappeared before looking away.

Don’t ask how he knew, he’d experienced it firsthand. The village women were generally like this, and they were even more obvious with strangers, their eyes practically glued to any unfamiliar faces entering the village.

“Why are you all back already? It’s not mealtime yet, did you smell something cooking?” Ye’s mother smiled at the group of children.

“We went with Third Uncle to pick corn!”

Lin Xiuqing then noticed her youngest son covered in dirt from head to toe, and quickly got up, “How did you get so dirty? Covered in soil, your face and hands too, did you roll around in the field?”

“Haha, Mom, he was secretly eating a cucumber when it hit him and he fell, then he crawled up and ended up like this!”

“Don’t laugh at him, turn around and show your mother your bottom.” Ye Yaodong put down the sack and basket, turning his eldest son around.

Ye Chenghu hurriedly tried to cover his bottom with his hands, “No, Dad…”

Lin Xiuqing furrowed her brows, “What did you do now? Why is there a hole in your pants? What were you playing at? Running around all day long, look at your knees, your legs, there’s not a spot without a scratch.”

As she spoke, she gave his bottom several hard slaps.

Only because his father was holding him could he not escape, otherwise he wouldn’t have stood still for the spanking.

“It hurts, Mom! It was an accident! Dad, let me go.”

“When have your falls ever not been accidents? Jumping and bouncing around all day, a hole here in your pants, a hole there, look at the hole on your knee, just patched up and already fraying again, you wear out more pants than your grandfather does working.”

Seeing the child hanging his head after the scolding, Ye Yaodong was satisfied and let go. When children misbehave, they need discipline, and since he wasn’t good at teaching children, he could only let their mother do it.

Fortunately, decades later both children were quite filial, hmm… only filial to their mother… he wouldn’t mention himself…

The elderly woman tried to mediate, “Stop scolding him, it’s normal for children to run around and fall, falling helps them grow faster. Quick, go inside and change your pants, then come out and eat some melon.”

With grandmother’s amnesty granted, Ye Chenghu ran inside like the wind. Lin Xiuqing led the dirt-covered youngest son inside too, as both sons needed to change clothes.

As she walked, she kept muttering, “Day after day, who knows how many changes of clothes you need. Good thing you have older brothers and sisters, you can wear their hand-me-downs when they outgrow them.”

Ye’s mother also grumbled, “Making noise all day long, running off without a trace, never a quiet moment.”

“If they sat quietly all day, not running or jumping around, Mother, you’d be worried they might be stupid!”

Ye’s mother was stumped by Ye Yaodong’s retort, glared at him, and had nothing more to say.

“Come, come, have some melon, you can continue working later.” The elderly woman brought out a large bowl of cut melon to share, even distributing some to the nearby neighbors.

Ye Yaodong took a piece of melon and said, “I’m going to check on Second Brother.”

It was his own house too, he couldn’t ignore everything like in his previous life. He should at least help out a bit to avoid gossip.

Just a few steps away, he could hear the women gossiping about him behind his back.

“Dongzi seems to have grown up these past couple of days? He’s even going sea fishing and helping Hua now.”

“Come on, he disappeared yesterday afternoon, who knows what time he came back last night. I had already locked my door. Ah Qing, what time did Dongzi come back yesterday?”

“Pretty early, around 7 o’clock.”

“Such a grown man, without any sense of responsibility…”

Ye Yaodong quickened his pace, his ears growing callused from hearing such talk. Better to walk further away and pretend not to hear. As long as he knew he wouldn’t be like before, that was enough.

When he reached the house site, Ye Yaohua had already cleared most of the weeds, his whole body dripping with sweat, face flushed red.

He couldn’t help but reflect that for village people, hard work really did lead to prosperity. The hardworking people in their village all lived quite comfortably in the following decades, each tearing down their old houses to build small villas, living wonderful lives.

He dared not think of anything else; as long as they could live like everyone else and the family was healthy and safe, that would be enough.

“Hua!”

He was only two years younger than his second brother, so he never called him Second Brother, just his name, though he did call his eldest brother properly.

Hearing someone call him, Ye Yaohua straightened up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and looked over, “Dongzi, why are you here?”

“Just came to take a look. Starting construction the day after tomorrow? Have you arranged all the materials and labor?”

“Yes, spent yesterday with Dad running around, everything’s arranged to be delivered tomorrow.”

“Too bad we can’t use saltwater sand, otherwise we could just transport sand from the beach to build the house, would save quite a bit of money.”

“Hehe, if saltwater sand could be used for building houses, we wouldn’t get the chance to use it, it would have been scooped clean long ago.”

“How much longer do you need to clear these weeds?”

“Almost done after a bit more work, then I’ll clean up and take these weeds to the empty lot to burn, then transport the ash back to spread in the vegetable garden.”

Ye Yaodong: “…”

Using everything so thoroughly, not even wasting weeds, no wonder he put all the weeds on the cart.

“Burning them by the beach? Let me help you push it over?”

Ye Yaohua looked at him in surprise – it was unprecedented enough that he came to talk, but now he was even volunteering to help?

“What? I’m getting a house out of this too, if I don’t help out a bit, what if Dad changes his mind? Even if he doesn’t, I can’t stand being scolded by him and Mom.”

“Hehe, right, this cart is full too. Then you can help me push it to the empty lot by the beach, I’ll burn it later after I finish clearing these weeds.”

“Mm.”

Ye Yaodong pushed the cart under the sun towards the beach shore. Some women sitting at their doorways weaving nets frequently cast curious glances his way, all of which he pretended not to notice.

After Ye Yaohua finished clearing the weeds and started burning them, he dusted off his hands and left first. It would take a while for everything to burn, so his second brother could wait here by himself – he didn’t want to stay out in the sun.

It was almost 10 o’clock now, the tide had receded quite a bit, and people could already be seen digging on the beach in front.

Estimating that the beach near the dock should be exposed soon, he needed to go back to get his hook and bucket.