Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Better at Making Trouble Than Getting Things Done

After securing the boat borrowing arrangement, Ye Yaodong felt relieved and strolled leisurely toward home. Halfway there, he remembered that construction on the house would begin tomorrow, so he changed direction and headed to the construction site.

Today it was his second brother’s and father’s turn to go out to sea, while his eldest brother stayed home. Early after breakfast, his eldest brother said he was going to the mountain to carry yellow soil, and who knows how many loads he had carried by now. Come to think of it, it was quite embarrassing…

There were real reasons why some people’s lives kept getting better – through hard work comes prosperity. But today was the first day of the lunar month with good tides, and he had already arranged to borrow the boat, so his eldest brother would have to work a bit harder.

Thinking about this, he couldn’t stay leisurely anymore and quickened his pace.

When he arrived at the construction site, yellow soil was already piled up to half a person’s height around the area, but his eldest brother was nowhere to be seen. Only a large pot of tea sat in the shade under a nearby tree. He must have gone to carry more soil. Ye Yaodong leaned against the tree, thinking he would lend a hand when his brother returned.

Since his rebirth, his mindset had already been properly adjusted.

After waiting just a few minutes, he saw his eldest brother pushing a two-wheeled dirt cart over.

“Elder Brother!”

Ye Yaopeng looked up and smiled, “Why are you here?”

“Came to take a look. Construction doesn’t start until tomorrow, why are you gathering yellow soil so early?”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a big gulp of tea before responding: “I’m not going out to sea today, and there’s nothing else to do at home, so I thought I’d gather some yellow soil first. We’ll need it anyway, and working on the foundation tomorrow won’t count as starting early.”

“Since we’re hiring people to do the work anyway, we should just do the lighter tasks ourselves.”

“This is already the light work. Tomorrow when construction starts, the workers will need to dig holes, quarry stones from the mountain, carry stones down for the mason to shape – carrying yellow soil is actually quite easy in comparison.”

Ye Yaodong furrowed his brows and nodded, “Alright, I’ll go up the mountain with you and give you a hand.”

Ye Yaopeng looked at him with surprise, “You want to help?”

“You don’t want my help?”

How frustrating – just wanting to help out a bit, and everyone acts so surprised.

“Haha, alright then, come up the mountain with me and help with the hoe. Today we can move several more cart loads.” His third brother was volunteering to help – how could he possibly turn that down?

“I’ll only work for a while, I’ll head back at ten. I have things to do in the afternoon.”

Ye Yaopeng’s smile became awkward – so he had thought too much of it. His third brother just came to look around. It was already 8 o’clock, how could he be planning to do serious work? As expected, his character hadn’t really changed.

But coming to take a look and helping a little was better than nothing. It showed he was taking the house construction seriously, which was better than before when he was nowhere to be seen all day. His wife had mentioned that Third Brother had been helping with sea harvesting these past few days – that was some improvement at least.

“Alright then, just come help me out. Tomorrow when construction starts, don’t go wandering off anywhere. Tomorrow it’s my turn to go to sea with father, and Second Brother will be the only adult man at home. Mother and the others will be busy cooking for the workers, they certainly won’t be able to manage everything.”

“I know.”

Ye Yaodong didn’t know what his eldest brother was thinking, and even if he did know, he wouldn’t take it to heart. This was exactly the effect he wanted – a person’s transformation couldn’t be too sudden or dramatic.

After Ye Yaopeng emptied the dirt cart, he took the initiative to grab the handles, “I’ll push, you lead the way.”

“Alright.”

Although the rocky dirt path wasn’t easy to navigate, the empty cart was quite manageable. In previous years when people built houses, they had to carry yellow soil and rocks down from the mountain on shoulder poles, load by load.

These materials were free, only requiring manpower to gather from the mountain.

At this time, house construction didn’t use cement. They mixed mountain yellow soil with sand, then packed it between stones and let it dry. They didn’t use many bricks, as people believed stones were free and made sturdier houses.

For two-story buildings, they would use bricks for the second floor, as stones were too heavy and difficult to stack at height – bricks were more convenient.

Actually, comparing the two, there wasn’t much difference in cost. Although bricks had to be purchased, stones required paid labor for transport, and stone masons charged even more.

Though it was morning, the sun was still fierce. Just walking a short distance had Ye Yaodong completely drenched in sweat.

As soon as they reached their destination, Ye Yaopeng picked up the hoe, “Good thing I brought two dustpans. I’ll dig, and when they’re full, you empty them into the cart.”

“Okay!”

With two dustpans, when one was full, Ye Yaodong would empty it while Ye Yaopeng filled the other. Working together like this was indeed faster than one person working alone.

Soon, they had filled an entire cart.

“I’ll push this back, you keep digging more soil? It’ll save time on trips, one person is enough to push it.”

Ye Yaopeng nodded, “Alright, we’ll take turns. I’ll push next time.”

“Mm.”

He didn’t mind doing all the pushing, since he was only working for an hour or two anyway and wouldn’t make many trips. But unexpectedly, he managed to tip the cart over…

He had only gone a short distance when a stone at a turn caught the wheel, and he lost his balance, causing it to tip sideways…

Ye Yaopeng saw it happen and came over, looking at his frowning brother with a complicated expression. He patted his shoulder, “It’s fine, let’s load it back up. The path isn’t good anyway, you’ll get better at it after a few more trips.”

Ye Yaodong was truly frustrated – he really hadn’t pushed this kind of cart before, but could only comfort himself with these thoughts.

“At least you’re the only one who saw. If Father had seen this, he’d surely lecture me about being useless again.”

“If you help out more often with the work, Father won’t scold you. Let’s get this soil loaded back up first.”

He grimaced – yeah right! His eldest and second brothers worked so hard, but they still got scolded if they didn’t do things well!

After loading everything back, Ye Yaopeng wouldn’t let him push anymore, to prevent another spill. “I’ll push, you go dig more soil.”

“Alright then.”

Better at making trouble than getting things done – he was more suited to harvesting from the sea!

After helping on the mountain for quite a while, seeing it was about time, he left first.

After swinging the hoe for so long, his stomach was completely empty. He needed to hurry back to eat something to fill his stomach and prepare his tools for sea harvesting.

When Lin Xiuqing saw him return drenched in sweat with a red face, she curiously asked, “Weren’t you just going to borrow a boat? Why do you look like you’ve been working? You’re soaked as if you’ve been pulled from the water.”

“I did go work! After leaving Ah Guang’s place, I saw it was still early, so I went to help Elder Brother.”

Everyone looked at him in surprise – he voluntarily went to help carry yellow soil?

Really?

Seeing everyone’s doubtful expressions, Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, “Don’t I have a share in the house? If I don’t help with some work, wouldn’t Father break my legs?”

That was true!

It was only because Father was out at sea these days, otherwise the house would be filled daily with the sound of him scolding Ye Yaodong.