Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Working Together

Lin Xiuqing hurried home first, hugging the large sum of money. Since they’d earned well, she thought it was right to celebrate with friends – she wasn’t a petty person.

When she got home, all the Ye family members had finished work and returned from the construction site.

“Ah-Qing, I heard Yaodong had quite a good harvest on the lonely island today. How much did you sell it for?” First sister-in-law asked curiously.

Second sister-in-law also stared at her intensely.

Lin Xiuqing smiled, “Not much. Mostly shellfish – they’re all piled in the backyard. Later I’ll need both sisters-in-law’s help opening the oysters. We’ll have them as an extra dish tomorrow.”

With that, she turned and went inside. Wealth shouldn’t be flaunted – how could she carelessly announce it and make others envious? Just yesterday, second sister-in-law was still complaining about unfairness.

Second sister-in-law pursed her lips – fine, don’t tell us then!

Lin Xiuqing laid the bills on the bed and counted them again. Finding no errors, she then took out the money from selling shellfish earlier and counted that too. Except for the small abalones which were worth something, the snails and pen shells were very cheap, but the quantity made up for it. These shell-on ones were quite heavy too – altogether they sold for over 8 yuan.

Adding the sales money that mother-in-law had given her earlier from Ah-Dong’s catch, they’d earned over 400 yuan today. For their family, this was a large sum – more than what she could earn in a year of weaving nets.

Plus the six or seven yuan from beach combing the past couple days. Lin Xiuqing clutched the money tightly, feeling there was hope for their future now, and couldn’t help feeling more optimistic about Ye Yaodong.

She felt he had indeed improved a bit these past few days.

After putting away the money, she went out to help open oysters, and other shellfish needed to be sorted too, to make cooking easier tomorrow.

The next day, because he drank too much the night before, Ye Yaodong woke up late. When he got up, no one was home except the old grandmother who was watering vegetables in the backyard.

“Grandmother, did they all go help at the house site?”

The old lady’s face wrinkled into a smile, “Yes, there’s warm porridge and dried fish in the pot. Go eat quickly. You must be exhausted from yesterday? You’ve gotten so tanned.”

“It’s fine, being darker is healthier. Grandmother, I’ve earned some money these past days. Today is Saturday – on Monday, I’ll take you to the county hospital to get fitted for dentures.”

“Ah? No, no!” The old lady quickly waved her hands. “How old am I now? Why waste money on that? Fish is good enough for me, I don’t like meat! I won’t go!”

“Didn’t we talk about this fine a couple days ago? Listen to me.”

“No, no, I won’t go. You rarely earn any money, keep it for yourself. Don’t buy anything for me.”

“I heard it’s quite cheap, not expensive…”

“I still won’t go! Go eat your breakfast quickly!” The old lady pushed him as she spoke.

Ye Yaodong smiled – well, he’d just take grandmother directly on Monday then.

After eating a simple breakfast, he went straight to the construction site.

Before even reaching the place, he saw workers on the road carrying stones, carrying gravel, and pushing yellow earth back and forth. His mother had said they’d hired more than ten workers.

When he reached the construction site, he saw his second brother lifting stones with workers, laying them flat in the large pit they’d dug.

Nearby, a master craftsman was cutting stones.

This big pit was probably dug yesterday. Back then, village house construction didn’t involve pile driving – they just dug about 30-40 centimeters deep, filled it with stones, and considered that the foundation.

His mother had just carried over a load of gravel. Seeing him, she quickly said, “You didn’t go beach combing today, and don’t you dare run off anywhere! Stay here and help, or I’ll tell your father when he gets back.”

Ye Yaodong gave his mother a helpless look – he had come to help anyway.

“I know.”

“The gloves are over by the stones.”

“Oh, where are Ah-Qing and the children?”

“She’s up on the hill helping to shovel yellow earth – that work is lighter. The children are by the stream, picking up stones while they play.”

He nodded and, under his mother’s watchful gaze, went to help his second brother move stones.

His mother watched for a while before being satisfied enough to continue carrying gravel with her shoulder pole and bamboo baskets.

As for his group of friends, after he’d been moving stones for a while, they gradually came to help carry stones too.

The workers, who were all villagers of some age, saw these usually lazy young men actually coming to help, and praised them several times, saying they had grown up…

It made them all quite embarrassed!

Being used to criticism, suddenly being praised one day felt quite strange…

A-Zheng secretly said, “Damn, we’ve always been despised by everyone. Hearing their praise suddenly makes me feel like I’ve made something of myself…”

Xiao-Xiao nodded in agreement, “That’s right. Yesterday I brought home a sack of shellfish, and my wife’s face bloomed like a flower. After I gave her my share of the money, you can’t imagine how warm she was.”

“My mother too – she praised me heavily and said next time she wants chicken, she’ll catch one!”

“Not bad, you guys have it good… Poor lonely me, no one to praise me, I can only keep the money myself…”

At these words… everyone turned their gaze sharply toward A-Guang, “Want to play a few rounds tonight?”

After handing over their money, their pockets were empty again. Plus Fatty and Chen Wei hadn’t gotten their share yet. After what A-Guang said, if they didn’t win a few rounds from him, they’d feel like they were letting themselves down!

A-Guang’s eyes widened as he instinctively covered his pocket, “Not playing, I’m quitting gambling!”

“You have the nerve to say that? You usually yell louder than anyone!”

“Starting from today!”

Everyone rolled their eyes!

The originally dull work became more fun with these buddies joining in, with jokes and laughter mixed in with the lifting and carrying.

When work finished in the evening, Ye Yaodong’s mother quietly asked him, “Should we pay your friends half a day’s wages?”

“No need, just feed them. They won’t work many days, and won’t come every day anyway.”

“Alright then, I won’t record it.”

After working for two days, when Ye Yaodong didn’t come on Monday, his friends didn’t come either.

He had discussed it with Lin Xiuqing the night before – on Monday he would take grandmother to the county hospital to get fitted for teeth, so he wouldn’t work the next day. He asked her to let his mother know.

Lin Xiuqing bit her lip and unlocked the drawer to count out 50 yuan for him. “Take it, is it enough?”

After all, it was what he had earned these past days. Though it hurt to spend it, it was only momentary, and grandmother really did care for him.

Ye Yaodong hugged her and kissed her cheek. He knew his wife was reasonable and wouldn’t begrudge spending money on showing filial piety to grandmother.

“It won’t cost this much. I’ll return what’s left.”

“Mm.”

Monday morning, grandmother stubbornly refused to go, kept saying she wouldn’t live much longer, there was no need to waste money.

Ye Yaodong insisted, “If you don’t come with me, I’ll go get dentures made myself. If they don’t fit well, we’ll have to spend extra money adjusting them!”

Grandmother was so angry her liver hurt. She hit him several times before reluctantly agreeing to go with him.

She was afraid of wasting more money too.