Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: A Typhoon is Coming

Ye Yaodong had no idea about the old lady’s behavior – if he had known, he would have definitely felt very embarrassed…

When he returned home after work, every elderly person he met on the way smiled at him, leaving him quite puzzled. Since when did he become so popular with the elderly?

It wasn’t until he met Xiaoxiao at his doorstep, who asked him how much his grandmother’s dentures cost, that he realized all the elderly in the village knew he had gotten dentures for his grandmother. He was momentarily petrified.

“This old lady really is… really has nothing better to do. I told her to rest at home, but she went out showing off…”

It was truly embarrassing, making him blush. Just like they had said yesterday, ‘Being used to criticism, suddenly being praised one day feels very uncomfortable.’

“Hey, I’m asking you something. My grandmother is just over 70 and has no teeth either. My father asked me to inquire – if it’s not expensive, he wants to take my grandmother to get some too. If it’s too expensive, forget it.”

“It’s not expensive, just over 12 yuan, with round-trip transport it’s less than 13 yuan total. If only I had known earlier, I would have taken my grandmother to get them years ago, instead of her only being able to eat soft, mushy food.”

He had indeed thought it would be very expensive, but hadn’t expected it to be so cheap. If he had known it was this affordable, he would have taken her days ago.

“That’s right, our countryside is so isolated, we didn’t even know about these things. Now that we know the price isn’t high, my father will probably take my grandmother to get some.”

“Go ahead then, I’m exhausted, I need to take a shower and lie down.”

Xiaoxiao pulled at him, “We’re going to Ah Guang’s place to play cards later, are you coming?”

“Not today, I’m worn out from working half the day, I’m done. You guys go ahead and play.”

“Alright then.”

After showering, Ye Yaodong went straight to his room and lay flat, not wanting to move at all. With his current weak physique, the physical labor was really taking its toll on him, he felt quite useless.

Lin Xiuqing carried their freshly bathed, naked little son into the room and put him on the bed, turning to get his clothes, but the little fellow immediately sat on his father’s back, “Giddyup! Giddyup!”

“Ow ow! My poor back! Get off, you little rascal…”

“No! Giddyup! Giddyup!”

Each time he sat down it got heavier, his back couldn’t take it. He was still young, he still needed his back.

“Ah! It hurts! You little rascal, if you don’t get off, I’m going to spank you!”

Lin Xiuqing grabbed the clothes and lifted the child off him, giving his little bottom a light pat, “Don’t be naughty, or your father will spank you, and I won’t stop him.”

“Hehe!” Ye Chengyang hugged his mother’s neck and gave her a smacking kiss.

“How disgusting, quickly put on your clothes and go find your brothers and sisters.”

After sending the youngest son away, Lin Xiuqing asked: “You were working all afternoon and didn’t have time to tell us, how much did grandmother’s dentures cost? At dinner when Father and Mother asked, you didn’t say. Just now grandmother was at the back door, trying to force a big unity note into my hands, I quickly came in without taking it.”

“That’s exactly why I didn’t say how much it cost, I was afraid grandmother would try to pay for it.”

As he spoke, he pulled out several bills from under his pillow. When he returned at noon, he had casually put the money from his pocket under the pillow to avoid losing it while working. This amount wasn’t small these days – if he lost it, forget his mother, his wife would beat him up.

“The dentures and registration fee came to twelve yuan and twenty-eight fen total. Adding round-trip transport, and since grandmother is elderly, we took rickshaws in the city, it came to less than thirteen yuan total, you can count it. Besides transport costs, there wasn’t anything else. After getting the dentures fitted, we came straight home – grandmother wouldn’t spend money on eating out.”

Hearing this, Lin Xiuqing felt relieved. She hadn’t expected it to be so cheap, just thirteen yuan – she had thought it would be several dozen and had been prepared for a big expense.

“The elderly, once they get old, how could they bear to spend money? I wouldn’t want to eat out either, I’d rather hold out and cook at home.”

After counting once, the money all matched up – he hadn’t hidden any private savings. Only then was she satisfied and locked the money away.

Her husband was too unreliable, he absolutely couldn’t be trusted with money.

“Done counting? Come give my shoulders a massage then, they’re so sore.”

“Just a few days of work and you’re already sore? I’m busy, I need to wash clothes.”

“You…”

No sense of romance at all…

He had wanted to chat with her a bit more.

Early the next morning, when Ye Yaodong got up for breakfast, he was surprised to see his father there.

“You didn’t go out to sea today?”

Ye Huahua said from the side: “The wind picked up during the night, the waves were quite high at sea. We came back shortly after heading out.”

“One day not going out means one day’s losses.”

“Can’t help it, the waves were too big. This morning we heard on the commune’s broadcast that a typhoon will pass through our area in the next couple of days. We can’t go out for the next few days, have to wait until the typhoon passes.”

Ye Yaodong looked outside – the sun was still shining brightly, the weather fine and peaceful, showing no signs of an approaching typhoon.

“That’s serious then, not going out for several days means losing hundreds of yuan.”

Father Ye gave him a side-eye, “You talk too much. Do you want to come with me?”

“Do you want me to come?”

This counter-question stumped Father Ye. Although the third son had seemed more reliable these past few days, his previous record was poor, and whether he could actually help if taken out was questionable. The eldest and second sons had recently become quite competent at steering the boat, allowing him to take occasional breaks.

Taking this youngster… he seemed difficult to teach, and it didn’t feel safe handing the boat over to him. If he took him along, Father Ye felt he’d probably have to steer the boat day and night, when he could finally get some rest…

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes – now when he seriously wanted to go out to sea, his father was hesitating.

Father Ye hesitated before saying: “We’ll talk about it after the typhoon passes.”

He definitely needed to teach this youngster, but it would have to wait a while, until there was less pressure. Then he could teach him, to avoid any unreliability. The house construction still needed a lot of money, they couldn’t waste a single day.

When the time came, the three brothers could take turns going with him, each getting a share of the money. Although the third son was somewhat useless, Father Ye still wanted to help him along a bit, to avoid too big a gap between the three brothers.

Mother Ye also commented: “It’s good we dried plenty of fish and shrimp recently, we can use those to get by for a few days without buying vegetables, save quite a bit on food costs. Otherwise, with so many workers, just vegetables would cost several yuan a day.”

Lin Xiuqing came in from outside saying: “Mother, I checked, and the seaweed we dried yesterday can be stored away now.”

“Then store it, we’ll stir-fry some in the afternoon.”

Ye Yaodong looked at his wife, “Why bother picking out the seaweed to dry, isn’t that too much trouble?”

“What else can we do? We have too much shellfish, we couldn’t finish it after two days of eating, so we might as well cook it and dry it, it can be stored longer that way, avoid it going bad and being wasted.”

“Around the fifteenth, I’ll go check around the nearby isolated islands again.”

Getting more would be good, drying it wasn’t bad either.

Thinking of this, he quickly looked at his father, “With the typhoon coming, shouldn’t we move our boat to the storm shelter?”