Pulling weeds along the way, they walked up the path on the back mountain. They also often came to this area because there were wild fruits on the mountain and the villagers planted fruit trees. When they were young, they often went up the mountain to steal the fruits. Now it is the turn of the next generation to go up the mountain to steal the fruits.
There was some sheep dung along the way, and a row of small wooden houses could be seen on the distant mountain. Occasionally, you could hear a few sheep bleating and the calls of other wild animals.
However, after walking a short distance, they saw a tree growing not far away, and then several trees growing in other locations, scattered around.
"Those trees growing in a mess on the roadside are yours." Ye Yaodong said affirmatively.
"Yes, we've only been planting it for a few years, and we haven't fertilized it much, but it's growing pretty well. Maybe it's the sheep dung that's used as fertilizer. You can chop as much as you want, my family can't eat that much."
"You can't eat so much. Why didn't you ask us to pick them last year or the year before? We could help you eat them!" After the little girl finished speaking, she immediately rushed towards the nearest tree with a bamboo pole in her hand.
"You didn't ask for anything, did you? My dad wasn't home, and there were so many, I was too lazy to go through the trouble of picking them, and I couldn't eat much, so I asked my uncle to pick them, and I only kept a little for myself, just enough to eat."
Ye Yaodong patted his shoulder and said, "Call me over from now on. I don't mind too much. I have a lot of family members."
"I hope you don't mind the trouble."
"I'll plant two trees at the back door tomorrow."
As he spoke, he walked towards Xiaoxiao, who was yelling at him to come over and help chop the grass.
Although A Guang said that he didn't want to do it anymore, he still helped pick several bunches.
Ye Yaodong looked at the dozen bunches of bananas at his feet and quickly stopped Xiao Xiao who was about to continue picking them. "It's almost enough to share. Don't pick any more. If you don't eat them all after two or three days of ripening, they will go bad. If you want to eat them later, just come back."
Xiaoxiao looked up at the banana tree with a hint of unfulfilled desire and said, "Then let's come back in a few days."
Each of the three people got a little, but A Guang took the least. According to him, the whole mountain was his back garden and he could come and pick the fruits anytime.
After dividing the bananas, they took two sacks from A Guang. Ye Yaodong and Xiao Xiao each carried a sack of bananas and walked back.
When they reached the fork in the road in the village, the two of them went their separate ways and returned to their respective homes, but before they had taken a few steps...
"Fuck, I haven't chopped the firewood yet, Dongzi, Dongzi, don't leave, I haven't chopped the firewood yet..."
Hearing the call from behind, Ye Yaodong immediately ran away. Now that they were all back, who would want to follow him to the mountain to chop firewood
"Don't run, you bastard!"
"Take the bananas home and pick up some dead branches..."
"Let's go together... Don't run~ Damn~"
Ye Yaodong kept running with the sack on his back until there was no movement behind him. He stopped to catch his breath. The sack of bananas on his back was not light, so he had to take it home first.
What's the point of a grown man chopping wood in the mountains
As for him chopping wood and ending up chopping bananas and returning home with nothing left, I wonder if he will be scolded or beaten? Hehe~
Ye Yaodong returned with a full load, carrying a sack of bananas, and walked slowly towards home in a good mood.
The old lady was sitting outside chatting with the old lady next door. She was watching a group of children playing outside. She saw him from a distance and asked him after he came closer, "Where have you been? What's that thing you're carrying in a sack?"
The other children came over and asked, "Ah, Uncle San, what did you bring back?"
"What's in the bag?"
"Let me see it. Let me see it."
The younger ones were not tall enough, so they stood on tiptoe and stretched their heads to look.
"Go away, don't get in the way here. You can only eat it when it's cooked. You can't eat it now."
Ye Chenghai took a look at the sack and said, "They are wild bananas. If they are not ripe, your mouth will be numb."
"That's good to know. Take them to play nearby."
After talking to the children, Ye Yaodong said to the old lady, "I'll pick some bananas from A Guang's place and give them to you when they're ripe."
The old lady smiled and said, "Oh, good."
The old lady next to him smiled and said, "Your grandson is quite filial. He bought you dentures and even picked bananas for you to eat."
"Yes, Dongzi is the most filial..."
Ye Yaodong felt a little embarrassed listening to the old lady praising him endlessly, so he quickly carried the sack into the house, handed the bananas to his mother, wrapped them in old newspapers, and put them together with the persimmons.
At noon, we just cooked a little bit of noodles at home and ate it. We didn’t start our meal until around four or five in the evening.
As soon as the children at home heard that it was time for dinner, they ran into the house crying, climbed directly onto the stools, and reached out to grab something to eat.
Ye Yaodong quickly stopped them, "Stretch out your hands first?"
No one understood what was going on, but they all spread out their hands obediently. The results were each more terrifying than the last.
You don’t know how dirty your hands are until you open them to look.
"You've been playing on the ground. How dare you grab food with your hands like that? It's scary."
"Don't you adults all say that it's dirty and you won't get sick if you eat it?"
"That's talking about food. Look at your own hands. Do you still dare to grab food to eat?"
Ye Chenghai stuck out his tongue, then hurried to wash his hands, followed by others.
Ye's mother's voice came from the back door, "Why are you willing to wash your hands today? And you wash them all."
"Uncle San dislikes us for being dirty!"
"When he was a kid, he wasn't much cleaner than you guys."
"I told you, he still has the nerve to laugh at us..."
Ye's mother washed their hands one by one before urging them to sit at the table. The whole family then sat neatly at the table.
After the house was built, their family went back to eating three meals of porridge a day and began to live frugally again. Today, they can finally eat to their heart's content again.
The children were very excited and they immediately picked up their favorite dishes as soon as they were served.
The bowl of prawns that Ye Yaodong had saved yesterday was the most popular. He was just a little slow in reaching out, and half of the whole bowl of prawns was picked up by Ye Chenghai and put into his bowl, piling up to the top. The rest was shared by the children.
He raised his eyebrows and was about to say something to him, but Sister Ye scolded him first, "You're the only one eating this, and no one else wants to eat it, right?"
Only then did he pick up all the shrimps with a sense of grievance. The other children also obediently did not dare to pick up too many and returned them all. Only then did Ye Yaodong satisfy himself and pick up one each for his wife, child and old lady.
Fortunately, the family will be divided soon, and then everyone will eat their own food. Otherwise, my wife and children will not be able to have a taste of the good things I left for them.
The children were quiet for a while, but after eating a few bites, they started to make noises again, and those who couldn’t get the food started to cry…
After a lively meal, they started clamoring to offer sacrifices to the moon before the adults had finished eating and left the table.
In this era, they have the custom of worshiping the moon on August 15th. But after 2000, few people do that anymore, and many customs have disappeared in the ocean of time.
"It's not dark yet, why offer sacrifices to the moon? Go out and play first, and then offer sacrifices to the moon after it gets dark."
Upon hearing this, everyone had no choice but to wait at the door. When it got dark and the moon came out, they ran into the house as soon as possible, shouting that they wanted to offer sacrifices to the moon.
Mother Ye was so overwhelmed that she could only go and take out the mooncakes that Dongzi's aunt had sent a few days ago.
This mooncake is quite big, about 20 centimeters in diameter. Aunt Ye was very thoughtful. If it was too small, there wouldn’t be enough for so many children in the family to share.
Ye's mother took a wooden stool and placed it at the door. She put the round cake on a plate with three incense sticks on it and placed it facing the moon. After the incense was burned out, she could bring it in and share it with the children.
The children were very expectant and squatted in two rows half around the mooncakes. They looked at the moon, then looked at where the incense had burned, and then shouted to the children next door, asking how big their mooncakes were and whether theirs were bigger than theirs.
After finishing his meal, Ye Yaodong leaned against the pillar by the door, looking at a group of little kids squatting there in anticipation, with a smile on his face. He felt quite ritualistic at the moment.
When these children grow up, the next generation will no longer be interested in eating it. Not to mention the sense of anticipation, they don’t even have such a simple sense of ritual.
"Why is this incense burning so slowly?"
"Shall we blow on it? Make it burn faster?"
“Huha~Huha~Huha~”
A bunch of mouths are pouting and blowing...
The children from the neighboring households next door also followed suit and blew incense in the hope that it would burn faster.
"Ah, stop drooling, isn't it disgusting? How can we eat..." The second niece Ye Tingting slapped Ye Chenghai in disgust.
"Then I'll eat alone!" Ye Chenghai said proudly.
"shameless!"
“That’s a nice thought!”
"You are not allowed to blow..."
Several children puffed up their cheeks and blew hard, and the incense burned quickly. After the last bit of flame was gone, they quickly brought the mooncakes into the house.
"You can eat it now. You can eat it now."
"Mom, grandma, come and cut the mooncakes~"
After the whole mooncake was divided equally among everyone, everyone walked to the door contentedly to eat it, in order to tempt their neighbors who had not yet had their share of mooncakes.
After eating, they did not forget to lick their fingers, ate all the residue and sesame seeds on their hands, and then licked their lips, still not satisfied. Mooncakes were too delicious for them and too rare to eat.
Ye Yaodong looked at their satisfied faces and turned to ask Lin Xiuqing who had just walked out, "Do you want to eat mooncakes? Let's buy a small one tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival. What kind of mooncakes should we eat? It's good enough for the children to have something to eat. Besides, these big mooncakes use animal oil, so we have to eat vegetarian food tomorrow."
"All right."
Lin Xiuqing thought for a moment and said, "While we have some free time in the next few days, shall we move our wardrobe over there?"
"That's fine. After Mazu finishes her inspection of the sea, we can go to the town and buy some pots and pans for the house. Then we can go there."
"That's what I was thinking. I've packed all the clothes, quilts and sheets. You can push them to our new home with Dad and the others on a cart tomorrow."
"good."
"There's no need to call your friends. It's quite troublesome for them to build the house. Since no one is going out to sea in the next few days, we can ask our family members to help."
"Um."