After contributing all the ideas in his mind, Ye Yaodong felt relieved.
The turmoil caused by the bronze tripod now depends on how they talk it out. It would be better if it can be resolved sooner rather than later to avoid fuss and the villagers can calm down.
He put his hands in his pockets and put on his sun hat. He was not afraid of the curious looks from the villagers on the road. He deliberately walked under the shade of trees along the way. It was almost July and the sun was scorching, getting hotter day by day. If he didn't wear sun protection and stood in the sun for a few days, his mother wouldn't be able to recognize him.
It was already time for dinner. Along the way, smoke was rising from the chimneys of every household in the village. Birds flew up and passed by some houses, and fragrance wafted from the windows.
Especially the delicious smell of fried crabs in some people's homes, which makes my stomach growl just by smelling it.
Fortunately, those people had a change of heart today and did not go out to sea for the whole day, so he could go home and have a meal with peace of mind.
Ah Qing was puzzled when he saw him coming back, "I thought you didn't have time to come back for lunch, so you only left a little bit of food and took the rest out to the workers. Then I'll make another shrimp fried egg, otherwise there won't be enough to eat."
"If I don't come back for dinner, where can I go to eat? We are not at sea. I don't have to work hard, just eat a bite."
"It's not a big deal to just fry an egg, and the two boys love it. I heard from Dad that you went to the village committee with those people. I thought you would have to work with them all day again."
"You don't need me. I just came to watch the fun and listen to the news. A few people from the museum came today. It seems that they applied for a salvage team yesterday. There is no need to call those PLA soldiers into the water today. After all, they are not professional salvage workers. They are just exploring the way and confirming whether there is anything on the seabed. The salvage team will be here in a few days."
"If they are not going out to sea for salvage, why are they here today? They don't even think it's hot on such a hot day. I would rather stay indoors and not go out."
As Lin Xiuqing spoke, she cracked two eggs into a bowl, chopped a handful of green onions, put a handful of dried shrimps in, sprinkled a little salt and stirred.
Ye Yaodong sat at the table with his legs crossed, watching her busying around, and casually took a couple of bites of food to eat.
"Isn't there still the bronze tripod issue that hasn't been resolved? Just because they didn't mention it yesterday doesn't mean they've given up. Maybe they're waiting for someone from the museum to come today. They were just discussing the bronze tripod at the village committee just now. I listened for a while and it was almost time for dinner, so I came back. It's nothing for me to do anyway."
"It's good to come back for dinner. We can't get involved in the affairs of those big shots. I heard from my second sister-in-law earlier that the villagers ran to the village committee to cause trouble. What's going on? Nothing happened, right?"
"It's nothing. They were just outraged. The villagers were greedy for money and went to the sea to try to salvage something. There was no way the officials would let the things fall into the hands of others. The villagers were dissatisfied and went to the village committee to make a scene. Now they have been pacified and persuaded to leave." Ye Yaodong also told her about the temple repair.
The egg liquid made a sizzling sound when it was poured into the pot. Lin Xiuqing scraped the egg liquid from the bottom of the bowl and put the bowl aside before saying, "Repairing the temple is good. The tripod is just sitting there anyway, and the temple already has an incense burner. We can use it to negotiate with the officials and get some money to repair the temple. The Mazu temple is all in tatters."
"That's what they said, so the villagers were very happy. They were originally angrily trying to drive them out, but after hearing this, they were all delighted and smiled."
“I don’t know how much money the government can give as reward for repairing the temple.”
As she spoke, she poured a little rice wine into the bowl that had just contained the egg liquid, stirred it, and tried to dissolve as much of the remaining egg liquid in the bowl into the rice wine as possible to avoid waste. Then she poured the wine in the bowl evenly along the wall of the pot into the pot to enhance the flavor of the fried eggs.
Even though she has some money now, she is still frugal, and there are some personal habits that cannot be changed.
Except for stir-fried vegetarian dishes, which do not contain wine, local people have the custom of adding a little rice wine to other dishes to enhance the flavor.
"It's hard to say how much the reward will be. It depends on how the village cadres negotiate. They don't dare to agree to it casually. They have to satisfy the villagers. Whether to donate the tripod is up to the villagers."
"Well, go call the two sons back for dinner. I'll just flip the eggs and serve."
"With the sun shining so brightly, where did those two bastards go?"
"Just go to the door and shout, and when they hear you, they will naturally come out from the corner."
Ye Yaodong walked to the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, but for a long time he saw no one and heard no response.
He was about to go around the village looking for them, cursing, when he saw two people running back, one in front and one behind, with a big watermelon in their hands.
"Where the hell are you? Where did the watermelon come from? Running around in such hot weather. Summer isn't even here yet, and both of them are already darker than me."
The two of them called out "Dad" with a smile and ran into the house holding the watermelon.
Lin Xiuqing was also there, asking: "Where did you get the watermelons?"
"Looking at the appearance of these two thieves, they must have stolen it from some mountain or field."
"Mom, hurry up and cut some watermelon. We are dying of thirst..."
She took the watermelon and put it in a corner. "This watermelon is too hot in the sun to eat. It will give you a stomachache. Wait for a while until the watermelon is no longer hot before you can eat it. Let's go eat first."
"Then soak it in water and it will cool down immediately."
Ye Yaodong patted his eldest son on the back of his head and asked, "Where did you steal it from?"
"Back mountain!"
"You're not afraid of being caught and having your legs broken. When your grandparents send you watermelons in a few days, you're still afraid of not having anything to eat."
"Then we want to eat now."
"Eat your head, come to the table and eat, and don't go steal it anymore."
While they were eating, Ye's father and mother came over to help with the work. Ye's father helped the workers move things around the house, while Ye's mother went to clean up and wash the dishes that the workers had just finished eating.
She kept muttering while working, saying that Ye Yaodong was messing around and wasting money.
Just as Ye Yaodong finished his meal and was about to hand over the bowl to his mother as a token of his filial piety, he heard these words.
"The old house is also very dilapidated. It's been there for decades and needs to be repaired every now and then. Or I can build another room and you and dad can move in. We'll all live here and you two old people will be bored over there."
"What's boring? There are neighbors everywhere. It would be boring if you moved here. You have to work like a slave for you. We two old people live over there. We don't have to worry about anything. We are so comfortable."
Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. "Seeing you come here so often, I thought you wanted to move in here too."
"I have been worried about you for more than 20 years. I come here from time to time because I am worried that you will become bad again if no one is watching you..."
"I didn't get well in the past 20 years under your watch."
When Ye's mother heard him talking back, she wanted to beat him up. "You make me angry every day. If I move in, I'll be so angry that I'll die ten years earlier."
"How could that be? It's hard for you two to cook in the old house. Move over. I'll tell the workers to pick more materials and build another one."
He really wanted to bring his parents over with him. It would be lonely for just the two of them in the old house, and if they moved in, they would be able to see their grandson every day.
"No, you have too much money, right? If you leave the house there without anyone to take care of it, it will go bad. It's a shame to let a good house go bad. I won't move, I'll just live in the old house. Don't mess around. If you have too much money, give it to me and I'll keep it for you."
"It's up to you then."
Regardless of whether to move in or not, he was thinking about whether to build another one? Prepare it there in advance, but it seems that there is no space for building one more room
He walked to the side of the house uncertainly to take a look. There was indeed not enough space. After building the house for the old lady, the vegetable garden next to it would almost be close to the corner of the wall. Even if he used the vegetable garden, there would not be enough space to build the house.
There is a small toilet at the back which is their family's toilet. He doesn't want to share it with his older brother and younger brother's families as he is fed up with the disgusting shared toilet in the old house.
If we want to add more covers, we can only build it up and add another layer of red bricks. It is not possible to build two layers with stones, and they are not easy to carry. Red bricks are more convenient.
Then you have to go to the brick factory to buy bricks, which is troublesome, and it will also be a bit eye-catching when building a building.
After thinking about it, he had no choice but to give up the idea. Since his mother didn't want to move, then let's talk about it later. After all, she and his father were still young.
"Dad, my uncle brought some watermelons."
Ye Yaodong walked towards the door and asked, "Why didn't you go out to sea today? The waves on the sea are not big."
"I heard about your situation yesterday afternoon when I came back, but you weren't there. Today my second sister went to see someone, and my dad said he would take a day off, so he just sent the person away. As a result, I saw a few kids stealing watermelons when I was standing at the back door. My dad shouted at them and they ran away, so he just went to pick watermelons, so I brought a few over."
"Young man, one's own family has stolen from one's own family."
"What?"
Ye Yaodong pointed to the watermelon soaking in the basin in the corner and said, "The two little brats stole it earlier."
"Damn, you should have told me earlier. It turned out to be you. I'll leave the area in the back hill to you. Come back with me later and pick as many fruits as you want."
"Really?" Ye Chenghu thought he was going to be scolded, but he didn't expect such a good thing to happen. He ran out of the house excitedly.
"Uncle-in-law, don't regret it!"
A Guang smiled evilly, "Just don't regret it!"
"Certainly not!"
The corner of Ye Yaodong's mouth twitched. This little idiot, the sun is so bright that others don't even have time to hide, but he is still rushing to work.
Lin Xiuqing was speechless. "You are not allowed to go now. You can go when the sun is about to set."
"It's okay, I'm not afraid of the sun. Uncle, come on, let's go..." Before Ah Guang could even sit down, Ye Chenghu hurriedly dragged him away, for fear that if he was late, he would be left behind by his mother.
Ye Chengyang wanted to follow him, but Ye Yaodong stopped him. "Don't go. Just stay at home and eat watermelon. Your brother is an idiot!"
"Brother, you idiot?"
"Well, your brother is an idiot, let's go and cut some watermelon to eat."