Ye Yaodong also thought about it and asked his father: "Dad, if I calculate it this way, I have only donated 50. If you really want to be picky, it is not enough to invite Mazu on board?"
"I'll give you 50 and put it into your account. This way it will look better in your merit book."
"Oh, no, no, I can pay for it myself. It's only 50 yuan, not much."
"You've done enough good deeds, and everyone knows it. I was going to give some too, so I'll just add to yours."
"Then list your name separately."
"It makes no difference. I'm tied to you anyway." It's hard not to be tied, as the old lady has a precious grandson at home.
Ye Yaodong shook his head. "That's different. Isn't it about engraving a merit tablet? Of course it would be better to engrave your name alone. Anyway, none of us can afford the 50 yuan."
Father Ye thought about it and agreed.
"Then let's go back and talk about it."
The others were also talking as they walked, and they all planned to go back and discuss it before coming back.
Later, Lin Xiuqing and Ye's mother also said that they would each donate their own money and register it in their own names.
Even the old lady said that merits and virtues should be recorded separately. The money should be donated by that person, so the name of the person who donated it should be written. Otherwise, how would Mazu know whether you donated or not
Ye Yaodong also felt that the merit of building the temple belonged to the builders, which had already put him first on the monument of merit. Inviting Mazu to board the boat was also inviting Mazu, and these were two different matters that could not be confused. At least he had to pay an additional 50 yuan to meet the standard for an invitation.
After a while, he and Ye's father went over and donated 50 yuan each before the village committee closed.
The delighted Secretary Chen repeatedly praised him as a good young man and said that he had thought things through very carefully. "Finally, I didn't bear the pressure in vain."
Ye Yaodong raised his eyebrows, "I blurted out yesterday morning that I should be engraved first on the merit tablet. Does that make it difficult for you?"
"It's nothing, you deserve it! Don't worry, the villagers all agree, no one can say anything."
He nodded. Secretary Chen was a pretty good person and was quite caring towards him.
After the father and son finished donating, they also finished their work.
Over the next few days, the villagers also donated their money one after another. There were hundreds of names and amounts on the merit book. Basically every household had donated.
Those who have gone out to sea donated more, those who have not gone out to sea donated less. Except for some elderly people who donated a few dollars to show their gratitude, most people donated ten dollars.
The dozen or so families who had large boats and planned to invite Mazu on board all followed the rules and donated one hundred yuan.
By this calculation, the donations from this village alone amount to several thousand, mainly because their village has a large population.
If there was no official donation initiative, the villagers in their village could have raised funds to build it, but it wouldn't have been that big. In the previous life, it was built two or three years later when the villagers raised funds to build it.
But now that we have the opportunity to use government support, we must make use of it. We can't just give them things for free. And it would certainly be better if we could build the Mazu Temple bigger.
Thinking about how helpful the villagers were, everyone despised the 500 yuan for the museum even more. This amount of money could only build an adobe house. It was a bargain for them, as they got so many things.
There are also surrounding villages. The villages around them are close to each other. Most people will not choose to donate money to other villages, but those who have boats may not do so. Everyone also wants to ask a small statue of Mazu to get on the boat to ensure safety.
All Mazu people in the world are one family!
In the following days, not only the boat captains from the surrounding villages, but also the large and small villages in the town area who had boats heard the news and came to donate.
Some of them may have just come down from the sea, and just saw the newspaper and heard about it, so they hurried over.
Although there are Mazu temples in other places, there has been no talk of rebuilding or anything like that. Now the Mazu temple in Baisha Village is going to be rebuilt, and it is an official fundraising initiative, which of course will attract more attention. People can also donate money to invite Mazu on board.
The village cadres looked at the increasing amount of money on the merit book and the increasing number of people from other villages who came to visit, and they could hardly stop smiling.
Those people from other villages felt more reassured when they saw that there were official people at the donation sites.
The leaders were also very satisfied, mainly because they had salvaged quite a lot of things, so it wasn't like their work was in vain.
Ye Yaodong also felt that the shipwreck on the seabed seemed quite remarkable. They could actually salvage it for half a month, and transported it away in baskets every day. It really made them a lot of money.
On the day of construction, because of the big waves at night and the villagers had not gone out to sea, they all spontaneously ran to the pier to watch.
Because there was ample funding, the Mazu Temple was designed to be quite large and included a stage with an open space in the middle for people to watch performances.
The original small temple will not be demolished for the time being. It will remain there first, and construction will begin on the land next to it, and finally the small temple next to it will be included.
This will also provide Mazu with a temporary place to rest so as to avoid being affected by typhoons in the near future, and some dilapidated places have also been repaired.
Their coastal areas are hit by typhoons every year and are affected every year.
Four or five days before the construction of the Mazu Temple started in full swing, the house his family built for the old lady and the walls were all completed, and all the workers were transferred to the Mazu Temple to work.
The house was left to dry for a few days, and as it happened to be a good day for the construction of the Mazu Temple to begin, the three Ye Yaodong brothers pushed a cart and moved all the old lady's things over.
The old lady's eyes were all smiles with joy. She stood at the door of the new house and kept muttering, "Why did you go to so much trouble? I've been living well in my hometown, but you insisted on asking me to move in. How many days can I stay here..."
Ye's mother also muttered, "You fenced off such a large yard. How much did it cost? Are you afraid that someone will come to your door and spit out the melon seed shells, or are you afraid that the vegetables will be stolen? No one else has fenced off the entire piece of land like you did?"
This time, before Ye Yaodong could refute, Ye's father spoke first, "Why do you care what he does? Just fence it off. His house is right next to it, so it doesn't bother anyone. Besides, the land he fenced off is his."
This is true. If he circled it, it would be his. He went to the village committee a few days ago and told them about it. They allowed him to circle it without even asking for money.
"I'm just afraid that he'll squander all the family wealth. What's the point of keeping it in a circle?"
"This is land, what use do you think it has?"
Ye's mother stopped talking too.
Mrs. Ye frowned and said, "If we had known earlier, we wouldn't have chosen the middle. If we had chosen the side, there would have been more land. Now we can only grow vegetables on the slope at the back."
Mrs. Ye was also secretly wondering whether she should also fence off the land in front of the house
Otherwise, if someone comes here to build a house, they will use the land she has cleared for temporary vegetable planting to build the house, and she will have no place to grow vegetables.
But when she thought about the money required to buy the plants and to fence them off, she immediately gave up the idea. She could grow them now anyway, so there was no need to spend money to fence them off.
After hearing what his second sister-in-law said, Ye Yaodong said seriously: "At that time, it was divided from big to small, with big on the left and small on the right. Isn't it the same for brothers in the village to build houses with big on the left and small on the right? You didn't object at the time. Anyway, no matter how you were arranged, you were in the middle."
"Besides, I bought the land with my own money, and built the fence with my own money. I was robbed once before, so I thought I might as well build a fence since I was going to build a house."
Ye Yaodong also told the bricklayer the same thing, saying that he had been thieved once before, but luckily there was no loss, so he built a brick just in case to avoid losing money, which would be a small matter, but also the serious matter of family casualties. In recent years, with the return of educated youth to the city, there have been too many unemployed and uneducated hooligans.
Ye's father knew about his family's current financial situation and thought it was a good idea to build a fence. Looking at the broken glass and porcelain pieces stuck on the wall, standing there one by one, they were very sharp on the top, and when the sun shone on them, some of them reflected dazzling light. Most people would have to retreat when seeing this. And there was a dog there, so most people would have to think twice.
After his second sister-in-law diverted the attention, Ye's mother stopped talking about Ye Yaodong and started talking about Ye's second sister-in-law instead.
"If you didn't say it then, what will you say now? If you had any objections then, the three of you could have built separately, paid for the land, and built as large an area as you wanted. You could have built a palace if you wanted."
"I was just saying that casually." Mrs. Ye pursed her lips and turned away.
Lin Xiuqing smiled and changed the subject, saying, "Now that we have a yard, the house feels bigger."
Ye Yaodong agreed, "Of course it's bigger with an extra room."
Mrs. Ye smiled at the happy old lady and said, "Grandma, you must be very happy, right? It just so happens that you love Adong the most. Now that you are living with him in his old age, you will be in a good mood and can eat an extra bowl of rice every day. You may even live a few more years and live to be 100 years old."
“Why live so long? It’s good for a person to live a decent life. He should die when it’s time to die. Otherwise, he will be a burden to others.” The old lady said this with a smile, and she seemed to be very open-minded.
"What nonsense are you talking about? You have so many daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law. Why are you afraid of your granddaughter-in-law being a burden?" Ye's father said unhappily.
"I know what's going on!"
Ye Yaodong said unhappily, "What do you mean by count? You have no say in this. Don't talk about this all the time. Just live your life to the fullest. When you are 100 years old, I will celebrate your birthday."
"Okay, okay~ You have the final say, then I will live to be 100 years old..."
"It's worth living a few more years!"
The old lady smiled and said without any temper: "Okay, okay, then I will live a few more years..."
Mother Ye looked at her grandson and said sourly, "You know how to be filial to your grandma and make her happy every day, but I don't see you being filial to your mother. You just know how to make me angry and talk back to me every day."
"Oh my god, you don't treat me like a treasure like the old lady does."
"How can I still treat you as a treasure? Don't you know your own character? I'm lucky enough to have raised you to this age and not beaten to death."
"Look... He's thinking about beating me to death every day..."
Ye's mother picked up the whip on the table nearby and was about to hit him twice, but he cleverly hid behind his father, pushed his father onto his mother, and quickly slipped out.
All he could hear behind him was his mother's scolding, "Go away, you old fool, go to hell..."
"Hey, hey, hey... you bitch... what does it have to do with me? You're scolding me too..."
"I'll just scold you for giving birth to a good son."
"Isn't it you who gave birth to it?"
Ye Yaodong listened to his mother's loud scolding behind him, the sound of his father being slapped, and his father's crying, which mixed together made the house seem extremely lively.
He raised the corners of his mouth, put on the sun hat on the stool at the door, and walked out briskly.