The people from the newspaper office learned more about it, recorded the general additions, and then left with their stomachs rumbling.
Ye Yaodong also felt like he was starving, especially since Ah Qing was cooking at the stove next to him, emitting bursts of delicious aroma.
He had his previous meal in the middle of the night, and it had been seven or eight hours since then. He had long wanted to send them away, but luckily they were smart enough not to stay too long and left at the appointed time.
He handed the five dollars in his hand to Lin Xiuqing, but when she wiped her apron and was about to reach out, he pulled back.
"Five dollars is fine, right? You don't have to hand it in, right? Keep it for my pocket money!"
Lin Xiuqing rolled her eyes at him and kept flipping the spatula, "I didn't ask you to hand it over. You gave it to me."
"Isn't this an instinctive reaction? As soon as I have money, the first thing I think of is giving it to you. It's so good for you."
"If you don't give it to me, who else do you want to give it to? How can you keep money in your hand? If I don't give it to you, you will want to buy everything and take everything home."
Ye Yaodong happily put the money into his pocket and said, "I bought everything I needed. If I make money, I have to improve my life. Otherwise, I will still be miserable. What's the point of making money?"
"You don't even know how to fold it and just grab it and put it in your pocket." Lin Xiuqing caught a glimpse of his actions out of the corner of her eye and couldn't help but say.
"What to fold?"
Seeing her putting the fried bamboo shoots with pickles into the plate one shovel at a time, Ye Yaodong reached out and grabbed one and put it in his mouth. He then took the plate from her hand and helped to carry it to the table.
"Every time I search your pockets while washing clothes, if there is money in them, they are stuffed into a ball."
"It doesn't matter. It can be used anyway. Why fold it up so neatly for a few dollars? Just grab it and put it in your pocket."
"You don't even care about a few dollars? You're rich and powerful, and you wouldn't be offended if it was wrinkled. You never had more than one or two dollars in your pocket before, but now five dollars is very casual."
"I'm not rich, but it's just five dollars. I have to spend it anyway. Where are the two bastards and Yuan? I haven't seen those three since I came back. Where did they go? It's so sunny, aren't you afraid of getting a heat stroke?"
"Ayuan and Ahai have taken the others to the mountains to chop firewood. They should be back soon, right?"
"When did he leave? He hasn't come back yet. I guess he went somewhere to play?"
Ye Yaodong walked towards the door while talking. As soon as he walked out of the door, he heard a voice calling from the courtyard gate, "Mom, mom, there is milk, lots of milk..."
"Dad? Dad, I have milk."
Looking at his youngest son running in front with his short legs, his face red and sweaty, his short hair wet in strips, and his face full of excitement and happiness, Ye Yaodong quickly held his arm and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
We had just walked on the road for a short time, but he was already so noisy. He followed them up the mountain and ran so vigorously.
"What do you mean I have milk? I don't have any milk. You are nothing, yet you are running after them. Look at you, you are covered in dirt. Your mother will scold you later."
"No, Dad, it's 'milk', it's with my brother."
"Milk, huh? Where does the milk come from? You can still go and milk the cow secretly, aren't you afraid of being crushed by the old cow?"
Ye Chengyang looked at him blankly, not understanding why his father mentioned Lao Niu.
It was not until Ye Chenghu and Lin Guangyuan came back with a small bundle of firewood each that he realized what his youngest son meant by "there is milk".
The corners of his mouth twitched. He took the clothes from Ye Chenghu's hand and looked at his youngest son helplessly.
"It's so hard to listen to you. I thought you wanted milk too."
"Why do you want to drink milk?" Lin Guangyuan asked puzzledly.
Ye Yaodong ignored Lin Guangyuan's question, took out a green and juicy fruit from the ball wrapped in clothes, bent down and handed it to his youngest son.
When he was about to reach out to take it, he raised his hand high, refused to let him take it, and said, "Repeat after me, Younai!"
"There's milk!"
Ye Yaodong: “…”
"Ana!"
"milk!"
“Hahaha~”
Ye Chenghu and Lin Guangyuan instantly understood why his father had just been talking about drinking milk or something.
Ye Yaodong reluctantly put away the fruit in his hand and stood up, "Forget it, whatever you have, as long as you have some milk to eat."
"Daddy drinks mommy's milk!"
As soon as Ye Yaodong turned around and entered the house, he heard a baby's voice coming from behind the noise. He was so frightened that he turned around immediately and quickly covered Ye Chengyang's mouth.
"What nonsense?" He looked around awkwardly, luckily there were no adults around.
Ye Chenghu looked at him in confusion, while Lin Guangyuan scratched the back of his head and looked at him curiously.
He glared at his youngest son. If he had known, he would not have let him crawl over to sleep these days.
Lin Guangyuan slept with the two brothers for two days. Lin Xiuqing felt that the three of them were too crowded in the small bed. Lin Guangyuan went to the dock to carry sandbags during those days. Fearing that he did not get enough rest, she asked Ye Chengyang to come and sleep with him for a few days. Anyway, Ye Yaodong went out to sea in the middle of the night.
Who knew that when he woke up last night, he saw the couple stacked high up. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked them, "Daddy is hungry too. Do you want some milk?"
It was only one night, of course the little guy still remembered it.
Lin Xiuqing in the room also blushed with embarrassment.
Ye Chengyang, however, looked at Ye Yaodong with innocent eyes wide open, not understanding why his father covered his mouth.
Ye Yaodong coughed awkwardly, then glanced at the two older kids beside him, "I told your mom yesterday that I was going to buy two cans of malted milk for you two to drink at home. Drinking more milk can help you grow taller."
Ye Chenghu was very surprised, "Really? We also drink malted milk? No wonder Dad is taller than my uncles! You must drink more than my uncles."
"Ahem~ kids, don't ask so many questions. I happened to come back early today, so I'll buy you some malted milk this afternoon. You can drink one cup every morning and evening from now on."
Ye Chengyang nodded happily, "Okay, let's drink milk together."
"Will malted milk be sweet, Dad?"
"Yes, let's go in and eat first."
After diverting their attention, Ye Yaodong also breathed a sigh of relief. If a child is careless with his mouth, he would probably go out and say something nonsense, making others laugh at him, which would be embarrassing.
Although he is thick-skinned, he is not this thick-skinned. He would also be embarrassed.
He entered the room carrying Younai wrapped in clothes, and when he saw Lin Xiuqing, even her ears turned red, and he couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Lin Xiuqing became angry and glared at him.
"Hey, three guys picked the oil."
Lin Xiuqing shifted his focus and looked at Lin Guangyuan, who was shirtless, and cursed: "You have a lot of fruit trees in your own home, but you still go to someone else's house to pick them. If you get caught, I'll break your dog legs."
"You didn't bring any clothes to change into, so I made you a vest. But you took off your clothes, and I don't have any clothes to change into. The clothes I washed this morning aren't even dry yet, so you don't need to wear them this afternoon. Just go shirtless."
Lin Guangyuan cried out in injustice, "I didn't want to pick them, it was Ah Hai and the others who wanted to pick them, so I followed them."
"If you're just going along with the crowd, don't cry foul. You're not allowed to go anywhere this afternoon. You've been running around all day and you're all tanned more than me."
"Go wash your hands and eat."
The three of them immediately scattered and ran towards the back door.
Seeing Lin Xiuqing pretending to be nothing and playing fast, Ye Yaodong suddenly wanted to tease her, so he leaned over to her ear and whispered, "Stack it high, drink milk!"
The blush on Lin Xiuqing's face, which had just faded, instantly returned. She bit her lower lip and glared at him fiercely, "Go sleep on the floor next door tonight."
"No! I want to sleep in the bed."
"Don't you always think that sleeping on the bed is uncomfortable and sleeping on the floor is better?"
"That's because the bunk bed squeaks. Hmm, when are we going to change the bed?"
Lin Xiuqing nudged his chest with her elbow, watched the children run in again, waving their hands, and stopped talking.
Ye Yaodong also restrained himself. Seeing the water droplets on the three hands bouncing back and forth, he said to them, "Wipe your hands clean and don't shake them around."
The three of them laughed and wiped their hands on their bodies twice before going to the table.
"Has the old lady finished chanting yet?"
"I gonna go see."
Lin Xiuqing went inside and called out, and the old lady came out holding the Buddhist beads in her hand. She said with a smile, "The little ones are noisy all day long. It's rare that they are quiet for a while this morning, so I can recite the sutra for a while longer."
"What's the point of chanting so much? If you worship Mazu and Bodhisattva, won't they think you are not loyal?"
"Nonsense, there is no conflict. Just be sincere when you worship Buddha. The sutras I recite are all recorded in this string of Buddhist beads..."
"Okay, okay, then you should recite more after dinner, and let the gods and Buddhas in the sky bless you."
"Why do you want to bless me? You want the Bodhisattva to bless you, to bless our whole family to be safe and sound, and to let your grandfather bless you too."
Thinking of the jokes he heard in his previous life, he chuckled, "Life is tiring enough, I'd better let my grandfather rest in peace in the underworld and not be too busy."
The old lady slapped him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Ye Yaodong shrugged and said with a chuckle, "It's almost the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. I'll burn more paper money for him then, so that he can eat and spend as he pleases. Whether or not I bless him, I'll decide when he's free."
"You kid..."
Ye Chenghu interrupted, "Atai, I am the child! My father is that old now, he even has a beard."
The old lady smiled and gave him a piece of egg. "You are all children. Eat more. Only when you eat more can you grow taller. You will be energetic only when you grow as tall as your father."
"My dad said drinking milk can help you grow taller... He also drinks..."
Lin Xiuqing's hand holding the tachyon trembled a bit...
Ye Yaodong nervously interrupted his eldest son and said, "Yes, drinking more milk can help you grow taller. I also drank a lot of milk. I still remember when I was a child, the old lady secretly squeezed a big bowl of goat milk from the mountain every day and boiled it for me to drink."
The old lady smiled and said, "You were so skinny and small at that time, and it was hard to raise you. Your mother had nothing to eat and no milk, so I squeezed goat milk from the mountain and brought it back for you to drink. You drank this milk until you were several years old..."
"When you were a child, you were fair and clean, very pretty, just like the boy in front of Guanyin..."
When talking about his childhood, the old lady fell into memories, and the smile on her face became deeper and deeper...
Ye Yaodong also breathed a sigh of relief...