To go from their village to the county town, they need to wait for the bus on the roadside. If there are passing cars going from the town to the county town, they can stop them. It costs 15 cents per person, but it is not easy to wait for the bus.
"Grandma, you don't get carsick, do you?"
"No, no, I won't feel dizzy wherever I go!"
"That's good."
After waiting on the roadside for more than an hour, they saw a bus coming. They paid the money, bought the tickets, and then sat down.
To get from the village to the county town, one has to take a mountain road. There was no highway at that time, and the mountain road full of dirt and stones would stir up a lot of dust. Looking out the window, there was dust everywhere. Ye Yaodong was so hot that he didn't even dare to open the window.
The mountain road was full of twists and turns, and the people sitting in the car were swaying from side to side. They could only hold on to the handrails on the sides of the chairs. After driving around in twists and turns for nearly an hour, we finally got to the main road.
With the advent of highways in the future, it only takes 15 minutes to get from their village to the county town, but now the transportation is not well developed.
Fortunately, the old lady doesn’t get carsick and is still in good health, otherwise he wouldn’t dare to bring her out at such an old age.
All the way there he kept hearing someone vomiting in the back seat of the car.
After reaching the main road, they drove for another ten minutes before reaching the station. He held down the old lady who was about to get up and said, "Don't worry, let's let the others get off first."
The old lady smiled and squinted her eyes, "Okay..."
The old ladies move slowly, so they don’t want to be squeezed by others. They are not in a hurry and would rather be the last one to get off the bus.
The county town today is not as big as it was in later generations, and the surrounding villages are not included in the county town, but it is still a county after all, and it is not small. There is also a long distance from the station to the county hospital.
The entrance of the station was filled with rickshaws doing business. After all, the old lady was old, and he was afraid that she would get tired from walking too long, so he simply stopped one.
"Ah, do we still need to take this bus? Let's walk by ourselves to save some money. I can walk..."
"It's okay. I'll help you up. We don't need a dime or two. If you get too tired, your father will beat me to death when we get home."
The old lady was so distressed along the way, she kept nagging: "Why do you have to go through so much trouble and waste so much money? I'm already old, how many days can I eat? It's not easy for you to earn some money, just keep it for yourself, I'm already old..."
It is because I can’t eat for a few more years that I want to be filial to you…
"Are you thirsty? Do you want to drink some water before talking?"
The old lady slapped him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "I'm talking to you, but you're not serious. I know you're filial, but grandma really won't live many more years..."
"Oh, stop saying bad things. We'll be at the hospital soon. It won't cost much."
She had no choice but to let him do what he wanted, but she felt very happy in her heart and felt that her love for her little grandson was not in vain.
It was already noon when we came out of the hospital, and the old lady's removable dentures had been prepared.
Ye Yaodong finished what he had been worrying about, and he was in a good mood. "You remember what the doctor told you just now, right? Wear it when you eat, and brush your teeth after eating. It's easy to wear, right?"
"I know, I know, I can, but these dentures are too troublesome. When I had teeth before, I only brushed them once a day, but now I have to take them off and brush them every meal. I told you not to give me a pair, but you insisted..."
"Well, now you can eat anything. You can chew corn. You like to eat peanuts. When the small piece of peanuts you planted is ripe in August, you will have teeth to chew them!"
The old lady smiled so hard that her teeth were not visible. She was happy to be able to eat what she liked, but she said, "Tell me honestly, how much did this denture cost? When I asked the doctor, you winked at him and stopped him from telling me. I have some pocket money, so I'll treat this as my own..."
"No, this is really not much money. It's noon already. Are you hungry? Do you want to go have some noodles?" He quickly changed the subject.
"What noodles are you eating? You must stop wasting money. Food outside is so expensive. Let's go home and eat. It'll only be an hour before we get home. I'm not hungry. Let's go home quickly."
"Okay, let's go back now."
The county town at that time looked shabby everywhere, not as prosperous as their town, and there was nothing good to see. It was not convenient for him to move around with the old lady, and she would be heartbroken to have to watch him spend money.
He waved his hand and hailed a rickshaw to go to the station as usual.
The old lady knew that it was useless for her to say anything, Dongzi would not let her walk such a long way, so she kept silent this time to avoid getting thirsty, as the water in the bamboo tube was almost finished.
The road back was winding and the old lady didn't walk much for most of the day, but she was still tired from sitting in the car shaking all the time and not moving at all.
After her feet touched the ground, the old lady breathed a sigh of relief, "We are home. Our village is still the best."
"Wait a minute, we're right next to the road. I'll go to the field across the street and pick some corn. I'll cook it later and you can have some."
"Okay, okay..."
The old lady waited for him there, watching him pick and peel the melons, pull open her skirt, hug them in her arms, and then go to the melon field next door to pick two melons, hug them full before running over and saying, "You can eat the melons too."
"Hey hey... okay... I'm home..."
It was already past dinner time. Ye's mother didn't know when they would come back and didn't leave any food for them. Ye Yaodong didn't know how to use the earthen stove, so the old lady came up and cooked him some noodle soup.
He hadn't eaten this for many years. After his wife passed away, no one cooked it for him. The old lady specially put some clams, oysters, and dried shrimps in it. The soup was particularly delicious. He was really hungry, so he ate it all up, without even leaving any soup.
Seeing that the old lady was also eating with relish and could chew clams, he smiled and said, "Are the dentures useful?"
"It works! It works!" the old lady said with a smile, "Now I can eat anything."
"You don't think I wasted my money, do you?"
"I can't eat it for a few years..."
"Oh, why are you saying that again? Come on, eat. After you finish eating, rest at home. You've been riding in the car all morning, so don't walk around. I'll go check on the house."
"Okay... I'll just recite some sutras at home. I haven't recited any sutras today. May the Bodhisattva bless me... May Mazu bless me..."
Well... these words are the old lady's catchphrase...
As soon as Ye Yaodong left, the old lady stopped chanting and started walking around the door with her dentures on to show off. She showed her teeth to the neighbors whenever she met someone else, and her eyes became a line when she smiled. She said that Dongzi took her to the city hospital to get the dentures.
Then she pretended to complain, saying that she already had one foot in the coffin and would not live for many years, and this silly kid insisted on buying her dentures, wasting money...
It was not until she heard people praising Ye Yaodong for being filial and blessing her that she smiled with satisfaction.
After wandering around the village for an afternoon, almost all the elderly ladies and men in the village knew about it...
Then when it was time for dinner, the middle-aged people in the village all knew that the third son of the Ye family who was building a house was actually quite filial...