The couple pushed the cart and chatted as they walked, all talking about Haozi.
Ye Yaodong usually seldom talked about his friends' affairs in front of her, but when he started talking, he became quite excited.
"If he doesn't settle his wife's family, no matter how much money he makes, he won't have any left. He's calculating and sucking blood. If he makes less, he'll suck less, and if he makes more, he'll suck more."
"You can't say that. Some favors are also necessary..."
"That's what he should do, but favors are usually given and taken, right? I haven't heard of anyone returning the favor. Never mind, he didn't come looking for us. Let's ask Guang when he gets here later."
"I think A Guang seems to be quite helpless. He has an extra little tail for no reason."
"I don't know how many times I've been to his house since I delivered the pears to him today?"
"Hey? Did you give the rat to your other friends?"
"I don't know. Since we bought the boat, we have been busier than our bosses, busy making money and paying off debts. We don't get together to drink and play cards as often."
Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "That's how it has to be. We can't let you guys sit idle. Once you're idle, it's easy to get into all kinds of bad habits, like drinking and playing cards and going home in the middle of the night."
"Look at what you said, how can this be called a problem?"
Lin Xiuqing glanced at him sideways and said nothing more. They had arrived home.
In the past, the old lady always sat at the door. No matter it was sunny, cloudy or rainy, when she was not chanting sutras, she liked to sit at the door and play the radio.
It was either her own door or the door next door. She wanted everyone around to hear it. And it was more lively than sitting alone with everyone else.
When they came back, they didn't see anyone at the door. The couple thought that the person must be in the house watching the child.
"You come unload the goods, I'll go inside to check on the kids."
As soon as Lin Xiuqing stepped into the door, she said something and trotted into the house.
Ye Yaodong was not in a hurry to unload the goods and followed him into the house.
As a result, as soon as the two of them walked to the door, they saw the old lady coming out holding the child.
"Hey, you guys are finally back. This kid started crying this morning and kept looking for you. She kept crawling towards the railings on the bed. When I hugged her, she grabbed my clothes and looked around."
"I cooked vermicelli noodles for her, but she refused to eat a single bite. She kept leaning into my arms, crying and looking around. She looked so pitiful, and no one could comfort her..."
Ye Yaodong was heartbroken to see his daughter's mouth pout and tears streaming down as soon as she saw them.
Her eyes and nose were already red, and now she pouting her mouth so aggrievedly threw herself towards A Qing, and kept leaning into her arms. His heart melted.
"My dear, we've been out for a while and you're already crying so pitifully."
Lin Xiuqing was also distressed, and she kept hugging the child and coaxing him, "Good boy, mom is back, back. You want some milk, right? Let's go get some milk..."
Ye Yaodong watched her carrying the child into the house, and followed her into the house eagerly. He had already forgotten about the things piled in the yard.
When the couple came out of the house again, the child had already finished his milk and fell asleep.
"I should have gone home earlier. He cried so pitifully. His eyes and nose were still red when he slept, and he held on to my clothes tightly." Lin Xiuqing regretted leaving the child at home.
The same goes for Ye Yaodong.
The couple was so concerned about their daughter that no one thought about their second child.
After they sorted the goods for a while, Lin Xiuqing slapped her thigh and said, "Hey, I forgot about Yangyang. I forgot to bring him back."
"Oh, yes, there is also a second one. I forgot about him." Ye Yaodong also patted the dirt off his hands, quickly stood up and went into the house to push the bicycle.
When there are many children in the family, the second child is often the neglected one, especially when there is not much age difference between them like three siblings. Parents will always put more energy on the youngest one.
The old lady also looked at them and said, "I thought you remembered that you were busy right now, so I planned to pick you up later."
"I really forgot."
"He also has playmates at the old house. It's okay if I take him there in the morning and he doesn't come back all day."
But I felt a little guilty that I had forgotten about my youngest son.
However, Ye Chengyang was having a lot of fun. He sat on the front bar of the bicycle, holding a long rice stick in his hand and smiling happily.
As soon as he got off the bicycle, he ran towards Lin Xiuqing excitedly, broke off a small piece of rice stick and put it in her mouth, and then broke off another piece and put it in the old lady's mouth.
"Is it delicious? Mom, I missed you so much, why did you come back just now?"
"Well, Mom was wrong. Mom should have come back earlier."
"Is school almost over, brother?"
"right."
"Then I'll leave half for my brother."
Ye Yaodong touched his youngest son's head with satisfaction. This one was more sensible and well-behaved.
Just when the couple was filled with relief, the dog at the door started barking again, but it seemed to recognize the people coming and barked twice before retreating.
Ah Guang patted the big black dog's head, then smiled and said, "Fortunately you knew when to leave, otherwise we wouldn't have had a solution for our evening snacks."
The dog whimpered softly, then lowered its head and went back into its own kennel.
"Catch me a puppy later and take it home. I also want to build a yard so that people won't come to my house every other day to complain about their difficult lives. What does it have to do with me?"
"Rat?"
"He's okay, he just comes to sit and talk, and helps fetch water to water the vegetables, but relatives are annoying."
Ah Guang brought a stool out of the house and sat in the yard to help sort. He added, "Every family has a few relatives who are easily jealous and like to borrow money. Huimei happened to have a baby at that time, and they all came to ask a lot of questions under the guise of delivering eggs. I used the excuse of being busy at home to evade them, and now it's not long since the full month, and they are coming again."
"Just say you spent the money on buying a boat."
"Alas, it's not that easy to refuse. My father has lent out hundreds of dollars during this period. Some people either use the excuse that their children don't have money to go to school, or that their parents have passed away and they don't have money to hold a funeral. What do you think we should do? It's not easy to refuse. If you lend some money, you can tell others that you have borrowed all the money."
Ye Yaodong also felt the same way. Some people feel that you make money too easily, so they want to take advantage of you and have the mentality of robbing the rich to help the poor.
"You make so much money, so you should spend some of it and treat it as a way to ward off bad luck. This will prevent people from saying that your family makes so much money but can't spend a penny, and that you don't help your relatives when they are in trouble."
"I don't care about that, but my dad said we are all relatives, so it's hard to refuse."
The old lady said, "If you don't have money for the wedding, it's understandable not to borrow money, but if you don't have money for the burial, you still have to borrow some. The person is gone, and we have to bury the old man anyway."
"Yes, that's true." A Guang said sincerely.
Ye Yaodong changed the subject, "Your father won't be going out to sea this winter, so is the boat at home going to be driven by Haozi?"
"Alas, I originally told my father that I would not ask the captain to help with the boat since it needed maintenance and painting anyway. My father also agreed, but he couldn't stand coming to help with the work every few days."
"He even went to talk to my dad himself, and he agreed that afternoon, saying that we would work together until February next year, and we would take it back in March and start our own business."
"I also speculated with Ah Qing this afternoon. He seemed quite excited. He must have agreed to be a partner with him for a few months."
"Well, I hope he is more reliable."
Ye Yaodong pouted, "He suddenly came back to ask for favors, there must be a purpose, I don't know if he has visited Fatty and the others at their homes."
"Probably not. He followed me to the dock yesterday to wait for the cargo. We happened to meet Ah Zheng and Xiao Xiao's boat coming back. I saw that they were all surprised. If I had been there, I wouldn't have been so surprised."
"okay."
"Let's not talk about him. How many days does it take you to make the sticky net? I see you make a lot of them. Do you want to install a machine? It will be used eventually anyway."
"I'm not sure if I'll use it every year. I always feel like it's a bit of a waste to buy a machine and leave it there for only a few months. I'm not like some people who only use sticky nets all year round. If that's the case, I won't be afraid of losing money if I buy a machine."
The main reason is that he plans to buy one or two more boats to make money. If he cannot buy one by the end of the year, he plans to customize a bigger one and install a larger two-story cabin to facilitate his going out to sea for three to five days or a week.
"You've already made so much money, and you're still short of a few hundred dollars?"
"What's wrong with a few hundred yuan? A few hundred yuan is not a small amount. Last year, you couldn't even take out a hundred yuan from your pocket, let alone me. Now when you say these few hundred yuan, it feels like it's not money."
In fact, he was mainly afraid of wasting the money. He might use sticky nets this year but not next year. After all, he has always planned to buy a bigger boat. The machine would be useless if left there, and it would be depreciated by half if he sold it.
Besides, booking a boat would be very expensive, so he wanted to save as much as possible.
A Guang thought about it and it was true. A few hundred was not a small amount, but "If I buy a machine, I can save some effort. Otherwise, how can I do it? I'm already making money, why do I have to make myself so tired?"
If you are not from the same family, you will not enter the same door. Birds of a feather flock together, and even their brain circuits are the same.
"To tell you the truth, I want to buy another boat, even a bigger one will do." Ye Yaodong said this without stopping his hands from picking.
When Lin Xiuqing heard this, she also looked at him. Before, she only heard him tell his father to buy another one, but he didn't say he wanted a bigger one.
"A bigger one will be very expensive, right?"
"Look."
It also depends on the equipment. Today's ships don't have much equipment, except for the power plant, and the freezing and preservation technology is not yet up to standard. But this needs to be understood, as he doesn't know much about the current technology.
Ah Guang looked at him calmly, "It would be amazing if you could change to a big ship all of a sudden, right?"
"What? Dongzi is going to change to a bigger ship again?"
The untimely voice sounded at the door again.