"Hey, you guys are such a bunch of idiots that you even stole the sand for building a temple for Mazu."
"Come out, don't hide, I can see you..."
"If you don't come out, I'll call someone over..."
…
Several people at the purchasing point at the dock were puzzled at first when they heard the shouting not far away. But when they pricked up their ears and listened carefully, they felt that the female voice was familiar.
Ye Yaodong and Ye's father looked at each other and said at the same time: "Why does it feel like my mother's voice?"
"It sounds like your mother's voice?"
Uncle Lin also said: "I think so too."
"Let's go and see what happened so late at night?"
Hearing some shouting and cursing not far away, everyone decided to go over and take a look.
As a result, as soon as they walked over, they saw Ye's mother being pushed and falling to the ground. The other party was panicked when he saw so many people coming suddenly, and immediately turned around and wanted to run away.
"What the hell, which bastard dares to push my mom?"
"Hey you, you damn bastards, catch them quickly, they are Wang Laowu and Wang Jianqiang, father and son, hurry... don't let them run away." Ye's mother fell to the ground, pointing her index finger in anger, pointing forward and yelling.
Ye Yaodong reacted quickly as well. He rushed forward and kicked the young man in the butt, causing him to stagger.
Then, Ye Yaodong hooked his neck again, pressed his knee against his stomach, and hit his back with his elbow.
Suddenly, bursts of screams rang out, accompanied by his scolding.
"Fuck your mother, you blind dog, you dare to push my mother, I'll chop your hands off, you idiot, I can't kill you."
An old man nearby didn't dare to run away when he saw his son being beaten, and he quickly shouted to his son, "Stop beating me, don't beat me anymore, we are all family..."
Ye Yaodong didn't care about him and continued to beat him, "Who the hell is your family? Stop trying to be friendly, have some shame, okay? Why don't you take a piss and look at yourself? You have the nerve to say we are a family, what the hell is a family?"
When Ye Yaodong heard the word "family", he suddenly remembered that this old man had stolen his scallops. At that time, he stole the scallops from his net and told him that they were family.
How shameless, trying to make friends with relatives everywhere.
Feeling unhappy, he punched twice more heavily.
"Hey, stop hitting me, stop hitting me, it'll break me..."
Ye's mother also got up quickly, pulled Ye's father and others to point at the two people and said, "These two people stole the sand for building the Mazu Temple. Not long after I walked out of the door, I saw a flashlight over here, just a little light, not strong."
"I was wondering, but before I had taken a few steps, the light disappeared. I thought I was dazzled and saw a will-o'-the-wisp."
"Then when I came over, I paid special attention and shone my flashlight. I found a flatbed truck in the sand pile in the corner, and the nylon bag covering the sand was half lifted up."
"Hey young~"
When Ye's mother was excited, she slapped her thigh and said, "Why is there a flatbed truck here so late at night? I wouldn't be surprised if it was a hopper truck."
"Guess what happened? I walked closer and saw that the cart was full of sand, with a shovel on the side, and footprints on the ground."
"It was this father and son. I shone my flashlight everywhere and found them. They were hiding in a half-built stone temple."
"Damn you, father and son, you stole the sand for building the Mazu temple. Tell Mazu not to bless you tomorrow. This is the money paid by the villagers. You are stealing collective property..."
Ye's mother rushed forward and talked swiftly, telling everyone the whole story, cursing as well, without giving anyone else a chance to speak.
As soon as she finished speaking and took a breath, Wang Laowu hurriedly explained: "No, no, we didn't steal, we borrowed it. We planned to borrow some to repair the house. The house is leaking everywhere in this cold weather, so we planned to borrow some to fix it."
"Borrow the sand for what? Who wants to borrow sand in the middle of the night? Did you tell anyone that you wanted to borrow sand? Did you tell Mazu, right? And Mazu agreed to your request, right?" Ye Yaodong said bluntly.
“No, no… We are just borrowing it. We will return it, we will return it…” The old man bowed timidly.
"You're going to pay me back, you're talking better than singing. If you know how to pay me back, why are you sneaking around here in the middle of the night to shovel? You see people coming, and you hide? Who do you think is a fool?"
"No, I really only want to borrow a little. We are all family, so let it go, right?" Wang Laowu said with a smug look on his face, "Just let us go..."
Ye Yaodong threw the young man, who looked like a dead dog, to the ground and said, "You wish. Who knows how much you stole? This is collective property, used to build the Mazu Temple. If you steal collective property, you must let the village know."
"Ah, no, no, no~ Ah, Sheng... Ah, Sheng... Please help us speak up. We are really just borrowing a little. Don't tell the villagers, or we will be criticized..."
Ever since Ye Yaosheng recognized the father and son, he had been looking at them with a complicated expression. He wanted to speak but was too embarrassed to do so, and felt awkward and ashamed.
After knowing that Old Wang recognized him, he looked at Ye Yaodong, "Dongzi..."
Ye Yaodong looked at him speechlessly, "Brother Asheng, you don't really think of him as your father-in-law, do you? You've only just started dating, it's not too late to change him. Isn't it easy to have a wife and children? You can work hard for two years, save some money, and marry an 18-year-old."
"What nonsense are you talking about? We've already talked to the matchmaker, how can we go back on our word?"
"Why can't you regret it? You can get divorced after marriage, so why can't you regret it before marriage? I've never seen someone so anxious to find another partner, and her husband isn't even dead yet."
Don't blame him for speaking rudely, he is just saying what he wants to say. Besides, he really looks down on a woman. She has already found a good man to take over before her husband dies.
This cousin seemed good in every way, and he didn't want to be taken advantage of by a pig. Moreover, if he married that woman, he would not have a peaceful life for the rest of his life, and he had three daughters.
Why not find a young one and try harder to have a son? If you are old, you may not be able to have a son.
As soon as he said "Let him find a younger one", the old man rolled up his sleeves and wanted to fight him.
It was then Ye's father's turn to step in. He grabbed the old man and stopped him, "What are you doing? You are already old, and you still want to hit a young man. Are you trying to scam me?"
"It is better to demolish ten temples than to ruin a marriage. What do you think he said?"
Ye Yaodong snorted twice and said nonchalantly: "I am telling the truth. It is none of my business, but who put you in danger?"
Ye's mother also put her hands on her hips, "Why, can't people speak? We have the right to speak, and Dongzi is not wrong. Let's go, don't talk nonsense with them, take them to the secretary and let the village handle it."
The old man was also a little scared. He wanted to take advantage of the situation, but he didn't want to be talked about behind his back by the whole village.
"Ah Sheng, you can't be so heartless! Talk to your relatives and tell them to forget it. We won't dare to do it again next time. We didn't succeed in stealing, so we just return the things, okay?"
"Now you admit it, it was stealing. You just said it was a nice loan, I thought Mazu agreed to lend it to you."
Ye Yaosheng looked at Ye Yaodong with a headache, feeling a little embarrassed, "Dongzi, let's just forget about it this time. I'll apologize to Third Aunt on their behalf. Jianqiang didn't mean to push Third Aunt down just now. He was probably too anxious and scared."
Ye Yaodong looked at him helplessly, "It's no use telling me, he is stealing collective things, why don't you ask the others present if they agree to let it go? If everyone has no objection, then forget it."
"Okay, okay..." Ye Yaosheng looked at the others again.
We all know each other, so we won't be so disrespectful. We can just say a few words and the matter will be resolved.
After everyone poured out all the sand on the cart, they let the father and son leave quickly.
After the two men walked away, hunched over and covered in dust, they picked up the half-opened nylon bag, and everyone helped to take it down, covering the sand tightly.
He also took a few bricks and placed them on the edges of the nylon bag to prevent it from being blown away by the wind.
"As soon as it gets dark, evil spirits and demons appear everywhere, wanting everything. They don't even show a little reverence for others, and even petty thieves come to steal from Mazu."
There are really a lot of petty thieves these days, and they can be found everywhere.
"Some people are like this, they have no taboos at all. They ask Mazu not to bless them tomorrow, but they get it easy today." Ye's mother also complained there.
Ye Yaodong looked at his mother with amusement, "Why are you out again? You thought the time was just right."
"How can I predict it? I'm not a fortune teller, how can I predict it so accurately? I was just standing at the door the whole time. I just stood up after killing the toadfish and saw the light of a flashlight over here. I thought it must be you guys who came back, so I came out to take a look."
"You finished the killing so late?"
As they walked, everyone talked about how there were still a pile of fish at the purchasing point that had not yet been weighed.
"That's right. More than 1,200 kilograms is not a small amount. Your two sisters-in-law started killing from dawn until dusk. I got off work and came to help. Otherwise, we couldn't finish it. There are too many."
"There are still some that have not been washed yet. They can only be dried after washing. The whole family is busy with it, and the children are also called upon to help with the drying."
"Like this... I thought we could kill them all sooner if there were more people."
"Those toadfish are not easy to kill. Sometimes I have to use scissors, sometimes I have to use a kitchen knife, and I have to scrape their stomachs. It's not as easy to kill as other fish, especially the big ones."
"Then there seem to be more people today, let's call more people to kill together tomorrow."
"More today? Okay, let's ask the wife of Lan Da next door to come over and help kill the fish tomorrow. When we were killing the fish today, several of her neighbors came back to watch and told us to call them if we needed help."
"Well, go back and ask Ah Qing. If you can't kill him, just ask someone else."