With something on her mind, and it was a big deal for their family, Lin Xiuqing sat at the door all day, looking into the distance from time to time, hoping that Ye Yaodong would come back.
The old lady knew it was already half past two, so she picked a bunch of sweet potato vines from the vegetable garden and walked over.
"Adong likes this, let's fry him some later. They should be back soon, right? Let's put the rice in to cook first. When they come back, they might be in a hurry to collect the dried fish right away. What if they don't have time to eat?"
"Yes, that's what you said. I'll go put the rice down to cook. When he comes back, I'll let them eat first and then work after they finish eating."
After Lin Xiuqing finished speaking, she rolled up the sleeve of her sweater, which had just started to break, put it in the basket, then got up and went into the house to cook.
"Go ahead, I'll pick these sweet potato vines, wash them, and bring them in for you."
As soon as Ye Yaodong came back and before he even got home, he saw white smoke coming out of his chimney. He wondered why he was cooking so soon today.
He thought he had remembered the time wrong, so he looked at his watch to make sure it was only three o'clock.
"Dongzi, are you back? Come in and sit down for a while. It's cold outside. Sit in front of the stove and rub your hands to warm them up."
"Cooking so early?" he said as he walked into the house.
"Go in and tell her. Ah Qing received a call this morning. Ask her to tell you."
"What phone call... huh?"
He got stuck in the middle of his words, then suddenly realized what was going on. His eyes widened in surprise, "Is it the army calling?"
The old lady smiled and said nothing.
Lin Xiuqing sat in front of the stove holding a pair of fire tongs and looked at him with a smile, "I don't know if it was a call from the army, he didn't say clearly..."
"Ah...no?" Ye Yaodong was instantly disappointed again.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Let me finish my words... I don't know if it was a call from the army, after all, the other party didn't say it clearly, but he told me that his name is Zhao Weimin, and he asked you to deliver 1,000 kilograms of dried fish to the same place yesterday morning tomorrow, at the same time."
Ye Yaodong's heart was in turmoil because of her, and he said angrily: "Woman, you have to divide a sentence into several parts, and you almost made me happy for nothing."
"Zhao Weimin is the logistics team leader Zhao. He is the one who collects the dried fish. He called this morning and said he wanted 1,000 kilograms, right? I'll go ask the neighbors, and ask my eldest and second brothers, to see how much they have."
"Don't worry, the rice is already cooked. We just need to fry the sweet potato vines and we can eat. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll be busy collecting dried fish and won't have time to eat."
"It's okay, it's okay. I'll go ask them first. They probably don't have much stock. They left some for drying yesterday. It will probably take four or five days to dry. Not many households dried much stock in the past period of time."
"Then I'll call you later."
Ye Yaodong didn't even wash his hands or drink a sip of water before he hurried out again.
The old lady looked at his hurried back and couldn't help but say, "I should have called him to eat first, and then told him while he was eating. He just came back and he left again before he could even sit down."
"The food isn't ready yet, so it's okay to ask him next door first."
"Then at least sit down and rest for a while."
"You asked him to come and ask me, didn't I tell him? He's anxious too, what can I do? It won't take long, just ask him to come back and eat after the food is cooked, it won't take more than a few minutes."
"Um."
Lin Xiuqing brought out all the dishes and put a large bowl of rice on the table. She then heated the pan, added oil, quickly poured the sweet potato vines in and stir-fried them, then added the chopped garlic and continued stir-frying.
She was still muttering, "There's nothing delicious to eat, but he likes to eat sweet potato vines. I've never seen him eat them before... People feed them to pigs, but he suddenly likes them and snatches food from pigs..."
"What's the big deal? It's so cold, and besides radishes and cabbages, there are only leeks and sweet potato vines that grow the best. We didn't have anything to eat before, but we still ate them all."
Lin Xiuqing just muttered a few words and listened to the old lady's rebuttal without saying a word.
Ye Yaodong went out for a walk, talked to his neighbors and then came back.
"What's the deal? How much do you all weigh?"
"I don't know, there aren't many. I asked them to pick out the varieties first, and then come over to weigh them. Eat first, and then work after that."
He went to wash his hands before sitting down and picking up the snack to eat.
Lin Xiuqing also sat down. "I received a call this morning. I was thinking of buying a few hundred kilograms for you when I came back, but the old lady said she didn't know what you were planning to do. It's still not too late for you to come back. I thought about it and I don't know how much you were going to pay. Is it the same price you agreed to with the eldest and second brothers yesterday?"
"Yes, that's right. This way it's easier to settle accounts. What if someone gets jealous and feels bad for me making money? They go and ask me about the price of something. Then they come back and say I'm black-hearted and exploiting my fellow villagers. That would be bad."
"That's true. We haven't even made any money yet, but people in the village are already saying that we've earned several thousand dollars." Lin Xiuqing was well aware of rumors.
Ye Yaodong saw that the old lady had not taken a seat yet, and Ah Qing had not filled her meal, so he asked in confusion, "Why aren't you eating yet? What are you looking at? And where are the two children? Have you called them?"
The old lady smiled and said, "I'm not hungry. It's not time for dinner yet. I'll wait for the two children to eat together later. They are so busy playing that they are nowhere to be seen. It's a bit early now."
"Just eat it all at once. If you're hungry at night, you can cook noodles. This way you don't have to reheat the dishes again and again."
"You have to work quickly, so eat first and don't worry about us."
"It's up to you then."
Hearing someone knocking at the door, Ye Yaodong ate a few bites and went out with the large and small scales.
Lin Xiuqing also followed out to help.
There are still 360 kilograms at home, and they only need to collect 640 kilograms to be enough for the time being, but 640 is a lot.
They can't just weigh the fish when they get it from someone else, they have to pour out the fish brought by neighbors one bag at a time and check them. What if someone takes advantage of the situation and throws in fish that are not dry enough or have too much water? Or mixes in other fish
What I fear most is running into troublemakers who deliberately throw stones into the mix because they can't bear to see you doing well. It's not like no one has ever done something that hurts others but doesn't benefit themselves.
After all, these are not his own goods, so he has to be careful when receiving them. Moreover, these are going to be sent to the troops, so he has to ensure integrity and quality first.
However, fortunately, my neighbors are not cunning or treacherous people.
When I went to ask before, I told them to pick them out and sort them in advance. Now that they came and checked, there was no problem.