Lin Xiuqing looked over in confusion, and saw Ye Chenghu running to the pile of firewood behind her and taking one out of the sack.
She poked his arm twice with the branch in her hand and said, "Don't eat secretly. Do your homework well."
"Got it. I'll give it to Dad."
Lin Xiuqing looked at his attentive behavior with suspicion, and when she saw that he was indeed giving it to Ye Yaodong, she withdrew her gaze and stopped paying attention to him.
Ye Chenghu's little eyes kept stealing glances at his mother, and then looking at his father in a flattering manner.
Ye Yaodong pursed his lips and said unhappily, "Write it to me quickly, don't be lazy."
"Yeah." Ye Chenghu nodded like a chick pecking at rice and breathed a sigh of relief.
Only then did Ye Yaodong notice that what he had in his hand was a tangerine, not a orange.
He asked Lin Xiuqing who was lighting the fire, "Did our father bring some bitter oranges today? Didn't I say I'd wait for me to be free in the next two days and ride my bike over to pick them up?"
"He said that he saw that the oranges were selling well yesterday, so he wanted to make more money. He planned to push a cart of oranges and sell them every day. He also sent them to us today. After all, these bitter oranges can be stored for ten days or half a month."
"Our father is quite good at hawking goods on the streets!"
Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "It's all for the sake of making more money, Hukou."
"You are already old, so just let your elder and second brothers do it."
"How could he sit still? Last year, he broke his leg and was told not to work in the fields, but he never listened to anyone. He limped but still carried a hoe and went to work in the fields."
"Otherwise, we can ask him to go to the city to look after our store next year. He can sit there and not have to work, which is easy."
Ye Yaodong was just talking casually at first, but after thinking about it, he suddenly felt that it might be feasible
He didn't know who to ask to look after the shops in the city. He was worried about asking outsiders, so he planned to collect more dried fish and sell them in the shops in the city after he got the shops.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t speak Mandarin, as long as you can understand it. It’s okay to just use gestures if you can’t understand each other. There are so many people who can’t speak Mandarin nowadays.
When Lin Xiuqing heard this, her mouth opened wide in surprise. "My father has only been to the county town once in his life. How can you ask him to go to the city to look at shops? He can't even speak Mandarin."
"Why not? He can walk around the streets and hawk his wares. At least dealing with strangers and selling things shouldn't be a problem, right? Anyway, we've set the price, and if someone wants it, we'll weigh it and give it to them. If they don't want it, forget it. We open and close on time."
"But he can't speak Mandarin. The language spoken in the city is different from the language we speak here."
"It's not a big deal. Just try to show him how to speak. Besides, who can't speak? It's just that he can't speak for a while. Just practice. I'll get him a radio and put it in the shop. He can listen to it more and learn from it. It can also help him kill time."
Lin Xiuqing was confused by his sudden idea. He actually thought of asking her father to go to the city to look after the shops
How dare you think of it! Even she doesn’t dare to think of it.
The more Ye Yaodong talked about it, the more he thought it was feasible. After all, his father-in-law was almost 60 years old, so he could just leave the work in the mountains and the fields to his two brothers-in-law. Otherwise, he could ask his mother-in-law to go to the city to look after the store and take care of his father-in-law's daily life.
"Well, I think it's okay. When I deliver the goods, I can replace them. Then they can take the return tractor back to rest for two days."
Lin Xiuqing was confused, "Have you thought about this?"
"I just thought of it! I'm just saying this out of the blue. I think it's a good idea. Before, we were wondering whether to hire someone for the store and who to hire. We were thinking of just keeping it there if no one rented it, and I would go there occasionally to sell something. Now it's good, your father is a ready-made candidate!"
She blinked twice. "Why do I feel that your idea is so out of control? Didn't my father just go from street to street to sell oranges for a few days? You actually thought of... asking him to go to the city to look after the store? He has never been far away..."
"He has never been far away from home, what is he afraid of? He is a 60-year-old man who has eaten more salt than I have eaten rice, and he can walk around the streets shouting. Is he afraid of interacting with people?"
"I will stay with him for two or three days, and he won't need to speak eloquently to help me drum up business. He can just sit there and watch the store. At most, I can write a few more price signs and put them there. When people ask how much, he can just show them the signs, without even using gestures. Most people can't read, so how can they not recognize the dimes and cents?"
"I'm just afraid that my father is an honest man and can't speak..."
"He can't speak Mandarin, what should he say? It would be good if he knows how to look at the scale when selling things. Besides, when you sell goods, if people want you to give them a lower price, that's because they are saying something nice. If you can sell it, then sell it. If you can't, then just shake your head and say no. You don't need to be good at talking. You're not begging them to buy it."
Lin Xiuqing listened and felt that what he said seemed to make sense.
"This... this is too sudden. Let's talk about it in a few days. He may have to sell oranges and grapefruits for a long time recently. When he delivered them today, there was only a sack of bitter oranges left for us. The rest were all sold out."
"Don't worry, wait until the store is delivered. Then he won't have to push a cart around to sell his products. He can just take the grapefruits and oranges to the stores in the city. They're easy to sell around the market."
"Let's talk about it later! Who knows if my father would agree? He is unfamiliar with the place. If he is asked to stay in the city, he will probably feel uncomfortable all over. He has only been to the city a few times in his life."
"Well… "
It would be hard to say if I felt uncomfortable all over!
The old man's attachment to land is indeed very strong...
"Then let's talk about it in a few days. If I run into him in the future, or if we go there, I'll ask him and talk to him."
Lin Xiuqing rolled her eyes at him and said, "You can even make someone dead look alive with your mouth. I don't think my father can handle it."
"How can you talk like that? If you want to praise me, then do it. Can I force your father?"
"You can't force him, but my father will definitely be rejected by what you said, and he might just go ahead anyway."
"Let's talk about it later! If your father works hard to sell oranges for a few more days, he might be able to improve himself. When I tell him about it, he will think that he is old enough and has a place to use his skills. He will happily agree to it right away, right?"
Lin Xiuqing amused him.
"That's my real dad!"
"That's my dad too!"
"What do you mean by father or not father?" Ye's mother called the two aunts over at this time, "Where is the fish? Why isn't it in the yard?"
Lin Xiuqing narrowed her eyes and smiled. "I pulled it to the back door. The front door is full of them and it's hard to dry them. Let's just dry them at the back door today."
"Will it be stolen if it is hung outside in the middle of the night? There are so many thieves, and people don't have anything they don't want. It's safer to hang it in the yard."
"The yard is already full of..."
"You can hang it lower later, one layer high and one layer low."
"Alright, then let's kill them at the back door first, and then take them to the front to dry. Otherwise, there will only be one road left in the open space in front, and it will be inconvenient to kill them."
"Yes." After responding, Ye's mother called her two sisters to go to the back door to kill the fish.
Good things should be kept in the family. Since Sister Ye and Sister Ye also started to kill their own fish and were no longer able to earn wages from them, Mother Ye gave the work to her sisters.
When Lin Xiuqing saw her eldest and second aunts coming in with their own knives and boards, she quickly took out two bitter oranges from the sack beside the firewood pile with each hand and stuffed them into their arms. Seeing that they had no extra hands to take them, she stuffed them into their cotton-padded jacket pockets.
"Aunties, try it. My dad grew it himself."
"Haha, you don't have to give us this to eat. We don't have time to eat it. We are going to kill the fish soon."
"Yeah, we don't have time to eat. You can save it for the two kids at home. Don't be so polite."
"They have food to eat, you can work after you finish eating."
Mother Ye also smiled and said, "Try it. They are all grown by my in-laws. They are quite sweet and have a lot of moisture."
"Oh, well..."
Although they said so, they were reluctant to eat the fish. They put it in their pockets without touching it. As soon as they got to the back door, they sat down to kill the fish, preparing to save it for their grandchildren at home.
After Ye Yaodong and the others went to the back, he said, "I was serious just now. If your father comes over tomorrow, tell him about it and see if he is willing."
"I don't think they'll come here to sell tomorrow. They'll probably go to other villages. They've been selling here for two days in a row. I think they'll change their route tomorrow."
"That's right, I'll find time to ask in a few days. By the way, have you asked your father for money? These 100 kilograms are not a small amount of money, quite a few dollars."
"I gave it to him, but he refused to take it. I pushed it to him, but he threw it back before he left."
"Then leave a sack of dried fish for him in a few days."
"I think so too."