After delivering three batches of dried fish to shops in the city and ensuring sufficient supply, Ye Yaodong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally I can lie down at home again and have a good rest."
The old lady brought a bowl of hot chicken soup to the table and called him, "Get up quickly and eat it while it's hot. Don't lie on the recliner. Have a good sleep after eating. You haven't had a good rest these days because you've been leaving early and coming back late."
“Indeed, it’s not easy to make money!”
Ye Yaodong said as he sat up from the armchair and walked towards the table, muttering, "Actually, being a waste is pretty cool. You can just lie down and do nothing every day. Someone else will take care of everything for you. You don't have to do anything. All you have to do is eat and drink. It's like a god's life."
"Haha, there's nothing wrong with being more diligent..."
"Why don't you continue to live your godly life? Just live your godly life, and your wife and children can just eat coarse food. Anyway, you have to live the same life whether you have money or not."
Lin Xiuqing interrupted the old lady directly and said unhappily that she was not as polite as the old lady.
I finally have hope for the future, but he actually says such things. It's really annoying. He deserves to be scolded.
"I didn't say I wanted to be a loser, I just said that and I was envious..."
Seeing Lin Xiuqing glaring at him, Ye Yaodong quickly slapped her twice on the mouth. "You stinky mouth, you're talking nonsense. I just said that casually. How could I bear to let you feed the children with bran? Even if I have to eat northwest wind every day, I can't let you and the children eat with me."
"Come on, come on, I said something wrong. I'll give you this big chicken leg to replenish your body. You've worked so hard taking care of three children... Eat, eat, eat..."
Lin Xiuqing slapped his hand away and didn't make any noise. She held on tightly and said, "You eat yours. We've all eaten."
"Have you eaten yet?"
The good meat is still in the bowl!
"Well, Cheng Hu hasn't finished school yet, and Mom hasn't gotten off work yet. There's still some food in the pot. You're the head of the family, and the whole family depends on you to make money. You should eat more to replenish your body."
"Then there's no need to mend it so much, right?"
"Eat it while it's hot. I just shared the chicken liver with Yangyang and Xiaojiu. They have small stomachs and can't eat a big chicken drumstick. You eat it."
Ye Yaodong went to get a bowl, picked out a chicken leg, and prepared to leave it for his eldest son to eat later. This guy wanted to get two 100 points in the exam, so he rewarded him with a big chicken leg in advance.
"You guys are treating me like a child. This is good meat, you must eat the flowers of the motherland first. I just need to eat the chicken head, chicken neck, chicken feet and so on."
As he said this, he stood up again and was about to pour the meat in the bowl back into the pot and get out the chicken head, neck and feet, but the old lady pulled him back.
"Those are for your father..."
"Well… "
"Eat what's in your bowl now. Stop dividing it. There's only one chicken."
His father is really pitiful. Not only does he have to be scolded by his mother, but he can only eat chicken scraps.
At this time, Ye's mother had just returned from get off work. As usual, she was preparing to go to the chicken coop to see if there were any eggs to pick up. As a result, she found that a chicken was missing. She actually scolded Ye's father for not being able to take care of several chickens.
Father Ye lowered his head and fiddled with his hookah, preparing to take a few puffs. No matter how she scolded him, he was used to it anyway. Besides, his mother wanted to catch chickens, so how could he stop her
"Just a few scoldings will be enough. We've already eaten them. We raised them to be eaten. How much of Dongzi's food have we eaten? Anyway, we can hatch more chicks in a while. We can hatch more this year. If there are not enough, we can buy a few more at the market. Otherwise, there won't be enough to kill."
"You old thing, are you greedy too?"
"Didn't we just eat it during the Chinese New Year? What am I craving for?"
Thick smoke was coming out of Ye's father's mouth and nose. He pulled out the pipe of the hookah and knocked it, trying to knock the tobacco inside into the dustpan in front of him.
He was slow and leisurely, and didn't take his wife's words seriously at all. He was used to hearing them anyway, and he would not be used to it if he didn't curse the old woman a few times every day.
"You know we just killed a chicken and a duck during the Chinese New Year. It's not even been a month yet and they're killing them again. The ones we keep are still not enough to eat."
"That's why I told you to raise more this year to save me the trouble."
Mother Ye was exhausted, "Have all of you, old and young, been bribed by him? Before, only one old lady spoiled him, but now the whole family spoils him?"
Only then did Father Ye look up at her, "Is there?"
He thought for a while, "Dongzi does look very hard-working. He does a lot more work than the eldest and second sons. My mother feels sorry for him and wants to give him some support. So why not? Anyway, the money he earns now can feed him for the rest of his life. What's there to feel sorry for? Besides, the money we have is all saved up thanks to him. You can raise a few more chickens and ducks for him to eat."
"You really are... Aren't you afraid of spoiling him again? He was like this when he was little, spoiled by the old lady."
"Then you should be stricter. You've been scolding him all day long, but he still doesn't listen. Anyway, he has come to his senses. Let's go, stop talking nonsense and go eat." Father Ye put down the hookah and patted Mother Ye's shoulder.
Mother Ye's shoulders trembled and she shook his hand off. "Stop pulling and tugging. If people see you, they'll say you're old and undisciplined."
"Who wants to hug you? You're old and afraid of being laughed at, so I just patted your shoulders twice and asked you to go eat." What are you thinking
Ye's mother gave him a fierce look and went out first.
After complaining at home, I went to Ye Yaodong's house. Ye's mother didn't say anything. She just ate and drank the pot of chicken soup.
Ye Yaodong also found it very rare. He thought his mother would curse him first when she came to his house, but he didn't expect her to say a word.
Little did they know that Ye's father, who was gnawing on the chicken neck, had already taken on everything.
While chewing, Father Ye said, "Did you say when the ship will start to be built? If it has started, you should go and see it more often."
"I don't know. It's definitely not scheduled that quickly. It would be great if we could start creating it in the middle of the year."
"We have to go and check it out, and urge them to pay. We can't just ignore it after they pay. It's best to let them build it earlier and show their faces more often."
"Are there really so many ships lined up? We don't see many big ships on the sea?" Ye's mother asked curiously.
"People have to look forward. Who among those who have made money in the past few years doesn't want to change boats to make more money? As life gets better, there will be more and more boats, and they will get bigger and bigger."
"Then you have to be more careful and don't let anyone cut in line. If you have nothing to do, go to the factory more often and show your face."
"Didn't it rain a while ago? It seems to be clearing up these days, but I have been busy with shipping goods. I will go shopping tomorrow after I wake up naturally."
Father Ye suddenly said, "If Ah Hai doesn't want to go to school, it would be a good idea for him to learn shipbuilding."
"Come on, you should finish your studies first. It's useless to learn shipbuilding without knowing how to read. You can't even read the words.
Ye Yaodong also said: "I want to learn shipbuilding and become an apprentice, but I don't have any way. All the people I know in this life are in this village. Can I just take them there and ask them to accept me? I have to finish my studies first."
Father Ye nodded and said, "After they finish junior high school, if some of them don't want to study, let them learn shipbuilding as apprentices. With a skill, they will never starve to death."
"If you go to the next door and tell them now, they will immediately jump up and say they don't want to study anymore."
After hearing what Ye Yaodong said, Lin Xiuqing couldn't help but glance at Ye Chenghu. It was rare that this kid didn't say he didn't want to study.
Unexpectedly, Ye Chenghu had been holding his bowl, listening to the adults' conversation with his ears perked up. After receiving his mother's gaze, he immediately raised his head and said loudly: "I don't want to be an apprentice, I want to get 100 points in the exam!"
Both Ye's father and mother were surprised by his words.
"Did this child take the wrong medicine?"
Lin Xiuqing smiled and told them Ye Yaodong's promise yesterday, but the two had different reactions.
Mother Ye couldn't help but say, "If he comes back from a trip to the city, he will walk sideways in the village like a crab."
Father Ye smiled and said, "It's good this way. If you have a goal, you will know how to work hard. Nothing is better than studying. Your father only realized the importance of studying when he was old, and he even went to literacy classes. You should take advantage of your young age to study more so that you can have a promising future."
Ye Chenghu glanced at them for a few seconds, then lowered his head to eat the big chicken leg in his bowl without saying anything.
He just wants to get two 100s and go to the city, what is his grandfather talking about
The whole family chatted and laughed, and finished the whole chicken happily.
Ye Yaodong slept soundly at night without any dreams. Only at dawn did he realize that someone had observed that the wind and waves were not strong, so several large and small ships went out to sea.
As soon as he got up, he stood at the door and looked at the sea in the distance. "These people are really active. They get up in the middle of the night to check the wind and waves. There is indeed no wind this morning."
"We rely on the weather for our living. We have to look at the weather more closely and make money whenever we have the chance. The villagers focus on the wind and waves every day when the weather clears up. Don't they go out to sea at night?"
"Big brother and second brother are there too?"
"I heard he went there this morning."
"That's fine. After I finish breakfast, I'll ask Dad to go up and set up the sticky nets. We don't have to haul the nets at night. We can set up the sticky nets now. We'll collect them tomorrow anyway, so we won't go to the shipyard for now."
"Then we're going out to sea. I have to prepare food for you quickly."
Lin Xiuqing hurried into the house to prepare a lunch box for him. "I didn't tell you this in advance, and I didn't prepare any rice. I'll fry a large portion of rice cake for you and put it in the lunch box. You can take it on board and heat it up on the stove when the time comes. This way you won't have time to cook when you're too busy."
"It's okay, take your time. I still have to eat breakfast, move all the sticky nets to the cart, and go tell my dad. Didn't my dad come this morning?"
If he came, he should have been called up early to set the net.
"Uncle Pei called him away, and I don't know if he came back."
"Why does Uncle Pei call me dad?"
"I'm not sure. It seems like he said a friend had a boat docking and asked our dad to go over and take a look."
Ye Yaodong was confused. His friend's boat was docked, so why did he ask his father to go over