Only then did Ye Yaodong realize that he had been busy all morning and had not seen his father.

He patted Ye Xiaoxi's butt and sent her to play, then stood up straight and took out her ears.

"This kid's ears can't stand it. He even leaned against my ears and shook them desperately."

"Does it sound good?"

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes at her who was gloating about her misfortune, and took her hand and walked home, "I'll call her back and ask her to put it in your ear and shake it."

"I don't want it. Who asked you to buy it? Just so you can listen to how noisy it is."

Lin Xiuqing took her hand out with some embarrassment, "We are already an old married couple, and they are still holding hands. What does it look like?"

"I'm telling you, we seem to be old enough that it's normal for us to be led around by someone in our 70s or 80s."

"You asked your father and your mother to walk hand in hand?"

Ye Yaodong imagined that scene and shuddered.

"Am I too full?"

Without saying this, he strode towards the house. After taking two steps, he turned around to urge me.

"Hurry up, I'm starving."

"It's all heated in the pot, just serve it yourself."

When he walked into the yard, he also saw what his elder brother said was the fireworks all over the yard.

It’s really...

There were so many that I was a little surprised. Those who didn't know better thought he was a wholesaler of fireworks.

Lin Xiuqing caught up with him, saw him counting the fireworks in the yard, and said, "These are all sent by everyone this morning. They are basically sent by people who went out with you, and some of them are relatives."

"Too many, when should this be postponed?"

"I will put two out when the ship comes back, and two more during the Chinese New Year. The rest will have to be sold to the grocery store? Otherwise, it is not appropriate to just pile them up in the yard. If it rains, they will all be broken."

"What are you selling? They have already sent it over and are selling it. They will transport it to the old house and cover it with nylon bags. They will put it out during the Chinese New Year. When Mazu's birthday comes on March 23rd, we can also get some

Come out and let it go."

It will also come in handy on October 31, 1987 (the ninth day of the ninth lunar month), the 1,000th anniversary of Mazu’s ascension to heaven.

"It's okay. I'm just worried that it will spoil if I put it in the yard. There are too many. If there are any sparks, it will be terrible."

"Um."

Ye Yaodong nodded and went into the house again.

After returning home and sitting down, he asked again: "After my father took the gold and left in the morning, he didn't come back again?"

"He went outside the pier and said that you had already gone to sea to unload the goods on the ship. He did not go out again and came back first. My mother saw that he was idle, so she sent him to deliver specialties to relatives and friends. He did not come over for lunch at noon, and my mother still

He said that dad went to my aunt's place to deliver specialties, and he probably had dinner at my aunt's place and didn't come back."

"Oh, I thought he got the gold and quit."

Lin Xiuqing smiled and brought out the rice for him, "What are you talking about? Eat quickly. In winter, the food gets cold quickly. I put it on the stove to warm it. The leaves of the vegetables have turned yellow."

Ye Yaodong took out two chopsticks from the chopstick cage on the table and saw a thick stack of calendars placed against the wall.

"What is this, a wall calendar? If you tear it up and don't throw it away, why are you putting it here?"

"This was saved by your ancestors. After you left, she kept every piece she tore off so that she could easily count the days. She said she was old and confused, and was afraid that she wouldn't be able to remember. No, it's been more than half a year.

, I have accumulated such a thick pile, and I have to count it every three to five. Even your daughter can count from 1 to 10."

"Then I'm back, why are you still here?"

"I didn't plan to keep it. She put it in the room and forgot to burn it. After dinner, she took it out and said she remembered to use it to light the fire at night."

"It's just free time. If you have something to do, you won't have to think about it all the time. I'll buy some wool and knit her a sweater tomorrow."

"I miss you no matter what. I'm so busy every day that I don't even touch the ground. Even when I'm eating or sleeping, I'm still thinking about how you are doing over there. You won't leave after the year, right?"

Ye Yaodong said while eating: "No, don't worry. At most, if you meet a layman coming to the city, go up with him and then follow him down."

"What else are you going up for?"

"Didn't I buy a piece of land? I thought that before I go up there in the second half of the year, if I have time, I might as well ask someone to sort out the land."

"So anxious? Just let it go for now. I've only made a profit this year. I don't know what will happen next year. Who knows whether it will be like the jellyfish you did in Vancouver, and it won't last long."

"That's right."

Without people up there, it would be troublesome to sort out the land, and people would have to be left to build there.

It's good to be used as a garbage dump now, and it won't be too late to deal with it in two years.

"Let's talk about it then. We'll see after the Chinese New Year."

While eating, Lin Xiuqing also told him that she had already counted all the money and put it away in the morning.

Let him wait until he is done with his recent work, and then go to the bank together to change the change. It will be just in time to make a new batch of money and save it during the Chinese New Year.

By the way, I also briefly talked about what happened in the village in the past six months, as well as the production situation of fish sauce.

Ye Yaodong was eating and just listening. Many things seemed familiar to him and had been mentioned on the phone.

After he finished eating, he also took advantage of his free time to tell her what happened up there, and he also picked out the important ones.

"Shen Ming'e? She is the beautiful woman rumored in the village to come to you every day and even send you money for the bank?"

Both of his eyebrows were raised at the same time, "It spread so quickly? It's a good thing I told the truth honestly? Otherwise, would you want to settle a score with me?"

Lin Xiuqing glanced at him, "Am I so unreasonable?"

"That's not true. The main thing is that I am clean and can sit upright."

"Yes, that's why I took the initiative to explain. It's not like the boat matter or the loan matter."

"Again? I have to talk about it when I have time. I just finished my work and sat down to tell you what happened above."

"You continue to talk about your story. Let's change the story."

"That's pretty much it..."

After Ye Yaodong finished speaking, he went to get the photos he had developed some time ago. He described to her where each photo was taken and what the scene was like.

"Where's the old lady? Why didn't you see it? I should have told you together."

"When she saw me counting money at home, she went to sit in the workshop and listened to the women praising you. By the way, she also showed others her gold earrings. For other things, she said she wouldn't take them out to recruit people once she got older.

She is jealous, a pair of gold earrings is enough to make others envious, she puts away the others and takes her time to look at them."

He chuckled.

"Early in the morning, I took the sacrifices I prepared and went to the Mazu Temple to worship. After worshiping, I went to the temple with a cane and a basket to worship Guanyin. Later I went to worship the Earth Goddess and the Goddess of the Earth. She said that the Kitchen God was waiting for me in the evening.

Goodbye."

"Then she also said that she would let dad go to the mountain to worship our ancestors and the mountain gods tomorrow. I saw that she was as busy as a spinning top all morning. No wonder she forgot to burn the calendar."

Ye Yaodong was happy, "Her arrangement is quite thorough, isn't it? There is no conflict with the gods from all walks of life."

Lin Xiuqing also kept laughing, "Yeah, I got up early in the morning and bought everything by myself. There were both meat and vegetables. I also caught and killed the chicken myself. I said I would save it for stew at night. I need to make up for it."

Eat it tonight.”

"It's quite possible to walk."

"Isn't that right? Before you came back, she would sit at the door and sigh every day. From time to time, she would take out your photos and look at them. Now that you are back, she is full of energy and can walk two miles just by looking at her."

"My picture? Black and white?"

"yes."

"I took a few color photos and will get the color ones for her later. It's so unlucky to look at the black and white photos all day long and sigh."

Lin Xiuqing couldn't hold herself any longer after listening to his inner words, and she laughed forward and backward.

She had never thought about this before, but thanks to his thinking so quickly, it made her laugh to death.

"Is it funny?"

“Very funny!”

"What's so funny?"

At this time, the old lady came in from the door with a cane and looked at them with a smile.

"Have you finished your work? I saw you were still busy just now, but suddenly I heard no sound from the next door, and I knew you were back."

"Well, the goods are all weighed, let's come back for dinner first."

Ye Yaodong happened to be looking at the photo and waved to her.

The old lady walked on crutches and said, "I'm so busy when I come back that I don't even bother to eat. What should I do if I'm starving? It's like this when I go home. I don't know how hungry I am when I'm outside."

After walking in, she reached out and touched his belly, thinking that it was flat, so he must not have eaten enough.

"I'm full. I'm not old enough to gain weight yet. If you wait until I'm forty or fifty years old, I'll have a big belly and my hair will be bald."
To be continued...