Everyone in the family witnessed the amusing scene just now.
It would be a lie to say that Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua weren’t envious; even their little sister, Ye Haimei, felt a pang of jealousy.
Although the old lady treated all her grandchildren well, her heart truly belonged to Ye Yaodong.
Among the four siblings and numerous cousins, only Ye Yaodong was personally delivered by the old lady.
It was said that he almost arrived on the beach itself.
As soon as he was born and held in her arms, he smiled at her, immediately capturing her affection and receiving her love ever since.
As soon as they entered the house, Ye Father was still fuming, puffing on his water pipe while glaring at Ye Yaodong! To be honest, even now, Ye Yaodong did not quite understand what he had said wrong to incite such anger from both his parents.
Was it his attitude? Or perhaps it was the accumulation of their disappointment? He pondered, and concluded that it must be one of those two reasons; otherwise, why would his parents be so upset?
“Where’s the melon? Didn’t I tell you all to save one for Dongzi?” The old lady asked as she sat down, noticing a group of children each gnawing on a piece of melon.
She anxiously inquired, worried that Ye Yaodong didn’t get any.
Ye Yaodong’s little sister, Ye Haimei, replied while munching, “I saved one on the stove, Third Brother can get it himself.”
Everyone had shared and eaten together, except him, who was left alone! It was clear everyone was used to this, even the children had no objections, as they all knew the third uncle was special!
Ye Yaodong looked over at the green flower skin melon sitting on the stove.
It was oval-shaped, just a bit longer than an adult's hand.
He had seen some larger ones earlier, like big clubs, but it seemed they had been cut and shared among everyone, leaving him only the smallest one.
This was his favorite type of melon, and right now, many people were growing it as it was quite cheap.
In later years, hardly anyone would grow this kind; they all turned to white-skinned round melon instead.
It had been many years since he last had it.
He approached the earthen stove; the melon was already washed and still glistened with water droplets.
Noticing the cutting board and knife with remnants of juice and seeds, he decided to slice the melon into big pieces, picked one plate to put it on, and walked over to the old lady.
“Grandma, have one!”
The old lady smiled and waved her hands, “I don’t have any teeth left; I can’t chew it. You eat it; why did you cut it…”
Even though he really wanted to eat it, he didn’t want to hog it all, as there were not many pieces and the family was large.
Seeing that the old lady indeed couldn’t chew it, he handed one piece to each of his two kids and gave another piece to his wife.
This action caught Lin Xiuqing’s attention.
Normally, he would just take a piece and start eating without cutting.
Why had he changed?
Once Lin Xiuqing took her piece, he finally snagged one for himself and placed the rest of the plate on the table for everyone to take.
“Third Brother, have you changed your ways?”
“Is eating going to shut your mouth?”
Ye Huimei pouted, clearly too afraid to speak further.
Ye Yaodong looked at the old lady and said with a smile, “There’s now a type of movable denture that you can wear while eating, you can chew meat and all. After you’ve eaten, you just need to wash it and you can use it again next time. When I go to the town next, I’ll ask at the hospital about it and get one for you. Then you can eat meat, anything, you like!”
“Oh dear, don’t waste that money. I’m already half underground; I just need some porridge and fermented tofu to go with it. And I eat vegetarian half the month…”
“But you can have meat on your non-vegetarian days! It’s settled!”
“I’m so old; why eat meat now? Isn’t fish better than meat? We people by the sea can just have fish.” The old lady chuckled, her face blooming with joy inside as she actually appreciated his concern!
“Fish is good, but meat is also good, we should have both.”
Everyone in the room watched their interaction, thinking that the third son did have some conscience, showing that the old lady truly cared for him.
At that moment, Ye Mother came in after peeling corn.
Ye Da Sao approached her, “Mother, let me cook.”
“It’s fine, I’ll do it. You go watch the children.”
The old lady turned to Ye Father, “I noticed the corn husks are black; they are almost done. In a few days, let’s go pick the corn. We need to avoid leaving them too long in the field; they will be too old and won’t taste good.”
Ye Father held his water pipe and glared, “I have no time for that! The boat has just been repaired, and with so many new hands around, I need to take the eldest and second out to sea a few more times and see if we can catch some big fish! The third son just loafs about; let him take the younger ones with him to pick the corn and then come back to tell me.”
“It would be strange if he can pick it! We can’t even see him most days! I’ll take the children to go pick.” Ye Mother said, grabbing a handful of straw, tossing a match into the stove, and following up with her reply.
Thinking about how the third son couldn’t pick, Ye Father recalled a few years back when the team assigned him the task of carrying grain and he ended up dropping it in the ditch, almost losing his mind!
“What good is he? At his age, not even able to carry grain or corn, but instead ends up in a ditch for everyone to laugh at…”
Ye Yaodong thought, “……”
It was an old story, yet his father recalled it so vividly, though… he had indeed been a bit useless in his youth…
However, after having come back, he had planned to turn over a new leaf and be a good person…
Lin Xiuqing felt it was unseemly for her man to be scolded by his own father in front of so many people and quickly changed the subject to save Ye Yaodong.
“Mother, in a few days it will be the first of the month. The tides have gone down a lot recently; don’t we need to go gather seafood?”
“It’s nothing, not urgent. Plenty of kids around. Just let the third son take them to pick corn. After they’re done, they’ll let me know so I can come and carry it.”
Ye Yaodong didn’t say a word; everything had been set for him.
He truly wanted to say that he could manage by himself…
But he swallowed the words back down, not wanting to seem too eager, lest it come off as strange.
He would just carry it back when the time came.
Because their family was poor and could not afford to build houses, they had not split up and lived together as one big family.
However, each household made their own money doing odd jobs and fishing, and those earnings belonged to themselves.
Their lives were supported by the sea's bounties, and with abundant resources, they didn’t need to spend much.
Therefore, there were not many conflicts within the family.
Moreover, Ye Father spent all he earned on repairing the boat, as it was his late father’s legacy.
Fixing a boat was far more economical than building a new one or purchasing one.
Those living by the sea all dreamed of having a boat of their own to sail the seas and improve their lives.
Ye Father yearned for this too, which is why he had been making money to fix the boat these past two years.
Now that the boat was ready to go out to sea, he certainly wanted to take the two younger children with him to fish.
For now, the third son was hopeless, but once the family was better off, he might as well help him a bit.
Seeing that the whole family was busy, even the third son had been assigned work, the old lady spoke, “It’s not urgent to pick the corn. It’ll be fine to wait a few more days, picking a basket each day would be better, so you don’t lose the excitement of it. Picking them all at once wouldn’t be as special.”
Ye Mother didn’t even turn her head, just fixated on the fire in the stove, “As long as you’re not anxious, it’s all good. It’s not worth much anyway, so there’s no need to set up a stall to sell it. Just pick a little each day to eat; if they get too old, we can save them for seeds. When it’s clear, I’ll go turn the field over for you.”
(End of Chapter)