After finishing breakfast, Ye Yaodong went back into the room to search around a bit before coming out again.
“What are you doing? Shouldn’t you hurry before the rain comes? Why are you going back inside?”
He casually tugged at his waistband. “Oh, nothing much. Just feel like my waistband’s gotten a little loose. Going back to grab a belt to tie it tighter.”
“Loose, huh?”
The old lady quickly jumped in to answer, “That’s because you’ve been out at sea catching squid and working so hard lately, you’ve lost weight. Waistband’s loose, your whole face’s tanned and sharpened up…”
“Not too bad, not too much weight lost…”
“That’s only because you were already skinny. If you lost much more, there wouldn’t be much left at all! When you shower, your ribs show everywhere, barely any meat on you…”
“Cough… Well, before the rain falls, I’d better get going…”
“Then hurry up, go quickly.”
Ye Yaodong pushed his wooden cart and set off.
He didn’t feel guilty lying, but hearing the old lady worrying about him did make his heart ache a little—better to just slip away quickly.
Still, behind him he caught the old lady telling A Qing to buy some meat later to cook red-braised pork for lunch.
“Eat meat, grow meat…”