Chapter 2: How Much Did the Large Yellow Croakers Sell For?

This matter really wasn’t suitable to bring out into the open.

When the old man’s funeral was held two years ago, all the neighbors had come to help, and everyone knew exactly how the inheritance had been divided.

It had already been two years since the division, and nobody had raised any objections all that time. Now that Father Ye had suddenly made a large sum of money, his brothers jumping out to demand a share really didn’t sound good.

If Father Ye and their mother were willing to give them some money, then outsiders naturally couldn’t interfere. But if they weren’t willing, the two brothers really couldn’t openly demand a share in front of other people.

When Eldest Uncle Ye and Second Uncle Ye said they were leaving, Ye Yaodong didn’t stop them and simply let them go.

Who cared if they came back again? Even if they did, he wasn’t afraid.

As long as his father didn’t agree, could they really dig the money out of their house?

And even if his father agreed, the three brothers wouldn’t agree!

Why should they?

After the neighbors realized there was no more excitement to watch, they all dispersed. Ye Yaodong clapped his hands and said to his father and the rest of the family, “Alright, back inside!”

But just as he lifted his leg to walk, a tiny little figure came wobbling toward him and wrapped itself around his leg, revealing two tiny rice-grain teeth as the child sweetly called out, “Daddy, hug!”

While his father and uncles had been arguing earlier, the women of the family had taken the younger children back into the rooms so they wouldn’t get frightened.

When the commotion moved to the doorway, they brought the children back out again.

Looking at the adorable fair-skinned little brat, Ye Yaodong couldn’t connect him at all with the dark-skinned second son from his previous life.

He pinched the child’s little face and casually picked him up into his arms before heading inside.

He still hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.

Sleeping until nearly noon before getting up to eat breakfast—there was no one in the whole family besides him who would do such a thing.

The entire family was already used to it. Ye Yaodong had been spoiled rotten by the old grandmother since childhood, which was why he couldn’t carry loads, couldn’t do physical work, and never handled any proper tasks. Every day he just loafed around idly.

Fortunately, because he never worked, his skin was smooth and fair, making him look nothing like a coastal fisherman. That face alone was enough to help him get a wife.

Otherwise, being this lazy and acting like a hooligan, no woman would have agreed to marry him.

The moment he stepped over the threshold, he saw a pretty short-haired woman walking toward him.

“Give me the child. Go eat. The food’s still warm in the pot.”

Her tone was calm and indifferent, not exactly cold but not warm either. Hearing it made him feel a little bitter inside.

This was his wife, Lin Xiuqing. She was the same age as him and came from the neighboring town.

Because everyone in the surrounding villages knew he was lazy and never worked, when he turned twenty, his parents feared he wouldn’t be able to find a wife nearby, so they asked someone to introduce him to a girl from farther away.

They met once during the arranged meeting, and as expected, his wife had fallen for his face and immediately agreed to the marriage.

But not long after getting married, she discovered his true nature…

A lazy good-for-nothing hooligan…

When Lin Xiuqing had first married him, she had been full of joy and hope. But little by little, she became more and more disappointed in him. Still, she never divorced him. In those days, divorce was considered deeply shameful.

Some women never even considered divorce no matter how badly their husbands beat or cursed them.

If the women in the family didn’t behave, they were supposed to be beaten. That kind of thinking seemed almost universal.

Fortunately, he never hit his wife. He was just lazy and refused to do proper work. As long as she worked hard enough, the family could still scrape by.

And because of that, his wife had worked tirelessly to support him for thirty years…

Then at fifty, she developed intestinal cancer. There was no money for treatment, and she passed away while still relatively young.

When she had lain helplessly on the hospital bed during her illness, he had already been panicking inside. After she died, he felt completely lost.

The whole family had relied on her to hold everything together. Only after she was gone did he realize his entire world had turned gray. But life still had to go on.

That was why, at fifty years old, he had finally started working to earn money. Even though he had never done hard labor before, he was still a coastal man after all, and everyone in his family worked at sea. It wasn’t hard for someone to hire him as a deckhand on large fishing boats.

Who would’ve thought that after only a little more than ten years, he too wouldn’t escape an early death?

Still, perhaps he had accumulated some virtue in his previous life, since he’d somehow been given another chance.

So many years had passed that he had already begun forgetting what his wife looked like. Hearing her indifferent voice now made his chest feel uncomfortable, and he stared at her for quite a while.

She frowned.

“What are you standing there for? Give me the child.”

“Uh… it’s nothing. I’ll hold him. Have you all eaten already?”

Lin Xiuqing looked surprised.

Ever since their eldest son had once pooped on him, he had refused to hold the children ever again. Yet today, for the first time ever, he actually wanted to carry the younger one. Still, since he wanted to, she didn’t stop him.

“We already ate.”

Ye Yaodong carried the child and followed behind her into the house. He watched as she took out a bowl of sweet potato porridge and a small plate of pickled vegetables from the clay stove.

Just after he put the child down and picked up his chopsticks, he heard his father say:

“Your eldest and second uncles are just jealous. The saying about not flaunting wealth really is true.”

Sitting beside Ye Yaodong, Ye Yaopeng frowned and said, “We couldn’t exactly hide it. When the boat reached the dock, everyone saw those golden large yellow croakers. And when the buyers paid us stacks upon stacks of cash, all the villagers saw that too.”

“What’s there to fear? What’s there to worry about?” Ye Yaodong crunched loudly on a strip of pickled vegetables, completely unconcerned. “The money’s in our pockets. How could they possibly take it away?”

“Dad’s probably worried that if things really blow up, it’ll damage the brotherly relationship with Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle,” said the second brother, Ye Yaohua, who looked more honest and simple-minded.

Father Ye didn’t reply immediately.

He pinched a small amount of shredded tobacco between his fingers and stuffed it into the bowl of the water pipe. Then he picked up a matchbox, pulled out a match, and struck it against the side.

A small flame flickered to life.

Father Ye brought the burning match close to the tobacco and slowly inhaled. The water pipe bubbled noisily.

Only after exhaling smoke from his mouth and nose and glancing around at everyone did he finally speak.

“Where’s your grandmother?”

Only then did Mother Ye answer, “Mother went out early this morning. She’s probably at the roadside fields near the village entrance checking whether the corn and cucumbers she planted are ripe yet. Last night she kept muttering that they were probably ready to eat and that the little ones could finally have something tasty.”

“She’s already eighty years old and still can’t sit still…”

Ye Yaodong quickly shoveled the last of the sweet potato porridge into his mouth, put down his bowl and chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and interrupted his father. Then he pointed at several nephews and nieces who looked around five to eight years old.

“You little ones, hurry to the roadside fields near the village entrance and see whether your great-grandmother is there. Bring her back.”

After not seeing her for decades, he really missed the grandmother who had loved him the most.

“Okay, Third Uncle!”

The children obediently and excitedly rushed outside in a noisy group, completely unconcerned about the blazing sun.

Country children were tough. They spent all day climbing mountains and playing by the sea and didn’t need adults watching over them. Besides, summer vacation had just started, so they were running wild to their hearts’ content.

Adults in this era were too busy struggling for food and survival to bother controlling the children, so they just let them roam all over the village.

After ordering the children around, he saw his wife come over to collect the bowls and chopsticks. He smiled at her, then turned to look at his father.

“Dad, how much money did that net of large yellow croakers sell for yesterday?”

Father Ye glanced sideways at this unreliable third son but said nothing.

He’d already told him yesterday, and now he was asking again. Who knew what sort of idea he was scheming?

Ye Yaodong: …

He genuinely didn’t remember!

(End of Chapter)