Chapter 16: Recalling the Regrets of Many Years Ago

Watching the two men flee in panic, everyone in the house was still furious and continued cursing after them.

People by the sea were especially taboo about unlucky words like that. As long as there were family members who went out to sea, they wouldn’t even flip a fish over while eating. Call them superstitious if you wanted, but they cared deeply about such things.

Going out to sea was extremely dangerous. Every year, people fell into the ocean and never came back. Nobody wanted anything to happen to their own family.

“Alright, everyone get back to what you were doing. They won’t be thinking about the boat anymore. Before you head out to sea, make sure to inspect the boat carefully too. Don’t go out unless everything’s fine. Safety is more important than money.”

“I know, Mother. I’ve already checked it thoroughly. The first time we launched it, I even invited an experienced old mechanic to inspect it before we went out.”

Father Ye would never joke around with his own life and his sons’ safety.

“As long as you know what you’re doing.”

Father Ye nodded, then took his two sons out to buy bricks and sand. Once Mother Ye picked an auspicious date, they would begin construction on the new houses.

Ye Yaodong was naturally left behind by Father Ye.

Who would dare order around someone who never did any proper work?

He stood there with raised brows, watching his father and two brothers leave, and happily said nothing.

At noon in June, the heat was unbearable. Since nobody was asking him to go, he could take a proper nap and also sort through his memories of what major and minor things happened around this time. After all, forty years had passed—it was far too long ago.

He had woken up that morning still completely confused and disoriented, only to immediately get interrupted by the commotion of his uncles showing up at the house. He hadn’t had any chance to calmly think things through before going out to see what was happening.

After the three sisters-in-law finished cleaning inside and outside the house, they sat down again in the shade by the doorway to continue weaving fishing nets, all while cursing Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle for being shameless bastards.

The house was stuffy and hot, so Ye Yaodong lay on a reclining chair under the shade outside, hoping to cool off and maybe doze a little.

But from the moment he lay down until now, his ears had not gotten a single moment of peace.

The three sisters-in-law cursed for a while, then somehow started chatting with neighboring women, then moved on to village gossip, and the more they talked, the more excited they got. The key point was that their hands never stopped moving either—the shuttle needles continued flying through the nets rapidly as they worked.

Ye Yaodong felt that women really could talk endlessly. Just weaving fishing nets together somehow gave them material to ramble on forever.

He couldn’t lie there anymore.

One woman equaled five hundred ducks. A whole flock of women quacking endlessly made it impossible for him to even close his eyes for a bit.

Irritated, he scratched his head and decided to go back inside instead. There was a breeze today, so with the windows open, it shouldn’t be too bad.

But the moment he stepped into the house, he saw his younger son standing alone beside a water bucket, playing with the water and digging out sand clams. The child was practically leaning into the bucket and nearly falling in, his entire body soaked wet.

“Holy shit, you little rascal. I look away for one second and you’re already causing trouble. You secretly came here to play with water?”

He hurried over and picked his son up by the scruff, then shouted toward the doorway at Lin Xiuqing:

“Aqing, your son’s secretly playing with water again. He soaked himself completely!”

Hearing that, Lin Xiuqing frowned and quickly got up to come inside. Seeing her son’s face covered in water, those big black eyes staring at her innocently, her anger instantly disappeared. She only lightly smacked his butt twice.

“Can’t you behave a little? Playing in the sand all morning wasn’t enough, now you want to play in water too? We’re running out of clothes for you to change into. How many outfits do you need in one day?”

Ye Chengyang thought his mother was playing with him. He grinned brightly, showing two tiny rice-grain teeth, and wrapped his arms around her neck.

Lin Xiuqing looked helpless as she picked him up.

“You’re soaking wet and still sticking yourself onto me. Come inside and change clothes!”

Ye Yaodong lazily followed behind them into the room, then flopped onto the canopy bed, resting his hands behind his head and crossing his legs while watching his wife change the child’s clothes.

For decades, the image he remembered of her had always been that exhausted middle-aged woman worn down by endless labor. He had long forgotten that when she was young, she had once been this fresh and delicate too.

Feeling his direct stare, Lin Xiuqing grew visibly uncomfortable. The tips of her ears slowly reddened. After changing the child’s clothes, she turned and glared at him.

“What’s with that look in broad daylight?”

Then, as though fleeing, she hurriedly carried the child back outside…

Ye Yaodong instantly felt baffled.

She was his wife. What was wrong with looking at her a little more?

He just thought she had been pretty when she was young!

Was that worth glaring at him over?

A moment later, realization suddenly hit him.

Holy shit…

She couldn’t possibly think he wanted to do something to her right now, could she?

Did she really need to run away like that?

Originally, he had even wanted to say that she could leave the child in the room and let him watch him for a while.

Forget it. Better to enjoy some peace and quiet by himself first.

Crossing his legs, he stared at the mosquito net above the canopy bed while sorting through his memories.

Thinking about it, his family’s life had always been fairly peaceful. Aside from building the new houses and splitting the household, nothing particularly earth-shattering happened over the following decades. The whole extended family remained safe and healthy.

No, wait—

He suddenly remembered an extremely important matter he had forgotten long ago.

A couple of years from now, his wife would become pregnant with a third child. But because the policy no longer allowed additional births, she had hidden at her parents’ house. Then, while seven or eight months pregnant and picking tea leaves in the mountains, she slipped and fell. Before they could even get her to the hospital, she gave birth.

The baby only lived for less than half an hour before dying.

He heard it was a girl.

His wife cried for several days afterward, devastated and blaming herself.

As for why he only “heard” about it—of course it was because he hadn’t been at his in-laws’ place. His wife was only brought back home the day after the child died to recover, and that was when he learned about it.

Although he had felt it was somewhat regrettable, the child had never really entered the world, and since he himself was never home and cared little about family matters back then, he hadn’t felt much attachment. As time passed, he had long forgotten about it.

Only now, while carefully thinking back, did he remember the incident again.

The moment he thought of it, he abruptly sat upright.

Which year had his wife gotten pregnant with the third child?

He vaguely remembered her belly only becoming noticeable after they moved into the new house. But which year was that?

Tea-picking season was around March, right?

If she had been seven or eight months pregnant, then she must have conceived around July or August?

Was it this year? Next year? Or the year after?

“Damn it, how could I forget something this important?”

Ye Yaodong wore a frustrated expression as he tried to remember, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t recall it clearly. He only remembered that after moving into the new house, her pregnancy had become impossible to hide, so after the New Year she returned to her parents’ home to avoid the policy and wait for delivery.

After racking his brain for a long time without success, he shook his head.

“Forget it. Once she gets pregnant, I’ll know. Better if she doesn’t get pregnant at all. Who knows if the child would survive anyway? Better to avoid the suffering.”

After figuring that out, he lay back down again.

Other than that incident, the only truly major thing in the coming years was his grandmother’s death.

He still remembered how heartbroken he had been back then.

The old lady had been watering vegetables in the back garden when she slipped on a bluestone slab and fell. She stubbornly refused to go to the hospital, insisting she was fine. Then after lying in bed for a few days, she simply didn’t make it.

If possible, he wanted the old lady to live a few more years. If she hadn’t accidentally fallen, her health had actually been quite robust.

Not properly repaying her kindness had remained one of his lifelong regrets.

As he continued thinking, listening to the cicadas chirping outside, Ye Yaodong gradually drifted off to sleep.

(End of Chapter)