Chapter 36: Good at Ruining Things Instead of Accomplishing Them

After confirming the boat was secured, Ye Yaodong finally relaxed.

He leisurely headed home, but halfway there he suddenly remembered that construction on the house would begin tomorrow.

He immediately changed direction and headed toward the building site instead.

Today it was his second brother’s turn to go out to sea with their father.

His eldest brother had stayed home. Early this morning, after breakfast, he had already said he was going up the mountain to haul yellow clay.

Who knew how many loads he had already carried by now.

Thinking about it honestly made Ye Yaodong feel a little guilty…

There really was a reason why some people’s lives kept getting better and better.

Hard work truly did bring prosperity.

But today was the first day of the lunar month, with a rare massive low tide, and they had already borrowed the boat.

His eldest brother would just have to work a little harder.

Thinking of that, he could no longer stroll leisurely and instead quickened his pace.

When he arrived at the building site, piles of yellow earth already half the height of a person had been stacked nearby.

But his eldest brother was nowhere in sight.

Only a huge jug of tea sat beneath the shade of a tree nearby.

He had probably gone to haul more dirt again.

Ye Yaodong leaned against the tree, thinking he’d go lend a hand once his brother returned.

Ever since being reborn, he had already adjusted his mentality properly.

After only a few minutes of waiting, he finally saw Ye Yaopeng pushing a two-wheeled handcart toward him.

“Big Brother!”

Ye Yaopeng looked up and smiled.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just came to take a look. Construction only starts tomorrow, so why are you hauling yellow clay so early?”

Ye Yaopeng wiped the sweat from his forehead and gulped down a large mouthful of tea before replying:

“I wasn’t going out to sea today, and there wasn’t much to do at home, so I thought I’d haul a little extra yellow clay first. We’ll need it anyway. Since construction doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, preparing the site today doesn’t count as starting early.”

“You’re hiring workers anyway. You should just do lighter work yourself.”

“This already is light work. Once construction starts tomorrow, the laborers doing rough work will have to dig foundation pits, quarry stones from the mountain, carry them down for the masons to smooth out. Compared to that, hauling yellow clay is already easy.”

Ye Yaodong frowned and nodded.

“Alright then. I’ll go up the mountain with you and help out.”

Ye Yaopeng looked at him in surprise.

“You want to help?”

“You don’t want my help?”

Depressed.

He only wanted to help with a tiny bit of work, yet everyone reacted as if it were unbelievable.

Ye Yaopeng chuckled.

“Of course I do. Since you’re volunteering to help for once, how could I refuse? Come swing the hoe with me for a while. Today we can haul a few extra cartloads.”

“I’m only helping for a bit. I’m heading back at ten. I’ve got stuff to do this afternoon.”

Ye Yaopeng’s smile stiffened awkwardly for a moment.

So he had overthought things.

The third brother was only here to look around after all.

It was already eight o’clock anyway. How could he possibly be serious about working?

Still, just coming over and helping a little was already good enough.

At least it showed that he cared somewhat about the house construction.

That was already better than disappearing all day long like before.

Last night his wife had mentioned that Ye Yaodong had even gone shore-hunting with everyone recently.

At least he was showing a bit of improvement.

“Alright then. Just lend a hand for a while. Once construction starts tomorrow, stop running around everywhere. It’ll be my turn to go out to sea with Father tomorrow, so only Second Brother will be left at home as an adult man. Mom and the others will also be busy cooking for the workers. They definitely won’t be able to manage.”

“I know.”

Ye Yaodong had no idea what his elder brother was thinking.

Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care.

This gradual reaction was exactly what he wanted.

A person’s transformation couldn’t be too drastic or too sudden.

After dumping the yellow dirt from the cart, Ye Yaodong proactively grabbed the handles.

“I’ll push this. You lead the way.”

“Alright.”

Even though the rocky dirt path was difficult to navigate, the cart was empty, so pushing it wasn’t too hard.

A few years ago, when everyone built houses, they carried dirt and stones up the mountain load by load on shoulder poles.

These materials didn’t cost money.

You just needed manpower to haul them from the mountain.

At this time, people also didn’t use cement when building houses.

They mixed mountain clay and sand together, then plastered it between stacked stones and let it dry.

Very few people used bricks, because everyone thought stones were free and the houses built with them were sturdier.

If they built a second floor, only then would they use bricks.

Stone was too heavy and difficult to stack high up, while bricks were more convenient.

Actually, comparing the two, the costs weren’t very different.

Although bricks had to be bought, stone also required paying people to carry and quarry it, and the masons’ wages were even more expensive.

Even though it was still morning, the sun was already scorching.

After only walking a short distance, Ye Yaodong was already drenched in sweat.

The moment they reached the site, Ye Yaopeng picked up a hoe.

“Perfect. I brought two baskets. I’ll dig, and when one fills up, you dump it into the cart.”

“Alright!”

Once one basket was full, Ye Yaodong carried it over and dumped it into the cart while Ye Yaopeng continued filling the other one.

Working together like this was indeed much faster than doing it alone.

Before long, the handcart was completely filled.

“I’ll push this back. You keep digging more clay so we don’t waste time walking around. One person can handle the cart.”

Ye Yaopeng nodded.

“Okay. We’ll alternate. I’ll push next trip.”

“Mm.”

Actually, even if he pushed every trip, Ye Yaodong wouldn’t have minded.

He was only helping for one or two hours anyway and wouldn’t make many trips.

But unexpectedly… he flipped the cart.

Not long after starting down the path, one of the wheels hit a rock while turning a corner.

He lost his balance and the whole cart tipped sideways.

Seeing this, Ye Yaopeng walked over with a complicated expression and patted his shoulder.

“It’s alright. Just load it back up. This road’s difficult anyway. Once you push it a few more times, you’ll get used to it.”

Ye Yaodong felt genuinely depressed.

He really had never pushed this kind of cart before.

That was the only way he could comfort himself.

“Good thing you were the one who saw it. If Father saw this, he’d probably start yelling about me being hopeless again.”

“As long as you work harder and help out more, Father won’t scold you. Come on, load the dirt back up first.”

Ye Yaodong curled his lips.

Yeah right.

His elder and second brothers worked their asses off every day and still got scolded when they messed up.

After reloading the dirt, Ye Yaopeng refused to let him push the cart anymore in case it tipped over again.

“I’ll push it. You keep digging more clay.”

“Fine.”

Good at ruining things instead of accomplishing them.

Seems like shore-hunting was still what he was best at.

After helping on the mountain for quite a while, he figured the time was about right and headed home first.

After swinging a hoe for so long, his stomach was already growling from hunger.

He needed to hurry home, eat something to fill his stomach, and prepare tools for shore-hunting.

When Lin Xiuqing saw him return drenched in sweat and flushed red, she asked curiously:

“Didn’t you go borrow a boat? Why do you look like you’ve been doing hard labor? You look like you were fished straight out of the water.”

“I did go work. After leaving A’Guang’s place, I saw there was still time, so I went to help Big Brother.”

Everyone stared at him in surprise.

He had actually volunteered to help haul yellow clay?

Really?

Seeing the doubt all over their faces, Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes.

“Don’t I get a share of the house too? If I don’t help with some work, Father’s going to break my legs.”

That… actually made sense.

It was only because Ye Father had gone out to sea these past few days.

Otherwise, the house would’ve been filled every day with the sound of him yelling at Ye Yaodong.

(End of Chapter)