Chapter 1088

"Then we're heading home first. We still have to discuss it with our families, and then we need to get some rest early tonight. We've been tired all day, so we'll get up early tomorrow and come over to Dongzi's place," Xiao Xiao said with a smile.

Ah Guang also stood up, "Let's go together, it's on the way."

"My place is on the way too. Why don't you all come over to my place and sit for a while first?"

Although Ah Zheng's mouth was still quite tough, he was truly a bit uneasy in his heart.

The three of them turned their heads to look at him simultaneously and couldn't help but laugh.

"Weren't you just being tough a moment ago? Your father is still waiting for you to carry on the family line anyway, he won't beat you to death."

"Who's afraid of that? I'm just being polite and inviting you all to my house to sit for a while, aren't I?"

Xiao Xiao flatly refused, "I'm not going, I'm very tired."

Ah Zheng glared at him and then turned to look at Ah Guang.

Ah Guang immediately shook his head, "I don't have time either, I have to go home to be with my daughter."

"You guys have no guts at all!"

"Who told you not to tell your family earlier these past few days?"

"They went back to their rooms to sleep early that night, and the next day I forgot to mention it. Later, I thought I'd just forget it and wait until it was time to finalize it. Anyway, I don't need them to pay. Hey, why am I telling you all this? How could he possibly beat me?"

The three of them looked at the ceiling simultaneously.

Ah Zheng looked at their actions and snorted, "Going home!"

Ah Guang and Xiao Xiao, one standing on each side, simultaneously reached out to hook his neck and walked out together.

"Let's go, let's go, we'll see you home."

Ah Zheng was hooked by the two of them and walked with a bit of a stagger, looking suspiciously to the left and right as he walked.

"You guys aren't going to go to my place to eavesdrop, are you?"

"Good idea!"

"Get lost..."

"Hey~ hehe, you can't hit me~"

The three of them walked out while bickering and playing around, their laughter carrying from the courtyard into the house until they were further and further away.

Lin Xiuqing couldn't help but say, "They're all nearly 30, and they have several children each, so why are they still like children? Walking just like Ah Hai and the others, still playing around, with no sense of decorum."

"What decorum do they need? Three people can't even form a Bagua formation."

"You're the same. What am I saying, and what are you saying? Every day you twist my meaning and just ramble on by yourself."

"Mm-hmm, then whatever you say is what it is."

Ye Yaodong gave a perfunctory response and walked out. Lin Xiuqing followed him and tugged on his arm, "You're getting more and more perfunctory."

"Hey, you're being too unreasonable. I reply to you seriously, and you say I'm rambling. I agree with what you say, and you say I'm perfunctory. So what do you want me to say?"

"Hiss~ I can't win an argument with you, and you're going to pinch me again... I really have it too hard..."

Lin Xiuqing looked at his contorted facial features and his bared teeth, and she couldn't help but smile. She took the initiative to link her arm with his and followed him toward the workshop.

"Ye Chenghu, Ye Chengyang, you two get back home and watch the house; there's no one home."

"But there's a dog!"

"A dog is no use. Don't try to bargain with me, get back home and watch the house immediately. And wash up while you're at it; look at yourselves, you look like you were fished out of the water."

Lin Xiuqing also chimed in, "If I go back later and see that you haven't finished washing up and aren't watching the house at the door, I'll take that box of cards of yours and throw them into the stove to burn."

"No way!"

That was the lifeblood of the two brothers; they treated those things like the pupils of their eyes.

Having no choice, they had to temporarily say goodbye to their other little friends and shout for them to come to their house to play later.

After getting everyone's agreement, they took their spoils, gripped their heavy pockets tightly, and walked home reluctantly, looking back every three steps.

After someone was left to watch the house, the couple continued toward the workshop. The workshop hadn't been empty of people all day; or rather, since the fishing boats returned last night, there hadn't been a moment without people in the workshop.

Even last night, it was brightly lit. They had arranged for two shifts of people, one for the day and one for the night, working 24 hours without stopping. After all, the weather was hot now, and these fish products wouldn't keep; they had to be processed within two days at most, otherwise, they would rot.

Even so, only half of the cargo inside had been slaughtered and processed. They could smell the thick, fishy odor emanating from there even while standing at their own door. It was estimated that they would have to work another day and night to finish drying all the cargo.

Ye Yaodong usually didn't bother much with the affairs of the workshop; he left it all to Ah Qing and his mother.

However, his mother hadn't been home recently, so it was all arranged by Ah Qing, to the point where he couldn't see her at all today except at lunch and dinner time.

Even when she went to sleep at night, he didn't know what time she came back to lie down. He had originally wanted to talk to her about buying land in the city, but he hadn't found an opportunity to say it all day.

Feeling the bed beside him sink at night, he reached out and touched it before waking up in a daze.

"Just got back?"

"Mm, I saw it was almost 12 o'clock, so I came back to sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow to help at the workshop."

"You've already hired so many people, just let the others do it. You can just go over and take a look occasionally; you don't have to sit there and work all the time."

"Someone still has to be there to keep an eye on things so I can feel at ease."

"You really don't know how to enjoy life."

"Who has a life as good as yours? I'm born to be a laborer."

Ye Yaodong patted her twice and comforted her, "Go to sleep early, don't wear yourself out."

Half-asleep and half-awake, his mind wasn't that clear, but Lin Xiuqing had just lain down and hadn't been able to sleep well, tossing and turning there, which also disturbed him.

He could have fallen into a deep sleep just by turning over, but his hands were restless, and he kept holding her, which ended up making him more and more awake.

"What are you doing? Making pancakes in bed? Tossing and turning like a worm."

"You sleep your sleep. It's so hot, and you still want to cuddle; it's so uncomfortable."

"I can't sleep because you're disturbing me."

Lin Xiuqing turned over, facing away from him, "Then you can't sleep, I'm going to sleep."

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? I can't sleep, so you're going to sleep well?"

"Don't nag, you're the one who talks too much."

Ye Yaodong got angry and pressed against her from behind, and also began to move his hands up and down.

"If I can't sleep, you don't sleep either; nobody sleeps."

"It's the middle of the night..."

"I know you were looking forward to me doing this; I slept too much yesterday."

Lin Xiuqing denied it flatly, slapping and glaring, but in the end, she was half-reluctant as usual.

Ye Yaodong felt even more awake after being tired; mainly because he had taken a nap at noon and had slept in the first half of the night, so he had even more energy after being tired this time.

Conversely, Lin Xiuqing was already so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. Exercising during the day and exercising at night—how could she handle such high-intensity physical exertion?

"Wife, there's one more thing I need to tell you."

"Mm." Lin Xiuqing was half-asleep and half-awake, giving a random response in a daze.

"I ran into Director Chen in the city two days ago..."

"Mm..."

She was already too sleepy to hear what he was saying, knowing only to agree instinctively.

Ye Yaodong held her and talked incessantly about the process of meeting Director Chen, and incidentally mentioned his idea of buying land in the city.

Lin Xiuqing's brain had long since turned to mush; she gave a grunt when patted twice, and then fell into a deep sleep.

He shook her twice more but didn't get any reaction.

"You agreed, okay? If you agreed, then there's no problem, right? 1, 2, 3... Good, then it's settled. I'll ponder it later and tell you the plan."

After finishing, he also closed his eyes contentedly and started counting sheep.

When he got up the second morning, she had just climbed out of bed as well.

"What did you tell me when you came back last night?"

"Don't you remember?"

"I don't remember what you said, I only heard you talking there the whole time, buzzing, buzzing, like a little bee. Oh, it seems I heard you mention Director Chen? What's wrong with him?"

Ye Yaodong glanced at the children sleeping soundly against the wall, put his finger to his lips, and shushed, "Let's go outside to talk."

The two of them began to put on their clothes and pants in a rustle. After walking out of the room, Ye Yaodong repeated what he had said last night to her.

"An aerial bomb!!! You can even fish that up?"

"Ah? He got promoted? That's a good thing..."

"Ah? Buying land?"

"Yeah, I've had this idea for a long time, but I was thinking that we're strangers in the city. Buying a shop in the wholesale market is fine, but if we buy land, without someone to back us up, we'd have nowhere to turn if it gets swallowed up by someone else."

Lin Xiuqing was full of confusion, "What are you buying land for? For my father to farm on the side?"

"Who the hell goes to the city to specifically buy land to farm? Haven't we farmed enough at home?"

"Then why do you suddenly want to buy land for no reason?"

The old lady was burning firewood to cook porridge and chimed in, "Buying land is good; that way you don't have to worry about not having land to grow some food."

"I was thinking of buying land to preserve value. After all, we have so much money on hand, it's just sitting there, and I'm worried about it being eaten by rats. If we exchange it for land, wouldn't that be secure? It saves you from always feeling like there's too much money at home with nowhere to put it."

The old lady listened from the side and was amused, "Nonsense, who complains about having too much money and worries about having nowhere to put it? If you have nowhere to put it, give it to me, I'll help you put it away."

Lin Xiuqing also said to him unhappily, "I was just joking, saying it casually. Who complains about having too much money? Complaining that life is too good?"

"I was thinking that we should first buy a piece of land in the village around the market. Anyway, the area around there is empty and full of vacant land. Then we can take the land and build a house first, with a larger front and back courtyard, for your father and mother to live in. That way, the two old folks will be more comfortable, and it saves them from having to rent someone else's dilapidated house, where everything is inconvenient."

When it involved her own parents, she was, of course, completely willing.

It was a grievance for the two old folks to always be in the unfamiliar city, where eating and living were inconvenient. Although it sounded very glorious to go out, the old folks would definitely prefer to stay in the village they were familiar with.

If their own family could set up a house of their own for them to live in, it would, of course, be more comfortable.

"That would be fine. Our father and mother have been helping us earn so much money..."

"Right? It's still me, the son-in-law, who thinks things through."

Lin Xiuqing smiled, "Right, you think things through."

"Actually, it should have been done a long time ago, but I was thinking that we are outsiders. If there are any big changes in the village in the future, if the land is taken back, we might not be able to explain it clearly, and it would be more troublesome."

"It was also this trip that I met Director Chen. He got promoted, and the reason still had to do with me, so I thought that we could be considered to be leaning against a big tree to enjoy the shade, so buying a few pieces of land wouldn't be a big deal."

"When we go to the city to visit him in half a month, I'll mention buying land to him incidentally, which can be considered giving him a heads-up in advance."

However, he had just taken office, so he definitely couldn't make too big a move. First, buy a small piece around the market, build a house, and enclose a larger courtyard, saying it's for his father-in-law and mother-in-law to live in—that's reasonable and fair no matter how you look at it.

He didn't need anyone to help him do anything for this; he just needed to state his intentions and then buy it from the village, incidentally pointing out his background of having acquaintances in the government to that village head, and that would be OK.

Then he would buy another piece to build a warehouse, and he wouldn't need to specifically talk about that separately.

After a year or so, he would gradually buy land in other places, which would also be a matter of course.

After buying land in other places, he could also incidentally distribute a little to show respect and ask for protection.

By the time the 90s arrived, it was estimated that there would be his land in every corner of the city... Hahahaha...

Buying a house is not as secure as buying land! Every inch of land is worth an inch of gold!

Just thinking about it, the corners of his mouth had already split wide, and regardless of the surprised looks from Ah Qing and the old lady, he laughed louder and louder, and even laughed up at the sky.

"What's wrong with Dad?" Ye Chenghu sat at the stairwell, poked his head out, rubbed his eyes, and asked.

Ye Yaodong didn't pay attention to the child's question, his face was full of joy, "Let's do it this way, just like I said just now."

"Then what are you laughing at? Buying a piece of land in the village and building a house for my father and mother to stay in temporarily, are you that happy?"

"Of course I'm happy. This is just the first step. Later on, we can buy another piece of land around there and build a larger warehouse, so that those goods don't have to occupy the shopfront in the city. Using the shopfront as a warehouse is such a waste, isn't it?"

"It hasn't developed yet, and there are plenty of empty shopfronts around, but once it develops, they definitely can't be used as warehouses anymore. There must be our own warehouse nearby to be convenient."

Lin Xiuqing nodded, "That's true."

"People are gregarious, so buying it in the village first means it won't be lonely, and it will be under the protection of the village, so there's no need to worry about those petty thieves or jealous people doing things that harm others without benefiting themselves."

"Then later on, we can buy land in other parts of the city. Money is just sitting there, so buying land can't be wrong."

"What are you buying so much land for? We're not in the city, and we can't farm it?" Lin Xiuqing didn't quite understand why he wanted to buy land in other places, as they were beyond their reach.

"Who says land can only be used for farming? It's fine, we can also rent it out to others to grow vegetables and fruits. Anyway, city people have to spend money on everything, and they have to spend money to buy vegetables."

The city hasn't been developed yet, and many future commercial centers, high-rise buildings, and residential districts haven't expanded outward yet. Many are still farmland and wasteland.

Buying it cheaply and renting it cheaply to some farmers and households nearby to reclaim and plant will also give the farmers a little more income. In the future, with a large amount of land in his hands, anyone who wants to develop anything will have to come to him. He's won lying down.

Buying a house is not as good as buying land!

He still has to hold on tight to Director Chen's thigh; otherwise, he won't be winning lying down, he might just be finished directly.

Ye Yaodong saw that she still didn't quite understand the importance of land in the city, and thought it was no different from the land in the village. He didn't intend to waste his breath explaining it; anyway, he definitely couldn't buy much for the time being.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Anyway, you can't go wrong if you listen to me. The decisions I've made have never gone wrong."

"Then now we're first buying a piece of land to build a house for my father and mother to live in, and then incidentally building a warehouse around it?"

"Right. After this is arranged, I'll look around later to see where else I should buy land."

"Alright."

The old lady nodded from the side, "Buying land is good; land is the lifeblood of us farmers."

"Aren't we fishermen?" Ye Chenghu asked curiously.

"Farmers and fishermen are the same. We are all rural people, and land is especially important to rural people. It's best to buy it and rent it to others, let them grow rice, and then you collect a little rent, which will be enough for the whole family to eat, and you won't have to go buy rice every three days."

"That makes sense, really smart. Sure enough, having an old person in the family is like having a treasure."

"Hehehe, it's not that I'm smart, it's that you're smart, thinking of going to the city to buy land. Others have never walked out of this village in their whole lives."

Lin Xiuqing said, "Then when we go to the city to visit them in a few days, we have to prepare gifts properly. It just so happens that they are also moving to a new house, and you still have to see if there are any rewards to collect from them."

"Mm, you look into preparing it. This time it has to be decent; we can't use the dried fish and goods from home to fool them. It's normal to bring these things when visiting, but now it's a formal visit, so bringing those things won't look good. However, it doesn't need to be too valuable. After all, we are country folk; don't give people the feeling of being an upstart or someone trying to look rich when they aren't."

"Got it, I'll ponder what to prepare in the next few days."

The old lady said with a smile, "Buy some decent things from outside, and also send some of the things we have at home. Mixing them together shows respect without being distant."

"That works too, it looks decent and sincere."

They had finished discussing a major matter early in the morning, and it had gone smoothly. Ye Yaodong felt refreshed, and looking at his two sons, he felt they were cute and more pleasing to the eye.

"Hurry up and wash up. Didn't you agree to set off at 6:00? Take advantage of the early morning when the sun isn't big and it won't be too hot. Don't dawdle."

"Mm."

Suddenly, Ye Yaodong thought of another thing, "Have there been two strangers in our village recently?"

"Are you talking about the people who came to the village committee to farm kelp?"

"They came?"

Lin Ji was as good as his word. He said he would arrange to find someone, and he really found them and sent them to the village committee.

"They came, they came two days ago. Recently, the whole village has been buzzing with discussions about farming kelp. Everyone is guessing whether it can make money, how much money it can make, and whether it can be farmed successfully?"

"Efficiency! When I come back from the city, I'll go to the village committee to take a look and ask about it."

"I don't know where the village committee found those two people, can they do it?"

"Since they've been called over, they must have inquired about it and known they could do it before inviting them back."

"We'll see. Anyway, they've been talking about this for the past two days."

"When I went to the workshop last night, why didn't I hear about it? Why didn't I hear them talking about it?"

"They talk too much, so there's probably nothing worth talking about. Besides, the men in the village are more concerned about this matter, while the women talk about other things as they chat. After all, who knows if it can be grown? If it can't be grown, there's not much to argue about. And you didn't stay for long; you just took the children and came back after a turn. I didn't see you leave this door all day."

"Wasn't I watching the house? The big one is at school, the small one ran off without a trace after eating, the old one was in a hurry to join the fun at the workshop, and you were busy. If I didn't stay there to watch, who would? A dog isn't as reliable as a person."

"That's true, you're more... cough cough, hurry up and eat breakfast."

Seeing Ye Yaodong's fallen face and his dangerous, sideways glance, Lin Xiuqing hurriedly shut her mouth.

"Your mouth has gotten a lot worse recently."

"Hehe, isn't it because I hear you criticizing people every day? After hearing it a lot, I learned it myself."

"Is it my fault then?"

"I didn't say that, hurry up and eat."

"Hmph..."

Ye Yaodong glared at her and scolded her, but didn't argue with her.

It was already 6:00 after breakfast, but he didn't see anyone come to the door, and he started cursing in his heart. They were all more unreliable than the last.

"They're all lazy as anything. I must have been out of my mind to think they could get up at 6:00 and come over."

"They probably think that since it's our own tractor, we don't need to call others, don't need to wait for a car outside, and don't need to worry about missing the bus, so they were a bit casual."

"This is too casual. Damn it, I was stupid enough to get up early and wait here. No, I'm going to ride my bike to call them; otherwise, they might sleep until 8:00."

Ye Yaodong pushed his bike out, feeling depressed.

Fortunately, he ran into Ah Guang halfway, and later ran into Xiao Xiao. They hadn't been too late.

"Can you guys have some sense of time? We said 6:00, and it's already 6:10."

"Why are you being so rigid about the time? It's not like we're in a hurry to get rich," Xiao Xiao said while rubbing the sleep from his eyes, flicking it away casually.

"There's no difference, we are in a hurry to get rich. Where's Ah Zheng? Is he still alive?"

"He hasn't gone to your place yet? Then let's go to his house together and see if we can see today's sun," Ah Guang said with schadenfreude.

The other two were also looking forward to it, full of excitement, and went to his house together.

Ye Yaodong rode his bike a bit faster and arrived at his door first. His father was already sitting at the door, basking in the early morning sun and smoking a water pipe.

"Morning, Uncle. Have you eaten?"

Ah Zheng's father said with a chuckle, "Ah Dong is here. I've eaten. Have you eaten? Do you want to have a bite here? There's still some porridge left."

"I've eaten too. Is Ah Zheng up yet? We agreed to set off for the city together at 6:00, but everyone else is here, and he's the only one left."

"He was just dragged up, acting like he was dying. He's eating inside now. He's almost 30, and he's still like a three-year-old child all day long, so unreliable. If he had something to say, why didn't he say it earlier? He wanted to do it without asking first. His brain must have been kicked by a donkey; he's not sensible at all."

As soon as Ah Zheng's father started talking, his face fell, and he kept scolding him.

"It's a good thing he ran into you guys, who are loyal friends. If it were anyone else, wouldn't he have been cheated out of his underwear? He didn't know how to discuss things with his family earlier. He only knew how to go when the shit hit the fan, and he wasn't even afraid of shitting his pants, leaving his family to clean up for him..."

Ah Zheng heard the voices outside while inside the house, poked his head out to take a look, and immediately shouted, "Dongzi, I'll be ready in a second, you wait..."

"Eat faster! I'll break your legs when you get back. You kept saying you'd get up at 6:00 yesterday, and you only got up when the child's urine hit your face..."

The two who came later heard this and were surprised.

"Woken up by urine?"

"Nonsense, don't listen to my father's rambling," Ah Zheng walked out limping, his mouth full of rice he hadn't swallowed yet, saying vaguely.

The three pairs of eyes immediately looked at his limping leg.

"I fell. It was too dark last night, and I stepped into a hole when I came back, fell down, and sprained my foot."

"Oh~"

The three of them elongated their voices with sarcasm.

Ah Zheng's father shook his head in disgust.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go. There's nothing to see. Ah, you came on your bike, that's perfect. I'll sit on the back, and you can take me straight to your house; that saves me from walking."

"You still know how to be afraid of losing face?"

Ah Zheng glared at his father, who was gossiping.

Ye Yaodong saw that it was almost 6:30. If it got any later, it would be noon, and it would be too hot, so he didn't bother arguing with him. Anyway, there would be plenty of time to tease him in the car later.

"Troublesome, get on quickly."

"You push the bike over."

"You... damn it... you're so much trouble..."

Ye Yaodong pushed the bike to him in disgust to make it easier for him to get on.

"Take me straight to the tractor later, otherwise, if the tractor drives up next to me, and there are so many people at your workshop..."

"Damn it, you're so much trouble. Didn't you say you fell? What's there to be afraid of losing face about?"

"It was a fall, but if people see me limping, they might wonder what happened to me."

"Stubborn."

Ye Yaodong didn't care about him, rode the bike straight to his door, and then told him to get off.

"Drive your tractor over..."

Ye Yaodong looked at his foot and, with quick eyes and fast hands, pulled up his pants.

People's pants were extra baggy nowadays, and the fabric in the summer was thin—it was "Zhide Liang" (a type of polyester fabric)—so with a slight pull, the whole pant leg went up to his knee.

"Oh my, my, my... this fall is all in strips, it's even bleeding, and it's as wide as a belt. This stone must be too sharp, let me see... let me see... where else did you sprain..."

"Damn it... you ambushed me..."

"Let me take a look, you're wearing long sleeves today, aren't you hot? Aren't you sweating~ look... look... let your brother see... don't be so distant, you're not a little bride..."

Ah Zheng's cheeks turned red from his sarcastic words, dodging left and right, and he started cursing as well.

"Don't go too far... you damn... you've seen enough, don't, don't, don't... save me some face... that's enough, that's enough, don't lift my clothes..."

"Let me see, we're all our own people, I'm just concerned about you. Oh my, this fall is really serious, how could you be so careless?"

"Do you want your brother to get some tea oil to rub and massage it for you?"

"Is there anywhere else? Let me see, what are you dodging for? I've never seen a fall that could be this thick, as wide as a belt, in my whole life..."

"Let me see, let me broaden my horizons... you shouldn't be dodging like this..."