Chapter 133

During dinner, everyone's eyes at the table would glance at Lin Xiuqing from time to time, making her feel somewhat awkward.

Ye Mu thought for a moment and said, "Don't go around talking nonsense about Aqing's situation this afternoon. We don't even know if it's true yet, and things are very strict right now."

More children mean more blessings; if she is pregnant, Ye Mu naturally wants her to safely give birth to another one.

"We know."

"Mom, what's wrong with Third Aunt?" Ye Chenghai asked his mother curiously.

"It's nothing, children shouldn't be so curious. You ask about everything adults say, just eat your meal quickly."

"Hmph hmph..."

"When picking up food, don't keep poking around in the dish with your chopsticks..."

"You guys eat faster too, dawdling like that. Is the food too good? Before, when there wasn't much to go with the rice, you were all scrambling to eat, how fast you ate then..."

"Are you leaking at the chin? Rice is falling all over the table, pick it up and eat it for me..."

The sound of scolding children kept ringing out at the table, and Lin Xiuqing's matter was tacitly passed over for the time being.

After it got dark and everyone had returned to their rooms, Ye Yaodong took out the hidden guavas, cut them, and handed them to the two children amidst their excited expressions.

"Grandma gave these to you to eat, don't go out and talk about it, otherwise Grandma won't give you any next time."

"Got it, Dad."

The younger son also nodded and echoed the sentiment.

Ye Yaodong handed another one to Lin Xiuqing, but Lin Xiuqing didn't eat it; instead, she also took it out to cut it in half and handed half back to him.

"Let's eat together."

He smiled, took it, and started eating in big bites; only then did Lin Xiuqing eat hers.

The next day, the Mid-Autumn Festival, families with the means and a bit more willingness to spend started slaughtering chickens and ducks early in the morning, and there were more peddlers in the village carrying meat dishes and calling out to sell them.

Usually, no family is willing to spend money on food and drink, so they are only relatively willing during the New Year and festivals.

Even Ye Mu, upon hearing someone calling out to sell fish balls, hurriedly ran out to call the person over.

Fish balls are round and plump, which fits the meaning of Mid-Autumn reunion very well, and they are still very popular in their village.

As soon as the peddler put down his carrying pole at their gate, a crowd of women who had heard the sound gathered around to buy.

Ye Mu bought a jin of mackerel fish balls and a jin of cuttlefish balls, intending to cook them mixed together to cater to everyone's tastes.

Under the silver-tongued persuasion of the women, the peddler agreed to sell them at the same price, both at 25 cents a jin; otherwise, the cuttlefish balls would have been 2 cents more expensive.

Rural women are all very calculating.

Ye Yaodong had nothing to do, so early in the morning he moved a stool to the doorway and sat there with his feet up. There were capable people in the family, so there was nothing for him to do, but having been used to being busy during this period, suddenly having nothing to do really made him feel a bit unaccustomed.

【To be honest, I've been using Yeguo Reading to catch up on books recently. The source switching is good, and there are many reading voices.. yeguoyuedu is available for both Android and Apple.】

He thought for a moment and shouted to his wife inside the house, "I'm going out for a stroll, I'll be back in a while."

"Come back early for lunch."

He responded and then walked out, wandering around casually.

Usually, the women in the village sit at the front or back doors weaving nets, making the village look quiet and peaceful. Today, it felt like every household was in motion, and the whole village felt lively. The children knew they were going to have a big meal for the festival, and they were all shouting and jumping excitedly at the doors.

Ye Yaodong was walking leisurely on the small path in the village when he unexpectedly saw Hearing Xiao Xiao holding a machete in front of him, and he hurriedly called out to stop him.

"Hearing Xiao Xiao, where are you going?"

"There's not enough firewood at home, my dad sent me to chop some firewood so it won't be lacking for burning tonight. Where are you going?"

"I'm idle with nothing to do, just walking around."

"That's perfect, come with me to chop firewood..."

Ye Yaodong immediately turned around to leave upon hearing this, but he didn't get away in time and was directly hooked by the neck by him jumping up from behind. "Since you're already here, why are you leaving? Let's go together!"

"Ouch~ let go, I shouldn't have called out to you if I had known." Ye Yaodong patted his hand away; he was too short, and it made his neck uncomfortable.

"It's too late, it's better to have company if we go together."

"Why don't you call your brother to go with you? Don't you still have three brothers above you? How did it come to your turn?"

"My eldest brother is slaughtering a duck, my second brother is weaving bamboo baskets, my third brother has been out at sea with the big boat for several days, and my dad went to the field to hoe taro. The women are all busy washing vegetables. Isn't it just me who is idle at home now? My dad can't stand me being idle, so he sent me to chop firewood."

Understood, he was also idle at his house.

"Forget it, since I'm idle anyway, I'll accompany you for a trip."

"That's right."

The two walked along the road chatting, walked to the other side of the road, found a small path, and went up the mountain.

Hearing Xiao Xiao was looking for dead branches to pick up, but Ye Yaodong took a fancy to several banana trees growing intermittently on the mountain, with large bunches of bananas hanging all over the trees.

He wandered around this tree and then that tree, but they were all hanging too high, and without a long hook, he couldn't bend down that big bunch of bananas.

"What are you doing? Want to pick wild bananas?"

They call bananas "wild bananas."

"Yeah, this big bunch hanging up there, don't you think it's very eye-catching? It's clearly seducing me!" Ye Yaodong kept looking up at the banana tree, searching to see if there were any growing lower that he could reach.

"Come back later with a bamboo pole tied with a hook. How can you pick them now? Hurry up and help me pick up branches."

"You pick them first, I'll go wander around elsewhere."

"Damn, you're really unreliable! You agreed to help me chop firewood, but you went to pick wild bananas yourself."

"Bananas are naturally more important than you!" His voice came from afar.

"I have them too."

Ye Yaodong wandered around and finally found one tree where a bunch could be reached; it just so happened that there was a dirt slope next to this tree.

He stood on the dirt slope, stood on tiptoe, reached out and grabbed its stem, and bent it down, but it was a bit difficult to break off such a large bunch.

"Hearing Xiao Xiao, Hearing Xiao Xiao, bring your machete over."

"You damn guy, you don't help chop firewood, and you still want to take my tool..." Hearing Xiao Xiao cursed while walking over. "What do you need the machete for?"

"Ah? Found one you can reach? I'll chop it, I'll chop it..."

"Are there any others you can reach? Look for more, there seem to be three more trees above..."

Ye Yaodong looked at him with disdain. "Didn't you just complain that I wasn't helping you chop firewood, and you still let me take the machete over? Now you want to pick wild bananas again?"

"Hey, didn't Zhuge Liang say, things change with time, hurry up and look for more."

Ye Yaodong looked at him with a confused face. Zhuge Liang said that?

"What are you looking at, hurry up and look? Or I'll leave the machete to you, you're taller, I'll go to A Guang's house to get a hook."

After speaking, he threw down the machete and ran away. Just a moment ago he was complaining that he wasn't helping and was delaying things, but now he was even more proactive than him!

Son of a bitch!

Ye Yaodong didn't dwell on whether Zhuge Liang said it or not, put the bunch of bananas in a corner, picked up the machete, and walked up again to search.

Unexpectedly, he found another short one, it's just that the size of the bananas wasn't as big as the previous one, but it didn't matter, he didn't mind, as long as there was a harvest.

This banana tree was relatively short, he broke the stem and chopped down another bunch, then stood on the slope and saw that one stem had two or three bunches growing on it, it's just that it was a bit difficult to reach.

He scanned the surroundings, wanting to see if there were any simple tools. Until he looked at the surrounding trees, he pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up, he turned around and chopped off a thicker branch, chopped off the excess branches, leaving only one branch at the bottom.

Chopping the branch to look a bit like a compass, Ye Yaodong used the branch to directly hook the bunch of banana stems, then slid down, pulled it towards his front, and the whole banana stem tilted towards his front.

After grabbing it, he used the machete to chop off a section of the stem, and several more bunches of bananas were in hand!

"Dongzi, Dongzi, where are you?"

"Up here!"

Hearing Xiao Xiao was holding a long bamboo pole, with a hook tied to the top of the bamboo pole, and ran over excitedly, followed by A Guang behind him.

"How much have you chopped?"

"Quite a few bunches, if you want them, chop a few more to share."

"Use this, use this," Hearing Xiao Xiao said as if offering a treasure, holding up the hook. "I tied one temporarily just now, let's make do with it for now, I'll hook the bananas down and you chop them."

"Aren't you chopping firewood anymore? If you don't chop it, how will you answer when you go back later? You're such a big person, don't get your pants pulled down by your dad and get beaten." Ye Yaodong teased him.

"Crazy, can't I run? I'm already a dad... forget it, let's chop now, when we're done and have time, you guys help me pick up some branches. Just get some bananas back to shut their mouths."

A Guang wandered around and scanned. "There aren't many trees here either, let's go chop by my house? My dad planted a few trees casually a few years ago, and now they can be picked too. There are also people who planted them casually here, it's fine to chop one or two bunches, if it's too many, people will jump."

Ye Yaodong looked at the wild bananas at his feet, he only chopped three trees, one or two bunches per tree, should be fine, right? There were still many hanging above.

"Okay, let's go to your place, I have enough with these, let's go to your place and chop a little, just enough for Hearing Xiao Xiao to take back."

"Then I wouldn't have run back and forth if I had known, let's go, let's go, go to the back mountain." Hearing Xiao Xiao carried the bamboo pole and walked down again.

A Guang helped Ye Yaodong carry those bananas. "I have quite a lot there, you have so many people in your family, and so many children, let's chop some more to take back."

"Why chop so many? Can't finish eating all at once, they'll go bad if left there, I'll go to your place and chop more when I finish eating."

"Suit yourself."

The three of them walked excitedly towards the back mountain again. The locals commonly call it the back mountain, but it's actually called Lingang Mountain, right next to A Guang's house.

The three of them also had quite itchy hands, pulling leaves and weeds along the way as they walked. Ye Yaodong looked at the reeds by the road, pulled two, touched them, and then reached out to tickle Hearing Xiao Xiao's neck.

"Damn, what are you doing?"

"Testing if it sheds hair, it's okay to pull some back to tie a broom."

"Can you?"

"I can't, my Grandma can, forget it, she's already at that age."

"What's wrong with that? She looks quite healthy, moves quite freely, isn't deaf or blind, find her something to do! Old people shouldn't be too idle, if they are idle, they can't sit still and want to pick up a hoe."

That's true!

"Let's pull some later, it just so happens that things for the new house haven't been purchased yet."

A Guang reminded, "If you want to pull, do it early, I guess it will be pulled clean by others later. I've seen several people running to the back mountain to pull this stuff these past few days, they all made them into bundles to sell, everything can be sold now."

Some things that grow casually on the mountain, once they reach the hands of the people in their village, many can turn waste into treasure.

"Got it."