Chapter 1334: The Second Day of the New Year

Because of a fight that morning, all the children were confined to the house and not allowed to go out.

Although they hadn't been beaten after being dragged home, they certainly couldn't escape a scolding. The reason they weren't beaten was entirely because today was the first day of the New Year—my lord still had some taboos to observe, so the punishment had to be saved up and settled after the New Year was over.

The four-character mantra "it's the New Year" was a golden ticket exempting one from death, applicable anywhere.

By nearly noon, the relatives gathered at the doorway had mostly dispersed, with only the children still running and jumping about carefree outside.

All the children of the Ye family were shut inside the house standing as punishment, not allowed to go anywhere.

No one knew how it had become a trend—originally only Ye Chenghu was made to stand as punishment every day, but now even the two neighboring families had taken to making their children stand as punishment too.

Since they couldn't be beaten today, they were made to stand the entire morning.

But standing for a long time was also very boring.

After Ye Chenghu and Ye Ye Chengyang stood next to each other for a while, they pressed their hips together and swayed from side to side, like wiggling their bottoms.

Lin Lin Xiuqing, who had been cooking, found it a bit of an eyesore. "You two, stand apart."

The two brothers simultaneously took a step to the side.

But before long, the two of them made faces at each other and shuffled back together again.

This time they didn't stand close and sway; instead they pressed their bottoms against the wall and wiggled up and down, rubbing against it—no one knew what they were imitating.

Fortunately the wall wasn't whitewashed plaster but yellow mud packed into an earthen wall, so they didn't get smeared all over in white.

Ye Yaodong, feeling a bit hot from the sun outside, came in for a sip of tea and saw the two of them pressed against the wall, wiggling their bottoms up and down.

"What are you doing? Got fleas on you?"

The two quickly stood up straight, not moving a muscle, but Lin Lin Xiuqing had seen it too.

"No posture at all—one moment swaying your bottoms together, the next wiggling against the wall. What are you trying to do?"

"Feet are sore…"

"Running around outside all day, your feet aren't sore, but standing for a little while and they are?"

"It's different…"

"How is it different?"

Ye Chenghu couldn't explain. It seemed that running wild outside all day, he didn't feel tired at all, but standing still like this felt incredibly tiring. Not moving for a bit was unbearable…

"Yangyang, go stand opposite your brother." Lin Lin Xiuqing gave the order.

"Huh? Stand opposite brother?"

Ye Ye Chengyang, looking bewildered, glanced at everyone, then shuffled his feet and changed position, standing in front of Ye Chenghu.

The two brothers were a head different in height, so now one was looking up and the other looking down, gazing at each other.

"Just like that. Supervise each other."

But the two of them, looking at each other, staring eye to eye, didn't know why, but could barely hold back the urge to laugh…

Before they'd stood for two minutes, their shoulders were already shaking as they held in their laughter.

"Hahahaha… you look so silly…"

"You're the silly one…"

Lin Lin Xiuqing watched the two annoying brats with a headache, wishing she could grab the fire tongs and give each of them a whack.

Ye Yaodong walked over, picked up Ye Ye Chengyang, and made him stand facing the wall.

This way, one faced forward and the other faced the wall—harmony restored.

"Just like this. From now on, this is how you stand. No interfering with each other."

She shook her head helplessly. "I really wish school would start soon—out of sight, out of mind. Just looking at them gives me a headache."

"Soon. School starts on the fifteenth of the first month. Just endure a few more days."

"Mama… mama… want tea…" Ye Ye Xiaoxi's voice arrived before she did, as she ran in cheerfully from outside.

Ye Yaodong stood up, took a bowl, and poured her some.

She held the bowl, which was bigger than her face, drinking while her eyes swept the room. When she saw her two brothers' strange standing postures, she immediately stopped drinking.

After putting the bowl down, she ran right over to take a look at her two brothers.

She looked left and right, running around the two of them in circles.

"Brother… what are you doing?"

Ye Ye Chengyang glanced down at her without a word.

But after a moment, he whispered to her, "Go get a ball, any ball will do."

"What for?"

"Just go get it."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi scampered off happily and brought him a volleyball.

Ye Ye Chengyang placed the volleyball in front of him, right against the wall, wedged in between.

He was satisfied—now he wouldn't be bored.

Ye Chenghu had been sneaking peeks at them with his eyes. Seeing this, he also had Ye Ye Xiaoxi bring a ball over, and he pressed it against his back with his body.

Now both brothers were comfortable.

But Lin Lin Xiuqing was not comfortable—how did they always manage to come up with some new trick?

"Are you thinking that since today is the first day of the New Year, I won't hit you? Thinking you can save it all up and then get one good thrashing later?"

As she spoke, she took the balls away.

"I was originally thinking that since today is the first day, I wouldn't make you copy the calligraphy sheets. Now you will copy them—ten pages."

Both brothers breathed a sigh of relief. Being able to sit down was fine—ten pages was ten pages. After all, they weren't allowed to go out anyway.

At least now there was hope—once they finished copying, they could go out and play.

So much so that by mealtime, when the whole family was sitting down to eat, the two brothers sat holding their brushes, drooling over the dishes on the table, yet unable to write a single character.

This feeling is even more agonizing than standing as punishment.

At least standing as punishment only meant standing there smelling the food's aroma—you could choose not to look. Now, they had no choice but to look.

The agony doubled.

Both of them had bitten their pens down to nothing but tooth marks, yet every time Ye Ye Xiaoxi ate a dish, she had to say it was delicious.

"Mm… shrimp is yummy…"

"Fish is so yummy…"

"Eggs are yummy too…"

Things like that—she never stopped from the moment she sat down until she was full.

The two brothers watched, grinding their teeth in hatred, but whenever she opened her mouth, their eyes still couldn't help but drift over.

The pen tips in their hands were poked to shreds; the copybook was full of holes.

The adults at the table only watched, not stopping her.

After barely enduring until the whole family had left the table, the two thought they could finally eat—only for Lin Lin Xiuqing, having nothing better to do, to supervise them, watching over their writing.

If they didn't finish, they couldn't go visiting tomorrow.

They could only swallow their tears and hurry to write.

Later they would demand Ye Chenghe compensate them!

Who was the reason they were this miserable…

Ye Chenghe was even more miserable than them—getting beaten on New Year's because during the fight his new clothes and pants got torn, but he stubbornly kept silent and just took it.

And with one household between them, no one heard any commotion.

The adults were completely unaffected; in the afternoon they carried on playing cards together as usual, still that same group of relatives.

Perhaps it had been arranged beforehand—they mooched at their place the entire day, men and women, old and young.

Ye Yaodong even told Lin Lin Xiuqing that these people were probably thinking of following him to make big money next year, so they came early to get close.

This year more people earned money than last year, and earned more too—it swept through the whole village.

Among these relatives, some had their own boats and went along, some rented his boat, some went to work; most were probably planning to buy their own boat next year and follow along to strike it rich.

Once a person gets rich, all kinds of people automatically gather around him, like a crowd of stars orbiting the moon.

The moment he falls from power, they scatter like birds and beasts.

After Ye Chenghu and his brother suffered the whole day, the next day they were glorious again.

They got up early and went around announcing they were taking a vehicle to their maternal grandmother's house to pay New Year's visit.

Their maternal grandmother's home was far away, which made them so proud—being able to travel far to pay New Year's visit, instead of just stepping next door in the village, which had no novelty at all.

After harvesting a pile of envy, they swaggered onto the tractor, full of swagger.

Ye Chenghu was still a bit unsatisfied.

"Dad, why don't we ride the motorcycle?"

"If we ride the motorcycle, how do you walk?"

"Why!"

"If you don't get off and walk, where do we put the New Year gifts for your maternal grandparents?"

Ye Yaodong had reserved half a pig in advance, plus a pile of other miscellaneous things.

When they came back, the two elders would surely stuff them with a pile of pickled vegetable jars, or dried vegetables, or some other heap of things.

In past years, which trip didn't they bring back a hundred or two hundred jin of stuff?

Ye Chenghu sat on the tractor, chin propped on both hands, "When will I ever grow up…"

"Brother, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to ride a motorcycle! What about you?"

"I want to be like Dad."

"Then you'll drive a boat and be a fisherman—what can you do riding a motorcycle?"

"I don't know, ask Dad in a bit."

After Ye Yaodong arrived and got off the vehicle, he heard Ye Chenghu's question and was a bit curious, so he asked.

"The teacher asked us in class what we want to be when we grow up. I just thought of it, so I asked Brother, and Brother said he wants to ride a motorcycle."

"Dad, what job lets you ride a motorcycle every day?"

"Either a traffic cop, or a street-racing punk?"

"What's a street-racing punk?"

"Someone who does nothing all day and chases girls."

Ye Chenghu's eyes lit up. "Can I skip the chasing girls part?"

"Then go be a traffic cop."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi hopped around shouting: "I want to be a Calabash Brother!"

The moment this "Calabash Brother" came out of her mouth, a whole bunch of kids around them all ran up to ask her.

"Have you watched Calabash Brothers too?"

"Which Calabash Brother do you like? I like Fire Brother—he can breathe fire, roar—"

"I like Diamond Brother…"

"I like Diamond Brother too! I want to be Diamond Brother!"

Talking about their favorite cartoons, a group of children who had been strangers moments ago instantly became thick as thieves.

Ye Ye Chengyang shouted: "I like them all, so I'm Grandpa—you all have to call me Grandpa!"

"Grandpa~ Grandpa~"

A chorus of voices calling out "Grandpa!"

Ye Yaodong's face was all smiles—these children were so pure-hearted.

Lin Lin Xiuqing also said with a smile, "Yangyang is so clever, that little head of his works fast—one moment and he's already a grandpa."

"So I figure from now on it's Yangyang we should pin our hopes on. Swap him for Chenghu to idle away his days and that'll do just fine."

"Children and grandchildren have their own blessings."

Lin Lin Xiuqing's brothers and sisters had already crowded around when they got out of the car, but seeing them in conversation, they politely said a few words and then went to help carry the things first.

They were the last to arrive—after all, they lived the farthest away.

A neighbor came over and immediately cried out in surprise, "Oh my… A-Qing, you're wearing a gold necklace, gold ring, and gold earrings?"

That one shout drew everyone around over.

They all gathered round out of curiosity to look at Lin Lin Xiuqing's outfit from head to toe.

Her own family had been surprised too, but they knew the family had money, and figured they'd ask a couple more questions once they got inside.

She had deliberately dressed up a bit today.

She hadn't dared to flaunt it all over the village, but back at her parents' home she had no such reservations. It also showed off Ye Yaodong's ability—that he could give her a good life—and gave him more face.

"My goodness, will you look at this…"

"Oh my, struck it rich—dressed in gold and silver now, enjoying the great blessings…"

"Tsk tsk tsk, did you fall into a nest of blessings? How much would all this gold cost?"

"Oh! And a big gold bangle too…"

"Heavens, that's heavy… How much must all this stuff be worth? Your man's struck it rich—will you look at that!"

"Her husband looks like no ordinary man at a glance. These past two years he's been sending her whole family into the city one after another…"