Chapter 1460: Surprise or Scare

"I'd like to treat, but only if I have money. Besides, they recognize you, not me. My face isn't as big as yours; I'm not qualified to treat anyone. You have to treat."

Ye's father said with a smile, "Well said, and very true."

"You don't have money? Where did your job go?"

"I've only worked for a few months. Half went to my mother; she insisted on saving it for my wife fund. The other half was spent bit by bit, and I barely made it to the New Year. You don't know how much those little ones at home spend. Every day they want this, they want that, and they need firecrackers. With so many people, I almost didn't dare come home."

After speaking, he turned to look at Ye Chenghe again. "He still owes me ten yuan. Remember to pay me back!"

Ye Chenghe laughed, "Stingy ghost! You've been nagging the whole way. Once I make money, I'll pay you back."

Ye Yaodong interrupted the two brothers settling their accounts. "Was the journey smooth?"

"It was incredibly thrilling..." Ye Chenghe stood up excitedly, gesturing to describe what happened on the road. This question hit right where he wanted to talk.

They did encounter bandits on the road. Some recognized the license plates, took a bit of money, and let them pass. Better one trouble than two, since they wouldn't stop using this route forever.

Others wouldn't buy it, and a fight broke out, but fortunately, it was resolved with a scare but no real danger.

Ye's father listened with a racing heart. "That's so terrifying. We can't take his vehicle next time. They say truck drivers make money fast, but this is too dangerous."

"Higher risk means higher returns. Otherwise, why would you be paid this much?"

"Driving the tractor steadily here is just fine."

"But that doesn't compare to one trip out in a big truck."

Ye Ye Chengjiang also stood up, rubbing his hands. "Third Uncle, can you really earn seven or eight hundred a month driving a tractor here?"

"Ask him. Who urged you to come up? Who is responsible for you?"

Both brothers looked at Ye's father again.

"How could this be fake? If you go work as a factory worker, you only earn 50 yuan a month. Although it has a good reputation in our village, it's a iron rice bowl, and it's close to home, but how does that compare to driving a tractor out here and earning seven or eight hundred a month?"

"Young people should make as much money as possible while they're young. Being a bit far from home doesn't matter. Earn the money early; others can't even leave home to make this kind of money."

"Since you have the chance to come out, you must cherish it. This is even without me hauling goods all day. If I'm diligent and work hard, earning a thousand or so a month won't be a problem."

Both brothers' eyes glowed with wolf-like greed.

A thousand or so yuan a month!

Isn't that equivalent to two years of Ye Ye Chengjiang's original salary?

Why be a worker then?

Driving a tractor to make money is also respectable. At worst, you face wind and rain, and help load some goods. It's just a bit tiring.

But if you can earn what others make in two years in one month, isn't it right to be a bit tired?

Ye Yaodong pulled them back to reality. "Stop drawing pies in the sky. Wait until the money is in hand before talking. You should first think about how to explain this to their father. My eldest and second brothers don't even know the two kids have come up yet."

"Explain what? If I can't control you, can't I control those two?"

Ye Chenghe added, "Exactly. Be proactive about making money! The sooner you come, the sooner you earn."

Ye Yaodong crossed his arms over his chest. "If you don't explain properly to your father, will he pay to buy you tractors? Can you afford them yourselves? Do you have ten yuan in your pockets? Or will your grandfather buy one for each of you?"

Ye's father clutched his pocket, eyes wide. "I have no ability to buy one for each of them. When their father returns, let them pay. Will they dare disobey me?"

"Hehe, since we're already here, my father will definitely buy them for us." Ye Ye Chengjiang sounded quite confident.

"That's not certain. Since we're already here, they might just take you straight onto the boat to work as free boatmen!"

"No way! My grandfather will definitely not agree!"

Ye's father chimed in, "Yes, how could that work? We didn't call them up here to be free workers; we called them up here to make big money."

"Anyway, they should be back in just these next couple of days."

"The noodles inside should be cooked. You two go in and eat a bowl first. After eating, go take a nap. You definitely didn't eat or sleep well on the road."

"Ah, okay."

The two brothers happily ran inside to fill their stomachs first.

Ye's father said, "I don't know when their father will be back. Today I'm going to the dock to pick up some cargo. Tomorrow the tractor won't be needed. I'll drive one out, and let those two drive the other one?"

"Let them get a feel for it first, so they don't get rusty. Also, take them along for a couple of days so they get used to it and know how to pick up cargo and make money."

"When their father returns, we'll have the confidence to speak then. At that time, let their father buy one for each of them?"

Ye Yaodong had no objection to this.

Helping them out and letting them drive for a few days was no big deal.

"Fine, you handle it. Drive for a few days first; earning some living expenses is fine too."

"That's what I was thinking. They're grown up now and have come out; they need to earn and spend their own money, not hold out their hands asking for money."

"Hmm, did you take their luggage up?"

"I already had them take it to the rented room of the eldest and second."

The two chatted idly, and before long, the two brothers came out after finishing their meal.

Ye's father told them to go back to their rooms to rest first.

"Can we go out and look around first?"

"Look around for what? It's almost noon. The sun is so strong; it must be over 30 degrees. It's terribly hot. Rest first. Once you've slept enough, your Third Uncle will take you to the dock. Work for your Third Uncle for two days, and you'll all be familiar with this place."

"Great."

"That's wonderful. I just want to follow Third Uncle to work."

The two nodded vigorously like a pestle pounding garlic.

Ye Yaodong said with a smile, "Fine, work as much as you want."

After the two brothers left, Ye Yaodong pondered going out later to buy some things. Tomorrow he must visit the Su family to express his gratitude.

Lin Ji had been like a dragon appearing only its head and tail these past few days, leaving early and returning late. He hadn't bumped into him for several days.

Even if he was busy until the middle of the night, he would have to go knock on the door and tell him that the Su family member had returned.

When the topic of freight charges comes up then, he will definitely have to treat him to a meal, letting him have a number in his mind beforehand, so he doesn't spend every day unable to find him.

"Dong-zi, I'm going out to earn some money."

"It's almost noon for lunch; are you still running out to haul goods?"

"I can still make one more trip."

"Come on, what's the difference of one or two yuan? Go after lunch."

"That works then; I'll go feed the chickens and ducks first."

Ye's father was very conscientious.

Since Ye Yaodong brought up twenty chickens and ducks, Ye's father felt this was his job.

By evening, when the fresh-fish collection boats returned after unloading, they brought news that several other boats would dock the day after tomorrow, meaning everyone could rest for at least three or four days to come.

Ye's father was also very happy; it would let him take his grandsons to earn money for two days, then let his two sons buy the grandsons a tractor.

Starting tomorrow, he would fully teach them to drive the tractor for two days, so they could estimate roughly how much money they could earn in a month.

This would give him more confidence to buy the tractor.

Ye's father still couldn't bear for his two grandsons to go to sea and endure that hardship; driving a tractor to earn money easily was far better than risking their lives at sea, and they earned even more.

On the second day's morning, Ye Yaodong brought tobacco and wine to thank Su Ren, but ended up being treated to a meal by Su Ren.

Su Ren said he was too stand-offish; bringing along two people was originally just a matter of lifting a finger, and besides, with two extra people, the journey would be safer.

He also booked a table for the evening, inviting Lin Ji to dinner, telling him to bring his father along that night.

This was within his expectations; he had informed Lin Ji the previous night about having dinner together, so there was no big problem.

What he hadn't expected was an unexpected gain: Su Ren generously shared with them that the shops in the Water Plant Trading City here were now open for purchase.

He had actually been thinking about this matter all along, but since he wasn't at home, he couldn't chase others to ask about it.

He didn't expect Su Ren to bring it up during dinner, telling them the news hadn't been fully released yet, that purchasing required connections, and that there was also a quota limit on individual purchases.

A trading city had been built here; even a fool would know the future returns wouldn't be low.

Ye Yaodong was extremely happy; no wonder he had returned so timely.

Lin Ji, having unexpectedly received this news, also felt indebted to him, and the group enjoyed a meal where both hosts and guests were delighted.

With spirits high, it was inevitable they went to the second round.

The next day, Ye Yaodong and Lin Ji, using Su Ren's connections, ran around all day, and each bought two more shops.

However, this price was nothing compared to the shops they had bought a few years ago in their own hometown.

One shop was priced at 20,000 yuan, so two were 40,000 yuan, and you still needed connections to buy them; without connections, you couldn't buy them at all.

Ye Yaodong had enough money, but what he hadn't expected was that Lin Ji also easily pulled out 40,000 yuan.

It seemed this trip out hadn't been without bringing a lot of money; he was truly preparing to do something big.

Ye Yaodong calculated for himself and felt the price was about right; it was already 1988, and the hundred-yuan banknote had been issued.

Rapidly developing big cities all had commercial housing now; he saw information about it in the newspapers every day.

The earliest commercial housing itself appeared in the mid-to-late 1980s.

He remembered the newspapers had published that it cost over 100 yuan per square meter; the houses were built and sold to employees, but for employees, it wasn't that expensive because seniority could be deducted; this price was for selling to outsiders.

Ordinary people didn't have the qualification to buy houses, but if you paid enough money and operated it properly, you could naturally get a housing quota from someone else.

A housing price of over 100 yuan per square meter was truly expensive back then; an ordinary employee's monthly wage was only a few dozen yuan, unless they were of a high rank.

But now was a period of rapid development; individual households sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, and the most profitable were the individual households.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, and in a port city, spending 20,000 yuan for an individual household was really easy.

After buying these two shops, he had a more accurate understanding of current prices.

The speed at which money was devaluing was too fast.

He pondered that after his father trained the two grandsons to mastery, he would handle the shop matters on hand, then hand the collection work back to his father while he traveled to other cities.

He hadn't even been to the famous Jiangnan Shipyard yet; he could also visit Shanghai to see what the famous Pudong New Area looked like now, not knowing whether it had been developed or not.

He couldn't trap himself here just because collection required cash transactions.

The training class he arranged for his father could be attended every other day anyway; after all, collection was also done every other day.

It would just be staggered, not a difficult thing; he would ask his father to overcome it, and every day he could live very fully; if he couldn't overcome it, just push the training classes back a bit.

He wouldn't be out for very long; he would definitely just travel around for one or two weeks and return; his father's busyness was only temporary.

He planned in his heart, but in the short term it was temporarily impossible; after thinking it through, he pushed the thought back down.

Now that the shops were bought and the procedures completed, these two days he also needed to inquire about the training unit and send the person there for training.

At dusk, the fishing boats out at sea returned one after another, even the Oceanic No. 1 boat returned.

This trip out lasted quite a long time; since before Ye Yaodong went home last month, this boat had been out there, a full month from start to finish.

But even after the boat returned, the cargo still needed processing, so it wouldn't get home that quickly after a bit of work.

Only when the moon rose above the willow branches did the workers return one after another.

Ye Yaodong's headquarters was liveliest at this time; if the weather was good, there were only two or three days a month when everyone was most complete.

Although small boats returned every day, the number was only over a hundred people; how could that compare to the shock and excitement of three or four hundred people when all the fishing boats returned to rest?

Ye Ye Chengjiang and Ye Chenghe were seeing for the first time that Third Uncle's territory actually had so many workers!

So many people had come out with Third Uncle, and all rented Third Uncle's houses; it was too shocking. The two sat on the steps at the dormitory entrance, their eyes staring straight ahead.

Originally, when they first arrived, seeing so many houses here, such a large area, all belonging to Third Uncle, they were already quite shocked by Third Uncle's power.

But after seeing so many people following Third Uncle, they were even more enlightened.

Previously at home, they had only heard how amazing Third Uncle was, how much money he earned, and how many boats he had; hearing about it was nothing compared to the shock of seeing it with their own eyes.

"So many people..."

"There are more people than at a market fair..."

"I originally thought there were already many people every night; I didn't expect even more today."

"Third Uncle is truly amazing!"

"That's so awesome; these several hundred people all listen to Third Uncle."

"Yes, he's too strong; no wonder the whole village is talking about how amazing Third Uncle is and how he's made a fortune."

"Awesome, awesome..."

The two brothers sat on the steps waiting for their father to return; only a short while later, they saw people constantly coming back, all bare-chested and heading straight for the canteen.

Then, before long, everyone was carrying their trays, sitting at the doorway or on the steps in small groups to eat and chat; some finished eating and went to fetch water, bathing right there on the open ground nearby, with a continuous stream of people.

The two brothers didn't just focus on their discussion; seeing elders they knew, they waved and greeted them with smiles.

"Oh? Why have you two brothers come up here too?"

"When did you guys get up here?"

"Isn't Ajiang working at the factory?"

"Has Ye Chenghe graduated?"

The two were sitting on the steps in the dark; since they hadn't made a sound, no one had paid them any attention.

But as soon as they spoke, the people who had just returned were surprised, all smiling and greeting them, asking a couple of questions.

They replied one by one, saying they had come up to broaden their horizons.

When Ye Ye Yaopeng and Ye Ye Yaohua returned, the two brothers both stood up, surrounded them, and spoke in unison.

"Dad!"

Ye Ye Yaopeng and Ye Ye Yaohua, who had been walking and joking, were startled when they saw the two extra people right in front of them.

"Ah!?"

"Why are you guys here?"

Their eyes bulged out.

It was too shocking.

"Third Uncle called us up..."

Ye Ye Chengjiang slapped him, "Idiot, it was Grandpa who called us up."

"Oh, right! It was Grandpa."

Ye Ye Yaohua looked at them in disbelief, "Why did you come up? No work, no school? Why call you up suddenly?"

"Called us up to make big money!"

"Yeah, we've made several dozen just driving tractors these past two days."

Ye Ye Yaopeng got angry, "It's only May; school hasn't even broken for vacation yet, and you're called up here, not studying properly..."

"Grandpa said I wouldn't study anyway..."

Ye Ye Yaopeng raised his hand to slap, but Ye Chenghe, having just taken a hit from Ye Ye Chengjiang, was instantly alert, immediately stepped back and crouched, letting his father slap thin air.

He got even angrier.

"Dad, go ask Grandpa; it was him who said it, and Mom agreed too; it has nothing to do with me."

Ye Chenghe, fearing a beating, ran while speaking.

Seeing his father's expression was also wrong, Ye Ye Chengjiang ran too.

Ye Ye Yaohua was cursing there too, "What are you running for? I haven't even finished asking; you have a good job and you run up here; did you eat shit or something?"

"Go ask Grandpa; it has nothing to do with me..."

Even after running far away, Ye Ye Chengjiang kept shouting back the reply.

The two brothers hid in the corner behind the house, still feeling uneasy; they had almost been beaten, originally thinking it would be a scene of fatherly love and filial piety.

Instead, after barely two sentences, they were about to be beaten; it was so unfair!

Ye Ye Yaopeng and Ye Ye Yaohua, ignoring the curious people around them, hurriedly rushed to find their father.

Ye's father was in the canteen, showing off the new characters he had learned with a newspaper, and at the same time informing the people who had just returned about Ye Yaodong appearing on TV a few days ago!

And about the upcoming newspaper story!

This glorious matter, he could talk about ten times without getting tired, especially since some people were still out at sea and didn't know yet.

Now that everyone was back, he wished he had a loudspeaker in the canteen to play it on a loop constantly, so that everyone would know about Ye Yaodong's glorious deeds.

The two brothers asked around, learned their father was in the canteen bragging, and hurried over.

"... It's a pity I didn't go back; otherwise, I could at least tell everyone how Dongzi got on TV and what he said..."

"Dad!"

Ye's father turned his head and looked, "Oh? You're all back?"

"Why did you bring Ajiang and Ye Chenghe up here? One is working at home, the other is in school..."

"They've seen it; they told you, right? Since you're back to rest too, take these two days of rest to go buy them tractors."

"Tractors?"

"Bought?"

The two brothers raised their voices in shock!

The situation was a bit beyond imagination?

Seeing everyone listening curiously, and that his two sons seemed to know nothing, Ye's father hurriedly pulled his two sons and walked outside.

This matter of making big money couldn't be heard by others.

Otherwise, they would all go buy tractors, not work for them, and they would still have to struggle to find people.

"Dad, why did you suddenly bring those two up here without telling us beforehand?"

"Yes, Ajiang was working just fine; what a good job; you called him up here; when will he go back?"

"Did Dongzi bring them up when he went back last time? Why didn't you discuss it with us..."

"One is working just fine, the other is still in school."

The two brothers were pulled outside by their father, complaining all the way.

"What do you know!"

Ye father pulled them to the corner behind the house and said, "I had them come up to make money..."

Ye father rattled off how he'd been driving a tractor on the side lately, earning over ten yuan a day.

He added that in the past two days he'd borrowed Dongzi's tractor and taken them out for two days—now they could earn about twenty yuan a day, even after deducting fuel costs.

He was proud of having found such a profitable path, growing more excited as he spoke—but he had to keep his voice low.

This wasn't like bragging about Dongzi on TV; this was a real way to make money, so he had to whisper.

"Think about it—just two days, one tractor earned nearly fifty yuan—that's my entire monthly wage! How easy is that? Even accounting for bad weather, you'd still make seven or eight hundred a month, maybe nine hundred? Isn't that better than working at that lousy job?"

"Besides, with Dongzi around, how could they possibly suffer? If they really can't make money, we can always get Dongzi to get them back into the factory."

"Driving a tractor is such a great chance to earn money—and gain experience. You make in one month what you'd earn in two years at home. Would you take it?"

"Yeah, Dad!"

Whoa!

The three hidden in the corner were startled badly.

"Oh my god, you scared me half to death..."

Ye father clutched his chest and patted it hard. "When did you two sneak over here?"

"We just got back, and you saw us and were about to hit me, so we hid here."

"We were here first—you came later."

"Good thing it wasn't someone else—you gave me a fright."

Ye Ye Chengjiang said, "Dad, did you hear? We've only been here two days and already made fifty yuan—that's my whole monthly wage! It's so easy. Let us drive the tractor."

Ye Chenghe nodded. "Yeah, anyway, I'm no good at studying..."

Ye Ye Yaopeng was furious. "You're proud of it? Not being able to study, and you say it so confidently? You think it's something to be proud of?"

"I just can't study—you're the ones who forced me to try..." Ye Chenghe muttered under his breath, daring not let his father hear.

Ye Ye Yaopeng turned to his father. "Driving a tractor isn't as stable as working in a factory..."

"How isn't it stable? Just go out for two days and you earn what you'd make in a month at home."

"But you should've told us ahead of time! You suddenly dragged the two kids up here—we had zero preparation."

"What preparation do you need? Just prepare money! Do you think your grandfather would harm them? Time doesn't wait—every day delayed means lost income. You're out at sea—how could I consult you? As long as the kids' mother agrees, that's enough."

The two brothers were both gloomy.

Whether or not it was for the children's good, being kept in the dark as their own father, how could they feel at ease?

(End of Chapter)