Chapter 1813: Getting Ready to Leave

Ye Yaodong and Director Chen sat drinking tea and chatting—about current affairs, recent happenings, the kids, anything at all. They only left around nine o'clock, since the two old men needed rest too, and they still had work the next day.

Ye Ye Chengyang and Ye Ye Xiaoxi reluctantly put down the handheld game console they were holding. They had only just been getting into the groove when they were forced to stop, and now they were feeling restless and itchy, utterly miserable.

The moment they said goodbye to their god-grandfather and god-grandmother and stepped out the door, they scrambled onto the tractor impatiently, urging Ye Yaodong to hurry home.

They hadn't had enough of the game console they'd just gotten their hands on. They were stopped at dinner, and now stopped again. They felt they hadn't played to their heart's content and were dying to get back and pick up where they left off.

"Dad… drive faster, there's no one around at night."

"Who says? What if some drunk pops up on the road? The light's bad at night, you've got to drive even more carefully. Going back at this hour means you need to sleep too—no more playing."

Ye Ye Chengyang let out a wail. "Isn't it way too early to sleep now…?"

"In the demon capital you still sleep at nine, and at the factory you sleep by ten, right? If we go back now and wash up, it'll be about time to sleep."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi's eyes were already a little squinty, but she still talked tough. "I'm not sleepy."

The moment she said it she yawned, but she knew she'd just been stubborn, so halfway through the yawn she quickly covered her mouth.

Ye Yaodong mimicked her in a weird singsong voice. "I'm not sleeeepy~"

"Daaad~"

"Go straight to sleep when we get back. You got up early this morning, and when I let you nap at noon you wouldn't. Now it's this hour at night and of course you're sleepy. No more playing. When we get back I'm confiscating the game console—nobody plays. You can only play tomorrow after you've woken up properly."

"Fine."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi was still young and didn't feel the addiction that strongly. She really was a bit sleepy now, so she simply hugged Ye Yaodong around the waist and leaned against his leg.

Ye Ye Chengyang didn't dare bargain either. He knew his dad was going to put the game console away when they got back and ban playing at night, so he gave up hope too.

On the way back, Lin Xiang Hui's house was still brightly lit. Ye Yaodong told the two of them to go upstairs and sleep on their own while he went to put the game console away, but neither of them agreed—they insisted on following him to take one last look before bed, watching it being put away.

By the time they reached the door, the house was in an uproar, with the sounds of squabbling mixed in, along with an adult's voice calling for order from upstairs.

"It's my turn to play now…"

"Next round is mine."

"Stop fighting, Laozi hasn't even died yet—wait till I die first…"

"Nobody plays anymore, what time is it? We have to get up early tomorrow morning to open the shop and drive."

"Just a little longer…"

This was the noisy commotion that met Ye Yaodong and the others when they reached the door.

Ye Ye Chengyang and Ye Ye Xiaoxi were now wide awake and burst inside.

After half an hour of stopping, the craving had temporarily worn off. Ye Ye Chengyang called out to them: "My dad says no more playing."

"Ah, I haven't even had my turn yet—it's almost my turn."

Ye Yaodong walked in, arms folded across his chest, and looked at the bunch of game-addicted boys and girls.

"Finish this last round and then put it away. Each and every one of you has work tomorrow—some are going to the office, some are working, some are driving."

"We can wake up in time…"

"Even if you can wake up, the game console is still being confiscated. After playing this long it's probably burning hot—don't burn out the TV, or every single one of you will be in serious trouble."

Lin Guanggu was the first to stand up straight, deciding not to keep watching. "Forget it, going to bed. Tomorrow I'll buy one myself and keep it at home to play."

"Uncle, you're not going back tomorrow, are you?"

"No, probably the day after."

"That's great."

They could still take turns playing a bit more tomorrow.

Ye Yaodong waited until their in-game characters regretfully died, then unplugged all the game console cables. The bag it had been taken out of that afternoon was right there, and he packed it all up together.

The boys and girls wore faces full of regret and unfinished business, reluctant to just go to sleep like this.

"Alright, everyone go home, hurry up and sleep. Your parents are probably already asleep, and here you are still making a racket—amazing you haven't been kicked out."

"Whoever leaves last, remember to turn off the lights, lock the door, and close the windows."

After giving his instructions, Ye Yaodong took the two of them back to the factory to sleep. Both of them insisted on taking one last look at the game console before bed.

The moment they stuck their bums up, he knew exactly what they were up to.

"You can only play after eight o'clock tomorrow. Don't you dare crawl out of bed at the crack of dawn to play—if I find out, it's confiscated."

"But what if we wake up early…"

"Waking up early doesn't count either. It has to be after eight."

If he didn't set a time, they'd probably be crawling out of bed at four or five in the morning to play.

Fine, the two of them obediently settled down to sleep in peace, no longer dreaming of waking up early to sneak in extra playtime.

The two of them had actually gotten up very early today and should have been sleepy long ago, but with the game console to play with, their spirits were so high they couldn't bear to sleep at all.

The moment they lay down now, they fell asleep the instant they said they would.

And they slept so soundly and deeply that they slept straight through to eight-thirty the next morning. Nobody called them—they'd overslept. Their cousins next door had been popping over to check on them repeatedly since seven, which had been torture for them.

Ye Yaodong continued checking accounts and inventory today and had no time to mind them. After they woke up he let them play as they pleased—after all, they'd eat on time when the hour came.

In the afternoon, Lin Guanggu came back for lunch carrying a little Subor of his own, which sent the whole house of boys and girls into a frenzy. At last they wouldn't have to wait one or two hours between turns.

Lin Ye Ersao scolded him for spending money recklessly, then left him alone—after all, he was old enough, it was his own earnings, and he never bought anything for himself anyway.

After lunch, when it wasn't Ye Ye Xiaoxi's turn on the game console, she sidled up to Ye Yaodong and asked in a sneaky little voice: "Dad, do we really have to wait till tomorrow to go home?"

"Why?"

"Want to go home earlier."

"Want to go home earlier so you can hog the game console all to yourselves!"

"Hehe…"

"Once I finish my business today, we'll go back tomorrow morning. You're not going out to shop anymore, are you?"

"Not going, it's too hot. We just want to go home. The malls here aren't as big as the demon capital anyway, and school's starting soon—we can shop when we get back to the demon capital."

"Play a little less, your eyes are going to go bad."

"No, we take turns with them. It takes a long time before we get a turn, and when we're not playing I go to the market to find Grandpa and Grandma."

"Mm, we're heading back tomorrow. After that, it'll be another half a year or so before you see your grandpa and grandma again. Go over and stay by their side more."

Ye Yaodong was also thinking of finishing up the business here quickly so he could head back sooner, and still have a few more days at home.

Today is only the 16th, going back tomorrow the 17th, he expected to be able to stay another three days or so.

It's also been about ten days or so since they arrived.

During the day the boys all had to go work driving the tractor, so they'd agreed that during the day the girls at home would play, and at night once the boys came back from driving the tractor, they'd hand it over to the boys to play.

It was a way of staggering it, with a clear division of labor—after all, they couldn't just play games and not earn any money.

Ye Ye Chengyang and Ye Ye Xiaoxi were naturally the exception; after all, one of the consoles was theirs, and they didn't have to work in the first place—they'd come as guests.

The two of them really played from morning till night, except for meals in between, and they also had to let others play for a while.

Today could be considered playing to their heart's content.

Once they got home it would be even better—no need to even step outside. The moment they got home they'd play games. No matter who came to call, they wouldn't go. All those traditional activities like climbing mountains, going to the sea, swimming, and catching fish with their little buddies couldn't lure them away at all.

The upside was they didn't have to go out and get tanned into little pieces of charcoal, but because of that, a whole bunch of kids gathered at their house to watch them play games, and the crowd just kept growing. Their mother had to mop the floor at noon, in the afternoon, and again at night, cursing the whole time.

She cursed Ye Yaodong for it all.

"The moment you two came back, more than half the village kids have been drawn over here. Apart from meals, they laze around here the whole day. You're just finding my life too easy for me."

"Of all things to buy, you buy a game console. Now they don't want to study, you can't even call them in for meals, their ears look deaf, they can't hear a word you say."

"The whole day today, neither of them has said a single word to me, hasn't even looked at me properly."

Ye Yaodong patted the two of them. "You hear that?"

Ye Ye Xiaoxi turned her head, eyes wide open, and even used both hands to hold her eyelids open as she looked at her mother.

"Granny, I'm looking at you properly now! With my eyes wide open looking at you, see? Look closely, okay? Is that good enough?"

"Once this round is done, I'm calling it a day. I want to watch the news. Get out of here and go play outside."

"Huh?"

Ye Ye Chengyang, eyes glued to the screen, played and complained at the same time. "A few days ago you weren't saying this. You told us not to go out, to just stay home and play, otherwise we'd be running around like wild monkeys every day and get tanned into charcoal."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi chimed in, "That's right, Dad. The one who told us not to run outside was you. Now that we're staying home, you're chasing us out again. You're so contradictory."

"I told you to stay home, not stay home the whole day. I told you to go out and play, not run around outside getting sunburned the whole day. Fine, once you die in the game, go outside. Stop bothering me while I watch the news. I'm pulling the cords out."

Ye Ye Chengyang looked at him reluctantly as he pulled the cord. "Then after you finish watching the news…"

"After the news, your great-grandma and granny want to watch TV dramas. After the drama, it'll be time for you to go to bed anyway. So you've played enough today, that's it. You can't play to excess."

"Fine."

Their mother mopped the floor and reminded them, "Tomorrow you can't bring a whole crowd into the house. It gets filthy. The cleaning should be done by the two of you."

"We didn't let them in, they ran in on their own."

"Then tomorrow you two mop the floor clean for me."

Ye Ye Chengyang didn't want to mop. "Tomorrow we'll close the door so they can't see us."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi, however, said, "We're leaving the day after tomorrow. Let's stick it out one more day tomorrow! Everyone coming to the house is so lively. Even Great-Grandma was happily cracking sunflower seeds for them to eat."

"No wonder the floor is covered in sunflower seed shells—all your doing. The big ones, the small ones, the old ones, all of you are debt collectors. Even when I'm old I still have to slave away for you." Their mother nagged on relentlessly.

Ye Yaodong said, "Stop being tough on the outside but soft inside. I know you're really happy we're back. It's not easy to have a bit of liveliness for two days—cherish it. In two days when we leave, it won't be lively anymore."

Their mother said nothing.

The old lady had already started sighing.