Chapter 234

Not long after he returned, his two brothers-in-law also came back with a group of children, bringing their full harvest with them.

As soon as Lin Xiang Hui entered the house, he immediately took out the two pearls from his pocket to show his family, shocking everyone into opening their mouths wide.

"I was lucky. I didn't expect that just by randomly pulling out a river clam, I would actually pull out two pearls. Later, Xiangyang and I pulled out many more, but there were none."

His face was full of smiles, and his excitement was evident.

Lin Fu, Lin Mu, and Lin Dasao were overjoyed. Isn't this the same as a pie falling from the sky? They really had picked up a treasure.

Lin Ersao didn't have any feelings of disappointment either; her face was also beaming with smiles, and she even looked at the harvest in the baskets and buckets surrounded by the children behind her.

"Oh~ so many wild ducks? How did you catch them? These things aren't easy to catch. Who caught these? Your little uncle-in-law?"

Lin Guangyuan said excitedly: "Little uncle-in-law taught us how to catch two at the beginning, the rest we caught ourselves."

"So amazing, how many did you catch?"

"Eight."

"Mom, shall we kill the ducks and stew them tonight?"

"I want them stir-fried, I want to eat stir-fried ones!"

"I want to eat stewed ones, I want to drink the soup..."

"I want to eat duck stir-fried with dried radish slices..."

A group of half-grown children, everyone had different opinions, noisy and clamorous.

Lin Mu, with a headache, hurriedly scolded, "None of you are allowed to argue anymore. We'll stew one and stir-fry one tonight."

Only then did they have nothing more to say, and one by one, they were instantly satisfied.

"There are also river shrimp and a dozen fish. Mom, you look after cleaning them. Use the river clams to stew tofu soup, stir-fry a bowl of river clams, and let the children go knock the snails."

Yesterday and the day before, half the table was seafood he brought; today, half the table was river seafood.

River seafood also has the flavor of river seafood, distinct from seafood. Ye Yaodong wasn't picky; he thought river seafood was also quite delicious and fresh.

He only ate one bowl of that pot of wild duck soup; the energy from the soft-shelled turtle soup the day before was still sufficient, and he was afraid of overflowing.

However, he felt the stir-fried bowl suited his taste better. He added a lot of old ginger to remove the gamey smell, along with the freshly dried radish slices, making it especially chewy.

After eating and drinking to his heart's content, Ye Yaodong was also helped back to his room half-drunk. Because they had to pick oranges for the past two days, they had to go up the mountain at dawn, so the whole family didn't dare to drink much. Only tonight at dinner did they drink freely.

The men in the family were also half-drunk, but the next morning, one by one, they climbed up full of energy.

When Ye Yaodong got up, he happened to see them pushing the flatbed cart out and hurriedly asked what they were doing.

"Going to harvest sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes in the field are ready to be harvested too."

Lin Mu hurriedly said from the side: "You just rest at home. You've been here for two or three days, helping with work the whole time, and haven't sat down to rest once."

"It's fine, I don't have anything to do at home anyway. Dad's legs and feet are inconvenient, so I can help out a little bit."

The smile on Lin Mu's face hadn't stopped for the past two days, "There's no rush from now on. The work can be done slowly, it doesn't matter if the sweet potatoes are harvested slowly, you just stay at home and play..."

Play? Ye Yaodong gave an awkward smile. He was a stranger in a strange land, where could he go to play? Everywhere was dirt roads and mud-tiled houses, purely primitive countryside, not even a scenic spot. It was better to go to the field to help with some work and brush up on his favorability.

He didn't refute either. After washing up and having a simple breakfast, he chatted for a few sentences and then headed to the fields. The Lin family's land was also at the foot of that mountain. Walking over and seeing his two brothers-in-law and their wives working with hoes, he knew he had found it.

They were hoeing sweet potatoes. After hoeing one ridge, the two sisters-in-law would go and pick them up one by one into the baskets, and then all the sweet potato vines would be collected and put on the flatbed cart. These were to be taken back to feed the pigs.

Everyone saw Ye Yaodong coming and smiled to greet him, "Why did you come over too?"

"Nothing to do after eating, idle is idle."

This was indeed the truth. Sitting in the room awkwardly chatting with his father-in-law and mother-in-law while idle was not as good as coming out to do some work.

The Lin brothers and their wives also had an increasingly better impression of Ye Yaodong. They used to think he was bad in every way and that their little sister was blind, as if it were their own illusion.

After Ye Yaodong helped with half a day of moving and lifting work, he went back to his room to discuss with Lin Xiuqing about returning the next day when they went back for lunch.

They had visited who they needed to visit, and picked the oranges they needed to pick. The work in the fields could never be finished, but there was no rush anyway; they could just do it slowly.

A short stay of three or four days was enough. It wouldn't do for their own home to be left unattended for too many days.

Lin Xiuqing thought the same, "I told Mom this morning too that we're going back tomorrow. Are you tired? You said you came back to visit my dad, but ended up working for several days."

"Then will you compensate me?"

Doing some work was nothing. A son-in-law is half a son. If he could take the opportunity to ask for a reward and make someone feel sorry for him, that would be even better.

Lin Xiuqing glanced at him reproachfully and patted the bed board beside her, "Then sit down, I'll knead your shoulders."

"Alright."

Ye Yaodong sat down beside her happily, feeling her soft, boneless hands kneading his shoulders, and felt the soreness from carrying the pole in the morning disappear.

"Comfortable~ use more force~ put some effort into it~"

"Like this?"

"Mm~ right~ just like this~ mm~ great~ comfortable~"

Ye Yaodong closed his eyes, enjoying her rare, gentle service.

"A little lower..."

Lin Xiuqing obediently pressed lower, kneading and pressing his entire back for him, which felt so good he closed his eyes.

As a result, after only a short while, one hand stopped; he hadn't had enough yet.

"Wife?"

"My hand is sore."

"Then shall I knead for you?"

Ye Yaodong had just started, and the two of them were just getting close when they heard Lin Mu calling Lin Xiuqing outside the house. She immediately looked a bit guilty, like a thief, and stood up immediately to go outside.

His arms felt empty all of a sudden. He sighed regretfully, lay straight down, pillowing his head with his hands, crossed his legs, and looked at the top of the bed. Pregnancy takes ten months; it's really too hard to endure.

He counted on his fingers; it seemed like only four months had passed? Or the fifth month? Damn, he didn't know how to calculate it.

Sigh, there's no VCD, no little movies...

His mind wandered wildly, and he didn't expect to fall asleep directly. He didn't even know when a little person appeared beside him.

It wasn't until he woke up at three in the afternoon that he discovered he had used his youngest son as a pillow, sleeping with him behind his head. No wonder it was quite comfortable.

The son is still a bit useful.

Getting up lightly, he covered him with a quilt before walking outside.

At this time, Lin Mu was rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

Ye Yaodong stood at the doorway and stretched, watching his mother-in-law take things out bag by bag and jar by jar, placing them on the stove, muttering about what was in her hands, and then saying she wanted to bring them back for them.

Seeing that there were quite a lot of bottles and jars, he hurriedly said: "Mom, why are you rummaging through boxes and cabinets again? You don't need to bring everything back for us, we don't lack food at home. Just carry a bag of pomelos and half a bag of bitter oranges, that's enough..."

"Oh my, it's rare to come here once, what do you mean don't need to? This is all stuff we couldn't finish eating and dried ourselves. Look at that dried radish, we dried a whole sack at home, we won't finish eating it until next year. And that sour bamboo shoot, pickled a few months ago... daylilies, dried lettuce were also dried a few months ago... there's plenty at home, can't finish it all..."

Lin Fu also said with a smile: "In our countryside, we only have vegetables, nothing good. We have to harvest sweet potatoes slowly these two days. After harvesting, we'll have to push them into shreds and dry them, and also use them to make sweet potato starch. When you come for the New Year, we'll bring you some more then..."

Lin Mu also echoed, "Yes, yes, it's all grown at home, dried a pile, can't finish it all. Tomorrow, why don't you pack a sack of sweet potatoes to take back too?"

Before the family split up, they took less. Now that they have split up and are living their own lives, Lin Mu wants them to take a portion of everything.

"Ah, no need, no need, we have our own planted at home, and it can be harvested too. No need to bring it, you keep it for yourselves..."

Ye Yaodong waved his hands repeatedly. Even sweet potatoes have to be brought? Wouldn't he be carried to death?

"Bring a few more pumpkins, you finished the ones you brought last time, right? There's still a pile at home..."

Lin Mu said this and was about to go to the woodshed on the side to move pumpkins.

Pumpkins are even heavier...

Lin Xiuqing also said: "We still have pumpkins at home, Mom, you don't need to pack them..."

"Bring a few more to eat slowly..."

The couple found it hard to refuse such kindness and could only watch Lin Mu busily rummaging for things there.

Early the next morning, a tractor stopped at the Lin family's doorway, making a "da-da-da" sound, attracting a group of neighbors around. Everyone came out to watch the excitement and greet them.

"Your son-in-law is going home? Calling a tractor again?"

"Oh... calling a tractor to send them back again? It was a tractor when they came, and a tractor when they left. Is your son-in-law's condition so good? Why haven't I heard of it before?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, how much does it cost to send them back once?"

"Really willing to spend..."

Ye Yaodong smiled and said: "It's not that my father-in-law and mother-in-law are too enthusiastic. Look at these big and small bags prepared in such a pile, they insist we take them back. Even if we don't want to, we can't. We are two adults with two children, how can we carry them? We didn't push a flatbed cart when we came. It's such a long road, the children's legs can't walk, isn't it just to save trouble by calling a tractor?"

This was what he persuaded Aqing to do last night, asking her to go and ask for a tractor, otherwise how could they carry it? There were several sacks there, a bag of pumpkins alone weighed over a hundred jin.

Save where you should save, spend where you should spend.

After he said this, he went to carry the things, not caring what the people around were saying.

They were all just full and bored, idle and restless. They loved to crowd around whenever there was any movement in the neighborhood.

The two brothers-in-law also helped carry the things Lin Mu had packed in advance, sack by sack, onto the tractor. Even the wild ducks caught the day before were packed into two sacks for them to take back.

Every time they came, the father-in-law's family was so enthusiastic, insisting they take away big and small bags of things. Ye Yaodong felt embarrassed. Fortunately, he brought quite a lot of seafood when he came, otherwise, he would really have become someone just looking for a handout.

Ye Chenghu looked at his cousins and was also a bit reluctant to leave. Grandma's house was too fun, with things to eat and things to play with. His mouth hadn't stopped all day long.

"You guys come to my house to play next time, I'll take you to the beach to dig for clams."

"Okay, you can come over to play again next time too."

"Mm, I will definitely come again. You guys protect your turtle so it doesn't get eaten, and I will also protect my turtle so it doesn't get eaten by my dad."

Ye Yaodong heard him still chattering away and directly picked him up onto the tractor.

After a simple farewell to the Lin family, he let the tractor set off.