Chapter 262: Sweet Potato Starch

In the dead of winter, being wrapped up in a quilt, sleeping until you wake up naturally, and then cuddling with your wife for half a day—this is probably what everyone wants most.

However, the little brat is too annoying!

Ye Yaodong was sleeping soundly when, in his groggy state, he suddenly felt his body get wet. The water poured onto him was even a bit warm...

He woke up and took a look, feeling his chest being pressed down and a large patch wet. He lifted the quilt to see the little brat with both feet propped up on his chest, his crotch soaked, still sleeping soundly.

"Damn it..."

"What's wrong?"

Lin Xiuqing, lying to the side, heard the commotion and woke up too, seeing the two little feet propped on his chest and a patch of wetness.

"Did the son pee?"

"This little brat peed on my chest!"

Ye Yaodong scrunched up his face. If he weren't afraid that his wife, lying inside, would get kicked in the stomach by these two children's messy sleeping postures, he wouldn't be sleeping with them at all.

The little brat, peeing all over him first thing in the morning.

At this moment, Ye Chengyang seemed to feel he wasn't covered by the quilt and was a bit chilly. He actually turned over, stuck his butt toward the couple, and continued sleeping, which made Ye Yaodong want to slap him.

"This guy can still sleep? Doesn't he feel uncomfortable..."

He scrunched up his face and sat up, preparing to change his clothes, when he heard his wife say, "Good thing it didn't wet the bed."

"I've become a pee pad."

"You only got wet on your body, just wipe it off. If the bed were wet, what would we sleep on tonight?"

Lin Xiuqing said while patting the little son's butt, then took off his pants. At this time, he also woke up, rubbing his eyes sleepily and calling for his mother.

"Do you know you wet the bed?"

He immediately widened his eyes and shrank back, then dove into the quilt to hide, and a milky voice came from inside, "Didn't wet the bed! Can't hit me!"

"Do you want me to show you your pants? You think you can't be hit just by hiding?"

"Can't hit! Can't hit me!"

At this time, Ye Chenghu was also woken up, "Did Yangyang wet the bed? Mom, I'll help you pull him out."

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, "Good brother!"

"Stinky brother~"

"Stop messing around..."

It was only 7 o'clock, and he had been tossed out of bed. He didn't need to go back to sleep, so he might as well carry a hoe to the field to turn over sweet potatoes and pull radishes.

"Little ones, come work quickly!"

Just after he shouted, Ye Chenghai ran out from the house, followed by a whole string of them.

"Third Uncle, what are you doing?"

"Want to eat roasted sweet potatoes?"

"Yes!"

"Then come work for me."

"But I..."

"Time for breakfast, do you know? Where did you guys disappear to again?"

"When I seriously call you to eat, you're never this diligent. As soon as your Third Uncle shouts, you run faster than rabbits. Get back here to eat, and once you're done, go to school..."

After Ye Dasao finished shouting at the door, Ye Ersao immediately started scolding too.

The string of children came quickly and left quickly, leaving only his own two still squatting there.

He patted their two heads, "You two are still reliable. Work hard later, and I'll roast sweet potatoes for you at noon!"

The two nodded like chickens pecking at rice, "Dad, we will definitely work hard!"

Because the children weren't going to school, Lin Xiuqing cooked a bit later. The rice had just been put in the pot. After boiling for a while, she stirred it a few times with a spatula and then let it simmer, also going to help harvest sweet potatoes.

Seeing the two children squatting there picking sweet potatoes, playing very enthusiastically, with mud all over their hands, bodies, and faces, she had a headache again.

"You guys go pull radishes over there, we don't need you here."

"Alright, I like pulling radishes the most."

Ye Chenghai was eating in the house, and ended up bringing his rice bowl out too, "Third Uncle, can I discuss something with you?"

"Nothing to discuss!"

Ye Chenghai bit his chopsticks and glared, "I haven't even said it yet."

"You must be asking me to roast one more sweet potato, so you can have it after school."

"Hehe, Third Uncle knows me best."

"You didn't work, why should I give you any? Either you don't go this morning and come to the field with me, and I'll roast a sweet potato for you."

"That won't work, how can one sweet potato bribe me? My mom will beat me to death."

"Anyway, you won't study."

"Unless you let my mom not hit me."

"So one sweet potato can still bribe you?"

Ye Chenghai stared, looking at him gloomily. Ye Yaodong laughed out loud, "Don't blame me for not reminding you, look back, your mom has already brought out the whip."

Ye Chenghai turned his head instantly to look. His mom was just walking down the steps with a whip. He quickly poured the little bit of porridge left in his bowl into his mouth and ran immediately.

"Mom... I've already finished eating... Ah... don't hit... I really already finished... really..."

Ye Yaodong shook his head, "Really, if you don't beat them for three days, they'll climb onto the roof and tear off the tiles."

"Who told you to love teasing him all day? You even have to call him to hoe sweet potatoes."

"Didn't he run over very actively? There's strength in numbers, you can't underestimate child labor, you have to make the best use of everything."

Lin Xiuqing glanced at him, he really had no seriousness, and she was too lazy to talk to him, as long as he could work.

Ye Yaodong said with a grin, "Don't squat for too long, go dish out the porridge to cool it down, I'll do the work."

"Simmer for a while, I'll help do it faster. Why... you can abuse child labor, but you can't bear to abuse a pregnant woman."

"That's right, children are debt collectors when they're born, but a wife is meant to be cherished."

Lin Xiuqing was coaxed into being a bit happy, but she pursed her lips and secretly enjoyed it, not laughing out loud. In fact, her upturned mouth and the way she held back laughter had already exposed her.

"If you're happy, just laugh, I know you're happy."

She turned her head, her mouth upturned, and glared at him with a mix of coyness and laughter, "I'll go dish out the porridge to cool."

Ye Yaodong grinned and continued swinging the hoe, feeling that life now was pretty good, with something to look forward to.

Lin Xiuqing went in for a short while and came out, just in time to see the little son holding a radish, falling backward and doing half a somersault due to excessive force.

Then he casually threw the radish aside and continued to pull the next one, and ended up sitting on the ground on his butt again...

She simply couldn't bear to look, walked forward a few steps, and picked him up to the side, "You're almost out of clothes to change into, do you know that?"

Ye Chengyang stared innocently.

Lin Xiuqing had a headache, glaring at Ye Yaodong not far away, "Why aren't you watching him?"

"How can I watch? I'm hoeing sweet potatoes, who stares at him all the time? Just glance at him occasionally to make sure nothing happens, anyway, they're going to get dirty, why do you care, as long as he doesn't climb onto the bed," Ye Yaodong said indifferently.

"One, two, three, none of them are worry-free..."

"Just pat them a few times later and they'll be clean!"

Lin Xiuqing: "..."

Heart-wrenching!

"Otherwise, wait a while, change them, and by night they'll be covered again, forget it."

Seeing the little son so dirty, she also gave up and didn't want to care anymore, let go of her hand, and let him play, "Go, go, go..."

Ye Chengyang happily ran off to pull radishes again, but he still knew to carefully peek at his mom's reaction. Only when she didn't scold him did he feel relieved to start.

Ye Yaodong swung the hoe and said, "What do you plan to do with these sweet potatoes?"

"See if Mom made sweet potato starch this year. If she did, we won't make it, just push them into strips and dry them to store, saving trouble. Making sweet potato starch is too strenuous."

"Dry some sweet potato strips for you and the two children as snacks."

"You want to eat them yourself, right?"

"What nonsense, how could a grown man like these little things."

"If you're free, you can fuss with it."

"No problem."

The couple, one hoeing and one picking, hoed six baskets before temporarily stopping to eat. The two little ones were also very capable, pulling two ridges of radishes, their little faces flushed red from playing.

Today they ate very seriously, quickly finishing a whole bowl of porridge, without anyone urging them in their ears. As soon as they finished, they slid down and ran to the field next door to pull radishes.

Ye Yaodong hoed all the sweet potatoes before going up to the old house. As soon as he arrived, he saw the entrance was bustling with activity. The women in the family were all washing sweet potatoes, his father was stuffing sweet potatoes into the opening on top of the shredder, and many neighbors were standing around watching.

He rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward to help, "Making sweet potato starch, why didn't you say so yesterday? Go call the eldest sister-in-law and second sister-in-law to come help."

"No need, we can handle it, there aren't many, make half and leave half to push into strips and dry."

Seeing him reach out to help, Ye's father handed the shredding work to him, and he himself carried the shredded sweet potatoes to the side to add water and stir with a stick.

Ye's mother also freed up her hands to prepare the filter net and filter rack, setting them up on top of the large water vat used to hold the filtered water.

Then Ye's father scooped a few ladles of the stirred sweet potato pulp into the filter net. Ye's mother adjusted the filter rack to let the pulp inside filter into the large vat, and then squeezed the remaining residue by hand to extract the moisture.

This filtered water needs to settle for about 12 hours, then the next day the water is poured out, and more water is added to soak and settle again.

Repeating this three or four times to wash away the impurities, then taking out the sediment and drying it is sweet potato starch.

Red-hearted sweet potatoes don't produce as much starch as white-hearted ones, but red-hearted ones taste better.

The process is a bit strenuous, but it is authentic farm sweet potato starch, and it's also very convenient to use for making vermicelli.

Ye Yaodong was busy working, while the women washing sweet potatoes on the side couldn't stop praising him.

"Didn't expect Adong to change just like that..."

"Who says not, he grew up all of a sudden in these few months, and he's capable, bought a big boat, caught so many good goods..."

"He became diligent all of a sudden, and knows how to help the family work, he's promising, everyone says he's going to be the first ten-thousand-yuan household in our village, Lixiang will wake up laughing in her dreams..."

"Used to scold him every day, three times a day, suddenly he changed for the better, how did he get enlightened?"

As they talked, they asked the person involved without any reservation, "Adong, how did you suddenly get enlightened?"

"How is it sudden, isn't this helping the family work bit by bit, and feeling that going out to sea is also quite interesting."

"Still interesting... we people by the sea have no choice, that's why we can only go out to sea to make a living..."

Another nosy woman asked, "I heard you're going to be a ten-thousand-yuan household, is it true?"

"Nonsense, I'm probably still 9,900 yuan away from being a ten-thousand-yuan household." He wiped the sweat on his forehead, these women really have no reservation.

"Just joking, how is that possible, it's nothing to tell us..."

"Auntie Chunhua, why don't you lend me 9,000 yuan, let me get on the newspaper and become famous nationwide?"

"Scared... what kind of joke is that..."

"You're joking with me, can't I joke with you a few words?"

"Slippery..."

Ye's mother said with a smile, "It's all rumors, only heard that raising pigs produced a ten-thousand-yuan household, never heard of any village fishing and producing a ten-thousand-yuan household..."

Ye Yaodong poured the remaining half basket of washed sweet potatoes into the opening on top of the shredder, then patted his butt and slipped away. These women can talk too much, out of sight, out of mind. ===== CHAPTER 263 =====