Chapter 386: Once More

Ye Yaodong took the opportunity to stand up, preparing to go inside to eat, but he saw not far away that Chen Shuji was hurrying over again, so he had to stop his steps and sent Lin Lin Xiuqing and the two children inside to eat first.

"Why is Chen Shuji coming again? Did you just see them off? Come in and sit down, have a couple of drinks."

The moment Chen Shuji walked up to him, he started sighing. "You really know how to stir up trouble."

"What does it have to do with me? How is this me stirring up trouble? I can't foresee the future, and I didn't call them here."

"Then tell me what to do now? Before those leaders left, they still asked us to find a way to do ideological work with the villagers, to get everyone to agree to donate. Isn't this making things hard for people? If it were me, I wouldn't be willing to let them move it away either."

"Let's talk inside, have a couple of drinks, sit down and talk slowly."

Chen Shuji waved his hand. "I'm not going in, it's killing me with the heat, I'm drenched in sweat walking here, I'll just sit at the door and get some breeze first."

Ye Yaodong had no choice but to carry a stool out from the house, and the two sat at the door chatting while enjoying the breeze.

"Your doorway is indeed cooler than the village."

"It's alright, it's hot now, the southeast wind is blowing, sitting at the door with the sea breeze blowing right at you is quite cool, and it's even more comfortable in the evening, not stuffy at all. In autumn and winter, the northwest wind blows from behind the house and can't reach the front, it's pretty nice."

"It is pretty nice." After chatting idly for a moment, Chen Shuji returned to the main topic. "Sigh, tell me how we're supposed to do this ideological work with the villagers?"

"You're asking me? How would I know? Isn't this your job?"

"Didn't you cause this in the first place?"

"Nonsense!"

"The source is you, don't try to wriggle out of it."

"Hmph, those people didn't ask me to do ideological work with the villagers, and besides, I donated it in good faith to Goddess Mazu to pray for blessings."

"How about you change the donation?"

"What!" Ye Yaodong's eyes went wide as he stood up. "Are you kidding me? This is a divine object—once donated, you change the donation? Is there something wrong with my brain? Figure it out yourself, don't count on me, I'm no fool!"

Chen Shuji gave an embarrassed, sheepish laugh, knowing he had come up with a rotten idea. "I wasn't thinking just now, just said it off the top of my head, hehe~ it's a headache, forget it, let's talk about it tomorrow, let them figure it out themselves."

"Hmm... do you think there might be things like that in the sea? Let them fish up a few more things, or fish up another tripod for them, that way they won't be eyeing Goddess Mazu's big tripod?"

Ye Yaodong said irritably, "You think it's that easy to fish up? Whatever you think of, you can fish up? Let me tell you, even if they can salvage more bronze wares, they still won't let that big tripod go—a tripod is no ordinary thing."

"That's true too, sigh, headache, let's talk about it tomorrow."

This time Ye Yaodong didn't try to keep him either. Just now he had even wanted to help him come up with ideas and solve his problems, hmph~ now let him have a few more days of headaches.

By the time he ate, Ye Fu had also finished selling his goods and returned. He had also heard Mother Ye tell the whole story from beginning to end—whether she had exaggerated and mixed in her own opinions was unknown, but in any case Ye Fu knew the whole story.

"Don't get involved. If they want to take the tripod away, let them negotiate with the village committee and the villagers. We can't be the bad guys."

"Would I not understand that? I'll just cooperate with their normal work."

"This means another few days of not being able to go out to sea, it's really holding things up." Ye Fu was also a bit sullen.

"Do you want to eat here? I didn't have time to cook dinner, just the leftovers from lunch, make do with it."

Ye Fu waved his hand. "Your mother has already gone back to cook, the old lady made the rice ahead of time, I'll just go back and eat."

Ye Yaodong nodded and continued eating.

By the second day, the workers from the Zhou family next door had also split half to his side to work for him.

They said the stones and yellow earth they'd been carrying during this period were enough, all that was left was to pile them up, and if it wasn't enough they could go up the mountain or by the river to get some more.

The excavating master had no more work either, so today he simply split half the labor over to them. The materials could be carried down from the mountain by the workers, no need to buy from them, as long as the sand was evenly spread it would be fine. This way with fewer workers, they could also pay fewer wages.

Ye Yaodong certainly had no objections. He had thought he'd have to wait ten days to half a month, until they were nearly done before it would be his turn.

Early in the morning, after chopping firewood and returning, he sat at the door enjoying the breeze, sorting vegetables on the side, watching the workers bustle back and forth, and waiting for someone to come from the county.

But he waited and waited, the whole morning passed, and not a soul was in sight. He was feeling frustrated—weren't they the ones who told him to wait at home?

"Ah Dong, haven't they come yet? It's already noon." Lin Lin Xiuqing came out after cooking for the workers, also puzzled.

"Who knows, they told me to wait at home and not go out to sea, but not a single person showed up."

Today he had already missed going out to sea, so he could only continue sitting and waiting. As a result, he waited until the sun set, and not only was there not a soul, there wasn't even a hair's shadow to be seen.

Ye Fu also came over carrying a load of stones, wiped the sweat from his face with the towel draped around his neck, and only then said: "They didn't come all day, we were tricked, wasted a whole day at home for nothing. Should have gone out to sea last night."

"How would I know? Those people said they'd come, and then they didn't. Don't know what they're playing at, wasted a whole day of my time for nothing."

"Not earning money, but still having to spend it—how are we supposed to manage? And you, with money burning a hole in your pocket, why on earth do you have to build another house? The old house has a pile of empty rooms, are you afraid the old lady has nowhere to live? We can't even live in all of them, and you just love to mess around. If you can't hold onto your money, just leave it with us, your mother and I will save it for you."

Ye Fu had to help with the work, but his mouth also had to nag—anything he didn't like the look of, he had to say something about it.

"I didn't ask you to work, and I didn't spend your money, so stop nagging, just pretend you didn't see it, out of sight, out of mind."

"Who wants to bother with you? I'm afraid you'll mess around all day and squander the family fortune, so later the children will have no one to raise them, and when you're old you'll have to beg for food."

Ye Yaodong said with a smile: "Isn't there you?"

"You little brat, never a moment's peace. I don't expect you to support me in my old age, and you still expect me to support yours? Don't wait at home tomorrow, don't bother with them, just go out to sea at night. Earn more money so you'll have a family fortune to squander."

He hesitated, frowning slightly, thought for a moment, and said: "I'll go to Chen Shuji's house and pay him a visit, ask around."

But Chen Shuji told him to wait one more day tomorrow, and if they still didn't come by tomorrow, then he could go out to sea. He had no choice but to patiently wait one more day.

As a result, the next morning, he was in the cornfield beside the house breaking off corn, planning to boil a few in the afternoon for the two children to snack on, when he heard his sister-in-law running back and shouting: "Those people from the county are here again."

"They're here? Are they heading this way?"

Ye Yaodong sped up his hands, planning to break off a few more, otherwise he wouldn't have time later. A bit later, the sun would be even stronger, where would he be able to go out.

Who knew Ye Ye Dasao said: "No, they've been blocked at the village entrance by the villagers and can't get in. I heard someone has already gone to call the village committee."

"Huh? How could they be blocked at the village entrance and not get in?"

"I heard it's because they're afraid the officials won't be reasonable and will just take the tripod from Goddess Mazu temple. They specifically took a few nets and spread them across the road to block those people from coming in. They said it was an idea the old men in the village came up with yesterday afternoon—anytime they see that group entering the village, they spread the nets so they can't even squeeze through."

Ye Yaodong was immediately caught between laughter and tears. It's not like you block them and don't let them in, and they can't come in—the old men in the village are really something, really stubborn.

"It's useless, once the village head and secretary find out, they'll go over and come in just the same."

Ye Ye Ersao also muttered: "That tripod doesn't look like anything special, does it? Yellow and green, doesn't look good. Don't they all have them in temples? Why insist on this one fished out of the sea? A thing from a few thousand years ago, it's just a tripod, if you sell it it's worth at most a few dozen yuan, is it worth being this persistent?"

Ye Ye Dasao also didn't understand. "They say it's some kind of cultural relic? Don't know what it's for? Can't eat it, can't drink it, doesn't even look good."

"Exactly, coming all this way, not afraid of the trouble..."

Lin Lin Xiuqing stepped out, smiling, and said, "Perhaps they want to take it back for study. Something from thousands of years ago still preserved to this day isn't that rare?"

"That's true."

The three sisters-in-law were chattering away there; Ye Yaodong had no rush to run to the village entrance anyway. Since the village committee had already sent someone, they would arrive soon.

Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives.

Only a dozen minutes had passed when the same group returned. The village committee members wore smiles plastered on their faces as they accompanied them, walking and talking their way toward his house. Behind them stood several tall, upright men; one glance at their bearing told him they were soldiers.

That straight posture made him, a shameless person accustomed to having no proper stance when standing and no proper posture when sitting, feel ashamed.

"Comrade Ye Yaodong, truly sorry. We kept you waiting in vain yesterday. Things simply weren't arranged properly, so we couldn't come." The old head of the Cultural Center said politely.

"You didn't come yesterday and didn't say a word, making me wait in vain all day. My father even told me to go out to sea at night. Fortunately, I thought to wait one more day to see. If you hadn't come yesterday but came today, we would have missed each other again, making it look like I broke my promise. Fortunately, you came today; otherwise, I wouldn't wait tomorrow."

"Apologies. There were too many things yesterday; we didn't consider everything thoroughly."

"So what are you planning to do today? What's the arrangement?" Ye Yaodong said while glancing at those soldiers, wondering why they had specifically brought soldiers along.

To act as bodyguards?

Afraid the villagers would be unreasonable and use force?

"Could you please take us first to the sea area where you caught the bronze artifacts? We don't yet know how deep that seabed is. We have arranged several people skilled in swimming and diving, planning to try diving into the water first to see if there are any discoveries."

So they had brought divers.

"Alright."

Seeing they didn't mention the great bronze tripod, Ye Yaodong was glad not to press further, avoiding trouble for himself.

The sooner he took them to that sea area, the sooner he could achieve his goal and withdraw. Whatever they managed to haul up from below didn't matter; he had already gained the benefit.