Chapter 559: A Phone Call

The next day, Ye Yaodong slept until the sun was high, a rare occurrence. Since he was going out to set sticky nets today, he didn't need to leave at the crack of dawn; he could just sleep until he woke up naturally. In any case, they wouldn't be retrieved until the following day.

He planned to set 50 sticky nets and ground cages today. He would skip the longline fishing for now, as there wouldn't be enough time to retrieve them the next day; just setting and retrieving the sticky nets alone would take until dusk.

Brother Asheng had also told him that they would be heading out to sea for work the day after tomorrow, so he should clear his schedule.

After finishing breakfast, Ye Yaodong followed his father to stack the 50 sticky nets onto the flatbed cart, piling them high. After hauling them to the boat, he returned to fetch the bamboo baskets and water buckets.

There were too many items; the small flatbed cart couldn't haul them all in one trip.

After seeing them off, Lin Xiuqing sat by the doorway again, basking in the sun while knitting a sweater.

Since it was the weekend, Ye Chenghu didn't have to get up early for school. He was overjoyed and ran off to play marbles at the neighbor's doorway first thing in the morning. Lin Xiuqing called him several times, but he was too busy to answer, nearly driving her half-mad with anger.

"Do you still want to wear new clothes or not? Get back here!"

"Huh? Coming, coming right away."

This "right away" took another five minutes. Just as Lin Xiuqing was losing her patience and preparing to grab a whip, he came running back in a hurry, nearly failing to brake in time and crashing into the door panel.

"What is it, Mom? It's the weekend today, homework can be done tomorrow... no, wait, we just finished exams yesterday, there's no homework today..."

Seeing the dirt on his knees and sleeves, Lin Xiuqing felt her anger flare up. She gave him a few hard smacks, incidentally brushing off the mud.

"Who told you to lie on the ground? Look at your knees and sleeves. If you wear a hole in them, see if I don't beat you to death. I only made this cotton-padded jacket last year, and you haven't even worn it a few times..."

"Ouch~ easy~ easy~ it hurts, Mom... don't you have to lie down to play marbles..."

"It's a waste to give you new clothes to wear. You might as well just wear your older brother and sister's rags..."

"Then I'm going back to play marbles!"

He left as soon as he said it, so indifferent. Lin Xiuqing was nearly angered to death by this little brat.

"Get back here! Did I tell you that you could leave?"

Ye Chenghu was puzzled. "Didn't you say there were no new clothes? That I can only wear rags? Then what else is there?"

Lin Xiuqing felt a tightness in her chest. She glared at him fiercely, pulled him over, took the nearly finished sweater from the side, and held it up against his back to measure.

"I must have owed you in a past life..."

"Hehe, is this sweater for me? It looks so good, and it's blue too."

"Go, go, go, get aside. There's nothing for you here."

"Let me see, when will it be finished? I saw Dad has a scarf in this color, do I have one too?"

Ye Chenghu was reluctant to leave now. He hadn't expected that the sweater his mother had been knitting for the past two days was for him.

"Dream on. I have to see if there's enough yarn."

"Mom, does Yangyang have one? He's smaller, he must have extra yarn. Why don't you take the yarn from his sweater and knit me a scarf? Anyway, I can't wear my clothes anymore, so I'll just give them to him."

"You're being merciful now? Go, go, go, don't get in the way here. Whatever you're supposed to get, you'll get."

"Oh." Ye Chenghu was reluctant to go play marbles now. "Then when will the sweater in your hands be finished?"

Lin Xiuqing glanced at him. "By the New Year!"

"Then when is the New Year?"

"Another month and a half. Just wait patiently!"

Ye Chenghu stretched out his fingers and counted for a long time but couldn't figure it out. How many days exactly was a month and a half? He turned his head to look at the old lady who was watching him with a smile.

"Great-Grandma, how long is a month and a half?"

"When you don't have to go to class anymore, when you're on vacation, and when the village starts slaughtering pigs, then it's almost the New Year."

He gave an "oh" as if he understood, but he still couldn't figure it out.

Just then, his little friends from next door called for him to hurry over. He immediately threw the question of when the New Year was and wearing new clothes to the back of his mind.

Lin Xiuqing watched his fast-disappearing back from behind and shook her head. "Like a monkey, running around all day."

"Hehe, children are all like this. If he were sitting there quietly without moving, you'd have to wonder if there was something wrong with him, if he was a fool. It's better to have him running and jumping like this."

Lin Xiuqing laughed too.

"Help me go inside and see if the baby is awake. I'll finish up the collar on the rest of this..."

"Ye Yaodong's phone call, Ye Yaodong's phone call..."

Before Lin Xiuqing could finish her sentence, she heard a middle-aged man outside riding a bicycle, shouting while the bicycle bell rang "ding-ding-ding."

She was puzzled for a moment, but instantly remembered Ye Yaodong's instructions from yesterday. Pleasantly surprised, she stood up immediately, accidentally pricking her forehead with the knitting needle in her hand.

"Ouch, be careful, don't be so excited. You nearly poked your eye..."

"It's nothing... it's nothing..."

She touched her forehead casually, then excitedly put down the sweater she was about to finish and trotted toward the courtyard gate.

"Uncle, is there a call for Adong at the village committee?"

"Yes, there's a call for Ye Yaodong. They said they'd call back in ten minutes. You better hurry over and wait."

"Oh, okay, okay. He went out to sea, he's not home. I'll go wait."

"Then get on, I'll give you a ride over, save you from walking for ages."

"It's fine, it's fine. This road is uneven, full of potholes, not easy to carry someone. I'll just walk. Young people have fast legs, a few steps are nothing."

Lin Xiuqing followed alongside the bicycle, trotting toward the village committee. She hadn't expected that what Adong had just instructed yesterday would result in a phone call today so quickly.

She felt that a call at this time must be from the military!

Otherwise, the couple rarely received phone calls. This year, they had received one out of the blue, and that was only because his father had fallen on the mountain.

Most of the time, his parents would entrust others to pass on messages because phone calls were expensive, and you had to make two calls.

Because the first call usually wouldn't reach the person directly and required someone to relay it. The key was that phone calls were charged on both ends, so they generally wouldn't call unless it was something urgent.

Lin Xiuqing harbored expectations in her heart. If only the military were calling to order dried fish, then Adong wouldn't have to go through so much trouble selling them in small quantities.

【Given the current environment, this site may be shut down at any time. Please move to the permanently operating source-switching app as soon as possible.】

After running to the village committee, she checked the time and saw only three minutes had passed. Calculating the round trip, there should be another three or four minutes before the call came in.

She caught her breath before slowly walking toward the office, then waited patiently for the phone to ring again.

With anticipation, time felt exceptionally slow. She kept looking down at her watch frequently. Fortunately, after waiting for three minutes, the phone rang.

Lin Xiuqing didn't rush to answer the phone but waited for the uncle to answer first. After confirming it was for Ye Yaodong, he handed it to her.

"Hello, I'm Ye Yaodong's wife. Adong has gone out to sea. You can tell me whatever it is, and I'll relay it to him when he returns."

The person on the other end was silent for a moment, then immediately said, "Is this Ye Yaodong's wife?"

Hearing the person speaking in non-standard Mandarin, Lin Xiuqing realized that he didn't understand the local dialect she was speaking. She quickly switched to Mandarin and spoke even more politely.

Dialects in every place around here were a bit different, let alone who knew where the person on the other end was from? Of course, they wouldn't understand her local dialect.

"My name is Zhao Weimin. It doesn't matter that he's not here. Help me relay this to him: have him deliver 1,000 jin of dried fish to the same place as yesterday morning, at the same time."

Zhao Weimin might have been worried that speaking about military matters would cause them trouble, as there might be bystanders present when answering the phone, so he didn't state it directly.

Anyway, he had stated his name; as long as Ye Yaodong's wife relayed it honestly to Ye Yaodong, he would know.

The surprise came too suddenly, but it was also within her expectations.

Lin Xiuqing widened her eyes and nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, but instantly realized the other party couldn't see her nodding.

She immediately said into the phone, "Okay, okay, thank you. I will definitely relay it to him when he returns. He should be back by the afternoon, and we will definitely deliver it on time."

"Mm, okay, thank you. Your family's dried fish is very good, not salty and very fresh and fragrant. Everyone likes it very much."

"Thank you, as long as everyone likes it."

"Goodbye!"

"Goodbye! Goodbye!"

After the other party hung up, Lin Xiuqing heard the "doo-doo-doo" sound in her ear before excitedly hanging up the phone.

The uncle on the other side asked curiously, "What was that about? So happy?"

"Nothing, hehe. Calculate the phone bill for me."

"Must be some happy event, right? Just give me a dime!"

"Okay."

After settling the phone bill, Lin Xiuqing excitedly flew back home.

The old lady was watching the children in the room. Hearing the commotion outside, she walked out to take a look. Lin Xiuqing was standing by the stove, panting and pouring tea.

"Why are you running so urgently? You just finished running, you can't drink water. Catch your breath first."

"Oh!"

"You can't sit down either, stand up and catch your breath first."

Before Lin Xiuqing's butt could touch the stool, she immediately stood up straight again.

"Look at how happy you are, is there some happy event? Did your maiden home call?"

Lin Xiuqing slowed down, calmed her breathing, and said, "It wasn't a call from my maiden home. It was a person named Zhao Weimin who called for Adong. He asked Adong to deliver another 1,000 jin of dried fish to the same place as yesterday morning, at the same time."

The old lady was instantly overjoyed too. "Ouch, delivering to the same place as yesterday, isn't that the military? Adong only delivered dried fish to the military yesterday. I didn't expect that after delivering one batch yesterday, they'd immediately ask us to deliver another 1,000 jin today."

"Yeah, I didn't expect them to call so quickly either. Only one day has passed, and they asked for 1,000 jin right off the bat. As soon as I heard him ask for 1,000 jin, I thought it was the military."

"Shh, shh, shh, keep your voice down. Don't let anyone hear."

"Oh!"

Lin Xiuqing was overjoyed.

But after a while, her expression became hesitant again. She looked at the old lady. "Do you think I should help Adong collect the dried fish in advance? We only have a little over 300 jin at home, we're still short of a lot."

"Uh... maybe just leave it for now. They just went out to set nets today, they should be back by the afternoon. Let him and his father handle it when they get back, right? Anyway, they don't leave until two or three in the morning, so starting to collect in the afternoon is still in time. During this time, the villagers have taken advantage of the good weather to dry quite a lot. If they hear it can be sold for money, who wouldn't rush to send it over?"

"That's true."

Lin Xiuqing instantly stopped worrying.

If they were collecting goods, they would definitely have to pick and choose. She didn't know how he wanted to collect them, nor did she know the price Adong was collecting them at, or if it was the same as what he told his older brother and second brother yesterday?

Not knowing his plans, it was better for her not to act on her own. It would be in time to wait until he returned. ===== CHAPTER 560 =====