Chapter 560: Starting to Collect Goods

With something on her mind, and a big deal for their family at that, Lin Xiuqing sat at the doorway all day, looking into the distance from time to time, hoping for Ye Yaodong's return.

The old lady knew it was already 2:30, so she picked a large handful of sweet potato vines from the vegetable patch and walked over.

"Adong likes to eat this. I'll stir-fry some for him later. They should be back soon, right? Let's put the rice on to cook first. When they get back, they might be in a rush to start collecting dried fish. What if they don't have time to eat?"

"Right, you're right. I'll go put the rice on to cook now. When he gets back, I'll let them eat first, then work after they're done."

After Lin Xiuqing finished speaking, she put away the sweater sleeve she had just started, placed it in the basket, and got up to go inside to cook.

"Go ahead, I'll finish picking these sweet potato vines, wash them clean, and bring them in for you."

Before Ye Yaodong even reached home, he saw white smoke rising from his chimney and felt strange. Why were they cooking so early today?

Thinking he had remembered the time wrong, he specifically checked his watch and confirmed it was only 3:00.

"Dongzi is back? Hurry inside and sit down for a rest. It's cold outside, sit in front of the stove first and rub your hands to warm up."

"Cooking so early?" he asked as he walked into the house.

"Go inside and talk. Adong received a phone call this morning, she'll tell you."

"What phone call... huh?"

He stopped mid-sentence, then suddenly reacted. He widened his eyes in pleasant surprise. "Was it a call from the military?"

The old lady smiled without a word.

Lin Xiuqing sat in front of the stove holding the fire tongs, looking at him with a smile. "I don't know if it was a call from the military, he didn't explicitly say..."

"Ah... it wasn't?" Ye Yaodong was instantly disappointed.

"What are you rushing for? Listen to me finish... I don't know if it was a call from the military, after all, the other party didn't explicitly say, but he told me his name is Zhao Weimin, and he wants you to deliver 1,000 jin of dried fish to the same place as yesterday morning, at the same time."

Ye Yaodong was left feeling up and down by her, and immediately said with annoyance, "You woman, you have to split one sentence into several parts. You nearly gave me a false joy."

"Zhao Weimin is Group Leader Zhao from logistics, he's the one who collects the dried fish. He called this morning asking for 1,000 jin, right? I'll go ask the neighbors, and ask my older brother and second brother to see how much they have."

"Don't rush, the rice is already cooked. Just stir-fry the sweet potato vines and you can eat. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll be busy collecting dried fish later and won't have time to eat."

"It's fine, it doesn't matter. I'll go ask first. The few families probably don't have much stock. The ones they left to dry yesterday will probably take four or five days to dry. A while ago, every household didn't dry much either."

"Then I'll call you later."

Ye Yaodong didn't wash his hands or even take a sip of water before rushing out again.

Watching his hurried back, the old lady couldn't help but say, "I should have told him to eat first, then tell him while he was eating. He just got back, his butt wasn't even warm before he rushed out again."

"The dish isn't stir-fried yet, it's fine to let him go ask the neighbors first."

"At least let him sit and rest for a while first."

"You already let him come ask me, didn't I just tell him? He's anxious himself, what can you do? It's not like a little while will make a difference. I'll call him back to eat once the dish is stir-fried, it won't be more than a few minutes."

"Mm."

Lin Xiuqing took the dishes out, served a large bowl of rice on the table, then heated the wok, added oil, quickly poured in the sweet potato vines to stir-fry, and then threw in the minced garlic she had prepared to continue stir-frying.

She muttered, "There's nothing good to eat, yet he likes to eat sweet potato vines. I've never seen him eat them before... people usually use them to feed pigs, but he suddenly likes them, competing with pigs for food..."

"What's wrong with that? In the middle of winter, besides radishes and cabbage, there's only chives, and these sweet potato vines grow the best. In the past, when there was nothing to eat, people ate them all the same."

Lin Xiuqing just muttered a bit. Hearing the old lady's rebuttal, she didn't say anything else.

Ye Yaodong went out for a turn, spoke to the neighbors, and then returned.

"All set? How many jin does everyone have?"

"Don't know, not a large quantity. I told them to pick out the varieties first, then come over to weigh them. Let's eat first, work after eating."

He went to wash his hands, then sat down and picked up his chopsticks to eat.

Lin Xiuqing sat down too. "After receiving the call this morning, I originally thought about helping you collect a few hundred jin, but the old lady said she didn't know what your plans were, and that it would be in time when you returned. I thought about it, and it's true. I don't know what price you're planning to collect them at, is it the same price as what you told your older brother and second brother yesterday?"

"Mm, right, it's convenient for accounting. In case someone gets jealous again, seeing me make money and feeling uncomfortable, and goes to ask how much the price is, then comes back saying I'm black-hearted and exploiting the villagers, that wouldn't be good."

"That's true. We haven't even made money yet, and the village is already spreading rumors that we've made several thousand again." Lin Xiuqing had deep experience with rumors.

Ye Yaodong saw that the old lady hadn't sat down yet, and Adong hadn't served rice, so he asked puzzledly, "Why aren't you eating yet? What are you looking at? And the two children, did you call them?"

The old lady smiled. "I'm not hungry, it's not mealtime yet. I'll wait a bit and eat with the two children later. They've played until they're nowhere to be found, it's a bit early."

"Just eat together. If you're hungry at night, cook some noodles. Save the trouble of having to reheat the dishes over and over again."

"If you're in a rush to work, you eat first, don't worry about us."

"Suit yourselves."

Hearing someone calling at the door, Ye Yaodong shoveled a few mouthfuls of rice and went out with the large and small scales.

Lin Xiuqing followed closely behind to help.

They still had 360 jin at home, so they only needed to collect another 640 jin to be temporarily sufficient, but 640 was not a small amount.

They couldn't just weigh them as soon as people brought them over. They had to pour out the goods brought by the neighbors bag by bag to check them. What if someone was trying to pass off goods that weren't dry enough or had too much moisture to increase the weight? Or what if they were mixing in other fish?

What they feared most was encountering troublemakers who couldn't stand to see them doing well and deliberately mixed in stones. It wasn't like no one had done such things before.

After all, these weren't goods they had dried themselves, so they had to be careful when collecting. Moreover, these were to be delivered to the military, so he had to ensure integrity and quality first.

However, fortunately, the neighbors weren't the type to be sneaky or harbor malicious thoughts.

When he asked them before, he told them to pick them out and sort them in advance. Now that they were here, he checked and there were no problems. ===== CHAPTER 561 =====