Chapter 693

Early the next morning, because Ye Yaodong had slept so well at night, he was already awake when the rooster crowed, before it was fully bright, but a little guy had woken up earlier than him.

When he sat up, he saw a meatball lying at the end of the bed, holding its feet and gnawing happily. With a knowing smile, he moved over lightly.

Afraid of waking Aqing, he didn't speak, just smiled and hugged the child in his arms, then sat on the stool to put on her clothes, pants, shoes, and socks, and supported the chair for her to stand, then he put on his clothes.

"Papa papa papa..." Ye Xiaoxi called out excitedly while holding the stool.

"Shh, your mom is sleeping, be quiet."

He quickly put on his clothes and pants, then hurriedly hugged her and went out.

In the main hall, the old lady was already sitting there lighting a fire to cook porridge. Seeing the father and daughter already up, she said with a smile, "Slept enough last night, the two of you woke up early."

"Yeah, slept too early, so woke up early."

Through the window, you could see the sky outside was gray, as if it was about to rain again.

Ye Yaodong put Ye Xiaoxi in the playpen to stand and play, went to the window to take a look, and opened the window by the way. Heavy water vapor entered through the window.

"Going to rain again?"

"It's going to rain. It'll be Qingming the day after tomorrow, there's a lot of rain these two days."

He stood by the door and looked at the calendar hanging on the wall. The page for the 2nd yesterday had already been torn off. Today is the 3rd. He flipped two pages down, and the three big red characters, Qingming Festival, were clearly printed on the calendar.

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Qingming Festival; that sunny day yesterday was quite rare.

These few days, he had been busy dragging nets, and the child's first birthday, leaving early and returning late, falling asleep as soon as he got home, so he didn't have time to flip through the calendar. He didn't expect it to be Qingming Festival already.

"Then shall we go sweep the graves the day after tomorrow?"

The old lady nodded, and the smile on her face disappeared.

Ye Yaodong turned his head and continued to flip through the calendar, flipping all the way to May 1st before stopping again. Outside the house, a light rain began to drift.

Originally, Ye Yaopeng wanted to take advantage of these few days of free time to build a wall and set up a pigsty so that they could hold piglets in a few days, but it looked like it couldn't be done today.

Ye Yaodong was also happy and relaxed. He dragged the rocking chair out of the house, placed it under the corridor at the door, and lay on it, watching the rain drifting and drizzling outside.

And when Ye Chenghu returned in the evening, he was also muttering in his mouth: "A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Qingming Festival, the mourner's heart is going to break on his way. Where can a tavern be found to drown his sorrows? A cowherd points to Apricot Blossom Village."

"Oh my? You can actually recite it? Is my family going to produce a top scholar?"

Ye Chenghu raised his neck proudly and said, "I'm going to get two 100s, of course I can recite it. Just wait and see. After the midterm exam, if I get a 100, you have to take me to the city."

"Remembered it quite firmly. Wait until you get a 100 before talking about it."

"Hmph hmph, anyway, you're not allowed to go back on your word."

"You do it first."

Ye Chenghu shook his head and ran into the house arrogantly. "Mom, the day after tomorrow is Qingming Festival, the teacher said no school tomorrow, two days off!"

"Haven't been to school for two days and already taking a break, and have to take two days off..."

"Because the teacher has to go home early to sweep the graves, so we have a break."

"This is going to be noisy..." Lin Xiuqing was nagging in the house, not very happy to see them noisy at home.

However, later, she wanted to see them noisy in the house, but she couldn't see them anymore.

The day before Qingming, early in the morning, all the children in the village stood at the roadside at the entrance of the village, full of spirit, waiting to see who walked by with a hoe or broom, and then they all followed.

Because they have a custom of distributing grave cakes when sweeping graves locally.

Grave cakes are basically light cakes.

Light cakes have a very long history locally. It is said that they were offered by the common people to Qi Jiguang for resisting the Japanese pirates. A hole is made in the middle so they can be strung together with a rope, which is convenient for marching and fighting.

And on Qingming Festival, for many local people, it is a grave cake, used for sacrificing at graves. Interestingly, after the light cake becomes a grave cake, it must be distributed on the spot when sacrificing to ancestors.

In this day and age, material goods are relatively scarce, and children have no snacks. Qingming Festival can also be considered a festival that children like very much because they can ask for grave cakes.

Although it is considered a ghost festival, during Qingming, in the fields, on the ground, or on the mountains, as long as firecrackers sound, children will rush to the graveyard from all directions to ask for grave cakes.

It can not only be used as a snack but also fill the stomach, so it is not only children who ask for grave cakes, but many adults working in the fields will also go. As long as they encounter a few families sacrificing at graves, the snacks for the day can be saved.

The Ye family's children, regardless of gender, had been running around outside since the day they started their break, and they hadn't seen anyone from morning till night, and they hadn't seen anyone run back for lunch either.

Ye Yaodong didn't react at first, and was puzzled why he hadn't seen anyone for most of the day, thinking they had gone somewhere to play, until firecrackers kept sounding everywhere on the mountain, and he suddenly realized that they had all gone to the mountain to ask for grave cakes.

"I was wondering why it was so quiet this morning? It just so happens to save a meal at noon."

Lin Xiuqing also said with a smile, "They should be wandering around the various hills nearby now? It's drizzling from time to time, and the road is full of mud and water. I don't know how dirty they will be when they come back."

"Yangyang is so small, don't let him get lost."

"He wasn't allowed to go last year, I don't know when he sneaked out this morning."

"With so many people, anyway, they are in the hills nearby, so they shouldn't get him lost. One more person can also ask for one more cake. With so many children in the family, they can ask for dozens or hundreds today. We'll have a source of goods when we sweep the graves tomorrow, saving money!"

Lin Xiuqing smiled until her teeth couldn't be seen. "You're really good at calculating."

Last year on Qingming Festival, it rained heavily, so they didn't let the children go out to ask for grave cakes. When their family swept the graves, not many children came to ask, so they only prepared a dozen or so, and the rest were all left over and brought home for their own children to eat.

Today, it's just drizzling occasionally, and it's sunny from time to time. Tomorrow, I guess there will really be quite a lot of children and adults.

In the afternoon when it cleared up, Ye Yaodong was called by Ye Yaopeng to the old house to help build a wall and organize the pigsty.

It's just that this is an old house, a bit old. Ye Yaopeng's room belongs to the old house and is connected together, unlike the old lady's original small room which is independent in the backyard.

When building the wall, the whole house shook, and the tiles on the roof rattled, scaring Ye Fu into shouting to stop, his heart aching, not allowing them to hit it again.

He only let them both put it in the old lady's small room to raise them, raise them together, and divide them together.

It already had quite a few years and was broken, but because it was built of stone, it appeared a bit more solid. It was just that the roof leaked badly, and the door panel leaked badly. If half the wall was really knocked down, I guess the whole old house would be ruined.

Ye Dasao and Ye Ersao could only reluctantly accept it. Otherwise, if they were asked to build a pigsty specially, it would cost money. The old house already had a ready-made one, and no one was willing to pay to build another one.

"Hehe, the sister-in-law and I use the old lady's room to raise pigs together. Does that mean the old lady's piece of land should also be divided in half for me to plant?" Ye Ersao's abacus was clicking loudly in her heart.

Ye Fu's brows were tightly furrowed.

At that time, because the second daughter-in-law bought a pig, the old lady's small room was given to her to raise pigs. In order to block the eldest daughter-in-law's mouth, the small piece of land opened by the old lady on the roadside was given to the eldest daughter-in-law to plant.

Now she's actually bringing this up again!

Ye Fu looked at Ye Yaodong.

Ye Yaodong raised his eyebrows and looked over too. "Don't look at me, I don't know how to farm, I didn't think about fighting for it, and Aqing doesn't have time to farm, she won't have any opinion either. You decide for yourself."

The small piece of land circled in their courtyard is enough for them to be busy, and the vegetables planted are enough for their family to eat.

"Ask your mother later. Neither of us has died yet, what are you fighting for? Now help me repair the tiles on the roof first. The two of you hit it, and at night, your mother and I can lie on the bed and watch the stars."

Ye Yaohua glared at his wife fiercely and hurriedly said, "Hey, okay Dad, I'll go move a ladder over."

Ye Ersao pouted, a bit unconvinced, but didn't dare to make a sound again.

Ye Yaohua felt his wife was embarrassing, wanted to make up for it desperately, and after moving the ladder, he volunteered to climb up.

Ye Yaopeng also felt embarrassed and climbed up to help together, while Ye Fu and Ye Yaodong helped support the ladder at the bottom, passing tiles by the way.

The two sisters-in-law also had a good eye for things, picked up brooms, and swept and organized around. It couldn't be seen that they had just been scolded, and they looked quite capable of self-adjustment.

Ye Fu looked at Ye Yaodong and said, "Sweep graves tomorrow on Qingming. Go to Dongqiao Village by bicycle later, order 50 light cakes from the person who specializes in making light cakes, and we'll go get them early tomorrow morning."

"Order what? A whole string of children at home all went out to earn light cakes today..."

"I'm afraid it won't be enough. I thought so this morning too. Seeing it cleared up in the afternoon, maybe it will be sunny tomorrow, at most a little sun rain, then I guess there will be a lot of people, not enough to distribute."

"Not enough to distribute, then distribute money, everyone will be happier. The person making cakes might not be able to make them. There are only one or two households in the nearby villages who know how to make light cakes. It's so late today, if you go to order, where can they still make them?"

Ye Fu thought it was right. He didn't order a few days ago, and didn't order this morning. It was so temporary, people couldn't make them.

"Then buy other cakes..."

"Then people have even less time to make them. Shouldn't they be working overtime to make light cakes these few days?"

"Then distribute money... I haven't seen anyone distribute money..."

"You're making a fuss over nothing. If it's not enough to distribute, distribute money later, people will be happier."

In a few years, everyone will not be short of food and drink. No one will like distributing these cakes, and ordinary people will feel it's troublesome, having to specially order them. Distributing money directly is the most gratifying.

The families sweeping graves save trouble, and the children asking for grave cakes are happy, and can dispose of them arbitrarily.

Ye Fu was hesitant. "Then wait until tomorrow to see, see if it's enough to distribute?"

"Hmm, I'll bring more small change then."