Chapter 809: Enraptured

The original half bucket of seawater, with all kinds of goods inside, plus seven or eight jin of mud snails, actually made the water rise to seven-tenths full, looking like a full harvest.

Ye Yaodong carried the bucket and turned around, wanting to see where those dogs had run off to. Who knew that one by one they were actually digging pits not far behind him.

No wonder he said the wave that was sent over just now was either clams or blood clams, or cat's-eye snails. Clearly, the first time they brought things over, there were fish and mantis shrimp. It turns out they were slacking off here.

He walked towards the nearest little black dog and saw its two front paws skillfully digging continuously, not stopping at all.

After a while, he saw a cat's-eye snail shell exposed in the pit, a large piece of snail meat had sucked up enough seawater, and before it had time to shrink back, it was bitten by the dog, and then directly sent to him.

This time the service was very thoughtful, sticking the dog head into the bucket to let go, not even needing his hand to catch it. Other dogs also lined up one after another to stick their dog heads in to let go.

This should barely count as reaping without sowing, right?

"You guys go find some stranded fish and shrimp, don't just focus on digging pits?"

Just after speaking, a little black dog also pulled his pant leg.

Ye Yaodong had experience and knew this was wanting to call him to follow it. He kicked it twice. "Where do you want to take me? Lead the way!"

The little black dog ran in front, he followed behind, plus the other four dogs, also following him running.

He hadn't run many steps when he saw a small pile of sea urchins on the beach ahead. Ye Yaodong was satisfied; they weren't stupid, realizing that these prickly things were hard to carry, so they had scraped them into a pile. This small pile had seven or eight of them, enough for the three people at home to make steamed eggs.

The little black dog ran up to the sea urchins, stopped, and turned its head to bark at him twice. He also squatted down and picked them all up into the bucket.

"Not bad, the harvest today is pretty good. You guys can go look around some more; I'll wait here for you."

"Woof woof~"

Ye Yaodong looked at the watch on his wrist; he could still play for another half hour before going back. Lin Xiuqing probably had no heart to cook right now; she would probably only be willing to get up and cook once the children came back.

He simply sat down on the beach to wait and reap the rewards. With these dogs doing the work of foraging for seafood for him, he could leisurely sit and smoke two cigarettes.

These dogs were very efficient once they got the hang of it. Every once in a while, one would run back with all sorts of things in its mouth—big and small, and of various species. Except for the fish, everything else was very suitable for steaming in one pot.

When he saw that the time was about right, he called out for them to go back together.

One man and five dogs started running on the beach~

It was a pity there was no sun, otherwise, the scene under the sunset glow should have been quite beautiful.

He kept splashing the seawater in the bucket as he ran, and he only stopped running once the fish inside had been splashed out.

The dogs immediately rushed up, wanting to grab them, but they wouldn't give way to each other. Several were barking wildly, and they were almost about to fight. Ye Yaodong had no choice but to kick the two that were fighting the most fiercely.

"What are you doing? What are you doing? You're fighting over this too? Behave yourselves and go home."

After saying that, he bent down himself, picked them up, and put them back in the bucket, and then he stopped running and walked slowly.

When he reached the door of his house, he saw a gust of wind blow past him, followed by the courtyard gate being pushed open with a bang. One child after another ran past him toward the courtyard, shouting, "Mom, I'm back! The TV is installed."

"Third Uncle, is the TV installed?"

"Third Uncle..."

"Third Uncle..."

Ye Yaodong: Third Uncle is behind you all...

They clearly ran past him, so how could they be so blind at such a young age?

He shook his head helplessly and followed them inside. Just as he walked into the courtyard, he heard them all wailing and screaming.

Lin Xiuqing had been so engrossed in watching that she had forgotten to cook. Their return just now reminded her that it was time to cook.

She got up, still wanting more, and saw Ye Yaodong, who had just returned at the door.

"You're back? Why aren't you watching TV? You ran out as soon as it was installed."

How good-looking the TV was! It had clearly been bought, and it was bought without asking first, yet he ran away as soon as it was installed without even taking a look?

Before, she had been preoccupied with watching TV, and her attention had been diverted, so she hadn't thought much about it. Now, she actually felt it was quite strange.

"What's there to watch? I don't like watching it anyway."

"Then why did you buy it?"

"Isn't this all for you guys? You stay at home all day long, and I'm afraid you'll be bored. I bought a TV to help you pass the time. Otherwise, why would I buy it? I'm at sea all day long; how many times can I watch it? Plus, it only cost 300 yuan; it was a real bargain."

So he didn't hesitate to bring one back.

Lin Xiuqing was coaxed by him until a smile appeared on her face. "It really is quite good-looking. No wonder people in the village are all gathered at the doors of those few households every night, just waiting to watch TV."

She actually wanted to watch TV too, but it was a distance away, and there was a lot of work at home. Every night when they came back from sea, there were endless fish to kill. Only last year when she was free did she go over to take a peek.

"You go cook first; I'll kill the fish in the bucket. I went for a stroll on the beach just now and picked up quite a lot of goods..."

"Don't pick up crabs anymore; they're all shells, it's so troublesome to peel."

"There aren't any crabs. The few I picked up today were played to death by Xiao Jiu. They're all snails and fish. There's a grouper, 10 sea urchins, and seven or eight jin of mud snails. Don't cook the mud snails tonight; keep them in the bucket for a night to spit out the sand. I'll tidy up the goods inside in a moment."

Lin Xiuqing stretched her head to look into his bucket, but she couldn't see the mud snails at the bottom; she only saw that there were quite a lot of miscellaneous goods on top, everything.

"Then you kill the fish first; I'll go cook. I'll pick out the rest of the things, and I'll wash them and steam them later."

"Mm."

The couple worked together to prepare dinner. The main room was noisy because of a group of children.

When Ye Mu returned, the atmosphere in the room was pushed to the peak. She also rushed back as soon as she got off work, but what surprised him was that his mother hadn't brought anyone back to show off the TV?

This was simply the first time in history!

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed his mother had come back alone. He had already prepared himself for his mother to bring a bunch of women or relatives back to touch and look at it when she got off work.

When his mother entered the room, he even stretched his neck and looked behind her twice in surprise. "Mom, you came back alone?"

"Otherwise? Should I bring family members? Isn't your father here with you all afternoon?"

"Ah? Ah, yes."

"Oh my, this TV is placed at home, it looks so imposing. My goodness, let me see what news is on now. You guys move aside, let me see..."

"Mom, you didn't show off this afternoon?"

In the past, she would have wished to announce it to the world, pull everyone back to take a look at their family's strength, and then harvest a bunch of envious eyes and a bunch of complimentary words.

Abnormal, abnormal, it's a bit abnormal this afternoon!

Ye Mu gave him a look of annoyance. "The whole village knows you bought a TV; do I still need to show off? Everyone praised me until my ears were about to grow calluses, and they even said they wanted to come to your house to watch TV."

"I was a bit modest and said Lin Laoliu also bought one, so they all said they'd go to Lin Laoliu's house to watch, saying you're hard to talk to here and you keep too many dogs at home. It seems someone also said they were pecked by your family's geese this afternoon."

Ye Yaodong's mouth twitched.

So it wasn't his mother's problem; it was his problem.

Very good!

Lin Xiuqing stole a moment of leisure and went to take a peek at the TV. She stood next to them and smiled. "Hehe, the geese kept at the back door are only about two months old, it seems not even that. Their pecking isn't considered fierce yet. When they get bigger and are raised to ten or twenty jin, then it'll be fierce."

"When they get that big, they can also be killed for nourishment."

"Don't just think about eating. These big geese are good at guarding the house. Chicks and ducklings are still easy to buy, but these little goslings are not easy to buy. Don't ruin them all." Ye Mu took a moment to reply.

He suddenly thought that it seemed he could also move the big geese to the small workshop to raise them. They are good at guarding the house, and the safety factor would be higher.

"Have you checked the date for the small workshop to start work?"

He went straight to the town this morning and brought back another TV. He was busy all afternoon and forgot to ask his mother if she had checked the date for starting work.

"Checked. I only took the time to find someone to check the date this morning. When I came back, I told Aqing. It just happens to be the day after tomorrow, the last day of Goddess Mazu's outing, starting work early in the morning. I also had your father go call people this morning."

Lin Xiuqing also said, "I forgot too. I was so engrossed in watching TV that I forgot to tell you about this."

"Alright, as long as it's decided. Enclose the outer wall early. When the time comes, move two or three geese over to raise them. When building the wall, build them a nest while you're at it."

"That's not very good, right? It's just by the roadside, those geese peck people randomly..."

"Then move a few dogs over."

"I'm just afraid they'll run back again."

"Just tie them up, or when they give birth to a litter of puppies again, we can move them over then."

Lin Xiuqing was conflicted; wouldn't they have too many dogs then...

Forget it, don't be conflicted anymore, wait until the outer wall is built before talking about it.

A house full of people were watching, fascinated. Even the few children didn't make a sound later on, all staring with wide eyes, quietly watching the news broadcast on TV.

Sometimes if the signal was bad, Ye Fu would run outside to shake the bamboo pole. No one was willing to slap the TV like Ye Yaodong did.

Some children outside ran to the neighbor's door and shouted to find Ye Chenghai and the others to play, but they didn't go out. At most, they ran out and shouted proudly in the courtyard.

"I'm watching TV at my Third Uncle's house, I'm not going."

The children outside were also itching to watch TV when they heard them, but looking at the high courtyard wall, the courtyard full of dogs, and a bunch of geese at the back door, they were deterred.

Separated by a wall, they could only hear the intermittent TV sound inside. After listening with their ears against the wall for a while, they gave up and rolled their iron hoops away.