Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1014 Where is Ye Xiaoxi? (7000 words)
After the father and son had a simple dinner, they went home or took a shower.

After taking a shower, Ye Yaodong was still worried and went out to get a nylon bag. He called Lin Xiuqing to help cover the boxes with it. However, after calling twice, no one came out of the house. He called the old lady again, but there was no response.

"Did they all go to the workshop? They disappeared in just a moment."

I looked up at the brightly lit workshops in the distance. Everyone went to where the action was going. Even the old ladies, who were already old, were going there when it was almost time to go to bed.

"Uncle San, what are you doing?" Ye Chenghai ran out of the house in a hurry.

"You're just in time, come and help."

"Okay~"

Ye Chengjiang also hurriedly responded and ran over, "Uncle San, I'll help you too~"

"And me, and me, I just went to take a shit..." Ye Chenghe also ran out of the house with his pants pulled up.

"Before, they hid inside when they saw me without saying hello, but now they all come out when I shout. What are they doing? Don't you want to do your homework? As long as you don't do your homework, you can do anything, right?"

After Ye Chenghai and Ye Chengjiang's thoughts were revealed, they also laughed.

Ye Yaodong turned his head and looked at Ye Chenghe who was running towards him in a hurry, holding his pants. "Did you wash your hands? Did you wipe your butt clean?"

The waist of his trousers could be enough to fit another leg in, and there was a rope tied on it. I didn't know if they were left over from Ye Chenghai or his mother. The trouser legs were folded up a lot, revealing the woolen trousers underneath.

"It's only been a short time since the Chinese New Year. What tattered clothes are you wearing? You're wearing this to school? Won't people laugh at you?"

"Uncle San, he was chasing that female classmate to give her a candied haws after school, and he didn't look at the road, and fell into a ditch. His clothes were torn and the cotton fell out. He came back and was beaten by his mother, and he can only wear torn clothes and pants." Ye Chenghai said with glee, not being conservative for him at all.

"Fuck, which female classmate? How old are you? You already have a girlfriend?"

Ye Chenghe's face flushed red, "No way? What girlfriend? Don't talk nonsense. She's just a classmate..."

"Uncle San, let me tell you, that was the female classmate whose hair he had singed before. Now, every day after school, he follows her around and she won't leave even if you scold her..."

"Don't say..."

Ye Chenghe was so angry that he jumped up and down, and tried to pull Ye Chenghai to stop him from talking, but Ye Chenghai didn't agree with him, and dodged while laughing and continued talking.

"...We all hate him so much. He has to wait until others return to the village before going home, so we have to follow him..."

Ye Chengjiang also revealed his past, "And, and... He also gave all his saved little heads to that female classmate, and gave all his beads to her..."

"Shut up……"

"A few days ago, he bought pencils and erasers for someone at the beginning of the school year, but the person refused to accept them. Today, he bought some candied haws and chased after the person to give them to him, but he accidentally dropped them into the ditch..."

Ye Chenghe's dark face was so red that it was hard to tell, but his ears were red. He was so angry that he chased the two men and beat them up. The two men ran around the yard to hide and hid behind Ye Yaodong.

"Come on, come on, there's more..."

"I can't believe that Ye Chenghe knew to reserve a wife so early? Better than your brother?"

Ye Yaodong always looked at this idiot with interest. He didn't expect that although his IQ was not online, he became smart at an early age. He even knew how to fall in love early and how to reserve a wife in advance.

"There's no Third Uncle, don't talk nonsense, he's my classmate..."

"Oh~ classmate~ then why don't you send other female classmates home, why don't you buy erasers, pens, and candied haws for other female classmates?"

"That's different. It's my fault for making her cut her hair short. When her hair grows longer again, I will ignore her."

"Hehe~ Is it because they ignore you?" Ye Chenghai poured cold water on him and exposed his shortcomings without any burden.

"When Chenghe fell into the river, Chen Xiuni didn't just walk away, she stood by and helped pull him out," Ye Chengjiang smiled and poked his head out from behind Ye Yaodong, "I think she's starting to pay attention to you."

"Then I'll give her the pen and eraser tomorrow?"

The more you lick a dog, the more you get.

Ye Yaodong smiled and patted his head, "You've made it big. The old lady was still talking about five generations living under one roof at night. You should work hard and try to have a baby by the time you are 18."

Ye Chenghe scratched the back of his head, tilted his head back and smiled at him, not knowing what he meant.

"Did you wash your hands?"

"No……"

"Why don't you go wash your hands? Lazy people are always full of shit. When it comes to doing homework, there are a lot of things going on. There is a lot of work waiting for help in my workshop, and you are still dilly-dallying there. You haven't even finished your homework and you don't know how to seize the opportunity to make money."

Ye Chenghai and Ye Chengjiang immediately looked at him with shining eyes, "Do you have money to help?"

Ye Chenghe had already run out of the yard to wash his hands, but he immediately stopped and turned back, "Do you have money, Third Uncle? I, I, I, I will go to help you later, you wait for me..."

"Go wash your hands."

"Then wait for me, I'll be there soon."

It costs money to please a girl, it costs money to please a little girl, from the old lady to Ye Xiaoxi, it costs money to please them all.

The other two pairs of eyes were still looking at him brightly.

Ye Yaodong knocked on his head, "Are you obsessed with money? When you talk about money, your eyes are brighter than light bulbs."

"Hey, who doesn't like money..."

"Uncle San, you asked us to come here so that we can help kill the fish in the workshop?" Ye Chengjiang smiled obsequiously and rubbed his hands back and forth.

"I didn't call you out. You heard the noise and ran out. First, help me open the nylon bag and wrap up the boxes in the corner. It doesn't matter if they are too long. Just stuff them into the gaps at the edges. Then go outside and pick up a few big rocks to hold down the edges and prevent them from being blown away by the wind."

"okay."

There is a carrot hanging, and the two are extremely active.

Ye Chenghe also ran while shaking his wet hands, and immediately joined in, fearing that he would do less work.

After he finished, three pairs of eyes were looking at him.

"I've finished my work, why are you still looking at me? Go inside and do your homework."

"Uncle San, do you need help in your workshop? We can help you. We are very strong."

"Have you finished your homework?"

"We're going to do it right now."

"It's past 8 o'clock. You should go to bed soon. If you want to make money, finish your homework quickly and work again tomorrow. The goods in the workshop will take several days to make. If you come to help, I will pay you by the hour, cents an hour."

The three of them immediately stopped and put their heads together, counting on their fingers and muttering to each other.

"School ends at 3:4. After finishing homework, we go to work at 9. If we work until 5, we will have cents..."

"5 cents a day, that's one dollar in two days! Wow~"

"Wow, that's a lot. Come on, go do your homework..."

These three are not young, they are all in their teens. Every day they do things when they are scolded, and they won’t do anything if they are not scolded. After dinner, they run away faster than anyone else.

Anyway, their family has no land, and there is not much work for them to do except picking grass for pigs after school every day. The little bit of private land is not even enough for adults to work for two minutes.

The dozens of tons of goods that were brought back these two days still need manpower anyway. Teenagers can do a lot of work and can help a lot. Let them be thrown into the workshop to do more work and give them a chance to earn money, so that they won't develop a lazy character.

Let them also know the importance of money, and cultivate in them the concept of working hard to earn money as early as possible, as only labor can create wealth.

There was no one at home except him. He wanted to go to the workshop to take a look, but he was worried that no one would be watching the house. Even the dogs went to where there was a lot of activity and ran to the workshop, not watching the house anymore.

He went back into the house and locked the back door, and checked again to make sure that the chickens, ducks and geese in the yard were locked up. Then he locked the doors and windows, and also locked the yard gate. Then he went to the workshop, and found that the lights were still on and were still there.

Most of the neighbors nearby turned off the lights and went to bed, and even the village was dim. Everyone had to work tomorrow, and those who could go to bed early had basically gone to bed, except for their workshop which was bustling with people.

His three little boys were also running around in the workshop. Probably knowing that it was theirs, two of them even came to help and were there helping to dry the fruits.

When he came over, he just took a quick look at the goods and came back to eat. He didn't care about the children, who now seemed to be doing their job well.

Several girls were squatting beside the oversized basin helping to wash the fish, but Ye Xiaoxi was playing in the water there, and no one cared.

He hurriedly strode forward and picked the man up. A large area of ​​his clothes in front of him was already wet, and the sleeves on his hands were wet. Water could be wrung out of the sleeves if he pinched them. Even his pants were wet from the thighs to the lower body, and the cotton shoes on his feet were also completely soaked.

"You want to play more, you want to play more, go away... put me down, put me down... bad guy... bad guy..."

"No one cares about you, you're having a great time, right? You're already so wet, and you're still playing?"

"Bad guy...bad guy..."

Ye Xiaoxi was held by him and hung in the air, waving her arms and legs constantly and yelling in a baby voice.

"Still so fierce?"

"Dad, I love you~ I love you~ Put me down~"

Ye Yaodong was amused. "You are really flexible? You just called me a bad guy, but now you say I love you? You little bastard~"

He smiled and patted her little butt.

"Dad, I have some candy. I'll give you some candy."

"Fuck, you know how to bribe? It's useless. I tell you, I will drag you directly to your mother and let her beat you. You dare to play in the water so vigorously that your body is soaked."

He grabbed her little hand and took a look at it. "Look at your hand. I don't know how long it has been soaked. It's wrinkled like a dried radish. I'll see if your mother doesn't beat you to death. Take off your pants and beat you."

"No, you bad guy, you bad guy~ put me down~"

She started flailing, struggling and cursing again.

Ye Yaodong ignored her yelling and scolding, and took the child to find Lin Xiuqing who was sorting fish.

She and her two other sisters-in-law were sorting groceries there and chatting.

Pei's father brought back more than 3 kilograms of goods. Except for the nearly 2 kilograms of fish that needed to be weighed and calculated, the other more than 1 kilograms of groceries were not sorted. The basket was in a mess with all kinds of things, piled up in a corner.

These groceries need to be sorted out. The small ones can be fermented, and the large ones can be picked out for drying. They have higher value if dried.

There are also some small shrimps and mantis shrimps that have to be picked out, boiled and shelled. This is quite a huge project.

The quantity of these groceries has increased after the New Year. He kept them for himself two or three days in advance, and asked Pei's father to keep them for him. The bill for this month has not been settled yet, and it has not been agreed how much this amount of goods will be charged.

Last year, we just kept a little bit, about 10 to kilograms, or to kilograms as a token of our appreciation, and they also gave us yuan as a token of their appreciation. We will definitely have to increase the money when we settle the bill this month.

Now that so much groceries were left behind, the boatmen certainly had no time to sort them. Except for the useless large jellyfish and the like, which were thrown back into the sea, the rest were swept into a basket with a broom, thrown into the corner, and brought back for them to sort out themselves.

So much so that now there is a greater demand for manpower.

The people next door were also waiting for these small fish to be sorted out and carried over for fermentation. They sorted them for the entire afternoon, and only started to carry the baskets over to ferment them in the evening when there were no more baskets left.

The stuff is poured in very quickly, but sorting it out takes time.

The old ladies kill the fish here first, and when they have picked out a certain number, they carry the fish over and sprinkle salt on them for fermentation, so there is no waste of labor at all.

Lin Xiuqing kept picking in the dim light of the headlamp, and from time to time she clenched her hands, patted her back lightly, and chatted and laughed with her sisters-in-law.

She turned around when she heard them pointing behind her.

"what happened?"

"Take a closer look. Touch her sleeves, pants, shoes, and look at her palms."

Ye Xiaoxi instantly drooped there with a look of despair on his face. He had a stern face, clenched his fists, and tried to pull his hands into his sleeves.

However, Lin Xiuqing was afraid that her clothes would get dirty, so she put sleeves on her, and her little hands could not fit into the sleeves.

Lin Xiuqing touched her sleeve, her face darkened, and she glared at Ye Xiaoxi, who lowered her head guiltily.

"I told you not to play in the water. Just play here and take a look. Why did you go to play in the water? Is your skin itchy? Your pants and shoes are wet. Show me your hands."

Ye Xiaoxi clenched her palms and pulled them against her chest, refusing to let her open them.

Lin Xiuqing angrily slapped the back of her hand several times, "Still shrinking, are you afraid now?"

She said nothing, and continued to shrink her head and hands. The backs of her hands, which were white from blisters, turned red from being slapped. She felt the pain, so she quickly grabbed Ye Yaodong's clothes and turned around to hide in Ye Yaodong's arms.

The feet, which were being carried and still hanging in the air, clamped onto him with all their might.

Her hands were still curled up in her arms, grabbing her father's clothes and using her back to block him, trying to avoid being hit by her mother.

"Still hiding... Your skin is getting thicker and thicker. You don't even cry when you're beaten..."

Ye Yaodong just finished playing the bad guy and wanted to play the good guy again. He quickly changed from carrying the child to hugging her. "Okay, okay, don't just beat and scold her. Take her home and change her clothes first. If she sticks to your body with wet clothes, she will catch a cold. I don't know how long she has been soaking in the water, but her hands are as cold as ice."

"Take her home and change her clothes. Why are you bringing her to me? I'm busy. Change her clothes and put her to sleep. It's late. She should go to bed. And there are two sons. Take them home and put them to bed."

"I don't know where she puts her clothes?"

Lin Xiuqing was angry and depressed. "There is only one cabinet and two boxes in the room. How can you not find it? Look through the boxes and take out a piece of clothing for her to wear to sleep."

"Oh." He responded honestly.

"Remember to wash her face, hands and feet."

"Oh."

"Go quickly."

"Oh."

Ye Yaodong walked out holding Ye Xiaoxi, who was still curled up in his arms like a quail. He patted his two sons on the shoulders and told them to follow him home and go to bed.

It was not until they walked out of the workshop that the little one in his arms moved. He poked his head out to look around, then leaned over his shoulder to look back, and then relaxed.

"Are you scared now? Let's see if you dare now?"

"Bad guy!"

"If you keep scolding me, I will take you back to your mother and ask her to change your clothes. I'll see if she doesn't leave a few slap marks on your butt."

She pouted her lips, hugged his neck tightly, and dared not say a word.

"It's so cold, your sleeve is wet and it's sticking to my neck, take it away."

"No, I'll freeze you~Ice you~"

"Sigh~"

She played for a while and found it interesting to see his father shrinking his neck to avoid her. She even started to giggle and kept reaching her hands towards his neck.

"Ice you~Ice you~"

The expression on his face that seemed to be about to cry just now, but now he starts laughing.

After leaving the workshop, the two sons ran back home and waited for him to open the door.

"Hurry up, Dad, stop dawdling, open the door."

"Why are you urging me..."

As soon as the two boys entered the house, they ran upstairs with a lot of banging. Ye Yaodong shouted at them to wash their hands, but they pretended not to hear him. He just ignored them. One daughter was enough to keep him busy.

If they feel their hands smell bad later, they will come down to wash them.

After Ye Yaodong brought the child back to the house, he hurried out to get hot water, preparing to wipe her first as Lin Xiuqing instructed. However, when he went in with a basin of warm water, there was no one on the bed, no one anywhere in the room, and no one was seen even when the cabinet was opened.

"Ye Xiaoxi! Ye Xiaoxi! Where have you been?"

He shouted and ran out to look for it.

He was just filling hot water at the stove and didn't see anyone walking past him, so he was definitely not outside. He walked towards the stairs.

A little man in a flowery cotton jacket was there, sticking his butt out, crawling nimbly using his hands and feet.

"Ye Xiaoxi!"

She used her hands and feet to climb faster and was only two steps away from reaching the upper floor.

Ye Yaodong took off his shoes at the side of the stairs, and quickly climbed up two steps at a time. When she climbed up the last step and moved two steps quickly while lying on the floor, he immediately grabbed her by the back of her clothes.

"Why are you running? The more I tell you to run, the more you run. Do you want to be beaten?"

“Don’t sleep!”

He slapped her butt angrily again, "Behave yourself, you disappeared in the blink of an eye. You ran away like no one knew, you are so naughty."

"Humph……"

Ye Yaodong hurried downstairs carrying the child. He was already exhausted, and now he had to look after this guy when he came back. It was too torturous.

After taking off her clothes and pants, he wanted to put her clothes back on first and then wash her hands and feet. But the moment he took the clothes, she slipped back into the quilt and wrapped herself tightly.

He was still holding her little clothes in his hands, but he could no longer be seen.

"Come out, or it will be easier to beat you naked."

It's just that he has never taken care of a child and is too careless and inexperienced, otherwise he should have changed the top and then the bottom, and not stripped her naked and let her go.

Ye Xiaoxi poked his head out from under the quilt with a playful smile, "Hehe~"

"Come here quickly and put on your clothes and pants. I'll wipe your hands and feet, and then I'll make you some malted milk to drink. You haven't washed your hands and feet yet, and they smell like fish. You've even crawled into the quilt and touched everything. It's going to stink to death at night."

When she heard that there was malted milk to drink, she immediately and swiftly got out of the bed and stood there obediently while letting him put on his clothes.

"My dear, when can I wait for you to serve me?"

She grinned and laughed, and after putting on her clothes and wiping her face, hands and feet, she immediately huddled herself under the quilt and wrapped herself tightly.

"I really owed you in my previous life."

This complaint is absolutely correct.

As Ye Yaodong walked out with the water, he turned around and warned them, "Don't run out again, don't climb the stairs again, or I'll give the dogs malted milk."

"understood."

Hearing the muffled sound of a baby from under the quilt, he felt relieved and went to pour some water and make malted milk for her.

At this moment, he remembered that the old lady seemed to have not returned yet? Was she still in the workshop?
He touched the watch in his pocket and it was already 9 o'clock.

"As I get older, I like to be in a crowd more and more. I go wherever there are a lot of people and I don't want to go back home to sleep."

After taking a look at the gate of the yard, he quickly made some malted milk to coax the child to sleep. He himself was already very sleepy and wanted to lie down and sleep right away.

The first thing he did after urging Ye Xiaoxi to finish drinking the malted milk was to turn off the lights and lie down. There was silence all around him, not even the sound of the wind. As soon as he closed his eyes, he began to snore.

Ye Xiaoxi beside him had her eyes wide open. She rolled around on the bed, from left to right, from the head of the bed to the foot of the bed, and then rolled a big circle on him. She also sat on him and twisted around, pinched his face, and pulled his hair.

After a lot of trouble, she was exhausted, but he was still sleeping like a dead pig and didn't react at all.

The old lady came back to sleep not long after he did.

Lin Xiuqing waited until the moon was at its zenith before she could bear it any longer and came back, holding her waist, leaving the work to her two sisters-in-law.

She has to come again early tomorrow morning. She must watch over the workshop. If she stays up all night, she will have to sleep tomorrow morning. She won't be able to come and will feel tired all day.

Ye's mother also called another group of women to take over the shift tomorrow morning. She must be there and must watch over them just in case. She is destined not to be able to stay with them, so she can only leave it to others to watch over them and let them be self-aware and supervise each other.

But when she dragged her tired body back home, washed herself and went to bed, she touched the child out of habit, only to find that she did not touch the child.

She wasn't surprised and just continued touching.

This child often sleeps from the head of the bed to the foot of the bed, then to the edge of the bed, and sometimes even sleeps on his stomach with his feet on the ground hanging over the edge of the bed.

Only after she had searched everywhere, inside and out, and still couldn't find the child did she perk up and whisper, "Where did it go?"

I just touched the quilt twice just now, but now she reached into the quilt again without giving up, thinking that she had exposed him just now.

Ye Yaodong was slightly sobered up by the cold wind that came in, and said in a daze: "What are you doing? Why are you so anxious? Stop touching me, let me rest for a while, I'm so sleepy and tired..."

"Touching your head, am I touching you? I'm touching the child, where is the child sleeping? I can't touch him for a long time."

“Don’t make a noise if you don’t know…” He pulled the quilt over and rolled it up again, pressing the quilt under his legs.

"Is the child in bed?"

Seeing that he had started snoring again, Lin Xiuqing was so angry that she raised her hand to slap him twice, but then she remembered that he had just returned from the sea that night, so she had to put her hand down, not getting angry with him, and continued to touch him.

Only after she touched twice and confirmed that the child was not in the bed did she become a little anxious.

Afraid of disturbing Ye Yaodong's sleep, he didn't turn on the lights, quickly put on his coat, and ran out to get a flashlight.

Although she was anxious, she was not that worried. At most the child might fall off the bed while sleeping and curl up in a corner of the room. It was impossible for him to be dead.

But when she came in with a flashlight and shone the whole room, and still couldn't find the child, she began to worry.

Not giving up, she looked at the bed again, even lifted Ye Yaodong's quilt and looked again, but still didn't see anything. Only then was she sure that the child was gone?
Ye Yaodong had no quilt to cover him. He shivered from the cold and woke up again. He was annoyed because his sleep was disturbed again and again.

"What are you doing? Why are you making such a fuss in the middle of the night? You're not tired, but I am. I told you it's tomorrow, but you still have to make trouble for me at night. Can you come early tomorrow morning? You're trying to kill me in the middle of the night, aren't you?"

Lin Xiuqing was so angry that she almost jumped up and down. "What kind of hooligan words are you talking about? What kind of rubbish is in your head? Did you know that your daughter is missing? Where did you take the child?"

"Huh? Huh?"

Ye Yaodong was half asleep, and when his mind cleared up a little, he asked, "What's missing?"

"Your daughter is missing!"

"My daughter is missing? Ye Xiaoxi is missing? Why is she missing? Where did she go? Where did you take her?"

"I should ask you, where did you take your daughter?"

"Wasn't she sleeping well in the bed when I was sleeping?" He didn't feel cold even with his bare chest. He scratched his messy hair, looking confused.

Lin Xiuqing almost laughed out of anger, "Then where did she sleep?"

"Don't know? Look for it quickly..."

He is also confused. When asked, how does he know?

"Look for her quickly...Look for her quickly...Where did she sleep?"

Ye Yaodong also immediately woke up and got up.

(End of this chapter)