Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1134 Bitter in the Mouth, Sweet in the Heart

After buying everything that needed to be bought, Ye Yaodong and A Guang were both very satisfied. This trip was very fruitful, things were accomplished, and a lot of things were bought.

The twins were also satisfied. Even though they went to the Friendship Store just to take a look, at least they got to see the place. In the past, they would not even dare to walk in.

The display of high-end merchandise and the people in suits walking back and forth are daunting just from a distance.

"Brother Dong, what is this chocolate?"

"Chocolate is chocolate, it's foreign, what else could it be?"

"Is this delicious? What does it taste like? You bought so much, but these few small pieces cost 20 yuan in foreign exchange coupons. That's really expensive. How much is a pound of pork? With this money, you can buy half a pig."

"Foreign food is damn expensive, but there's nothing we can do about it. We've never eaten it before. Things we haven't eaten before are always a little more fresh and mysterious. Of course I'd like to try it if I get a chance. I'll tell you what it tastes like when I get back and try it, but I heard it's sweet and bitter."

"That's strange, are foreigners' tastes so different?"

"Westerners have different tastes. Have you ever heard of cat poop coffee? It's cat poop made into coffee."

"Fuck, this is okay? Are they so poor that they have nothing to eat? They are eating cat shit. It's disgusting. Don't they have cats? Have they never seen one? Oh my god, if I can really sell it for money, I will go out and pick up cat shit on the street."

"Hahaha... I heard that cat poop coffee is special, but I don't know why it's special. Anyway, it's definitely not the poop of an ordinary cat at home. I just don't know what kind of cat's poop is so special."

He had only heard of it and had not tried to learn more about it because he was not interested, so he really couldn't explain it.

"No matter how special a cat is, it's still a cat, and its poop is still cat poop... just like no matter how high a person's status is, his poop is still poop. It's really disgusting. No matter how poor we are, we are not to the point of eating poop..." Ah Guang also had a look of disgust on his face.

"Every place has its own regional culture. It's normal that the culture abroad is different from ours. The local specialties in each place are also different."

"That's disgusting too. I really want to go pick up cat poop and sell it to them."

Ye Yaodong chuckled and ignored them, shutting his mouth and stopping talking. Dust was flying all over his eyes, and he was wearing a hat with a dust mask, so it was better to talk less.

I went shopping for a while, then took a bus and it was already 12 noon when I got home.

The whole family had been waiting anxiously, thinking that if he didn't come back last night, he would be home early this morning, but they didn't expect him to come back until noon.

Lin Xiuqing had been waiting at home. When she heard the noise of the tractor, she hurried out and walked to the workshop.

"What have you been doing? Why didn't you come back earlier?"

"I was late because I was shopping. Cook me something to eat. I'm starving."

"What's there to shop for? We have everything we need at home, but why are you going to the store? You don't even know to come back early. If you need anything, can't we buy it here anyway?"

"That's different. After all, they were brought back from the provincial capital or the city. It's different if they have a label on it. It sounds more upscale and adds points."

"What did you buy? It sounds high-end. How high-end does it have to be?"

"You'll know when you get home." Ye Yaodong put his arm around Lin Xiuqing's shoulder and walked towards home.

A Guang in the back suddenly called out, "Third sister-in-law, Dongzi said it's your birthday today, happy birthday."

Lin Xiuqing stopped, frowned, and looked at Ye Yaodong strangely.

Ye Yaodong also frowned and glared at A Guang fiercely.

Lin Xiuqing said in confusion: "Today is not my birthday. Listen to his nonsense. It's strange that he knows when my birthday is. The sun has to rise in the west."

"Hahaha~ I'm going home first." A Guang laughed and swung the cloth bag in his hand, then walked towards the fork in the road.

Ye Yaodong stared with his eyes wide open, as if he wanted to shoot a few knives out and poke his back into a sieve.

Lin Xiuqing patted him and said, "What are you looking at? Go home, these two weird people, I don't know what they are doing."

"So when is your birthday? I think it's recently?"

"Remember your head? There is still more than half a month left, July 27th. By then you will have already gone to Zhejiang Province."

"Oh, that's what I was saying. I remember there were a few sevens in it, and I thought it was seventeen."

"Okay, what are you guys talking about? Why are you suddenly asking about my birthday?"

Lin Xiuqing looked at him suspiciously, and felt something was wrong. "Did you do something behind my back? Or are you making a bet?"

"What could I do behind your back? Who would be so bored as to make a bet with him? On your birthday? What's so good about this? You're overthinking it. I just suddenly remembered it and mentioned it to him when we were chatting. I didn't expect him to do this. I left. It's so hot. We were still talking outside in such a hot sun. I'm going home."

"Mysterious..."

"Where is my daughter?"

"Eating watermelon and watching TV at home."

"That's great, where's your son?"

Lin Xiuqing rolled her eyes at him, but couldn't help laughing, "You are so clear about the difference, your daughter is my son. One is catching up on his homework, and the other is playing next to him. They just had a fight, I wonder if they are together now."

"Why fight?"

"Cheng Hu was catching up on his homework and felt that Yang Yang was disturbing him by playing with toys nearby, so he was very angry."

"Why doesn't he go herd sheep? Cheng Hu is jealous, right? It must be hard for him to see that he doesn't have to do his homework."

"No one is with him. Doesn't he want to go alone? Everyone is rushing to finish their homework. In two days, it will be September 9st and they need to register. They are all cramming. Don't you see that there are fewer children running on the road?"

"No one can read. At least you still have Dongxue in your mother's family. It's hopeless here."

"It doesn't matter whether they study or not. There are so many things to do at home anyway, and there is plenty of work for them to do."

"That's true."

If you can't read, then go home and inherit the family business.

The scorching sun at noon was enough to melt a person, and the dogs at home were all lazy and huddled in their kennels. None of them wanted to stay in the sidecar, basking in the sun.

As soon as I stepped into the yard, the doghouse was filled with dog heads. There was a puppy that couldn't squeeze out, and it took a long time to squeeze its head out from the side.

He pointed at the dogs and said to Ah Qing, "Look, they are all dog heads. The opening is full. There's no need to worry about the heads getting stuck and not being able to retract."

Lin Xiuqing stopped and smiled, "These dogs are really cute sometimes."

"If I had a big machete at this time, I could chop off a bunch of dog heads neatly from top to bottom..."

"Woof woof woof woof..."

"Woof woof woof woof..."

All the big dogs were barking, and the little puppy turned his head and started barking too.

"You're swearing so filthy, shut up!"

Lin Xiuqing turned her head away, "Do you understand all this?"

"Guess."

She smiled and shook her head, "I thought you and dogs were the same kind."

"Dog men are the same kind as dogs, but I am not."

"Why are there so many words? The dog man is not wrong, it's you."

The old lady came out of the house and stood at the door, waving at them, "Come in quickly. It's too hot outside. Why are you still talking in the yard? The noodles are almost ready. Come in and eat."

The two of them walked quickly into the house.

Ye Chenghu, who was doing his homework at the table, had his eyes shining. "Dad, you're back."

"Write your homework."

Ye Yaodong threw the cloth bag he was carrying onto the table, and his brothers immediately wanted to pounce on it and grab the bag.

"Let go..."

"Let me take a look first..."

"I'm the older brother, I'll look first..."

"I am the younger brother, and I should give in to my younger brother..."

"Go away, my parents only told me to give in to my sister..."

"I told you to give in to your younger brothers and sisters!"

Ye Yaodong pulled the bag over again, "What are you arguing about? Everyone has a share, I'll divide it among you."

He rummaged through the contents of his bag, then pushed the copybook in front of Ye Chenghu. "This is for you. Write one page of large characters every day. If you don't write enough, I'll beat you to death."

Ye Chenghu was picking up the copybook with a happy look on his face, thinking it was something good, but when he heard this, he opened it and took a look at it with a look of shock on his face.

Ye Yaodong also handed him two pencils, two erasers, and a new pencil sharpener. "Here, you are fully equipped."

I deliberately didn't take out the harmonica and only gave him school supplies.

"Why this? I don't want it."

Ye Chengyang laughed, "I don't have to go to school, Dad, is mine a toy?"

"Well, yours is an illustrated comic book. Take it."

Ye Xiaoxi also ran over with her short legs, stood on tiptoe and pulled his hand, "Let me see, I want to see..."

"You have a bunch of little babies. They're for you. If you can't grow any babies, daddy will buy some for you."

She clapped her hands happily and jumped twice with joy, "Okay, okay~"

Ye Chenghu stared at this one with wide eyes, and then at the one holding the copybook and shouting in anger, "Why is mine this? I don't want to write."

"I brought them back from the province. There's also a pencil case for your pencils and eraser. They were all bought from the province. If you don't want the copybook, I'll take them all back and give them all to Yangyang for his schooling next year."

Ye Chenghu immediately laid on the table, swept all the things that belonged to him in front of him, and protected them under his chest, "No!"

"Then keep it. Write one page of large characters every day. It doesn't matter if you are a poor student, as long as you write nice characters."

"Ah~~" Ye Chenghu lay on the table and screamed, waving his hands around on the table to vent his emotions.

Lin Xiuqing kicked him while holding the noodles she had just served. "Sit down and do your homework."

"I haven't even finished my homework, and dad assigned me another one."

"If you don't want these things, you don't have to write what he assigned to you."

He sat up straight and looked at the brand new stationery in front of him. There were cartoon characters printed on them. They were so novel. Where could he buy these in the countryside? He could only buy the most ordinary stationery. How could he bear to part with them?

As usual, he stretched out his hand to circle the pile of stationery, and said aggrievedly: "But I want it, I brought it back from the provincial capital."

"Then be honest and do your homework."

Ye Chengyang smiled evilly and waved the illustration in his hand in front of his eyes several times, "Brother, this illustration is of Sun Wukong, it's so beautiful..."

Ye Chenghu looked at him with envy but shouted at him angrily, "Go away."

In fact, my eyes kept following his illustration, reluctant to leave.

Ye Yaodong was slurping the noodles when Lin Xiuqing took his cloth bag away. She was puzzled as she saw that it was still bulging with quite a few things inside.

"What else? Still so heavy?"

"There are still several sets of stationery. Give one each to the kids next door, and to the kids in your second brother's family. You can share some of them. I don't know if it's enough, so just give them a little less. Anyway, everyone should have a share. I originally bought a lot, but when Guang was riding on the bus, a thief cut open his bag, and a lot of it was gone. I gave him some more."

"You are really thoughtful. You even prepared for my second brother's child."

"Your second brother's family is going to have a college student, shouldn't I pay more attention to it? What's more, it's buying stationery. School is about to start, so it makes sense to give them stationery. Of course, I will also have some. Your eldest brother and his children will also have some. I gave them to Lin Guangyuan and others when I came back to the city."

Ye Chenghu's expression became better at this time, and he asked, "Do Brother Hai, Brother Jiang, and the sisters have it? Do they also have to write calligraphy every day?"

"Ah."

He was happy, "That's good."

"Your cousins ​​have to write too."

He nodded happily, "Okay, okay."

Lin Xiuqing took out the things in his bag and sorted them out, only to find several boxes of things written in English letters.

"What is this? Why are there only English letters?"

"This is chocolate. I bought it at the Friendship Store with foreign exchange coupons. It's very expensive. One box costs several pieces. I'm giving it to you."

She was surprised. "Are these for me? Then these five boxes won't cost more than twenty dollars, right?"

"A 20-yuan foreign exchange certificate costs about to yuan."

"What is so expensive? How much is a pound of pork? Just these few things cost more than twenty yuan?"

"Foreign things are expensive to begin with. Try opening them and eating them."

Lin Xiuqing took a few boxes of chocolates and flipped through them. Suddenly, she realized, "Ah, is it because you bought these expensive things for me that Ah Guang thought it was my birthday, so he asked me that just now?"

Ye Yaodong was a little embarrassed and hesitated for a moment, but still said frankly: "Yes, I haven't remembered your birthday for so many years. I just remember that it was probably recently, so I went to the Friendship Store and wanted to buy something for you, but I only had 20 yuan in foreign exchange coupons, so I bought chocolate."

She looked at him in surprise, then burst into laughter. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. She just kept looking at him and smiling.

Ye Chenghu suddenly stuck out his tongue and pretended to vomit a few times, "So disgusting."

The couple both stared.

Lin Xiuqing also put away her sweet smile and tapped him on the head with the chocolate box in her hand.

"Hurry up and do your homework. Put these stationery away for now. You can use them when school starts. Now use the old ones first."

After saying that, he pulled out the calligraphy copybook from his arms and said, "Start writing the calligraphy copybook today. I'll check it during dinner. If you haven't finished, I'll beat you to death, and don't even think about leaving this door tonight."

"I haven't even finished my summer homework yet."

"Is it reasonable not to finish summer homework?"

Ye Chenghu pursed his lips, but then looked at the chocolate in her hand and smiled flatteringly, "Mom, we have never eaten this kind of chocolate before, can you open it and let me taste it?"

Ye Chengyang also pulled Ye Xiaoxi, who was sitting on the ground playing with her doll, and said, "Mom, my sister wants to eat too."

Ye Xiaoxi was pulled to stand up and looked at everyone with a confused look on his face.

Lin Xiuqing took the chocolate box and tapped his head with a smile, "I think you want to eat it, and you're dragging her to talk about something."

"Sister really wants to eat."

After Ye Chengyang finished speaking, he coaxed Ye Xiaoxi, "The chocolate in my mother's hand is delicious, do you want to eat it?"

"I want to!" Ye Xiaoxi immediately dropped the baby, hugged Lin Xiuqing's calves, and sat on the back of her feet, "Mom, I want to eat...I want to eat..."

Lin Xiuqing raised her feet, but she didn't move at all. "You are really good at holding my legs and sitting on the back of my feet. Get up, I'll open a box and share it with you."

"Great."

Three pairs of eyes were all staring at Lin Xiuqing's hands, watching her unpack the package, all eager to taste it.

The old lady also watched the whole process from beginning to end, smiling as she watched them make a fuss. She was surprised to see that after Lin Xiuqing opened the box, there were 12 individually wrapped chocolates lying alone inside.

"Four or five dollars for just a few of these? Aren't these small pieces worth half a pound of pork?"

She patted Ye Yaodong with the palm leaf fan in her hand, "You bought 5 boxes of this? You spendthrift."

Lin Xiuqing also said: "This is too expensive. I thought it was a full box like biscuits."

"Well, it's expensive for a reason. Just eat it. Most people can't afford it anyway. We don't buy it every day. We only buy it once in decades."

"I was fooled once, and I would never think of buying it a second time even if I am beaten to death."

As he said this, he gave one chocolate in the box to each of his three children and also gave one to the old lady.

The old lady immediately shook her head and took a step back, "I don't want it. I don't want foreign things. I don't like them."

The three children couldn't wait to tear off the outer paper. It was a small, bite-sized milk chocolate shaped like a water drop.

"Oh, it's brown?"

"Can I eat it? It doesn't look tasty."

Ye Xiaoxi put it directly on the stool, "No, it looks like dog poop."

She has never lacked food and clothing, and she is not like other children who put everything they see into their mouths.

Ye Chenghu had already taken a bite, his facial features wrinkled, and he stuck out his tongue, revealing the chocolate that had not yet completely melted.

"Yue~It's not delicious, a bit bitter."

"It's also a little sweet, a strange taste."

Seeing their different expressions, Lin Xiuqing picked up the one that Ye Xiaoxi had thrown on the stool, peeled it, and took a small bite.

"It's indeed weird, but it's not bad. Foreigners eat weird things."

As she said that, she handed it to Ye Xiaoxi's mouth again.

"No." Ye Xiaoxi turned her head away and lowered her head to play with her doll again.

Ye Yaodong drank up all the soup in the bowl, then put down his bowl and chopsticks and said, "This is the original taste, bitter, but a little sweet."

Lin Xiuqing watched as her two sons stuffed all the chocolates in their hands into their mouths, chewed and swallowed them, and said with disdain, "What a waste."

She put the rest in her mouth and held it. It was too expensive and she was reluctant to just chew and swallow it. Then she went to clean up the dishes, but the old lady snatched it away.

"Dongzi just came back, you two still have some work to do, I'll take care of this, you guys go back to the house."

"Well, there is still some money in the cloth bag, which should be from the store in the city. Let's go back to the room and settle the account."

Lin Xiuqing took all the stationery to her room, intending to redistribute them after settling the accounts.

Among the many things Ye Yaodong brought back, the most must have been kept for his own children, and the others could get two items at random.

He followed her into the house and secretly locked the door. Then he took two quick steps, hugged her from behind, and whispered in her ear, "Is the chocolate delicious?"

"Unappetizing."

"No bitterness in the mouth, sweetness in the heart."

Lin Xiuqing was amused by him and patted him, then turned around and said, "Yes, indeed, you are right."

"Let me tell you, chocolate is associated with love in other countries."

"You are already an old married couple, what's the point of talking about love? Stop it, let me settle the score first. It's so hot, I'm sweating after just walking for a while, and you're still hugging each other, it's so hot, so sticky, go away."

Ye Yaodong let her go and accused her, "You settle accounts every day."

"if not?"

"You don't want to ask me about my experience in the city?"

"I plan to ask you properly after we settle the accounts. Let's deal with the things at hand first, so we can talk properly. Then you can talk first."

He was bored, so he sat down on the bed and told her about his trip to the city, during which Lin Xiuqing also gave some responses.

"So, your family really has overseas Chinese relatives? Then won't you have to hold a family recognition meeting later in the evening to worship your ancestors?"

"I imagine that it should be like this, yes."

"Then the filling machine you want shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"It should be. We also need to see what these overseas Chinese do and which countries they are from. Anyway, we should be able to get some information during the ancestral worship ceremony in two months at the latest. I heard that there are quite a lot of overseas Chinese, and they are quite rich. They also want to give back to their hometown, so it should be no problem to help their own people, right?"

"Where do you want to put the machine when it's shipped back? In the city or at home?"

"what do you say?"

"Let's keep it in our home workshop first. We can't reach it if we keep it in the city, and it's not convenient because it's far away. How can we feel at ease if we entrust everything to outsiders?"

"And now fermentation is all done in the workshop. It's more convenient to use the machine to fill it after fermentation and then transport it to the city, so you don't have to transport the liquid to the city for filling. If this is the case, what's the difference from now? There are filling machines, and it's redundant to use large vats to transport it to the city, isn't it?"

Ye Yaodong nodded, "You are right. If we can get the machines, we can transport them to the workshop here. We can then hire people from our village to work there, which can also provide employment for the village. Besides, we have the village committee to help us, so it is not easy to get into trouble."

"After it is packed in bags, we have our own tractors to transport it back and forth to the city. We will build a large warehouse in the city to store it. After the wall is built, we will build two large warehouses, one for dried fish and the other for fish sauce."

He thought that if the business grew bigger, he could use the remaining land to build a warehouse. Then he could just use the goods from the city for shipping, and use the one at home for production.

After all, the city is an urban area, and with convenient transportation, shipping and logistics there will be more convenient.

Let’s do it this way for now, and we’ll decide whether to expand it later.

In case the workshop here at the seaside is not big enough or too small, he can also buy a piece of land in the town so that he can do the production work nearby.

But this is something that can only be considered in the future. It is too early to talk about machines now.

"Oh, by the way, Ah Hai came back yesterday and told me that you asked the factory to repaint the boat for you. The factory has already repainted it and marked the number you want to spray. You can come back anytime you want."

"Then I'll drive it back tomorrow. Let me rest for today."

"Don't you want to see a date?"

"It's too late. I only have two days left. Once you have taken care of all the things at home, I will leave. I can just go back when the time is right. I'll just have to make do with the days. This isn't my first boat. I've already had so many."

"Okay, then we can wait until after the Ghost Festival before leaving. You brought back a lot of food last time, so you can bring more this time. Just add some fruits and vegetables, and you don't need to prepare anything else. Many things are ready-made. I haven't been out to sea recently, so I didn't bring anything to the sea."

"What date is Ghost Festival?"

"The 30th, tomorrow."

"Fuck, aren't you trying to kick me out? You want me to leave the day after tomorrow? I can leave on September 9nd after Ye Chenghu signs up."

Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "I just said we'll leave after the Ghost Festival. I didn't say it has to be the day after tomorrow."

"You settle your account."

"Then you can distribute the stationery according to the number of people. If there are not enough, each person can have a few less. Not everyone needs to have all of them. Just give them a little as a token of your appreciation. These stationery look novel and are completely different from what we have here. We don't have such pretty cartoon patterns here. If you give them just one or two, they will probably be so happy that they won't have to go to class anymore and will just play with them."

"Okay, there must be enough calligraphy copybooks. I bought 20 copies, there is only more, no less. If there are any left, save some for Ye Chenghu."

"Then he'll be pissed off. Haha, he has to write more than others for no reason."

"It's for his own good. I bought all these with my own money. He should learn to write more. If reading is not enough, it's okay for him to learn some unconventional knowledge. It's also good for him to have good handwriting. If conditions permit, you can let him learn calligraphy. This way, he won't have to buy couplets in the future."

"You're thinking that far ahead. Why don't you give them these harmonicas? There are still a bunch of them inside."

"Give it to me in the evening, otherwise the ghosts will be howling and I won't have time to take a nap."

"No wonder I said you had so much money in your bag, why didn't you take it out to share? It was all covered by the banknotes and buried underneath. No wonder it was so heavy."

The bed was full of things that had been poured out of the cloth bag. The couple stood face to face, lowering their heads to pick up and sort things out.

"Will you take a tractor back to your mother's house tomorrow? Take these stationery back to your nephews and nieces, and give them some fish sauce and dried fish? It's been a long time since you went back, right?"

"Yes, since my father and my eldest brother moved to the city, I seldom go back. But in the first place, I didn't go back except for New Year and festivals. So I'll go there tomorrow when your boat comes back, and bring back some fruits, vegetables and dried vegetables from his place. It's just right for you to take them away in a few days. I turned over all the land at home before, and the vegetables have not grown yet."

"The daughter thief is talking about you."

Lin Xiuqing also laughed, "There's nothing else at home, but a lot of fruits and vegetables. My second brother's family can't finish them all. Our family needs a lot right now. If there's not enough, you can take it away. It's just right to go back and get some."

"Then bring more things back. I should have bought more things from the city and brought them back for you. Next time I come back from Zhejiang Province, I'll bring more things back so you can take them back to show off. Give them more stationery. Anyway, none of the people at home can read, so I usually buy them things."

"Okay. It's a pity for the second brother. It would be good if he could find some work or business in the city. The eldest brother is making a lot of money now, and the second brother is left at home looking after the fields and forests."

"Let's see later. You have to figure out what you want to do. You can only earn what you can afford. Otherwise, let him learn to drive a tractor first."

"talk later."

　This one has a little more writing, 7400
　　
　
(End of this chapter)