The happy little days of the Ye family

Father Ye drove the donkey cart to the back mountain. From a distance, he saw many women digging wild vegetables at the foot of the mountain.

The soil in the back mountain is particularly fertile, and there are all kinds of fresh and delicious wild vegetables growing all year round, as well as endless pigweed.

There are also many wild fruit trees, which is a favorite place for women and children in the village.

The women in the village gathered together in twos and threes, digging wild vegetables while talking and laughing. They were reluctant to go home even when it was dinner time.

Since Father Ye collected dried vegetables in the village last year, the women in the village had made plans early and planted all the small vegetable gardens at home with green vegetables at the beginning of the year.

Knowing that Ye's father also collects dried wild vegetables, he goes to the mountains every day. Even Mrs. Ye often invites three or two old sisters to dig wild vegetables together.

When they saw Father Ye, the women digging wild vegetables greeted Father Ye one after another. Many people asked Father Ye if they would harvest dried vegetables this year.

A wealthy aunt about the same age as Mrs. Ye asked with a smile:

"Boy from the Ye family, are you still harvesting dried vegetables this year? We have planted a lot of vegetables this year, so we can dry a lot of dried vegetables, and we have also prepared a lot of dried wild vegetables."

"You can harvest whatever you want, including dried vegetables and wild vegetables."

Another aunt asked anxiously: "What about the price? Is it still the same as last year?"

“It’s still early before winter, so we can’t tell the price yet.”

The aunt who asked Ye's father about the price was a little dissatisfied when he saw that Ye's father didn't tell him the price directly. She frowned and was about to say something when she was pulled away by other women on the side.

A young woman with her body covered with patches asked in a low voice: "Where's the charcoal? Will we harvest charcoal this year? If we harvest it this year, we should prepare it early."

"Charcoal is also collected, as much as there is charcoal."

The charcoal Mr. Ye collected last year was not enough to sell, and it was sold out within an hour of putting it out. Definitely have to collect a little more charcoal this year.

Hearing Father Ye's words to continue collecting charcoal, the young woman was beaming with joy. Tomorrow she would ask the family's strong laborers to go to the mountains to cut firewood and make more charcoal.

During this period, the family has saved a little money by selling dried mushrooms and bamboo shoots. With the money from selling dried vegetables and charcoal in the second half of the year, the foreign debt should be paid off by the end of the year. Thinking of this, the smile on the woman's face became even brighter.

Ye's father was surrounded by women digging wild vegetables along the way. His lips went dry as he talked and he finally got away.

The path from the back mountain to the small back mountain is only a few hundred meters away, but it took Father Ye a quarter of an hour to drive the donkey cart.

Before approaching Xiaohoushan, Father Ye saw the three children at home from a distance.

Brothers Ye Donglin and Ye Xilin were hunting pigweed by the stream, while Ye Qingqing and the two little girls dug wild vegetables together.

Father Ye drove the donkey cart to the stream. After parking the cart, he found that the brothers had packed five baskets full of pigweed and were working towards the sixth basket.

In winter, all the dried pigweed stored at home has been eaten. Recently, Ye Donglin has been coming to Xiaohoushan every day to pack seven or eight baskets of pigweed.

Half of it is fed to the pigs at home, and the other half is made into dried hogweed and saved for feeding the pigs in the winter.

Since Ye Donglin stopped going to school, he stayed at home to help without complaint. Every day he would either follow Ye's father to work as a peddler and sell goods, or follow Mr. Ye to work on the family fields and crops in the small back hill.

In just two months, he has become a lot darker and stronger. He has become a hard-working and willing young man.

Many people in the village have been eyeing Ye Donglin, and people from several families near Ye's house have come to inquire about Ye Donglin. Ye Donglin, who is 13 and a half years old, is already a good son-in-law candidate in several nearby villages.

There was also that brave girl who pretended to meet her by chance on the way between the Ye family and Xiaohoushan. Unfortunately, the 13-year-old Ye Donglin didn't realize it yet and walked away.

Not far away, Ye Qingqing, the little girl in the next room, and Ye Qingqing's second cousin were digging wild vegetables together.

The three of them didn't know what they said. They laughed so hard that they could hear the little girl's clear laughter from a distance.

Father Ye saw that none of the children had any intention of leaving, so he simply went to the big puddle at the foot of the mountain. He had set two traps there before. Father Ye went to check them out, but unfortunately there was no movement.

There was no hope of meat, so Father Ye had no choice but to look for wild eggs.

There were several pheasant nests near the puddle. Every time Father Ye stole eggs, he would leave an egg to keep the pheasants, and then steal eggs again every once in a while.

Ye's father had already figured out the location of the pheasant's nest. In a few moments, he had a dozen pheasant eggs in the basket behind him.

Of course, toon is indispensable if you have wild eggs. Although the toon is a bit old at this time, it is still edible. Father Ye quickly picked half a basket of toon buds.

When Father Ye returned home with his three little friends, it was completely dark. Mother Ye had already prepared the meal and was waiting for the few people to come back for dinner.