Everyone in the family had witnessed the recent farce from beginning to end. Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua admitted that they were envious, and even their younger sister, Ye Huimei, was extremely envious.
Although Old Lady was very good to all her grandchildren, she was incomparable to Ye Yaodong; Old Lady's heart and eyes were filled with him.
Among their four siblings and more than a dozen cousins, it was said that he was the only one Grandma had personally delivered, almost being born on the Beach.
Then, as soon as he was born, he smiled at her when she held him, immediately catching her eye, and she doted on him from childhood to adulthood.
Upon entering the house, Ye Father was still fuming, glaring at him while puffing on his water pipe!
To be honest, he still didn't understand at this point what he had said wrong that made Ye's father and Mother Ye explode together!
His attitude?
Or was it the accumulated frustration of 'hating iron for not becoming steel'?
He thought about it and concluded it could only be those two reasons; otherwise, why would his parents be so angry?
"Where's the chayote? I told you to save one for Dongzi, did you save it?"
As soon as Old Lady sat down, she saw a group of children each holding a piece of chayote and gnawing on it, so she quickly asked, afraid that Ye Yaodong hadn't gotten any.
Ye Yaodong's younger sister, Ye Huimei, said while eating, "It's saved, on the stove. Third Brother, go get it yourself."
Everyone else had their portions cut and shared, but he had one all to himself!
Moreover, everyone was used to it, and even the children had no objections; Third Uncle was special!
Yao Dong looked at the green-skinned chayote on the stove. It was oval-shaped, only slightly longer than an adult's palm. He had just seen several very long and large ones, like mallets, which were probably cut and shared, leaving only the smallest one for him.
This was his favorite melon. Many people grew it at this time, and it was very cheap. In later generations, very few people grew this variety; they were all white-skinned, round sweet melons. He hadn't eaten it in many years.
He walked towards the earthen stove. The chayote had already been washed, and water droplets still clung to it.
Looking at the cutting board and knife on the stove, with residual juice and seeds, he also placed the chayote on it, cut it into large pieces, randomly picked a dish to put them in, and walked towards Grandma.
"Grandma, you eat one too!"
Grandma waved her hand with a smile, "I have no teeth left, I can't chew it. You eat, you eat. Why did you even cut it..."
Although he really wanted to eat it, he wouldn't hog it. There weren't many in total, and the family had many mouths to feed.
Seeing that Old Lady indeed had no teeth to chew, he handed a piece each to his two children and another to his wife.
This behavior made Lin Xiuqing look sideways again.
Judging from past behavior, shouldn't he have just picked it up and gnawed on it? Why did he cut it and share it with everyone?
After Lin Xiuqing took it, he then took a piece for himself, placing the rest of the plate on the table for everyone to help themselves.
"Third Brother, have you changed your ways?"
"Can't eating shut your mouth?"
Ye Huimei pouted, not daring to utter another sound.
Yao Dong looked at Old Lady again and said with a smile, "There's a type of removable dentures now. You wear them when you eat, and you can chew meat and everything. After eating, you take them out, wash them, and they can be used again next time. When I go to the city, I'll go to the hospital and ask about getting a pair for you, Grandma. That way you can eat meat, you can eat anything!"
"Oh, don't waste that money. I'm already halfway into the grave. Congee and fermented tofu are enough for me, and I have to eat vegetarian for half a month every month..."
"You can eat meat on the days you don't eat vegetarian! It's settled!"
"At my age, what meat do I need to eat? Isn't fish better than meat? We people by the sea should just eat fish." Old Lady's old face bloomed with a smile, feeling very happy and pleased!
"Fish has its good points, and meat has its good points. We should eat both."
Everyone in the house watched their interaction, thinking, 'Third Brother still has some conscience towards Old Lady, and it's not in vain that Old Lady dotes on him so much.'
Mother Ye also finished peeling the corn husks and came in. Ye Dasao went up to her, "Mother, let me cook."
"It's okay, I'll do it. You go look after the children."
Old Lady looked at Ye Father and said, "I see the corn silks are black; it's almost ripe. In a couple of days, you and I should go pick the corn cobs, lest they stay in the field too long and become too old to eat."
Ye Father glared, holding his water pipe, "How do I have time? The boat just got repaired. While the new hands are energetic, I need to take Eldest and Second Brother out to sea a few more times to see if we can catch another big haul! Third Brother idles around all day. You let him take a few of the younger ones; it'll be perfect for them to pick and carry back."
"It'd be a miracle if he could carry them. He's never around all day. I'll take the children and accompany Mother to pick them." Mother Ye grabbed a handful of straw, lit it with a match, and threw it into the stove, taking over the conversation.
As soon as Third Brother's inability to carry things was mentioned, Ye Father recalled a few years ago when the team assigned him to carry grain, and he ended up dropping it into a ditch, almost dying of anger!
"What's the use? Such a big person, can't even carry grain or corn, and even drops it into a ditch, making people laugh to death..."
Yao Dong: "..."
It was ancient history, yet Ye's father remembered it so clearly. Although... although he was indeed a bit useless when he was young...
But, having been reborn, he had already decided to turn over a new leaf and be a good person...
Lin Xiuqing felt that since he was her man, it wasn't good for him to be despised by his own father in front of so many people, so she quickly changed the subject to save Ye Yaodong.
"Mother, the first day of the month is in two days, and the tide has been receding very low recently. Aren't we supposed to go clam digging?"
"It's fine, it won't delay anything. There's such a large group of children here. Let Third Brother take them to pick the corn cobs. Once they've picked them, tell me, and I'll go carry them."
Yao Dong didn't say a word, and the task was already arranged for him. Actually, he wanted to say that he could do it...
But he swallowed his words back. He couldn't be too eager to show off, lest it seem too abnormal. He would just carry them back when the time came.
Because their family was poor and couldn't afford to build a house, they never separated; the whole big family ate and lived together.
It was just that each branch kept the money they earned from odd jobs and making fishing nets themselves. Also, because they lived off the sea and coastal resources were abundant, their food and drink relied on what the land produced and what they gathered from the sea, so they didn't need to spend much money, and there weren't many major conflicts in their family.
And Ye's father spent all his earnings on repairing the boat. After all, it was left by his grandfather. Repairing a boat was always more cost-effective than building or buying a new one.
People by the sea, who doesn't long for their own boat to set sail and fish, improving their family's life?
Ye Father also longed for it, so he had been earning money to repair this boat for the past two years.
Now that the boat was repaired and could go out to sea, he naturally had to be diligent and take the two younger boys from the family out fishing. Anyway, Third Brother was a lost cause. When the family's conditions improved, they could help him out then.
Old Lady saw that everyone in the family was busy, and even Third Brother was assigned a task, so she quickly said, "There's no rush to pick the corn. A few days later won't matter. It's good to pick a basketful every day for everyone to snack on. If you pick them all at once, they won't be fresh anymore."
Mother Ye didn't even turn her head, only staring at the fire in the stove, "It's good that you're not in a hurry. Anyway, it's not worth much money, so don't sell it at a stall. Just pick a little every day to eat. If it's too old, save it for seeds. When we have time, we'll go turn over the land for you."