boyutpedia Chapter 1648 Want to...
Chapter 1648 Want to...
Chapter 1648 Want to...
Sea cucumbers taste delicious, but they are not so convenient to prepare.
First, you need to cut open the sea cucumber. Find the seam at one end and use scissors to cut a small opening along the seam. Don't cut it too long.
Then, use your hands to squeeze downwards from the opening to expel all the internal organs and blood from the sea cucumber.
Later, both ends need to be cut off. The slit end is about 5 millimeters long and has small thorns, which is its mouth for feeding.
The closed part at the other end is also cut off to ensure that impurities are completely removed.
Then you need to sprinkle salt and white vinegar on it and rub it vigorously to remove the mucus and impurities. You have to rub and wash it at least three or four times until the water becomes clear, the sea cucumber looks transparent, and it doesn't feel sticky to the touch before it's considered clean.
It's also a bit of a hassle to eat. First, you have to blanch it in hot water. Once it changes color, you have to quickly take it out and put it in cold water. That's how you make it crisp and refreshing.
Fortunately, they were only responsible for catching the fish, and the processing work was left to the workshop aunties, but it still took them an entire afternoon to hang them all up to dry.
Ye Yaodong spent the whole afternoon killing chickens, preparing offerings, then going up the mountain to pray, and then coming back to stew dragon and phoenix soup.
Another pot of clear broth was given to Lin Xiuqing to simmer slowly in a small earthenware pot on the coal stove, with some Codonopsis pilosula, a tonic for children, added.
After the two girls returned from the beach, they smelled the aroma of their home and didn't go anywhere else. They just squatted at the door, telling each of their friends that they were going to eat snake meat.
After they ate the snake meat, they specially took it to the doorway, where there happened to be a small table and a few stools set up in the open space next door, which they could borrow.
It's hot, so everyone usually eats at the entrance.
"I'm eating snake meat, old snake meat..."
"These are snakes we caught this morning, no, my sister caught them, they smell so good..."
"This snake was caught by my sister, it's amazing..."
"My sister caught two and cooked two big pots of them, they smelled so good..."
Ye Xiaoxi has become a fanatical sister-bragging maniac. Whenever someone comes over to look at what they are eating, she has to tell them what she is eating.
Pei Yu was a little shy from showing off to her, and called her "sister" softly.
Everyone praised you.
Lin Xiuqing saw them whispering to each other and said, "Hurry up and eat. You're the slowest eater and the most talkative."
Ye Xiaoxi muttered, "I don't talk much, can I eat the slowest?"
"Are you still reasonable?"
She stopped talking and focused on battling the snake bone in her mouth.
This old snake isn't very big, only about a pound. There's not much meat on an old snake, mostly bones, so even a child would have to be very careful when eating it; it's quite a struggle.
The children nearby were drooling as they watched the family eat. There was chicken soup with snake head, stir-fried sea cucumber with chives, and braised pork. The aroma was so enticing that they couldn't stay at home.
Just then, Aunt Ma, whom Lao Pei had married later, came over carrying a child and a basket of bananas.
Her face was beaming with smiles. "Oh, dinner's ready? I've been smelling the aroma for ages. The dinner is really good, with fish, meat, and chicken soup."
Everyone glanced at it and then went back to eating.
Mother Ye pouted, and immediately closed her eyes again after lifting them up.
She said to herself, "Hehe, Xiaoyu is back too? This morning I thought I was seeing things. She was right at the door, but I didn't go in. Luckily, the neighbor told me, so I quickly brought over a basket of bananas for you to eat."
Pei Yu glanced at her, whispered a thank you, and then lowered her head to continue eating her meal.
She wasn't embarrassed at all and continued, "You're back. Why didn't your parents come back? They didn't even call to say anything. When are you planning to go up? School is starting soon, it'll be September 1st in a few days."
Pei Yu said softly, "I'll study at home next semester and won't go up."
"Aren't you going up?" she raised her voice. "Why aren't you going up? Your whole family is up there, why aren't you going up?"
Ye's mother couldn't stand her speaking loudly to her granddaughter, so she glared at her and said, "What? Are you going to curse me? Does it have anything to do with you whether she goes up or not? She doesn't live at your place and she doesn't eat your food."
"Her whole family is up there, why did she come back?"
"She can stay wherever she wants. It's her parents' decision. Do you have a problem with that? If you have a problem, call them and ask them yourself. Don't keep bothering the child with these questions."
"Can't I even ask? I'm her grandmother too."
"Grandma my ass, her grandma died a long time ago."
Aunt Ma was so angry that she took deep breaths, suppressing the urge to yell back.
“It’s meaningless for the mother-in-law to say that. A stepmother is a mother, and a stepmother is a mother.”
"That's not right. She's past the age of breastfeeding, so she doesn't look for her mother or breastfeeding."
Ye Yaodong almost burst out laughing.
Aunt Ma's temples throbbed, but remembering that she needed someone's help, she held back and stopped talking to Ye's mother, instead speaking to Ye Yaodong.
She forced a polite, fake smile. "Ah Dong, how many days are you staying back? When are you leaving for the summit?"
"Unsure? Why?"
"I was thinking of letting me know when you set off, so I could go up with you."
Ye Yaodong was so surprised he almost dropped his meat. "You're going to Shangzhou City?"
“Yes, Lao Pei hasn’t come back all year. Ah Feng has almost forgotten what his father and brother look like. I need to take the child up to see his father and brother.”
Ye Yaodong's inner voice was screaming with anticipation, but his expression remained unchanged. "Have you spoken to Lao Pei or A Guang yet? If they agree, I'll take you up with me."
"How can I find them? I call them and they all say they're not there, or they've gone to sea. A trip to sea takes a month or two. They haven't called back. How am I supposed to find them when I call? I don't know how busy they are. They only call once a month, when they send living expenses."
Aunt Ma grumbled and complained.
Women who had been watching them talk earlier came over to join in the fun, and now they were also talking along.
"Could it be that Old Pei has changed his mind?"
"A second marriage is hard to say..."
"No way, they've already had a son?"
"How could they be short of sons? They already have several grandsons, otherwise why would they call once a month?"
"That's not quite right. My husband only calls once every two months, saying he's been at sea the whole time. He calls as soon as he gets ashore. I guess the Pei father and son are the same way?"
"I don't think so. It seems like neither the father nor the son went to sea. It seems like only A-Guang stayed at sea the whole time. His father would only go occasionally to relieve him and help out."
"It's hard to say. Anyway, many people are going up with their wives this year. It's better to go with them, otherwise you might not see them even once a year. The child might forget what his father looks like."
At this moment, Pei Feng interrupted, saying loudly, "I remember my father, my father is very old."
"Hahaha……"
The women around them laughed heartily.
"That's right, your father is a bit older than other people's fathers."
Aunt Ma slapped him on the back of the head and glared at him, "Shut up, why are you interrupting when adults are talking?"
Ye Yaodong glanced at the child, who was noticeably smaller than the twins, and said, "You should call and talk to Lao Pei first. If you agree that he needs to come up with me, then I'll take him. Otherwise, I can't take him."
"Why can't I bring him? It's just a side thing. If my son wants to see me, am I not allowed to?"
"Then go find yours."
"If I could go by myself, I wouldn't be here asking."
Mother Ye said irritably, "Old Pei didn't say you were allowed to go up. If Dongzi takes you up, won't he be caught in the middle?"
"Old Pei and I are a couple. What's wrong with me going to see him? Why am I being disliked by both sides?"
“There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to ask Lao Pei first if he wants you to go up. Ask him first, otherwise we can’t take you up.”
"I'll just take a ride on your boat, it's just a coincidence..."
Ye's mother retorted, "Can't you understand human language? Ask your old man if he'll let you go up. He hasn't been back for a whole year, and he only calls when he's transferring money."
"Hehe... My old man calls home every week."
“They still call me back every day even though they scold me. It’s like they don’t care about phone bills. It’s no use talking to them.”
Aunt Ma was deeply hurt by what she heard; her chest heaved as she wanted to yell, "What do you mean?"
"It doesn't mean anything. It means exactly what it says. It's obvious that your old man doesn't want you to go up there."
"You're talking nonsense. I just can't get in touch with him."
Seeing that she was all bark and no bite, Ye's mother chuckled twice and remained silent.
But those two "hehe" sounds were really jarring.
Lin Xiuqing, fearing she would make a scene, said, "You should call and ask first. We can't just send someone to him for no reason; what if we do something wrong with good intentions?"
People around her also chimed in, "Yeah, you should make a call first. If your husband doesn't agree, how can anyone else take you there? They'll all be responsible."
"Yes, we have a responsibility to do this. After all, the boat trip takes two days, so we can't just bring people on board without our family's permission."
"You should call and ask first. If they're willing to let you go up, then A-Dong will definitely take you. After all, our two families are related by marriage."
“We went to join the fun a few years ago, and I must say, Shanghai is really lively. It’s worth a trip.”
"Let alone Shanghai, I've never seen such a lively scene at the docks in my entire life."
Several family members went up there once a couple of winters ago, and they still remember it vividly and often bring it up again. Now it's been brought up again.
The topic was thus shifted.
Aunt Ma was also unwilling to give up and took the child away first.
After finishing his meal, Ye Yaodong called his father and told him about it.
"...Tell Lao Pei later that I'm leaving the day after tomorrow night."
"If she comes up here, won't the old house catch fire? Old Pei definitely won't let her come up. That old geezer, at his age, he can still find someone here who's not much older than his son, and he even bought a house and rebuilt his home... What will happen if this woman he found out? At his age, isn't he afraid she can't handle it..."
Ye's father rambled on and on, it was hard to tell whether it was envy, jealousy, or disdain.
"Never mind him. Anyway, if his old house catches fire, this is the price of enjoying life."
"They definitely won't let us up, there's no need to even talk to them."
"We still need to let him know, otherwise, what if he can't get on my boat and goes directly to the town dock to ask about the scheduled ferry, and ends up taking his child and going looking for it himself?"
"Is it really that bad? How could someone have the guts to take a child all that way by themselves?"
"Who knows? Maybe we can just take a boat, get off the boat, find a place to call and ask for the address of the dormitory area. It would be very convenient to find it directly."
After all, the canteen in the dormitory area has a landline phone, making it very convenient to make and receive calls. The workers from the village live there and basically use that phone to call home.
It wouldn't be difficult to find it at all.
It's possible that, if they harden their hearts, they might just go and confront them directly.
"We still need to give Old Pei a heads-up. He should deal with his own romantic entanglements. At his age, he's still looking for someone here and there..."
"Ah."
"So you've decided to leave the night after tomorrow, right?"
"Yes, my mother is here. Do you want to talk to her?"
"No, what's there to say?"
"Aren't you going to ask her about the house?"
"Why don't you just ask me?"
"I just got back, and I don't know as many details as she does. Just ask her whatever you want to know."
"Okay then..."
Ye Yaodong called out to the door, "Mom, it's Dad's on the phone, he wants you to answer it."
Ye's mother was bragging to someone at the door when she heard this and looked disgusted. "She calls me every day, as if I'm a fake, always looking for me..."
"That's good. It shows that even after all these years, we're still thinking about each other..."
Ye Yaodong called his mother, just as Lin Xiuqing finished cleaning up the dishes.
Her eyes sparkled as she gossiped, "What do you mean by 'the old house is on fire'? Why didn't Old Pei let Aunt Ma go up?"
"You ask me, who should I ask?"
Ye Yaodong had only stated Aunt Ma's demands on the phone; he didn't say anything else. His father did all the talking on the other end of the phone, so his wife probably couldn't hear him.
"Did Old Pei find someone else upstairs? Is that why he won't let Aunt Ma go up?"
How can you guess so well?
"I have no idea!"
"How could you not know? It must be true, otherwise who wouldn't call home for a month or two if they weren't at sea? They only call when they need to send money. Don't they even care about their own son? Even if they dislike Aunt Ma, their son is still their own."
Lin Xiuqing became more and more confident as she spoke, "He's already found a wife like Aunt Ma, so it's not surprising that he finds another one. Besides, they're a couple who met later in life, how deep can their feelings be?"
“Logically speaking, it’s mostly Ah Guang who’s at sea, while he’s on shore collecting rent from his few boats. It would be a simple matter if he came back occasionally. But he goes out at the beginning of the year and doesn’t come back until the end of the year.”
“If we decisively prevent Aunt Ma from going up now, there will definitely be a problem. Our youngest son will be nowhere to be found. Am I right?”
Ye Yaodong gave her a thumbs up, "Your analysis is very reasonable and well-founded. Luckily, I picked you up every few days and had you come with me every day, so I didn't give you a chance to analyze me."
Lin Xiuqing snorted and rolled her eyes at him. "Who do you think I am? Aunt Ma must have noticed that something was wrong with Lao Pei, which is why she couldn't wait to go up and protect her position."
"Enjoying life and seeing the world is one thing, but I'm not really satisfied with just receiving a fixed amount of living expenses every month."
"He might be worried that Lao Pei will just leave her and the child at home, only coming back once a year for the New Year, and then just sending a little money for living expenses each month and then ignoring them."
"Then what's the point of her being with an old man? She even had a son with him, all for a few dozen yuan a month?"
Ye Yaodong praised her, "Wow, my wife is so smart! Her analysis is spot on! She might even be right. Old Pei is obviously a cunning fellow. I'll go up there in a couple of days and find out more for you."
She guessed everything perfectly, so he has to do something to show his appreciation, otherwise she might turn around and accuse him of deliberately hiding it from him.
It's an open secret anyway: better to die for your fellow Daoist than for yourself.
Lin Xiuqing nodded in satisfaction, "That's more like it. Don't worry, just tell me, and I absolutely won't tell anyone else. I know what I should and shouldn't say. If someone's wife finds out, that would be terrible."
"it is good."
The two went outside to cool off, while the children at home were peeling bananas that Aunt Ma had brought over, saying how delicious they were.
I don't know how many stomachs they have. They just finished eating and they can eat bananas again. There are also several frozen jellies on the table.
"You didn't even rest after you finished eating, and you're already stuffing food into your mouth again. You said you were full and stuffed, but now you can eat again."
“It’s delicious, Mom. Everyone says stepmothers are bad, but Xiaoyu’s stepmother even brought us bananas. That’s really nice.”
"What's so good about it? Xiaoyu's father planted a lot of banana trees when he was a child. These are all grown by her father. What she's eating is originally hers."
"Oh, his uncle is so silly. When we met this morning, he called Xiaoyu 'sister,' but Xiaoyu had to correct him and say that he was 'uncle.' And he's been following us around like a shadow ever since."
"The child is young and doesn't understand. You are not allowed to eat any more after you finish these."
Lin Xiuqing took the banana basket back and put it away, refusing to give them any.
However, I also thought about it and decided to bring some food back from my parents' home tomorrow, some pickled or dried food, to Shanghai. Some things can't be bought with money and can only be made at home.
But my son is going to study in Shanghai and will be living in a villa for the rest of the year. I don't know if he'll be used to the food there, so bringing some of our own food with him is definitely a good idea.
Thinking of this, she started rummaging through her belongings again, bringing everything she could for her eldest son, and now she's prioritizing him over everything else.
Being away from home is not the same as being at home.
When they started packing, by the time they set off, they had packed two large sacks just for Ye Chenghu's things. They packed a little bit each day as they thought of it, and after two days, the sacks kept getting bigger and bigger.
When they finished dinner and were about to leave for town to catch a boat, Aunt Ma rushed over, carrying her child.
"Wait, take me with you. Old Pei has already agreed."
Ye Yaodong asked in confusion, "No? They didn't even call me to tell me?"
"He told me to just let you know."
"you sure?"
"Of course."
"I don't believe you. Wait a minute, I'll call my dad."
He wasn't so easily fooled; he didn't believe the other person just because they opened their mouth.
Ye Yaodong told the others to get on the tractor first, and he would make a phone call and come over.
They had just moved their luggage upstairs when the people arrived.
Finding other workers might be difficult, as they are mostly at sea and some won't be back until dark. But finding his father is very easy; a phone call is all it takes.
It's dinnertime now, and if I call his dad, I just need to ask someone to call him from the cafeteria, and he'll answer the phone in a few minutes.
Ye Yaodong checked with his father.
Mr. Ye insisted that it was impossible, saying, "When I talked to Lao Pei the day before yesterday, Lao Pei said not to let her come up. He said to wait until the 30th, and he would call after he wired the money back."
"She said she usually sends money at the beginning of the month, but this time she called me at the end of the month to send the money. That old woman..."
Ye's father muttered a few curses under his breath.
"Okay, I'm hanging up now. I need to get ready to leave. She stopped me in front of my car saying that Lao Pei had already agreed, so I called you to verify. Since it's not true, I'm not going to bother with her anymore."
"Hey, hurry up and get going, don't waste time."
"Ah."
"Let him handle his family's affairs himself."
"it is good."
When Ye Yaodong came out of his house, he saw that Aunt Ma looked uneasy.
"Old Pei told you not to go up yet, saying he'll call you at the end of the month after he's done with his work."
After saying that, he climbed onto the tractor.
Aunt Ma persisted, saying urgently, "Just take me with you, it's just two more people."
As she spoke, she tried to put her son, whom she was holding, into the tractor's trailer.
Ye's mother quickly stopped her, snatched her son away, and grabbed her tightly with one hand.
"Have you no shame? Your old man doesn't want you to go, but you still insist on pestering us."
"Let me go..."
"Dongzi, you go your way."
Pei Feng stumbled and fell to the ground as they pulled him, bursting into tears.
Pei Yu peeled a candy and stuffed it into his mouth, and he immediately stopped wailing. Then he happily followed Pei Yu and Ye Xiaoxi.
Ye's mother was still yelling at Aunt Ma, "Shameless! You're trying to cling to our family? Go cool off somewhere else!"
"You're incredibly unlucky to have gotten involved with someone like you. You can't even hold onto a man's heart, so don't blame us. If you're so capable, go find someone yourself, and stop lying..."
"You shameless liar, I'm not taking you..."
Seeing that his mother was there, Ye Yaodong drove the tractor away.
This time, he brought his wife and eldest son, along with his two sisters-in-law and an elderly woman, and tried to drive as slowly as possible.
They whispered among themselves in the back of the truck, and now they had more gossip to share, making the journey less boring.
After they chatted about Aunt Ma for a while, Sister-in-law Ye asked Ye Chenghu curiously, "Chenghu, you've been up there for two months now, have you seen Old Pei?"
Ye Chenghu was listening intently, so why did he ask him that?
He shook his head. "No, I'm helping my dad out there. I'm out at sea every day. I only see my dad once every ten days or so."
It's not that exaggerated. At most, you might only see him once every three to five days. He's exaggerating.
"Have you heard about Lao Pei's situation? Has Lao Pei found someone else up there?" Ye Ersao asked slyly.
He shook his head vigorously, "I don't know that, I've never heard of it, I'm always at sea."
Even if I know, I can't tell anyone. The old fishermen said that things that happen here can't be taken home and discussed!
Lin Xiuqing defended Ye Chenghu, saying, "He's still a child, why ask him about this? We should just chat."
"Ha ha……"
"I don't even know if I'll be able to see your older brother if I go up there..."
"We'll just have to try our luck. If we don't run into them, we can just treat it as a trip and not lose anything."
Ye Chenghu spoke the truth, "Of course you won't lose money, since you don't have to pay for your round-trip travel expenses."
P.S.: Sorry, I'm not a full-time worker, and I inevitably encounter situations from time to time. I try my best to keep going without taking leave.
Otherwise, it would be easier to just ask for a day off and avoid everyone complaining about the delay. My intention to update is good... *crying*... Oh well, next time I'll just ask for leave directly.
And not a single chapter was missing, even though it dragged on from midnight to night, well, it was still the same day...
I only took one day off this month, which is considered quite diligent. Once this week is over, I won't be so busy next week. (120 characters, free)