Chapter 68: First Update: Digging a Hole and Filling the Soil

From the second day of the Lunar New Year to the Lantern Festival, it is the time for relatives and friends to greet each other.

This period of time is not long. In this era of having many children and raising them in large numbers, every family has many relatives.

The same goes for the Ye family.

Not to mention the distant places, one must definitely visit uncle Ye Changcheng. Ye Changcheng's family starts to receive relatives and friends other than children on the third day of the Lunar New Year every year. Ye Cuihua will also go at this time, which is equivalent to a gathering of brothers and sisters of Ye Hongjun's generation.

Therefore, Ye Hongjun and his family often meet up with Ye Cuihua's family first. They say "Happy New Year" to each other first, and then the elders give red envelopes to the younger generations one by one.

Because there are more younger generations in Ye Cuihua's family, Ye Hongjun and his wife often bleed the most.

Several younger generations of the Ye family also received red envelopes from their aunt Ye Cuihua. Ye Yu didn't expect that he got one too, and two more than Ye Baoguo and Ye Weiguo, for a total of four.

This is really not easy. In the past, the three sisters Ye Yu received fewer red envelopes than their younger brothers.

Ye Cuihua was so generous to Ye Yu this year. First, her family was well off and they could save a considerable amount of money every year. She had always been more generous to her brothers and their children than to her own granddaughter. Hu Niu was the one who received the least red envelopes from her. Second, Ye Cuihua felt how pitiful it was that Ye Yu was forced to go to the countryside, especially after hearing that some educated youth were making a fuss and asking to come back, and some were sent back because they became seriously ill due to the unfamiliar climate.

One reason derived from the second point is that Ye Cuihua benefited from her own wise choice and felt that Ye Yu must regret not listening to her and marrying into the city.

The above is purely personal imagination.

After meeting Ye Yu, Ye Cuihua, unless she was blind, could not say anything about Ye Yu's hardship in the countryside.

Ye Yu looked so pretty that even an elder like her had to look up when talking to her. Her appearance was completely different from the dark-skinned and simple farmer in her memory, and she seemed even more beautiful than before. Many young men and women were staring at her along the way, and even her old clothes, which were washed so much that they were almost bleached by the washing, could not hide their gaze.

More importantly, Ye Yu does not show any trace of depression or sadness. She gives people a more casual and peaceful feeling, and her aura is stronger than many city girls.

Not to mention anything else, the sons that Ye Cuihua was proud of were no match for Ye Yu. Even when Ye Yu punished her crying grandson, they showed their weakness first, allowing the other party to gain the upper hand.

"Is this how people are raised in the countryside?"

Ye Cuihua handed over the prepared red envelope in a daze, and received a "Thank you, auntie", but she still didn't come to her senses. It turned out that Wang Lai Di didn't send Ye Yu to the countryside to support her family. Her sister-in-law's family also took good care of Ye's granddaughter.

"Wangjiagou is a good place with mountains, rivers, outstanding people and beautiful scenery." Ye Yu replied.

When I arrived at Ye Changcheng's house, I happened to meet Ye Baoya, who had packed her bags to go back to her parents' home on New Year's Day and her brother-in-law had not come to pick her up yet. I was even more confused.

According to Ye Cuihua, Ye Baoya should have lived a life of wealth and luxury after marrying the son of a high-ranking official. She privately described her as "like a young lady in the old society."

But now Ye Baoya looks very haggard. Her chubby face is gone and her eyes are dull. It may be related to the fact that she is pregnant and has a bad pregnancy appearance.

Not to mention Ye Yu, even Ye Chunsheng who came back from the south couldn't compare to this look. Although Ye Chunsheng became a little darker and more irritable after going to the countryside, he was visibly more energetic than before.

The combat effectiveness is particularly explosive.

It is a skill that Ye Chunsheng can make her parents so angry that they jump up and down. She also forcibly deducted some child support from her parents, which makes people doubt her real purpose of returning home for the Spring Festival.

At this moment, their family can be described as "sad and miserable" and "in chaos".

Ye Hongjun felt bad seeing that Ye Changcheng and his wife were so worried that their hair turned white. Wang Lai Di knew that her husband was soft-hearted, but it was difficult for a judge to judge family affairs. She only advised Ye Baoya to take care of her health and not to harm herself and the baby in her belly.

"It's better to be the one who takes the initiative!" Ye Chunsheng was very good at being sarcastic. No one knew what he had learned in the production team. He went from being a taciturn person to a firecracker. "If it were me, I would have turned the table upside down long ago."

Ye Baoya stabbed back:

"That's because they don't like you!"

Ye Chunsheng: "Want to see you? Want to see you on New Year's Eve, and then push you, almost pushing the child to death?"

“…”

Ye Yu could understand that they were targeting each other over old scores, but for a scumbag like Sun Shizhong, tsk tsk tsk, it was so boring to listen to.

And he's also a domestic violence man.

“Tsk!”

Seeing Wang Lai Di glaring at him, Ye Yu yawned lazily and casually suggested, "This hazardous waste might as well be separated. Of course, we can't let it go so easily before we separate it. If you dare to bully a working-class family, you'll have to scratch their skin first. He can report his ex-wife's family, so why are you...scheming against scheming? Be more assertive. A job won't be a problem, and neither will getting rich overnight."

Sun Shizhong dared to almost trick Ye Lan into a deep trap, so he should dig more holes. His first divorce was due to his ex-wife's "problems", so what about the second one? I don't believe it won't affect the Sun family. It would be best if Sun Shizhong could also be sent to the farm.

"What nonsense is this kid talking about?"

Wang Lai Di laughed awkwardly for her.

Ye Yu manually zipped up and shut up.

It’s a bit of a pity that Ye Baoya didn’t want to get divorced. After all, life was not easy for women in this era. But she obviously took Ye Yu’s words to heart and became thoughtful.

Ye Changcheng and his wife did not want Ye Baoya to divorce, and they did not think Ye Yu's words made sense. As a family, we should live in harmony. We can get along even if there are quarrels. It would be better to let Baoya make amends like a son-in-law.

Yet, Ye Cuihua stood up again at this moment, supporting Ye Baoya in her tantrum. So what if they were high-ranking officials? How could they bully others so recklessly? She always took the lead in seeking benefits for the Ye family.

The scene seemed even more chaotic, but the previous "sad faces" were much relieved.

At least Ye Baoya is no longer depressed and lifeless, and now she has something to look forward to.

Although Ye Changcheng and his wife are good-natured people who prefer to mind their own business, the other people in the family are not pushovers, and it is very likely that a trap has been set.

There's going to be a good show at the Sun family.

Ye Yu stirred up trouble in the pond and surrendered to her mother Wang Lai Di. When she left the hospital, the place became quiet. Unexpectedly, Ye Chunsheng followed her out.

In the courtyard, Ye Chunsheng didn't show the same hostility he had in the house. Instead, he took the initiative to strike up a conversation, asking in an admiring tone, "Cousin, are you in Wangjiagou? Do you know the educated youth Xu and Hua? Your Wangjiagou production team is so famous. Many newspapers have mentioned your production team, saying that you are a role model for the educated youth who went to the countryside."

"know."

"Then can I write to you?" Ye Chunsheng asked excitedly.

Ye Yu looked up at her and asked, "I remember you chose the land of fish and rice? How much is your production team's rice income? Can you exchange some for it?"

Ye Chunsheng nodded: "Yes, yes, yes! I'm near Hangzhou. Every household in our production team grows rice. We have indica rice, japonica rice, and glutinous rice. We also have lotus root powder, bamboo shoots, pepper fish, tea, and many other good things."

She was relatively lucky, or rather, the first batch of educated youth in the countryside were quite lucky. Most of them were assigned to relatively wealthy communes, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions were not called the land of fish and rice for nothing.

But life was really hard. For northerners like Ye Chunsheng, the local humid climate was already a big challenge, especially in the winter when there were no kangs. When sleeping in the middle of the night, the biting cold wind would penetrate into the quilt. Some educated youth almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning from burning charcoal in closed doors.

It’s not that we can’t build a kang, but we have to wait until at least next year. There is not enough dry firewood this year.

The second challenge is dialect.

The locals spoke four or five languages in one commune, and they couldn't understand them at all. The other party also couldn't understand Mandarin very well. Even some commune leaders spoke Mandarin so poorly that no one could understand them.

Because of this, it was more difficult for the educated youth to communicate with the locals.

Even a taciturn person like Ye Chunsheng was forced to become tough after having conflicts with the locals.

Because of this, the educated youth who were able to communicate with each other began to stick together to survive more seriously than in the north, especially the female educated youth. There were actually some second-rate men in the local area who were eyeing the female educated youth and thought that marrying them did not require a bride price.

Because of this, Ye Chunsheng disliked Ye Baoya even more. Compared with her life, why was Ye Baoya being so pretentious?

In short, Ye Chunsheng and his friends felt a greater sense of belonging and mission towards the word "educated youth". It is understandable that they admired the Wangjiagou Production Team even more when they saw it in the newspaper.

Ye Yu answered her previous question: "Yes."

Of course, even in the south, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans, etc. are the main crops. Hybrid rice is now under research. The yield of traditional rice is not high. Even in the land of fish and rice, people have starved to death during famines.

Therefore, Ye Chunsheng could not exchange much rice, but he could prepare more local specialties and exchange views on the scenery of different places.

This letter-writing task can be handed over to Hua Feifei and others whom Ye Chunsheng admires.

Perfect!

For lunch, the dishes prepared by Ye Changcheng's family were quite good. Although there was no pork, there were chicken, duck and fish. However, many people were not paying attention to the food at the table.

Ye Yu was naturally unaffected, and even volunteered to sit at the same table with the other children who were equally unaffected.

Ye Hongjun and Wang Laidi: “…”

After lunch, Ye Hongjun and his family said goodbye and went home.

Considering Ye Yu's ability to "stir up trouble", Wang Lai Di finally allowed her not to follow them around to pay New Year's greetings. Although it was a bit regrettable that she couldn't eat and drink for free, it was still a gain as it saved a lot of embarrassing and cumbersome formalities.

Wang Lai Di also said that there might be guests coming to their house to pay New Year's greetings. There aren't many, but there are some too. Usually, they come after the fifth day of the first lunar month.

This estimate was wrong.

Their guests arrived the next day.

The next morning, just after finishing my meal, I heard an old lady outside calling out, "Hongjun Lai Di, your relatives are here to pay New Year's greetings."

Someone else added: "How impressive! They even came in a four-wheeled car."