They walked along the main road for over half an hour before reaching the stop in town, then patiently waited another hour for a ride to Haiqingsha Town.
After winding around bend after bend on the mountain roads, it was already noon when they got off at the village entrance.
Cooking smoke curled above the village. Standing at the entrance, they could already smell food wafting from other people's homes.
Ye Yaodong had his wife watch their things by the roadside while he shouldered a lighter sack of vegetables and took the two children home first. He would come back with a handcart for the rest.
The two children skipped ahead without needing Ye Yaodong to show them the way. There wasn't a spot in the village they hadn't run around. Young as they were, they might even know the village better than he did now.
"Slow down!"
He had barely spoken when his younger son slipped going downhill. In a rare show of brotherly affection, his older son didn't laugh at him and even helped him up. Then the two ran on, hand in hand.
When they reached home, the whole family was eating. Mother Ye came out to meet him when she saw him return.
"Mom, did you cook extra rice? If not, make us some noodles. I need to head out again. There's still stuff at the village entrance."
With that, he hurried back out, pushing the handcart.
Watching him come and go with the handcart piled high with sacks and baskets, Mother Ye was astonished. "Did you empty your in-laws' house on this visit?"
"My mother-in-law insisted on giving us all this. She said we must have eaten all our vegetables while building the house, and the next crop wouldn't grow that quickly. She cut loads