After autumn arrived, it grew dark earlier with each passing day. When they had finished giving A-Guang a beating, there had still been a faint glimmer of light in the sky. Now it was pitch-black, and he could barely see his hand in front of his face as he walked.
To save on electricity, the villagers were reluctant to turn on their lights unless they had something to do. Darkness lay everywhere, with only the occasional house lit up inside.
The country roads were uneven, too. Some stretches had only become paths because enough people had walked over them. Ye Yaodong stuck to the main roads as much as possible and slowed his pace.
But as he passed an intersection, he heard a hubbub of voices in the distance. He was a little surprised. There didn't seem to be any weddings or funerals in the village today, so where was all that noise coming from so late at night?
Curious, he headed toward the voices and discovered they came from his eldest uncle's house. That explained it.
His eldest uncle had two sons and four daughters. Once the daughters had all married, there were enough rooms to go around. After dividing the household, each family took two rooms and cooked separately, though they still lived on the same property.
As he drew closer, he saw half the village gathered outside their door. Men and women, young and old, crowded around, cracking sunflower seeds as they discussed when they could watch television and how much longer they had to wait...
He hadn't come to join the excitement yesterday, so since he was passing by today, he settled in among the crowd and listened to everyone talk about how capable Ye Yaohong was and how useless their own sons were...
Meanwhile, the