After dinner, dusk had only just fallen when Ye Yaodong sat outside the door to chat with the neighborhood aunties. They would talk about him behind his back even if he didn't talk to them, anyway.
At least when they talked face-to-face, he got to hear a few nice things.
He also offered a couple of cigarettes to the old men nearby, but they all politely waved him off, saying their hand-rolled cigarettes or water pipes were fine.
They could smoke simply by rolling some shredded tobacco in a piece of paper.
Most of the old men were just like his father, never without a water pipe in their hands, smoking away with bubbling gurgles. They were used to water pipes and might not be accustomed to cigarettes.
Ye Yaodong glanced at the children playing with the softshell turtles nearby and told them not to pick them up, just to leave them on the ground to play with.
Then he chatted with the neighbors about this year's crops and fruit harvests, talked a little about life by the sea, and joined the elderly folks in praising the leaders, saying everyone's lives would get better and better.
Then he listened to a few more compliments. They said a son-in-law was half a son, and as soon as something happened to his father-in-law, he had come to visit with bags upon bags of gifts. They praised A Qing for finding a good husband. Nothing had happened before to let them see what he was like; all they had heard was gossip...
Ye Yaodong was delighted to hear it. It meant he had done a good job of changing their impression of him lately.
Just then, Lin Mother finished washing the pots and dishes and planned to slaughter one of the softshell turtles