When he got home, Lin Xiuqing was surprised.
"You're back? So soon?"
"How long did you want me to take?"
"Didn't you go to the literacy class?" she said irritably. "Why are you back so soon?"
"No, I went out to buy cigarettes and took a look around while I was at it."
"You needed to ride a bicycle just to buy cigarettes? Are your legs that precious?"
"Of course. Two hundred meters counts as a long-distance trip."
Lin Xiuqing rolled her eyes. Listening to his nonsense did lighten her mood, easing the tension she had been feeling. She rubbed her belly, really hoping she could give birth soon before anything else could go wrong.
Watching her rub her belly, Ye Yaodong reassured her, "Don't worry. Hang in there and we'll win!"
"Mm."
Because of what had happened during the day, Ye Yaodong did not go out to sea that night.
Early the next morning, though, he heard the people building the house next door talking animatedly about how more than a dozen gamblers had been arrested in the neighboring village yesterday. They were all from the surrounding villages.
"Good! A bunch of rotten gamblers. They ought to arrest every last one..."
"Best keep them locked up a few more days..."
"I think a few people from our village got arrested too..."
Hearing that eased his mind a little. For gathering to gamble, they would have to spend ten days or a fortnight in detention.
What they lacked now was time. If they could get through this stretch safely, they would have succeeded.
When Lin Xiuqing heard Ye Yaodong say that her older female cousin's husband had been arrested for gambling, she felt relieved. "They should keep him locked up for a few days, right?"
"There's a crackdown going on