The neighboring households were all right beside Ye Yaodong's home, separated by only a courtyard wall and two vegetable plots.
They had also leveled a large patch of ground outside their doors with leftover gravel and mortar. On rainy days, there would be no puddles and mud everywhere, and they would not track yellow, muddy footprints all through their houses.
Zhou Da was still eating, so Ye Yaodong sat on the wooden bench outside his door to wait.
He had barely sat down when the others came over, and Zhou Da came out too. They simply sat outside and started chatting.
In such hot weather, sitting outside in the sea breeze was quite comfortable. Besides, the nights were particularly cool after the typhoon, and the salty sea breeze was something unique to the coast.
"What do you all think? Want to go take a look in the city?" Zhou Da asked as soon as he came out.
Seeing everyone exchange looks and continue to hesitate, Ye Yaodong said, "How about a show of hands from anyone who plans to go? If you're not going, or haven't decided yet, just stay quiet for now."
Zhou Da raised his hand. "Sure. I want to go, but if there aren't enough people, forget it."
Ye Yaodong raised his hand too. "Same here. We can think of it as a chance to see more of the world. After all, I've never been beyond the county town in my whole life."
The others hesitated, then three more hands went up one after another. Only two people were still undecided: the Lan brothers.
Six households lived beside him: the two Lan brothers and the four Zhou brothers.
"If you two aren't planning to go, we've got five people anyway. We'll go straight to the secretary's house