Lin Xiuqing looked over in puzzlement and saw Ye Chenghu run to the firewood pile behind her and take one out of the burlap sack.
She poked his arm twice with the twig in her hand. "No sneaking food. Get on with your homework."
"I know. It's for Dad."
Lin Xiuqing eyed his eager behavior suspiciously. When she saw that he really was giving it to Ye Yaodong, she looked away and paid him no further attention.
Ye Chenghu kept sneaking glances at his mother, then looked ingratiatingly at his father.
Ye Yaodong pressed his lips together and said irritably, "Get writing. No slacking off."
"Mm-hmm." Ye Chenghu nodded like a chick pecking grain and breathed a sigh of relief.
Only then did Ye Yaodong notice that what he held was a Bitter Tangerine, not a mandarin.
He asked Lin Xiuqing, who was tending the fire, "Did Dad bring Bitter Tangerines over today? Didn't I say I'd cycle over and pick them up when I had some time in the next couple of days?"
"He said the mandarins sold pretty well yesterday, so he wanted to earn a little more. He's planning to push a cartload of mandarins around every day from now on, hawking them as he goes. He brought these over for us while he was at it today. Anyway, these Bitter Tangerines will keep for ten days or a fortnight without any trouble."
"Dad's pretty good at hawking things through the streets and alleys!"
Lin Xiuqing smiled. "It's all to earn a little more and put food on the table."
"He's getting on in years. Why not leave it to your two older brothers?"
"He can't sit still. When he hurt his foot in that fall last year, we told him to stop working in the fields.