None of these yardlong beans looked very good. Every one had insect holes, and even after snapping them open, he could still see white worms wriggling on them.
Ye Yaodong only snapped off the small good sections and threw away the parts with holes.
He had barely done a few when the Old Lady came out, saw him, and took away the basket on the ground, along with the remaining piece of bean in his hand.
"Let me, let me. You're a grown man, you shouldn't be doing this. Go out for a stroll and spend some time with your friends. Come back when it's time to eat."
He looked at his empty hands, then turned his wrist to check the time. It was only ten. "All right, I'll go for a walk and come back for lunch later."
Watching from inside, Lin Xiuqing shook her head. There was always a reason someone ended up spoiled.
With nothing to do, Ye Yaodong stuck both hands in his pockets and wandered around the village. At this hour, the village women were all starting to get busy cooking.
The men, on the other hand, had it easy. They were either playing cards outside their doors or sitting there chatting and bragging. The more industrious ones grabbed handfuls of rice straw and twisted them into rope as they talked.
But everyone was all smiles when they saw him, taking the initiative to greet him and ask why his recent trawl catches had been smaller and full of assorted fish rather than a single kind. Was his dried fish not selling well anymore, and so on...
"It's all right. As long as I can scrape together enough to eat."
Indeed, the catches had been smaller lately, all mixed fish rather than a single variety