Having an elder at home was like having a treasure. Lately, Lin Xiuqing had been working late into the night, so she had also been getting up late in the morning. It was nearly mealtime when the sound of voices finally woke her.
Although the Old Lady had also stayed busy late into the night, older people needed less sleep. As always, she got up at first light every day to cook rice porridge, feed the chickens and ducks, and water the vegetable patch. Her routine never changed, and she never missed a day.
She really did ease A Qing's burden considerably and save her a great deal of trouble.
Once they finished eating, each of them took a burlap sack to gather the dried squid and dried yellowtail scad. After gathering them, they hoisted them onto the handcart and hauled them home, load after load.
By the time the sun was high in the sky and they were weighing the goods outside their door, they saw several Village Committee officials leading the way, with a few villagers walking alongside them. They were heading toward their houses and happened to pass right by their door.
"Where are you off to, Secretary Chen? Leading all these people on an inspection?"
"No, some villagers want to build houses, and they'd like to build around here too. They've already picked out the land, so we're bringing people over to measure it."
"Oh."
"Everyone says the feng shui here is good. Every household living here has a trawl net fishing boat, so they want to move over and see if they can improve their own feng shui and get some good luck."
"All right. People really do spread these things around."
Mother Ye said in her booming voice, "Whose family is coming over here