One Livestream

Over an hour later, Ye Huan looked into the bucket. Sure enough, he had made an unexpected haul: seven or eight wild crucian carp weighing seven or eight liang each, three bream weighing just over a jin each, and a bighead carp weighing a little over three jin. Not bad at all.

"Jingjing, how about having fishies at Uncle's house tonight?" As Ye Huan packed up, he finally remembered that his phone was still livestreaming. He walked over and took it down. "Holy shit, over three hundred people? Seriously?"

That one remark cracked up the viewers in the livestream. "This idiot finally remembered his phone."

"Streamer, you left a carton of Chunghwa cigarettes with me. Give me your address and I'll bring it over."

"Adoptive Father, I vaguely remember living here when I was little, before human traffickers took me away. Please have mercy and tell me where this is, okay?"

Ye Huan could not stop laughing at the viewers' comments either.

"My place is really remote, and the roads aren't easy to travel either. It's your typical mountain village, deep in the mountains of Sichuan and Guizhou."

"I'm in Chengdu. That's not far. Give me the address and I'll come hang out." One of the anglers watching did not live far away.

"You've seen it yourselves. There aren't any monsters here to catch; it's just for fun. When I get a chance later, I'll arrange a time. Anyone who wants to come is more than welcome. It's not very convenient right now. I haven't been back long myself, and the house is being renovated," Ye Huan said with a smile.

His earlier videos showed all of this, including plenty he had filmed deep in the mountains. Some viewers had seen them and knew the situation.

"All right, that's it for today. Once everything's ready, I'll definitely arrange for everyone to come visit. Bye!" After ending the livestream, Ye Huan carried the bucket in one hand and held Jingjing with the other as he headed home.

It was after three in the afternoon, right in the heat of the day. He hurried a few steps and arrived home, just in time to see his mother and Sister-in-law Bai talking in a shady spot in the courtyard.

"Hello, Grandma! Mommy, Uncle took me fishing and we caught lots of fishies. Uncle said I could keep him company and eat fishies with him tonight. Can I?" Jingjing ran into her mother's arms.

Bai Jie gave Ye Huan a grateful look and held Jingjing as she said, "Of course. Did you listen to Uncle, Jingjing?"

"Yes! Jingjing was really good. Ask Uncle if you don't believe me." Jingjing proudly raised her head and looked at Uncle, her eyes shining.

"That's right. Jingjing was very good. We had a great time today. Shall we go again tomorrow?" Ye Huan asked with a smile.

Jingjing smiled too, nodding eagerly. "Yes, yes! Tomorrow we'll catch lots and lots of fishies again."

Bai Jie made dinner. As Ye Huan ate, he kept nodding. "Sister-in-law, you're a great cook. You're as good as the chefs in the city."

"I get by. I've been cooking at home since I was little. I don't know how to do anything else," Bai Jie said.

Ye Huan nodded. Everyone in the village knew Bai Jie's story. She came from Bai Family Hollow Village in Ruyi County, on the other side of the mountain. She had stopped going to school at eight and stayed home to raise pigs, chickens, and ducks and work the fields. Her parents favored boys over girls too. She had a younger brother and a younger sister.

She had grown up enduring hardship. Later, she met Ye An. His parents had died young, leaving him little money or property. To marry Bai Jie, he had gone into the deep mountains alone, hunted down a leopard, and sold it for a good price. Only then had he married her.

After Ye An died, Bai Jie's parents wanted her to remarry a lame man in his forties in the county town, simply because he was willing to pay a bride price of fifty thousand yuan.

Bai Jie's parents had been worrying about having no money to build their son a new house and find him a wife. The moment they heard about the fifty thousand yuan, they came looking for their daughter. Bai Jie's temper erupted at once. She drove her parents away with blows and curses and severed her family ties with them.

Later, her younger brother came in person too, kneeling and begging Bai Jie to marry that lame man because he needed the fifty thousand yuan. Bai Jie nearly hacked him to death with a knife. Only then did that family abandon the idea, and those family ties were severed completely.

Never mind outsiders-even in Ye Huan's village, quite a few people had initially wanted to take advantage of Bai Jie after her husband died. After all, she had both the looks and the figure. It was only that she ate poorly and dressed poorly, leaving her complexion looking a little unhealthy.

Ye Huan knew of one man in the village who still walked with a slight limp. He had gotten drunk late one night and tried to climb over the wall into Bai Jie's house, only for her to break his leg with a carrying pole.

Later, when Ye Huan's uncle, the village chief, found out, he nearly opened the ancestral hall to expel the man from the clan. The man's parents knelt outside Bai Jie's door, crying for a whole day and night, before the matter was finally put to rest.

After that, the villagers never dared to act recklessly again. Even those who worked away from home gave Bai Jie a wide berth when they returned for the holidays. If they could not afford to provoke her, they could at least stay out of her way.

To be honest, Ye Huan's village was a fairly decent one by rural standards. Most of its residents shared the same surname, with only a handful of households having other surnames, which made it easy to manage.

Besides, in a village deep in the mountains like this, the village chief's authority was boundless, and he had seniority within the clan as well. Refuse to listen? You could try.

Although a few households did not behave properly, they still did not dare to act recklessly. Take Bai Jie's husband's grandparents, mentioned earlier. Although they dared to give the money to their younger grandson, they did not dare to bully Bai Jie and her daughter any further. If they did, the village chief would step in.

Previously, the village chief had spoken to Eighth Uncle on behalf of the village, telling them to give Bai Jie a share of the money. They could not let the youngest one take it all. In the end, Bai Jie herself had refused it. She said that all she wanted was for her and Jingjing to have nothing more to do with their family from then on.

With that, the village chief said no more, and the matter ended there. Bai Jie's ties with the elderly couple and her former younger brother-in-law's family were cut clean. She was now registered as a separate household in the village, a household of her own under the Bai surname.

The crucial thing was that the current village chief, Ye Huan's uncle, was a decent man. He wholeheartedly wanted to lead everyone toward a better life and bring back the young people working elsewhere. That was why he had asked Ye Huan for this opportunity to cooperate.

As for whether it would work, he did not know either. But he could never be content without giving it a shot. When he heard that Ye Huan sold vegetables for thirty yuan a jin, he made up his mind. This was their best opportunity.

"Jingjing, have some meat." Seeing Jingjing hold her spoon back, not daring to take any food, while Bai Jie only gave her some vegetables, Ye Huan's heart ached.

He placed a chicken drumstick in Jingjing's bowl, then picked up a piece of venison stewed until it was meltingly tender and put that in too. "Eat."

"Okay! Thank you, Uncle." Jingjing glanced at her mother, then happily began eating the meat. "It's yummy! Uncle, you eat too."

"Yes, Jingjing, eat plenty of meat and grow up pretty. Uncle will take you out to play every day," Ye Huan said with a smile. This was more like it. Still, with the child present, he did not say anything to Sister-in-law Bai and simply showed it through his actions.

Bai Jie's eyes reddened. Ye Huan's mother also picked up a large piece of meat and placed it in her bowl. "You eat too. Things will get better."

"Yes. Thank you, Auntie." Bai Jie nodded and took big bites of meat.