Father and daughter slunk away, looking just like weasels that had failed to steal a chicken.
Seeing his mother's back straighten again, Wei Donglai hurried to flatter her.
"Mom, you're the best!"
Li Yue'e rolled her eyes. "Cut out the rainbow farts."
As she spoke, she shut the front gate.
Wei Donglai was puzzled. "Mom, why are you shutting the gate in broad daylight?"
"No reason. I'm afraid you'll run off. You didn't come home all night. Did you go gambling again?"
"I got drunk last night. I wasn't gambling."
"You still dare to argue? Guoqing, give this little bastard a proper whipping."
The belt in Wei Guoqing's hand was already thirsting for action, itching to whirl through a full three hundred and sixty degrees like a giant firework.
"Mom, weren't you just defending me?"
"That was to save your face in front of outsiders. Now it's just your dad and me. If I don't give you a whipping, I won't have an appetite today."
"Ow, Mom, save me! I was wrong!"
"You weren't wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong to spoil you so much before."
"Dad, go easy on me."
"Not a chance. I've put up with you for a long time."
"Dad, if you keep whipping me, my pants are going to fall down and show my butt!"
"Even if your butt's hanging out, I'm still whipping you. Nobody's watching anyway. I'll just consider it an airing."
Half an hour later, the front gate stood open. Wei Guoqing hitched up his waistband and took a deep drag on his cigarette, feeling indescribably comfortable.
"Yue'e, it's rare that I'm not going out to sea today. How about making a couple of hearty dishes for lunch so I can have a drink?"
"How about a bowl of brick-and-tile soup and some stir-fried nails and screws? Hearty enough for you?"
Wei Guoqing looked sheepish and decided he'd better keep his mouth shut.
"Since you're free today, go over to the village chief's house and ask about the job at the meatpacking plant. Our son fools around like this all day. When will he ever get a wife?"
Wei Donglai, his face black and blue from the beating, voiced a quiet protest.
"Mom, I'm not going to the meatpacking plant."
"How about going off to be reincarnated?"
"Mom, I'm serious. I dreamed of Mazu last night. I want to go fishing at sea."
"You're a born wave, one wave after another. You might as well go wave yourself to death. And you dreamed of Mazu? You're burning newspaper at a grave-trying to fool the ghosts? Even if smoke rose from our ancestral graves, you wouldn't have that kind of blessing. If your skin's itching, I'll have your dad give you another whipping."
His protest having failed, Wei Donglai resigned himself to it somewhat.
Wei Guoqing flicked the ash from his cigarette. "Yue'e, give me some money so I can buy something to take over."
Li Yue'e took out ten yuan and handed it to him. "Don't stand around chatting for no reason. Come back early."
"Got it."
Watching Wei Guoqing leave, Wei Donglai sidled up to Li Yue'e with a pitiful look. "Mom, please don't be angry anymore. I promise I won't go out fooling around again."
"I've heard that so often my ears have grown calluses."
"I'm serious this time. I swear to heaven..."
"Don't make things hard on heaven."
"Mom, am I really your son?"
"No. The village's big yellow dog carried you here in its mouth. You even smelled of shit when you arrived."
"Is that any way to talk about your son?"
"All right, you've got nothing better to do all day, but don't bother me. I still have work to do."
"What work? I'll do it."
"Then take that basin of small mixed fish in the kitchen outside to dry."
Wei Donglai actually trotted into the kitchen, carried out the basin of fish, and spread them one by one on a winnowing tray to dry.
Li Yue'e couldn't help looking up at the sun.
It had risen in the east, all right.
But there was still a pile of laundry to wash, and she couldn't be bothered to stand there watching him, so she got up and headed for the backyard.
After laying out the fish, Wei Donglai felt a little hungry and ducked back into the kitchen.
Before long, the aroma of noodles wafted from the kitchen, and Wei Donglai carried a bowl to the courtyard gate and began slurping.
Though the broth had been made with only a few small fish, it was indescribably fresh and sweet.
After a bowlful, his hollow stomach had something in it, and he felt indescribably comfortable.
After tidying up the kitchen, Wei Donglai saw several fishing nets lying in the courtyard. He fetched a small stool, sat down, and began sorting one out, using a netting shuttle to mend the damaged spots.
After the fishing brigade disbanded, his father had bought a secondhand trawler. He usually went fishing with his two older sons. Though their income wasn't very stable, they got by well enough.
Fishing nets suffered considerable wear and tear aboard a fishing boat. When they encountered big fish or fierce species in particular, the nets would be damaged especially quickly.
So it was common in fishing villages for men to go out to sea while women stayed home and mended nets.
Wei Donglai currently had nothing to do at home. Judging by his parents' behavior just now, he reckoned it would be hard to convince them anytime soon that he had changed for the better.
He wasn't in a hurry. He had been reborn, after all, and had a long life ahead of him. Starting bit by bit with the little things around him, sooner or later he would show his family how he had changed.
When Li Yue'e came out after washing the clothes and saw Wei Donglai sitting in the courtyard mending a net, she was stunned.
Had her son really changed? Or had he been shaken by what happened with He Lijuan?
Though her son was usually a little unreliable, he had genuinely cared for He Lijuan.
Given his personality, at this time of day he would usually be either sleeping soundly in bed or out fooling around. Though he had made a promise just now, Li Yue'e hadn't taken it seriously.
Besides, she hadn't seen him mend a net in years. The only explanation Li Yue'e could think of for his unusual behavior today was that the breakup had hit him hard and left him feeling miserable.
"Son, don't be sad about He Lijuan. There are plenty of good girls in the world. Mom will help you find a good one when the time comes."
"Mom, I'm not sad. There's no hurry to find a girlfriend for now. I'll talk about it after I've become a ten-thousand-yuan household."
Hearing that, Li Yue'e became even more certain that her son had been shaken.
He wasn't even in a hurry about romance anymore, and now he was talking about becoming a ten-thousand-yuan household. Was that something he should be thinking about? What nonsense was he spouting?
She didn't ask for Wei Donglai to become rich and powerful. As long as he found a wife and had a child as soon as possible and lived a good, stable life, that would be enough. While she was still able to get around, she could lend a hand with the child too.
"Son, we can't aim too high and chase after things we shouldn't. Put becoming a ten-thousand-yuan household aside for now. You're already twenty, and time waits for no one. Get married in one year and have a child in two. We need to be clear about that goal."
"Mom, you don't believe in me?"
"It's not that Mom doesn't believe in you. Mom's afraid our ancestors can't bear the weight of that grand ambition of yours."
Every word his mother said stabbed him in the heart. Wei Donglai felt that if this went on, no matter how strong he was inside, sooner or later he would be poked full of holes like a sieve.
"Wouldn't it be nice to get a proper job at the meatpacking plant, find a wife, and start a family?"
"I'm not going. What's so good about that lousy job?"
As someone who had been reborn, Wei Donglai really looked down on the job at the meatpacking plant and didn't want to waste his time there.
Seeing that her son wouldn't listen, Li Yue'e went straight for him. "You're a toad sitting on a rocket-you think you're going to fly up to heaven, is that it?"
"Mom, don't pull my ear. That hurts."
"Do you still want to become a ten-thousand-yuan household?"
"No."
"Can you find yourself a wife?"
"Yes."
"Wouldn't everything have been fine if you'd said so earlier? I think you were just asking for a beating."
Wei Donglai looked at her resentfully, but he had no choice but to submit to his mother's force.
Li Yue'e felt that with this son of hers, it was best to use force whenever possible. He wouldn't listen to kind words, but one beating brought him right to his senses.
She decided to buy another belt tomorrow, so his father's pants wouldn't keep slipping down and exposing his butt when he whipped him. It really was rather indecent.