Ye Cai’e turned her head back. “Hey, hey, hey—you two hurry up and hide. The scrap collector is coming!”
Qi Jiahui and Yao Yulan were urged into motion. It took them a moment to react, and they were nearly furious.
Was she calling the two of them scrap?
Qi Jiahui was about to say something, but Yao Yulan pulled him back. She had figured it out—this person’s tongue was far too sharp. Arguing with her would only leave them at a loss.
Seeing their reaction, Ye Cai’e raised an eyebrow. Oh, finally learned to use their brains.
This wasn’t their own home. No one here was going to indulge them.
The line was long, but it moved fairly quickly.
By the time it was Ye Cai’e and Tong Xin’s turn, there were only six buns left.
Yao Yulan had just been holding Qi Jiahui back, but when she heard that, she hurriedly spoke up. “Comrade, we want three!”
The aunt packing the buns glanced at the line. “Line up properly. There are only six left. No need for anyone behind to wait.”
“Big sister, I’ll take four. She’ll take two.”
Ye Cai’e and Tong Xin took the last six buns and headed toward the ox cart.
Even without Yao Yulan’s interference, Ye Cai’e had planned to buy two buns for Grandpa Niu anyway. When she was little, Grandpa Niu had even given the original owner candy.
“None left?” Qi Jiahui hadn’t eaten breakfast. Now that hunger hit, his temper flared and his tone turned impatient.
The aunt didn’t indulge him at all. “What are you doing? Looking for trouble?”
As soon as she finished speaking, two broad-shouldered cooks emerged from the back kitchen and dragged Qi Jiahui out of the state-owned restaurant.
That was that. Not only did the two of them miss out on buns, they couldn’t eat anything else either.
Yao Yulan tugged at him. “Brother Jiahui, didn’t Ye Cai’e buy four? Let’s go ask her to sell us two. If we talk nicely, she definitely will. She can’t eat all of them herself.”
“Mm.”
“What? You gave the buns to him? He’s just driving an ox cart, why give him buns? Are you stupid?” Yao Yulan finally lost her patience. She was hungry too.
“So what? I bought them myself. I can give them to whoever I want. Didn’t you come asking for some too? Grandpa Niu watched me grow up. From the moment we met, you haven’t said a single nice word. You act like you’re missing a screw and still expect everyone to give way to you.”
Just then, the sent-down youths who had gone shopping all returned one after another, each carrying bags of goods.
“Everyone’s here. Back to the village!” Grandpa Niu was delighted. He had said no again and again, but the girl insisted.
He really hadn’t expected to get to eat city buns. They were delicious.
The ox cart had a fixed stopping point. After getting down, everyone walked back on their own.
But Ye Cai’e was different. The cattle shed in Yulin Village was quite close to the Qin family’s place, so she could keep riding the ox cart and walk a shorter distance.
Unfortunately, their timing wasn’t great. It was exactly when the villagers were heading out to work in the afternoon.
Along the way, villagers who knew her came up to greet her, surprised that she had really come back.
Ye Cai’e wasn’t annoyed at all. She smiled and answered everyone. They would all be working together in the future, better to have more friends than more enemies.
As soon as Wang Xiu stepped outside, she saw Ye Cai’e sitting on the ox cart. The girl looked like a completely different person.
She must have enjoyed herself with her biological parents this past year. That Ye family in Shanghai was truly greedy, occupying both daughters, leaving all the work at home to her alone.
Her back had been aching all year from exhaustion.
Her eyes shifted. Now that Ye Cai’e was back, did that mean…
Ye Jiadong was walking a bit slower. Seeing Wang Xiu lingering, he cursed, “What are you doing? You’ve been out here forever. Don’t you want to work anymore?”
“Head of the household, since Cai’e is back, we can’t just raise her for nothing all those years, right?”
They had been married nearly thirty years. They knew what the other was thinking without needing words.
Ye Jiadong took a puff from the last stub of his hand-rolled cigarette and stopped the ox cart as it reached the gate.
“Uncle Niu, you took Cai’e to town? This child is something else, back home and she didn’t even come by to say hello. Even if she’s not my and Xiao Xiu’s biological daughter, we raised her for so many years. During the year she was gone, her mother cried herself to sleep every night.”
Ye Jiadong had gone to school for two years and was considered educated in the village.
Usually he looked down on everyone. Being able to say this much already felt like giving her a way out. In his mind, Ye Cai’e should accept it, take the initiative to reconcile, and ask to move back home.
“It’s Jiandong. The new sent-down youths just arrived, and today the brigade leader took them to town to buy things,” Grandpa Niu replied, not addressing anything else. Cai’e was a sharp girl, he didn’t want to make things worse for her.
Wang Xiu, hearing this, looked at the bulging bag beside Ye Cai’e on the ox cart. It had to be full of good things.
That wretched girl came back from a big city and didn’t even bring gifts for the family.
“Cai’e, what did you buy? You’re really spending money recklessly. Come inside. Your spot has been kept for you.”
There were already many people around, and the ox cart was an obvious focal point. More villagers gathered to watch.
Liu Ping, who never got along with Wang Xiu, mocked her. “Oh my, anyone who didn’t know better would think Cai’e had some huge place waiting for her. If you’re greedy for her things, just say it. Don’t put on this fake act. Disgusting.”
“Liu Ping, this has nothing to do with you. Cai’e is my daughter. Even if you wanted her, you wouldn’t get her!”
Veins bulged on Ye Jiadong’s forehead. This foolish woman, no brains at all. Even if it was the truth, she couldn’t say it out loud now. How would the villagers look at the Ye family?
He stopped his wife before she exploded. “Alright, I know you miss her,” then turned to Ye Cai’e. “Cai’e, since you’re back, come home. The family won’t starve you. The sent-down youth point doesn’t have good conditions.”
This was the first time Ye Cai’e truly saw the Ye couple of the North Wind Brigade. They were just as disgusting as in her memories.
“No need, Uncle. Even if the sent-down youth point has poor conditions, it’s still better than your home. At least I can sleep well. I’ve already found a place to live, so there’s no need for you to worry. Grandpa Niu, let’s go. You’ve worked hard all day.”
With a firm pat, the ox moved forward again, the cart slowly rolling away.
Ye Jiadong could no longer keep up appearances. Ye Cai’e had laid bare the Ye family’s ugliness in public, shattering the false image he had maintained for years.
The murmurs of the neighbors felt like slap after slap to his face.
“I watched Cai’e grow up. That child was pitiful. When she was only this tall, she was already hauling water before dawn,” a middle-aged man said, gesturing just above his knee.