Chapter 244 It’s almost time to go home for dinner (two in one)
Early in the morning of the holiday, Fang Wei packed up with the two girls and prepared to go to the pier to take a boat home.
"The windows in the room must be closed."
"Please bring in all the clothes on the balcony."
"Remember to take the trash down with you."
"Lock the door, lock the door."
"Did you both bring your keys?"
Fang Wei finally locked the door and turned around to ask Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi.
The girls patted their school bags behind them and said, "I brought them!"
"Then let's go~"
After going downstairs and throwing away the garbage, Fang Wei got on his motorcycle and started the engine.
He sat in the front, leaving an empty seat at the back. Liu Zhiyi held his shoulders and sat up first, and then Xu Cailing held Liu Zhiyi's shoulders and sat up.
Liu Zhiyi's pretty face was beaming with smiles. She quietly put her arms around Fang Wei's waist, pressed her pretty body against him tightly, and asked Xu Cailing behind her in a caring manner:
"Cai Ling, is there enough space for you to sit in the back? If not, then I'll sit a little further forward..."
"Enough is enough!"
Liu Zhiyi didn't care about her. Even when Cai Ling shouted that it was enough, she still kept pushing forward.
Now it's her turn to sit in the middle when she goes home, and when she comes back, Cai Ling will be in the middle. How can she not seize the opportunity?
"Put your helmet on."
Fang Wei handed the helmet to them.
After putting on the helmet, her face could no longer be pressed against his back. Liu Zhiyi felt a little sorry, but there was nothing he could do. Safety first!
With the development of puberty, the feeling of this kind of squeezing has become different from that in childhood. Fang Wei only feels as if there is a kitten hiding between his back and the girl, filling the gap in the middle with its softness.
"Are you seated properly?"
"let's go!"
[Thump, thump, thump…]
The motorcycle started, and the three people riding on it slowly drove out of the community, like a family of three returning to their mother's home.
"Uncle, are you hitting the tree?"
"Auntie, you bought so many dishes, are you going to have an extra meal?"
Along the way, Fang Wei greeted the elderly enthusiastically.
The old man and the old woman also stopped and looked at them with a smile: "Is it vacation time? Are you going back to Pineapple Island?"
"correct."
"Drive slowly, young man, and be careful!"
"Haha, definitely."
I rode out of the community and turned to Afang’s Baozi Shop.
Fang Wei did not stop the car, but just put his feet on the ground to support the motorcycle and took out his wallet from his pocket:
"Sister Fang, please give me three meat buns and three vegetable buns."
"Okay, are you guys going to the dock to take the boat home?"
"Yes, if we go back early, we can catch lunch."
"Of course you can. It only takes two hours to get back to your Pineapple Island. It's only seven o'clock now. It's still early!"
Ah Fang moved quickly. She wrapped the picked up buns in a plastic bag and then wrapped them in another layer of plastic bag. She leaned over and handed the buns to Fang Wei.
Fang Wei took the bun and turned to ask Cailing and Zhiyi.
"Do you want to eat now?"
"Eat it later!"
Fang Wei hung the buns on the motorcycle, put the car into gear again, stepped on the accelerator, and continued riding forward leisurely with the two girls on his back.
Seven o'clock was the time when the sun had just risen, illuminating this third- or fourth-tier island city brightly.
It was a little chilly in the morning. Now that October is approaching, it finally feels like autumn has arrived.
During the holidays, Xuanzhu Wharf is particularly busy, with passengers getting on and off the transport boats. Motorcyclists waiting outside the wharf see passengers carrying luggage and swarm up to ask if they want a ride.
Fang Wei and the other two went to buy tickets back to Baitan Pier. The nearest boat would leave in twenty minutes.
Before it was time to get on the boat, Fang Wei pulled over to the side of the motorcycle, took out the steamed buns he had bought, and sat on the motorcycle to eat the buns with the two girls.
"Have Asheng and the others gone home?" Cai Ling asked while eating buns.
"I don't know. I asked him last night if he wanted to go back with me this morning, and he said he had an appointment with Yushan to go shopping together, and he would be back at noon. Has Pepe gone back yet?"
"Pepe took the first boat back early in the morning! He just sent me a text message asking if we've returned yet."
"Hehe, it's best if we three are together. We always come together and go together." Liu Zhiyi took a bite of the bun and smiled sweetly.
It has been a month since the start of school. During the first two weekends, everyone would make plans to go out together, but now that we have gradually gotten used to high school life, we have also developed a different rhythm.
But no matter how things change, the three of them still come together and walk together. It was the same as it was in junior high school, and it is still the same now... Oh, and they even live together!
Think about how there are so many people around them, always moving around, but the three of them are getting closer and better. Liu Zhiyi feels that this is a very happy thing.
A bus stopped at the pier station, and Zhao Yueting got off the bus carrying a schoolbag and a bag of clothes. She was accompanied by her former classmates, and it seemed that they had also made an appointment to go home together.
Fang Wei saw her, and she also saw Fang Wei. They waved and greeted him from a distance, and Fang Wei also gestured back to indicate that he saw her.
They were all from Qingxi County and took the same route back home, but Zhao Yueting lived in the county town, while Fang Wei and the other two lived in Baitan Town. They had taken so many holidays, but today was the first time they met by chance when they went home.
Zhao Yueting first went to buy tickets with her classmates, and then came to Fang Wei.
"What a coincidence! Are the three of you going home together?"
"Yeah, that's your classmate?"
"Yes, we were in the same class before! She is in Class 5 now, the same class as Liu Zhiyi, right?"
She was a girl wearing glasses. Liu Zhiyi knew her and she also knew Liu Zhiyi. However, although they were in the same class, they had never spoken to each other, so it was a little awkward for them to meet each other now.
"I was wondering why I didn't run into you guys when I went home before. It turns out you guys came home so early."
"You live close! It only takes less than an hour to get from the city to your Qingxi Island, but it takes almost two hours to get to our place."
"That's true... I haven't been to your Baitan Town yet!"
"You can go shopping when you have time."
“You can ride a motorcycle too!”
“Yeah, it’s convenient to ride a bike.”
"Do the three of you live close to each other?"
"We're from the same village, so they must be close."
Zhao Yueting was a little envious. Having a companion on the road would always make life less boring.
Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi were no longer as hostile to Zhao Yueting as they were at the beginning. Putting aside her threat level, she was actually a girl with a very good personality. When they occasionally met her at school, even if Fang Wei was not there, Zhao Yueting would smile and nod to greet them. This made Cailing and Zhiyi doubt whether they were that familiar with her...
"Hey, Zhao Yueting, how's your detective agency going?" Xu Cailing, who was sitting on the motorcycle, asked curiously. She just heard her mention it at the beginning, but then there was no further news.
"The teacher disagrees!"
Zhao Yueting said helplessly: "After thinking about it, I decided to forget it. I have to attend classes and participate in competitions, so I don't have much time. I will do it after I am admitted to the Public Security University."
"You want to be a police officer?"
"Yeah, what about you? You're so good at sports, so you'll definitely apply to a sports school in the future, right?"
"Uh, I didn't think that far ahead."
Hearing that Zhao Yueting wanted to apply to a public security university in the future, Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi felt more reassured about her, and they talked more during casual chats like this.
The time was almost up, and following the reminder from the loudspeaker, everyone started checking their tickets and boarding the ship.
Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi got off the motorcycle, and Fang Wei drove the motorcycle smoothly onto the deck and parked it in the designated position.
"You ride well!"
Zhao Yueting at the side praised him, and curiously came up to pat his seat and touch his handlebars, then sat in the driving seat herself. Unfortunately, her legs were not long enough and the motorcycle was heavy, so she had difficulty supporting herself.
"Do you know how to ride? Be careful not to fall."
"Haha, I'm just having fun."
After playing for a while, Zhao Yueting got out of the car, the connecting plate over there was folded up, and the boat was almost ready to set sail.
"Aren't you going to sit in the cabin?"
"No, I'm going outside to get some fresh air. It's too stuffy inside."
"Well, Xiaoqin, let's go sit inside."
Seeing that Fang Wei and the other two did not go to the cabin, Zhao Yueting went inside with the girls who were traveling with her.
The ship sailed.
Fang Wei and the other two leaned back on the railing, feeling the sea breeze, looking at the vast ocean, and started chatting.
"Have you called Sister Caiwei to ask? How many days will she have for the National Day holiday? Will she be back today?" Fang Wei asked.
"Yes! She didn't come back for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so she will definitely come back for the National Day! She said she will have a five-day holiday!"
Cai Ling thought for a moment and said, "She should have taken the earliest boat this morning, so she would probably be back home by eleven o'clock."
Now Cai Ling has been to Shanghai herself and taken the ferry from Baitan to Shanghai, so she has a good idea of how much time it takes on the road.
"Did Sister Susu say she would be back on the 5th?" Liu Zhiyi asked after thinking for a while.
"Yeah, didn't she say the other day that we would go to the city on the 5th to see how the hotel is doing? So should we go back to the city together early on the 5th?"
"Of course, it's okay to go back early or late. If Sister Susu wants to come, we will go back early to see her." Liu Zhiyi nodded.
Xu Cailing thought about it, snapped her fingers and said, "How about this! It's rare for Sister Susu to come back, why don't we tell our classmates and organize a class reunion together! We can even go for a barbecue!"
"I think it's a good idea too." Liu Zhiyi, who has never liked crowds, also nodded. It has been a month since the start of school. She still misses her former classmates in Class 2 very much and wants to see how everyone is doing in the new school.
"If we were to have a party in the city, I'm afraid that not everyone would be able to make it. Everyone is probably going home on holiday now, and it's quite far to go there. And as for my sister, if there's a party, she would definitely want to come, but I don't know if there's any problem with her schedule."
"Then why not give Sister Susu a call first! It's still early anyway, so it's not too late to decide now."
"Let me ask."
Fang Wei took out his cell phone, glanced at the screen, and put it back into his pocket.
"Why don't you fight?"
"There's no signal! I'll ask again when I get back."
"..."
Since he had nothing to do anyway, Fang Wei took out paper and pen from his schoolbag, used the girls leaning on the railing, watching the sea and enjoying the sea breeze as models, sat cross-legged on the deck, and started to draw them.
"Huh! Hearing that Sister Susu is coming, you immediately started cramming, right? You're only thinking of practicing painting now?"
"…I usually practice, too."
"Then show me what you drew."
"No. Stand still or I'll draw you crookedly."
“Hahaha, it feels like the Titanic!”
So the two girls posed, Liu Zhiyi stood in front with her arms open, but there were more than three of them on the deck, and this action attracted other people to look over. The girl was shy, so she changed positions with Cailing. Cailing stood in front facing the wind with her arms open, while Liu Zhiyi hugged her waist from behind and put his head on her shoulder close and intimately.
Fang Wei sat cross-legged with drawing paper and pen, quickly depicting the scene in front of him.
I was busy with study on weekdays, so I neglected a lot of time from the one-month painting course I learned during the summer vacation. But fortunately, I picked it up and practiced occasionally, and I didn’t make any progress, but I didn’t regress either.
With some effort, he managed to sketch out the figures of the girls on the paper.
When he was concentrating on painting like this, the boring time on the journey passed quickly. Fang Wei didn't even notice when Zhao Yueting was standing behind him.
"…Your drawings are really good! Aren't you really versatile?!"
Zhao Yueting couldn't help but sigh that perhaps Fang Wei's paintings were still far behind those of professional art students, but as an ordinary student, his paintings were considered presentable.
He is also very good at capturing the key points in the picture, such as the fluttering hair of the two girls in the sea breeze.
I don't know if he just drew those few strokes randomly or did it on purpose, but the hair looks even freer and more unrestrained.
Fang Wei is not very good at depicting facial features and clothing details, so he simply leaves them blank and uses thick strokes instead. This "semi-finished product" is actually his finished product, while others think that he is just "drawing casually and not finishing it yet", and he feels very cool about it.
"Ahem...so so-so."
With someone staring at him while he was painting, Fang Wei found it difficult to concentrate, so he simply stopped writing and looked up at her.
"Are you getting off the boat?"
"Yes, we'll be arriving in Hong Kong soon. If you don't have any plans for your vacation, you can come to the island to play with me. I heard there's an escape room there!"
"Okay, if you're free to go, I'll contact you in advance." "Let's go, bye!"
The ferry docked at Qingxi Pier. Zhao Yueting and her classmates followed the arriving passengers to get off the boat, while new passengers also boarded the boat.
The girls, who had been models for half a day, felt sore in their backs and ran up to pick up Fang Wei's paintings.
"Interesting! Zhiyi, do you want it? If not, give it to me?"
"I-I want it!"
"…What should I do? There's only one."
"Easy. They're all mine!"
Fang Wei put away his brush and took back the paintings from the girls' hands.
I drew it. You asked for my opinion, so let’s share it!
……
At 9:20 in the morning, the sun gradually became warmer and fell on the sea in the harbor, making the waves sparkle.
The transport boat docked steadily at Baitan Wharf. After nearly two hours of sailing, it finally arrived at the destination.
"We're home~ We're almost home~~"
Although they usually say it doesn’t matter whether they go home or not, the girls are still very happy every time they come back.
After all, this is the place where I was born and raised. The feeling when I set foot on this land is different from any other place outside.
Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi got off the boat early and waited on the side. Fang Wei followed behind, driving a motorcycle and slowly getting off the boat along with the other vehicles.
"Beauty, would you like to take a motorcycle? Where are you going?"
Fang Wei imitated the motorcyclist and stopped his bike in front of the two girls.
The girls giggled, held his shoulders and sat in the back seat of the car, and pointed in the direction of the other side of Baitan Bridge: "Go to Donghua Village (Shayang Village)!"
"Five dollars, please."
"You're ripping us off! How can it be so expensive? We want to ride a pirate car! Let's go!"
"Don't pinch me, don't pinch me...just go!"
In small towns, no one wears a helmet when riding a bike, and they let their hair flutter in the wind.
Following the road they had ridden for three years, Fang Wei was driving on the country road home with Cai Ling Zhiyi.
After passing the Baitan Bridge, you can see countless white floats floating on the sea in the distance from the high bridge. That is the mussel farming area.
The largest breeding area belongs to Fang Wei’s family. In April and May of this year, it officially reached one thousand acres.
After getting off the bridge, we rode along the country road around the sea for a while and arrived at Pineapple Pier. The pier is connected to the small market on the island. It is very lively at this time in the morning, with many island residents coming to the market to buy vegetables.
Liu Zhiyi had sharp eyes and immediately spotted the grandfather who was buying meat at the pork stall while leaning on a 28-inch bicycle.
Last night, his lovely granddaughter called him and said that she would be back home this morning. How could the old man not happily add some dishes for her? He planned to buy some meat bones to make a soup, and some ribs and a chicken, as he was always worried that she didn't eat well at school.
When Liu Liangxun was carefully picking the meat, he suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind him.
"Grandpa——"
The old man turned around and looked, and it was his own lovely granddaughter!
The moment he saw his granddaughter, a kind and warm smile bloomed on this old face.
"Zhiyi? You're back so soon?"
Fang Wei rode over on his motorcycle and stopped beside the old man.
"Uncle!"
"Okay! Ah Wei, Cai Ling, have you had breakfast?"
"Uncle, we just came back after we ate! Are you buying groceries?"
"Yes, I thought of Zhiyi coming back, so I made her some soup. She can't have it at school. I thought you guys wouldn't be back until ten o'clock!"
"Hahaha, I got there a little early today, so I bought a ticket for an earlier ferry."
"That's perfect. Let's go to my great uncle's house for lunch. I bought a lot of food, and we can't finish it all. Ah Wei Cai Ling, come over and eat later!"
"Uncle, no need! Let's do it another day! I think the rice has already been cooked at home!"
"You're just fooling uncle. Who cooks so early?"
Fang Wei Cailing couldn't persuade Uncle Liu, so she had to agree to go eat again tomorrow.
Liu Zhiyi, who was sitting on a motorcycle, got off the vehicle with his schoolbag still on his back, but he had already helped take the vegetables that his grandfather had bought.
"Zhiyi, you go home and have a rest first. Grandpa will go back after buying groceries. I'm still riding my bike..."
"It's okay! Let's go back together later."
"Haha, it's up to you then."
"Fang Wei Cailing, I'm going to go shopping with Grandpa, you guys go back first."
"Okay. Uncle, let's go first!"
"Remember to come over for lunch tomorrow!"
"Haha, I get it, uncle!"
Fang Wei and Cai Ling left on their motorcycles first.
Liu Zhiyi accompanied his grandfather to buy vegetables in the market. After buying vegetables, the grandfather and grandson did not ride the bicycle. Uncle Liu pushed the bicycle and his granddaughter followed him with a schoolbag on her back. The grandfather and grandson walked along the rural road home, talking as they walked. The handlebars of the 28-inch bicycle were full of vegetables...
……
[Thump, thump, thump…]
The motorcycle slowly drove into Donghua Village. Xiaoting, who is in fourth grade this year, was playing glass beads under a big lychee tree with her playmates from the same village.
As the little girl snapped her fingers, there was a crisp sound, and her colored glass bead hit the fat boy's solid-colored glass bead and went into the hole perfectly.
"Hahaha! You lost!"
"Here you go, here you go... Hey, Brother Wei? Sister Cai Ling?"
"It really is!"
Xiaoting seized a trophy, dusted off her hands, stood up, and waved to the oncoming motorcycle.
"Brother Awei! Sister Cailing! Are you back?"
"Yes! Xiaoting, what are you playing?"
"Playing with glass beads! Sister Cailing, I used the one you gave me and won a lot!"
"so smart?!"
I still remember when I was in junior high school, Xiaoting and her classmates were in the first grade. They were the first batch of Donghua Village students who did not study in Donghua Primary School but went to the primary school in the town.
Now, in the blink of an eye, she is in high school and Xiaoting is in the fourth grade. She is playing the marble game that she and Fang Wei had not played for a long time.
"Sister Cailing, are you also good at playing glass beads?"
"Of course! My sister still has a drawer of glass beads at home! I won them all back then!"
Fang Wei: “…”
Who was it that lost all the beads at school, cried and shook his hand, asking him to help win them back?
And... that drawer of your glass beads, I won them all, right?!
Xiao Ting didn't know the inside story. After hearing Xu Cailing's bragging, her eyes lit up: "Oh! Sister Cailing is so amazing! I want to take you as my teacher!"
The wind blew, as if amused by the children's naivety. The lychee trees rustled, blocking the scorching sunlight and casting a cool feeling on them.
……
After returning home, Fang Wei stopped the car at the door of his house. Xu Cailing got out of his car, swung her schoolbag, gently pushed open the yard door, and tiptoed into the house. After a while, the sound of her talking to Aunt Juan was heard.
"Mom! I'm back!"
"Hey! You scared me! How come you walk silently, girl?!"
“Hahahaha…surprised or not?”
"Surprise you!"
"Where is my dad?"
"Inside the factory."
"Then I won't go looking for him, or he will definitely ask me to open a shell again!"
"Did your sister tell you what time she got home?"
"It will definitely be eleven at the earliest. I'll pick her up then!"
The cat that was sleeping soundly on the wall also woke up.
When July saw that it was Fang Wei who came back, he ran steadily and quickly from the narrow wall and jumped onto the motorcycle.
“Meow wow——”
"Do you miss daddy? Hehe."
Fang Wei drove the car into the yard, picked up the fat cat, and rubbed its big head hard.
The door to the living room was not closed. Tian Xilan was at home. When she heard the noise, she came out from the kitchen.
"mom!"
"You're back. Who is it that comes home so early today?"
"We're already on an early boat! What delicious food are you going to make?"
"Your dad said you like to eat pig's trotters. I'm singeing the hair now. I'll braise it later. Do you want peanuts or soybeans?"
"Soybeans! They're more fragrant!"
During the first month of school, Fang Wei came home every week. Even so, Tian Xilan was still very happy when she saw this bad boy. Every time Fang Wei came home like this, the old mother would stare at him for a while.
"Why are you so much darker than when you came back last week?"
"...Military training, mom! Didn't I tell you before that there is no way you won't get tanned during military training?"
"Ah? Your school really trains you? I thought it was a joke! Is it like the training in the army?"
"That's not true..."
After throwing his schoolbag into the room, Fang Wei started to search the house for food like a Japanese devil who had entered the village.
"…You didn't have breakfast! You're making a mess!"
"Hey, I'm hungry when I get home."
Fang Wei peeled a banana and stood at the kitchen door watching his mother busying herself. Tian Xilan didn't need him to help... If he stayed at home for two more days, she would definitely see that he was so idle and let him peel ginger and garlic.
"Where's my dad? At the farm?"
"Yes, I'm watching the workers planting the seedlings."
"Then I'll go take a look too."
"…Remember to check the time! It's almost time to call your dad back for dinner! Don't treat him like a master and have him call you over and over again for dinner!"
"understood--!"
Fang Wei smiled, took out his motorcycle keys, started the engine, and rode the motorcycle to the farm.
After three years, mussel farming has become a local specialty industry on Pineapple Island, and has also become the preferred direction for many households on the island to transform from fishing to farming.
Thanks to the success of mussel farming, the living conditions of many families have improved. Even if they do not have the capital to engage in farming, they can work in other people's farms and have no worries about work all year round.
As one of the first farmers to reap the benefits, Fang Weijia’s current mussel farming scale is on Pineapple Island... perhaps it is currently ranked among the top in the entire Qingxi County, reaching one thousand acres, making him a truly large farmer.
Unlike pure farming that relies on the weather, the Fang family not only has a farming scale of up to one thousand acres, but also engages in mussel seedling cultivation in the upstream of the industry.
Then during the summer vacation, at Fang Wei's suggestion, Fang Xianfeng also took over a feed processing factory in the town, specializing in the supply of feed for marine aquaculture.
We have also started to initially involve downstream industries. Last month, we cooperated with Cailing's family and added six more production lines for her family, specializing in deep-processed mussel foods. Compared with Cailing's previous independent operations, the output has doubled after the cooperation, and we have also signed two long-term distributors.
It can be said that the family business is now booming. No wonder my father doesn't care about the little money he collects from rent on weekdays...
I still remember when I first started breeding, it was also during the National Day when I planted the seedlings. At that time, the whole family stayed up all night in the yard to wrap ropes and tie floats. Then when it was time to plant the seedlings, everyone in the family, young and old, came out to help.
Now he doesn't have to do it himself. When encountering busy days like planting seedlings or harvesting, Fang Xianfeng will recruit a large number of workers to help. On weekdays, "Xianfeng Mussel Industry Development Co., Ltd." also has a fixed staff of more than ten employees, including those in charge of sales, finance, and several technicians. Gradually, it has become a system.
It turns out that it was right to listen to my son and learn more about business management!
Fang Xianfeng is now smoking leisurely, standing next to the farm and watching the workers busy at work. Everything seems to be in order.
Ta-da! A motorcycle stopped beside him.
"Awei? Are you back? Look at the great kingdom your father has built for you!"
"..."
Fang Wei found it funny to see the old man looking so arrogant:
"Okay, it's almost time to go home for dinner!"
(End of this chapter)
