He felt an unfamiliar sense of discomfort in his body. He knew why, but he wouldn’t do it without Liu Duo’s permission.
Thunder began to come in with the rain, and this frightened Liu Duo and woke her. She didn’t know what time it was.
She moved a bit closer to Ye Ling, closed her eyes, and drifted back to sleep.
She slept right through until dawn, and when she woke up, Ye Ling was already dressed and combing his hair.
Jet black hair rested on his back, with a few strands in front of him. His skin was already quite fair, and he was quite handsome, so this gave Ye Ling a more androgynous and charming look.
Liu Duo whistled at him, “Morning, Ling.”
Ye Ling looked back when he heard her voice, “Duo Er, you can sleep a little longer.”
Liu Duo was laying on the bed with her hands propping up her chin when she saw his smile. Gleefully, she said, “To marry a fine man is a fair maiden’s goal!”
Ye Ling didn’t understand what that meant. He finished combing his hair and set it into place with a hairpin.
He went to sit by the bed, “Duo Er, sleep a little more. I’ll make breakfast.”
Then he patted her on the head and went out the door with a smile on his face.
She watched him go before asking herself, Why does everyone like to pat me on the head?
Ye Ling barely got downstairs when his brothers arrived there too.
When all of them were washing up by the well, there was a knock on the door.
“Have they come to sell tomatoes so early in the morning?”
Curiously, Ye Ling went ahead and opened it.
It was a villager, with a look of sadness on his face. “I’m selling my farmland. Do you want to buy it?”
“Ah?” Ye Ling was taken aback. So he was not selling tomatoes?
The villager was the one who had wanted to borrow money from Liu Duo when he visited the previous night.
Ye Liu walked to where they were and grinned, “We don’t buy land, just tomatoes.”
They had quite enough farmland and paddy fields already, so they didn’t need more.
The villager went on, sounding quite urgent, “The land is full of tomatoes. When I sell it to you, you’ll get those as well. I really need the money now. Can you help me?”
The four brothers just stared at him. There was nothing wrong with selling land for money, but why had he looked for them? They had no intention of buying land.
“It’s not that we don’t want to help, but we really don’t need more land. Why don’t you ask the chief if he wants any,” Ye Liu reminded him with a friendly smile.
Even if they were to discuss a land sale in private, they’d still have to report to and register at the chief’s place in the end.
The villager knew this too, but he couldn’t wait that long. Reporting to the chief and waiting for a buyer would take days.
“I know. Can you just buy the land? I really need the money to buy medicine for my kid…”
Ye Liu was certain he was the one who had tried to borrow money from Liu Duo.
So he had chosen to sell the land when he couldn’t borrow any more money? What would be next – selling his house?
Ye Liu had ran through a lot of ideas in his mind. Of course he knew the helplessness and anxiety that comes with being poor.
Ye Yang and Ye Mo were reminded of the past, when there were times they hadn’t had enough money to buy medicine for Ye Ling.
Ye Ling, the softie, pitied his situation and wanted to help him. “Yang, Liu, Mo, let’s just buy the land.”
It was indeed a pitiful situation, but Ye Mo said, “Ling, we don’t need any more. We have enough land for farming.”
What would happen after they bought it from him? How would he generate income for his family? They’d have to plant something, or else they’d starve!