In fact, Zhuying had noticed something was wrong yesterday. In the past, when there was plenty of rice, no one would have cared if a few handfuls were taken away. But now, there were only two bags of rice left at Lin Changfa's house, and with each meal they had less, Zhuying and Niu Qin were responsible for cooking. They looked at the rice and flour like the apples of their eyes every day.

Lately, everyone's porridge has been bland. Often, when they're on the road, they're hungry, their stomachs turning sour and their legs feeling weak before they've even covered ten miles. To prevent a repeat of what happened to Lin Zicheng, even if the porridge isn't thick enough, they'll throw in some pickled meat to make it look like meat.

Zhuying thought that the rice was stolen at night, but she was not sure, so she simply put a palm-sized leaf in the grain bag and spread it on top of the grain. This way, if someone really came to steal in the dark, they would not notice the existence of the leaf. If he really stole, the leaf would definitely not remain in the same shape she placed it last night.

As a result, when they woke up this morning, Zhuying and Niuqin, the two sisters-in-law, couldn't wait to open the grain bag and took a look. They found leaves somewhere and a small dent in the bag. They were immediately frightened and hurriedly told their father-in-law and husband about the matter.

Lin Changfa, Lin Zijun and the other two brothers pondered for a moment, looked at Yu Lanhua who was sleeping soundly beside them, and whispered, "Don't make a sound for now."

Yu Lanhua has been in a bad mood these days. She steals food from her own home in the middle of the night and then secretly sends it to her parents' home. She is exhausted and is the last one to get up every day.

When traveling during the day, she would take a short break and then lean on the cart to continue traveling. She really had to thank Lin Pingmao's family. His big blue ox died, and most things had to be pulled by manpower. Fortunately, their family had many strong laborers. Lin Changtai, Lin Changshou, Lin Ziming, Lin Ziren, Chen Mei and Chen Zhi all took turns pulling the cart, which reduced the speed of traveling a lot. The wheels of the cart were always broken, so she had to get off the car to repair them from time to time.

Yu Lanhua was dozing off while walking, and looked back from time to time, wondering if the Yu family had caught up with her. Little did she know that her actions were seen by Lin Changfa and others who were silently paying attention to her behavior.

During the night shift, Lin Zikun was on guard duty. He sat in the best position, taking in the entire camp. If anyone turned over, he would be able to glance over.

Yu Lanhua was sleeping on the ground, extremely anxious. Her brothers and nephews from her mother's side had been traveling all day and hadn't eaten yet!

Thinking of this, she tossed and turned in bed, constantly thinking of a solution.

At this time, Lin Changfa, who was lying next to her, stood up, which scared Yu Lanhua. She hurriedly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

Feeling the person next to her getting up, Yu Lanhua secretly opened one eye and saw him walking to Zikun and saying something. His figure happened to block Zikun's sight, so he could not see in her direction.

She carefully glanced at her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren sleeping around her to confirm that there was no sign of waking up, especially Lin Zi who was snoring so loudly that he drowned out the voices of Lin Changfa and Zikun.

No one knew where she got the courage from, but she jumped up, walked to the cart, carefully moved the things away, and skillfully put her hands into the grain bag to start stealing rice.

The atmosphere was so tense that she could hear her own heartbeat, and beads of sweat were dripping down her forehead. She swallowed hard, feeling a foreign object in her hand. Looking down, she saw a leaf had slipped in. She dropped it to the ground and continued grabbing until she had enough. Then she tied the bag tightly and put the objects back in their original places.

She heaved a sigh of relief and was about to run towards the southeast, which was the direction she and the Yu family had agreed on. Every night, Yu Silang and Yu Liulang were afraid that she would get lost, so they would go to the open area to pick her up in advance. Yu Lanhua was not worried that the food on her could not be delivered to the Yu family, as long as she could steal it.

"Lanhua, where are you going?" Lin Changfa's low voice came from behind, suppressing his anger.

Yu Lanhua's hunched body stiffened. When she came to her senses, she found that both Lin Changfa and Lin Zikun were looking at her. She forced a smile from her stiff face: "What can I do? I can go to the bathroom. It's not far, just in the hay over there."

Zhu Ying and Niu Qin, who were lying on the ground pretending to sleep, got up and shouted angrily, "Mom, I saw you stealing food just now. Did you send the food to your mother's house? That's our lifeline! We can't eat it for a few days. How could you steal it and give it to others? You're a thief!"

Yu Lanhua felt guilty and at fault, but she still insisted, "What are you talking about stealing? I didn't steal anything!"

Lin Changfa walked over and ripped open her clothes, pointing at the rice in her arms and asking, "Where did you get the rice in your arms if it wasn't stolen? You can actually grow rice on your body! If you can do that, our family won't starve to death!"

Yu Lanhua: "How can it be considered stealing if I take my own food?"

Lin Changfa pointed at her and said, "You're a traitor if you use our food to support your own family. You woman, don't you see what time it is now? Even we are starving to death. You're so concerned about your own family that you can't bear to leave them. Are you unwilling to see our dumplings and beans starve like their sorghum and millet?"

"How many times have you stolen?" Lin Changfa grabbed Yu Lanhua's hand and glared at her, as if he wanted to eat her alive.

"Three...three times." Yu Lanhua looked at Lin Changfa's face and pleaded, "Changfa, can this be the last time? I can't watch my mother and brothers starve to death!"

The noise from Lin Changfa's side woke up Lin Changxi, Lin Pingmao, Lin Changhe, as well as the Gao family and the young wife's family. The main reason was that Yu Lanhua's crying was too loud, sharp and piercing, like the sound of someone scratching glass with nails in their ears, which drove away everyone's sleepiness completely.

Feng Zhenniang rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked at her son at home: "Rui'er, do you want your father to go and take a look?"

Lin Rui turned around and said, "What are you looking at? This is someone else's business. It depends on what my uncle does."

Seeing that Lin Changxi's family was motionless, Lin Pingmao and Lin Changhe knew what Lin Rui meant, so they simply sat back and waited to see how Lin Changfa's family would deal with the problem.

Lin Zijun, Lin Zikun and the others were unable to persuade the old woman no matter what they did. Yu Lanhua was also single, so now that the truth had been revealed, she didn't hide it anymore. She used her status as wife and mother to threaten her: "Long hair, we have been married for more than 20 years. I'm begging you like this today, can't you just give in?"

Lin Changfa's forehead veins popped out with anger. "Give in? How do you want to give in? If you give in, we'll be tangled up with that blood-sucking family of yours. We'll have no good life in the future!"

"No! They won't!" Yu Lanhua hurriedly patted her chest and promised.