However, before the work team members even arrived, the first person in Xihe Village starved to death.

The poor old woman, driven by unbearable hunger, swallowed mud whole, but couldn't swallow it and suffocated to death.

The rest of her family wasn't much better off; I heard that their kitchen was piled with tree bark scraped back from outside.

The tree bark was left by the elderly to the children, and by the children to the youngest children to eat.

Grandpa and Grandma also went to pay their respects, and after returning home, the two of them remained silent.

Dad and Mom were sitting blankly in the yard. Xiao Jiu could tell what they were thinking just by looking at their expressions.

But she was young and her voice was weak, and it wasn't appropriate for her to speak at this time. Fortunately—

"Alright, old woman, this wasn't our fault. What are you upset and guilty about? We survived the 1940s. How many people died during the famine? Have you forgotten? How many people fought each other over a single bite to eat? People weren't even starving to death before they were killed by the chaotic society. Our responsibility is to take care of ourselves and the children. As for the rest, we can't and shouldn't interfere!"

“Mother, the grain we’ve saved up is barely enough to keep our family from starving for the next few years. We’ll have trouble even getting enough to eat, let alone helping others. We even need our children to support us.”

Tao Changyi knew that women were soft-hearted, and it was fortunate that his mother and daughter-in-law were both composed and did not break down in that situation.

Xiao Jiu quietly left the Tao family and arrived at the Zhou family's backyard, where she was secretly pulled in by her eighth sister.

Seeing her tense expression, I asked, "What's wrong?"

No sooner had they finished speaking than they heard someone banging on the front door, shouting for them to hand over the black dog.

"People are starving to death, and you still have food to feed the dogs? Hand over the dogs, now!"

The older sister and the others were talking to those people through the door, while Xiao Jiu looked at the four emaciated mother and chicks in the chicken coop.

Just as they were about to carry them out through the back door, the back door was blocked by hungry villagers with conjunctivitis.

Fortunately, at the crucial moment, the fourth sister saw through the situation. Without saying anything, she carried the big dog and the three little ones followed her into the main room.

Seventh and Eighth Sisters wanted to chase after them, but Xiao Jiu stopped them.

"Go and check what in the house you can't leave out in front of others, and hide it all. We might have to open the door and let them in in a little while."

More than ten minutes later, the front door of the house was forced open after being knocked and was on the verge of collapse.

These heartless people not only failed to find the dog, but also failed to steal a single grain of food.

The older woman looked at them sarcastically: "I already said that we ate the dogs a long time ago, how could it be your turn to eat them? We don't eat the dogs we raised, do you think we're out of our minds? Do you see? We don't have a single grain of food, we're so hungry we're dizzy. Are you so powerful because you think we're new here?"

"Since they were eaten a long time ago, why did they only open the door for us now?"

The second sister looked at them with disdain: "What, you think we have to do whatever you tell us to do? Do I know you? A bunch of big men, are you trying to bully us because we don't have any men? Fine, now you see, we don't have any food."

"Have you finished watching? If you have, hurry up and leave. We don't have the energy to keep yelling at you. I'm just trying to advise you to save your energy and not be too arrogant so you don't get beaten up."

The third sister sat weakly on the porch, leaning against the wall and panting heavily. She didn't look like she was faking it at all; she looked more like she was really sick.

Because the front and back yards were blocked, and they had searched the house thoroughly, even turning over the soil in the cellar and vegetable garden, they found nothing. They were about to search some more when Tao Changyi heard the commotion and came over. Since both he and his wife had formal jobs in the city, and the Tao family elders had helped many people, the Tao family still held a certain prestige. Under the intimidating gaze of Tao Changyi, the group of people reluctantly withdrew from the Zhou family's house.

Seeing the Zhou family's situation, the old lady and Zhao Lingli's last bit of sympathy vanished instantly.

The old lady grabbed Cuihua's hand, about to say something, but Zhao Lingli pulled her arm hard and gestured to the left and right with her eyes.

Knowing that the walls have ears, the old lady patted Cuihua's hand and nodded, and Cuihua understood.

After the Tao family left, Cuihua silently looked at Cuihong. Cuihong nodded to her, and although she didn't say anything, Cuihua felt relieved.

I thought today's events were disgusting enough, but I never expected that a thief would break into their house that very night.

Fortunately, Tao Changyi was quick-witted and had placed mousetraps in every corner of his house. In addition, their walls were high enough that even if an ordinary person were to get in, they would need a ladder. When they heard the screams and ran out, the person was still clutching their foot and screaming on the ground.

"Wow, what a big rat! What's wrong? You couldn't get anything out of the Zhou family during the day, so you came to steal from our house tonight?"

The person who came was the eldest son of the second branch of the Zhou family. He was in his thirties or forties, but now he was as thin as a skeleton and was wailing in pain on the ground.

Instead of feeling any remorse after being discovered, he shamelessly knelt on the ground and begged the Tao family for some food to save his mother.

"My mother is dying, really, I'm not lying to you. She just wants to eat an egg, just one egg. Please, give me an egg, please."

However, he forgot how the Zhou family had driven the eldest branch of the Zhou family to a dead end back then, and each of their branches bore responsibility.

Moreover, they are a family that is corrupt from the root. The old woman he mentioned had bullied Zhou Xing and Zhou Yue's maternal grandmother a lot when she was young. So, no matter how he was kneeling in front of them and kowtowing to them one after another, not a single person present felt any sympathy for him.

"Alright, stop cracking them. We don't have any eggs. Go try somewhere else."

As he spoke, Tao Changyi pulled the man up and forcefully pushed him outside the door. The man was unwilling to leave like that and continued to struggle and beg, seeing that his ladder was still in the yard.

"Don't push me! Let me carry the ladder away! I went through so much trouble to carry it here!"

"Ladder? That's my ladder, when did it become yours?"

The man surnamed Zhou opened his mouth, about to defend himself, but Tao Changyi raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for him to say the next word before blocking his way out.

The thief, terrified by his expression, was unwilling to leave so easily and forced a smile.

“Brother Tao, my family doesn’t have much to begin with. This ladder was your sister-in-law’s dowry. If it were in your house, your sister-in-law would definitely come to your door and start cursing!”

"I've long heard you're henpecked, and seeing it today, the rumors are indeed true. It's alright, just go back and tell her this is proof you entered my house. This ladder is right here, and neither of us will touch it. It's covered in your fingerprints. You know what fingerprints are? My son said that everyone has a unique fingerprint. This technology existed abroad sixty years ago, and we use it to solve many cases here now. So, are you going to leave the ladder here, or wait for me to report it to the police tomorrow?"

The man surnamed Zhou chuckled and said, "You can't leave this ladder here forever, can you?"

It means you'll have to get involved sooner or later, and once you do, there won't be any evidence left. Do you think I'm afraid of you?

Besides, "Many people have touched my ladder, I don't believe they can distinguish my fingerprints. Even if they could,"

"Uncle Zhou, there's still your blood on this mousetrap. That's evidence, isn't it, Dad?"

Tao An, the youngest son of the Tao family, interjected at the right moment, and only then did Zhou belatedly look down at his foot. This was no ordinary mousetrap; it even had serrated marks on it. If he hadn't reacted quickly, his foot might have been ruined, unlike now where only his big toe was punctured.

Xiao Jiu kindly reminded him, "Uncle Zhou, this mousetrap is rusty. If your foot bleeds, you'll need to go to the hospital for a tetanus shot, otherwise..."

The two children talked back and forth, making the man surnamed Zhou so ashamed that he left the Tao family with a limp.

They didn't steal the eggs, and they even lost the ladder. What this man will face when he gets home is none of their concern.

Xiao Jiu glanced at the rusty mousetrap and silently prayed that the person wouldn't have such bad luck.

Because she knew he wouldn't take her words to heart.

If he's unlucky enough to get infected, the incubation period will be one to two weeks. By then, if anything happens, it won't have anything to do with his family.

Just in case, Tao Changyi reported the matter to the team leader the next day. The team leader was the former village chief, who is now the brigade leader. Each team also has a team leader. The ladder was moved to the village committee, and a meeting of all members was even held to issue a notice of criticism.

The meaning is clear: "This is the first time. If it happens a second time, we'll report it to the police."

Soon, the work team from above arrived. The team seemed to have made thorough preparations for this matter, with an abundance of grain displayed in the open, as if they could eat it all. However, when the work team members reached into the bags, they discovered that all the grain was just the surface layer; underneath was nothing but dirt.

The staff member on the spot didn't know where to put his hands, and all the lies seemed to have been exposed at that moment.

The leaders also came over with furrowed brows, rummaging through the visible grains, searching bag by bag, and finally found less than twenty pounds of grain in total.

However, the twenty catties of grain were still used as seed.

The leaders left with red eyes. If one village is like this, what about the other villages?

Soon, the situations in other villages were also deliberately exposed to them one by one.

They then realized the seriousness of the situation and hurriedly led their men back to report.

The common people didn't care about the specifics of the meetings; all they knew was that since the famine began, their team leader had made three or four trips to the commune, naturally to ask for grain. But not only did he fail to bring back a single grain, he also listened to a lot of empty official jargon. If they hadn't been so desperate to gather more grain, they probably would have continued to cooperate. Fortunately, everything was exposed, and they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.