Hiding in the house, Ye Shuang was secretly amazed. It was truly shameless, but also quite clever. Indeed, if it were a "friendly and harmonious" exchange between mortals, she would have no reason to take action.

Li Mantian opened the door, looked at the head of the village who was standing at the door wanting to borrow grain, and then looked at the villagers under the torchlight not far away, none of whom dared to turn around and look at him. He didn't know whether to laugh self-deprecatingly or shed tears of fear: "I wonder how much the brave man intends to borrow?"

In the firelight, the crudely made blades wrapped in cloth still revealed a hint of sharpness, their gleam colder than the chill of the deepest winter. Li Mantian didn't find the swords terrifying; rather, he found the human heart far more frightening. Mere envy and jealousy had led to this predicament.

The head of the gang never expected that his simple request to borrow some grain would lead to such an interesting situation. He looked back at the villagers and then at Li Mantian, and said with a light laugh, "You are the father of the county magistrate, so you can borrow as much as you like, or you can choose not to lend any. But I'm afraid the remaining grain of those villagers outside will not be able to be preserved."

The voice was quite loud, and the helpless villagers huddled together heard it, but the bandits with wooden sticks, knives, and guns around them were watching them intently, not letting them move an inch.

One of the villagers couldn't take it anymore, and his voice was filled with despair after his collapse: "Brother Li, I'm begging you! Please give them your family's grain!"

This cry seemed to completely release the despair of the other villagers. One by one, they cried out for Li Mantian to give them grain. In this scene, it was as if Li Mantian was the bandit holding a knife and forcing them to give up their grain, while they were just pitiful ordinary people who wanted their villagers back.

Li Mantian, who had already planned to distribute grain, sighed heavily, opened the door wide, and stepped aside to let them into the courtyard: "The cellar is over there. Take as much as you want. There's only a little bit. Don't go into the house, and don't hurt the villagers."

"No problem." The chief didn't want to push things too far, otherwise he wouldn't have left food for every villager. He was just really starving, not asking for his own demise.

The head of the gang selected two of his usually diligent and quiet underlings to follow him into the courtyard.

The cellar entrance was small, but you could see what was inside from there. After the chief took a look inside, he was slightly surprised. Just as the villagers had said, the Li family's autumn harvest was more than twice that of a normal family!

But the leader simply patted his two underlings on the shoulders and instructed them, "Take only half."

The half here is basically the same as other places, only a little bit more, but not that noticeable.

Although the two underlings were puzzled, they didn't ask any questions at this moment. They just responded and went down to the cellar to start moving the grain. The chief was always smart, which was why he was able to ensure that the brothers in the village had enough to eat and drink and could support their families so quickly. So there must be a reason for doing this.

Li Mantian had been by their side the whole time and naturally heard the instruction. Although he was somewhat surprised, he still said, "Thank you."

As the gang leader watched his underling carry the grain out, he whispered, "Uncle, take my advice and go find your son. The world is not what you think it is now."