Chapter 99 A Thief Stole the Grain!
Ye Dong and Lin Demao exchanged a glance, a hint of greed flashing in each other's eyes.
The aroma of the meat was so tempting that the two of them found the food at home increasingly difficult to swallow.
“This girl really doesn’t know how to manage money,” Lin Demao said first, his voice low and tinged with bitterness. “With so much meat, she should eat it sparingly. How can she be so extravagant? And she even shares the meat with the lower classes.”
Ye Dong swallowed hard and chimed in, "That's right, we're all tightening our belts, but her family is living the high life. Uncle Lin, you're her grandfather, so you should get a share too."
These words struck a chord with Lin Demao. He snorted, a hint of indignation on his face: "Does she even respect me as her grandfather? She took up three rooms when she built the house, and now that she has meat to eat, she doesn't even know how to show respect to her elders. It's a complete waste of my time raising her."
The two talked back and forth, and the more they talked, the more they felt that Lin Yao had gone too far, and their greed grew wildly like weeds.
Ye Dong's eyes darted around, and he leaned close to Lin Demao's ear, lowering his voice to say, "Look, even those lowly people who follow Lin Yao want to eat meat. Her family must have a lot of good stuff hidden away. Should we...?"
"Shut up! I am an elder, how can I steal the food of a junior?" Lin Demao scolded in a low voice.
Ye Dong thought Lin Demao had actually had a change of heart and was wondering about it when he heard him change the subject and say, "But I am her grandfather. If she doesn't come to pay respects to me, I will take some myself to fulfill her filial duty. This is not stealing. Don't go to the room where A Yao and her brother live. Those two are shrewd."
A flash of disdain crossed Ye Dong's face. He wasn't exactly a good person, but at least he was openly bad. He had never seen anyone as hypocritical and shameless as Lin Demao before.
Although he felt contempt for it, he didn't say much, and the two quickly reached an agreement to cooperate.
As night fell, the few remaining lights in the valley went out one by one. The Lin family members, having worked hard all day and eaten well, went to bed early.
Under the cover of night, Ye Dong and Lin Demao crept up to the vicinity of the Lin family's house.
The three rooms were side by side. The middle room was where Lin Yao and the other women lived, the room on the left was where Lin Cheng and a few servants lived, and the remaining room was where the servants lived.
The two exchanged a glance, then tiptoed around to the rightmost house, where Ah Zhu, Ah Fu, and a few other young men lived, fast asleep.
Ye Dong tentatively pushed the door, but it was bolted shut.
However, he was prepared. Ye Dong took out a thin bamboo strip from his pocket, inserted the strip into the crack in the door, and gently pried it open. With a soft click, the door latch actually opened.
He gestured for Lin Demao to be quiet and gently pushed the door open a crack.
The room was pitch black, with only the sound of snoring coming from all directions.
By the moonlight streaming through the small window, you could see several large sacks piled up in the corner, and several bamboo baskets hanging from the rafters. You could vaguely see an oilcloth draped inside, which must have been meat.
Good heavens, so many hidden! Ye Dong's eyes lit up, and he was overjoyed.
Lin Demao hadn't expected Lin Yao and her group to have such a large supply of food, and he became quite excited. He quickly signaled Ye Dong to get started.
The two carefully untied a burlap sack containing rice and filled two small cloth bags they had brought with them.
Not satisfied, Ye Dong set his sights on the basket of cured meat and reached out to grab it from the ceiling.
Lin Demao grabbed him, seemingly afraid that he couldn't see, and shook his head vigorously in the darkness. He then pointed to the sleeping people on the bed, indicating that he shouldn't take the cured meat. If he woke them up, he wouldn't be able to take anything.
Ye Dong glanced longingly at the cured meat, but eventually followed Lin Demao out of the warehouse, gently closed the door, and tiptoed back to his room.
Back inside, Ye Dong opened the cloth bag, looked at the white rice, and couldn't stop smiling.
Lin Demao also held his bag of rice, feeling both lingering fear and secret delight. Lin Yao had so much grain stored up; he was only taking a little rice, so he shouldn't be discovered.
The next morning, Zhu got up early to start a fire and cook. She opened the bag of rice, looked at the pitiful amount of rice in the bag, and as usual, grabbed a handful of rice and threw it into the pot, adding more than half a pot of soaked soybeans.
Lin Demao, with the rice he had stolen the night before, slept soundly. When he woke up, he smelled the raw bean smell wafting from the pot.
He sat up with a frown and saw Zhu adding water to the pot. He immediately complained, "Cooking this again? Put in more rice! Eating soybeans every day, my mouth is getting so bland!"
Zhu paused in her work, turned to look at him, her face full of helplessness: "Husband, we really don't have much food left at home, we have to eat rice sparingly. The village head said that things are very chaotic outside, and we don't know how long we'll have to stay in the mountains, so we have to tighten our belts."
"Save what?" Lin Demao retorted, pointing to the inconspicuous straw basket in the corner. "Go and see, isn't there still rice in there?"
Zhu looked puzzled. She remembered that the rice jar was almost empty yesterday, so where did the rice come from? But she still went over as instructed, lifted the tattered cloth on the straw basket, and was immediately stunned.
Inside the straw basket was a bulging little cloth bag. When I opened it, it was full of white rice, several times more than the rice we had left over from yesterday!
She cooks every day, and she knows exactly how much grain she has at home; there's no way that so much rice could have appeared out of thin air.
Zhu turned her head and looked at Lin Demao with a look full of doubt.
Lin Demao felt a little guilty under her gaze, his eyes darting around, and he dared not meet her eyes. He quickly raised his voice, putting on a righteous air: "Why are you looking at me? This is a gift from your junior! Just take it and use it to cook, what are you nagging about!"
Zhu still felt something was amiss, but seeing Lin Demao's furious expression, she dared not ask any further questions. However, the doubts in her heart did not subside. Apart from Lin Yao, there were no other younger relatives in the family, but Lin Yao's family had never treated them well. Why would they suddenly send so much rice?
Although she had some reservations, she still grabbed two handfuls of rice from the cloth bag and put them into the pot. Soon, the pot was filled with a fragrant aroma of rice and beans, which smelled much better than usual.
Lin Demao sat by the stove, smelling the long-lost aroma of rice, and the slight guilt in his heart was gradually replaced by a sense of satisfaction.
He picked up a rough porcelain bowl, and as soon as the rice was cooked, he eagerly filled the bowl to the brim and began to eat heartily.
Seeing him wolf down his food, Zhu's doubts deepened, but she didn't press him further. She simply filled a bowl with rice and ate it in small bites.
Lin Yao was woken up early in the morning by the panicked voices of Ah Zhu and Ah Fu.
"Manager! Something terrible has happened! Our rice has been stolen!" As soon as Ah Zhu entered the house, he spilled the beans about what he had discovered that morning.
Lin Yao's heart tightened, and she quickly followed him to their room.
The others were waiting for her inside the house, and their expressions were not good as they looked at the corner where the grain was piled up.
They were all very annoyed that they had slept so soundly the night before that they hadn't noticed a thief sneaking in and stealing the grain that the shopkeeper had worked so hard to save. The shopkeeper had even cooked meat for them yesterday... Thinking about this, they felt even more guilty.
However, Lin Yao didn't have the energy to care about their thoughts this time. Food was life, and whoever had food could survive. Stealing food was no small matter.
What's even more terrifying is that once the theft of grain spreads beyond just the villagers, they become easy prey for others, and even with a population of twenty or so, they can't compete with the rest of the village...
Afu pointed to the sacks on the ground and said urgently, "Shopkeeper, look! The top of this pile of rice is gone!"
Lin Yao looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, the burlap sack containing brown rice was open. The rice that had been deliberately piled into a pointed heap had collapsed, and there was clearly less rice.
In fact, Lin Yao had anticipated that such a thing might happen before she moved into this valley.
When food supplies are not guaranteed to be stable, people's hearts are easily agitated, and theft of food is very likely to occur.
So she specifically instructed everyone in each room to pile up the grains in a designated shape before going to bed each day. For example, rice and flour should be piled into a pointed shape, and cured meat wrapped in oilcloth should be arranged from longest to shortest with the skin facing outwards. This way, if anyone had moved it, it would be immediately noticeable.
These methods were something she figured out after her seasoning recipe was stolen last time.
"Who was the last to go to sleep last night? Didn't you hear any noise?" Lin Yao asked.
Ah Zhu scratched his head, somewhat annoyed, and said, "Everyone ate a lot last night and was tired after a long day. I fell asleep soon after lying down and slept very soundly, so I didn't hear anything."
Afu nodded in agreement: "Me too, I didn't notice a thing."
Lin Yao frowned, her gaze sweeping over the rummaged-through sack and then at the bamboo basket hanging from the rafters. Fortunately, the cured meat was still there; it seemed the thief hadn't dared to reach for it, fearing to make a noise.
When Wang Xiaoyu saw the missing rice, she said angrily, "This is outrageous! What kind of time is this to be stealing grain!"
Hearing the commotion, Lin Cheng came out as well. Upon learning that the grain had been stolen, his face immediately darkened: "Ayao, should we tell the village head and have him investigate?"
Lin Yao shook her head: "Not for now. Without evidence, asking questions rashly will only alert them."
She turned to Ah Zhu and Ah Fu and instructed them, "You two, don't make a fuss. Just pretend nothing happened. Re-pile the rice and keep a close eye on it, especially at night."
"Alright, shopkeeper!" Ah Zhu and Ah Fu replied quickly.
Lin Yao certainly wouldn't let the thief off so easily.
She glanced around and, seeing no other villagers nearby, beckoned to the group to come closer.
The group understood and quickly gathered around. Lin Yao lowered her voice and spoke a few words to them very quickly.
After hearing this, Ah Zhu and Ah Fu's eyes lit up, and they nodded vigorously, their annoyance replaced by excitement.
Finally, she added, "Remember, stay calm. No one is allowed to make a move without my signal. We not only need to catch the thief, but we also need to make sure he has nothing to say in front of the whole village."
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