As the people approached, Xu Xiangyang smiled and said, "Gentlemen, want a cigarette?"
He handed the cigarette to the man walking at the front, who was the leader.
Looking at the young man in front of him, then at the cigarette and matches in his hand, he took them.
He then lit a cigarette and said to Xu Xiangyang, "Aren't you afraid?"
This was the first time he had ever seen someone so calm and collected when encountering robbers these days.
We often see people crying and terrified.
Xu Xiangyang smiled and said, "What are you afraid of? You only want money and things, not your lives. Life is tough for everyone these days, I understand you."
He had just noticed that these people were clearly doing this for the first time; some of them were even trembling with fear.
They were all dressed in tattered clothes, looking much like refugees fleeing famine.
His words almost brought the people behind him to tears, and their eyes all turned red.
Who can argue with that? If they could have enough to eat, who would want to do this kind of thing?
Despite the passing of the famine years, there are still too many people who are not getting enough to eat. Not only them, but many others don't even get a single meal a day.
Eating only once every two or three days is too much; eating once a day is a luxury.
The man in the lead looked at him intently upon hearing this.
Xu Xiangyang threw down his cigarette butt, then went to the trunk, took out a 50-pound bag of rice, and placed it on the ground.
"I had to go out temporarily, so I don't have much. You can take this food back and share it." He didn't want to help much, even though he had plenty of food.
Sometimes being too generous can make them more greedy.
But seeing these grown men doing these things for a bite to eat is truly heartbreaking.
The main reason was that Xu Xiangyang felt it was their first time doing something like this, and their timidity, fear, and regret were written all over their faces.
Even the man leading the group had a look of reluctance on his face. Although he tried to appear calm, you could still see the panic in his eyes.
They were all stunned when they saw Xu Xiangyang take the grain out of the car.
Imagine if you were robbed, would you still feel sorry for the robber and give them something?
This is absolutely incredible.
Several minutes passed before the man in the lead came to his senses.
"Why are you helping us? We're robbing them." There was a hint of disgust in his voice; clearly, he disdained doing this, yet had no choice but to.
Xu Xiangyang didn't think much of it and said bluntly, "If there's a problem, go to the higher-ups. Don't do this kind of thing. What will happen to your families if you get caught?"
He only felt sorry for these people because it was their first time doing this kind of thing.
With so many people in the world who are starving and freezing, is he supposed to take care of them all?
If they were repeat offenders, he definitely wouldn't help them; he might even physically punish them.
The man glanced at the grain on the ground, then gritted his teeth, picked up his things, and called the others to leave.
Before leaving, the man said without turning his head, "There are two more groups of robbers ahead. You'd better take a detour."
There are actually other paths here, but Xu Xiangyang doesn't know the routes.
He wanted to ask for directions, but then he left?
He looked around, drove the car into the grove, and then stored the car in his spatial storage.
They didn't move the obstacle, perhaps to warn the people behind them.
This way they can avoid encountering the people behind them and simply turn around and leave.
Xu Xiangyang put his thoughts aside and followed the route taken by the people in front of him.
After walking for about an hour, he suddenly realized that he had been presumptuous and shouldn't have followed along.
But now that they've already arrived, there's no use regretting it.
He gritted his teeth and continued walking. After about half an hour, he finally saw a small village.
This place is surrounded by mountains, and there is very little farmland. Because it is in the mountains, planting is difficult.
Xu Xiangyang looked at the mud houses or thatched houses; this place was even poorer than their hometown.
This can hardly be considered a village anymore; it's more like a gathering place for refugees fleeing famine.
He watched from a short distance away, but fortunately, there were trees all around, so it was difficult for anyone to spot him.
The man in the lead put the rice on the ground, and soon many people came over.
There were about a hundred people, all dressed in tattered clothes.
"Liu Zhuang! Is this what we snatched back?" An old man in his sixties or seventies pointed to the object on the ground and looked at the leader.
Liu Zhuang nodded and said, "Dad, these things were given to us by someone."
Actually, he only resorted to robbery because he saw that the villagers were starving to death and had no other choice.
However, he encountered Xu Xiangyang, who did not rob him, but instead obtained fifty kilograms of rice.
But the old man clearly didn't believe it. He looked heartbroken and pounded his chest repeatedly.
"I've let down my ancestors! I've let down my ancestors!" He said with tears streaming down his face, his expression pained. "Our Liu family has never done anything like stealing or robbing in all these years. How did it come to this in my generation? I've disgraced our family!"
Everyone in their village shares the surname Liu; it's a large family. They fled famine years ago and settled here, but the harvests were still bad. Fortunately, they had tree bark and wild vegetables, so no one ever starved to death.
This time, they ran out of food and wild vegetables, and several elders in the clan fell ill, so they had no choice but to go out to find food.
Liu Zhuang's expression was somewhat helpless, but he also knew that this was indeed unacceptable.
“Father, this really was given to us by them. You can ask them if you don’t believe me.” He said, pointing to the people behind him.
The others quickly nodded in agreement, indicating that the item was indeed given to them by someone else.
“Grandpa, they did give it to us. We tried to take it, but the person offered it to us willingly, saying that we had a hard life.”
"Yes, we met some good people!"
Several people echoed this sentiment, making the old man standing nearby doubt whether it really was given to him by someone else.
Just then, Xu Xiangyang came out.
Upon seeing him, Liu Zhuang's eyes widened immediately, and he adopted a defensive posture.
"You've been following us!?" He asked in an unfriendly tone, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the person in front of him.
Seeing this, Xu Xiangyang immediately raised his hands, "Uncle, don't worry, I'm alone. I mean no harm, I just saw that you're having a hard time, so I came to check on you."
Actually, he had other thoughts in his mind, but he couldn't say them now.
Who would believe him?
Liu Zhuang clearly didn't believe it and called on the others to pick up their weapons.
"What are you doing! Put your things down!" At the old man's command, the others obediently put down their weapons.
He walked to a distance from Xu Xiangyang and carefully observed him, noticing that the man's clothes and appearance did not match those of a rural person.
On the contrary, they were dressed better than the people in the commune, who wore patched clothes, though they had very few patches, unlike them, whose entire bodies were covered in patches.
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