Dare to shirk responsibility? This adorable little one will tear down your military district!

The moon hid behind the clouds, and the night at Red Star Farm was as black as the bottom of a large pot.

Meng Jianjun, like a rat that has just emerged from its hole, shuffled along the red brick wall, panting heavily as he made his way to the backyard.

His stomach rumbled with each rumble of thunder, and he was so hungry he saw stars.

The fierce determination he had just felt to tear down Gu Changfeng's house had long since vanished amidst the stench of pig manure filling the yard. Now, only one word remained in his mind: meat.

The fence was right in front of us, and occasionally a few clucking sounds like a hen in its sleep could be heard from inside.

Meng Jianjun swallowed hard; the saliva tasted bitter. His hands, which usually held only chopsticks and dominoes, trembled as he untied the straw rope from the fence.

"Don't shout, Third Master will take care of you." Meng Jianjun muttered softly, stepping one foot into the chicken coop.

The moment my feet touched the ground, it felt like stepping into a muddy swamp, soft, sticky, and covered in chicken droppings.

He didn't care about feeling nauseous; using the faint starlight, he aimed at a dark figure crouching on the horizontal bar in the corner.

It was a speckled hen; he had seen it during the day, and it was incredibly fat.

Meng Jianjun held his breath, spread his arms like eagle claws, and pounced.

"thump!"

He lunged forward, but he forgot that he had been suffering from diarrhea all night, and his calves were as weak as noodles.

He lunged forward, but didn't put enough force into it. He slipped on the chicken droppings and fell flat on his face, landing squarely on the chicken feeder.

"Giggle giggle—!"

Startled, the speckled hen puffed up its feathers and flew up, its wings like iron fans, slapping wildly at Meng Jianjun's face. Its sharp beak rained down on his forehead.

"Ouch! My eyes!"

Meng Jianjun screamed and frantically tried to grab the chicken.

This really stirred up a hornet's nest.

All the chickens in the coop woke up, their flapping and squawking creating a chaotic mess. Feathers flew everywhere, trying to get into Meng Jianjun's nostrils and mouth.

Even worse, the commotion woke up hundreds of pigs in the neighboring pigpen, and their grunting protests rose and fell like a grand chorus.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

The large wolfhound, about half a person's height, in the front yard started barking wildly, its chain rattling loudly as it struggled.

"Who? Who's there!"

A beam of snow-white flashlight light, like a sharp sword, pierced the darkness instantly and shone directly on Meng Jianjun's face.

Meng Jianjun was still tightly gripping the neck of the speckled hen, his head and face covered in chicken feathers and droppings, and a bloody gash pecked into his left eye socket. He looked like a grotesque demon who had just crawled out of hell.

Squad Leader Zhu, wearing a military overcoat and carrying a thick wooden stick, stood outside the fence, looking at him with a dark face.

Behind him, a dozen or so soldiers from the third platoon, first squad, also ran out, each carrying a shovel and a broom, ready for battle.

When everyone saw what the person in the chicken coop looked like, the air was silent for three seconds.

Immediately afterwards, a burst of laughter erupted.

"Hahaha! Isn't this our 'special talent'?"

"I knew there was a commotion! I thought a weasel had wandered into the village. Turns out it's Commander Gu's younger brother!"

"So this 'special training' is actually training someone to steal chickens?"

Those laughs were like whips, making Meng Jianjun's face burn with pain.

He loosened his grip, and the speckled hen seized the opportunity to break free. Before leaving, it didn't forget to peck hard at the back of his hand, then clucked and flew up onto the wall.

"I...I didn't steal it!"

Meng Jianjun tried to argue, wiping the chicken droppings off his face and shouting, "I was just looking after the chicken...it's cold at night, and I wanted to cover it with a blanket! I was protecting the commune's property!"

Squad Leader Zhu sneered, his large white teeth appearing sinister and terrifying under the flashlight beam.

"Cover it with a blanket? I think you want to stuff it inside your belly!"

Squad Leader Zhu kicked open the fence gate, strode in, grabbed Meng Jianjun by the back of the neck like a chick, dragged him out, and slammed him onto the dusty ground.

"Commander Gu sent you here for re-education, to transform you! But what you've done? You've been here less than a day, haven't done much work, and have already shown off your petty thievery!"

Squad Leader Zhu turned around and faced the soldiers watching, his voice booming like thunder.

"Comrades! This is what our regimental commander calls a relative! For a couple of bites of food, they've abandoned all sense of honor as soldiers and the basic principles of humanity! Does this kind of person deserve to wear a uniform? Does he deserve to carry a gun?"

"Unworthy!" the soldiers roared in unison.

Meng Jianjun cowered on the ground, being pointed at by everyone. His thick skin finally couldn't take it anymore, and his face turned a deep liver color.

He wanted to get up and say, "I'm the regimental commander's brother, you can't treat me like this," but looking at the disdainful eyes around him, the word "brother" stuck in his throat, and he couldn't utter it no matter what.

So embarrassing.

Although he was a nobody in Xiahe Village, he had never been watched like this in public, like a monkey being put on a show.

"Since you have so much energy, you can catch chickens even in the middle of the night without sleeping." Squad Leader Zhu looked down at his watch; it was three in the morning.

"Then don't sleep."

Squad Leader Zhu slammed the large wooden stick in his hand onto the ground.

"Everyone, go back to sleep! Meng Jianjun, stay here!"

The soldiers dispersed, laughing and joking, pointing and whispering at Meng Jianjun before leaving.

After everyone had left, Squad Leader Zhu kicked a broken iron bucket and a brush from the corner of the wall.

"Go and scrub all the feeding troughs in the pigsty. If they're not clean, you still won't get any breakfast tomorrow."

"What?! Hundreds of troughs?" Meng Jianjun's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "I'll be worked to death!"

"He won't die." Squad Leader Zhu lit a cigarette, the embers flickering in the darkness. "If he dies, it'll be good food for the pigs."

These words were chillingly cold, and there was no hint of a joke in them.

Looking into Squad Leader Zhu's cold, bull-like eyes, Meng Jianjun's last shred of hope vanished. This was a remote mountain where no one could call for help; these people truly dared to try and kill him.

He trembled as he grabbed the stiff-bristled brush, tears streaming down his face mixed with chicken droppings.

That night, the sound of scrubbing echoed through the pigsties of Hongxing Farm until dawn.

Meng Jianjun cried as he scrolled through the page. He hated Gu Changfeng for being ruthless, hated Meng Yaya for teasing him, and hated himself even more for being so greedy as to steal that damned speckled chicken.

As dawn broke, a Jiefang truck carrying swill and supplies rumbled into the farm.

The driver, who knew Squad Leader Zhu well, jumped out of the car and offered him a cigarette: "Old Zhu, I heard the regimental commander's stunner brother was sent here? How's he doing, keeping up with the orders?"

Squad Leader Zhu chuckled and pointed to a humanoid figure sprawled on the ground in the corner of the pigsty, reeking of rancidity.

"Whether he admits it or not, I don't know. Anyway, he added an 'extra program' for us last night. He got caught red-handed trying to steal our chicken, and he probably doesn't even have the energy to groan right now."

"Wow! Stealing chickens?" The driver slapped his thigh with delight. "If this gets back to the military region, Commander Gu will be utterly humiliated!"

"Of course, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast." Squad Leader Zhu gave Meng Jianjun a meaningful look.

At this moment, Meng Jianjun lay on the ground like a dead dog, listening to the conversation between the two. Instead of feeling ashamed, he felt a vicious thought.

Spread it! Spread it as far as possible!

It would be best if word got to his shrewish mother's ears!

If my mother knew he was suffering like this, she would definitely skin Gu Changfeng alive!

What he didn't know was that the news spread faster than the wind.

Before noon, Wang Guifen, who was in the guesthouse plotting how to empty Gu Changfeng's pockets, heard the devastating news from Li Aihong, who was there to buy groceries.

"Huh? What did you say?"

The cornbread in Wang Guifen's hand fell to the ground with a thud, and her old face instantly twisted into a vengeful ghost.

"My son didn't become an official? Gu Changfeng sent him to feed the pigs? And he was even arrested as a thief?"

Li Aihong cracked sunflower seeds, a smug look on her face: "Of course! I heard he was shoveling manure there, surrounded and laughed at by hundreds of soldiers. It was a terrible situation!"

"Gu Changfeng! I don't want to live anymore!"

Wang Guifen let out a loud shout and jumped up on the spot.

"How dare they let my son feed pigs! I'll go and strip him of his military uniform right now!"