If you don't consummate the marriage for three years and then marry a successful educated youth

Yang Hu trembled at the shout and stammered, "You're Jiang Lie, the hunter from Xiangyang Brigade? How did you find out we took the grain? That shouldn't be happening."

Jiang Lie didn't answer, but dragged the man directly to the threshing ground.

The men in the group surrounded the group, staring intently at them as if they were about to kill them.

"The captain is coming, everyone make way."

The crowd parted to create an opening, and the captain walked over with a stern face. He shone his flashlight around their faces and frowned: "Which brigade are you from? Don't play dumb."

"If you don't say anything, I'll let them beat you until you do."

Yang Hu quickly interjected, "No, don't do it. We're from Huaihua Brigade. Taking the grain is a last resort. Locusts have eaten a lot of our fields, and we definitely won't have enough to last through the winter."

"That's why we came to take some food back, we just want to survive. I know we were wrong, we'll give the food back to you, please don't make a big fuss."

"Still? Heh, if we hadn't marked it, we wouldn't have known you stole our grain. If you keep stealing and taking away our hard-earned food, how are we supposed to survive?"

The battalion commander's eyes were filled with anger: "Your battalion's disaster has nothing to do with us. You steal from others when you have no food. Shameless bastards! Men, tie them up!"

"We'll go to Huaihua Brigade first thing tomorrow morning and settle accounts with their families. The grain must be returned, and compensation must be paid. Otherwise, this matter is not over!"

"Whether we give you money and food or send you for re-education, that's up to your brigade to decide."

"Yes, Captain."

The men were tied up with ropes and thrown into the woodshed, where someone was watching at the door.

The dwarf sobbed, "Brother Tiger, are these people devils? How did they find out we were stealing grain? It shouldn't be like this; we've erased all traces."

"What should we do? They won't give us any room for negotiation. If they really go to the brigade to look for us, how will we ever get back to the brigade? How much compensation will they give us?"

"Waaah, I should have just not stolen from them. The Xiangyang Brigade is really as stingy as the rumors say, and they're so aggressive that they won't give us any leeway. We didn't even steal that much grain."

Annoyed by the crying, Yang Hu snapped, "Enough! Stop crying. It's really annoying. Think of something to do. We can't let them really get sent to the brigade."

"We absolutely cannot let them report us to the police. If they get sent to reform schools, they'll suffer so much. We can't go."

"...!!"

The short man peered through the crack in the door and called out, "Brothers, my dear brothers, can you at least let us die knowing why? There were only a couple hundred pounds of grain missing. How did you even find out?"

"That shouldn't be the case; we should have erased all traces."

The person at the door sneered, "Let me tell you, you can't solve this problem of chalk marks either. There are plenty of smart people in our brigade. Every day before dark, they draw chalk lines along the edges of the grain drying ground."

"Compare it with the one from this morning. If it matches, it means there's no shortage of food at night. If it doesn't match, you can tell roughly how much is missing by observing the movement of the chalk marks."

"If you really want to erase the traces, you'll have to know where the chalk lines are drawn, but you can't see chalk lines in the moonlight unless you turn on a flashlight."

"The patrol will spot you as soon as you turn on your flashlights, so you'll be discovered no matter what you do."

Inside the woodshed, several men gritted their teeth and muttered curses under their breath: "Damn, we were careless. This brigade is too cunning; they're even wary of their own people."

The man at the door snorted, "So what if we're on guard? The grain belongs to everyone in the brigade. It's distributed according to work points in winter. Whether it's stolen by outsiders or not, it's damaging our collective interests."

"It's good to be on guard. There's plenty of grain, and we can get more of it ourselves. That's great, it prevents anyone from stealing from us. This method works very well."

"Well, the key is that even if you know it, there's nothing you can do about it. Hehe, just stay put, I'll go settle accounts with your brigade tomorrow."

Dawn broke quickly.

The brigade leader led a dozen strong men and took the people to Huaihua Brigade. The others stayed behind to continue working. The compensation money was used to buy grain, which was distributed to everyone as promised by the brigade leader.

They didn't return until noon. The men were carrying grain on their backs. Wen Yao hurried over and asked, "Father, is Ah Lie alright?"

Jiang Lie nodded: "It went smoothly. We got the stolen grain back, plus double the compensation. We'll have someone send it to husk it, and then we'll steam it into rice and make pork stew."

"But no sooner had we left than the other brigades went looking for us. It seems they had stolen grain from the other brigades as well. We don't know what happened after that; we didn't hear or see anything."

"Well, it's good that we got the grain and compensation smoothly. It's lunchtime anyway, come and eat. We still have work to do this afternoon."

Wen Yao glanced at him up and down, and only felt relieved after confirming that he was not injured.

The brigade leader briefly explained the situation and instructed people to record the compensation grain so that the rice from the compensation could be steamed and eaten when they ate the "pig-killing feast" after the autumn harvest.

The children cheered, "Wow, in a few days we can eat rice! I love it so much!"

"We want to eat pork stew!"

The group quickly dispersed and went back to work, hoping to finish soon so they could rest and eat the pig-killing feast, a treat they could only enjoy during the Lunar New Year.

On the other side, at the intersection of Huaihua Brigade, things had already gotten out of hand. People from other brigades who were short of grain came to demand the return of the grain and compensation. If they couldn't pay, they threatened to drag those people back to work.

There were not enough people to go around, so they split up into twos and threes to work in different teams. There were also people specifically watching over them, so it was impossible to rest. They were so tired that they were dizzy and their eyes were blurry.

"Huff, I can't take it anymore, I'm really dizzy. Let me rest for a bit before continuing, otherwise I'll get heatstroke and work even slower. This is too cruel."

"Okay, take a half-hour break before continuing."

"Hmph, what are we complaining about? You don't go to the brigade to work and earn work points, but instead expect to steal grain from other brigades, and you still have the nerve to complain here? Bah, you deserve to be worked to death."

Yang Hu wiped the sweat from his brow, feeling extremely annoyed.

Damn it, we haven't had anything like this happen in years. It's all the fault of the Xiangyang Brigade. What's a little bit of grain? Why make such a fuss and arrest them?

The news was even leaked out, otherwise the other brigades wouldn't have come looking for us. Damn it, damn it.

He slapped her across the face and yelled, "What are you daydreaming about? Take a half-hour break and get back to work. No way you're trying to slack off unless you can come up with some compensation."