Sold into a ghost marriage? Four-year-old and his thuggish father go on a killing spree.

As June arrives, the weather gets hotter day by day.

The wheat in the field turned from green to yellow at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The air began to fill with the aroma of ripe wheat.

The most intense and busiest summer harvest of the year for Chengjiawan Brigade has begun.

"Rapid harvesting" means racing against time, as the name suggests.

A single rainstorm can ruin most of a year's harvest.

Every man, woman, and child in the entire brigade, whoever was able to move, carried a sickle and went to the fields.

Because of his excellent skills and strong physique, Gu Yanqiu was directly selected by the brigade leader Cheng Tiezhu to serve as the deputy leader of the third production group.

He was responsible for leading a dozen or so people to harvest the crops, and also worked part-time repairing threshers that were likely to break down at any time.

This should have been a great honor.

However, when this news reached the ears of his eldest uncle, Gu Yanchun, it took on a different meaning.

He felt a mix of bitterness and jealousy, an extreme sense of imbalance that tormented him.

Gu Yanchun had been the militia captain for over a decade and was considered a prominent figure in the brigade. However, after all these years, he had never been promoted to the rank of deputy group leader.

Why is it that Gu Yanqiu, who just separated from his family and started living alone, can rise to the top in one step?

Just because he knows how to fix those few broken machines?

Jealousy surged within him, making him feel suffocated.

He didn't dare to openly challenge Cheng Tiezhu, but secretly sabotaging Gu Yanqiu was his specialty.

"Deputy Team Leader Gu, the capable should do more!" Gu Yanchun patted Gu Yanqiu's shoulder with a forced smile, holding the newly assigned land parcel map in his hand.

"This 'Laoniu Bay' plot has the most complex terrain and the densest wheat growth, so I'm assigning it to your third group! I believe you can definitely complete the task!"

Those around them understood the implied meaning.

"Laoniu Bay" was the toughest nut to crack in the whole brigade. The fields were full of stones and the terrain was uneven, making wheat harvesting a laborious and thankless task. One could easily chip the sickle.

In previous years, this land was dried by several groups working together.

This year, Gu Yanchun simply handed it all over to Gu Yanqiu.

Gu Yanqiu glanced at him, said nothing, took the drawing, and nodded: "Okay."

He and his team members went down to the ground without saying a word.

Gu Yanchun's schemes didn't stop there.

Every evening after work, accountant Lao Sun would post the work points for each group on the large blackboard in the yard.

Gu Yanqiu's group did the hardest work and harvested the most wheat, but their work points recorded on the blackboard were always lukewarm, and even less than other groups.

People in the group started to complain.

"Brother Yanqiu, something's not right! We work from dawn till dusk, how come our work points are lower than those slackers in Group Four?"

"Exactly! It's obvious someone's up to no good!"

Gu Yanqiu knew exactly what was going on, but he didn't make a scene.

He simply had Niannian follow behind him every night with her little notebook.

"Dad, Uncle Wang cut three bundles today, and Aunt Li cut two and a half bundles..."

Niannian followed her like a little tail, meticulously recording every task performed by everyone in the group.

On the third night, Gu Yanqiu looked at the number of work points that had been "accidentally" missed again on the blackboard, and he knew it was time.

He didn't go to Gu Yanchun, nor did he go to the accountant, Lao Sun.

He took Niannian directly and knocked on the door of Captain Cheng Tiezhu's house.

"Uncle Cheng, the summer harvest is hard work. Niannian and I came to see you." Gu Yanqiu said, placing a small basket of the freshest cucumbers that Niannian had picked from the vegetable garden on the table.

Cheng Tiezhu was smoking a pipe under the lamp, looking at the account book with a troubled expression. When he saw him arrive, he invited him to sit down.

"Yanqiu, is something the matter?"

"It's nothing, it's just..." Gu Yanqiu scratched his head, looking honest and simple, "It's just that some people in our group don't quite understand how work points are calculated, and we'd like to ask Uncle Cheng to explain it to us."

As soon as he finished speaking, Niannian, who had been quietly standing by, took out her account book from her pocket.

"Grandpa Cheng," the little girl's voice was clear and loud, "I helped Dad do some calculations."

She opened the notebook, which contained a clear table drawn in pencil. Each person's name was followed by a series of numbers and symbols. Although the table was crooked, the logic was exceptionally clear.

"According to the brigade's rule of 'more work, more pay,' a standard-sized bundle of wheat is worth 0.5 work points. Our group three harvested a total of 327 bundles of wheat over the past three days, which should have earned us 163.5 work points. However, the blackboard only recorded 148 work points for us, which is 15.5 points short."

"And it's not just our group. Grandpa Zhang from Group Two repaired the threshing machine three times the day before yesterday. According to the rules, he should have received an extra 3 technical work points, but he didn't."

"Aunt Liu from Group Four took half a day off yesterday, which should have resulted in a deduction of 2 work points, but it wasn't."

……

Niannian's little mouth rattled off a string of numbers accurate to one decimal place, like a machine gun.

She not only calculated the accounts for her own group, but also meticulously recorded the work points for the entire production team over the past three days, listing out who overpaid and who underpaid, item by item!

The entire room fell instantly so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

At first, Cheng Tiezhu thought it was just children playing house, but the more he listened, the more serious his expression became.

Finally, he snatched the notebook from Niannian's hand and, by the light of the oil lamp, carefully...

I examined it closely.

The more he looked, the more his hand holding the pipe trembled.

Finally, with a loud "bang," he slammed his pipe heavily on the table, veins bulging on his forehead, and roared, making the room vibrate!

"This is outrageous!"

The next morning, everyone in the entire brigade was summoned to the threshing ground.

Cheng Tiezhu's face was ashen, and in his hand was the very account book that Niannian had kept.

He had accountant Lao Sun and Gu Yanchun stand in front of the whole village and check the accounts one by one!

Old Sun broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.

Gu Yanchun's face was as white as a sheet of paper.

Before the "Heavenly Account" that records absolute truth, all sophistry and pretense seem so pale and powerless.

The proof is like a mountain!

Finally, Cheng Tiezhu announced to the public:

"Accountant Sun Youcai, abusing his position for personal gain, has deducted wages from commune members. Effective immediately, he is dismissed from his position as brigade accountant and his work points for the entire year are deducted!"

"Militia captain Gu Yanchun abused his power and retaliated against others, causing a negative impact on the summer harvest. He is hereby given a major demerit! After the summer harvest, he is required to write a 5,000-word in-depth self-criticism at home!"

The outcome is very gratifying!

Thunderous applause erupted in the courtyard.

In this uproar, what people talked about most was not Gu Yanchun's punishment, nor the old accountant's dismissal.

It was Gu Niannian.

That little girl, who was only five years old, could calculate the work points of the entire brigade perfectly.

"A child prodigy! This girl is a child prodigy!"

"A five-year-old can be an accountant? That's incredible!"

"The Gu family must be incredibly lucky to have produced such a golden nugget!"

The title of "accounting expert" spread throughout Chengjiawan overnight.

Niannian became the most dazzling little star in the village.

However, in a corner of the crowd, Gu Yanchun and Liu Cuihua, the couple, looked at Gu Yanqiu and his daughter, who were surrounded by the crowd, and the resentment in their eyes was almost tangible.

"A tall tree catches the wind..." An old farmer sighed with concern as he watched the scene.

"This girl is too smart. I wonder... if that's a blessing or a curse?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it reached Gu Yanqiu's ears clearly.

Gu Yanqiu felt a chill and instinctively pulled her daughter behind her.

Looking at his daughter's face, flushed with excitement, he suddenly felt a strong sense of unease.