I became a farmer in the apocalypse.

Inside the house, the woman's tone was filled with anticipation and joy, as if she knew what Chen Man and Chen Pi had gone out to do.

Jiang Li's expression darkened upon hearing this.

Wang Cuili opened the door with a smile, but when she saw Jiang Li and Jiang Yan, her smile vanished instantly.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

His voice sounded tense.

With a cold face, Jiang Li pulled the three children in front of her and said succinctly, "Your son stole vegetables from my field, and I caught him red-handed."

Upon hearing this, Wang Cuili looked surprised. "What? Stealing vegetables?"

She strode out, grabbed Chen Man, and started spanking him. "Troublemaker! Troublemaker! Who told you to steal vegetables? Didn't we give you any to eat at home? Why are you so naughty?"

Wang Cuili's husband, Chen Shouye, and her mother-in-law, Chen Xiue, also came out of the house.

"What happened?"

Jiang Yan said to Chen Shouye and Chen Xiue, "Your three children stole vegetables from my field."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiu'e immediately curled her lip. "I thought it was a big deal. It's just a kid picking a few vegetables. Coming to my door in the middle of the night, aren't they ashamed..."

"Shameful?" Jiang Yan asked in surprise. "What's shameful about us? You're the one who should be ashamed!"

He looked at Chen Xiue and said, "My land is so far away from yours, why did you have to steal from us of all people!"

"Is it because you saw him on the bus last time that you sent your three grandsons to steal things?"

Faced with Jiang Yan's questioning, Chen Xiu'e's expression changed.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I don't understand what you're saying!"

"Then take a good look at what this is!" Jiang Yan handed her the small eggplants and chili peppers that the three children had just stolen.

Chen Xiue frowned as she looked at the contents of the bag.

"It's just a few eggplants and peppers. You have so many good things in your field, what's the big deal if you lose a few?"

Hearing her dismissive tone, Jiang Yan became somewhat angry. "The vegetables in the safe zone are so expensive. If these had grown properly, they could have sold for at least 500 points. Now they're all ruined."

"Fine, fine, fine!" Chen Xiu'e said impatiently, "I'll apologize to you, okay? You're just a kid..."

"Why should I apologize? Apologies can't put food on the table," Jiang Yan said. "We're here to make compensation. You have to pay us back the original price for all the vegetables you stole and ruined yesterday and today."

"What?!"

Upon hearing that compensation was required, Wang Cuili's voice rose sharply, "It's just a few chili peppers! How dare you ask for compensation?"

Jiang Yan: "It's not just the chili seedlings, but also the new seedlings in the field. They dug up a lot of seedlings just now and trampled some of them! These should be counted too."

Hearing that seedlings also had to be included, Wang Cuili's already unattractive face darkened even more.

"Are you crazy for money? We only damaged a few of your seedlings, and you're already demanding compensation from us!"

Chen Xiu'e simply denied it, saying, "What evidence do you have to prove that my grandson ruined the things in your field? Who knows if you're a slanderer?"

Jiang Yan: "Their footprints, digging marks, and even their tools are still in the ground! You can go see them!"

Chen Xiue remained silent.

Wang Cuili immediately lost her temper, saying, "I don't care what you say, I have no money! You didn't take good care of the land, who can you blame!"

"Even if my son doesn't steal, plenty of others will!"

With these identical lines, Jiang Li finally understood why those kids were so unreasonable. It turned out their mother had taught them so well!

"Then I'll report it to the patrol team."

Jiang Li took out her communicator.

Anyway, she didn't want to waste any time.

"Stealing vegetables in the safe zone is considered theft, so I guess the same rule applies to the farm area."

Wang Cuili was not afraid of her threat and glared at her, saying:

"Who are you trying to fool! Theft! We lived in the countryside before the apocalypse. It's not like we haven't stolen vegetables before. People whose vegetables are stolen just have to accept it. Even if you report it to the police, who cares about such a trivial matter!"

Chen Xiu'e sneered, "That's right! If you don't take care of your vegetables in the field, you deserve to have them stolen! I'm already being lenient by having my grandson apologize to you, but you had to make such a scene! Besides, it's not like we're not returning the stolen vegetables to you; you can just take them back. You want compensation? You're dreaming!"

They all spoke with great conviction, as if the person whose property was stolen was the one who had done something wrong.

Even Liu Qing couldn't stand it anymore. "You two are being completely unreasonable! You failed to raise your child properly, and now you're blaming the Jiang siblings!"

"And you're encouraging your children to steal; aren't you afraid of harming them?"

Jiang Li already knew that she couldn't reason with them, so she called the patrol team.

Soon, the patrol arrived.

"What happened?"

Jiang Li truthfully told them that her vegetables had been stolen and trampled.

"Stealing vegetables?" The patrol captain scrutinized the Chen family members with a serious expression.

"According to the base's security regulations, all food, vegetables, and fruits are classified as essential survival supplies. Stealing survival supplies in the apocalypse is the same as stealing gold before the apocalypse—it is absolutely forbidden!"

"Besides, if the vegetables in the fields keep getting stolen, will the landowners even bother farming anymore?"

Since the base encourages landowners to come out and farm, these policies should naturally be taken into account.

The captain in charge said, "You must pay for the stolen vegetables at their original price, or your three children will have to come with us."

Wang Cuihua's eyes widened. "Where are we going?"

"Naturally, they'll go to the base's juvenile detention center, and they'll be under supervision for at least a month. If they don't repent and are deemed unstable elements who disrupt the base's security, they'll be sent to the front lines to draw the fire of the mutated beasts for the soldiers on the front lines."

Wang Cuihua's face turned pale upon hearing this. "No! Absolutely not!"

Chen Xiu pouted, her expression grim. "It's just stealing some vegetables, why is it such a big deal..."

"If that's the case, why don't you just go to the market and steal vegetables?"

These words left Chen Xiu'e speechless.

There are guards at the market; isn't that stealing right under the soldiers' noses?

"So, the reason there are soldiers guarding the market is naturally to keep people like you out of trouble!"

After saying that, the patrol captain looked at Jiang Li and said, "Take us to your vegetable garden to assess the losses."

Jiang Li nodded and led the group to the vegetable garden.

A female soldier takes photos and records data while simultaneously calculating the figures.

"For seedlings that were trampled or dug up, compensation will be 150% of the seed price. For this quantity, the compensation will be 200 points..."

"Three stolen chili pepper plants were found in the Chen family's vegetable garden. They were confirmed to be non-mutated plants and will be sold at the market price of 100 points per plant."

"In addition, the unmutated small eggplants and small green peppers are converted at 80% of the market price of mature vegetables, which is 50 points per kilogram, for a total of 110 points."

"There is also a corresponding fine of 200 points for stealing vegetables, which goes to the victim. In total, it's 810 points."

The Chen family members turned pale when they heard the result.

"810 points?"

That's enough to buy fifteen pounds of food!