Returning to the county opera troupe in 77

Backstage in the dressing room, Li Mancang nervously tugged at Chen Xiangdong's sleeve: "Big Brother, can we really catch Hua Glass Eyes and the others?"

Chen Xiangdong didn't say anything, but simply lifted a corner of the canvas curtain, craned his neck, and peered through the stage into the audience.

Zhu Zhengkuo had a stern face. Afraid of disturbing the audience behind him, he hunched over and squeezed next to the commune secretary who was sitting in the middle of the first row. He then whispered a few words in the man's ear.

From Chen Xiangdong's perspective, he saw that the commune secretary's expression had clearly changed. His shoulder twitched, as if he subconsciously wanted to turn his head to look behind him, but before he could turn his neck, Zhu Zhengkuo patted his shoulder, which made him forcibly restrain himself from looking behind him.

After Zhu Zheng finished speaking, he left the audience. Immediately afterwards, the commune secretary whispered something to the militia company commander sitting next to him, then looked back at the stage as if nothing had happened.

Lowering the canvas curtain, Chen Xiangdong turned around and looked at Li Mancang: "Later, you'll have to identify who the thieves are. Whether we can catch them all depends on you."

Li Mancang's eyes lit up: "I'll definitely cooperate! Lin Gouwa and the others are still tied up in the cowshed, when are we going to rescue them?"

Chen Xiangdong thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "Let's not rush. We'll catch these thieves at the school first, then we'll go rescue Lin Gouwa and the others."

Li Mancang nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Less than two minutes later, Zhu Zhengkuo and the militia company commander arrived at the dressing room one after the other. Zhu Zhengkuo patted Li Mancang on the shoulder and said, "Kid, with the commune militia company commander here, you don't have to be afraid of anything."

The militia company commander also stated: "As long as you identify all those thieves, I will take men and arrest them all. No one will threaten your safety."

Li Mancang grunted in agreement, hiding behind Chen Xiangdong. He glanced at the audience, searched for a moment, and pointed to a bald man in the crowd: "That bald man is called Lai Zi. The one standing next to him is Er Mao, and the short one in the northwest corner with a scar on his face is also a thief..."

The militia company commander looked in the directions he was pointing, nodded silently, and memorized the physical characteristics of the three men.

"Hey, where's Flower Glass Eyes? He's the leader of this gang of thieves. I just saw him..." Li Mancang's face showed tension and unease. Of all the people in that group, he was most afraid of Flower Glass Eyes. How could he feel at ease if that person got away?

"It's alright, you can take your time looking. I'll go tell the brothers to keep an eye on these three and make sure they don't get away." The militia company commander said before leaving the dressing room.

Chen Xiangdong frowned and muttered, "That guy with the glassy eyes, could he have gone to stake out somewhere else?"

This reminded Li Mancang of something. He suddenly remembered the arrangements made by Hua Glass Eyes, and his eyes lit up: "Oh, right! Before we came, they even said they were going to steal your troupe's luggage!"

"Luggage..." Chen Xiangdong and Zhu Zheng exchanged a glance, already guessing where the thief was.

"Team Leader Niu, gather the crew and come with me to the classroom!"

Zhu Zheng turned his head and called out to Niu Laohei and his group, who were smoking and chatting behind the stage. Niu Laohei and the others were taken aback at first: "Wait, Secretary Zhu, the play isn't over yet, what are you doing in the classroom?"

Chen Xiangdong said to Niu Laohei in a deep voice, "A thief has infiltrated our troupe."

"What!"

Niu Laohei and the other four members of the production crew stared wide-eyed. Then, Niu Laohei threw his cigarette butt on the ground and cursed, "Damn it! That brat's got some nerve, daring to steal from our theater troupe? Brothers, grab your weapons and corner that thief who's about to get stabbed!"

Li Mancang wanted to remind Hua Glass Eyes that he had a dagger, but seeing Chen Xiangdong, Zhu Zhengguo, and Niu Laohei turn around and grab the weapons they had picked up from the corner, he immediately swallowed his words.

Several people grabbed knives and guns, and Chen Xiangdong, fearing things might not be going smoothly, even held a metal knife in his left hand and a red-tasseled spear in his right. The group rushed towards the classroom in a flurry of activity.

The group's actions gave Li Mancang a cold sweat, and he couldn't help but worry about Hua Glass Eyes, thinking to himself, "These people probably won't beat me to death... right?"

But for now, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow, since they would be counting on him to identify the ringleader later.

When the group arrived in front of the row of classrooms, they tiptoed along the wall at Zhu Zhengwei's gesture.

The classroom was pitch black, with only faint sounds of "huff...huff...huff...huff" coming from inside. It was Lin Datou snoring.

Chen Xiangdong squinted and peered into the room. Apart from Lin Datou, who was lying sprawled on the desk, there was a figure in the corner by the window, hunching his neck and quietly rummaging through a pile of luggage bags in the corner.

The man moved extremely carefully, without making a sound. He searched for a couple of times and then stopped. Only after confirming that Lin Datou's snoring was still going on did he lower his head again to continue searching for valuables.

The glass eye is indeed here!

Chen Xiangdong cursed inwardly, "This guy has some nerve! There's a grown man sleeping right next to him, and he still dares to sneak in and steal things!"

Zhu Zhengwei, peering through the doorframe, confirmed that someone inside was indeed up to no good, then suddenly shouted into the house, "Thief!"

The shout exploded like thunder in the classroom, startling the student with frosty eyes. The cloth bag he was carrying fell to the ground with a "thud," scattering cigarettes, banknotes, and coins all over the floor.

He turned his head in horror and saw seven or eight figures holding knives and guns rushing in through the back door of the classroom.

His heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively pulled out the dagger tucked in his belt, then quickly turned and ran towards the front door.

"Stop him! Don't let him get away!"

Seeing that Hua Glass Eyes was about to escape, Zhu Zhengkuo hurriedly ran over to intercept him, but after all, he had been retired from the army for many years and had become overweight. His movements were no longer agile, so how could he outrun the thief who had been climbing over walls for years?

Niu Laohei and his friends hurriedly gave chase, but they were still a step too late for Hua Glass Eyes. Just as the thief was about to dart out of the classroom, a stool flew out from the back door with a "whoosh" and landed squarely on Hua Glass Eyes' thigh with a "bang".

"Ouch!"

With a scream of pain, Hua Glass Eyes staggered and crashed into the door frame, the dagger flying far from his hand.

Zhu Zhengguo and Niu Laohei pounced on him, Zhu Zhengguo grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, then slammed his knee into his lower back, pinning him to the ground. Niu Laohei was even more ruthless, sitting directly on his head, nearly suffocating him.

Zhu Zheng turned around and gave Chen Xiangdong a thumbs-up: "Well done!"

Chen Xiangdong grinned and called out to Li Mancang behind him.

Li Mancang's heart pounded. He rushed over, glanced down at the man with half his face pressed to the ground, and pointed at him urgently: "He's the one with the 'Flower Glass Eyes'!"

Lin Datou, who had been sleeping like a log, was woken up by the noise. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and stared blankly at the scene, looking completely bewildered: "What's going on here?"