"Mom, you must be joking, aren’t you? The money I earn still ends up being handed over to you in the end," Mu Dazhong said with a somewhat awkward smile to Old Mrs. Mu.

"Don’t try to play pretend with me, old woman. Do I not know what kind of person you are? I, this old woman, am making it clear here today: if you make money, I, this old woman, won’t take a single penny."

Old Mrs. Mu stood with her hands on her hips, looking tauntingly at Mu Dazhong.

The second son is Old Mrs. Mu’s son; she knows very well what he’s like.

Besides being lazy and gluttonous, this man can’t do anything else.

"Fine, you said it, don’t regret it!" Mu Dazhong said angrily as he stormed outside, with Mrs. Lin following behind him. The two of them tacitly walked toward the field path.

On the road, both tried to avoid being seen.

Because once some things are seen, trouble might follow, much like the situation with the third branch’s family back then when they were just going for a walk with their spouse, and the incident with Wang Fugui was blamed on them.

Mu Dazhong was naturally as cautious as he could be.

When they reached their own rice field, Mu Dazhong carried the burden, secretly taking a bit of rice from each family’s field.

Mu Shuangshuang and Lu Yuanfeng, hearing the noise, peeked out and saw Mu Dazhong and Mrs. Lin swaying as they approached.

The rice in Mu Dazhong’s load was about half-full.

Mu Shuangshuang suddenly realized, the thief was indeed someone from her own family!

Mu Shuangshuang signaled to Lu Yuanfeng with a glance, asking when he would take action.

Lu Yuanfeng gestured to wait a little longer.

To catch the thief and have evidence, they still had to wait for Mu Dazhong to reach their own field and grab a handful of rice.

Mu Shuangshuang decided to wait a bit longer.

Mu Dazhong carried the burden, stealing a few more handfuls of rice from nearby fields, then carefully tidied up the bundles for others.

At the side, Mrs. Lin began to complain, "Daddy Gou Dan, stealing like this isn’t a way to go, let’s just take the rice piled on the slope, won’t we?"

Farmers’ rice is usually harvested first and piled into small stacks.

Not much rice is placed on the small stacks, as cutting rice is generally done while moving.

Mu Danian could only steal a little at a time from these stacks, which indeed takes time.

But stealing from the piles already piled as mountains on the slopes could yield more, though it’s easier to get caught.

But wealth comes from danger; without this bit of courage, how could they make money?

"You’re right, stealing bit by bit here isn’t as good as pulling off a big haul. That way, we’ll earn more silver, and it will all be ours."

Mu Dazhong’s eyes scanned around and finally stopped on the neatly piled rice from Shuangshuang’s family’s slope.

"Gou Dan’s mother, I know whose rice we should take! Look at that three-acre field; it used to be our second class field, even now, half of it belongs to the Old Mu Family.

It’s rightful to take rice from here, but today, I noticed that the smelly girl from the third branch and the third son’s wife are helping out.

They must have colluded; this field clearly was bought by that smelly girl; she’s the real mastermind behind it!"

Mu Dazhong suddenly had a clear understanding and started analyzing carefully with Mrs. Lin:

"Back then, when elder brother needed money for the Autumn Examination, our first thought was to borrow from the third branch.

The third branch didn’t lend, saying they had no money, but they were clearly still buying land in Tie Dao Village. In the end, we thought of selling the land to the third branch, so it would be easy to take back later.

But that smelly girl wouldn’t agree. Everyone knows, the third branch is now dominated by that smelly girl; the third couple has no say at all.

I knew it; that smelly girl is full of bad ideas, even swindling her own family, it’s despicable."

Mu Dazhong was cursing Mu Shuangshuang, not knowing that the person involved was hidden not far away on the slope, secretly watching Mu Dazhong’s actions.

Mu Shuangshuang found it amusing, thinking, isn’t it too late to find out now after all this time?

However, it’s rare for the Old Mu Family to have a clever one, but this cleverness wasn’t used correctly.

Looks like they’re still planning to target the third branch.

Mu Shuangshuang decided this time, to scare Mu Dazhong to death.

Mrs. Lin was also full of anger.

The third branch suddenly became the richest people in the Old Mu Family, with houses and land, while the second branch had nothing.

Unless the third branch suffers losses, she, Mrs. Lin, would not swallow this anger.

"Daddy Gou Dan, let’s take all the rice from the third branch and let them show off."

Mrs. Lin ran faster than anyone, reaching Shuangshuang’s family’s slope, lifted the tarp Lu Yuanfeng had placed, and shouted, "Daddy Gou Dan, come quickly!"

Mu Dazhong carried the burden and lightly dashed forward.

When he reached the slope, he put down the load, bent over, and was about to touch the rice from Shuangshuang’s family.

Two clots of mud hit Mu Dazhong on the back of his head simultaneously.

"Ow, who was that?"

Mu Dazhong jumped in pain, immediately feeling someone around hitting him.

Realizing this, Mu Dazhong quickly lay down on the ground.

Mrs. Lin, oblivious to the situation, still didn’t understand what Mu Dazhong was doing and asked ignorantly, "Daddy Gou Dan, what are you lying on the ground for? Hurry up and work, be careful if you’re slow, someone might catch us."

Mu Dazhong almost had the urge to kill Mrs. Lin; stealing with someone like Mrs. Lin was beyond imagination.

"You foolish woman, someone’s here!"

As soon as Mu Dazhong finished speaking, Mrs. Lin got startled; the ground was occupied by Mu Dazhong, leaving her no place to hide, so she had to jump into the small ditch beside them.

There was water in the ditch, but not much, instead, there was more mud.

With that jump, Mrs. Lin turned into a mud person.

Even so, Mrs. Lin dared not move.

The two timidly waited for that person to leave quickly, but after half a cup of tea’s time, there was no movement at all.

Mu Dazhong mustered up his courage, got up, and looked around, finding no one.

He tried to steal more rice and found the same situation repeated.

This time, Mu Dazhong got angry; he searched around to see what dared to mess with him.

But, besides the breeze in the autumn, and the swaying rice spikes in the distance, there was nothing else.

"Daddy Gou Dan, could it be that it’s haunted?" Mrs. Lin asked, trembling. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Seeing ghosts during the day is quite eerie; even Mu Dazhong was a bit scared.

But he was a man; admitting fear of such things was too embarrassing for him.

"Nonsense, no such things in broad daylight, say that again and I’ll divorce you, you useless woman."

Mrs. Lin, feeling wronged, climbed out of the mud pit.

Suddenly, Mu Dazhong gathered his courage and said to Mrs. Lin, "I’m hungry, let’s hurry back and eat something good."

Mu Dazhong finished speaking and almost went berserk, dashing toward the village.

Mrs. Lin followed behind, her rear end running almost in pieces of explosion.

No one dared to look back, fearing they might see something they shouldn’t.

Mu Shuangshuang raised her head from a pile of rice spikes and said to Lu Yuanfeng, "Fengzi, let’s hurry and follow them, see where my second uncle hides the stolen goods!"