The common people of Fengtai County were enjoying a rare holiday, and this peaceful atmosphere even infected the guards. They pretended not to see the common people listening to flower drums or chatting while taking out a potato to gnaw on slowly. Even the guards of the Reclamation Brigade had not really eaten their fill these days. It wasn't until after the harvest that they ate truly full meals. After finally getting rid of the hunger state that had lasted for several months, everyone was particularly sympathetic about this matter.

Seeing the guards didn't make a sound, the common people were also relieved. After all, before the harvest, the Reclamation Brigade had specifically explained that the current grain was for everyone to survive the winter, and the canteen would remain open until the harvest ended next year. Although this reasoning was correct, it couldn't stop everyone from "appropriately" stuffing one or two potatoes into their pockets during the harvest.

However, everyone didn't eat much. In the eyes of the common people, the potatoes brought out secretly were their own, and the canteen food didn't cost money, so it was eaten for free. The taste of the rush-planted potatoes was really not fresh and sweet enough, quite a gap compared to the cooked food in the canteen. Even these common people enjoying the holiday didn't really want to treat these potatoes as staple food. Even if they took some, it was just one or two. The guards didn't think people should be arrested for just one or two potatoes. Being fellow villagers, it was completely unnecessary to tear faces apart for such a small matter.

In a place where the vision of the resting crowd could barely reach, a small group of figures bent their waists, avoiding being seen as much as possible. There were eight people in this group, half were youths around twenty years old, and half were children around ten. They were all in ragged clothes, with hair as messy as grass. Although their faces could be considered washed, there were thick stains on their ears and necks. Although these youths and children were at an agile age, walking with bent waists was still very tiring. After walking for a while, a child who fell to the end of the team couldn't help but stop. He straightened his waist and asked panting, "Brother, I'm tired."

"Just walk a bit more and we'll be there." A youth with a very obvious white scar on his forehead—the scar looked like a white earthworm on the upper left of his forehead, likely a knife scar—answered casually upon hearing the child's question. He looked back and saw the child standing there motionless, so he hurriedly ran back, pressed the child's head down, and made him squat.

"What are you standing up for? What if someone sees?" the youth scolded in a low voice.

The child said timidly, "I know, brother." Then he asked somewhat worriedly, "Brother, is there really food in the field?"

"Didn't you eat the sweet potato I brought back last time?" the youth asked very unhappily.

Hearing this, the child couldn't help swallowing saliva as if recalling a peerless delicacy. "Brother, last time there was only half a sweet potato. This time I want to eat a whole one."

"As long as you are obedient, I'll give you two." The youth laughed.

A smile also appeared on the child's face. "Good, I want two."

"If you want to eat sweet potatoes, walk quickly. Don't stand up." After the youth finished speaking, he bent down and continued to walk. The child also followed behind, continuing to walk with a bent waist.

Another youth waiting at the front whispered to the scar-faced youth who caught up, "Why did you bring such a fool?"

"In case we encounter something, he will be useful." The scar-faced youth laughed.

The asking youth didn't seem to believe this much, but he didn't speak either. He asked another question he cared about most: "These fields have already been harvested; where can we get food? How about we go back to the county town side?"

The scar-faced youth answered in a low voice: "They watch strictly over there. Not to mention during the day, I went there at night; there were even more guards. Those people in Fengtai County are ruthless. The fields here are not watched so tightly; I dug up sweet potatoes here last time. It's not far ahead."

"Then why don't we come at night?" the youths were very puzzled.

"I tried; they watch very strictly here at night. And this field has no place to hide at all. During the day, there aren't so many people. Even so, we might not necessarily get anything."

The group talked while walking, and sure enough, they didn't encounter any guards ahead. It had to be said that the luck of these petty thieves was quite good. Their action happened to be chosen at the time when Fengtai County was most slack from top to bottom. The Reclamation Brigade was on holiday; a large number of troops in the Insurance Corps were transferred out to fight. The elite troops were all preparing to attack Shouzhou. Other capable troops were transferred to the police force in the county town. The common people of the Reclamation Brigade were now enjoying the holiday. The strength guarding the farmland had been weakened to the limit. Moreover, the area selected by the thieves was very close to the camp, exactly at the junction of the defense areas of the camp guard team and the field guard team. Theoretically, the junction of two friendly forces should be the strongest, but the actual situation is that the more such a junction area, the easier it is to become a "three-no's" zone [unmanaged zone]. Instead, it became the weakest area.

If not for this, it would be absolutely impossible for these petty thieves to grope their way here easily.

The field in front was planted with potatoes. The thieves sneaked into the field, took out wooden sticks, and started digging. The rush-planted and rush-harvested crops couldn't grow very big anyway; the potatoes soon revealed their rather small and shabby figures. But there was absolutely no contempt in the eyes of the petty thieves. Seeing that there was finally food, their eyes lit up one by one. These people had been hungry for a long time. Picking up the potatoes, they wiped them casually on their bodies, and then everyone stuffed the potatoes into their mouths to chew without even peeling them. Potatoes mixed with soil were even more unpalatable, but the feeling of hunger could turn decay into magic. The nerves naturally filtered the feeling of eating soil to a negligible level, magnifying the sweet taste of starch and juice to an infinite degree.

Almost every thief had a look of happiness on their face, as if they were eating not potatoes, but dragon liver and phoenix marrow. The scar-faced youth was not so excited. He chose the smallest potato, gnawed off the potato skin quickly like a rat, and spat it on the ground. Only after revealing the white potato did he stuff the potato into his mouth. While eating, he started to continue digging the ground. "You guys hurry up too." The scar-faced youth shouted in a low voice while busy.

Although the Fengtai County farmland guarding system had an opportunity exploited by thieves, this was also limited. The discipline of the Insurance Corps was never a joke. The thieves were all starving disaster victims; seeing grain, they couldn't help themselves at all. Although the scar-faced youth kept urging that everyone just take seven or eight, this bunch of people didn't listen at all. They simply couldn't control their own bodies and emotions. Having dug out one potato, they couldn't help but want to dig one more. These people were like possessed, lying on the ground digging for their lives. Everyone's eyes stared wide, flashing with greedy light. Some people, with half-gnawed potatoes in their mouths, couldn't help but make panting sounds like wild beasts.

The scar-faced youth couldn't bear it anymore; he kicked the youth behind him. That youth immediately lost his balance. If it were usual times, he would definitely react. But now he had no reaction at all, just got up and continued digging in the ground for his life, and constantly raked the dug-out potatoes to his side, stuffing the potatoes into his tattered clothes. The ragged clothes couldn't hold so many potatoes at all; potatoes constantly slipped out from the tattered lapels. The youth whose chest clothes were stuffed full of potatoes simply lay on the potatoes like a brooding hen, pressing his precious wealth tightly under his body.

Seeing this group of people in such a state, the scar-faced youth felt a burst of regret in his heart. He brought so many people this time hoping to bring more things back. But he didn't expect this group of people to become like this upon seeing food. No matter how he cursed in a low voice or pulled hard, he couldn't make this group of frenzied youths give up such meaningless actions.

Hunger is the most torturous feeling. Let alone these youths, even the local common people of Fengtai County, who could be considered half-full, many of them had eyes lighting up or even started crying upon seeing so much grain during the harvest.

And these disaster victims were continuously in a state of hunger. The Insurance Corps absolutely couldn't favor one over the other; the grain given to disaster victims was just enough not to starve to death. It wasn't that no one suggested that such a situation with disaster victims would definitely cause problems, but the comrades of the People's Party from top to bottom were very consistent on this issue. Everyone would rather increase police strength and strengthen guard forces than give more grain to these disaster victims. At the meeting, Yuwen Badu even cast aside his usual subservient performance and expressed his attitude clearly: "If we give more grain to disaster victims, I have no way to explain to the common people."

On this issue, even comrades worried about disaster victims causing trouble did not propose the program "The People's Party must serve the people." Fengtai County was the base area of the Insurance Corps; Fengtai County itself still had many problems. Keeping disaster victims from elsewhere from starving to death was already a manifestation of everyone's humanitarian spirit. Letting them eat like the common people of Fengtai County—even You Gou, as a woman, didn't have this idea.

The situation created jointly by the People's Party and the common people of Fengtai County was certainly chaotic and full of various contradictions, but at least it was still "contradictions among the people." In the eyes of the People's Party comrades, disaster victims from other places could not be completely classified into the "category of people." Even a large group of people simply regarded these people as trouble.

Seeing things go far beyond his expectations, the scar-faced youth was decisive. He checked the potatoes in his own pocket, then crawled out of the field. "If you don't go, I'm going." After speaking, ignoring others, he began to bend his waist and return along the way he came.

Running out for a good distance, he turned his head to look, but saw that only the child who was least able to run was following him. The others were still digging for their lives in the field just like before.