RBCT Chapter 62 The Theft of Winter Vegetables
Chapter 62 The Theft of Winter Vegetables
Qin Huairu had always wanted to get rid of Jia Zhangshi, but she had the lowest status in the Jia family. First was Jia Zhangshi, second was Jia Dongxu, and third was Banggeng.
Qin Huairu was fourth in the Jia family. Luckily, she didn't keep a dog, otherwise she would have been ranked even lower.
Qin Huairu didn't ask He Yuzhu how he schemed against Jia Zhangshi; she just knew that the man would do this for her sake.
Qin Huairu completely trusted He Yuzhu. Despite being Jia Dongxu's wife, Qin Huairu felt in her heart that only He Yuzhu was worthy of her.
As for Jia Dongxu, that good-for-nothing, let's just forget about him. He's just a tool for raising children.
Except for a few families with small populations, such as He Yuzhu's family which consisted of only a brother and sister.
The deaf old lady lives alone, and Xu Damao's family is also alone now.
Apart from three families, most other families consist of four or five or six people, which is normal.
Based on an average daily vegetable consumption of half a pound per person, a family might consume several pounds of vegetables per day.
One to two hundred kilograms a month is stored for winter in northern China, which typically lasts from the end of October to March of the following year, a period of nearly five months.
A family usually buys enough vegetables for five months to ensure they can eat them until the following spring when new vegetables are in season.
It's normal for a family to buy 1,000 jin (500 kg), and some families with more members might buy 1,500 jin (750 kg).
If ten or so families piled up more than 10,000 kilograms of vegetables in the cellar, it would definitely look like a small mountain.
A single cabbage weighs several kilograms, and even a hundred cabbages piled together are difficult to count.
The Jia family's own food supply could only last for a little over a month, and might not even be enough.
In the past month or so, Jia Zhangshi has already stolen two or three hundred catties of vegetables from other people's cellars.
When it came to the ten families, each family lost anywhere from three or four cabbages to five or six.
Nobody thought much of it. Even if someone noticed, they wouldn't suspect someone was stealing vegetables; they'd just wonder if they remembered it wrong.
Or perhaps someone has guessed something, after all, the Jia family didn't put much food in the cellar back then.
Everyone else weighs over a thousand kilograms, so their family's two hundred kilograms is quite conspicuous.
However, these people were not willing to take the initiative to expose Jia Zhangshi, and besides, since they were all being taken advantage of by Jia Zhangshi, they would only lose a maximum of ten or twenty thousand yuan.
There was no need to fight to the death with Jia Zhangshi over such a small amount of money, so we just let it slide.
Of course, this is also due to Yi Zhonghai's frequent favoritism towards the Jia family. Although Yi Zhonghai doesn't dare to go too far now, he has recently established great prestige in the courtyard.
Apart from He Yuzhu, Xu Damao, and Li Tieniu, the others were still afraid of Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Yan Bugui.
The three stewards in the courtyard are now said to be in cahoots, working together in malpractice. However, no one dares to oppose them, as any individual who does so will be collectively targeted by the three stewards.
They didn't have the same fighting power as He Yuzhu, and each time Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Yan Bugui wouldn't really push the other side to the brink.
This is like slowly boiling a frog in lukewarm water, gradually turning everyone into obedient subjects.
Zhang Xiaoquan, who lives in the front yard, now deeply regrets not standing with He Yuzhu. Seeing the deaf old lady return, he was so frightened that he distanced himself from the He family.
In the most recent conflict between the Zhang and Liu families, Zhang Xiaoquan was forced to pay the Liu family 30,000 yuan in compensation to resolve the issue.
That day, Zhang Xiaoquan slapped himself for the first time, resenting himself for being blind to have trusted Yi Zhonghai and his group.
But things have already come to this point, and even if he were to go and seek an alliance with He Yuzhu now, the other party wouldn't even consider him.
With He Yuzhu, Li Tieniu, and Xu Damao's families all bound together, even Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Yan Bugui dared not provoke them.
The three men were skilled in both fighting and eloquence, and dared to oppose them. The three stewards hated the three families to death.
He Yuzhu had been keeping an eye on Jia Zhangshi's vegetable-stealing activities until that day arrived.
The days passed by.
Every time, Jia Zhangshi would still bring vegetables home from the cellar without any hesitation.
She had directed Qin Huairu, who had heard He Yuzhu mention it before but refused to go.
Even if Jia Zhangshi slapped Qin Huairu, she still wouldn't go.
Qin Huairu meant that we could buy vegetables, but we couldn't steal them. Jia Zhangshi swore it wasn't stealing, it was just borrowing.
Qin Huairu naturally didn't believe it, nor would she do such a thing.
Jia Zhangshi had no choice but to go to the cellar to get vegetables herself every day.
In mid-January, one morning someone suddenly started shouting in the cellar.
Soon everyone in the courtyard was drawn over, and they quickly learned that the cellar in the backyard had been burgled.
Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Yan Bugui, the three elderly men, had to step in to appease everyone.
Jia Zhangshi and Jia Dongxu hid to the side, pretending to know nothing. Xu Damao's eyes darted around, clearly eager for chaos.
Jia Dongxu naturally knew how much food his family had bought. Now that they had enough vegetables every day, it must have been his mother, Jia Zhangshi, who made them.
However, he didn't dare to object, and he also harbored the mentality of taking advantage of the situation. After all, he himself often stole parts and scrap metal from the steel rolling mill to sell for money.
He Yuzhu secretly went to Xu Damao's side and whispered, "Go to the police station. I suspect the Jia family did it."
After listening to He Yuzhu's words, Xu Damao immediately felt that they made a lot of sense.
Besides, he had been eyeing Qin Huairu for a long time, and if he could see the Jia family suffer misfortune, his chance might come.
Xu Damao was incredibly excited at the thought of seeing how Qin Huairu would resist his temptation.
Xu Damao secretly left the crowd. The backyard was in a mess, so no one saw him leave.
"Alright, everyone, don't panic. Let's go through the details one by one to find out exactly how many people were robbed."
"My house was burgled. I calculated that at least 100 kilograms of vegetables were stolen."
"My family is the same."
"My family is the same."
"Old Yi, we've lost about 100 jin of vegetables."
Aunt Luo Qiaoyun and Aunt Fan Dongni also reported the amount of vegetables they had lost.
In fact, Jia Zhangshi stole a maximum of 200 jin this month. On average, each family would only steal about 20 jin.
In addition, she was very careful and deliberately piled up other people's dishes, so at first glance you really couldn't tell that many dishes were missing.
However, three months have passed since they bought the winter vegetables, and apart from the first month when the Jia family ate their own food.
For the remaining two months, nearly 500 kilograms of vegetables were taken from other people's homes.
Last night, He Yuzhu went to the cellar in the backyard and took another fifty catties of vegetables from each household. Then he deliberately arranged the empty piles of vegetables properly, so that people would definitely find out that their vegetables had been stolen early this morning.
The three old men quickly tallied up the losses, finding that each family had lost at least 200 jin (100 kg) of vegetables.
It was actually only a little over 100 jin (50 kg), but people exaggerated it intentionally or unintentionally, making it seem like each family was missing 200 jin (100 kg) of vegetables.
After all, they couldn't possibly be precise about how much they ate each day, down to the exact pound or ounce. They underreported their own food intake, but the final tally came to 200 pounds.
Some even reported 400 jin (200 kg) more.
Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Yan Bugui were all stunned; this was a major case.
Even if Yi Zhonghai wanted to cover it up, he wouldn't dare to make the decision.
If one family loses tens of thousands of yuan, ten families would lose hundreds of thousands.
"We're all from the same compound. If someone did it, they should come forward, admit it, and compensate everyone for their losses. Otherwise, we'll have to report it to the police."
Yi Zhonghai still didn't want the courtyard house incident to be investigated by the police station, so he took the initiative to speak up, hoping that someone would come forward and admit it.
When Jia Zhangshi and Jia Dongxu heard the report, they were both startled, but it was impossible for them to come forward.
The main reason was that Jia Zhangshi also felt something was strange; had she really stolen that much?
Jia Zhangshi felt that she had taken at most 100 jin of vegetables, and the rest must have been done by others, so she wasn't really afraid.
This caused Jia Zhangshi to miss her last chance, and Yi Zhonghai's face darkened when he saw that no one stepped forward.
"Old Yi, let's report this to the police. This is a big case."
Liu Haizhong couldn't stand it anymore. His family had lost nearly 300 jin of vegetables. What was going on? He was the second oldest man in the neighborhood.
This person even dared to steal his vegetables; he was determined to deal with them.
Yan Bugui also chimed in.
"Old Yi, this is no small matter. Each family has hundreds of kilograms of vegetables. Putting aside the money, there's still a long time until March next year. How will everyone survive if the vegetables aren't recovered?"
"Oh, right, my God, those heartless thieves! How much money have we wasted now?"
Yan Bugui's words quickly made the ten families realize that if they missed the time for storing vegetables for winter, they would have to pay several times more to buy them.
This is no small sum of money, and no one would willingly accept such a loss.
Yi Zhonghai glanced at Jia Zhangshi and Jia Dongxu, and was somewhat disappointed to find that the two of them acted as if they knew nothing.
He actually saw the winter vegetables that Jia Dongxu had bought, and seeing that the other party had only bought more than 200 jin, he felt that Jia Zhangshi was starting to scheme again.
Last year, the other party bought at least 800 jin of vegetables, and stole some in the middle, but no one found out in the end.
Yi Zhonghai was the most calculating person in the hospital; he could guess everything just from a few details.
Seeing the vegetables Jia Dongxu bought this year, I guessed how the story would end. I just didn't expect the Jia family to be so ruthless. They finished all their vegetables in just three months and stole more than 2,000 kilograms of vegetables.
Yi Zhonghai was certain that Jia Zhangshi couldn't have stolen that many vegetables, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.
Everyone is now unanimously admitting they stole so many vegetables. What will Yi Zhonghai do? He'll have to come forward and confess to stealing them.
Putting aside the damage to their reputation, they can't afford to lose money either.
This isn't like the time when we had vegetables. Now that we're losing money, we need to do a good job and compensate several times over.
Pressed by Liu Haizhong, Yan Bugui, and the owners of the stolen vegetables, Yi Zhonghai had no choice but to agree to call the police.
Just as they were about to send someone to call the police, two police officers walked in.
"What are you doing here?"
"Officer, a vegetable thief has appeared in our yard. He stole more than 200 kilograms of vegetables from us."
"Yes, each family has 200 jin, and some even have 400 jin."
There was also some arguing in the front yard, which made the case much bigger.
The two policemen were also taken aback when they heard the number.
This is a case involving nearly a million dollars, and it concerns the vegetables we eat every day.
The two police officers quickly began questioning everyone separately, mainly in an attempt to find clues.