Reborn in 78, I made my fortune by working in the mountains, supporting three families on my own.

Qin Bowen was seething with anger, and he just couldn't swallow it.

More than two thousand yuan!

In this day and age, it would be enough for my brother-in-law to build another floor of a new red brick house. It's a huge sum of money that an ordinary family couldn't earn in several years!

He stared intently at Fatty Chen, his tone urgent and angry.

"Fatty Chen, stop trying to fool me with your nonsense!"

"This is clearly your doing! What a coincidence! You have to give us an explanation today, and you have to take responsibility for this!"

Fatty Chen's face darkened, and he immediately put on a look as if he had been wronged.

"Young man Bowen, you can't just say things like that! You're slandering an innocent person out of thin air!"

"Which eye of yours saw me steal anything? You keep saying I did it, but there's no evidence whatsoever; it's all just your wild guesses!"

Qin Bowen was furious, his face flushed and his neck bulging. He gritted his teeth and said, "Do I need evidence? Anyone with a brain can see that you definitely did this in secret!"

Fatty Chen chuckled upon hearing this, his tone carrying a hint of control and threat.

"Bowen, don't think you can spout nonsense at the commune gate just because your father is the brigade leader."

"We're both reasonable people. You can doubt me, but if you can provide evidence, I'll let you do whatever you want with me. If you can't, then you're just framing me."

These words left Qin Bowen speechless.

He was absolutely certain that it was Fatty Chen who did it, but he didn't have any solid evidence.

Qin Bowen hardened his heart and decided to be unreasonable, relentlessly pursuing the other party.

"I don't care! It's you!"

"You either return the stolen musk pouch, or you compensate us for our losses!"

Fatty Chen immediately chuckled coldly, his face full of disdain.

"Ha, that's childish talk. It makes me want to laugh. Trying to extort money from me with empty words? That's ridiculous."

Completely enraged, Qin Bowen could no longer contain his anger and stepped forward to shove Chen the Fat Man hard.

"I don't care! You have to give me an explanation today!"

Fatty Chen, with his large, heavy body, was pushed so hard that he staggered back two steps, his face instantly turning extremely ugly.

The two were on the verge of a fight, seemingly about to come to blows in public.

Zhao Lei frowned deeply and was about to step forward to stop him.

Just then, several figures rushed out of the commune compound, their steps hurried and their speed extremely fast.

The cadres were having a routine meeting in the compound when the arguing outside grew louder and louder, making it impossible to conduct the meeting inside.

Qin Dashan sat inside, and the more he listened to the voices outside, the more familiar they became, and the more they sounded like his younger brother Qin Bowen's voice.

Unable to rest easy, the group decided to pause the meeting and go out together to check on the situation.

Leading the group was Captain Qin Mancang, followed by Women's Director Liu Hongxia, Deputy Director Qin Yulan, and Qin Dashan and his entourage.

As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Qin Bowen clenching his fist, raising his hand to smash Chen Pangzi's face.

Qin Dashan immediately roared angrily, "Brother! What are you doing! Stop!"

A rebuke from an older brother carries immense power.

Qin Bowen's fist, which was swinging in mid-air, froze instantly. He stood motionless, his anger frozen on his face.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhao Lei quickly stepped forward, grabbed Qin Bowen's arm, and pulled him back to his side.

He lowered his voice and urged quickly and solemnly:

"Bowen, calm down."

"I know he's lying and playing tricks, but we don't have any evidence right now."

"If you take action in public, you lose your ground even if you are in the right."

"We can't confront this head-on. We need to find a breakthrough elsewhere. We can't just waste time here and give others something to use against us."

Qin Bowen was filled with resentment, his chest heaving violently as he glared at the innocent-looking Fatty Chen across from him.

As soon as Qin Mancang stepped outside, he saw his youngest son, Qin Bowen, baring his teeth and brandishing his claws at the commune gate, almost striking someone in public.

Anger surged to the top of his head instantly.

Before anyone could react, Qin Mancang strode forward and delivered a crisp, loud slap to the face!

The slap landed squarely on Qin Bowen's face with tremendous force.

Zhao Lei didn't even have time to stop him; he froze on the spot and instinctively asked, "Dad! What are you doing?"

"Why are you hitting my blog? We could have just talked this out!"

This happened too suddenly.

Qin Dashan, Liu Hongxia, Qin Yulan, and a group of village cadres who came out of the compound were all instantly stunned.

The scene immediately fell silent.

The crowd quickly stepped forward to persuade them.

"Captain, why are you hitting someone?!"

"Yes, the kids are all grown up now; they still have to save face in public!"

"If there's a misunderstanding, we can talk it out calmly. There's no need to resort to violence."

Fatty Chen stood to the side, a cold, sinister smile playing on his lips, silently watching the Qin family father and son fight amongst themselves.

Qin Mancang completely ignored the advice of others, his face was ashen, and his temper was terrifying.

He pointed at Qin Bowen, who was covering his face and looked aggrieved, and angrily rebuked him.

"Don't hit him? If we don't hit him, he'll dare to climb on the roof and tear off the tiles!"

"They're getting bolder and bolder, daring to cause trouble at the entrance of the commune compound and even start a fight in public! Don't they have any respect for rules? Don't they consider me their father?!"

"Qin Bowen, have you gotten too cocky?!"

"You've made a little money following Lei Zi lately, and now you're getting all high and mighty?"

"You don't want to study, you complain about being too tired to do proper work, and you slack off when it comes to earning work points in the fields!"

"What exactly are you trying to do all day?! Do you want to be like Lai Mazi, a scoundrel who idles around and causes trouble all day long?!"

Qin Mancang grew angrier as he spoke, his chest heaving violently, and he raised his hand to strike again.

"Dad! Stop hitting him!"

Zhao Lei quickly stepped forward and grabbed his arm tightly, trying to dissuade him.

"Dad, it's really not Bowen's fault! This really isn't his fault!"

Qin Mancang was firmly stopped by his son-in-law. His anger subsided slightly, and he shook off his son-in-law's hand, saying coldly.

"Lei Zi, look what you've done to him!"

"I had him follow you so he could learn skills and how to be a decent person, not so he could become increasingly arrogant and lawless!"

Zhao Lei nodded in agreement.

"Yes, Father, you're right."

"But there is indeed a reason for what happened today."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent and turned to look at Zhao Lei.

Zhao Lei didn't hide anything and briefly explained the whole story in front of all the village officials.

"Father, fellow cadres."

"I was lucky yesterday when I went into the mountains and got three musk deer pods. I brought them to the supply and marketing cooperative this afternoon to ask about the price."

"Boss Chen's offer was too low, and we couldn't agree on a price, so we left."

"That very night, someone broke into the house."

"Strangely, all the cash, food, and car in the house were intact; nothing was missing."

"But the three musk sacs that we just got back yesterday, which almost no outsiders know about, have vanished into thin air."

Upon hearing this, everyone present was taken aback.

Qin Dashan looked surprised and asked quickly.

"Such a thing exists? How bizarre!"