Stealing is also against the law.

  Director Mao accompanied Yang Chunshan and the two of them stayed up all night, and even brought glutinous rice cakes from home for them to eat as a midnight snack. Lin Zhenhua remembered that his younger sister Xiaofang loved to eat this kind of rural glutinous rice cake, so he saved two pieces from his own share and asked Director Mao to wrap them in paper, planning to bring them back for Xiaofang to eat.

  Yang Chunshan estimated that he would have to work for a night, which naturally didn't mean working all the way until dawn. With Lin Zhenhua's help, the two of them took turns doing the work, and their efficiency was higher. By a little after one in the morning, all the work had been finished.

  "Not bad, not bad." Director Mao checked the welded workpieces one by one, nodding his head in satisfaction. Before this, he had seen Lin Zhenhua replace Yang Chunshan to weld, and was somewhat worried. Now that he saw the quality of Lin Zhenhua's welding was almost as good as Yang Chunshan's, his worry turned into secret joy. This meant that tonight he would pay the wages for one senior worker and one junior worker, but in fact, there were two senior workers doing the job.

  "Master Yang, your apprentice is quite good, isn't he about to graduate soon?" Director Mao complimented Yang Chunshan.

  "With this, after a bit more polishing, you should be able to graduate." Yang Chunshan replied with a calm expression, but was actually very delighted.

  "Here, this is six yuan, take it well. The money is not much, sorry about that."

  "It's nothing, Director Mao is always so generous with his money, thank you very much."

  "Next time I have something, I'll trouble Master Yang again."

  "No trouble, no trouble, just speak up if you have something to say."

  Yang Chunshan bid farewell to Mao Changzhang with a smile, and rode the bike back to Hanhua Factory with Lin Zhenhua. As soon as they left the range of Xiaogang Commune, Yang Chunshan took out two tickets from his pocket and stuffed them into Lin Zhenhua's hand.

  "Xiao Hua, this is your share," said Yang Chunshan. Actually, it's also okay to divide the money after going back, but since Yang Chunshan was taking Lin Zhenhua out for work for the first time, he didn't want Lin Zhenhua to have any doubts.

  "Thank you, Uncle Yang." Lin Zhenhua took the money and looked at it under the moonlight. He found that one note was a one-dollar bill, while the other was a two-dollar bill. He quickly said, "Uncle Yang, you made a mistake. This one is a two-dollar bill."

  "That's right, that's right, the two of us six yuan, one person three yuan, just right." Yang Chunshan said.

  "Uncle Yang, I'm Xiao Gong, and I should get two dollars."

  "You're no longer a small laborer. What you did tonight is no less than what I did, so it can be considered as one big laborer. The two of us are even now."

  "No way, no way." Lin Zhenhua forcibly stuffed the one yuan note back into Yang Chunshan's pocket. "Uncle Yang, you brought me out to do things just to give me an opportunity, how could I take more money?"

  "Hey, you kid. Never mind, let Aunt Wei cook a few dishes next Sunday and bring Xiaofang over for dinner." Yang Chunshan chose a compromise, implying that the extra dollar would be used as the meal allowance to invite Lin Zhenhua and his siblings to eat.

  "Stop thief!"

  "Stop him!"

  "Hit! Kill him!"

  Two men were walking forward, and suddenly a commotion came from the front. With the faint moonlight, Lin Zhenhua could see that a thin figure emerged from the field by the side of the road, trying to escape along the highway. Several people shouted "Catch the thief!" while rushing towards the figure from several directions. The escaping person was caught off guard and couldn't get away, hesitated for a moment, then lay down on the ground with his head in his hands, pretending to be helpless. The people who were catching the thief rushed forward, punching and kicking the thief loudly.

  "What's going on?" Lin Zhenhua asked Yang Chunshan in surprise.

  Yang Chunshan said: "I reckon he went to steal vegetables from the fields and got caught by the villagers."

  "Are you going to beat him to death?" Lin Zhenhua said, even from a distance, he could hear the thuds of fists and feet landing on the thief's body, making his heart skip a beat.

  "It's not that easy to kill, but if we keep hitting like this, it might end up crippling him." Yang Chunshan had some experience with this and knew that the farmers only beat thieves as a form of punishment, generally avoiding fatal blows. However, accidents could happen, and if they weren't careful, a slightly heavier hand could result in broken limbs or even eye injuries.

  "Even if I'm beaten up, it's still against the law, right?"

  Yang Chunshan asked in surprise: "What law does catching a thief break?"

  Lin Zhenhua was speechless, and in that era, everyone's legal awareness was indeed like this. Abusing private punishment was not against the law, and it could even have a deterrent effect. Compared to sending the thief to the police station, beating him up was both convenient and effective, so everyone was enthusiastic about it.

  "Uncle Yang, shouldn't we intervene? The thief is also human, if he's really crippled, won't it be even harder for him to make a living in the future?" Lin Zhenhua and Yang Chunshan discussed.

  Yang Chunshan was also very kind by nature. Upon hearing Lin Zhenhua's suggestion, he nodded and said, "Alright, let's go talk about it."

  Two men rode their bikes towards the group of people, about a dozen steps away. Yang Chunshan shouted loudly: "What are you doing! All of you stop!"

  This roar was majestic and intimidating, not only did it stop the group of farmers who were beating him, but also startled Lin Zhenhua. For a moment, he felt that this middle-aged worker, who looked honest and simple, might be an undercover police officer, revealing his true identity at a critical moment.

  As they spoke, the two men had already arrived at the side of the group of people. Yang Chunshan got off his bicycle, propped it up and shone a flashlight on the group, asking in an authoritative tone: "What's going on here? Are you engaging in gang fighting?"

  "No, comrade, we caught a thief who stole our radish." A farmer replied. He looked at the two people who were dressed neatly and had new bicycles, with flashlights in their hands, obviously they were on public expense. People who are on public expense, no matter what their profession is, must have a close relationship with government departments, such as public security, courts and so on, which is not someone that farmers can afford to offend, so when he answered Yang Chunshan's question, his tone was somewhat respectful and fearful.

  "Did you steal the old fellow's radish?" Yang Chunshan walked up to the thief and asked condescendingly.

  The thief lay on the ground, curled up his body, and answered in a low voice: "Yes, I stole the radish. I won't dare to do it again." Although he was saying words of begging for mercy, there was no hint of pretending to be pitiful in his tone, but only made people feel a deep sense of helplessness.

  "Why did you steal the radish?" Lin Zhenhua also stepped forward and helped Yang Chunshan ask questions.

  "I'm hungry." The thief simply answered with two words, but these two words were already enough. Is there a more sufficient reason for stealing food than being hungry? Lin Zhenhua suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

  "What about the stolen radish?" Yang Chunshan asked the peasants.

  A peasant held up a thick, cup-mouth-sized radish in his hand and said: "It's this one. We chased him and he threw it down. I picked it up as evidence."

  "Alright, alright, it's just a small radish worth two cents. You've had your fight, let's disperse now." Yang Chunshan said, "In the future, when catching thieves, you can't hit them, hitting people is against the law, do you know that?" He unconsciously repeated what Lin Zhenhua had just said.

  "What law did we break by beating up a bad guy?" asked a peasant, echoing Yang Chunshan's own question.

  Lin Zhenhua stepped forward: "Fellow villagers, our country is a country ruled by law. In the past few years, because of the Gang of Four's sabotage, the public security and justice systems were destroyed, leading to social unrest. Now that the Gang of Four has been overthrown, our country issued a new criminal law in July this year. From now on, whether it's a thief or a murderer, their punishment will be decided by the law. Arbitrarily beating up thieves is itself an illegal act."

  "Comrade, don't scare us, if we follow your way of thinking, we can't even arrest the Gang of Four?" a peasant retorted, thinking he was clever.

  Lin Zhenhua said, "Of course not. Don't you know that the Party Central Committee has established a special court to try the Gang of Four according to law? The Central Committee has even appointed defense lawyers for the Gang of Four, with the aim of ensuring a fair and lawful trial. Think about it, if even the Gang of Four is to be tried fairly, what about an ordinary thief?"

  Lin Zhenhua's words apparently stunned the peasants, in an era without the internet, someone who could casually talk about high-level movements was quite mysterious. The peasants fell silent, not daring to speak out of turn again.

  "That's right, the country is now ruled by law. If you disable someone, you'll have to pay for their medical expenses, living expenses and compensation in the future." Yang Chunshan tried to intimidate these peasants with a show of authority. Unlike Lin Zhenhua, he knew that what the peasants feared most was not breaking the law, but spending money. The best way to threaten them was to warn them of potential economic losses.

  As expected, the farmers began to back down. They had originally thought that they wouldn't get into trouble if they didn't start a fight, but now they realized that hitting people was still risky after all. Who would take on this risk for just a small piece of radish?

  "We didn't beat him much, just educated him a bit. Look, he's fine now," the farmers defended themselves.

  "Alright, you all go back now, we'll handle this person." Yang Chunshan said, "Anyway, the radish he stole has already been taken back by you, so just go home."

  The peasants didn't want to bother with it either, muttering to themselves as they turned and walked away. The peasant holding the radish threw half of it in front of the thief and said, "It's all bitten like this, who wants it?" Then he also lifted his legs and left.