Nan Feng initially thought it was Ye Ge, so he didn't make a sound, instead he took a peek at the other side through the crack between the green bean racks.
It turns out it wasn't Ye Ge, but Wang from Uncle Zhou's family, who is Dongdong's mother.
Seeing no one around, Wang first stole two cabbages from Uncle Zhou's vegetable field, and after pilfering the cabbages, she looked around again. Seeing still no one coming, she carried the water bucket to the public pool to fetch water.
When Nan Feng and Ye Ge led everyone to build the faucet, the elder brothers of the Zhou family didn't participate at all. They even said they would rather die than use anything made by Ye Ge and Nan Feng.
Earlier in the year everyone went to dig the reservoir, apart from Dongdong helping to deliver food for a day, these same people never showed up afterward.
However, the reservoir water has to go through every field, hence giving the Zhou brothers an advantage.