Interstellar to 80s: A Scientist's Farming Mission

An Ning quietly climbed onto the top bunk without drawing any attention.

As her second brother, An Guoming, would say, this was progress.

While pretending to search her schoolbag for her water bottle, she checked her belongings. Nothing was missing.

Then again, she kept all her important items in the Klein Bottle. Her bag just held some clothes, which were of no value to a thief.

An Ning took a few sips of water and went back to her book.

"Where are you headed, dear?"

A curly-haired woman on the bunk below her spoke up.

An Ning closed her book and sat up. "To Jin City."

"Oh, what a coincidence! We’re headed to Jin City too."

"Are you traveling by yourself? I’m telling you, it’s a long journey. You have to watch your things carefully."

"I’ve lost things on this train before."

The curly-haired woman sounded incredibly sincere, like a warmhearted older woman looking out for a youngster.

An Ning, on the top bunk, nodded obediently and gave a shy, quiet smile.

"Thank you, I will."

"It’s no problem at all! If you need anything, just tell the three of us. My daughter’s about your age."

An Ning just nodded with a faint smile.

The woman below was truly enthusiastic.

After speaking, she pulled an orange from her bag, stood up, and offered it to An Ning.

"Here, have this. It’s fate that we ended up in the same compartment."

An Ning shook her head, putting her hands behind her back. Her voice was timid.

"No, I can’t. I really can’t accept it."

"Nonsense, take it! It’s just an orange."

The woman tossed the orange onto her bunk. An Ning murmured a thank you and placed it beside her pillow. She didn’t eat it, and had no intention of doing so.

The woman below didn’t press her to eat it, though.

She began talking with the other two women below, her every word painting her as a cheerful and warmhearted older woman.

An Ning, on the top bunk, had already tuned out the voices from below.

She had indeed matured a great deal, but there were limits.

These people below weren’t worth the effort of feigning politeness.

If they dared to try anything, her power was more than enough to crush them.

The journey from where An Ning boarded to Jin City would take eighteen hours in total.

They would have to spend one night on the train, only reaching their destination at noon the next day.

A little after nine in the evening, An Ning climbed down again, planning to quickly wash her face, brush her teeth, and then go to sleep.

When the curly-haired woman on the lower bunk saw An Ning climb down holding a mug, she shot a subtle glance across the way. The young woman sitting there immediately stood up, smiling sweetly.

"Going to wash up? Perfect, I was about to go too. Let’s go together!"

An Ning said nothing. She just turned to the side, slipped on her shoes, and left.

The girl followed An Ning, chattering away the entire time, as if trying to create the illusion that they were the best of friends.

An Ning, walking ahead, stopped abruptly.

"Hold on. I don’t know your name. We just happen to be in the same compartment by chance. I don’t like people getting this close to me."

"There’s only one washroom here. You can go first. I’ll use the one in the next car."

An Ning stepped aside to let her pass, leaving the girl behind her looking awkward.

It was the first time she had ever met someone so blunt.

Out in the open like this, she was the focus of many people’s unabashed stares.

"Okay..."

The girl managed to say "okay" before her hurried footsteps faded away at the end of the car.

An Ning turned and headed back, going into the next car over.

When she returned to the compartment after washing up, all three of them were there.

As before, it was the curly-haired woman who spoke first.

"Oh, I’m so sorry. We didn’t realize you felt that way. Our daughter is just a bit too friendly with new people. I’m really sorry for the trouble."

"Just make sure it doesn’t happen again."

An Ning replied, showing none of the expected embarrassment.

Her one sentence made the curly-haired woman a little uncomfortable.

An Ning climbed into her bunk, pulled the covers over herself, and got ready for sleep.

The compartment fell quiet.

The train clacked along, and before long, it was past midnight.

Around one in the morning, a thin stick of incense, about the height of a thumb, was lit.

An Ning was already on guard. She held her breath, feigning deep sleep.

A few minutes later, a voice came from below.

"Sister Hua, she’s out."

"Search her, then get out."

The other woman, the one with straight hair, climbed down from the opposite top bunk. She placed one foot on An Ning’s bed and began rummaging through the clothes An Ning had taken off.

Soon, they found a roll of money that An Ning had intentionally planted.

"Sister Hua, I got it."

The curly-haired woman below—Sister Hua—took the money, gave it a quick count, and said, "Pull back the covers and check her."

The woman on the bunk moved immediately. But An Ning’s shirt and pants were close-fitting; it was easy to tell she wasn’t hiding any money in them.

"Nothing else, Sister Hua."

Sister Hua nodded and motioned for the woman on the bunk to come down.

"Xiao Lian will stay. Let’s go."

The woman obediently climbed down and left with Sister Hua.

An Ning, still on the top bunk, was very curious about what these people were up to.

At first, she’d thought they were human traffickers.

Over the New Year, her second brother, An Guoming, had told her all about them—how some specialized in abducting girls to sell as wives in the remote mountains.

But from the looks of it, these people were just after money.

After two minutes, An Ning flung out a burst of spiritual power. Below her, Xiao Lian collapsed onto a bunk with a THUD.

An Ning leaped down gracefully and slipped on her shoes.

She didn’t leave the compartment. Instead, she started searching the others’ bags.

In a false bottom beneath a cookie tin, she found a thick stack of hundred-yuan bills.

An Ning took the money.

’If someone has to lose money tonight,’ she thought, ’it shouldn’t be just me.’

After doing this, An Ning put everything back where she found it. ’I definitely have the potential to be a master thief,’ she thought to herself as she worked.

Having finished, An Ning abandoned her plan to go out and tail them.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

She would be the oriole.

Around two forty in the morning, the two women returned.

Xiao Lian, whom An Ning had knocked unconscious, mumbled from her bunk, "Everything’s normal."

She had no memory whatsoever of passing out.

After all, An Ning’s spiritual power could even erase Miao Xiaohua’s memories.

The three women didn’t say much more, and no one went to check the cookie tin, because An Ning was beginning to stir.

The women quickly lay back down. An Ning calmly rolled over, a smile touching her lips as she faced the wall. ’The oriole is about to make its move.’

Her spiritual power struck again, and the three women quickly fell into a deep slumber.

An Ning crept down from her bunk and began searching the pockets of the two women who had left earlier.

’This is a nice pocket design. I’ll ask Mom to make one for me when I get back.’

While searching the hidden pocket, An Ning leisurely absorbed this new piece of knowledge.

But no hidden pocket, no matter how clever, could escape the inspection of her spiritual power.

After she had gone through all their pockets, An Ning did a quick tally. The two women’s haul for the night was over five hundred yuan.

’Breaking the law really is outrageously profitable,’ she mused.