Interstellar to 80s: A Scientist's Farming Mission

An Ning brought An Laoqi to the brigade headquarters, where Sun Dazhuang was already waiting.

Uncle An and An Sancheng had also come over.

"Let’s talk inside."

Sun Dazhuang opened the door to the headquarters. After An Ning went inside, she saw a microphone wrapped in a piece of red cloth.

"This is the button. Just push it to turn it on, then you can start speaking."

"Thank you, Village Chief."

An Ning thanked him, sat down, took out the draft she had prepared, and flipped the switch.

"SCREEEEE—"

A piercing squeal of feedback echoed over the village.

Nearly everyone who was working stopped. The village’s public address system was about to broadcast something.

In this era, the PA system held a very high status and was taken very seriously by the people.

"Hello, hello— TAP TAP—"

An Ning said "hello, hello" a couple of times and tapped the mic twice with her hand. Only after confirming it was working did she begin to read her script.

"Hello, fellow villagers. This is An Ning, from An Sancheng’s family."

"The mountain plot I’ve contracted will be cleared starting today."

"I’m here today to hire people for the land clearing. For a full day’s work, the pay is eighty cents, meals not included. For a half-day’s work, it’s forty cents, meals not included. Please bring your own tools."

"Anyone who wants to work, come to the brigade headquarters to sign up with An Laoqi."

Simple and clear. An Ning read the announcement three times in total before turning off the loudspeaker.

After she finished, she had just stepped out of the headquarters when she saw a crowd of people in the courtyard.

An Laoqi and An Sancheng were sitting behind a table, flustered as they tried to handle the registrations.

"Dad, Uncle Qi, let me do the writing. You just tell me the names."

An Ning stepped forward to take over the task of writing. As for An Sancheng and Uncle An Qi, they could read, but they hadn’t written a single character in what felt like an eternity and were extremely out of practice.

Moreover, every time they finished writing a character, they would doubt whether it was correct or not.

At first, it looked right, but the more they stared, the less it seemed to. It was awkward.

An Ning’s help sped up the whole process considerably.

No one wanted to pass up an opportunity like this to earn money right in the village.

Anyone in the village who didn’t have any major health problems could sign up.

An Ning was only in charge of writing, while Uncle An stood to the side, playing the role of the bad cop.

There are always some lazy people in any village, and Uncle An knew this better than anyone. But for this first round of sign-ups, he let everyone register.

However, Uncle An laid down the ground rules first.

"No slacking off. If you slack off, we won’t keep you. Don’t go getting upset about it when it happens."

Everyone chuckled and promised they would work hard. Uncle An didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm; he’d let their actions do the talking. They’d see after the work started.

That way, if he had to fire someone, he’d have a good reason.

An Ning was inwardly impressed, though her hands never slowed. However, she did run into a small problem.

"Erdingzi—"

"What?"

An Ning, who was writing, paused at the perfectly enunciated local dialect and tilted her head to look at An Sancheng.

An Sancheng grimaced, trying to remember. When he couldn’t, he finally asked, "Erdingzi, what’s your formal name again?"

"An Xiucheng."

"Right, right, that’s the one."

An Sancheng’s enthusiastic "right, right" made An Ning suspect that he probably hadn’t remembered anything besides the surname "An".

After that, An Ning got a real taste of just how bizarre the villagers’ nicknames could be.

Tie Dan’er, Gou Dan’er, Niu Dan’er, Old Baldy, Wang Mazi, Li the Limp...

The writing itself wasn’t difficult, but figuring out everyone’s formal names wasted a little bit of time.

And to avoid confusion, An Ning jotted down the nickname next to each formal name.

The sign-up process alone took an hour that morning.

After the registration was over, An Ning announced directly, "Work starts today, and anyone who works today will get a full day’s pay."

At this, the crowd became even more enthusiastic.

WHOOSH! The crowd of people all rushed toward their homes to grab their tools.

An Sancheng, Uncle An, and Uncle An Qi went to organize them, dividing the labor between those cutting trees and those digging up rocks.

In the end, An Ning turned out to be the one with the most free time.

She wasn’t idle for more than a few minutes, though. An Ning made a call to the machinery factory to request the batch of steel pipes for building her greenhouses.

Director Li on the other end personally arranged for a truck to deliver them to An Ning.

An Ning thanked him and hung up the phone.

The poles were on their way, but she also needed the plastic sheeting.

An Ning contacted Director Li from the textile factory. They had spoken about plastic before, and Director Li had mentioned he knew someone at a chemical plant where she could buy it cheaply.

An Ning made a round of phone calls, and without even having to go anywhere, she had basically secured everything she needed.

As she hung up, she realized just how useful having a network of contacts really was.

’Of course, reciprocity is key.’

The greenhouse parts were on the way. The next step was to buy various seeds, as well as the fruit tree saplings needed for the mountain.

An Ning didn’t have a solid plan for that just yet, and besides, the fields and the mountain needed some time to be prepared.

So, she simply grabbed a shovel and headed up the mountain to work.

Carrying the shovel on her shoulder, An Ning ran into Jiang Xia, who was also heading up the mountain.

She looked at his outfit and the direction he was going.

"Are you going to clear the land?"

"Yup. It’s eighty cents a day, you know. That’s enough to buy several popsicles."

Jiang Xia walked past An Ning, leaving her behind with her thoughts in a jumble.

An Ning took a few steps to catch up to Jiang Xia and asked, "You need to earn eighty cents?"

"Even though this young master is rich, I can’t just waste money, right?"

"My level of thinking is something you can’t hope to achieve."

An Ning watched Jiang Xia quicken his pace again and called out behind him, her voice unconcealed, "Big-time bullshitter."

She saw Jiang Xia stumble for a moment, then turn around, give her a thumbs-up, and say, "Your language is getting more and more down-to-earth."

Amused by the shameless Jiang Xia, An Ning laughed and chased after him with her shovel on her shoulder.

"Thanks, Young Master Jiang."

An Ning knew Jiang Xia was doing this to help her, and it wasn’t hard to say thank you.

A hidden smile played on Jiang Xia’s lips, but his words were as stubborn as a rock.

"I’m here for my eighty cents! Don’t even think about shorting me!"

The two of them went up the mountain, one after the other. One went to the west side to dig up rocks, the other to the east side to gather branches.

The people on the mountain worked with great enthusiasm; the whole place was bustling with activity.

Everyone knew each other, and they all worked on their own patch of land in a lively atmosphere.

At noon, there was a break from twelve to one. Everyone went home for lunch before continuing to work in the afternoon.

An Ning and Jiang Xia also went down the mountain with the others. But after lunch, the two of them went back up separately and met at a mountain stream deep in the woods.

An Ning arrived a step earlier and looked down from her high vantage point at Jiang Xia climbing up.

"I was starting to think I’d gone the wrong way."

"The chances of you getting lost are about the same as my Da Huang getting lost."

An Ning rolled her eyes ungracefully and asked:

"Where’s Da Huang?"

Jiang Xia finally climbed up and plopped down on a rock.

"Da Huang’s at home. Isn’t it enough that I, Da Huang’s brother, am here?"

An Ning stared intently at Jiang Xia’s face and said, "Da Huang’s brother, I suspect you didn’t wash your face properly."