Interstellar to 80s: A Scientist's Farming Mission

After delivering the thank-you gift, An Ning returned to the hospital.

When she arrived, An Sancheng was already there. With him were her three cousins from her uncle’s family, two other men she didn’t know the names of, and Jiang Xia.

"An Ning!"

An Sancheng called her over.

"We don’t have a stretcher at home, so we took a door off its hinges. It’s pretty flat. Will it work?"

"It will."

An Ning had no objections, of course. She went to handle the hospital discharge procedures. An Guoming was laid on the door panel, to which An Sancheng had temporarily nailed wooden strips along the sides to act as small guards, preventing him from sliding off.

"Alright, four people to carry, one at each corner for stability. It’s okay to be slow, but you must be steady."

An Sancheng instructed them worriedly, and the men all acknowledged.

The four men lifted the door panel and walked out of the hospital.

An Sancheng and An Ning walked alongside, ready in case anything unexpected happened.

Along the way, they took turns carrying him, and finally got An Guoming home.

Lin Cuihua had been wiping away tears all morning, but as soon as An Guoming was back, she quickly dried her eyes and got busy. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Bring him to the main room, the one your Third Uncle and I live in."

An Guoming was carried into An Sancheng and Lin Cuihua’s room. It got good sunlight, making it better for recovery.

After An Guoming was settled, the cousins from her uncle’s family didn’t stay long. An Sancheng saw them out.

Only the eldest cousin, An Guoyang, hung back a step to say to An Ning, "If you find the person responsible, give us a call."

"I will, Eldest Brother. Thank you."

Her eldest cousin, An Guoyang, patted An Ning on the head and said with affectionate disapproval, "What’s with the formality?"

An Guoyang smiled, then also walked out of the courtyard.

Standing at the main gate, An Ning felt for the first time the true meaning of kinship.

They didn’t ask for reasons or results; they just stood firmly by your side.

An Ning turned and went back inside.

Inside the room, An Guoming was lying on the kang bed, An Sancheng was sitting on the edge of it, and An Guoqing was squatting on the floor.

Lin Cuihua and her eldest sister-in-law were in the kitchen starting dinner, putting a large pot of bone broth on to stew.

An Ning’s entrance broke the silence in the room.

"Second Brother, what exactly happened? Who were those five men who attacked you yesterday?"

At An Ning’s question, Lin Cuihua, who was working in the kitchen, froze. She took two steps toward the doorway and stood there, waiting.

Lying on the kang bed, An Guoming had no intention of hiding anything.

"I’ve been in town these past few days looking for a way to sell our goods. I met Zhu JianShe. He’s the director of the supply and marketing cooperative, and he took a liking to our schoolbags."

The moment the name Zhu JianShe was mentioned, An Ning’s palms clenched. ’It’s a small world for enemies.’

But she didn’t interrupt An Guoming.

"I talked with Zhu JianShe for several days. He finally paid a deposit, and only then did I deliver all the goods."

"Everything was going fine at first. But after Zhu JianShe inspected the merchandise, he refused to pay the remaining balance. Naturally, I wasn’t happy about that and wanted to take my goods back."

"Zhu JianShe wouldn’t return them no matter what. I went to the Public Security Bureau to report it, but he produced an agreement saying he’d bought the schoolbags from a bag factory in the county. He had all the proper paperwork, and I had nothing."

As he spoke, An Guoming’s eyes stung with regret.

"I couldn’t accept it, so I went to the cooperative. After they threw me out, I followed Zhu JianShe to his home. And that’s when I got beaten up."

After hearing An Guoming’s story, An Ning’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Second Brother, do you remember when we went to the bag factory last time? What was the director’s last name?"

"Zhu."

"Right. They’re both named Zhu."

An Ning turned to An Sancheng and said, "Dad, you all just carry on with your work. I’m going out to make a phone call and see if there’s a connection here."

"Okay, okay. Go on."

Watching An Ning’s departing figure, An Sancheng sighed with emotion. "She’s grown up. They’ve all grown up."

He called for An Guoqing to get up, and the two of them went to work in the fields.

Meanwhile, An Ning, on her mission to gather information, first went to the village’s brigade headquarters to make a phone call.

She dialed Director Li’s number.

After a few beeps, someone on the other end picked up quickly. It was Director Li’s secretary.

"Oh, it’s An Ning. Hold on, Director Li will be back any minute. Can you call back in about ten minutes?"

"Alright, thank you for the trouble."

An Ning politely hung up the phone and sat down on a stool to wait.

The village operator today was a woman. She wasn’t very talkative and seemed tight-lipped. It was the wife of An Laoqi, the man from last time.

The woman gave An Ning a shy smile, then lowered her head and went back to stitching a shoe sole.

A few minutes later, before An Ning could call back, the phone rang on its own.

The operator answered it, then handed the receiver to An Ning. "It’s for you."

"Thank you."

An Ning’s polite smile made the woman smile back before lowering her head again.

"Hello, Director Li? This is An Ning."

Director Li seemed to be in a good mood. After a brief exchange with An Ning, he got straight to the point.

"Did you need something?"

"Yes, I wanted to ask about something. Do you know Director Zhu from the bag factory?"

"I do. What’s wrong?"

An Ning asked bluntly, "This Director Zhu and Director Zhu from the Sanhe Town supply and marketing cooperative—are they related?"

Director Li paused for a moment on the other end, then called his secretary over and asked a couple of questions.

"An Ning, it seems they’re paternal cousins."

"Thank you, Director Li. I’ll come by in a few days to thank you in person."

"What’s there to thank me for? It was just a couple of words."

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before hanging up.

An Ning paid the twenty-cent phone fee and politely walked out.

An Ning came out and stood at the entrance of the brigade headquarters, not going anywhere for a moment.

"The Zhu family..."

She ran back toward the An family home, packed a backpack, grabbed her bicycle, and after telling Lin Cuihua she was leaving, headed out.

Lin Cuihua couldn’t stop her in time and stomped her foot in anxiety at the doorway.

"These children, one after another... they’ll be the death of me!"

But An Ning wasn’t acting impulsively. She rode her bicycle to the fields, found An Sancheng, and told him what she planned to do.

"Do you want your eldest brother to go with you?"

"No, I can handle it myself."

"Alright. Be careful."

An Sancheng watched as An Ning nodded in agreement, got on her bicycle, and quickly disappeared from sight.

An Ning rode off, first heading back to the hospital to find the five men with broken bones.

The five of them were crammed into one large ward. When An Ning walked in, they were all so terrified they wished they could disappear on the spot.

"Miss, this is a hospital."

"We can talk this out."

An Ning didn’t say a word and shut the door with one hand.

The CLICK of the door closing made the five men in their beds even more frightened.

No one knows what was said inside, but first there was a chorus of shouting "No way!" which then turned into a unified chant of "Okay, okay!"

When An Ning came out, she first made another phone call. After finishing the call, she went to the Public Security Bureau again to file a report.

This time, An Ning brought the police with her to the supply and marketing cooperative.

"Officers, you see, this fabric is exactly the same. I have a lot more of it at home. More importantly, I have witnesses and evidence that this is the fabric I purchased from the textile mill in the county."