An Sancheng wasn’t stupid. The moment he heard Sun Dazhuang’s words, he knew the man had a plan.

An Sancheng thought about the tractor An Ning had brought to the village. ’The Team Captain must be planning to arrange some work for Lao San.’

"The other day, Lao San said he didn’t want to go to school. I’ll ask him and then get back to the Team Captain."

Sun Dazhuang took a step forward, lowered his head a little, and said, "Sancheng, our village’s elementary school is short on teachers. You all should take a look, and let your boy choose whichever he likes."

An Sancheng nodded impassively, understanding Sun Dazhuang’s intentions.

’This job should go to An Guoping first.’

"I’ll get back to the Team Captain right away."

"Alright, no rush. School hasn’t started yet."

Sun Dazhuang turned and left to work elsewhere.

During the noon break, An Sancheng hurried home, shouting for An Ning to keep up.

An Ning didn’t know what was happening, but she obediently followed, as did An Guoqing, who was behind her.

As the group entered the courtyard, the diligent rooster began to cluck loudly.

Lin Cuihua, holding a shovel, glanced over and asked, "How come you’re back so early today?"

"Where’s Lao San?"

This morning, An Guoping hadn’t gone to work in the fields because An Ning had given him an exam paper to work on.

"Dad, I’m over here."

An Guoping walked out of a room in the side house, handing the completed exam paper to An Ning as he did.

"Come on, let’s talk inside."

A few of them followed An Sancheng into the house. This made Lin Cuihua nervous, too. She kept her shovel raised, staring at An Sancheng and asking, "What’s wrong?"

"It’s nothing major. Today, the Team Captain asked me what our plans were for Lao San, so I told him what we’d arranged."

"The Team Captain’s thinking is that if Lao San doesn’t go to high school, there’s a vacant teaching position at the village elementary school. He could teach there for a year, and it wouldn’t delay him from taking the college entrance exams or anything."

An Sancheng looked at An Guoping and asked, "So what do you really think?"

An Guoping hadn’t expected this to be about him, but it was a question he had thought about many times over the past few days.

"Dad, I don’t want to go to high school anymore. They really don’t teach as much as my sister does. I can just talk to the teachers and get some exam papers from them to work on."

An Sancheng didn’t nod. Instead, he looked toward An Ning first.

In this family, An Ning’s words were absolutely decisive.

"I’m fine with the science subjects, but for politics and language arts, my little brother will need to handle those himself."

An Ning really didn’t have any particularly good methods for those two subjects.

An Sancheng looked at An Guoping again.

"Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll be fine with those two subjects."

"Good. Then it’s settled."

An Sancheng looked at An Guoping, his words taking on a more serious and earnest tone.

"Lao San, you can’t let teaching get in the way of your own studies, you hear?"

An Guoping rubbed his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Dad, how would I dare? My sister is right here."

"That’s true. You’re right."

An Sancheng saw no problem with this; in fact, he thought it was even better this way.

An Guoping’s situation was perfectly resolved. He would stay in the village and become a teacher at the elementary school.

An Guoqing became the village’s tractor driver, and An Guoming went to the textile factory to train as a driver.

The An family’s days were positively flourishing.

This prosperity was fully reflected in the An family’s meals.

Lin Cuihua’s heart was full of joy. Her children could live well even without their parents’ help, so she became much more generous with the food.

They were willing to eat the eggs the hens laid every day, and would occasionally buy tofu and meat. Their meals were a significant improvement from before.

The rabbits An Guoqing was raising had already given birth to eight kits, all of which he successfully kept alive.

He had built a new rabbit hutch behind the An family’s house, which he fed the rabbits in punctually every day and kept very clean.

The fact that An Guoping had become an elementary school teacher didn’t cause much of a stir.

The previous elementary school teachers were educated youth sent to the village. After this year’s college entrance exams, half of them had left.

Some left after passing the exams to go to university, while others left through their families’ connections. In short, the number of people at the educated youth station was dwindling.

Every morning, Yin Xuemei would come to study with An Ning, and then go back to finish her work after. She didn’t let it interfere with anything.

An Guoming, at the textile factory, also called home. He said everything was fine and that his mentor was treating him very well.

An Guocheng from her uncle’s family had been settled at the machinery factory, truly becoming an apprentice under Old Master Zhang Qihua.

「Time flew, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.」

An Ning’s spiritual power finally started to recover.

In the golden autumn month of September, with the harvest season just around the corner, An Ning’s spiritual power was unbelievably active.

After this experience with material transmission, An Ning had spent nearly twenty days recuperating.

But the gains were also enormous.

Her spiritual power had expanded once again, and the Klein Bottle had grown a little larger.

Today, An Ning finally took a break from her work and got on her bicycle, preparing to make a trip to town.

Lin Cuihua didn’t manage An Ning’s affairs much anymore, but she still reminded her, "Try to spend a little less."

An Ning, on her bicycle, looked back at Lin Cuihua and said, "I know."

"Sister-in-law, I’m heading out."

"Okay, be careful."

Her sister-in-law, sitting on a chair, looked plump and radiant, her face a picture of good fortune.

Her pregnancy was now stable; she was four months along.

Zhou Guifen was holding a needle and thread, sewing clothes for An Ning.

The fabric was from the batch An Ning had brought back from the textile factory. She had given some to her uncle’s family, and the rest was being used to make new clothes for the An family and the future baby.

Lin Cuihua had used all their old clothes to make multilayered cloth shoes.

In fact, An Ning was wearing a pair right now. She liked them a lot; they were very comfortable and kept her feet from getting too sweaty.

An Ning pushed off hard on her bicycle, darted out of the courtyard, and headed for town.

When An Ning left the An family’s gate, she noticed the road outside was a little wider.

In the past half a month, Sun Dazhuang had led a group of villagers to repair the road connecting the village to the town.

The roads within the village were repaired by each household individually and then linked together.

All in all, it was much better than before.

An Ning rode her bicycle out of the village. The road outside had been widened, paved with fine gravel, and tamped down.

An Ning rode quickly. Once she reached town, she headed straight for her destination: the supply and marketing cooperative.

She wanted to buy some rice, white flour, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. She’d buy some meat, too.

This time, she had plenty of ration tickets. Director Jin had given her a thick stack of them last time.

When An Ning came out of the cooperative, she was laden with goods, with bags hanging from both her front and back.

Luckily, she had attached two large baskets to the back of her bicycle. After loading her things, she got on the bike to head home. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

She hadn’t gone far when she saw a truck approaching, loaded with cement.

Watching the cement, An Ning fell into thought.

When An Ning rode her bicycle into the yard, one glance was all it took for Lin Cuihua to know her words had been for naught.

"Look at you! Didn’t I tell you to spend a little less?"

"Mom, should we build a new house?"