Lin Cuihua shooed away the matchmaker who had come to the door. After putting the large broom away, she went back to cooking.

At noon, Lin Cuihua and her eldest sister-in-law carried the prepared food to the worksite on shoulder poles.

The autumn harvest was just around the corner. After the harvest, the ground would freeze, and they wouldn’t be able to build the house anymore.

They had to finish building the two houses in the back—a total of six rooms—before the harvest.

As for the front buildings, they could wait until spring next year.

After lunch, An Ning skipped her afternoon nap and went to the new house to help with the work.

The hired workers were all racing against the clock. The An family was certainly getting their money’s worth.

When the lunch break was about over, An Ning drove the tractor away to go haul more materials.

The afternoon passed quickly.

After her last tractor run, An Ning went straight to the new house to work.

They worked on the house until it was pitch-black.

Even after dark, they lit a few bonfires and continued working for a while longer.

The workers didn’t leave until around eight o’clock.

Because of the long hours, the An family provided two meals: lunch and dinner.

After eight, once the workers had left, the An family packed up and headed home too.

At two or three in the morning, An Ning got up to go hunting in the mountains, securing meat for the next day or two.

Because she could hunt, the meals the An family provided were high-quality yet inexpensive, saving them a lot of money.

An Ning quietly vaulted over the courtyard wall and jogged to the foot of the mountain. Before she could even start her ascent, she ran into Jiang Xia.

"Hunting?"

"Yeah."

An Ning moved to walk around Jiang Xia, ready to head up the mountain.

"Here, take this. I caught too much and don’t feel like going to town to sell it."

Jiang Xia handed her a wicker basket containing several rabbits and a large river deer.

"Just take it. It’ll go bad if no one eats it, and I don’t want to be wasteful."

An Ning glanced at the basket, then back at Jiang Xia, who was acting strangely disdainful.

"Jiang Xia, have you considered seeing a doctor?"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

Jiang Xia stared at An Ning, confused.

An Ning took a step closer and pointed at the meat in the basket. "You’re the first person I’ve ever seen complain about having too much meat."

"Who said I was complaining? I just don’t want to be wasteful. Hurry up and take it. I need to get back to sleep."

And with that, Jiang Xia ran off.

An Ning had no idea what that was all about, but she picked up the basket from the ground and headed back to get some sleep herself.

’Still, I’ll have to give Jiang Xia a gift tomorrow, and pay him for the meat.’

As An Ning carried the basket home, Jiang Xia, who had supposedly run off, emerged from behind a house. He watched her for a moment with an unnameable emotion before heading home himself.

Both An Ning and Jiang Xia went back to catch up on their sleep.

They woke up a little after five in the morning. The An family went to the worksite, and An Ning went with them.

"Yin Xuemei? We’re not going over practice problems for the next couple of days. We’ll start again after the autumn harvest."

An Ning had seen Yin Xuemei at her front gate.

Yin Xuemei, still wearing her hair in two braids, smiled shyly. "I know. I came to help."

"Help?"

An Ning looked at Yin Xuemei, puzzled. With her slender frame, she really wasn’t suited for construction work.

"You can’t help with building the house."

An Ning’s bluntness made Yin Xuemei cover her mouth and chuckle. "I’m not here to build. I came to help your mother with the cooking."

"I’m actually a pretty good cook."

An Ning finally understood. She didn’t refuse her outright, instead pointing to Lin Cuihua in the courtyard. "You’ll have to ask my mom. If she says it’s okay, then it’s okay." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Okay."

Yin Xuemei smiled and entered the courtyard, speaking to Lin Cuihua in a soft, gentle voice. A moment later, An Ning heard Lin Cuihua’s hearty laughter and figured that Yin Xuemei would be staying.

An Ning jogged to the worksite and, just as she expected, saw Jiang Xia.

’That guy is even more eager to work than my own family.’

An Ning walked over to Jiang Xia’s side. "Are you in a hurry to rebuild your own house?"

"We can build your family’s first."

Jiang Xia didn’t stop mixing cement as he spoke.

"Don’t worry about it. Once your house is finished, then we can focus on mine."

"Alright. I just thought you were in a hurry."

An Ning opened her palm and held it out to Jiang Xia.

"This is the money for the game from this morning. And this fountain pen is to thank you for driving me home."

Jiang Xia straightened up, looked at the money and the pen in An Ning’s palm, and took them without any hesitation.

"Accepted."

Jiang Xia took them, tucked them into his pocket, and went back to work.

An Ning, even more decisive than Jiang Xia, grabbed a shovel and started working.

As he mixed the cement, Jiang Xia suddenly said, "If you need more game, I can sell it to you."

"Sell it to me?"

Jiang Xia nodded. "Yeah. I go up the mountain every day. Selling it to you is the same as selling it in town. Plus, I don’t have to make the trip, so I can give you a discount."

An Ning considered the possibility. It was actually a pretty good deal.

This way, she could get up early and get a lot more work done.

"Alright."

With the deal settled, the two of them went back to work.

An Ning worked until the professional builders arrived, then she left to go work in the fields.

Right now, the fields mainly needed someone who could drive a tractor. An Guoqing knew how to lay walls, which An Ning wasn’t very good at, so she went to drive the tractor while An Guoqing stayed behind to work on the house.

After An Ning left, Jiang Xia didn’t leave either. He stayed and continued to work on the house.

’The sooner we’re neighbors, the sooner I’ll find out what makes this elusive deer so tough.’

’And I’ll definitely be tougher than her.’

Muttering to himself, Jiang Xia continued to work, with even more vigor than the members of the An family.

Meanwhile, An Ning, who was driving the tractor, didn’t find her work tiring at all. She just helped load and unload the vehicle, and the rest was simply driving the tractor back and forth between the warehouse and the edge of the fields.

Around ten in the morning, An Ning had just driven the tractor back from the warehouse and was at the edge of the sorghum field, helping load the sorghum.

"An Ning— An Ning—"

A man’s voice came calling for An Ning from one end of the field.

All the workers at the edge of the field looked up, An Ning included.

But when An Ning saw who it was, her eyes filled with obvious impatience.

It was Li Chenggong—the man who had sent a matchmaker to propose, only to be chased off by Da Huang, losing a shoe in the process.

He had his hair slicked back, and he was wearing a white shirt, black trousers, and, of all things, a pair of black leather shoes.

Li Chenggong ran toward An Ning, carrying a water kettle in one hand and a bag of pastries in the other.

"An Ning, you must be tired! I have a handkerchief here, let me wipe your sweat."

"Are you thirsty? I brought you some sweet water and mung bean cakes."

Li Chenggong held up the items in his hands, beaming at An Ning.

The surrounding villagers looked at Li Chenggong, then at An Ning, but no one said a word.

"Who are you? I don’t know you."

After saying that, An Ning yelled to the people beside her, "Let’s get back to it! We still have several more loads to haul."

"Right, right, let’s hurry."

"You bet. Let’s get to work."

The few people loading the tractor chimed in one after another, completely ignoring Li Chenggong.

An Ning probably didn’t even realize that in the villagers’ eyes, her status was no less than that of the brigade leader.

Li Chenggong, though being given the cold shoulder, didn’t give up in the slightest. He circled around the tractor to try and talk to An Ning again.