An Ning moved swiftly. The moment the Klein Bottle appeared, she immediately took out what was inside.

It still consumed a fair amount of spiritual power, but a little less than last time.

’Looks like I have to go through with leasing the mountain land and expanding the planting area.’

An Ning had discovered that as her spiritual power increased, she could spread it out while doing farm work.

Where she could once only tend to a few small seedlings, she could now cover an entire area.

That was why she wanted a lot of land. First, for the seeds.

The Klein Bottle was expanding, and she might need to transport more seeds later on.

An Ning wanted to transport the best seeds, to have control over the entire process herself.

Second, it was to better enhance her spiritual power.

An Ning reined in her thoughts and looked at the object in her palm. The Klein Bottle had already vanished. She grabbed some clothes to change into and pulled open the curtains.

Otherwise, it would be too suspicious.

In An Ning’s palm lay a chip the size of a thumbnail.

Calling it a chip wasn’t quite accurate. It was a unique piece of interstellar technology.

A special method for storing spiritual power.

Before leaving the interstellar era, An Ning had extracted a portion of her own spiritual power and left it behind.

The people of the interstellar era used this preserved spiritual power of hers to encode and transmit the information they wanted to convey.

This information was sealed within this chip, and now that An Ning had it, she could use her own spiritual power to read it.

The slip of paper from last time was just a test to see if the transport would be successful.

An Ning felt a little nervous.

It was the kind of nervousness one felt after a long separation, upon receiving a letter from home.

Her spiritual power spread out and activated the chip.

As she processed and read the contents, An Ning’s smile grew wider and wider.

’So the interstellar seeds have sprouted.’

They had received the information she sent and had strictly followed her instructions for cultivating the plants. The germination rate had reached thirty percent.

Although this was low compared to her results, in the interstellar era, this was a massive breakthrough.

It also said that if An Ning needed anything, they would find it for her and transport it, as long as it fit within the Klein Bottle’s size limit.

After reading the message, An Ning put the chip back into the Klein Bottle.

"They’ve worked really hard."

"I have to work even harder."

An Ning wasn’t just giving herself a pep talk. Transporting things from the interstellar era was much more difficult; every transfer consumed vast amounts of manpower, resources, and money.

An Ning quieted down for a few minutes, then continued with her drawings.

’Things have to be done one step at a time.’

Around noon, a group of children ran along the path outside, shouting excitedly.

"The popcorn popper is here!"

"The popcorn popper is here!"

An Ning looked up curiously, only to see An Guoping, who had been inside just a moment ago, dash out. He pressed himself against her window, grinning, and shouted, "Sis, let’s go get popcorn!"

’Popcorn?’

An Ning had a vague impression of it in her memory. It was a kind of snack.

"Okay!"

She was very curious. She put on her shoes and went out.

An Guoping was already deftly rummaging for corn.

"Mom—where’s the white corn?"

"It’s right over there. You can never find anything."

Lin Cuihua came out and found a small half-sack of white corn in a corner of the shed. This was corn the An family had specifically planted in their yard just for making popcorn.

An Guoping especially loved popcorn.

An Guoping giggled and called to An Ning, "Sis, let’s go! I’ll go get in line, you go buy the saccharin."

An Guoping nimbly grabbed an earthen basket, tossed in two shovelfuls of corncobs, and then, carrying a bag of corn kernels in one hand and the basket of cobs in the other, he ran off at top speed.

Lin Cuihua couldn’t help but smile as she watched him.

"He’s only this enthusiastic when it comes to things like this."

"You’d better hurry. It tastes better with saccharin."

"Oh."

An Ning finally caught on and left on her bicycle.

She was incredibly fast. It took her less than twenty minutes to ride to town. After buying ten packets of saccharin, An Ning zipped back home.

Just as she was wondering where to find An Guoping, a loud BANG echoed, startling An Ning into thinking a cannon had gone off.

She followed the sound on her bike.

Before she even arrived, she saw a plume of smoke drifting in the air and caught a scent she’d never smelled before.

’It actually smells pretty good.’

An Ning’s interest grew. She pedaled hard a couple more times and then hopped off her bicycle.

"Sis, did you get it?"

"I got it."

An Ning pulled a small packet of saccharin from her pocket and waggled it at An Guoping.

"Awesome! It only tastes good with this stuff."

An Guoping took the saccharin and went back to waiting in line.

It was only then that An Ning noticed a row of earthen baskets on the ground. The baskets were all filled with corncobs, and on top of the corncobs were various bags.

Needless to say, the bags must have held the corn kernels for popping.

At the front of the line was an elderly man. He put some corncobs into a small stove, placed a black, soot-covered canister onto a specially shaped base, and began to turn a crank.

An Ning understood. He was pressurizing the canister. Once it reached a certain pressure, the corn inside would burst, turning into popcorn.

’This is pretty interesting.’

"Got any more?"

An Ning turned her head and saw Jiang Xia asking her with a raised eyebrow.

She understood immediately. She reached into her pocket again, took out another packet of saccharin, and handed it to Jiang Xia.

"WOOF WOOF!"

Da Huang was even more excited than Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia speechlessly patted Da Huang’s head and said, "This guy loves popcorn."

An Ning’s eyes widened in surprise. Looking at Da Huang, she asked, "Can he eat it?"

"Can he eat it?"

Jiang Xia had originally thought he couldn’t, but as it turned out, not only could he eat it, he could eat a lot of it.

"He can. The saccharin is for me. I’ll have his made without any sugar."

An Ning nodded.

After getting the saccharin, Jiang Xia said thanks and prepared to leave. It wouldn’t be good for the two of them to be seen standing together.

"Wait, I want to ask you something."

Jiang Xia stopped. "Is it urgent? If not, ask me tomorrow when we’re up on the mountain. There are too many people here."

"It’s not urgent."

Jiang Xia nodded. He held up the saccharin in his hand and said, a little louder this time, "Thanks!"

He was doing it on purpose. When there was nothing else going on in the village, the power of gossip was at its strongest.

Sure enough, after Jiang Xia left holding the saccharin aloft, the gossipy stares that had been directed at them lessened considerably.

An Ning felt it too.

"Sister Anning, do you have any more saccharin?"

A little boy, looking a bit shy, ran over to ask.

The moment he finished asking, several other children behind him looked at An Ning with hopeful eyes.

"I have eight packets left. How about I mix them all together and add a little to everyone’s bag?"

"Okay!"

"Thank you, Sister Anning."

"Great!"

The children’s happiness was simple. A batch of sweetened popcorn was enough to make them overjoyed.

An Ning took out all the saccharin, mixed it together, and gave a little to each child.

After she finished distributing it, the old man making the popcorn stood up, aimed the black machine at a large cloth sack, and gave it a hard tug.

"BANG!"

Another batch of popcorn was ready.