Chapter 77: Scared Out of Their Wits

Although it was a bit strenuous to push it back, it was still much faster than the ox cart; how could I have been so brain-dead at the time to think they were about the same?

By the time she returned to the village, the sky had already turned completely dark.

An Yinan went straight back to the Educated Youth Station; the subsequent matters would naturally be arranged by the Captain, and from then on, it would have nothing to do with her.

Moreover, she had reminded the Captain on the side not to expose her identity; as for how much he could grasp, she still trusted the Captain's intelligence.

"Sister, you're back." Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, Beibei immediately put down the book in his hand. Recently, he had been obsessed with fifth-grade textbooks; other than eating and going to the restroom, he was likely holding a book the rest of the time.

An Yinan waved her hand, "You sit for a while first, I'm going back to my room to change clothes."

On the way back, she had pedaled the bike quickly, making her body sweat profusely; now she was all sticky and felt truly uncomfortable, but to avoid exposure, she only took a bath and didn't wash her hair...

"Did you go to the Cowshed to study today?" An Yinan basically didn't even need to ask. Under the guidance of the two children who loved to study, Huzi and Shitou had become much quieter. The village no longer heard their mischievous sounds; every day, besides the sound of reading, they were just sitting there doing problems.

Every time Aunt Li saw her, she would talk with wild gestures; that old lady was also strangely cute.

"Yes, Yun Shen and I are reviewing fifth-grade knowledge, and Huzi and Shitou have also learned up to the second grade. Sister, can I go straight to the fifth grade when school starts?" An Xiangbei looked at An Yinan and asked.

"If you can pass the fourth-grade exam, you can naturally go to the fifth grade." An Yinan nodded; his final grades would determine which grade he would attend.

She would not deliberately suppress him, nor would she force growth by pulling on the seedlings.

In a few months, Beibei had learned what others learned in a year and a half; in her view, that was already very hardworking and impressive.

"Sister, there is food warming in the pot," Beibei said.

After An Yinan finished eating, she went straight into the space. She took a rough look at the five new books; they were about mechanical research. The level of confidentiality was much higher than those foreign magazines, and they were extremely professional, so her speed had slowed down relatively.

It took six hours, and the clock was already pointing to twelve; she had only translated half of the books.

"Time to sleep." An Yinan washed her hair separately, dried it, and returned to the room to sleep.

These past few days, Xie Yuanyuan had been getting up very early to clean the backyard and would also help everyone boil some hot water so that when everyone was thirsty, they could drink water at any time.

"Nan Nan, why did you come over?" Seeing An Yinan open the yard gate, Xie Yuanyuan hurriedly waved her hand.

"I bought a lot of newspapers and boiled a pot of paste; everyone, let's paste the walls in a while." Looking at the house that had risen from the flat ground, she actually felt a rare sense of belonging.

"Great! I was just wondering when to go to the County to buy some. Ooh, Nan Nan, you are so kind." The moment Xie Yuanyuan pounced over, An Yinan dodged; after all, Liu Mei had caused her to have a self-defense reaction yesterday.

"Time to work." Beibei brought his three little friends, along with Zhang Qian, Li Xiue, and Zhao Qiu Hua. Everyone gathered together, and with everyone working together, An Yinan's Xiao Yuan was soon finished being pasted.

"Let's paste Yuanyuan's; I just checked, her room is also dry enough," Li Xiue said.

Their yard and Zhang Qian's house were still a little damp, so they weren't suitable for pasting newspapers yet.

"Let's get to it," An Yinan shouted.

Everyone went to Xie Yuanyuan's Xiao Yuan, and with everyone helping, it was another scene of bustling activity.

"You've all seen the house, right?" Ershu Xie strolled over from the village. In the past few days, he had been checking the condition of the house, looking for cracks or any substandard areas, and would call people to fix them immediately.

An Yinan jumped off the stool, "Ershu Xie is here."

"I bought some steamed buns from the County. I originally wanted to distribute them to everyone, but I've been too busy these past few days and forgot about it. I'll have Beibei bring them to you in a moment, and you can help me distribute them to everyone," An Yinan said.

She had originally wanted to distribute them every two or three days, but she had been in such a hurry with the translation that she had forgotten about the buns. Now that she saw Ershu Xie, she suddenly remembered.

"No need, everyone has been eating well these days. The village is distributing grain tomorrow, and once everyone's rations come down, everyone's life will be easier." Ershu Xie smiled happily. This morning, the Captain had already had people beat gongs to notify everyone, and even the remote Educated Youth Station had heard the news.

"The Captain said you don't need to run around; later, he'll have Brother Li and Brother Xie pull it over for you together. Tell me what grain you want, and I'll go register it with the Captain for you."

Ershu Xie and the Captain had discussed it that morning; they couldn't control the others at the Educated Youth Station, but they could still look after An Yinan, with whom they had a good relationship.

"I'll take fine grain, anything is fine." An Yinan smiled embarrassedly. It wasn't that she didn't eat coarse grain, but she had coarse grain in her space that was about the same as what was available now, so she could take it out at any time. However, fine grain was different; the white flour was much darker than modern flour, and the rice wasn't as clean as modern rice, so she found it difficult to take out.

"That's settled, I'll register it tomorrow and have them push it over to you." Ershu Xie walked around the rooms and, seeing there were no cracks, walked back to the village.

"How will you push your grain?" An Yinan looked at Xie Yuanyuan and Li Xiue and the others.

As for Zhang Qian, she wasn't worried; with that strength of his, no one in Quanshui Village could compare to him.

"The Daduibu has a cart; we push it back like that every year. But this year we are living separately; after the grain is pushed back, can we put it in your room first? We'll move it over when we can," Li Xiue asked.

Although they didn't have much grain, they didn't eat much either, and they weren't lazy people. After working for a year, the grain would definitely be enough to eat, but if it were left in the Educated Youth Dormitory, that wouldn't be certain.

Speaking of which, An Yinan hadn't seen Sun Xiaoqin and Wang Chunmei for many days. Ever since that day, these people seemed to have disappeared from before her eyes. If Li Xiue hadn't mentioned it today, she would have completely forgotten the existence of these two people.

What she didn't know was that it wasn't just those two who were avoiding them; except for the few who had moved out and Qian Zhao, everyone was avoiding them, including the former person in charge of the Educated Youth Station, Zhang Zhihe.

An Yinan couldn't figure it out, so she asked Li Xiue, "Why have I rarely seen them lately?"

She pointed her finger toward the direction of the Educated Youth Dormitory.

Li Xiue and Zhao Qiu Hua looked at each other. Fine, she hadn't taken it to heart at all, while that group of people with guilty consciences were the ones panicking.

It really lived up to the saying: if you haven't done anything wrong during the day, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking at the door at midnight!

"They're scared out of their wits!" Zhao Qiu Hua giggled.